Wow! First off thanks to all the members here and there FAQ answers. I am an ex installer from the startup DTV days with RCA. So I am glad I was ready for this mess.
1. 10 year old home I prewired with excellent commscope direct bury copper rg6 thru home. All to one junction box on side of house. Cancelling DTV so I had my 3 RG6 leads labeled. Main, Bed1 Bed2 My internet and router are in main room about 8 feet from junction box outside and just a few more feet to dish. So very short cable runs. My Hopper to go next to router and be hard wired to router.
The HDMI and RG6 leads in all 3 rooms out and ready to plug in.
This should be a very short installation as I have made it plug and play for dish installer. . WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Installer shows up on time and is a 10 year installer for Dish and a calm very nice person. He proceeds to let me know I am his first Hopper install and he has been off since 15th so he only has heard nightmares all day on first day of work week for him on his Nextel. He tells me only one person from his office in Bothell WA was sent to training and none of the others including him were trained and he only has seen it in the office.
I let him know what the mistakes people are making and he is very happy to hear my help. During my 6 hours install he shared my info to help out his other stuck fellow installers. I even printed some troubleshooting tips from this site. He was so impressed he bookmarked this site in his phone to join later.
Ok to install,
Again mine should be cake. one hopper and 2 joeys all prewired.
1. He installs new 3 lnb dark grey HD dish in place of my Directv one. Peaks dish and lets me know Washington even on new HD bird struggles with signal peak at times. UGG. Thats why I left Dish 4 years ago as sate 129 was awful with HD here and fade. I thought new bird would have fixed this. He said its much better but not great. Install of dish about 15 minutes fast!
2. Going to run his poor steel core rg6 but I have better copper so he runs mine and comments how Directtv still uses good rg6 but Dish chooses to run cheap rg6. No biggle. Short 7 foot run to single nod takes 10 minutes max.
3. Mounts single node and based on my information from here makes sure to locate correct placement for hopper and Joey. THen runs single out to a tap or splitter for the 2 joeys about 1 foot from node. Does good weather mount and even makes sure not to have too long a stinger. Was very careful place in straight into Node and splitter for good signal. Time about 10 minutes.
4. Goes in house and test all 3 lead and all have good signal. He notices the NODE reduces LNB signal more then dp switches. 10 minutes.
5. He based again on my direction installs Hopper first and does not even touch Joeys. He plugs in all cables and my hardwired network cable and powers up. FIRST PROBLEM! Box says switchs tested fine. However we sit on downloading new software for 55 minutes. He makes a call and no others had waited this long. He guesses switches were not really found correctly and box might be trying to download on a dead transponder due to possible switch error. He reboots and pulls cable out to test for signal and it shows it fine.
6. Plugs back in to Hopper, now it downloads software. About 10 minutes for first set and another 10 minutes and I think 3 or 4 auto restarts and check switch and BAMMA wAMMO Picture is there! Still downloading guide. Oh and I skipped an important part. He DID ACTIVATE ALL 3 units in his hand held while waiting for software to download in Hopper so all ready to go activation speaking. This was another about 45 minutes total time.
We are up on HOPPER.
Second issue. He goes to APPS and box locks up. Restarts and it goes thru switch again and works. We leave apps alone. LOL
He gets a call from a peer that just found out the one hopper even as advertised to run up to 3 Joeys actually only works with 2 joeys independent and the 3rd is only a MIRROR of the Hopper. You have to run another Hopper to get more then 2 indenedent joeys or so they say. This other installers customer after 8 hours of turmoil orders the other installer to remove the system as they are not happy. i hear all kinds of negative chatter over his NEXTEL. SH@T is hitting the fan!
7. Back to mine. He goes to first Joey and hooks up and powers up. Goes thru quick software installation and BAMMO. Picture is there. Feeling GREAT. Maybe 15 minutes.
8. Go to 2nd and last Joey and repeats above. Wammo Picture there! WE LOOK GOOD TO GO!
NOT SO FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well as he is packing to leave. I notice everytime I change my Hoppers channel. Joey number 2 is mirroring the Hopper. (Joey 1 is working find and indendent) He is perplexed. Both Joeys are seeing hopper or they would not work. However it wont go live with independent programing on Joey 2. He can not figure it out. I search and can not find aswers. He calls his supervisor and he is not help. THis went on for almost 2 hours. Finally he says, HMM. What if I reset the Hopper> So he does. Hopper restarts and guess what. Now the Joey is working perfect! All 3 running a separate tuner!
FINALLY!
So moral of story, Like he said. Just like the 722 THIS IS ALMOST A BETA RUN FOR FIRST UNITS! Even being as prepared as we were. Still he was here 6 hours. One of his peers has been at a house for over 9 hours and he is going to help now.
