Hopper 3 running on a UPS

[Hall]

I read on the Dish Network support site about someone that had a problem with several Hopper 3s on a UPS.

Some claim that Dish's equipment has "built in" protection so surge protection (or a UPS) isn't necessary. Tech support's scripts insist that the receivers be plugged directly into a wall outlet too, yet the owner's manual states

"Use an outlet that contains surge suppression or ground fault protection"

Also, every tech that has been to my home plugs them into the surge suppressor behind my TV.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, if you ever have to call support, when they begin troubleshooting, and ask "What is the receiver plugged into?" to answer "it's plugged directly into the wall outlet".

 

[NR2D]

Entire A/V cabinet is on a UPS. Hopper 3 has no issues with it. Spend the money for a good UPS not a 39.95 walmart special. Get something with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) and NEVER EVER plug a UPS into a UPS trying to double your time, it does not work that way and due to the way UPS'es work something about the sine wave of the first messes up the sine wave of the second so the equipement does not get the power wave its supposed to get, would work for lights etc but would possibly fry electronics.

I have both TVs and my 722K and my 211K and the AV equipment on APS Pro 1000 UPSs.

 

[JM42]

Some claim that Dish's equipment has "built in" protection so surge protection (or a UPS) isn't necessary. Tech support's scripts insist that the receivers be plugged directly into a wall outlet too, yet the owner's manual states

"Use an outlet that contains surge suppression or ground fault protection"

Also, every tech that has been to my home plugs them into the surge suppressor behind my TV.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, if you ever have to call support, when they begin troubleshooting, and ask "What is the receiver plugged into?" to answer "it's plugged directly into the wall outlet".

The easiest way on the phone to rule out any potential ground issues that may be introduced is to tell someone to plug it into the wall. Maybe not ideal, but only so much can be diagnosed remotely. If it works once, then right or wrong, it quickly becomes the default practice.

I think the Dish receivers probably are more robust than most electronics in this regard. If your TV dies from a power surge, its your problem and your pocketbook. If your Dish receiver dies, it's DISH's problem and their pocketbook (at least for any leased receiver). Makes sense Dish would have some extra protection built in.

Personally, I only have a good surge protector on my AV stuff, but our power is pretty clean.

 

[Mary Lou Maloney]

Thinking you mean UPS? USB is something totally different.

I thought that looked strange. Yes UPS.

 

[Mary Lou Maloney]

My experience is pretty much the opposite. We've had CyberPower and Belkin UPS's in the past that were terrible. We've now got 5 APC's running for the past few years which have been very reliable and have needed the minimum of maintenance.

I will have to see which one that I have on my computer. Does the one for the TV have a different power output?

 

[JSheridan]

I will have to see which one that I have on my computer. Does the one for the TV have a different power output?

I use 1500's so I have plenty of power for TV's etc.

 

[jerryez]

My video equipment is split between two APC UPSs. Each has six outlets and I need 10 plugs. Never a problem, but I have had to replace a battery occasionally. I get the generic ones off Amazon.
Also, have an APC for my computer and use a 6 outlets.

 

[dare2be]

I have two 8-outlet UPSs (4 battery, 4 surge each). For battery backup, in one room I have my computer, router, cable modem and DVD recorder on one, and the other room my 722, TV and 2nd network switch on the other. All the other components are plugged into the surge outlets.

 

[maf113]

I have my H3, AV Receiver and 55 inch LG TV all on a UPS. Where I live power outages and brownouts are common. The advantage of the UPS over a surge suppressor is the UPS will protect against brownouts (where the power level drops below 110/120V). I also get about 1 hour of viewing with the AV Receiver on and more if I turn off the receiver and just use the TV Speakers.

 

[dare2be]

I have my H3, AV Receiver and 55 inch LG TV all on a UPS. Where I live power outages and brownouts are common. The advantage of the UPS over a surge suppressor is the UPS will protect against brownouts (where the power level drops below 110/120V). I also get about 1 hour of viewing with the AV Receiver on and more if I turn off the receiver and just use the TV Speakers.

