Does DISH/Hopper chew up a lot of bandwidth?

[tharris00]

Hello,

I've got a fairly unique usage case I believe. I have no DSL or cable access at my new home here. We actually don't watch very much television. I only watch very occassional sporting events, maybe a news event from time to time. No more than 2 hours a week at most. My wife has similar consumption.

My daughters like to watch cartoons and such, but given what's on network programming (even Nick and Disney) my wife and I try to be really careful about what access my 8 & 6 year old daughters get. We find that's a LOT easier by finding shows that they like and downloading some of them to their tablets.

This worked great at our old house, when we had an unlimited cable connection. Now we're working off a 30GB/month WiFi hotspot (which can be spotty). I'm seriously thinking about cutting the hotspot back to 10GB and hooking up Dish Network. My thinking is that even though we wouldn't use it that frequently, it's still cheaper than the current solution.

But my big concern... I see that to use the Hopper/Joey system, I have to have a broadband/phone-line. (I don't have a landline). Will I be chewing up broadband budget (30GB goes surprisingly quickly) by downloading to the tablets? I would have thought that the downloads would be all over the satellite feed, and then programming would be fed to the tablets over an 802.11 signal out of the Hopper (but not a broadband connection).

In short, can I stop chewing up all my broadband downloading "My Little Pony" and "Monster High" episodes to my kids tablets with Dish instead of over my LTE Hotspot?

 

[Scherrman]

You do not have to have any internet to have the Hopper system. They recommend that you have it connected since if gives you access to a lot of features but you wouldn't need it for everyday TV viewing.

As for transferring to an iPad, you would need the Hopper with Sling connected to the same network the iPad is on. I'm really not sure what the feature uses for data.

 

[tharris00]

Thanks Scherman. Our usage tends to be more "Netflix-ish", as in we download on-demand, not cruise the broadcasts (though we probably would do some of that too). If you do that... look to see what they have available for downlaod and send it down to your Hopper, even though it's not being broadcast at that particular time, is that still a satellite download? Or does that use the broadband connection?

 

[AntiMoz]

Welcome to SatGuys!

A landline phone connection is not "required" for Dish to work. Long story, but Dish would like you to have a landline or Internet connection on the receiver so they can "monitor" it and enable some advanced services.

If you have an Internet connection only that will suffice for Dish's purposes (but it is not necessary either to receive satellite delivered content). I've never had a landline hooked to any of my receivers.

That said, the on-demand features of Dish Network are delivered through your Internet connection through your LTE modem. Using the Dish Hopper system does not solve your data usage problem.

Some movies are delivered by Satellite only and will not consume your data but these are limited to first run movies and some Pay Per View (PPV) offerings.

Goring forward, having service in a rural area without the availability of having relatively inexpensive high bandwidth Internet access is a real problem for those of us who want to "cut the cord" and go to largely IP based delivery of content. (Unless you want to paying for the very expensive 30Gigs/month which, like you said, doesn't get you much.)

 

[navychop]

The "Online" or download options do in fact use Internet bandwidth. BUT a lot is pre-loaded via satellite onto a reserved section of your hard drive.

 

[tharris00]

Thanks Antimoz. I think my questions are answered now... I had hoped that the Hopper/Joey DVR system meant that you could queue things up for download, then they'd come down over the satellite feed, not my LTE hotspot. Looks like these are pretty limited (and probably not the things we'd be looking to get for the kids).

So I guess my options are either 1) change our viewing habits and start taking what's being offered "through the cord" or 2) suck it up and pay even more for a bigger throughput on the LTE hotspot.

Neither of those options is particularly appealing. Maybe the right answer is getting the girls each their own portable DVD player and buying a lot of DVD's.

Thanks for the help and the welcome guys.

 

[KAB]

Maybe the right answer is getting the girls each their own portable DVD player and buying a lot of DVD's.

Thanks for the help and the welcome guys.

Or use that money for more throughput, as you put it.

 

[ChadT41]

If you are using the hopper transfer. Then no it doesn't use any broadband to actually transfer. You do have to be connected to the same network as the hopper though. That is how it transfers. Through the router, not the modem. So if this is what you were wanting you are safe. Now watching a stream on tablet would use bandwidth. Also the on demand and ppv uses internet as well, however some uses significantly more than others. Usually vod. These are called pull video on demands. They have to download via internet. Push on demand is already sent via satellite and just requires internet as an authorization maneuver. Hope this helps.

 

[lucky86]

Have you tried this yourself? I tested this a couple months ago, and if the broadband is not present, you can not transfer. Try it out.

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[ChadT41]

Because it uses the dish anywhere you need broadband present to access the app, but the transfer does not use any bandwidth. The transfer itself is through the router. Yes I have tryed this.

 

[lucky86]

I just wanted to make sure it was clear that you do need broadband for the authorization portion.

 

[Hall]

As some have alluded to, your Hopper will download some content via your broadband connection on it's own. Tune to channel 501 (it will be multiple slots, in fact) and all of those have been downloaded via your broadband connection and are stored on the HDD. No idea how much bandwidth they took up getting there, but it has to be multiple gigabytes.

Other stuff that will come via your broadband connection have to be initiated by you. I would tell you it's the "on demand" stuff, but this is all a cluster**** on Dish's part, so it's hard to tell the difference until you try it. If it gives you a download, then watch now or watch later option, it's coming through broadband.

 

[n0qcu]

All channel 501 content is download via satellite.

 

[JM42]

As some have alluded to, your Hopper will download some content via your broadband connection on it's own. Tune to channel 501 (it will be multiple slots, in fact) and all of those have been downloaded via your broadband connection and are stored on the HDD. No idea how much bandwidth they took up getting there, but it has to be multiple gigabytes.

Channel 1/501 VOD content is spooled from the satellite, not the internet.

 

[Hall]

I thought it was from internet ? Many people have reported that they have no content on channel 501 and the "fix" is to connect the receiver to their internet service (as it wasn't connected).

 

[JM42]

I thought it was from internet ? Many people have reported that they have no content on channel 501 and the "fix" is to connect the receiver to their internet service (as it wasn't connected).

Not sure about the posts. If there is no connectivity, then you can't purchase through the receiver, but unless things are different with Hopper vs VIP even a dialup is sufficient for purchase authorization.

 

[ChadT41]

[MARQ][/MARQ]Channel 501 comes via satellite. Not broadband. The only broadband that would be involved is the order authorization. And that you can do with a phone line if you really would like. It's just like ppv as far as the ordering process goes. All other vod though, have to be downloaded and require internet connection.

 

[swangdb]

We're moving to a new house soon and our internet connection will be with a Verizon LTE wireless router. I signed up for 20G/month, I may increase it to 30G. Pretty limited compared to the cable connection we have now.

I'm having the internet turned on next week and I'll have the DISH turned on a few weeks after that (hopefully a Hopper with Sling). We'll only be in the house for about a week during the first month and I'm going to check the bandwidth use regularly (Verizon web site). I guess I won't be streaming as many videos as I do now.

The first three months there will only be two people in the house, sharing a desktop computer, laptop computer, two tablets, two smartphones and Dish receiver. I am curious how much broadband we'll use. After that, my stepson will live with us as he attends college. He plays a lot of video games now, that may be a problem.

So the 501 channels come in via satellite and ON DEMAND programming is downloaded via internet? The ON DEMAND listings are updated via satellite or internet?

 

[lucky86]

501 is a download via satellite.

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[navychop]

Listing updates via sat.



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