DirecTV Nomad Ready to Take the DVR on the Road
No content provider’s service is complete these days without an add-on mobile consumption service. The fascinating part is watching how these different companies are approaching this burgeoning market. Perhaps you follow Comcast’s Xfinity lead and go mobile with on-demand content. Or maybe you go “all stream, all the time” like DISH does with their Sling-powered TV Everywhere service. DirecTV has decided to forge their own side-loading path.
DirecTV is evidently close to releasing their DirecTV Nomad device and service. The $149 device connects to a home network, where it will seek out a connected DirecTV DVR and transcode selected shows for use on PCs and iOS devices. Evidently the Nomad handles the authentication and transcoding and then transfers to the mobile device over the home network where the video will remain accessible for up to 30 days.
In this world of mobile data caps and bandwidth throttling, it does sound like focusing on offline viewing might be a good bet for DirecTV. On the other hand, limiting show transfers to the home netowrk the Nomad is connected to means that road warriors will have to plan ahead.
It was just about a year ago that we initially heard rumors of the DirecTV Nomad, and after some lengthyintrigue it is finally ready to launch. While its product page on the company’s website isn’t live yet, the folks at DBSTalk have been testing it and already posted one of their detailed walkthroughs, revealing the box as a TiVoToGo-style transcoder.
The whole planning ahead
The whole planning ahead idea, along with the sheer amount of time that it takes to download from the DVR to the Nomad, seems like it would make this a non-starter. And it blows me away that this is half again as much as a Sling Adapter through DISH Network. I know I could be called biased, being an employee (and long time customer of DISH) but I travel quite a bit, and the Sling technology combined with the long battery life of my iPad (and for people who don’t have an iPad, it works with Laptops and a ton of other mobile devices too), this has been a great solution while I’m on the road. I just don’t see why someone would want to pay more to get a product that does less and is considerably less convenient.