Has DISH discontinued the OTA dongle?

[Tampa8]

If the person who responded was an actual Dish employee, it would actually be a DIRT member. The "I" in DIRT stands for "Internet" - they cover message forums like this one, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

I was being general about Facebook replies and didn't transition my reply well to be specific about DISH facebook. You are right.
But what Scott said is what I was trying to. They just are not going to know about things like this until DISH announces it, either to employees or the public. The poster I was replying to seemed to be taking the general response given as more weight than what Scott is saying.

 

[dare2be]

One is coming though. (When is the answer I do not know)

That's the definition of DISHcontinued.

 

[thomasjk]

Those folks won't know about it until its available.

One is coming though. (When is the answer I do not know)

Soon of course.

 

[Tampa8]

That's the definition of DISHcontinued.

 

[h2ouup2]

Coming soon scares me. Coming soon like Netflix for the 4K Joey? Like Coming soon on adding or removing individual OTA channels?.

I like DISH, but I don't like their "Coming soon".

 

[DWS44]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Dish "soon"!

 

[Skyking69]

Good morning all,

Yesterday I had a Hopper 3 and three Joey's installed. They replaced a 922 and 722. The 922 and 722 each had an OTA module inserted into them. When I asked the installer, who has been a Dish installer for two years, he was clueless about OTA. I stumbled onto this thread while looking for something else, so I wanted to ask a couple of questions:

1. When people say a dongle, was this something that was formerly plugged into one of the USB ports or what?
   .
   
2. From reading the three pages to date my understanding is that this adapter is no longer available, but there is some nebulous planned availability in the future?

Much thanks,

Phillip

 

[dare2be]

Good morning all,

Yesterday I had a Hopper 3 and three Joey's installed. They replaced a 922 and 722. The 922 and 722 each had an OTA module inserted into them. When I asked the installer, who has been a Dish installer for two years, he was clueless about OTA. I stumbled onto this thread while looking for something else, so I wanted to ask a couple of questions:

1. When people say a dongle, was this something that was formerly plugged into one of the USB ports or what?
   .
   
2. From reading the three pages to date my understanding is that this adapter is no longer available, but there is some nebulous planned availability in the future?

Much thanks,

Phillip

You are correct on all accounts. Nebulous is a good description, too.

 

[DWS44]

The 922 and 722 each had an OTA module inserted into them...

Could be some time before a new OTA adapter is available (no one really knows...at least not the ones who could/would say anything publicly). If you are really jonesing to have your OTA capability back, there are some of the original adapters available on ebay, though the prices have gone up due to the lack of availability. Just do an ebay search for "dish usb ota adapter".

That said, if you do go that route...be advised that there is currently a bug with the H3 when it comes to OTA recording. You can watch Live OTA fine, but for most folks, most OTA recordings are filled with random video pixeling and audio drops. Dish is aware of this and supposedly has found a solution to be included in a *future* software release.

 

[Skyking69]

Dare2Be and DWS44,

Thanks for the quick replies. I can wait and we don't record the OTA. We live in northeast Texas and get the Dallas/Fort Worth stations, but when local events occur or there is bad weather, we sometimes like to look at the Sherman/Dennison stations. So, I will monitor this thread and when they are available I'll buy one. Again, much thanks!

Phillip

 

[Pepper]

I got "lucky" and found one on ebay for $60 which is only double the original price.

 

[Tampa8]

Dare2Be and DWS44,

Thanks for the quick replies. I can wait and we don't record the OTA. We live in northeast Texas and get the Dallas/Fort Worth stations, but when local events occur or there is bad weather, we sometimes like to look at the Sherman/Dennison stations. So, I will monitor this thread and when they are available I'll buy one. Again, much thanks!

Phillip

We don't tolerate being reasonable here.

 

[dare2be]

We don't tolerate being reasonable here.

Well, a select few don't

 

[Hall]

... but when local events occur or there is bad weather, we sometimes like to look at the Sherman/Dennison stations.

In the meantime, just connect it to your TV for those OTA stations.



Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Foxbat]

I paid $40 for the OTA Dongle which has been buggy from day one of use on my Hopper 3 and 4K Joey. How much will I be charged to "fix" OTA with a new adapter? Should Dish send me one for free since I've been spending $$$ each month for this "Whole House DVR" and $$$ for Dish Home Protection Plan?

I miss my ViP 722k w/dual OTA tuner. It worked.

 

[DWS44]

I paid $40 for the OTA Dongle which has been buggy from day one of use on my Hopper 3 and 4K Joey. How much will I be charged to "fix" OTA with a new adapter?

Are you referring to the OTA recording issues, or are you calling it "buggy" for other reasons? The OTA Recording thing is completely related to and caused by the H3 software, and has nothing to do with the adapter itself. My OTA worked fine with the exact same adapter on the original Hopper and the HWS...the issues all began for me with the OTA s/w issues on the H3.

 

[Foxbat]

Are you referring to the OTA recording issues, or are you calling it "buggy" for other reasons? The OTA Recording thing is completely related to and caused by the H3 software, and has nothing to do with the adapter itself. My OTA worked fine with the exact same adapter on the original Hopper and the HWS...the issues all began for me with the OTA s/w issues on the H3.

Does it matter? I paid $40 for adding the OTA Feature to my Hopper 3 & 4K Joey and it has been unusable since the day I bought it. Yes, the stations are scanned in and I can watch/record the channels, but the constant video and audio glitches are unacceptable. I know that Dish engineers are working on a solution, but there have been other, higher priority features and bug fixes to be worked out. As of today the OTA feature is still the red-headed step-child (sorry for the outdated colloquialism) of the Hopper 3.

What I wanted to say in my post was Dish had better not give up on making the current single-ATSC tuner OTA USB dongle work and say to the current owners that the new dual-ATSC tuner OTA dongle is required. And if they do, they better not charge current owners for it. I've been a constant Dish customer for over 20 years and they are better than that.

 

[Claude Greiner]

So- I should sell mine now at an obscene profit and then buy the Next Thing, which will be improved in innumerable ways!

Could the Hopper series handle two OTA tuners? Especially the H3, recording 16+2+PTAT active?

For $200 I probably would

Hell I did the same thing with the Directv Am21,'s and sold like 20 for $200 each.

 

[navychop]

New and improved products come out all the time. We don't get them for free, even if the old one didn't work well in all its uses.

 

[socalpanman]

These comments just ad to my feeling that upgrading to Hoer 3 was a bad idea. The more I use it the last 24 hours the more I feel that 16 tuners was one step forward but the theOTA along with other design changes feel like 2 or more steps backwards.