Dying HWS

[charlesrshell]

Just thinking out loud here. So just checked my bill from Dish and I'm paying $31 a month for 2 HWS and 1 sloJoey 12+12+7. Thinking H3 + 2 4K Joeys would be $29 a month 15+7+7. Do you still have to pay $50 up front for 4K Joeys? Seems like a lot. Currently 1 4K TV in house, will add a second within the next year in MBR. I like 2 HWS because I can use PIP & SWAP either in FR or MBR. With H3 I could only use at 1 location. Swap still doesn't work on 4K Joey last I heard. Would really miss it. We also have 2 Firesticks we use occasionally in 2 rooms. Still aggravated at choppy trick play DVR on HWS especially from a Joey since the Carbon downgrade. I know I'm rambling. I'll have to think about it some more. And of course discuss with the boss. A lot of uncertainty surrounds everything right now too.

You will like Hopper 3

 

[david_jr]

OK so 1 of 2 HWS is only working on live TV and the hard drive is clearly not coming back to life. I asked my wife if she wanted me to have it replaced or does she want me to look into upgrading to H3. She asked what is H3 so I explained the system basics to her. She says look into the H3. So today when I got home from work I went online to My Dish account and added the protection plan to my account. Then I called Dish Loyalty number and spoke with Alex. Got right through actually. He was very nice and seemed like he really knew what he was doing. I told him I am a 23 year customer and one of my 2 HWS hard drive is dead and wondered what he could offer a 23 year customer to upgrade from 2 HWS/1 J 1.0 to H3 system. He said lets look at your account. He said "you're on AT250 with Movie Pack and have everything except premium movie channels, I should be able to help you out." He said we could upgrade to H3 and 2 Joey 3.0 and would require a 2 year commitment. I said I wanted 4K on 2 TV's. He asked if I thought I would upgrade 3rd TV to 4K? I said I wasn't planning on it, but I couldn't rule it out. He said let's do 1 H3 and 2 4K Joeys and see what we can do. So he started looking at my account. Then he said he was going to take $10 a month off my bill for 24 months and take half off my Movie Pack for 6 months with the option to renew the Movie Pack again after 6 months if the promotion was still going which would require a 24 month commitment. I said that sounded good. He went through all the disclaimers and then asked when I wanted them to come. We set an appointment for Saturday 8 to Noon. He had me sent to an automated acceptance where I had to enter my Dish pin and then I was back with him again. He said we were all set. I said well you didn't tell me how much the equipment upgrade is going to cost? He said, "nothing it's a free upgrade you're all set." I asked if he was sure and he said yes he was able to get the upgrade for free. I was shocked of course. I was hoping to get a discount maybe half price off the going rate, but did not expect to get it for free especially hearing a few others get denied any discount on the upgrade here recently. We shall see of course if I get a bill for the new equipment later, but right now it looks pretty good.

 

[navychop]

Thank you. I didn’t think they were doing in home installs now. An such a deal!

 

[HipKat]

Thank you. I didn’t think they were doing in home installs now. An such a deal!

This virus has had zero effect on our jobs, including increasing the sales metricthat Dish insists on

 

[david_jr]

Thank you. I didn’t think they were doing in home installs now. An such a deal!

Yeah, almost like I was dreaming. Just checked my bill and it is down $15 from where it was so at least that part is true. I'll keep an eye out for an equipment charge just because. He did seem to really know his way around and talk the lingo though. I am a bit nervous about going from 2 - 2 TB Hoppers to 1 with no backup if it goes down. Will probably have to get another EHD, but the 2 TB variety are getting pretty rare.

 

[david_jr]

This virus has had zero effect on our jobs, including increasing the sales metricthat Dish insists on

Been since 2012 since i had a tech on site. Better to tip or buy some overpriced, worthless piece of equipment I already have seven of, that he's hawking?

 

[dweber]

Will probably have to get another EHD, but the 2 TB variety are getting pretty rare.

The latest Hopper3 software now allows external hard drives up to a total of 7 terabytes. So you could get a larger drive such as a 4 TB and then connect both drives.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[david_jr]

The latest Hopper3 software now allows external hard drives up to a total of 7 terabytes. So you could get a larger drive such as a 4 TB and then connect both drives.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

I didn't know that thanks for that tip!!

 

[david_jr]

Some Intertech Digital company (came up "no caller ID" on my phone) called me and wanted to see if I could change the appointment to this afternoon. I said I couldn't, but could do Friday. She said, "morning or afternoon?" I took morning. Odd because the Dish rep said every day this week was available except Friday, which was the day I wanted to do it.

 

[Jim5506]

That was Dishes request sent to the contractor in your area.

I had an appointment Monday PM but the contractor called Sunday afternoon and requested to change it to Monday am, which we were able to do. They said they did not have a tech in town Monday afternoon.

I'm not sure where he was out of but his first call Monday was 40 miles away and he got here about 9:30am.

