Joey's SLOWWWW, getting pixelated picture

[DCUNY]

Hello,
16 year Dish customer, first post to the forum. I've done a some forum searches and have picked up a few things, but thought I'd ask about my specific problem.

We have a 2 hopper with Sling system, Eastern Arc dish (not sure which one), Duo node in the basement, and 3 Joeys. For the past several months the Joey's, one especially are really SLOW to respond to any command. The shortest Joey response time is 6 seconds, sometimes 12 seconds. Response time Hopper to Hopper is good. The Hoppers are "networked" so either Hopper can be accessed from any TV.

I've called Dish support about 4 times, finally they are sending a technician out tomorrow. Before the tech gets here I'd like to educate myself as much as possible about what might be going on and what my options are to resolve this.

If I don't get it resolved my wife will be calling Time Warner or Direct TV because she is really not happy.

The Dish support had me do all sorts of resets and such, nothing has helped. Then one tech told me to do something in the Update menu that downloaded a whole new system to the Hoppers. The menus look completely different than before. The software version on the Hopper is U221, the Joeys have U165. Doing this has not helped either.

I have Ethernet connected to one Hopper, then have bridging turned on from that Hopper.

Any thoughts regarding what might be wrong?

If the tech can't improve the delay, is there newer Dish hardware I should be asking for? I read something in the forum about a Joey 2, but am not sure if that would help us.

I'm at my wits end with this - very frustrating.

Thanks

 

[schmidty]

If I was you, I would see about upgrading to a Hopper 3 and Joey 2 system. In my experience, Joey 2's have a lot less delay.

 

[sundude90]

I also would suggest upgrading to the Hopper 3 and Joey 2 System. A lot more features, lot less delay and runs so much better.

 

[DCUNY]

I also would suggest upgrading to the Hopper 3 and Joey 2 System. A lot more features, lot less delay and runs so much better.

Thanks for the upgrade idea.

Currently we have the 2 hoppers, mainly one of the boxes I record on, one my wife records on. I don't know anything about the Hopper 3; is there a way to split the recordings on that box so my wife wouldn't need to page through all of my ball games, etc? Or would we still have one of the old Hoppers too and we would record on separate boxes?

Thanks

 

[sundude90]

Thanks for the upgrade idea.

Currently we have the 2 hoppers, mainly one of the boxes I record on, one my wife records on. I don't know anything about the Hopper 3; is there a way to split the recordings on that box so my wife wouldn't need to page through all of my ball games, etc? Or would we still have one of the old Hoppers too and we would record on separate boxes?

Thanks

You can put recordings in folders.

 

[Partysox]

Thanks for the upgrade idea.

Currently we have the 2 hoppers, mainly one of the boxes I record on, one my wife records on. I don't know anything about the Hopper 3; is there a way to split the recordings on that box so my wife wouldn't need to page through all of my ball games, etc? Or would we still have one of the old Hoppers too and we would record on separate boxes?

Thanks

You can only have 1 hopper3 no other hoppers at this time if you upgrade, but what sundude90 said. You will pickup some speed and they will install joey2s if you upgrade.....

 

[Hall]

Then one tech told me to do something in the Update menu that downloaded a whole new system to the Hoppers. The menus look completely different than before. The software version on the Hopper is U221, the Joeys have U165. Doing this has not helped either.

Oh geez ! The tech made you update to the new interface after you complained about speed issues ? That was backwards !!

 

[DCUNY]

Based on everyone's input so far, it sounds like upgrade will help. I'm concerned about replacing my wife's Hopper with a Joey and and having it slower than the Hopper. I was reading in the forum that the 4k Joey might be even faster than the Joey 2. Does anyone have an experience with the 4K vs. the 2? Anything else I should be considering?

Thanks

 

[Hall]

Get a 4K Joey, if you can. You do NOT need a 4K TV to get one either.

 

[nsafreak]

Keep in mind that currently the 4K Joey does not support the Netflix application if that has any bearing on your decision. The Joey 2.0s are pretty fast units as is and they do support the app.

 

[DCUNY]

Keep in mind that currently the 4K Joey does not support the Netflix application if that has any bearing on your decision. The Joey 2.0s are pretty fast units as is and they do support the app.

Thank you for this info! Netflix is very important to my wife - she has it on the Hopper. It would not be good if that capability was unavailable.

 

[Hall]

Based on the software version of the Joeys, you have Joey v1 models. They are absolute dogs when running the new interface. Dish won't replace them with v2 units though. Well, they will if you upgrade to the Hopper 3. You'll keep Netflix this way too.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

[DCUNY]

I appreciate everyone's help so far, and I have an update on my situation. The tech was here yesterday for about 2 hours. He looked at everything and said the dish and associated hardware concerned him. He ended up replacing a "dot 4" dish with "dot 2 hybrid" and associated hardware in the basement. He also replaced some connectors in the wall plates and on the cables themselves.

After everything was back together and he left, we did some tests on the Joey's again. The two Joey's that were slowest are still VERY slow. They might be slightly faster, but hardly noticeable. Our third Joey is for some reason orders of magnitude faster than the two other Joey's. This Joey was also faster before the dish swap, but it appears even faster now.