Same here. Many brownouts and outages lasting a few seconds. I get a good hour of runtime on my 722 if nothing else is on. Keeps from messing up a recording in progress.

 

[jackson85]

For the same reason I run all my AV gear off Surge Protectors and Line Conditioners. For years all my DISH boxes have been on them. Unless you have a very large UPS, which I do use on my computers and telco systems, they are not logical for high power AV equipment. Whereas a Surge Protector, as I have been told by Field Supervisors are a great source of protection and will not interfere with the units operation.

Just my 2¢.

Dish always told me to plug in all of my Receivers/DVRs, now Hopper 2 and Joeys directly into the wall plugins. However, I am still having problems with the system. I need to check all Joeys to make sure that they are all plugged into the wall outlet, and maybe that will solve the issue.

 

[Mary Lou Maloney]

That is about the time I have on my computer UPS. I have computer, router and modem on that device.

 

[VideoWhiz]

Have never regretted running anything with a hard drive (and my network) on an UPS . For other AV electronics I use a Furman for conditioning and to remove power instantly in case of outages, brownouts, etc.

 

[StringFellow]

As long as you have a decent UPS (preferably with AVR), Dish hardware will function just fine. Most decent UPS' also have overload protection and will prevent you from plugging in too many pieces of hardware into one UPS.

UPS with AVR protect hardware from brownouts, surges and short duration power outages. I have had Dish hardware on UPS' for years without issue. Why do large corporate datacenters have large UPS' - to protect hardware from power anomalies.

I believe Dish's recommendation to plug devices directly into the wall is to minimize factors (power strip gets turned off, overloaded power strip, etc.) that would result in a customer calling customer service.

 

[DishSubLA]

This has nothing to do with Hopper. But, can a 65 inch TV be used on a UPS backup? Also if true would this be the same type that works with a computer?

That depends upon the device, and if it uses an Active PFC power supply (starting with Energy Star 5.0) , and most of the recent HDTV's and Audio Receivers do, as well as nearly all Macs and SEVERAL PC's. In this case it is important to use only UPS's that provide either a "true sine wave, " expensive, or the affordable "Pure Sine Wave" UPS models by Cyber Power. I've not yet seen APC offer any such UPS at an affordable price point. Please Google all this Active PFC and UPS's stuff; it takes far too much time and typing to explain. The bottom line is, if a device does use an Active PFC power supply and you have it connected to a UPS that is not pure sine wave or sufficiently close to a pure sine wave, the device will abruptly SHUT DOWN upon loss of main power or may suffer damage running on a UPS not designed for Active PFC PS's.

A fair point is asking what damage will result if your Active PFC PS's run just for a few moments or even minutes for once or twice a year. The answer could be probably none. On the other hand, I do know some who have experienced the loud "Popping" noise from their new AV Receiver or late model HDTV, irreparable damage to their Energy Star 5.0 compliant HDTV's or have LOST data because their MAC just shut down with the older UPS not of any use in that sense. Further, even HP issued a bulletin regarding this for a number of their PC's and recommended using appropriate UPS for Active PFC PS's, and HP eluded to possible damage to the PC if it should manage to run on a USP with no Active PFC tech.

Given the risk, however low it may be in your situation, The CyberPower UPS models for Active PFC PS's cost about the same as APC UPS's that aren't designed for Active PFC PS's. So, the "extra precaution" is of no extra expense.

I have my latest equipment on CyberPower, that I bought at the same time as I bought my latest A/V equipment and computers. However, I saw no reason to change out the APC's that don't have Active PFC tech because they were all connected to older equipment that was Pre-Energy Star 5.0. The APC's I have do their job well, and so do the Cyber Powers. Amazon has good APC's and CyberPowers, as one lead.

I don't believe any Dish equipment uses Active PFC PS's. But it is nearly a sure bet that most HDTV's and A/V receivers made in the last 5 years do, and we know for sure Apple computers do and many PC's. Everything is complicated these days .

