I have some questions about the Hopper please

[jdvaughn]

I just have some basic questions and I've waded through all the posts and searched far and wide, but because things change so rapidly and I'm not sure if I'm reading current info, I will just ask you smart guys here..

We currently have a 722k box and 2 HD TV's. I've been thinking about getting a Hopper mainly because when I watch TV in our bedroom, I seem to always get stuck with something that is recording to that TV (TV 2) and I have to pull something out of the DVR to watch. And also, it would be nice to have HD on our bedroom TV.

1. Firstly, if we want to record shows to "free up" both the TV's all the time, where do the recordings go? (I hope this isn't a stupid question , but it is my main goal, so I'll ask it...
2. I've talked to a friend who got the hopper and she said they absolutely do not like that in the recordings (I think she said it was in the recordings), the shows show up as tiles that are really hard to read/see. I am going to try and find some screenshots of this, cause I'm not quite sure what she was talking about, but that didn't sound good...
3. I think we would need 1 Hopper and 1 Joey for 2 TV's, but could I "sling" TV to my computer in my office and if so, how?
It seems like there are 2 different Hoppers, one with sling, one without?
4. I don't really care about the record prime time all the time, as most of our favorite shows are on other channels anyway, so I believe you can just turn that off, right?
5. I was skimming through the "Hopper Upgrades" thread and I don't understand what this is for... are people able to get special upgrade deals through here? We've had Dish for at least 10 years and I would like to find out how to not have to pay the $99 (I think that's the price) to get a Hopper upgrade. (We are out of contract)
6. I think what I'm reading is the Hopper costs an additional $12 per month and 1 Joey is $7, which means my bill would go up by $19 per month?
7. I bought an external HD for Christmas and we really like having the extra room (although I'm really pissed that I can't create custom folders on it. I had to move all the "kids" stuff back to the DVR because I didn't want them mixed in with everything else. When I bought it, I made sure that it would be compatible with the Hopper (it's a "WD 2TB Mybook" I believe). Will it still work the same or do things change with the Hopper?
8. And lastly, after more than 10 years of having Dish, I'm still having to help my husband figure stuff out with Dish. How much more complicated is the Hopper from a 722 for the average person to use?

Thank you for your time,

Juli

 

[TimberWolf]

I just have some basic questions and I've waded through all the posts and searched far and wide, but because things change so rapidly and I'm not sure if I'm reading current info, I will just ask you smart guys here..

We currently have a 722k box and 2 HD TV's. I've been thinking about getting a Hopper mainly because when I watch TV in our bedroom, I seem to always get stuck with something that is recording to that TV (TV 2) and I have to pull something out of the DVR to watch. And also, it would be nice to have HD on our bedroom TV.

1. Firstly, if we want to record shows to "free up" both the TV's all the time, where do the recordings go? (I hope this isn't a stupid question , but it is my main goal, so I'll ask it...

Each hopper has 3 tuners, so you can watch 2 tvs independently and still record a 3rd in the background. all recordings are stored on the hopper hard drive

2. I've talked to a friend who got the hopper and she said they absolutely do not like that in the recordings (I think she said it was in the recordings), the shows show up as tiles that are really hard to read/see. I am going to try and find some screenshots of this, cause I'm not quite sure what she was talking about, but that didn't sound good...

everything on the hopper menus and dvr lists display as icons now instead of numbered lists. they can be hard hard to read on smaller screens

3. I think we would need 1 Hopper and 1 Joey for 2 TV's, but could I "sling" TV to my computer in my office and if so, how?
It seems like there are 2 different Hoppers, one with sling, one without?

most hoppers being installed now have the sling and wifi built in. the older non-sling hoppers are only used on service call replacements. if the hopper is connected to broadband, you can use the sling to view recordings or use 1 of the tuners remotely

4. I don't really care about the record prime time all the time, as most of our favorite shows are on other channels anyway, so I believe you can just turn that off, right?

