HOPPER3 AND OTA

[Foxbat]

U304 came out for the Hopper 3 this week, but my OTA Dongle is still glitching on Live and Recorded programs. I'm surprised everyone with an OTA dongle doesn't have this problem. Since I ordered this three weeks ago, I wondered if maybe I got a bad dongle.

Is there a way to tell when the USB OTA Dongle was built? Maybe the newer OTA Dongles don't exhibit this issue?

And regarding adding the OTA channels to a Favorites list, I purposely left them off since they are unwatchable at this point. Sort of like leaving off the Shopping channels...

 

[D. Manley]

U304 came out for the Hopper 3 this week, but my OTA Dongle is still glitching on Live and Recorded programs. I'm surprised everyone with an OTA dongle doesn't have this problem. Since I ordered this three weeks ago, I wondered if maybe I got a bad dongle.

Is there a way to tell when the USB OTA Dongle was built? Maybe the newer OTA Dongles don't exhibit this issue?

And regarding adding the OTA channels to a Favorites list, I purposely left them off since they are unwatchable at this point. Sort of like leaving off the Shopping channels...

This is a problem with the H3 - best option is to contact DIRT with a detailed description of the problems.

 

[ScottChez]

After hours of trial an error I found that the issue is due to a software issue. The Over the Air code that deals with Multipath. My Hopper WS was perfect all the time.

If the signal is TOO STRONG, you get this issue as there is too much multipathing going on. (same signal bouncing off other houses or trees coming into your antenna slightly behind or different).

Solution was to put an Antenuator on the Anttenna coax and adjust it.
Trouble is this sginal can change from day to night so you have to adjust it a lot.
If you do not have an Atenuator putting a 2 way splitter or have a 3 way can be a low cost easy test to verify this.

Hope they fix this soon.

WORSE NEWS: The Joey 2.0 and Joey 4K make the Multipathing even worse, so you may be a minor issue going on with the HOPPER 3 you may not see much of an issue on a Hopper 3, but watch the same channel on the Joey and wow it is even worse. I am guessing the software for the Joey for OTA view is different.

 

[D. Manley]

After hours of trial an error I found that the issue is due to a software issue. The Over the Air code that deals with Multipath. My Hopper WS was perfect all the time.

If the signal is TOO STRONG, you get this issue as there is too much multipathing going on. (same signal bouncing off other houses or trees coming into your antenna slightly behind or different).

Solution was to put an Antenuator on the Anttenna coax and adjust it.
Trouble is this sginal can change from day to night so you have to adjust it a lot.
If you do not have an Atenuator putting a 2 way splitter or have a 3 way can be a low cost easy test to verify this.

Hope they fix this soon.

WORSE NEWS: The Joey 2.0 and Joey 4K make the Multipathing even worse, so you may be a minor issue going on with the HOPPER 3 you may not see much of an issue on a Hopper 3, but watch the same channel on the Joey and wow it is even worse. I am guessing the software for the Joey for OTA view is different.

If accurate, I see this as actually being good news. Software can be patched but if it were hardware, much harder to deal with & "maybe never" becomes a possibility. DIRT should be made aware of this IMO.

 

[Foxbat]

Hmmm, my OTA channels are coming in without glitches watching directly on the Hopper 3. And now the OTA locals are also fine on my 4K Joey. I bet this doesn't last. I'll check again tonight.

Regarding the strong signal, I had an F-barrel 20dB attenuator from my 622 that I placed in-line about a week ago. It did not take care of the issue. I couldn't say if it made it better or worse, it seemed to have to effect.

The only other thing I can think of is I put the Hopper into Standby before checking the OTA situation on my 4k Joey.

 

[cpdretired]

Dish now has the OTA USB Adapter on their site for $30.00. I did try to add it to my cart but it wouldn't add the item
https://my.dish.com/customercare/ordermanagement/prepOrderAccessories.do?order=accessories

 

[KAB]

Dish now has the OTA USB Adapter on their site for $30.00. I did try to add it to my cart but it wouldn't add the item
https://my.dish.com/customercare/ordermanagement/prepOrderAccessories.do?order=accessories

Was it missing for a while?

 

[beetle02]

If you do not have an Atenuator putting a 2 way splitter or have a 3 way can be a low cost easy test to verify this.

Today I split my OTA to 3 TVs and the H3. Before it was only going to the H3. I recorded two OTA programs tonight and played them back with no problems. The pixilating picture and stuttering audio was gone. I will try some more tomorrow.

 

[scottk52]

After hours of trial an error I found that the issue is due to a software issue. The Over the Air code that deals with Multipath. My Hopper WS was perfect all the time.

If the signal is TOO STRONG, you get this issue as there is too much multipathing going on. (same signal bouncing off other houses or trees coming into your antenna slightly behind or different).

Solution was to put an Antenuator on the Anttenna coax and adjust it.
Trouble is this sginal can change from day to night so you have to adjust it a lot.
If you do not have an Atenuator putting a 2 way splitter or have a 3 way can be a low cost easy test to verify this.

Hope they fix this soon.

WORSE NEWS: The Joey 2.0 and Joey 4K make the Multipathing even worse, so you may be a minor issue going on with the HOPPER 3 you may not see much of an issue on a Hopper 3, but watch the same channel on the Joey and wow it is even worse. I am guessing the software for the Joey for OTA view is different.

What's multipath?

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

[Foxbat]

What's multipath?

Imagine your TV antenna as a dot and the TV Transmitter as another dot across town. The straight line between those two dots is the shortest path. Now imagine a couple of buildings spread around your area. TV signals will reflect off of buildings, so the path from the transmitter to a building and on to your TV antenna is longer than the direct path.

Since radio waves travel at a little less than the speed of light, you might think it would make no difference in the paths' various lengths, but the TV antenna sees the strong primary signal and a number of weaker, delayed signals added to that signal. A signal that takes a path that is one mile longer than the direct path arrives approximately 5.5 µs after the direct patch and distorts the intended signal. On the old NTSC analog system, you could see the multipath show up as a "ghost" signal. In ATSC and the digital world, multipath can cause errors in the decoded signal if the number of errors exceed what the receiver can tolerate, leading to pixelation, picture, and audio breakups.