Hopper Q&A and Install Tips

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A few more threads about networking and PTAT, manual, and bugs for the Hopper/Joey:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/hopper-...-network-connectivity-hopper-joey-system.html
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and a quick listing of the one's i posted before:

Here's some links for forum members to post how their install went:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/hopper-zone/280227-post-your-dish-hopper-install-experience.html
Troubleshooting and Wiring Docs:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/hopper-zone/280227-post-your-dish-hopper-install-experience.html
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tuyo01 said:
What are the options for people in PR and US Virgin islands that have single dishes catching single birds with Legacy or DP LNB's and switches?
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--- DP lnbs with DPP44 switch using outputs 2, 3 & 4 for duo nodes (2 & 3 for solo nodes) or DP lnbs with DPP33 switch using outputs 1,2 & 3 for duo nodes (1 & 2 for solo nodes) ---
 
CommoFreq said:
DNS tech here - I just completed my first official installation of the Hopper and Joey system after a few weeks of research. Here are your tips / bits of advice / observations:

1. Much like the software that we're seeing on the ViP722k receivers, the setup process spoon-feeds you. If you are a customer and received yours in the mail, you'll love it. If you're a tech, you'll love it at first, but it will get very annoying after you're comfortable with the system.

2. Download times are longer with the Hopper than with your other receivers. I've also observed Hopper download times to vary greatly as well. You're looking at an average of 20 - 45 minutes for the Hopper to receive its software + activation.

3. Download times for Joeys average roughly 10 minutes each. Activation takes 3-5 seconds (which rocks, by the way). You may not simultaneously download software onto your Joeys! They must be done one at a time! You will permanently destroy your Joeys if you try to link them to your Hopper at the same time! Keep them in the box until you're ready to install and download, one at a time! Keeping them in the box will have a tremendous result as far as the "dummy factor" goes. And this must be done after (and only after) the Hopper has received its software first!

4. Therefore, a 3-room setup with one Hopper and two Joeys will take roughly an hour (and some change) to download and activate. The good news is, you will save a ton of time on cabling this system out. So time-wise, it evens out to what you're already used to. For now.

5. Most of us techs are in the habit of activating all receivers at the same time. That's a good habit - with this system, you absolutely must activate your Hopper and Joeys at the same time. And as usual, new connects can be activated through ETA direct, but upgrades must be done by calling Dial-A-Dunce.

6. The remote controls will not allow you to program a TV code (or learn from another remote) until everything is downloaded, activated, and ready for channel surfing. This goes for both Hoppers and Joeys. If you try to program a remote while it's downloading, weird things happen with the lights across the top. It looks almost as if the remote is cussing you out in its own special way.

7. NEVER fight the process! I'm used to DNS's other receivers, where I can abort a checkswitch if I get an error message. Not with this system. If you make any attempt to thwart what a Hopper or Joey is trying to do, you will regret it. Follow each step-by-step procedure, no matter how much it makes you want to grind your teeth. Never hit "Cancel" during setup - for any reason - ever, unless you're looking to double your install time.

8. There's no need to use long stingers on the nodes. I generally keep mine flush, and I have confirmed that flush works.

9. If you're going for an Eastern Arc, God be with you. And let us all know how that went.

10. I've also confirmed that crummy, crappy RG-59 from the 1980s, with dry rot, barrels etc...... carries a beautiful HD signal to the Joeys. Cheap splitters work just as well. Don't get hung up on that kind of stuff anymore. Only keep the feed to your Hopper in high regard. To hell with everything else. Especially wall plate barrels.

11. Solo nodes fit nicely in cable company boxes. Can't vouch for the duo though.

12. If you're reading this, it means that you're doing your homework. Do more! Get some wiring diagrams - they help tremendously. And remember, nobody at corporate is going to help you. So if you get stuck, don't bother calling them.
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If you have some diagrams of duo node installs that would be appreciated... Hard to get anyone to say what works and what doesn't especially corporate. They give different answers to the same question every time I call.
 
