tried posting some questions about the Hopper w/Sling but posts kept being denied for "forbidden words" - can any mods help me out on this? Can't find a 'forbidden word' list anywhere on your site.
Hopper w/Sling Upgrade happening Saturday! Questions about wifi and more . . .
- Thread starter bellevuecoug
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Maybe hes trying to post a URL? That would be the only thing he couldn't post since hes new... which is set that way to prevent spamming. 
My questions -
We are moving from a (leased) Vip 922 and (owned) Vip 211k to a 'Hopper + two Joey' arrangement this weekend. Will cost us about $ 9 more per month, but the initial upgrade is free and 2 TB of space seems pretty ample. renewed my two-year deal but gave me some freebies (premiums, PPV, etc.) so its all good.
I have a couple questions about the wifi quality and the sling functionality.
(1) Right now, I use a powerline broadband connector for the slingloaded 922 and, for the streaming funtion, the powerline adapter seems *ok* - I tend to get about half of my Internet speed (i.e. about half of 6 Mbps or about 3 Mbps streaming) when grabbing something from Blockbuster @ Home (can't believe they are cancelling the blu ray part of that service but don't get me started). On release, the Hopper w/Sling was talked up as having this great new chipset and built-in wifi. How does the wifi speed compare with the powerline connection? Should wifi work good enough to stream a movie (right away - no waiting) like I do now?
(2) Other question is on the sling feature. Right now, the 922 'takes over' TV#2 when I sling. I understand that, with the Hopper, when you use one of the three tuners for DVR recording, you can "hit the red button" to select a different (unused) tuner. Does the sling feature work the same? That is, if someone is slinging and (I assume) taking one of the three tuners, can you "red button" your way to a free tuner from the remaining two?
1. I can not personally address wifi vs powerline. What is a fact is that a hard wired systems is always best. With Hopper, you can use an HIC (Hopper Internet Connector) that would run from you main router to the Hopper Node. Your layout/wiring will dictate weather or not that is feasible for you. Your installer should be able tell you if it is or not. When I was installed, he chose the HIC over wifi...but that was for Hopper, no sling.
2. Regarding red button to access available tuner...yes.
It worked!!
Good. Glad it got figured out. Now, if only the error messages were more accurate.
Hard to say, you're asking to compare to wildly variable connectivity methods. If it's a good wifi environment - well placed router, low interference, quality N router, etc - then wifi will probably out perform the powerline adapter, but that's a BIG IF.
Yes you can, but Hopper is pretty dynamic in the way it assigns tuners, you may find it often just works and get the results you want without having go to the red button status screen. Also, if the sling viewer is watching DVR content then no tuners are used for the remote session.
