Available channels to watch

[Diverrob]

Hi all - Sorry if this has been asked before, but my searches didn't find the answers I was looking for. I'm brand new to the Hopper, and while I love it so far, there is one annoying occurrence that has me baffled. First off, I have 1 Hopper with 3 Joeys. I was told by a chat representative when ordering the new service that I would be able to record up to 3 programs and watch ANY other channel at the same time during prime time, if PTAT was turned off. This doesn't appear to be the case. I have PTAT turned off, but if something is recording during prime time hours my only options are to either watch local channels or take over one of the Joeys if all 3 are being used. This, obviously, is the case for the other 2 people in the house using Joeys as well. What gives? I had no intentions of using PTAT when I signed up for Dish, and now it seems like it can't truly be turned off. Why aren't the last 3 available channels available for us to watch any channels we want?

Thanks for your time!
Rob

 

[lucky86]

If the 4 locals are showing up on tuner 3 and you have PTAT turned off then that means that one of the TVs in your home is tuned to a local station. When you tune to a local station all 4 major local networks appear on tuner 3. When this happens again I would go look at all the Joeys in your home and I bet you find one that is tuned to ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC.

 

[navychop]

With the OTA dongle, you can in fact, without using PTAT, watch any program while recording three others- so long as one of the 4 is using the OTA dongle.

 

[Diverrob]

Lucky - I'll be able to check tomorrow and will report back.

Bare with me navychop, I'm new to this game. What's an OTA dongle?

 

[lucky86]

Ota dongle is the usb over the air module needed to view over the air channels on a hopper.

 

[navychop]

One per Hopper, one OTA tuner per dongle.

 

[david_jr]

If you have 4 users trying to watch TV independently at the same time, you should have gotten 2 Hoppers and 2 Joeys. Most CSRs will not tell you that. With 2 Hoppers and PTAT turned off, you would have access to 6 satellite tuner events at once (instead of 3 with 1 Hopper) and, if OTA dongles were connected to each Hopper, 2 additional over the air channels, for a total of 8 events to watch at 4 locations. With your current setup the 4th location would only be able to watch one of the 3 Satellite tuners that someone else at another TV is already watching at the other 3 locations, or a previously recorded program from the DVR. Unless you add the OTA which would give the 4th location access to OTA. Keep in mind that OTA dongle is only for regular off the air channels that you could get without cable or satellite by putting up an antenna. Or if Network (ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox) channels are part of what you're trying to view, turn ON PTAT.