In a 2 Hopper and 3 Joey setup, do both Hoppers need a Client ID? I have an installer here right now and the first hopper came up fine and received it's client ID. The second hopper will not get a client ID. No Joeys have been hooked up at this point. Everything looks good on the duonode setup and both Hoppers are up and have a picture. The installer called for support and was told only one hopper will get a client ID. Is this correct? If not, any tips on what the issue may be? He reset the 2nd hopper a couple times and it still want get a client id.
 
nlrobert said:
In a 2 Hopper and 3 Joey setup, do both Hoppers need a Client ID? I have an installer here right now and the first hopper came up fine and received it's client ID. The second hopper will not get a client ID. No Joeys have been hooked up at this point. Everything looks good on the duonode setup and both Hoppers are up and have a picture. The installer called for support and was told only one hopper will get a client ID. Is this correct? If not, any tips on what the issue may be? He reset the 2nd hopper a couple times and it still want get a client id.
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Both Hoppers need a Client ID. Put the 2nd Hopper into standby for 20-30 minutes and it should get a Client ID.
 
isaacmorseMI said:
Both Hoppers need a Client ID. Put the 2nd Hopper into standby for 20-30 minutes and it should get a Client ID.
Click to expand...

Are the client ID's required for the Joey's to pair and see the hoppers? I'm not too clear on the purpose of the Client ID and how or where it comes from. Is the ID generated from the Duo or does the client ID get generated from dish and get pushed down to the Hopper? If it's pushed, I assume as long as the hopper is online and is getting a signal and channels, the client ID will be pushed eventually after it's been online for sometime?
 
nlrobert said:
Are the client ID's required for the Joey's to pair and see the hoppers? I'm not too clear on the purpose of the Client ID and how or where it comes from. Is the ID generated from the Duo or does the client ID get generated from dish and get pushed down to the Hopper? If it's pushed, I assume as long as the hopper is online and is getting a signal and channels, the client ID will be pushed eventually after it's been online for sometime?
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Yes they are required. It will be pushed but you need to put the Hopper into standby for it to receive it.
 
manteca said:
--- DP lnbs with DPP44 switch using outputs 2, 3 & 4 for duo nodes (2 & 3 for solo nodes) or DP lnbs with DPP33 switch using outputs 1,2 & 3 for duo nodes (1 & 2 for solo nodes) ---
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We`are installing DPP33 with single or duo nodes for new hoppers installations or upgrades.
 
ive installed dozens of hopper/joey systems and have not had a problem doing downloads on multiple joeys at a time as long as hopper has fully downloaded with Client ID...if this is causing people issues the problem is likely elsewhere...unfortunately Dish greatly underestimated multiple hopper installs and manufactured few duo nodes
 
Well I joined the Hopper/joey crew today.

I installed my own Hopper and Joey unit . I am waiting for the second joey to arrive via ups some time next week. It got sent later for some reason by the loader. I have to say it was very easy to install and I'm on eastern arc. Here is what I had to do to get to the authorize screen on the hopper.


First of all I had a terk 44 clipped on to my 1000.4 eastern arc dish and it was run to three rooms in the house. I tried to use diplexors before the node to give me both sat and ota. It didn't work at all. I ended up taking two of my sat runs out of the antenna switch itself and run them straight to the node. Which meant using barrel connectors and re-cutting my coaxes to fit the lnb. I also had to switch my side sat dish to 119 sat instead of 110. I knew that if I didn't do this, I would never get a download of software . I learned that this was the way the 722k worked and the 922 did also. Without 119 it simply will NOT download the software using eastern arc sats.

