Just going to update... I saw this thread about self install which attracted me to this site so I figured I'd just chime in on this thread instead of making a new one...
Anyway, for anyone that reads or is told by Dish "you can't install a hopper yourself", that is completely false. It IS that easy, especially if you are upgrading from a fairly new Dish DVR like the VIP722K. My dish was fairly new (3 years) with the 4 ports, and my cable that is running from the dish to my VIP722K is RG6 (not sure if it was swept to 3GHz, but it works). My 722 was using a cable off of port 1 on the dish. I connected that to port 1 on the solo node. I unscrewed 2 screws and pulled out the LNB's and attached a 2nd cable that runs to port 2 on the solo node. The cable running into the house connects to the Host port on the solo node. Connect the RG6 cable from the Host port on the Solo node to the Hopper w/ Sling, fire it up, and wait for it to do the setup. The hardware part took me less than 20 minutes (roof on single story house). The Hopper w/ Sling update/setup takes longer of course but whole thing was around 1 hour.
Joey is coming this afternoon and I anticipate that being ever bit as simple.
YMMV. I was fortunate that all of the equipment was functioning properly. If the solo node, for example, had been defective I would have had no way of knowing that and probably would have called in a tech. Anyways, thanks for the help on here!!!
Final note: I contacted Dish through their online chat and was quoted along the lines of $450 for a hopper and two Joeys. So I began traveling down the road of buying my own equipment and ended up with Hopper w/ Sling and a Joey for about $200 plus about $15 for a solo node. Had I known about contacting a DIRT member on here, then I would have known I had the option of upgrading to Hopper w/ Sling and a Joey for $100 and two year commitment, which would have included free installation. Had I known that, then that would have been the route I'd have taken...
Keep in mind that Dish has since made the Hopper installs faster and a bit less exacting from what it was on launch. Further, not everyone is as smart as you, and those people begin with the attitude that installing Hoppers is just like installing past systems. Further, one should have knowledge (and I'm sure you do, but not a lot of other people) of what to do should the Hopper install not go as planned or hangs, etc., and Dish does publish such checklists, but many DYI folks don't do the research. So, for the majority, a Hopper install can be a long and frustrating experience and they feel so emotionally upset that they either don't want the system or no longer want Dish. So, to prevent such ill-will, Dish prefers that CSR's etc. just say that "you can't do a Hopper install. Please let us do it." While a smart individual who does some research can DYI a Hopper with Joeys install, they are NOT the majority of the population. The refrain from Dish that one should not DYI a Hopper install, I believe, has prevented more problems than if Dish just let everyone consider the DYI (as Dish used to the 1990's) option. Remember it costs Dish to provide the professional installation, and the reason Dish spends a huge boatload of money that it otherwise could save is because there would be far too many people who would not install it correctly and blame it on Dish being a terrible service, and Dish would LOSE customers rather than having modest gains and keeping existing customers happy. Dish employees are merely doing as they are told because it is easier than taking 10 minutes of back and forth for someone to finally comprehend that they would prefer Dish to go ahead and install for them, after all.
