Is there a hardware guide?

[Deadlocked]

Cool. So a net increase of $12/month (that's for 1 Hopper + 2 Joeys, feeding 3 TVs - one TV plugged directly into the Hopper, and two in other rooms connected to Joeys), that would get HD programming to TV#1 and TV#2 (and potentially TV#3 if/when it gets replaced with an HD-capable screen), preserves our current flexibility in terms of separate tuning/recording & watching live/recorded programs, with the additional minor benefit of enabling the viewing of recorded programs on TV#3 (which we don't have currently).

Assuming all the above is correct, then it sounds like the right solution.

We've been getting charged $10/month for Blockbuster At Home which we don't really use, so we could drop that and then it's just 2 bucks a month increase, which I could live with. I will probably have a couple questions about small details which I will append to this thread.

This forum, and the useful info provided by its helpful members, is one of the reasons I have been satisfied with Dish. Many thanks to all who have helped educate me once again.

Just to be sure before you do the drop, check the channels provided with BB@Home and make sure you don't watch any of them. Also do any packaging changes on the first day of the billing cycle when you do them.


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[bobvick]

The OP might could ask them about BB@Home for half off for a while, I have read where some folks have gotten that deal. I forget how long it ran.


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[MikeD-C05]

Don't think this has been posted. A great feature of the Hopper is that it backs up info to the remote. So if the dvr fails, when you replace it, you can restore all your timers and if you have the ota module, all your local scanned channels. No longer do you have to write down your timers and reenter them.
The Hopper will support 2 ehd's at a time.
Do you travel? If so, get the Hopper with Sling. That way you can use Dish Anywhere to watch your dvr. With my old 722 with Sling Adapter I was able access my ehd while using DA. That feature, they called it a bug, was dropped with the Hopper.
You can also transfer programs to a tablet. What I gave done is get an IView tablet that has a mini hdmi port. Using a cable I can connect to a hdmi port on a tv and mirror DA to the TV. Worked great when the wife and I were on vaca at the end of June. We were able to watch our local news instead of the news where we were staying.
If you have 3 tv's you would need 1 Hopper and 2 Joey's. For your sd tv, the Joey has composite out's.

I know that the back up feature on the remote comes in handy. When I got my super joey installed I used my older Joey remote control and restored all my settings to the super joey and didn't have to do anything else to set it up. Saved a lot of time that I would of spent redoing my guides , hd format etc.

 

[ChadT41]

The OP might could ask them about BB@Home for half off for a while, I have read where some folks have gotten that deal. I forget how long it ran.


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6 months.

 

[nwflyboy]

You can use any size self-powered HDD from 50GB (ha!) up to 2TB, larger may work but are limited at some point of directory entries, nominally 1000 but I have 1500 on some and may be pushing it. An HD recording is about 2GB/hour, more for OTA with no sub-channels and less than 1GB/hr for SD. I recommend 2TB. Loss of a disk is major but putting recordings on multiple drive is a problem too, just more, smaller failures.

Generally transfers go smoothly but maybe 1 to 2% are problems and may not transfer one way or the other. I now have ~135 awaiting (forever) transfer to EHD from the internal 2TB, of which the user can store 1.2 TB. (Always remember the drive makers use 1000^4 bytes/TB while we use 1024^4 for the TB term. So a 1TB driver holds only 931GB.) Never enough drives and I have nominally 18TB.

Thanks, Ken - IIRC, I believe you provided some very useful details back when I first had questions about all this when we first got Dish (maybe it was you who mentioned some sort of USB "carousel" that allowed easily switching between multiple EHDs? Heh - I'm not going to get quite that extreme in my storage needs...having 2 large drives plugged in at the same time will be a nice convenience though ).

Sounds like I'll be shopping for a new 2 TB EHD, to go along with my existing 1.5 TB EHD that's currently hooked to the 722. I assume it's not important to get a 7200 RPM drive rather than a slower one (this is just for simple read/write/storage operations, not like doing heavy video editing in AfterEffects...). Anybody know of any good deals currently running on 2 TB EHDs? I could just drive over to Frys or browse NewEgg...

Thanks all for the tips on the BB@Home deal and remote tricks.

