Considering switchover to Dish

[gjolsen]

I'm currently a DirecTV customer and am considering coming over to Dish. I like what they are doing with recording the locals, along with the commercial skip. I am looking at possibly getting 2 Hoppers and 3 Joeys. How well does this new system work ?? I've read some stories online that there have been numerous issues with the Joey's getting disconnected from the Hopper, and shows getting deleted - is this true ??

I really don't want to switch if there are alot of issues.

 

[gdarwin]

I have never had any problems with the issues you mention. Do the switch, you will enjoy the Hopper advantages along with the EHD support.

 

[eddwall]

I'm currently a DirecTV customer and am considering coming over to Dish. I like what they are doing with recording the locals, along with the commercial skip. I am looking at possibly getting 2 Hoppers and 3 Joeys. How well does this new system work ?? I've read some stories online that there have been numerous issues with the Joey's getting disconnected from the Hopper, and shows getting deleted - is this true ??

I really don't want to switch if there are alot of issues.

Was a DirecTv customer for 12 years.... Was going to make the switch around Christmas last year. Read about the new system, which became the Hopper/Joey from this forum. Made the switch on March 15. I have a 2H/4J system and very happy with the way it works. I did have a bad Hopper and a problem with one Joey, but they were replaced and all is well. The big key is to make sure your cabling is good, RG-6 as much as possible. It is mandatory to the Satelite (LNB) & Hoppers. Make sure all connectors are good and any splitters meet the high frequency range.
I also have two sling adapters, one for each Hopper. The slings have been a little flaky, but I sure like watching TV on my iPhone when I want. Dish has been very responsive to fix major and minor problems with the software . No turning back, very happy.

 

[gjolsen]

Was a DirecTv customer for 12 years.... Was going to make the switch around Christmas last year. Read about the new system, which became the Hopper/Joey from this forum. Made the switch on March 15. I have a 2H/4J system and very happy with the way it works. I did have a bad Hopper and a problem with one Joey, but they were replaced and all is well. The big key is to make sure your cabling is good, RG-6 as much as possible. It is mandatory to the Satelite (LNB) & Hoppers. Make sure all connectors are good and any splitters meet the high frequency range.
I also have two sling adapters, one for each Hopper. The slings have been a little flaky, but I sure like watching TV on my iPhone when I want. Dish has been very responsive to fix major and minor problems with the software . No turning back, very happy.

Thanks for all the feedback. Does Dish provide the RG-6 cabling, or am I responsible for that ??

 

[navychop]

Dish, in a normal installation. But I always run my own lines.

 

[eddwall]

Dish, in a normal installation. But I always run my own lines.

I ran my own as well, put a couple extra to the Hoppers for OTA.

 

[3HaloODST]

Dish, in a normal installation. But I always run my own lines.

Me too .

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[gjolsen]

I have an older tv in one of the bedrooms. I noticed the Joey's don't have an RCA connector on it. Does Dish have an adapter to handle this, or do I need to replace the TV ??

Where I am considering 2 Hoppers, can the Joey's communicate with both Hoppers, or are they tied only to one specific Hopper ??

 

[garys]

I have an older tv in one of the bedrooms. I noticed the Joey's don't have an RCA connector on it. Does Dish have an adapter to handle this, or do I need to replace the TV ??

Where I am considering 2 Hoppers, can the Joey's communicate with both Hoppers, or are they tied only to one specific Hopper ??

The outputs on a Joey are HDMI and composite (which are rca connections, yellow for video and red and white for audio), Joey does not have coax output. If you tv only has coax, an rf adaptor will work.

 

[3HaloODST]

If you're talking about component connections (red blue green) there are converters that can convert HDMI to component such as this :-

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10114&cs_id=1011410&p_id=8125&seq=1&format=2

As for the Joeys seeing all Hoppers, they are "linked" to 1 Hopper at a time however when wired correctly can see all Hoppers and switching between Hoppers is only a few button presses.

 

[darrengs]

I'm currently a DirecTV customer and am considering coming over to Dish. I like what they are doing with recording the locals, along with the commercial skip. I am looking at possibly getting 2 Hoppers and 3 Joeys. How well does this new system work ?? I've read some stories online that there have been numerous issues with the Joey's getting disconnected from the Hopper, and shows getting deleted - is this true ??

I really don't want to switch if there are alot of issues.

