Looking into the Hopper after losing Distant Networks

[david_jr]

Think we may be waiting til summer, we have two dishes on the roof (one I believe was pretty much for the distant networks) and are having a new roof put on this summer...so thinking we should wait and tie it all together and have the one dish removed the same time the roof is done AND do the hoppers. I'm leaning towards two hoppers, more for the reason of if one fails we have the other, have had the 722k's fail a few times since we've had them. And because I'm just not adept enough to do all the other mirroring would probably have to get 2 joey's as much as I don't want to. Are the super joey's going to be totally wireless? I sooooo detest the though of all those stinking wires. it's so nice now with the 722k's - just one cable each up from the basement and of course the connection to the tv. I hate wires. Hate them.

If you do go with a 2H/ 2J scenario you can always figure out a way to do the mirroring later as you become more comfortable with the system. Then when you do you can just send a Joey back to Dish and save $7 a month, or if you can send the 2nd Joey back too you're up to $14 month savings.

 

[TechWriter]

I'm leaning towards two hoppers, more for the reason of if one fails we have the other . . .

You bet. I had a single Hopper and 2 Joeys, then upgraded one of my Joeys to a Hopper for $5 more per month.

One Hopper = 3 tuners (or just 2 with PTAT on).
Two Hoppers = 6 tuners (or 5 with PTAT on). You want these extra tuners, especially if you're using PTAT.

 

[andreah1]

Def. going with the 2 hopper set up and will have to start out with 2 joeys until I can find someone to help me mirror at least one then go from there. Now is it ok to say you don't need the whole set up (2 joeys) after you've already got them? Isn't there a contract to deal with? We're out of contract right now. Husband says we def. may as well wait til we do the roof so we can have the installer take off the dish that we most likely don't need anymore (used for distant networks).

 

[sparc]

Def. going with the 2 hopper set up and will have to start out with 2 joeys until I can find someone to help me mirror at least one then go from there. Now is it ok to say you don't need the whole set up (2 joeys) after you've already got them? Isn't there a contract to deal with? We're out of contract right now. Husband says we def. may as well wait til we do the roof so we can have the installer take off the dish that we most likely don't need anymore (used for distant networks).

you can always cancel the joeys later on at any time. Dish will usually send a box to mail them back in. The bare minimum you need to keep is just one hopper.

On leased equipment, expect a 24 month contract for the upgrade.

 

[andreah1]

Here's another question I came up with today....say I went with the two hopper option and mirrored the other tv's. I understand you can only use them to watch whatever is on the hopper it is connected to, BUT, is there a possibility of getting a uhf remote that would change the channels on the hopper from the room the tv is mirrored in?

 

[charlesrshell]

Here's another question I came up with today....say I went with the two hopper option and mirrored the other tv's. I understand you can only use them to watch whatever is on the hopper it is connected to, BUT, is there a possibility of getting a uhf remote that would change the channels on the hopper from the room the tv is mirrored in?

The Hopper remote will work from the room the TV is mirrored in if it is paired to the Hopper.

 

[andreah1]

But could I get another remote (ebay, etc) and program it to that particular hopper as well so there is a remote in each room that would both work on that hopper? If so, mirroring will work for me....I don't mind having to see whatever is on that particular hopper as long as I can use a remote in that room to change the channel, etc...

 

[sparc]

But could I get another remote (ebay, etc) and program it to that particular hopper as well so there is a remote in each room that would both work on that hopper? If so, mirroring will work for me....I don't mind having to see whatever is on that particular hopper as long as I can use a remote in that room to change the channel, etc...

yes, get one for each TV you're mirroring and program it specifically for the TV in that room. There's a limit of something like 8 remotes.

 

[andreah1]

Awesome, then I think it will work when we're ready. Now just have to figure out how to do it. I'll do a search for mirroring. If anyone is feeling inclined I would really appreciate a pm (or a link) as to exactly what has to be done/bought, etc. THANKS!

 

[charlesrshell]

But could I get another remote (ebay, etc) and program it to that particular hopper as well so there is a remote in each room that would both work on that hopper? If so, mirroring will work for me....I don't mind having to see whatever is on that particular hopper as long as I can use a remote in that room to change the channel, etc...

Sure, you can have up to eight remote controls paired to a Hopper. I have three Hoppers that have RF modulators attached to them. In the garage I have a Joey plus sometimes I might want to view the other three Hoppers that are mirrored. So I have four remote controls in my garage. One to control the Joey, and the other three to control the three mirrored Hoppers. When I had VIP 722k DVRs I got by with one remote control in the garage. I would just change the UHF code for whatever 722 I wanted to view. But can't do that for the Hopper system. Lotsa fun, can get confusing, but I have all my remote controls labeled.