 

[harshness]

Off topic, but anyone else find it funny when we abbreviate an abbreviation. ie DIRT is DISH(which is already and abbreviation) Internet Response Team.

What makes you think that DISH is an abbreviation?

Just because something is capitalized doesn't make it a acronym. In 2007, Echostar changed their name to DISH Network. Shortly thereafter, DirecTV changed their trademark to DIRECTV.

Apparently DIRECTV is having some issues with their name as they offer an admonition on their home page:

Not DIRECT TV or DIRECTTV with two T's

There's only one company that delivers an amazing entertainment experience across your TV, computer, tablet, or phone with industry-leading customer service—and it's spelled DIRECTV. Be careful of any company that advertises the DIRECTV name with a misspelling of any sort, whether it's DIRECT TV with a space in between or DIRECTTV with two T's.

 

[ChadT41]

Dish stands for digital information sky highway. Thus DISH is an abbreviation.

 

[KAB]

Dish stands for digital information sky highway. Thus DISH is an abbreviation.

Well, I guess you DO learn something everyday!

 

[sam_gordon]

Indeed. Here's more info on our viewing habits:

There are two of us here. We have 3 TVs in the house (TV#1 and TV#2 are HD digital TVs, both of which are currently connected to the 722; TV#3 is a small, older analog tube, connected to a separate VIP211K (no recording/playback on #3, which is OK).

We want to be able to watch something different on any TV. That is, while only 2 TVs are probably going to be used at any time, we want to be able to tune each independently, and also to record at least 2 things at a time.

We want to be able to watch recorded programs on either TV#1 or TV#2 (or use both at the same time, watching different recordings and/or live TV). It's unimportant whether TV#3 can access recordings (maybe nice-to-have, but trivial, and not really a factor).

All of the above is what we have now (although no HD output to TV#2), so we don't want a downgrade in flexibility.

Without regard to price (I'm reluctant to increase our monthly cost much; we're no longer on contract), I'm guessing that we would want to replace the 722 with a Hopper (on TV#1), and then add a Joey on TV#2. Not sure how this all adds up cost-wise.
TV#3 could keep its current 211K, or if there's no meaningful cost increase, or maybe get a Joey on TV#3 also and drop the 211 (although it's not an HD/digital set, it wouldn't be bad to have access to recorded programs on that TV).

I assume that we would need new runs of HDMI cable to feed TV#2 (and possibly TV#3) from the Hopper? That is, coax from the Hopper to the Joey wouldn't result in HD output - correct?

Many thanks to all - this is very helpful info.

Maybe I'm missing something or I'm just a cheap bastard, but it sounds like this can mostly be done for a $40 one time charge.

722: HD connected to TV#1 Connect SD to TV#3
211: Move to TV#2. Enable the external hard drive option so it becomes a DVR.

The two HD sets are now getting HD signals, both are independent DVRs.
The SD set is getting an SD feed.

 

[KAB]

Maybe I'm missing something or I'm just a cheap bastard, but it sounds like this can mostly be done for a $40 one time charge.

722: HD connected to TV#1 Connect SD to TV#3
211: Move to TV#2. Enable the external hard drive option so it becomes a DVR.

The two HD sets are now getting HD signals, both are independent DVRs.
The SD set is getting an SD feed.

OP said early on they want to be able to share recordings. And yes, you're a cheap bastard.

 

[3HaloODST]

Dish stands for digital information sky highway. Thus DISH is an abbreviation.

Wow, I always thought Dish just meant like satellite dish.

 

[ChadT41]

Nope. That was actually the very first thing we had to learn when starting there. (No one remembers it nowadays.) think of the cheat of CAbleGuy with Jim Carrey. They sorta stole it. It's digital information SuperHighway there as they are sliding along the big dish, while it's raining at the end. Lol. Useless information that's just fun to have.

 

[harshness]

Dish stands for digital information sky highway. Thus DISH is an abbreviation.

I'll be dipped.

Of course to be truly cool, an acronym needs to be recursive.

 

[bobvick]

I can remember "Digital Information Sky Highway" from the early press releases back in 1995 and 1996 when Dish Network first came out. That was back in the Clinton years when the "information superhighway" was a big catchphrase. At the time it was even spelled D.I.S.H in some instances.


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