8 tv's in one house - how do I get the best dish experience?

[J3ff]

Hey there,
I've got 8 (well actually 9) HD tv's that need some tv... right now we're paying 380 a month for horrible cablevision boxes. The hopper + sling experience looks awesome!

Here's what one csr quoted me for the everything package.

Your regular monthly rate for the America's Everything package and local channels with two Hoppers and 6 Joeys for 8 TVs is $178.99 before taxes. However, if you will qualify for our best plan with a 24-month commitment, you will be paying $143.99 for the first 12 months of service since you will get $35 credits (includes $10 upfront discount and $25 online bonus after activation). For your first 3 months, it will be just $98.99 only since you will get the 4 premiums (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz) at no charge for 3 months.

Here's my questions:

I am not sure why I need two hoppers and 6 joeys. I know the limit of ONE hopper is 6 tv's.. but then she said I would have to buy two regular receivers for the 7th and 8th tv and they would not be dvr'd or hopper'd.

How would you set this up? 2 of the tv's are in guest rooms and do not need to be part of the "whole house dvr" experience.

Do they use the current coax cables to set this up? I really don't want a dish guy to be running cables all over the place, ontop of the fact that it might take him/her all day and night to do it..

Is there anywhere that I can go see a person about setting this house up? It's not my house, it's a family I work for.
Any other recommendations or tips?

Thanks for any help!

 

[lucky86]

Hey there,
I've got 8 (well actually 9) HD tv's that need some tv... right now we're paying 380 a month for horrible cablevision boxes. The hopper + sling experience looks awesome!

Here's what one csr quoted me for the everything package.



Here's my questions:

I am not sure why I need two hoppers and 6 joeys. I know the limit of ONE hopper is 6 tv's.. but then she said I would have to buy two regular receivers for the 7th and 8th tv and they would not be dvr'd or hopper'd.

How would you set this up? 2 of the tv's are in guest rooms and do not need to be part of the "whole house dvr" experience.

Do they use the current coax cables to set this up? I really don't want a dish guy to be running cables all over the place, ontop of the fact that it might take him/her all day and night to do it..

Is there anywhere that I can go see a person about setting this house up? It's not my house, it's a family I work for.
Any other recommendations or tips?

Thanks for any help!

One Hopper has 3 tuners in it, and a max of 3 Joeys connected to each Hopper. So 4 TVs could have access to the one Hopper but if you try to view live on all 4 TVs at the same time, one person would be sharing a live stream or that 4th viewer could view on demand content or DVR content.

The Hoppers connect to a node and that node connects to the Dish. The other side of the node has lines coming out of it that the Tech will split to feed the Joeys. Each room that needs service will have a box in it and a coax line feeding that box. The Joey boxes are really small and the Hopper boxes are pretty slim as well. They may be able to use the existing cabling as long as it is up to specs.

You could check out local retailers in your area. This link should help you with that.

http://www.dish.com/support/tools-apps/locate-retailer/

 

[boba]

If you are going to do 9HDTVs you are going to need 3 hoppers and 6 Joeys.

 

[navychop]

It sounds like you may have up to 6 or 7 TVs on and viewing independently at any given time. 2 Hoppers and 6 Joeys will work for up to 8 TVs, each watching independently live programming, given 6 satellite tuners and the PTAT function and/or two OTA tuners. I'd say the odds of you having 9 TVs needing LIVE independent viewing is remote. Even at 8, surely somebody will watch a DVR'd program, or not all will be on at the same time. And do you REALLY need 9 TVs, and is it worth having to BUY that third Hopper for that 9th TV? Could one TV be cut or two TVs wired to where they watch the same thing?

 

[mike123abc]

Of course given the saving from cablevision he could buy a new hopper in 2 months and have change left over. With that many HD TVs, going with 3 (or even 4) hoppers would be far better.

 

[J3ff]

honestly only 3 or 4 of them would be watching live tv at once.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around this hopper and joey stuff.

Does dish ever send someone out to survey the house first? Then think about the installation and then after agreeing on how to do it, install the equipment?

Say we go with two hoppers, will they talk to each other so that every tv is identical in what's on the dvr and what is set to record? or will it be half the tv's are tied to hopper #1 and the other half to hopper #2 - meaning I'd have to program the same show twice on different groups of tv's?

 

[mike123abc]

If you want a specific installation, you might want to talk to a local retailer and see what they would charge for your custom needs.

 

[KAB]

Say we go with two hoppers, will they talk to each other so that every tv is identical in what's on the dvr and what is set to record? or will it be half the tv's are tied to hopper #1 and the other half to hopper #2 - meaning I'd have to program the same show twice on different groups of tv's?

Each Joey can link to either Hopper, so no, you would not need to duplicate. The Joey also needs to link to each hopper to see what is recorded on them. Hopefully, the day will come when the Joey will see all recordings on both without having to select the Hopper.

 

[britorto]

honestly only 3 or 4 of them would be watching live tv at once.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around this hopper and joey stuff.

Does dish ever send someone out to survey the house first? Then think about the installation and then after agreeing on how to do it, install the equipment?

Say we go with two hoppers, will they talk to each other so that every tv is identical in what's on the dvr and what is set to record? or will it be half the tv's are tied to hopper #1 and the other half to hopper #2 - meaning I'd have to program the same show twice on different groups of tv's?

Yes the joeys would be linked to a specific hopper, you can change which hopper your linked to from the Joey location, but you can access each hoppers dvr from any Joey. It's really an awesome system.

 

[J3ff]

I looked into local retailers, all of them are in NYC... are there any that I'm missing closer to Ridgefield CT?

 

[navychop]

I wonder if you can link your Joey to say, Hopper #1, if Hopper #1 already has 3 Joeys linked to it. Could it tell how many were in active use?

 

[3HaloODST]

Of course given the saving from cablevision he could buy a new hopper in 2 months and have change left over. With that many HD TVs, going with 3 (or even 4) hoppers would be far better.

Dish doesn't allow for 4 Hoppers. I agree though, need 3 with that many TVs. Unless some of the TVs are never used...

 

[Stargazer]

If you did not need HD in all the rooms then you could save $7 per room you split the signal from a 722 to. You could still turn channels through the walls but just watch the same thing in some of the rooms. The first tv output would be in HD and the second would be in SD.

 

[Jimmerinwi]

If you did not need HD in all the rooms then you could save $7 per room you split the signal from a 722 to. You could still turn channels through the walls but just watch the same thing in some of the rooms. The first tv output would be in HD and the second would be in SD.

Then he would need 722's for the entire system, or other VIP receivers seeing as far as I know, there's no mixing VIP and hoppa.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[lucky86]

Then he would need 722's for the entire system, or other VIP receivers seeing as far as I know, there's no mixing VIP and hoppa.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

Mixing isn't allowed other than the 211 for RV/Tailgating.

 

[lucky86]

He said as far as I know, sorry for offending you. I was confirming his statement since “as far as I know" means someone isn't certain. My bad.

 

[KAB]

No offense taken. Just wanting to give him proper credit.

 

[Scherrman]

You could do the 2 Hoppers and 6 Joeys and get by just fine. Overall you may enjoy having 3 Hoppers and 6 Joeys better though even though there would be more cost up front. With that many HDTVs I think you'll absolutely love the Hopper system.