In answer to Mike1096 and navychop -- I tried Layer 3.
Last August I took advantage of Layer 3's 30 day free trial. During that time I was able to compare Layer 3 performance with Dish Hopper 3 in side-by-side testing. After two weeks using the Layer 3 DVR, both my wife and I agree that although picture quality was not an issue, the Layer 3 software was too feature poor and buggy to be acceptable. I returned the Layer 3 DVR and continued with Dish. If you want to see my full report, search with key words Layer 3 and jackdemcak.
Every few months or so I visit the Layer 3 web site and chat with a one of their tech support people. So far, they have not fixed the 5 deal breaking issues I reported to them. These are:
Provide 30 second forward and 10 seconds back jumps just like the Hopper 3.
Allow at least 4 favorite channel displays like the Hopper 3.
Automatically select 4K format for recording if any channel provides it.
Add BEIN to their list of supported channels.
Display a "recording in progress" indicator on their DVR.
If Layer 3 fixed these problems and cleaned up some performance bugs I found, I would drop Dish and save about $40/month.