 

[HipKat]

Some Intertech Digital company (came up "no caller ID" on my phone) called me and wanted to see if I could change the appointment to this afternoon. I said I couldn't, but could do Friday. She said, "morning or afternoon?" I took morning. Odd because the Dish rep said every day this week was available except Friday, which was the day I wanted to do it.

Intertech is the Dish licensed contractor that works in most of NY State and parts of New England. I worked for them while Out Of Market in 2017. I can confirm their dispatch managers spend the bulk of the day trying to pull jobs forward that are scheduled for the next day or so

 

[david_jr]

Next question: Harmony remotes operate both current HWS. Harmony Hub in the Family Room and 880 in MBR. FR will be getting the H3 and MBR will be getting a 4K Joey. So will my remotes work the same with this equipment or am I going to have to reprogram them to the new equipment?

 

[Bobby]

Next question: Harmony remotes operate both current HWS. Harmony Hub in the Family Room and 880 in MBR. FR will be getting the H3 and MBR will be getting a 4K Joey. So will my remotes work the same with this equipment or am I going to have to reprogram them to the new equipment?

They will work the same. Just be sure to enable IR on the new receivers.

 

[david_jr]

Had my install this morning. LOVE the new equipment. Noticeably faster and more responsive and probably just my imagination, picture seems just a tad better. Installer was very good. Neat, explained everything he was doing before he did it. We were both masked for the entire visit. Was a little nervous when I woke up to what looked like a blizzard going on outside. Turned out was just a squall left about an inch. By the time he had to climb up onto my roof it was mostly melted. I got the most knowledgeable satellite customer he has ever met award. I tried to sell him on Sat Guys he had never heard of it. He said he would try to remember to check it out. One thing I overlooked in getting ready and prepping for the install was snaking another 4K HDMI cable from my equipment closet down to my Sony 4K in the family room below. Luckily 2 of my boys were home due to the virus so we knocked it out without slowing the install down. Involved taking the 65 Sony down off the wall to get behind it. He installed a new dish and LNB on my existing arm. He said he got signals in the 60's on 72 and 61.5 which he thought was great. He also replaced my duo node on my equipment panel with a Hybrid Solo Hub, which is MUCH smaller. He seemed to fly through the setup at each location methodically going through the steps, downloading software and setting up the remotes. I bought 3 HDMI cables and a power strip surge suppressor from him since he did such a good job and I know that's the only way they make any money. Also gave him a tip, which he didn't want to take. I insisted and he said, "Only if you're sure." I said I was sure and that he had one a great job and he took it. Replaced a dish, 2 HWS and 1 Joey with 1 H3 and 2 4K Joeys and on the road in about 3.5 HRS. He took the old equipment with him and did not ask for my 40 remotes back, which I appreciated. I already filled out his survey and gave him all top marks.

First impression of the H3 very similar to HWS. Looks a little bit sleeker and more modern. Mine is in a closet so doesn't really matter and I won't miss the recording light (sorry navychop). My USB 3.0 EHD from my HWS was recognized right away and was a breeze to operate. Seems a bit faster and more responsive than it did with the HWS. The 4K Joeys are really sleek looking. It has a slightly smaller footprint than and is about a third of the thickness of my small Sony Blu Ray Player it sits on in my bedroom. In the kitchen, my old Joey was mounted to the back of my 32 inch Samsung TV on the counter. I am going to have to do some surgery to get the same setup with the 4K-J. It only has 2 mounting holes on the back instead of 4 and does not have a stand that it sits in, which made the old Joey a breeze to mount. I attached a picture of the old Joey mounted on my TV. I will figure something out though I am sure. One thing that was disappointing that I was not able to restore my timers from my old 40 remotes. I thought they were automagically backed up at intervals, but on all three TV's using the old remotes no joy on restoring the timers. I guess you have to manually backup timers to the remote? Bobby was right about the Harmony remotes. 880 no changes at all in the MBR. Only thing I had to do with the Harmony Hub in the Family Room was change the Watch TV activity because we will now be using a different input on the TV. The only other thing going on is that my AVR in the Family Room does not Pass 4K being a 2011 Denon. Had to run an optical digital cable from the H3 to the AVR. Luckily I had several in my box of old AV "stuff." So now I have 2 4K sources in the FR that I can't switch with the AVR and can't see on screen displays for volume, etc., making it a bit clunky to switch between them. Have already planted the seed in Momma's mind about the need to "upgrade" to a 4K capable AVR. Told her we could move the old Denon to the MBR instead of buying a new one like we had planned for there previously. I think she's coming around and might be on board. We'll have to see what happens when we get our tax return. My only other thought is that for a "free" upgrade to H3, since they killed the HWS with the carbon "upgrade", this really was a NO BRAINER!!

 

[HipKat]

You can restore them, they timers are on there, It usually takes a while before the restore will go through. Just give it another shot today. I do it all the time. BTW, brilliant mount on that Joey. I never thought of that before!

 

[david_jr]

I will give it another shot today thanks. Also got my kitchen 4K Joey remounted. Had to do some minor surgery on my mount, but I think it came out ok.