I then had to take the third sat run and leave it in the antenna switch and use it to diplex for sat and ota to my living room, on the third coax run to my living room. I used and old 501 I had in the closet to power the ota antenna. It isn't authorized any longer , but it does power the antenna. From the outside , I diplexed it to run sat to the living room and used a coax run to my living room for ota and one to my master bedroom for ota. Thank God it all worked just like I set it up to do. I have ota in my living room for all my ota devices and am/fm radio on my a/v receiver. I also ran a coax to my computer room ,behind the living room tv, to give me ota in that room as well. I already split my living room tv , by hdmi splitter , to see the hopper in the computer room as well.

The hopper downloaded all the software in about 20 minutes and it was ready to be authorized by DISH. Very quick compared to what I read others have gone through. Called in the joey too ,while on the phone getting my hopper authorized. The joey took less than 5 minutes to download the software and was up and running in my master bedroom. I moved it to my boy's room after it was up and running and it worked there just fine too. I imagine the new joey coming next week will be just as easy to install. Looking forward to being able to watch on the joey in the master bedroom too. I even set it up to be controlled by my revue google box. I set it up as DISH Joey and it worked. :)

So I have ota in three rooms in my house : living room, computer room and master bedroom. My son couldn't care less about ota and even asked me what it was today. :o Can't wait to get the usb ota tuner so I can do this through the hopper itself. I will have satellite in 4 rooms ,once the other joey gets here , and will only pay $14.00 a month for two joeys + the extra $4.00 whole house dvr fee. A slight $4.00 increase over what I had before with a 722k and two 211ks with dvr sofware. The hopper is a whole lot like the 922 I had two years ago in feel and menus , channel logos ,etc. , but it is a whole lot faster to use and so far, knock on wood , it seems pretty solid.

Now the only drawback in this whole thing is that when I called to authorize the receivers , I told the csr that I was replacing my purchased and owned 722k and two 211k receivers with a new owned and purchased hopper and joey. I repeated this and even told her that I always own my receivers etc. Guess what showed under equipment page on my DISH account? One owned joey and one Leased hopper. Of course ! Once again the csrs DO NOT LISTEN to their customers. :mad: I ended up calling DISH and talking to the executive resolution department to get them to change it back to Owned. This was after going through a couple of csrs who could not believe I would pay over $700.00 to own a hopper. I informed them I paid only $318.00 to OWN a hopper and two joeys and a single node, After trade in value of $250.00 for my old receivers to dishdepot.com. I even quoted my receipt and when it was actually completed down to time ,date and order number. The executive resolution department came back after a wait and confirmed that I did indeed own the receivers. So I was promised within 24 hours it would reflect the owned status on my account. I took all the names down and id numbers and I still have my receipt from Dishdepot.com to show I bought them. I'm betting that by tomorrow evening I will be recalling DISH again to resolve this. This time I will go straight through cancellation to get it resolved and quit fooling with the front line csrs and techs.
 
Miner said:
Where did you buy the hopper from? I have looked on dish store and Claude does not list them for sale.

Miner
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Dishdepot.Com | DirecTV Satellite TV | Satellite Florida Receiver | Satellite Radio System | DirecTV Dishpro Plus | RV Motion Satellite Dish | TV Antenna Installations

I have used Mark at dishdepot.com since 2003 and he allows trade ins of older DISH receivers for credit towards the latest and greatest new receviers. The best part is there is NO sales tax if you live outside the state of Florida, where he is based. He even let me trade in my 922 receiver after 10 months for a brand new 722k ,because I was very unhappy with the 922 - back in 2009. Great service and he is great to work with. Can't recommend him or his store any higher.

I jumped on his special for the DISH hopper/JOEY and single node , all for $449.00. I also bought another Joey for 119.00. I then traded in my 722k and 211k and received $200.00 credit. (I was going to trade in my second 211k , but kept it instead to use as an ota dvr with just the Welcome pack on another account.) So my total was just $568.00 and then took credit of $200.00 and I only paid $368.00 total with NO TAX, for two joeys a hopper and a single node. Great deal and I own all of them.
 
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T

Cancelling DISH

  • tcampbell88
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OSD771

Able to watch recordings on deactivated box?

  • OSD771
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