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

[GaryPen]

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

10 HD channels on 1 TP??? Yikes.

 

[3HaloODST]

10 HD channels on 1 TP??? Yikes.

Yep. EA has a couple of TPs with 10.

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[Bobby]

Yep. EA has a couple of TPs with 10.

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But are they all HD. Many transponders carry both SD and HD...

 

[Mr Tony]

and on Western Arc you're only dealing with 15 TP's in reality

1-16 are spotbeams
one TP is SD only (those public interest channels)

 

[3HaloODST]

But are they all HD. Many transponders carry both SD and HD...

10 HD channels.

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[3HaloODST]

and on Western Arc you're only dealing with 15 TP's in reality

1-16 are spotbeams
one TP is SD only (those public interest channels)

Yep that's why 110 also has some HD. 110 has 32 TPs, 119 has 21 for Dish's use.

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[navychop]

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.

This would present a rather complicated set of options for the average user. Beyond his/her casual capabilities or wishes.

Which channels would you group together? HEY- that's not the ones I want grouped together!

If they activated this, perhaps it would have to be almost "invisible" to the casual user. Just record by some priority system on unused tuners, dropping when a tuner is selected. He/she would just see some extra recorded shows to pick from. But that would be confusing and frustrating to many. And then picking from what they see, and discovering missing "overridden" gaps - well, maybe it can't be "invisible." Back to "complicated." Most just want to "watch TV."

Good for the few of us, bad for the many. Maybe they could require it to only be active on a second Hopper. I think PTAT is already hard to market. Explaining this new, expanded feature would just turn away multitudes of customers as "too complicated." For example, my MiL mostly uses the DVR she has for pausing. Not sure she ever actually records anything. Want to explain this feature to her?

 

[MikeD-C05]

Say you enable a PTAT folder for some of the national cable channels that show a lot of original programing in Primetime. Say USA, TNT,TBS,AMC,SYfy ,Fx Bravo A&E. You could call it the Variety pack . You could then go into the prime time folder and you would have Variety pack and Locals pack. You could pick which of these channels you wanted to record and what nights , just like you do Locals. This would take care of a lot of conflicts with people if they can record both their locals and up to 8 other national cable channels at the same time during primetime. You could do the same on tuner three and call it the Womens primetime pack. It could include channels they like on one transponder: Lifetime, Lifetime Movie, Style,Oxygen( if they did it in HD) WE, HGTV, Food ,Cooking channel. This would in effect give you the ability of two hoppers in one hopper without adding any more tuners.

Moving channels to the same transponder is a simple move from one transponder to the next. DISH does this all the time at night and it is a seamless transition that no one ever notices,unless they are up around 3:00am when they move them. WE already know that DISH puts up to 8 hd channels on one transponder in MPEG 4. As for the consumer , you educate them with advertising just like they did the hopper. You get the Boston guys and film a commercial about the new features and how they no longer have to fight with the women in their lives and put out some paper advertising and there you go. A receiver that can record up to 12 shows at a time during Primetime. Can any other company claim that ?

 

[Cold Irons]

Say you enable a PTAT folder for some of the national cable channels that show a lot of original programing in Primetime. Say USA, TNT,TBS,AMC,SYfy ,Fx Bravo A&E.

And (...like navychop said : D), having those channels would be completely worthless to me; I'd probably resent using "my" hard drive space with a bunch of unwatchable stuff. How about History, H2, Discovery Science and HGTV instead. The next person you ask will want 4 other channels I suspect that this would be way more trouble than its worth, because everyone has different channels that they normally watch.

 

[MikeD-C05]

And (...like navychop said : D), having those channels would be completely worthless to me; I'd probably resent using "my" hard drive space with a bunch of unwatchable stuff. How about History, H2, Discovery Science and HGTV instead. The next person you ask will want 4 other channels I suspect that this would be way more trouble than its worth, because everyone has different channels that they normally watch.

As with PTAT for locals , you would have the option to turn it on or OFF to use it as you will. IT would provide more options that would mean you wouldn't necessarily need more physical tuners. I am sure that there will be many who would see a use in some of these channels ,especially the women who love HGTV ,like my wife. There are some people who don't use the regular PTAT for locals, but that doesn't mean DISH doesn't offer the option. The Hopper is all about more options, as it should continue to be for a wider audience of users.