Need to record from one channel dropped by Dish

[KaptainRandom]

DWS44, yes, that did occur to me, a few minutes ago in fact, as a result of the information I have been getting from you folks.

Is that as simple as just unplugging and moving them, or do I have to study up or get a technician?

There is a 'hub-node' between the dish and the Hopper/joey that looks like a big 'splitter'.

You would have to access the 'hub-node' and swap the coaxs for the hopper/joey on the 'hub-node'.
The Hopper must be on a specific 'output' on the 'hub-node'.

Then the hopper at the new location (small tv) will still be on the proper output of the 'hub-node'.

 

[ethanlerma]

Adding a little to this, I also think moving the Hopper to a more optimal location for OTA locals is the easiest/cheapest way to get this done. Not to mention getting the locals in the Dish guide for a more streamlined experience. I added a few notes to the pictures attached for guidance, but in essence what you want to do is look for a Hub or Node on your property (it may or may not be near your satellite Dish), then swap the coax cables on the Host (Hopper) and Client (Joey) ports (make sure the Hopper is unplugged from the wall when you do this, it sends electrical current to the satellite dish so you want that off when handling these cables). The wrench to use on the coax connectors is 7/16 (most of the time).

If you only have one Joey, its pretty straight forward because you only have 2 cables to go through and swap. But if you have multiple wired Joeys, then you may have a splitter on the client side. If that's the case, you are going to need to unplug each coax on the client splitter until your target room loses service, then swap that cable with the one on the Host port. At that point it may be better to get a technician called out, depending on how comfortable you are with such things. Posting a picture of the Hub/Node may allow us to help as well.

If you are able to do the switch successfully, then you can buy the previously posted adapter from amazon or Dish directly here, the adapter alone seems to be out of stock but you can get the one bundled with a antenna for $48. And as also previously mentioned, since you are in a area affected by a dispute, you may be eligible to get a free antenna/adapter, but for that you would need to call/chat in and see if you are eligible.

 

[jerryez]

To clarify, the OTA adapter that connects to the Hopper is not an antenna. You must have an antenna indoor or out door connected to the OTA adapter to receive an OTA signal!

 

[NashGuy]

In case the OP isn't interested in trying to switch out cables and put up an antenna, professional antenna installation might be an option. In fact, DISH offers antenna installation service whether you're a DISH subscriber or not. According to this article from 2018, they were charging $100 at the time to install an indoor antenna or $150 to install an outdoor antenna. Those prices include the antenna. Who knows, since the OP is already a DISH customer, maybe the price is cheaper, or maybe they would throw in the Hopper OTA adapter for free. Wouldn't hurt to call and ask.

 

[mphca]

Get the ol' Betamax out of the garage .....

 

[sam_gordon]

This makes me think... can you utilize a diplexer (well, two technically) with a Hopper system?

 

[Jim5506]

This makes me think... can you utilize a diplexer (well, two technically) with a Hopper system?

IIRC, NO. I believe the communication between joeys and the H3 are on the same frequencies as OTA.

 

[sam_gordon]

IIRC, NO. I believe the communication between joeys and the H3 are on the same frequencies as OTA.

But the Hopper has the OTA module, right? So can you use a diplexer set to get the OTA antenna to the Hopper?

 

[DWS44]

But the Hopper has the OTA module, right? So can you use a diplexer set to get the OTA antenna to the Hopper?

Don't believe you can have a Diplexer anywhere in a Hopper system due to Moca interference, which was what Jim5506 was getting at.

 

[Jim5506]

The Hopper 3 OTA tuner MUST have its own dedicated coax from the antenna, no diplexers into the MOCA wiring. Diplexing was possible with the ViP receivers but not the Hopper/Joey receivers.

 

[ethanlerma]

This makes me think... can you utilize a diplexer (well, two technically) with a Hopper system?

There is a way, but a completely jerry-rigged-not-standard way to do this. Has worked for me for more then a year now, but don’t do this unless you know what you are doing (grounding the antenna for example, and able to troubleshoot if you get something wrong) or just plain nuts like me.

