Hopper Plus, or a Minus?

[Melmac]

I had a Hopper3 several years ago, and just last week came back to Dish after having my wallet scraped by a cable company. It's been a very rocky week so far. Hopefully not too much duplication below, but none of the techs I've talked to so far have had any experience with these issues.

Problems early, with Hopper Plus (and Wireless Joey) in use:

1. Periodically (several times a day!) I would get an "Ethernet not connected" error popup. If I was watching a program, playback would continue, but as soon as I pressed any button on the remote the box would freeze. I unplugged the matchine to get control.
2. Periodically (again several times a day, but never coincident with 1 above) I would try to use Netflix or Prime, but there was no connection available. The home network (200 Mbs WiFi) was stable, and the Hopper's internet settings said it was connected, but it really wasn't. Sometimes the Joey would work during this time, and sometimes it wouldn't. In this case rebooting from the remote was enough to fix the problem. Between problems 1 and 2 I've rebooted the machine several dozen times in the last five days.
3. In skipping backward (after fast-forward and play), the second or third short press would send the video into ultra-fast reverse, and by time I caught it I'd be several minutes behind again. I screamed a lot at the machine, since the behavior wasn't predictable at all.

So first, I upgraded the Hopper software from H339 to H343 (a counterintuitive cluster with the Plus in place). That fixed problem 1, which was at least something, but no change on the others. Finally, I decided to try taking the Plus out of the picture, and run just the Hopper3. THAT fixed the rest of the problems instantly.

I hope Dish shakes out the Plus eventually, but so far it seems more of a Minus. Access to more apps is nice, if you're into apps -- I'm not. The Home screen is improved over the Hopper, but Dish could just do that with a software change to the Hopper itself. Beyond that, the Plus just gets in the way by interjecting itself into normal operation, causing more problems than it solves.

Counterpoint or other thoughts welcome. Curious if other Plus users are having similar issues.

 

[HipKat]

I had a Hopper3 several years ago, and just last week came back to Dish after having my wallet scraped by a cable company. It's been a very rocky week so far. Hopefully not too much duplication below, but none of the techs I've talked to so far have had any experience with these issues.

Problems early, with Hopper Plus (and Wireless Joey) in use:

1. Periodically (several times a day!) I would get an "Ethernet not connected" error popup. If I was watching a program, playback would continue, but as soon as I pressed any button on the remote the box would freeze. I unplugged the matchine to get control.
2. Periodically (again several times a day, but never coincident with 1 above) I would try to use Netflix or Prime, but there was no connection available. The home network (200 Mbs WiFi) was stable, and the Hopper's internet settings said it was connected, but it really wasn't. Sometimes the Joey would work during this time, and sometimes it wouldn't. In this case rebooting from the remote was enough to fix the problem. Between problems 1 and 2 I've rebooted the machine several dozen times in the last five days.
3. In skipping backward (after fast-forward and play), the second or third short press would send the video into ultra-fast reverse, and by time I caught it I'd be several minutes behind again. I screamed a lot at the machine, since the behavior wasn't predictable at all.

So first, I upgraded the Hopper software from H339 to H343 (a counterintuitive cluster with the Plus in place). That fixed problem 1, which was at least something, but no change on the others. Finally, I decided to try taking the Plus out of the picture, and run just the Hopper3. THAT fixed the rest of the problems instantly.

I hope Dish shakes out the Plus eventually, but so far it seems more of a Minus. Access to more apps is nice, if you're into apps -- I'm not. The Home screen is improved over the Hopper, but Dish could just do that with a software change to the Hopper itself. Beyond that, the Plus just gets in the way by interjecting itself into normal operation, causing more problems than it solves.

Counterpoint or other thoughts welcome. Curious if other Plus users are having similar issues.

The best fix for the Plus is to remove it if you don't use the streaming benefits. But you'll miss out on updates if you'd decide to reinstall it one day.
Otherwise, it's come along way and the bugs are being worked out bit by bit

 

[Melmac]

Can you expand on the "miss out on updates" part? First, will the Hopper software still be updated without the Plus, or is it only the unused Plus that won't be updated? Second, is there any reason that if the Plus was later connected, it couldn't be brought up to the newest level?

 

[dweber]

Can you expand on the "miss out on updates" part? First, will the Hopper software still be updated without the Plus, or is it only the unused Plus that won't be updated? Second, is there any reason that if the Plus was later connected, it couldn't be brought up to the newest level?

Your Hopper3 will still get software updates. You won’t get Android updates for the Hopper+ when it is not connected.
Unless you need apps from the Google play store I would leave the Hopper+ disconnected. The Hopper3 without the plus is very stable. Several users here have disconnected the Hopper+ because of all the issues. Hipkat is correct in saying that the Hopper+ is slowly getting better as Dish solves some of the software issues but it still has issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HipKat]

Can you expand on the "miss out on updates" part? First, will the Hopper software still be updated without the Plus, or is it only the unused Plus that won't be updated? Second, is there any reason that if the Plus was later connected, it couldn't be brought up to the newest level?

The Hopper will update but the Plus won't if it's not connected

 

[Melmac]

The Hopper will update but the Plus won't if it's not connected

Makes perfect sense of course. As long as the Plus can be brought up to date if it's ever reconnected, I agree entirely about being better off without it for now.

Thanks for the info!

 

[J_Smooth]

Been great for our family, with few negatives. It caused my Harmony Elite remote to fail to work for DISH commands, but with one input, I just switched over to the Dish remote full time and added an RF repeater inside my cabinet. Skip back and forward were an issue, but it's good now. Not sure if it is as fast or not, but no one is noticing at this point. Only other issue is I haven't been able to get my VPN to work through Android TV like I can on my computer or phone. The VPN isn't recognizing that it is connected to the internet. (?)