Suppo,
How are you liking the Hopper? Being a VIP holdout also, what are your first impressions?
Miner
I am quite happy. I had a ViP722 with a bad fan (just left cover off) and a few burps from both ViP722s now and then. What pushed me to move was the price increase. I realized that if I converted now, and returned the two leased Joeys, my bill would actually go down. At least for as long as the grandfathering lasts.
I think the PQ is better. I don't know how, I can only guess better chips. And Dish Anywhere, so far at least, appears to be working better with the two HWS than it did with the Sling Adapter and either ViP722 (I moved it back and forth). I haven't had any failures to connect, no dropped connections, and only one pause since the HWS install.
The icons on the left of the screen guide are nice. The overall appearance and dialog boxes is more professional and up to date.
The control method is way different. My fingers keep wanting to press the DVR button two or three times, but they'll learn.
The layout of the menu and the steps needed to accomplish any particular action are completely different, a entirely new approach. The new ideas on the customer interface are good. I still would prefer a list option for DVR and EHD listings. But I really must say that the identifying picture icons with the number of shows by that title displayed on the icon is very nice, and make for finding what you're looking for quicker - until you get too many pages to scroll thru. Hence, the list option request, for better management of large numbers of programs. BTW, I don't use the colored keys; I find going thru the menu steps clear enough and quick enough.
The icons and two dimensional movement of the "pointer" or highlighted selection will benefit greatly from a pointing device other than the simple arrow keys. A BT keyboard & pointing device are hopefully high on the list of enhancements that Dish is considering. We haven't used the apps yet, but once there's a working keyboard/pointer option, I know my wife will be onto FB in no time. Actually, we have used the Weather app. Jury is still out on how useful it is. If the TV is already on, it'd be quick enough. But otherwise, we'd just whip out the iPhone or iPad for quicker info.
The inability to move programs from EHD to internal DVR HDD is disappointing. And yes, there's something buggy about correctly displaying your folders when you try to do this. Hopefully this bug will be fixed soon.
While watching a program from a EHD, if you pause it, pressing PLAY does not resume the program. I hit the skip back and it does, and plays from that point. And yes, the skip fwd/back problems are still with us.
Not everyone has the same bugs. And I don't mean to sound complaining. I am glad we made the move. The OTA tuner module just arrived today and I haven't connected it yet, so I can't comment on that- maybe later.
In fact, I am very glad we made the move, and so is my wife.