The faster third Joey makes me curious, so I looked more closely at it. The faster Joey has software U269, whereas the slower two Joeys have SW U165.
Looking at the back labels on the Joey's themselves, all of the units are remanufactured. The slower Joey's say REG ID 051 in the upper right corner of the white label. The faster one says REG ID 071. That is the only difference I can see.

I asked the tech what the next steps would be if the dish update didn't fix the slowness. He said next step is to swap both Hoppers with Sling and all of the Joey's at the same time. I'm not sure what that would accomplish, but that's what he said.
I asked about the Joey 2 and he said you can only get those with the Hopper 3. He said the H3 is a much faster system. He also said that we now have the correct dish setup for the H3. He was unsure if I could get a free upgrade or not - said I'd have to call Dish, which I haven't done just yet. I need to assess the change in workflow and how it would affect my family's use of the Hopper 3.

Does anyone here know why one Joey would be so much faster? Clearly it is different somehow since it has different software on it.

Do you think replacing all of the Hoppers / Joeys will solve the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JSheridan]

I appreciate everyone's help so far, and I have an update on my situation. The tech was here yesterday for about 2 hours. He looked at everything and said the dish and associated hardware concerned him. He ended up replacing a "dot 4" dish with "dot 2 hybrid" and associated hardware in the basement. He also replaced some connectors in the wall plates and on the cables themselves.

After everything was back together and he left, we did some tests on the Joey's again. The two Joey's that were slowest are still VERY slow. They might be slightly faster, but hardly noticeable. Our third Joey is for some reason orders of magnitude faster than the two other Joey's. This Joey was also faster before the dish swap, but it appears even faster now.

The faster third Joey makes me curious, so I looked more closely at it. The faster Joey has software U269, whereas the slower two Joeys have SW U165.
Looking at the back labels on the Joey's themselves, all of the units are remanufactured. The slower Joey's say REG ID 051 in the upper right corner of the white label. The faster one says REG ID 071. That is the only difference I can see.

I asked the tech what the next steps would be if the dish update didn't fix the slowness. He said next step is to swap both Hoppers with Sling and all of the Joey's at the same time. I'm not sure what that would accomplish, but that's what he said.
I asked about the Joey 2 and he said you can only get those with the Hopper 3. He said the H3 is a much faster system. He also said that we now have the correct dish setup for the H3. He was unsure if I could get a free upgrade or not - said I'd have to call Dish, which I haven't done just yet. I need to assess the change in workflow and how it would affect my family's use of the Hopper 3.

Does anyone here know why one Joey would be so much faster? Clearly it is different somehow since it has different software on it.

Do you think replacing all of the Hoppers / Joeys will solve the problem?

Thanks in advance.

The fast one is really a Joey 2. There are many, many Joey 2's out there on systems like your's that aren't officially designated Joey 2's because they were packaged with 40.0 remotes and installed with H1 and H2 systems. If you have the new UI you can tell by going to the Whole Home screen where it will say 'Joey 2'.

 

[Hall]

I asked about the Joey 2 and he said you can only get those with the Hopper 3

There that is again being stated by different Dish people. It's incorrect. The problem is, Dish doesn't, or didn't used to, differentiate them. In fact, they claimed there was no such thing as a v1, v2, and so on. With the introduction of the Hopper 3, they do distinguish them but as a customer without a Hopper 3, they consider them equal. You can try and get them replaced but you can just as well end up with another Joey v1. If you buy a new Joey, your odds are better of getting a Joey v2 though as the presumption is retailers have gotten rid of all of the older versions. They're no longer produced, so that helps there.

I've been criticizing the performance of the Joey v1 units with the new interface for almost a year....

Do you think replacing all of the Hoppers / Joeys will solve the problem?

No, replace the (2) Joey v1 models with v2 models. As JSheridan points out, you've got two different hardware versions of the Joey. Currently, the only way to tell (with the original s/w) is to look at the s/w version that each is using.

 

[Hall]

I see one Dish retailer that specifically lists the Joeys they have as version 2 models.

 

[DCUNY]

The fast one is really a Joey 2. There are many, many Joey 2's out there on systems like your's that aren't officially designated Joey 2's because they were packaged with 40.0 remotes and installed with H1 and H2 systems. If you have the new UI you can tell by going to the Whole Home screen where it will say 'Joey 2'.

Yes! We do have the new UI and I do see that Joey says it's a Joey2. I didn't know to look there for that info. Clearly that version would be a major improvement.
Do you how much faster the Joey 2 would be if we get the Hopper 3?

No, replace the (2) Joey v1 models with v2 models. As JSheridan points out, you've got two different hardware versions of the Joey. Currently, the only way to tell (with the original s/w) is to look at the s/w version that each is using.

I think we are leasing the existing equipment, and there might have been a time commitment on the service when we got the existing hardware. I'm not sure how that would be handled if I buy a piece of equipment myself.

Thanks again for the help

 

[JSheridan]

Yes! We do have the new UI and I do see that Joey says it's a Joey2. I didn't know to look there for that info. Clearly that version would be a major improvement.
Do you how much faster the Joey 2 would be if we get the Hopper 3? ....

Thanks again for the help

The whole Hopper 3 system is much faster that the HWS. The Joey 2's are pretty fast but the 4K Joey's are IMHO the fastest.