I love the Hopper but it needs more than three tuners. Plus you should be able to watch other chann

edisonprime

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Dec 12, 2012
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I love that is has PTAT, one of my favorite features. But I have a couple issues with the Hopper, otherwise very happy. Another thing I don't like is when you're trying to watch the end of a show when all three tuners are on, and still want to keep recording when you choose "allow" and it flips channels when trying to see the end of a show. I hope some people working for Dish see this thread. Otherwise, I'm a happy customer.
 
It is impossible to do what you are saying. Three four or whatever tuners, if all are set to record you can't watch from a non existent tuner. Three tuners is enough for alot of people, as mentioned, get a second Hopper, solves the problem, and as importantly gains a back-up.
 
You can add a fourth tuner for $30. It plugs into the USB port. It can only watch or record the local channelS and the many local sub channels. It does help some.
 
yeah I dont get how you can select a mythical tuner. It has 3 tuners. "techncially 6" (in dish's mind) if you are using PTAT but in essence its still 3 tuners
 
True, but they need to refine it to actually allow you to record 6 at once at all times though.
 
True, but they need to refine it to actually allow you to record 6 at once at all times though.

Doesn't matter how many tuners are available, someone will exceed the limit and complain. The only way to refine the Hopper is to add more tuners --- which is where the 2nd hopper comes into the equation.
 
Doesn't matter how many tuners are available, someone will exceed the limit and complain. The only way to refine the Hopper is to add more tuners --- which is where the 2nd hopper comes into the equation.

While I agree that adding another Hopper is a good idea, they still need to refine the "24/7 PTAT" functionality.

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I sure value redundancy. Two Hoppers are MUCH better than one larger one. I'd hate to tell SWMBO that there'll be no TV for a few days while waiting for a replacement receiver. We've had at least two STBs since day one with Dish. That ain't gonna change now.
 
To me, I do not really need anymore turners, and this coming from someone who has at least 50-60 timers at any given moment, not including PTAT.

Granted, I could see how it might be problem for a household that watches a lot of live TV, or a large family, but to me, that misses the whole point of having a DVR. Being able to watch a show when I want, not when the network wants. Personally, I rarely watch live TV.

Also, most cable shows usually air repeats the same night or next day, so you could always delay a recording, if you want to free a tuner or two for live TV and/or another recording. At least, that's what I do.
 
Since DISH figured a way to put all their local channels on one transponder and use PTAT to record them on one tuner , I suggest that they do the same thing for other channels and turn each tuner into a PTAT pack for those channels. For example DISH could group certain national cable channels on to one transponder and allow us to record them during prime time. Like Tnt, USA, AMC ,Syfy or other combinations ,as long as you can record them on one transponder. IF you could do this , you would effectively turn the three tuner hopper in to a receiver that could record 8 to 12 shows at a time during prime time. This would allow you to have more tuners without having to add more tuners. This could be accomplished by moving key channels to the same transponder and enabling the feature via software update. There are many shows now running during prime time on certain national cable channels and you should be able to record them like we do our locals and pick what days we want to enable the PTAT feature for those channels, like we do locals. I would also like to see DISH add the Cw and PBS to our regular PTAT folder so it records along with the big 4 networks. THey are all on the same transponder , so why not add them?
 
I'm sure that would take a huge amount of effort to shuffle channels around from transponder to transponder to get them grouped like you are mentioning. I read an article posted on this thread last night or this morning where Charlie specifically mentioned this and he said that right now it is a technical limitation and that currently the big 4 networks is all they can do because they are all broadcast on the same transponder.
 
So, how many transponders are there?

And, how many channels can be recorded from the same transponder?

Most of the sats have 32 TPs and anywhere from 6-10 channels per TP (at least on HD.)

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