EchoStar: We Had the DVR Before TiVo

The TiVo-EchoStar DVR patent trial is getting more interesting by the day. In case you just tuned in, TiVo is suing the satcaster, saying it violated its patent for offering a feature that enables the recording of one show while watching another. However, EchoStar's vice president of engineering technology testified yesterday that his company had been working on a similar DVR feature long before TiVo ever approached them about licensing its software.

In fact, in the late 1990s, EchoStar launched a DVR called "The Dish Player," which included such features as Pause and Fast-Forward. I was an early subscriber of the Dish Player, but found the device to be a bit buggy. EchoStar eventually dropped the receiver, suggesting that software maker Microsoft had to failed to provide proper support. (The satcaster then launched a different DVR receiver that was produced in-house.)

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