it is off by default, you have to enable it

5. I was skimming through the "Hopper Upgrades" thread and I don't understand what this is for... are people able to get special upgrade deals through here? We've had Dish for at least 10 years and I would like to find out how to not have to pay the $99 (I think that's the price) to get a Hopper upgrade. (We are out of contract)

every account if different, talk to cust service or one of the DIRT members here

6. I think what I'm reading is the Hopper costs an additional $12 per month and 1 Joey is $7, which means my bill would go up by $19 per month?

the dvr fee for the hopper goes up to 12 from what the fee on the 722 is now and 7 for each joey

7. I bought an external HD for Christmas and we really like having the extra room (although I'm really pissed that I can't create custom folders on it. I had to move all the "kids" stuff back to the DVR because I didn't want them mixed in with everything else. When I bought it, I made sure that it would be compatible with the Hopper (it's a "WD 2TB Mybook" I believe). Will it still work the same or do things change with the Hopper?

all the recordings should be available on the hopper

8. And lastly, after more than 10 years of having Dish, I'm still having to help my husband figure stuff out with Dish. How much more complicated is the Hopper from a 722 for the average person to use?

hard to say. there is a learning curve, but since you have a HD DVR now it is not a huge jump. if your friend is close by, see if you can take a look at and play with the menus

Thank you for your time,

Juli

...

 

[Hall]

Whitewolf answered all of your questions, I think. I'm "adding" to some of them...

1) The Hopper/Joey eliminated the whole TV1, TV2 thing. Unless you have (3) recordings in progress, you'll be able to have a tuner.

2) Look at the video here, http://www.mydish.com/upgrades/products/receivers/?WT.svl=hopper-button-button-hopper. It shows a number of screenshots from the Hopper and you'll see the tiles (vs lists). We have a 32" LCD (to some, that's a big TV) in our bedroom and have no trouble viewing things.

3) I'm certain that all new installs get a Hopper w/Sling (HWS). On the same page as above, they do list both the original Hopper and the newer Hopper w/ Sling. Make sure to ask for the HWS when you order. It won't cost you any different/more.

8) The Hopper may be easier. It's more "buttons" or icons vs menus and lists. The guide pretty much operates just like the guide on the 722 (or most Dish receivers). The DVR menu is very similar as well, just that it uses tiles instead of lists. You still use the arrow keys to navigate to the item you want, press "Select" to select it, press it again to get a menu for deleting it, starting over, resuming where you left off, etc. Or, after selecting the item, simply hit the "Play" button to play the recording.

 

[Tron2012]

TimberWolf did a good job replying. Some of my feedback. Been a customer for many years and switched from 722's last year. And I'm still around liking Dish so you and your husband will be as well. ;-)

2. I've talked to a friend who got the hopper and she said they absolutely do not like that in the recordings (I think she said it was in the recordings), the shows show up as tiles that are really hard to read/see. I am going to try and find some screenshots of this, cause I'm not quite sure what she was talking about, but that didn't sound good...
Definitely not a showstopper. I liked the improvement but (in my opinion) Dish still needs to work on the interface a bit more. To be honest, if you record a lot of the same shows AND you view them from your My Folders option (yes, like the 722 you can create up to 5 of your own customer folders for storing recordings) then it is annoying as h#ll since each episode will be its own icon. The screen can get filled up fast with a ton of show icons and you have to scroll a lot. As for it being hard to see, for me you quickly get used to what each show's icon looks like so it is not really hard to pick out unless maybe on a very small TV and one that is NOT HD (like an old tube TV).

However, if you don't view your recordings that way and use the Folders by Title option then you get one icon PER show and then a list of the individual recordings. See the shortsightedness on Dish's part? The interface views are not consistent. But this is a gripe of mine and others could care less that it works differently. All subjective but not a reason to not switch over to a Hopper.

From older posts of mine, disregard the comments as some of these were for older issues.

