Not happy with the Dish Hopper DVR

[GaryPen]

No, without OTA. Take your antenna, plug into the TV, and voila, you have OTA and "another tuner" Watch live while the other tuners are doing their thing.....

On problem with that; no guide info.

I didn't realize the tuner in my tv was a feature of the hopper. Maybe us plays blu-rays and Xbox games too! Not to mention I can't record from my tv's tuner.

Let's not forget the added complexity of having to switch inputs on the TV. A slight PITA for the tech-savvy, but a possible deal-breaker for WAF.

Also, an add'l PITA if one wants OTA audio from their AVR. (except in cases of ARC-compatiple TV's and AVR's)

 

[osu1991]

I use my Pal dvr and my Sony HD ota dvr weekly. I let them fill up with a few weeks of episodes of a couple of shows and then watch them 3 or 4 in row.

Having these two dvrs is one reason I have contemplated scaling back my subscription services.

 

[R0ss]

Just like every "new" receiver that Dish has introduced, the Hopper/Joey is not for everyone. This forum has been ruminating about the lack of a whole home DVR solution every since I joined, or it least since the competition introduced their own. As far as I can tell the Hopper/Joey is going to bring that. Quote from The Hopper 2000 /Joey 1.0 spec sheet: " The Hopper from Dish...share recordings between any HD TV in your home. Hopper is a HD DVR with three satellite tuners...full DVR functionality to every TV..." Quote from the Hopper Product sheet: "Experience next generation home entertainment...enabled for Whole-Home DVR services."
So the primary marketing of this unit is as a Whole-Home DVR solution, of course you can use it to watch "live TV" and as you read the the various spec and product sheets Dish does make that clear. So for all those folks that have been wanting a whole home DVR solution this is it, or so it seems. I know we all want to have our cake and eat it too, me included, but life doesn't work that way. Growing up all I had to watch was PBS, ABC, CBS and NBC, our TV did not have a UHF tuner so even though there were 2 UHF channels in the Boston Market we couldn't get them. My Dad finally bought a color TV when I was in High School ('69 or '70) and at that point we had a whopping 6 channels to watch. Personally I didn't experience cable TV until the mid '80s...
So if three sat tuners are not enough for your household then there are some choices: 1. Add a second Hopper; 2. run OTA to every TV in the house (if the Hopper ships without a OTA solution who knows how long it will Take to to have one); 3. Switch to one of the other providers that has a Whole Home solution and more tuners.

Frankly it really boils down to the needs of your household, how many TV's you have and what your viewing habits are. I think the concept is really cool, do I need a Hopper/Joey no absolutely not. Do I want one yes I do, but we are looking at saving roughly $600 net a year in TV costs by just using the ROKU, OTA and, internet for our TV watching. Right now it is an economic thing as well as taking a hard look at our viewing habits.
I really can't wait until it is released as I know there will be several folks on this forum who will get one as soon as they can. Then it will be interesting to read the commentary after the unit is put through its paces for a while!

Ross

 

[empiretc]

No, without OTA. Take your antenna, plug into the TV, and voila, you have OTA and "another tuner" Watch live while the other tuners are doing their thing.....

Blasphemy---> like to see you explain that one to the wife and kids, lol..........

 

[dwarren2]

No, without OTA. Take your antenna, plug into the TV, and voila, you have OTA and "another tuner" Watch live while the other tuners are doing their thing.....

Fine for watching live TV. But I dvr most of the ota that we watch so we can time shift. There are a number of PBS show that are on after the wife goes to sleep that she wants to watch. Some of them are on a PBS channel that Dish doesn't carry or are on the sub channels of the local PBS station.

 

[drwatson618]

Fine for watching live TV. But I dvr most of the ota that we watch so we can time shift. There are a number of PBS show that are on after the wife goes to sleep that she wants to watch. Some of them are on a PBS channel that Dish doesn't carry or are on the sub channels of the local PBS station.

This ^

 

[chicagonettech]

On problem with that; no guide info.

TV Guide - it comes in the mail every week.

 

[3HaloODST]

TV Guide - it comes in the mail every week.

Not if you don't subscribe to it...

 

[sethwell]

Not if you don't subscribe to it...

www.tvguide.com

 

[chicagonettech]

www.tvguide.com

Always free, all the time!

