Hopper 3Woes

[socalpanman]

So now that I have upgraded from the Hopper1 to 3--- the external Hard drive is limited to a 2T desktop in a time when portable hard drives are at least 2T and the desktop start at 4T? The new remote is less intuitive and adaptive than the original? Now if your volume is not on your TV you have to press extra buttons. New OTA integration is far behind the Voom box? DishAnywhere now limits because of DishGo which I do not have? Dish customer service seems to have also taken many steps backwards. Wherever the phone connections lead the operators seem less familiar with the products, stuck with the most generic scripts and we both struggle trying harder than ever to understand our respective accents. In a time when streaming services and smart TVs with more digital OTA options improve almost daily should I cancel? This is not as presented by the Dish Rep.

 

[MikeD-C05]

What is most important to you is how you make the decision. I think the Hopper 3 will eventually improve with time. So far it hasn't solved the ota conundrum yet, but I have come up with a work around to still record ota shows I like, without video /audio problems. I feel that this will be fixed some time next month in the next software update ,if the rumors we have read about come true. The one think that the hopper 3 has going for it is speed, and 16 tuners. The other things that are different from the hopper 2 are minor and will be worked out. As for the volume , your 52 remote control will control the sound on either the a/v receiver or the tv ,depending on how you set it up. You can also use your older remote control from the hopper 1 and 2 ,if you want to.

Also there is talk of a new ota dongle that will have two ota tuners , that DISH is working on. If they take my advice , they will let us use the internet to provide guide data for 14 days for our ota channels and sub channels that DISH doesn't supply today. Echostar makes a Channel Master dual tuner ota dvr that accomplishes this today. It wouldn't be that hard to imagine that they could use this device or a similar usb dongle that accomplishes this too. After all the hopper is made by Echostar -the sister company of DISH, so why couldn't they do something like this too?

I have had the hopper 3 since late May or early June. I have been able to make it work for my needs , just like the hopper 2 did , with a few changes. It took almost two years for the hopper 2 with sling to become as good as it did. It will take just about as much time for the hopper 3 to become rock solid. No DISH receiver I have ever had comes out working as it should. It takes software updates to make it better. Also a lot of promises that are made for new technology ,often don't come to full fruition. The 4k joey won't have pip ,even though it was promised as a feature. Who knows if the Netflix issue will ever be corrected on the 4k joey either? But if you stay with DISH as long as I have , 20 years come January 18th ,2017, you have to be patient with the way things work themselves out. If you don't want to go through that, then yes, go ahead and move to another service and save yourself the irritation.

 

[budda]

Hard drive has always been a limit of 2 TB's. As far as I know. Would be nice to be bigger but it is what it is. Dishanywhere works fine on my end. What are you trying to do that you can't? Remote for volume issue go to:: settings, remote, advanced, limited mode. Make sure your device is programmed as well. if using a AVR. Use auto receiver not amplifier for code.Would also not say remote is less intuitive. Different maybe. Have two kids 18 and 21. When I got the H3 they both did not like the remote for reasons you stated. Now ten months later. I put the 40's back in there room for them and I got yelled at because they like them now. Sounds like you have had a really bad experience. If you can't work with what you have. I would cancel and move on. Hope things get better for you soon. Peace.

 

[ChadT41]

Just remember, if you leased the equipment, the 24 month commitment went into effect right away without a grace period. That should also be factored into the decision.

 

[patmurphey]

Why don't you just go to DTV? They discontinued their OTA adapter. They don't have EHD archiving.

I've never had anything but excellent service from Dish techs and CSRs.

Others covered your remote issues...

 

[socalpanman]

Hard drive has always been a limit of 2 TB's. As far as I know. Would be nice to be bigger but it is what it is. Dishanywhere works fine on my end. What are you trying to do that you can't? Remote for volume issue go to:: settings, remote, advanced, limited mode. Make sure your device is programmed as well. if using a AVR. Use auto receiver not amplifier for code.Would also not say remote is less intuitive. Different maybe. Have two kids 18 and 21. When I got the H3 they both did not like the remote for reasons you stated. Now ten months later. I put the 40's back in there room for them and I got yelled at because they like them now. Sounds like you have had a really bad experience. If you can't work with what you have. I would cancel and move on. Hope things get better for you soon. Peace.