 

[NR2D]

That depends upon the device, and if it uses an Active PFC power supply (starting with Energy Star 5.0) , and most of the recent HDTV's and Audio Receivers do, as well as nearly all Macs and SEVERAL PC's. In this case it is important to use only UPS's that provide either a "true sine wave, " expensive, or the affordable "Pure Sine Wave" UPS models by Cyber Power. I've not yet seen APC offer any such UPS at an affordable price point. Please Google all this Active PFC and UPS's stuff; it takes far too much time and typing to explain. The bottom line is, if a device does use an Active PFC power supply and you have it connected to a UPS that is not pure sine wave or sufficiently close to a pure sine wave, the device will abruptly SHUT DOWN upon loss of main power or may suffer damage running on a UPS not designed for Active PFC PS's.

I don't believe any Dish equipment uses Active PFC PS's. But it is nearly a sure bet that most HDTV's and A/V receivers made in the last 5 years do, and we know for sure Apple computers do and many PC's. Everything is complicated these days .

I'm surprised that no one else brought up the subject of a pure sine wave output vs. the square wave output of other UPSs. I know I was running a project at work and I wanted to remove the engine generator running the equipment. I bought 2 pure sine wave inverters because I needed a pure sine wave for the equipment I was running. They were about $2000/ea for a 2500 watt inverter.

BUT so far after about 4 - 5 years I haven't had a problem with any of the equipment that I run on the inverters.

Thanks all for your input.

 

[VideoWhiz]

It would appear most PCs run on UPS with no issues (for the short times they may have to..) and have been doing so for generations. I doubt having a pure sine wave would is much of a factor for 'most' consumer electronics that generally use fairly tolerant switching supplies. But a power interruption during a read/write on a hard drive could certainly be an issue, and the primary reason most would use an UPS as well as being able to switch off power manually (if they are home) and allow a more gentle shutdown. Besides losing data, failing network communications like a VOIP phone system, is also a consideration.

Most other electronics can survive without an UPS especially if they don't provide a service beyond 'entertainment'. But it might be wise to use some power protection that would remove power in case of an over or under voltage situation. During power events often the best connection is no connection at all.

 

[Grandude]

I now use CyberPower and Tripp UPSs only. APC's fail often, don't last long and error, shutdown, for the strangest reasons that APC can't figure out. I just donated a stack of them. I read an article a while back where APC was at the bottom of the list mainly due to the lack of build quality and having to replace the batteries often. Just my experience.

I had the same experience with APC so gave up on them and now use CyberPower and one Tripplit.
I managed to cobble together enough batteries from failed APCs to get one working, for now. It will be out the door when it next tells me to replace batteries.

Had what could have been a bad experience in my last house. Lost power and when it came back on it was only 80 volts. Pulled the plug on the refrigerator and made sure that the furnace blower didn't try to run. No about of UPSes could have kept me going then.

 

[bookworm370]

I have a CyberPower 1500VA Active Sine Wave on my TV equipment (Plasma, BD Player, EHD powe supplies, Apple TV) and I sprung for an OptiUPS GNL 1500VA Pure Sine Wave for the Hopper, Denon AVR and a few other things). I have a 20KW Generac natural gas generator with an automatic transfer switch that can run everything (except Dryer so we just don't use it during a power failure).

So I only need the UPS's to keep the equipment alive until the generator spins up and comes online (about 40 seconds). On top of power line conditioning I wanted to insure that I never miss a recording by a power failure causing the Hopper to drop out and reboot. It's pretty weird that when we have a power failure, all the lights go out in the house, but the entire Multimedia center continues to work (TV and all) until the generator kicks in. I made sure the Pure Sine wave unit powers the Denon receiver and Hopper). They also protect against the surge or dropout when the power comes back and the transfer switch, switches to utility power.

Yup, I'm a TV and PC geek..

 

[navychop]