Dish Anywhere with Amazon Fire

[jpmarto]

The CSRs told me this won't work so were unable to help me.

I have a new Amazon Fire, I've added Google Play Store and downloaded Dish Anywhere. It synced with my Hopper 3 flawlessly and I see all my Hopper recordings on the tablet. I've streamed Hopper content to the Fire. What I can't seem to get to work is transferring content to the tablet. It says the recordings are in a queue, but nothing happens.

With Amazon Prime videos they load on the Fire's storage and work with the "Amazon Video" app, but you can't find the recordings using standard tools (Total Commander et al). Could someone please tell me where Dish recordings would be transferred to (I can't find anywhere to configure between internal/external storage) and how to manually initiate transfers?

Thanks!

 

[jpmarto]

Update: The queued program eventually showed up on my tablet, but I still can't locate it in the file system. There is a folder: com.sm.SlingGuide.Dish, but I don't see anything in it (this may be intentional as with the Amazon recordings to keep them from being distributed?). I stumbled across the Dish Anywhere "gear" icon, and in it you're allowed to turn the slide on for external storage (I had put in a 64G microSD).

The program I "transferred" is still on the Hopper 3, so I'm not sure how large the file transferred to the tablet is. Does anyone have an idea if it is a full-sized file or down-rezed for a small tablet screen? Even if I do a before/after remaining capacity check, I'm not sure how to compare the tablet file size to one on the Hopper.

Bottom line, my $40 (on sale last week) Amazon Kindle Fire is apparently fully functional with Dish Anywhere & I'm a happy camper (well, with the tablet, not the Dish Engineers who destroyed my two EHD's with their so-called upgrades).

 

[DishSubLA]

BTW, there is a specific DishAnywhere app for Fire tablets, you really should use that and not the one from the Android Google Play store. Just do a search of Amazon's app strore and you will find it.

I apologize you already know this, but the screen has TWO TABS: one reading somehing like "My Ques" and the other reading something like "My Transfers." You need to press the correct TAB to see either a list of your completed transfers or the list of the shows in QUE for transfers during the transfer process.

And if you don't know, you can make the transfers go much faster if you set whatever timers to automatically prepare (meaning perform the re-encoding) as soon as the show finishes recording so that when you initiate the transfer, it is only a matter of copying (or moving in the case of premium content) to the mobile device. Transfers are pretty quick, but if you attempt to transfer something that has not yet been re-encoded, then the re-code can take some time. You can also go to any recordings on your DVR and then selcet PREPARE FOR MOBILE if it has not done so becaue that option was not selected from the Timer to occur automatically.

In my case, I have invoke the PREPARE for MOBILE option on the timers for shows I know I would want to transfer so that it will save time and allow more transfers in less time. For others shows or movies I know I don't want to watch on a tiny screen, I leave the PREPARE FOR MOBILE feature on the timer UNchecked. If I change my mind and want to transfer a recording, then I just go to the recording and select the button PREPARE FOR MOBILE so that later when I do transfer it, the transfer will go much faster.

Also, the DishAnywhere app, especially on Fire, can be a bit temperamental. While it is working fine now, in the past I've had to re-boot the tablet--MORE THAN ONCE--and even just give up for the day. Then the next day the app works as it should. I have no explanation WHY it will go buggy sleepy in a bad mood and won't work right, on RARE ocassions, just that it does. I can say that the Fire DishAnywhere App most often, vast majority, works as it should. My Android tablet with the Android DA app can also get in a bad mood, but far less frequently then with the Fire. Again, I have to say that it is the RULE that the Amazon DA app on my Fire works as it should, and I still use it as my primary DA mobile device, it works that well. Just keep trying.

 

[jpmarto]

Thanks for the info, DishSubLA. I can fit everything I know about the tablet & DA on the back of a postage stamp, so everything you mentioned was new & appreciated. Your third paragraph will make all the difference for me! I had specifically asked a CSR about DA and was told it would not work on an Amazon Kindle Fire. I'll remove the PlayStore version and download the version you suggested - it will probably be better in the long run. For camping/RVing without electric hookups this functionality is just awesome. It's made me rethink getting a ViP211z as at most campsites I don't have LOS to the 110/119/129 satts. I see a larger Android tablet in my future.