If you view by title then you see a nice icon with the number of recordings 'inside' that group:


And when select the main icon you see a list of shows, not more icons. If I recall, this is the only time you see a list rather than icons in your recordings:


If viewing using My Folders then you would see three icons for Fandamonium, seven icons for American pickers, etc... One icon per recording. See what I mean about the screen filling up fast under My Folders?!




3. I think we would need 1 Hopper and 1 Joey for 2 TV's, but could I "sling" TV to my computer in my office and if so, how?
It seems like there are 2 different Hoppers, one with sling, one without?
You should get the Hopper with built in Sling if you switch, but just make sure that ois what you are getting. Keep the Hopper connected to the Internet (wired or wirelessly) and then you can easily see your DVR from the Dish Anywhere app from your computer, tablet or mobile device. It's really cool. As long as you have a pretty high speed Internet connection it works great. Can control your Hopper's recordings/timers, add timers, watch live TV and much more. Great if you are on the road traveling and have a good wireless (or wired) connection in the hotel or wherever you stay. Plus the Hopper with Sling allows you to prepare your recordings for a mobile device so you can download recordings to a tablet or phone to watch without having to be connected to the Internet. Good for when you are flying or kids and long road trips.





8. And lastly, after more than 10 years of having Dish, I'm still having to help my husband figure stuff out with Dish. How much more complicated is the Hopper from a 722 for the average person to use?
If you understand how a Dish DVR works then this will be an easy switch. For the basic record/watch scenario then it's a snap. You'll also have fun with the Dish apps. Like Pandora (my wife loves this when she is working around the house and wants to listen to music, even though you still get a ton of those CD and Sirius channels as well), sports finder, social media and more. My wife hates learning curves and was dreading learning a new system, but like you, coming from Dish DVR systems in the past she whips through the Hopper's functionality like a pro now. We have two Hoppers and one Joey so she even is a master at the switching among the two Hopper stuff.

Switch over. It is good now and will only improve over time.

Thank you for your time,

Juli

 

[dare2be]

Just in case it wasn't clear, your fees would be $19 total, so going from the 722 with its $7 DVR fee, you would pay $12 more per month.

 

[KAB]

One more thing, use the upgrade thread and go through Dirt. DO NOT call a CSR.

 

[jdvaughn]

Thank you all so much for your answers and help on my questions! It has made it much clearer to understand. I don't trust Dish at all, so really wanted to get my info here instead! One more question tho... why do some people have more than one Hopper as opposed to just having more Joey's?

 

[thomasjk]

More tuners. 3 per Hopper.

 

[ross9]

6 tuners instead of 3 and more recording space. All depends on individual needs and wants.

 

[Hall]

One more question tho... why do some people have more than one Hopper as opposed to just having more Joey's?

- More available tuners - Joeys don't have tuners, so with (1) Hopper and (3) Joeys (I think that's the max Dish provides 'free'), presuming nothing is being recorded, one of the Joeys can't watch LIVE TV, for example. So if you have (5) or more TVs and you have to have a tuner available for each, you'd need a 2nd Hopper.

- More DVR storage

- You can "isolate" the 2nd DVR, for example, to keep one's pr0n from showing up on the other Hopper or Joeys (that is a reason someone here posted !!)

I'm sure there's more reasons....

 

[KAB]

- More available tuners - Joeys don't have tuners

No at the moment, but the new Super Joey with two tuners should arrive in May.

 

[gdarwin]

. One more question tho... why do some people have more than one Hopper as opposed to just having more Joey's?

One for me and one for the wife.

 

[jdvaughn]

Oh geez, now what is a "Super joey"?

also, I was reading the actual "dish" forum and everyone there seems to really pissed off about their Hoppers rebooting at 1AM every night. They are saying that this is something that everyone has been complaining about for 2 years and Dish won't fix it. Being that I am a night person myself and am usually up at 1am, what do you all think of this and is there some way around it? What would happen if you had something set to record during that time?