That's was my surprise that it's always been while in 2016 try and find a powered external drive that is anything less than 4. All the stores are even blowing those out as the new ones are up to 8! Either power the USB ports for removable storage and/or stay with the world and build for expanding storage.

 

[socalpanman]

Why don't you just go to DTV? They discontinued their OTA adapter. They don't have EHD archiving.

I've never had anything but excellent service from Dish techs and CSRs.

Others covered your remote issues...

All I got was "we will pass this along." Tech is pointless. Billing issues they are fine.

 

[socalpanman]

Just remember, if you leased the equipment, the 24 month commitment went into effect right away without a grace period. That should also be factored into the decision.

but consumer laws in CA give me the protection to return because of failure to perform as described.

 

[socalpanman]

What is most important to you is how you make the decision. I think the Hopper 3 will eventually improve with time. So far it hasn't solved the ota conundrum yet, but I have come up with a work around to still record ota shows I like, without video /audio problems. I feel that this will be fixed some time next month in the next software update ,if the rumors we have read about come true. The one think that the hopper 3 has going for it is speed, and 16 tuners. The other things that are different from the hopper 2 are minor and will be worked out. As for the volume , your 52 remote control will control the sound on either the a/v receiver or the tv ,depending on how you set it up. You can also use your older remote control from the hopper 1 and 2 ,if you want to.

Also there is talk of a new ota dongle that will have two ota tuners , that DISH is working on. If they take my advice , they will let us use the internet to provide guide data for 14 days for our ota channels and sub channels that DISH doesn't supply today. Echostar makes a Channel Master dual tuner ota dvr that accomplishes this today. It wouldn't be that hard to imagine that they could use this device or a similar usb dongle that accomplishes this too. After all the hopper is made by Echostar -the sister company of DISH, so why couldn't they do something like this too?

I have had the hopper 3 since late May or early June. I have been able to make it work for my needs , just like the hopper 2 did , with a few changes. It took almost two years for the hopper 2 with sling to become as good as it did. It will take just about as much time for the hopper 3 to become rock solid. No DISH receiver I have ever had comes out working as it should. It takes software updates to make it better. Also a lot of promises that are made for new technology ,often don't come to full fruition. The 4k joey won't have pip ,even though it was promised as a feature. Who knows if the Netflix issue will ever be corrected on the 4k joey either? But if you stay with DISH as long as I have , 20 years come January 18th ,2017, you have to be patient with the way things work themselves out. If you don't want to go through that, then yes, go ahead and move to another service and save yourself the irritation.

I was patient to wait until now for bugs to fixed and the upgrade. Volume buttons on the old remote could be programmed to work any device that was needed and you stayed in SAT mode. Now I must his Aux to use it for the receiver then go back to SAT. I'm only noting this as an example of a backwards engineering step. I will continue to us my Logitech remote. It updated smoothly. At a time when streaming and other DVR options are so many, maybe years of patience is just wearing g off

 

[MikeD-C05]

I was patient to wait until now for bugs to fixed and the upgrade. Volume buttons on the old remote could be programmed to work any device that was needed and you stayed in SAT mode. Now I must his Aux to use it for the receiver then go back to SAT. I'm only noting this as an example of a backwards engineering step. I will continue to us my Logitech remote. It updated smoothly. At a time when streaming and other DVR options are so many, maybe years of patience is just wearing g off

Well then I understand your issue. You have to do what is best for you. Good Luck.

 

[ChadT41]

but consumer laws in CA give me the protection to return because of failure to perform as described.

I would double check those consumer laws. Also, everything you described is as you don't like it, but nothing that is not performing to an acceptable standard as advertised.

 

[navychop]

Someone posted that the 2TB barrier is due to chipset limitations.

I highly recommend Harmony remotes.