A little info before I explain: Dish’s implementation of MoCA is in the 675-850 MHz, satellite communication is 950-3000 MHz depending on the technology used, and UHF communications are 470-608 MHz (this range used to be higher, in the 700’s which would cause problems but a lot of that space was reallocated to 4g/5g). All three of these are on different frequencies, so running them on the same line is now possible.

You can’t use the original Dish diplexers (manufactured by Holland I believe?) since those block MoCA on the sat bypass ports, but you can use hybrid taps/hubs for diplexing purposes. Why? They allow 0-950 MHz on their client ports, and the satellite bypass ports are 0-3000. So if you connect a OTA antenna to a Solo Hub client port, this will act as a entry point for the OTA signals. Then at the Hopper location use a Tap and connect the OTA module to the client port on that. If you do not have a client port available on the Hub, you can also add another Tap to ‘inject’ the OTA channels at some point between the Hub and Hopper (but not between Hub and LNB, the hub does filtering for both MoCA and OTA on the LNB port).

Now, doing all this will work, but is brings about two problems. First, having a big-a$& antenna attached to your MoCA network means you are broadcasting MoCA signal to the neighbors, which may be a security/network performance issue (mostly the latter, I wouldn’t worry to much about someone randomly deciding to setup a MoCA sniffer or something but it’s still a possibility). Second, you are letting everything from the 0-950MHz range into the system with an antenna installed like this, which means ham radio, 4g/5g, OTA transmission, among a bunch of other unnecessary stuff that can cause interference. What you need to fix this is called a band pass filter, a device that filters some frequencies and let’s others through. Here is an example of one, and it’s the one I have installed as well VHF-UHF band-pass filter 174-216 + 470-700MHz special , it limits Ham and Pagers | eBay (I could not find one that ships from the US, but I have gotten them in the past so just use the eBay link for reference).

 

[llokey]

I have an "outdoor" antenna in my attic. The coax goes through a splitter with one output to the OTA adapter on my Hopper and the other to an AirTV in the basement. The AirTV has a hard drive connected to give me dvr functionality. I watch the AirTV using my Roku app. A lot of flexibility this way. I can record two ota stations on the Hopper and two on the AirTV. My wife never misses a show and can skip the commercials.

 

[judyintexas]

I have an "outdoor" antenna in my attic. The coax goes through a splitter with one output to the OTA adapter on my Hopper and the other to an AirTV in the basement. The AirTV has a hard drive connected to give me dvr functionality. I watch the AirTV using my Roku app. A lot of flexibility this way. I can record two ota stations on the Hopper and two on the AirTV. My wife never misses a show and can skip the commercials.

Thanks llokey. We used to have an outdoor antenna in the attic of our former house. This one has an aluminum reflector surface on the bottom side of the styrofoam layer of insulation. I think I heard that this would/might block the antenna. And we'd still have to get the antenna signal to the Hopper.

 

[judyintexas]

Adding a little to this, I also think moving the Hopper to a more optimal location for OTA locals is the easiest/cheapest way to get this done. Not to mention getting the locals in the Dish guide for a more streamlined experience. I added a few notes to the pictures attached for guidance, but in essence what you want to do is look for a Hub or Node on your property (it may or may not be near your satellite Dish), then swap the coax cables on the Host (Hopper) and Client (Joey) ports (make sure the Hopper is unplugged from the wall when you do this, it sends electrical current to the satellite dish so you want that off when handling these cables). The wrench to use on the coax connectors is 7/16 (most of the time).

If you only have one Joey, its pretty straight forward because you only have 2 cables to go through and swap. But if you have multiple wired Joeys, then you may have a splitter on the client side. If that's the case, you are going to need to unplug each coax on the client splitter until your target room loses service, then swap that cable with the one on the Host port. At that point it may be better to get a technician called out, depending on how comfortable you are with such things. Posting a picture of the Hub/Node may allow us to help as well.