OK, I think I'm going to do this, except I really don't like that 1AM thing, I need to see if there are workarounds and maybe wait until the Super Joey's come out, depending on what the heck they are, but it seems like it would be a good idea to move everything from my DVR to my external HD before getting a new box, right? That way we keep all our precious stuff right? I specifically bought one that would work with the Hopper, but it won't want to re-format it again will it?

You guys here are awesome and I truly appreciate all your help.

 

[Hall]

How many people are in your house ? Just asking to gauge if (3) tuners should be enough...

Regarding the nightly reboot, it pops up a window asking if you want to reboot. You can tell it "no" and it will ask again (in an hour, not sure ??). If you don't respond, i.e. you left it on when you went to bed, you're asleep on the couch, etc, it will reboot if you don't respond. Supposedly an option to configure this will be added (a while back, it was implied that it was coming in the next update, but someone decided to hold it off).

 

[navychop]

An extra Hopper gives redundancy. If one dies, you still have the other one to watch while awaiting replacement.

But I must say, the Hopper series so far seems to be very reliable.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[jdvaughn]

How many people are in your house ? Just asking to gauge if (3) tuners should be enough...

Regarding the nightly reboot, it pops up a window asking if you want to reboot. You can tell it "no" and it will ask again (in an hour, not sure ??). If you don't respond, i.e. you left it on when you went to bed, you're asleep on the couch, etc, it will reboot if you don't respond. Supposedly an option to configure this will be added (a while back, it was implied that it was coming in the next update, but someone decided to hold it off).

There are just 2 of us so I'm thinking one Hopper and 1 Joey should cover it. If I get one with the sling (which I would) then I could also watch on my computer in my office if I wanted to. With 2 Hoppers, you wouldn't be able to watch programming off both in either room I believe, so I don't think we would like that... and I think with the 2TB Hopper + the 2TB external drive, that should be plenty enough room for us!

As far as the reboot problem, that does sound like a pain in the butt, but if I set something random to record every night between 1 and 3 am, I'm thinking then that it wouldn't reboot until after the recording was done? It seems like that would be a work around until they fix that problem, is this correct?

Is the "super joey" just something where you don't need an actual physical joey box in a room? Is that the only difference, because I don't mind about having the little joey box..

 

[Bobby]

The Super Joey, not released yet, is a new receiver that will add two more tuners to the mix. Both viewing sites would have 5 tuners to record or watch....

 

[Hall]

You can actually link two Hoppers. With just (2) people, I think (3) tuners is more than enough. Some people uses excuses like having guests over who watch TV on their own, etc, etc, but personally, I don't make long-term decisions on scenarios like that !

 

[bwexler]

With just one Hopper I get yelled at when my recordings change the channel 3 minutes before the end of my wifes show. She is just learning how to record and view her recordings after 2 years with the Hopper and many years wit 522, 622 and 722 DVRs. a Super Joey might be adaquate when it becomes available but for $2/month I will stick with 2 Hoppers.

 

[KAB]

There are just 2 of us so I'm thinking one Hopper and 1 Joey should cover it. If I get one with the sling (which I would) then I could also watch on my computer in my office if I wanted to. With 2 Hoppers, you wouldn't be able to watch programming off both in either room I believe, so I don't think we would like that... and I think with the 2TB Hopper + the 2TB external drive, that should be plenty enough room for us!

As far as the reboot problem, that does sound like a pain in the butt, but if I set something random to record every night between 1 and 3 am, I'm thinking then that it wouldn't reboot until after the recording was done? It seems like that would be a work around until they fix that problem, is this correct?

Is the "super joey" just something where you don't need an actual physical joey box in a room? Is that the only difference, because I don't mind about having the little joey box..

Addressing the "just you and your wife". Same here. One Hopper and one Joey is just right, for OUR WATCHING needs. Some here just can't understand how that could be humanly possible.