DISH HOPPER SPEC SHEETS

[Foxbat]

I don't want to go too far afield from the Hopper/Joey thread other than to say that the days of TV programs received free over the air are numbered. The channel grab that started by taking UHF channels 70-83 and continued with the DTV relocation that freed up channels 58-69 is still not satisfied.

The mobile computing renaissance demands more bandwidth than is available. Users are consuming video on their time, not some network's schedule.

They look at OTA TV as a dinosaur and treat that 55" LCD TV as just a big monitor they can use to stream Netflix or YouTube. Who cares that OTA broadcasts weather warnings? There's an App for that...

The solution is for the FCC to force more channels to relocate to lower channels and sell the now vacant airwaves to Verizon, Sprint, Dish, etc. Echostar looked at the handwriting on the wall and said why burden the Hopper with a built-in OTA tuner that may not be needed in the future.

And, the ATSC may be forced to adapt MPEG-4 in order to "stack" affiliates in a DMA on one channel, a move that would break any HDTV currently in your house. By using an external ATSC tuner dongle, E* allows us to inexpensively go to ATSC V2.0.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/?p=1357

 

[GaryPen]

The Hopper will be EOL way before OTA is.

 

[Mr Tony]

DirectTV sells there Dual OTA USB tuner for $69.99 I hope Dish matches or beats that price. Yes it has Two tuners. Most 3rd party Tuner USB sticks only have One tuner in them.

$50 if you are a Directv customer. You can order them directly from D*

 

[adidas5482]

Free Hopper and Joey to customers with At200 or better. Will be out by NCAA final four. =)

 

[rdjr74]

Free Hopper and Joey to customers with At200 or better. Will be out by NCAA final four. =)

Even within a contract??? My 622 took a crap on me last year and had to upgrade to a 722k but up until then I had been pestering Dish about a unit that could do what the hopper does. I really hope they let me upgrade without charge. Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier in the thread but do we have pricing yet?

 

[CK SatGuy]

Not yet, but I have a gut feeling we'll learn more on Feb 1st. (New fiscal year for Dish.)

 

[dare2be]

Not yet, but I have a gut feeling we'll learn more on Feb 1st. (New fiscal year for Dish.)

This is unbearable. At least with Christmas, you know how many days are remaining...

 

[Scherrman]

I don't think there will be any news on Feb. 1st. It will probably be a few weeks later during the retailer chat.

As for the free upgrade, you may be able to upgrade for free but you will still have to pay the tech visit fee. I guessing it will be at least a $99 upgrade fee though.

 

[Jhon69]

Well, from the above, I thought someone might be having a nice pleasant little smoke.

Well you know:inhale:......if DISH would have a nice pleasant little smoke.....:exhale: we might have got some more tuners.

 

[theoak]

If I have an MP4 on a USB stick from a recording off my iPhone for example ... can I plug that into the Hopper or Joey and watch that on my TV accordingly?

I have never tried this ... can I do this with my 722?

For what it is worth ... I loaded a MOV from my iPhone 4 onto a USB stick and plugged it into my 722.

I also had a few JPGs in the same directory.

The receiver listed the JPGs ... it did not list the MOV

FYI

 

[cditty]

I am going to put this out there, as I work in the Radio/TV industry. OTA is going away as you know it. The FCC really wants that spectrum back. In short form, the FCC has this dream of an entire DMA being on one tower, in one datastream. Basically as a bunch of subchannels. The reasoning is that they expect Cable & Satellite to carry the HD form. This is a ways off, but we are already in the voluntary spectrum release stage.

 

[GaryPen]

This is a ways off...

And people need to realize that. (That goes for the ones touting the death of discs because everything will be streamed, as well.)

 

[dare2be]

I am going to put this out there, as I work in the Radio/TV industry. OTA is going away as you know it. The FCC really wants that spectrum back. In short form, the FCC has this dream of an entire DMA being on one tower, in one datastream. Basically as a bunch of subchannels. The reasoning is that they expect Cable & Satellite to carry the HD form. This is a ways off, but we are already in the voluntary spectrum release stage.

Does this mean that there would be no high-def channels transmitted OTA?

 

[dwarren2]

It seems hard to beleive that we just went through the transition to ota digital technology, forcing almost all TV stations to switch and then dump it.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I am going to put this out there, as I work in the Radio/TV industry. OTA is going away as you know it. The FCC really wants that spectrum back. In short form, the FCC has this dream of an entire DMA being on one tower, in one datastream. Basically as a bunch of subchannels. The reasoning is that they expect Cable & Satellite to carry the HD form. This is a ways off, but we are already in the voluntary spectrum release stage.

Sounds similar to what DISH is doing by putting all 4 networks on one transponder and recording all of them using Primetime Anytime feature on the Hopper receiver.

 

[navychop]

I am going to put this out there, as I work in the Radio/TV industry. OTA is going away as you know it. The FCC really wants that spectrum back. In short form, the FCC has this dream of an entire DMA being on one tower, in one datastream. Basically as a bunch of subchannels. The reasoning is that they expect Cable & Satellite to carry the HD form. This is a ways off, but we are already in the voluntary spectrum release stage.

Sadly, I think local broadcasters are their own worst enemy. They don't take max advantage of ATSC- heck, they don't even handle PSIP or TVGOS as well as they could and should. There actually seems to be opposition to mobile ATSC or any other extensions. They expect a guaranteed revenue stream from satcos and cablecos. More than once, I've seen reports where they actually view the actual OTA broadcasting function as a nuisance. As they provide less and less added value, they should receive less and less. I've been a big supporter of OTA, but I'm beginning to get fed up. I oppose the MPEG-4 conversion, because it will simply reduce options to the consumer. But if locals simply think they've got an iron rice bowl, we'd be better off without them.

 

[Stargazer]

I mentioned last year asking why they didn't just put them all on one data stream. The problem with that is some people cannot get all the channels. If anything they should stream all the network stations as substations on the current channels they have now so that people have more of a chance of getting their network stations OTA.

 

[cditty]

Does this mean that there would be no high-def channels transmitted OTA?

That is how it was put to me. Thoroughly cover one DMA with one stream, all at SD. That spectrum is valuable. Satellite and Cable would get HD feeds through some other transmission option. The NAB is fighting it, but the FCC really wants all that spectrum to license to wireless companies.

 

[Jhon69]

That is how it was put to me. Thoroughly cover one DMA with one stream, all at SD. That spectrum is valuable. Satellite and Cable would get HD feeds through some other transmission option. The NAB is fighting it, but the FCC really wants all that spectrum to license to wireless companies.

Sounds like one hell of a class action suit to me.:rant:

 

[gpflepsen]

That is how it was put to me. Thoroughly cover one DMA with one stream, all at SD. That spectrum is valuable. Satellite and Cable would get HD feeds through some other transmission option. The NAB is fighting it, but the FCC really wants all that spectrum to license to wireless companies.

If this came to pass I'd be pissed. To me, this's be like selling off the national parks to private entities... envision the signs in Wyoming proclaiming "Welcome to Quest Yellowstone Park", or a "McDonald's Yosemite Park". This is all motivated by commercial interest, i.e. the government sees a potential revenue stream, and shouldn't be allowed to happen. Shouldn't a spectrum of the airwaves be a protected as a public natural resource? This is another example of a resource being eroded from public use. Anyway, this topic should branch off to its own thread to spread the information.