If you are able to do the switch successfully, then you can buy the previously posted adapter from amazon or Dish directly here, the adapter alone seems to be out of stock but you can get the one bundled with a antenna for $48. And as also previously mentioned, since you are in a area affected by a dispute, you may be eligible to get a free antenna/adapter, but for that you would need to call/chat in and see if you are eligible.

Thanks ethanlerma. I know exactly where the splitter is in the attic. I just didn't have the informtion you have just given me. We do have 2 Joeys.

 

[ethanlerma]

Thanks ethanlerma. I know exactly where the splitter is in the attic. I just didn't have the informtion you have just given me. We do have 2 Joeys.

Ok, and these Joeys are both wired, correct? If that’s the case, you may or may not have a splitter. Regardless, what you are going to need to do is unplug one Client at a time from either the Hub/Node or splitter (you want to make sure the splitter stays on the Client side, it is not designed to let Hopper signal through), and do one at a time to make sure you don’t connect the Hopper to the other Joey room. Once you identify the correct cable, I would recommend marking it then connecting it directly to the Host port, then the cable that was taken off of the Host goes to either the client or leftover splitter port.

 

[sam_gordon]

The Hopper 3 OTA tuner MUST have its own dedicated coax from the antenna, no diplexers into the MOCA wiring. Diplexing was possible with the ViP receivers but not the Hopper/Joey receivers.

Gotcha. Another reason for me to stay away from Hopper.

 

[tallfence]

You can install the OTA adapter in the room where your Joey is and run a USB extension cable from there to the Hopper.

Someone on here suggested that years ago. I wanted to try it to see if I got better reception. My antenna cable comes into the house in the basement so I put the OTA adapter there. Then ran a 30' USB cable across the basement ceiling and up into the living room behind the Hopper. It's been working great like that for years. My reception is a little better than installing OTA adapter behind Hopper and running a coax from antenna to living room.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

 

[Bobby]

You can install the OTA adapter in the room where your Joey is and run a USB extension cable from there to the Hopper.

Someone on here suggested that years ago. I wanted to try it to see if I got better reception. My antenna cable comes into the house in the basement so I put the OTA adapter there. Then ran a 30' USB cable across the basement ceiling and up into the living room behind the Hopper. It's been working great like that for years. My reception is a little better than installing OTA adapter behind Hopper and running a coax from antenna to living room.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

If you can run a USB extension cable from the Joey location to the Hopper location you can just as easily run a coax to those same locations instead. All you are doing is extending a wire from one room to another. JudyinTexas has stated, in post one, that there is no easy or clean way to run that wire from the OTA antenna. I don't think this is remedy.

 

[judyintexas]

Ok, and these Joeys are both wired, correct? If that’s the case, you may or may not have a splitter. Regardless, what you are going to need to do is unplug one Client at a time from either the Hub/Node or splitter (you want to make sure the splitter stays on the Client side, it is not designed to let Hopper signal through), and do one at a time to make sure you don’t connect the Hopper to the other Joey room. Once you identify the correct cable, I would recommend marking it then connecting it directly to the Host port, then the cable that was taken off of the Host goes to either the client or leftover splitter port.

Yes, both of the Joeys are wired. Thank you again. I have copied your two replies and the illustrations. We will definitely document the cables as we go.

 

[Tampa8]

One of your assumptions about the Bolt is not correct. Tivo is a whole home solution. For no ongoing costs you can buy a mini tivo which is similar to how a joey works. That mini can be in any room you want as long as there is internet access. In today's world that should be no problem with several low cost devices that brings a wifi signal to any room and then can be hooked up as an ethernet.
You would put the bolt where the antenna is and the mini wherever you want.

I have had TIVO along with DISH for years now to record/watch all the OTA stations.

As others have mentioned the least expensive would be to get the DISH OTA adaptor. You could then use Dish Anywhere to watch in any room, or a Joey. Though you still need to have the Hopper with the adaptor near the antenna/cable.