Thanks to everyone here.! I DO LOVE THIS BOX!!
1. 10 year old home I prewired with excellent commscope direct bury copper rg6 thru home. All to one junction box on side of house. Cancelling DTV so I had my 3 RG6 leads labeled. Main, Bed1 Bed2 My internet and router are in main room about 8 feet from junction box outside and just a few more feet to dish. So very short cable runs. My Hopper to go next to router and be hard wired to router.
The HDMI and RG6 leads in all 3 rooms out and ready to plug in.
This should be a very short installation as I have made it plug and play for dish installer. . WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Installer shows up on time and is a 10 year installer for Dish and a calm very nice person. He proceeds to let me know I am his first Hopper install and he has been off since 15th so he only has heard nightmares all day on first day of work week for him on his Nextel. He tells me only one person from his office in Bothell WA was sent to training and none of the others including him were trained and he only has seen it in the office.
I let him know what the mistakes people are making and he is very happy to hear my help. During my 6 hours install he shared my info to help out his other stuck fellow installers. I even printed some troubleshooting tips from this site. He was so impressed he bookmarked this site in his phone to join later.
Ok to install,
Again mine should be cake. one hopper and 2 joeys all prewired.
1. He installs new 3 lnb dark grey HD dish in place of my Directv one. Peaks dish and lets me know Washington even on new HD bird struggles with signal peak at times. UGG. Thats why I left Dish 4 years ago as sate 129 was awful with HD here and fade. I thought new bird would have fixed this. He said its much better but not great. Install of dish about 15 minutes fast!
2. Going to run his poor steel core rg6 but I have better copper so he runs mine and comments how Directtv still uses good rg6 but Dish chooses to run cheap rg6. No biggle. Short 7 foot run to single nod takes 10 minutes max.
3. Mounts single node and based on my information from here makes sure to locate correct placement for hopper and Joey. THen runs single out to a tap or splitter for the 2 joeys about 1 foot from node. Does good weather mount and even makes sure not to have too long a stinger. Was very careful place in straight into Node and splitter for good signal. Time about 10 minutes.
4. Goes in house and test all 3 lead and all have good signal. He notices the NODE reduces LNB signal more then dp switches. 10 minutes.
5. He based again on my direction installs Hopper first and does not even touch Joeys. He plugs in all cables and my hardwired network cable and powers up. FIRST PROBLEM! Box says switchs tested fine. However we sit on downloading new software for 55 minutes. He makes a call and no others had waited this long. He guesses switches were not really found correctly and box might be trying to download on a dead transponder due to possible switch error. He reboots and pulls cable out to test for signal and it shows it fine.
6. Plugs back in to Hopper, now it downloads software. About 10 minutes for first set and another 10 minutes and I think 3 or 4 auto restarts and check switch and BAMMA wAMMO Picture is there! Still downloading guide. Oh and I skipped an important part. He DID ACTIVATE ALL 3 units in his hand held while waiting for software to download in Hopper so all ready to go activation speaking. This was another about 45 minutes total time.
We are up on HOPPER.
Second issue. He goes to APPS and box locks up. Restarts and it goes thru switch again and works. We leave apps alone. LOL
He gets a call from a peer that just found out the one hopper even as advertised to run up to 3 Joeys actually only works with 2 joeys independent and the 3rd is only a MIRROR of the Hopper. You have to run another Hopper to get more then 2 indenedent joeys or so they say. This other installers customer after 8 hours of turmoil orders the other installer to remove the system as they are not happy. i hear all kinds of negative chatter over his NEXTEL. SH@T is hitting the fan!
7. Back to mine. He goes to first Joey and hooks up and powers up. Goes thru quick software installation and BAMMO. Picture is there. Feeling GREAT. Maybe 15 minutes.
8. Go to 2nd and last Joey and repeats above. Wammo Picture there! WE LOOK GOOD TO GO!
NOT SO FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well as he is packing to leave. I notice everytime I change my Hoppers channel. Joey number 2 is mirroring the Hopper. (Joey 1 is working find and indendent) He is perplexed. Both Joeys are seeing hopper or they would not work. However it wont go live with independent programing on Joey 2. He can not figure it out. I search and can not find aswers. He calls his supervisor and he is not help. THis went on for almost 2 hours. Finally he says, HMM. What if I reset the Hopper> So he does. Hopper restarts and guess what. Now the Joey is working perfect! All 3 running a separate tuner!
FINALLY!
So moral of story, Like he said. Just like the 722 THIS IS ALMOST A BETA RUN FOR FIRST UNITS! Even being as prepared as we were. Still he was here 6 hours. One of his peers has been at a house for over 9 hours and he is going to help now.
Thanks to everyone here.! I DO LOVE THIS BOX!!
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