 

[sparc]

Awesome, then I think it will work when we're ready. Now just have to figure out how to do it. I'll do a search for mirroring. If anyone is feeling inclined I would really appreciate a pm (or a link) as to exactly what has to be done/bought, etc. THANKS!

First thing to do is get a sense of the existing wiring in your house as that could create a lot of limitations in what you can do.


Does the wiring from the Dish go to a central wiring area in the house?
Do all the current rooms have wall outlets with coax going back to a central area in the house?
How easy is it to run extra wiring from your primary TVs back to either the central area or any of these other mirrored TVs?

 

[andreah1]

What we have now is pretty primitive. It all comes in from the dish into the basement and have a cable going to each 722k, I'm not looking right now but then the other two tv's have a cable that goes down into the basement and back up to the 722k they are hooked to. All is thru small holes in the floor, no outlets, etc. So, it's easy to run wiring. We haven't finished the basement (a dream that we can't do right now) so it's easy to run cable.

 

[sparc]

What we have now is pretty primitive. It all comes in from the dish into the basement and have a cable going to each 722k, I'm not looking right now but then the other two tv's have a cable that goes down into the basement and back up to the 722k they are hooked to. All is thru small holes in the floor, no outlets, etc. So, it's easy to run wiring. We haven't finished the basement (a dream that we can't do right now) so it's easy to run cable.

The ability to run wiring is a very good thing. That makes it a lot easier.

An RF modulator would convert yellow/white/red RCA outputs on a Hopper/Joey back into coax that could distribute SD to those other mirrored TVs.

Let's say you get your two hoppers setup at their primary TVs. Then place an RF modulator at one of those hoppers that you want to mirror and connect it via RCA cables. The essential part now is that you would need to run a second coax line back out from that RF modulator that connects to the coax lines for those mirrored TVs.

 

[andreah1]

Ok, sounds "fairly easy", once we're ready we'll give it a try. Hoping to use the DIRT team to avoid having to get joey's but will worry about it when the time comes. Thanks!

 

[sparc]

Ok, sounds "fairly easy", once we're ready we'll give it a try. Hoping to use the DIRT team to avoid having to get joey's but will worry about it when the time comes. Thanks!

What you could do is try seeing if a local installer will do the Dish upgrade to the Hopper and then see if you can pay them a little extra to run that extra bit of coax. A local installer would be more flexible with custom work and the ability to get 2 Hoppers and zero joeys. You can buy the RF modulator from Walmart or some place similar and have that ready for install.

The only issue might be that local installers seem to prefer new installs over upgrade work since it pays more. Thats at least the impression I got on this forum.

 

[andreah1]

I had thought about going local but the guy that put in my system was local and he said he wouldn't come that far again...unfortunately there aren't many locals around here that do installing. All I can hope for is to get a really nice installer and explain my situation? Or should I keep quiet and just fix it the way I want when he's gone? Theoretically, would there need to be any extra coax? There's already a line from the lesser used tv's to the 722k they are hooked to, would that line just go to a modulator now? Oh wait, I see, then I would need another line going from the modulator to the corresponding hopper? Or am I getting very confused here.

 

[david_jr]

Yes you would use the coax that NOW goes from the 722 to the lesser used TV's. Don't even disconnect from the lesser used TVs. Place Hoppers at 722 locations. From the hopper you connect a regular RCA video cable that has red, white and yellow connectors on it (very common and cheap, may even come in the box with the hopper) to the modulator. Red and white are for audio and yellow is for video. Then connect the coax cable that is connected to your lesser TV to the modulator. Make sure the lesser TV is tuned to the channel that the modulator is set to output on. It really is that simple. Do the same at the other Hopper location.

 

[andreah1]

Sounds like something I can follow, hopefully. And I have LOADS of those white/yellow/red cables laying around. My biggest worry now is being able to get the two hoppers without getting joey's. Maybe instead of waiting to get the dish off the roof I'll just do the order shortly. We'll see what the hubs says. I've heard there are a lot of software problems right now, should I wait a month or two? And speaking of the unneeded dish on the roof, is that something we can do or better to ask the installer to do it?

 

[Tampa8]

I didn't see this asked. When you say a day or two of too many shows, I am wondering this. You have four tuners now, there are four major networks. Lets say you want all four networks, then you are covered. (unless you want five at one time like PBS or CW added) Now lets say you want programming from most any other cable network, those can be recorded at a later time. It would seem you might be able to manage the recordings to get them all with the four tuners you now have for those one or two days.

 

[andreah1]

Yes, we can fiddle around and get everything taped that we want but it also means we can't view anything during taping, my husband and I have different tastes and the nights I'm trying to tape all the things I want, he wants to watch something else and can't. Just not working.