Dish Network DVR in the early 2000's Was a Game Changer

 

There is a story here, I promise.

     When looking at old Snakepeople.net posts I made in highschool and in college, I came across the picture above; it's me wearing a Powerglove, pretending to stab my friend Chrys in the face. I owned two Powergloves, neither worked, and Chrys was never a fan. We needed content for the website that was actually getting around 10k hits a month, and I thought this would be a good idea. One thing really stood out to me, made me really go back to that time, and that was the random set top box in the background of a 25 year old picture... a Dish Network DVR.

It's better than you think.

     My dad owned a Radio Shack growing up, so we always had all the coolest doo-dads and bootleg shit laying around the house. When Satellite TV via Dish Network came out and demo units from them became available, he signed up early. I talked him into getting the DVR for my room at the astronomical price of $50 per month. This is the days of Dial-up guys, like 2000-2001. I was still living at home, going to school part time and working part time while my parents were planning their retirement. $50 a month then was easily like $100 a month or more today, so I'm not sure why he said yes, even if they had the money. I was always surprised about the things he would accept and reject, but technology he would always splurge and ask questions later.. which I appreciated. 

This shit was insane.

     I went from having like 40 grainy channels in my room to hundreds overnight. I could select up to two channels at once, and it would record one, and I could watch the other. While watching a show, I could save snips of movies (nude scenes, gore, explosions, quotes) just a few seconds at a time, and save them in folders. For the first time I experienced on-demand movies and TV shows, rewinding live TV, and even playing some really limited games on the remote provided. What's crazy: It worked. It was fast. Like instant- no wait. Click the record button, red light clicks on, saves it quickly with zero effort. Within a month my Dad had found someone at the flea market to sell him a card to get full access to everything on the menu of programs, 999 channels. Pay per view. Porn of all types. Sports and international TV. I thought the internet was cool, but this was next fucking level cool. For other reasons, I went through a strange period of my life in that time, alienating friends and loved ones, depressed. The TV and internet were my only escape during those dark times. I estimate each day I watched 2-5 movies per day, every day, for around a year. I attached myself to certain actors, directors, writers.. Endlessly consuming media and creating websites, writing stories, and attempting to learn new skills alone while working nights at a gas station. I went through a break-up, saved lots of money, and emerged on the other side a different person- driven and slightly insane. Maybe that's a story for another time?

     For that next year I continued to live at home and this magical contraption was always the center of attention. There was always something on. Having friends over? Throw them the remote and they would be sitting there for hours just playing around and mesmerized; totally changing the way they thought about consuming media and TV. It was not until several years later that live channels and such on the internet with Sopcast would take me away from Satellite and Cable bootleg television. 

    It's worth noting that Chrys is now a successful TV and Movie lighting and electrical engineer, proud father and husband, and overall just a smart dude that did well for himself.