 

[n0qcu]

I was patient to wait until now for bugs to fixed and the upgrade. Volume buttons on the old remote could be programmed to work any device that was needed and you stayed in SAT mode. Now I must his Aux to use it for the receiver then go back to SAT. I'm only noting this as an example of a backwards engineering step. I will continue to us my Logitech remote. It updated smoothly. At a time when streaming and other DVR options are so many, maybe years of patience is just wearing g off

The volume buttons on the remote still can be programed to operate your AVR or the TV your choice

 

[hey]

So now that I have upgraded from the Hopper1 to 3--- the external Hard drive is limited to a 2T desktop in a time when portable hard drives are at least 2T and the desktop start at 4T? The new remote is less intuitive and adaptive than the original? Now if your volume is not on your TV you have to press extra buttons. New OTA integration is far behind the Voom box? DishAnywhere now limits because of DishGo which I do not have? Dish customer service seems to have also taken many steps backwards. Wherever the phone connections lead the operators seem less familiar with the products, stuck with the most generic scripts and we both struggle trying harder than ever to understand our respective accents. In a time when streaming services and smart TVs with more digital OTA options improve almost daily should I cancel? This is not as presented by the Dish Rep.

As for EHDs, in my experience, portable EHDs that do not need a separate power supply have always worked, with my 922 and now with my hopper 3, I have a few from a few different brands, never a problem, didn't even know dish says they don't work until I read your post. Most of mine are only 750gb as my old receiver would only show the first 1,000 items. Anybody know if the hopper 3 is like this too? Or is there a limit of # of recordings on an EHD? FWIW, people have said 3TB drives work... I am looking to buy a new EHD and I'm thinking to get a 2TB portable EHD, but only if it doesn't have the 1,000 recording limit???

Other HD questions I have:

My hopper3 shows total space of 1231gb and free space of 340gb, so, about 72% full, but the DVR says it is 78% full.

A few nights ago after I rebooted it, it was 65% full, then I recorded only a few hours of tv overnight, but the next morning it showed 72% full.

So, it seems to always show 6 - 7% more than is actually used??? why???

Both times were with the trash emptied, but maybe they were still calculated in the %? or some inaccessible buffer?

Is it possible to set a timer to automatically save to EHD?

At what HD% does it start deleting things? I would assume it would empty from trash first? then oldest nonprotected show? Does it do a full delete or put it in the trash?

Before I upgraded to a H3, a dish rep told me a few falsehoods as well, so I feel your pain on that. I've since realized forums are a much more reliable source of tech info and more...thanks all for that BTW.

EDIT: What are your dishanywhere problems/limits?

 

[socalpanman]

I would double check those consumer laws. Also, everything you described is as you don't like it, but nothing that is not performing to an acceptable standard as advertised.

Yes it has performed not as described

 

[socalpanman]

Someone posted that the 2TB barrier is due to chipset limitations.

I highly recommend Harmony remotes.

I have Harmony. The point is the backwards engineering.

 

[ChadT41]

Which part is not as described, exactly?

 

[socalpanman]

I just received notice some service rep at DISH charged my account for 2 hopper remotes on Saturday and they are being shipped. What!?! Costumer Service now at least confirms they see there was no confirmation by me for the order AND as a a one time courtesy will reverse the charges. Are these Wells Fargo employees? All is not well because it ends well. Again DISH seems to have gone backwards.

 

[socalpanman]

Which part is not as described, exactly?

The loss of functionality I've discussed. Our Dish Anywhere was promised it would not change and it has. I missed the paragraph deep on the Dish sight that mentioned the external hard drive limitations. I relied on the Dish reps statement that it was still offered and improved. As well as the system layout especially programming Timers by title is now lost and limited to a specific channel and time is another rollback not mentioned. It most definitely is not an improved functionality as the Hopper3 is described as the most advanced so far. Yes it has the most tuners as described but there is much more needed in proclaiming the most advanced. That's all I'm saying. From my long term perspective with Dish I just am underwhelmed and disappointed. In a time when the competition is fierce. Admitedly shame on me for not digging through Sat. Guys threads again before pulling the trigger.

 

[ChadT41]

DishAbywhere works exactly the same as with a HWS, and better/more options than an H1 or 722... And the EHD is exactly the same. So everything you mentioned is just not being satisfied, however everything still works exactly as Dush as a company claim they do.