722k is an amazing receiver. Sure, it lacks some functionality here and there compared to the Hoppers, but for a single TV, it's still an amazing receiver. It has desirable features that are not available on Hopper, too. The interface is a little homely these days, but still tolerable. the UI was amazing for its time, and still gets the job done efficiently. It's very reliable and fast, faster in some ways than Hopper. It's more mature than the Hopper and thus, less temperamental overall. It's simpler, and list view is something I wish the Hopper had as an option. IMO it is easier to find recordings. Hopper sort-of makes up for it though, in the fact that it can search recordings, unlike the 722k.
The 722k, much like its predecessors the 722 and 622, took an amazing DVR (625 in the 622's case) and made it even better. They had one purpose, and exceeded expectations for a DVR. The Hopper at times almost feels like it has an identity crisis. Is it to watch TV, record TV, sit there and look pleasing to the eye, act as a replacement for a Roku/game console, be a WHDVR, a smartphone/tablet, or perhaps it's an automated home control center? Web browser? To me by now the Hopper gives of sort of a jack-of-all-trades impression. It does a little of everything, but it doesn't excel at any one particular thing. It's always kinda felt like the Marketing Team was more in charge of the software than Engineering.
More and more features were shoehorned in, without first polishing what was already there. The massive amount of added features, along with the lack of polishing, pretty well threw the first-generation units under the bus (along with their owners.) Even the hardware side felt skimpy, except for the processor. I'm sure some of you remember 3 Joeys to 1 Hopper? Yeah that was a joke... Then the HwS came out... It was almost like what the Hopper 1 should've been in the first place. I remember how blazing fast it was, the thing flew. Hopper 1 also gave that impression initially, except during the early days the Hoppers couldn't even share recordings. Now the Hopper 1 feels... Ugh... Joey 1.0... Yikes... Hopper 2, "fast enough" but still laggy at some points. 3 tuners was "good enough for most" but anyone with four or more family members would be fighting all the time. 2 Hoppers is "good enough for most families" but again could do with more.
What I did like a lot, was the fact that the outlet fees were quite reasonable, and so I felt it could justify the investment in more receivers... That went out the window, still left a bad taste in my mouth even with the "grandfather" discounts, since they only lasted 18 months. Of course, the 722 fees were ridiculous in the end, if you had more than one.
All that being said, overall Dish has treated me well, and I do understand that these are much different times than the ViP days... Pay-TV is dying a slow death while the content providers show mostly stagnate crap and make more even unreasonable demands every year. I still wouldn't trade my Hoppers for anything (except perhaps a Hopper 3, maybe later when the kinks are worked out,) the new receivers should rectify a lot of my complaints, but I'm not sure I want a third contract in three or four years of owning various Hoppers... I'm glad Dish is looking into fixing the engineering issues... Hopefully that'll help things out...
Anyway, here's the tl;dr: Seeing as Dish is just now completely phasing out the extremely old pre-8psk receivers (talking early 2000s here,) I highly doubt the 722s are going anywhere anytime soon.
The 722k, much like its predecessors the 722 and 622, took an amazing DVR (625 in the 622's case) and made it even better. They had one purpose, and exceeded expectations for a DVR. The Hopper at times almost feels like it has an identity crisis. Is it to watch TV, record TV, sit there and look pleasing to the eye, act as a replacement for a Roku/game console, be a WHDVR, a smartphone/tablet, or perhaps it's an automated home control center? Web browser? To me by now the Hopper gives of sort of a jack-of-all-trades impression. It does a little of everything, but it doesn't excel at any one particular thing. It's always kinda felt like the Marketing Team was more in charge of the software than Engineering.
More and more features were shoehorned in, without first polishing what was already there. The massive amount of added features, along with the lack of polishing, pretty well threw the first-generation units under the bus (along with their owners.) Even the hardware side felt skimpy, except for the processor. I'm sure some of you remember 3 Joeys to 1 Hopper? Yeah that was a joke... Then the HwS came out... It was almost like what the Hopper 1 should've been in the first place. I remember how blazing fast it was, the thing flew. Hopper 1 also gave that impression initially, except during the early days the Hoppers couldn't even share recordings. Now the Hopper 1 feels... Ugh... Joey 1.0... Yikes... Hopper 2, "fast enough" but still laggy at some points. 3 tuners was "good enough for most" but anyone with four or more family members would be fighting all the time. 2 Hoppers is "good enough for most families" but again could do with more.
What I did like a lot, was the fact that the outlet fees were quite reasonable, and so I felt it could justify the investment in more receivers... That went out the window, still left a bad taste in my mouth even with the "grandfather" discounts, since they only lasted 18 months. Of course, the 722 fees were ridiculous in the end, if you had more than one.
All that being said, overall Dish has treated me well, and I do understand that these are much different times than the ViP days... Pay-TV is dying a slow death while the content providers show mostly stagnate crap and make more even unreasonable demands every year. I still wouldn't trade my Hoppers for anything (except perhaps a Hopper 3, maybe later when the kinks are worked out,) the new receivers should rectify a lot of my complaints, but I'm not sure I want a third contract in three or four years of owning various Hoppers... I'm glad Dish is looking into fixing the engineering issues... Hopefully that'll help things out...
Anyway, here's the tl;dr: Seeing as Dish is just now completely phasing out the extremely old pre-8psk receivers (talking early 2000s here,) I highly doubt the 722s are going anywhere anytime soon.