I made the same switch back in May of this year. I dropped DirecTV for Dish with 2H/3J (and 1 sling adapter) and I have been extremely satisfied. In my experience the equipment has been better then what I had with DirecTV. The remotes are much more responsive (even 2 floors away), the guide is fast, and changing channels is also faster. I personally feel that Dish is ahead of them when it comes to their technology, I can watch my TV, recordings anywhere with the sling adapter, (I got tired of waiting for an iPad app for the Nomad). The Customer Service especially DiRT is also light years ahead of DirecTV.

I have had minor issues with Hopper in the beginning but it is pretty solid now. I have never lost a recording, but I still have issues attaching more than 1 Hopper to my ethernet network, either directly or bridged. The Hoppers become unreliable and I seem to have excessive network traffic. However, this does not affect the Hoppers/Joeys from seeing each other and I assume it will only get better with updates.

 

[KRUZNBY]

The two major bugs as I see it now are:
1. PTAT recordings that are supposed to be saved after 8 days are lost. This does not happen often, but it does happen.
2. The hopper is terrible at signal recovery. Especially if you use PTAT. One small loss of signal can wipe out the whole 4 hour primetime block.

 

[gjolsen]

The two major bugs as I see it now are:
1. PTAT recordings that are supposed to be saved after 8 days are lost. This does not happen often, but it does happen.
2. The hopper is terrible at signal recovery. Especially if you use PTAT. One small loss of signal can wipe out the whole 4 hour primetime block.

So is PTAT worth using at this time, or do you wait until Dish resolves their issues ?? I do like the functionality that this offers though, and it is what is drawing me to Dish is the ability to record all 4 major networks using only 1 receiver.

 

[KRUZNBY]

So is PTAT worth using at this time, or do you wait until Dish resolves their issues ?? I do like the functionality that this offers though, and it is what is drawing me to Dish is the ability to record all 4 major networks using only 1 receiver.

PTAT is addicting and at this point I still have it on. We have not had many storms in the last few months which has helped. I rarely have any recording conflicts now and with college basketball season coming up, I think I will have to depend on PTAT to record our network shows so I can watch ESPN etc. So far I have only lost one PTAT recording because the Hopper deleted it after 8 days rather than saving it. There maybe others, but I don't have the time or energy to keep a manual log of all of my DVR'd shows. PTAT has failed essentially everytime there has been temporary signal loss. Even after signal is fully restored PTAT is not and defaults to on ABC being recorded. I'm hoping that once the OTA module is released for the Hopper I can manually record backups of my shows incase there is a signal loss.

 

[hahler2]

From a 7 year directv customer who has made the switch I'm mostly glad I did. I love the hardware from dish. They do some very neat things that directv doesn't like backing up settings and timers, ect. The only complaint I have with dish is how they keep having channel disputes and you lose channels from time to time. Not that it doesn't happen on directv but not nearly as often.

 

[3HaloODST]

I have had minor issues with Hopper in the beginning but it is pretty solid now. I have never lost a recording, but I still have issues attaching more than 1 Hopper to my ethernet network, either directly or bridged. The Hoppers become unreliable and I seem to have excessive network traffic. However, this does not affect the Hoppers/Joeys from seeing each other and I assume it will only get better with updates.

No need to have both Hoppers connected to Ethernet. The Joeys don't need Ethernet connectivity either if they are on MoCA. Just connect 1 Hopper to Ethernet and enable bridging. It will then share the Internet connection with all the receivers on the MoVA network. 3 Hoppers and 2 Joeys here connected in that fashion. Works great.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[gjolsen]

Now with 2 Hoppers bridged together, can you manage one Hopper from the other Hopper ??

 

[3HaloODST]

Now with 2 Hoppers bridged together, can you manage one Hopper from the other Hopper ??

No, other than managing the recordings already on the drive. Joeys can manage all Hoppers though.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[gjolsen]

So that makes this a little challenging. It sounds like the only way I can manage both Hoppers is to do it from a Joey, or from each Hopper individually. Now I need to give some serious thought as to where I locate my Joey's versus my Hoppers. Originally I thought I'd locate a Hopper in my living room as that is where we watch most tv. Now I'm wondering if I should instead put a Joey there so that I can manage both Hoppers from my living room. How is everyone else doing this ??

 

[satjay]

I have a Joey in the bedroom and my two hoppers in other rooms. I prefer to have the main units in the areas we watch most tv