You can even personalize it down to your ZIP CODE, PROVIDER, and the PREMIUM CHANNELS you subscribe to.

Same thing as Dish's on-screen guide, but much easier to use.

Don't care about the timers. I can set those manually.

You can also create "Watch lists". I can send them to my phone and set a timer to be notified of an event so I do not miss it.

And, most importantly, the online version of TV guide is not only ACCURATE, is also shows ALL of the SUB-CHANNELS.

Apps for SmartPhones, too

 

[NotMe546]

To say something negative about Directv, the only thing I don't like about their whole home solution is that you can't pause on the HD receivers in the other rooms when watching a live program.

Directv needs to put out a software update to allow a simple USB flash drive to be used to give the receiver the ability to pause. Take a 15 Gig flashdrive, and that will give you an hour of pause time for any program

Wtf that's typical half-a** D-TV.

 

[dwarren2]

TV Guide - it comes in the mail every week.

When was the last time you looked at TV Guide? They dropped channel listings years ago. Your local fish wrapper might carry listings. Here, the paper charges $.25 per week for a weekly tv listings. But the bigger problem if there is no local epg is trying to program the recorder. With the epg, as long as Tribune Media is accurate(LOL), you can record only new, all, etc of a show.

 

[dare2be]

Always free, all the time!

You can even personalize it down to your ZIP CODE, PROVIDER, and the PREMIUM CHANNELS you subscribe to.

Same thing as Dish's on-screen guide, but much easier to use.

Don't care about the timers. I can set those manually.

You can also create "Watch lists". I can send them to my phone and set a timer to be notified of an event so I do not miss it.

And, most importantly, the online version of TV guide is not only ACCURATE, is also shows ALL of the SUB-CHANNELS.

Apps for SmartPhones, too

Welcome to the 90s

Also, when you get your reminder to your phone, and you're stuck in the airport or traveling somewhere, and can't make it back in time to set your manual timer, then what?

 

[nelson61]

I think Claude has it right concerning dish and directv and the number of tuners.

Dish did their studies (as explained by the lady at CES) and says that the data shows that 3 tuners is more than enough.
But, the conclusion in their study should be compared to smart phone converts.

Until you have a new tech toy, you don't fully understand how it can be used. When someone gets a smart phone, they suddenly increase usage in ways they never dreamed possible.
I suspect that a study of the 5 tuner Directv box would show that the customer takes advantage of the extra tuners thru inceased recording or whatever and generally "more is better".

 

[lparsons21]

I suspect that some that buy one Hopper will find it lacking after awhile. But according to my local installers, since the most often installed is only one or two receivers/dvrs, lots will find it to be just enough, especially with PrimeTime.

For those that need more, they can add an additional Hopper and unlike other solutions, have all of the lists unified, including the todo list. That is a big plus.

 

[Tampa8]

I suspect that some that buy one Hopper will find it lacking after awhile. But according to my local installers, since the most often installed is only one or two receivers/dvrs, lots will find it to be just enough, especially with PrimeTime.

For those that need more, they can add an additional Hopper and unlike other solutions, have all of the lists unified, including the todo list. That is a big plus.

That has been discussed and is skewed. Take away at least some of the fee cost when you add receivers and lets see how many become average. I happen to agree three tuners will suffice for many/most customers. Would they be happy with more if the cost were not so high? Very possibly.

 

[lparsons21]

While I can't speak for others, for me 2 hoppers would be enough. It would be the exact same amount of actual tuners that I have now, and effectively offer 2 more during prime time. Couple that with everywhere appearing the same and offering all the same functionality and it is a winner, imo.

 

[thedamaja]

#3 The thing where you can "Hop On" an existing TV program in another room is going to piss alot of people off. If im in my bedroom at 1AM watching Bikini Girls gone wild on Cinemax, I do not want anyone else in my house knowing what im watching on TV, or hopping on my program and watching it with me.

Granted this works great for parents seeing what their kids are watching, but this is going to ruin the privacy for alot of customers. If a huspand who has a wife thats offended by that kind of stuff, the second the wife gives her huspand crap over it, is when the huspand cancels DISH Network and switches to Directv.

I don't think this will cause many people to switch as its already possible to see what's playing on my other D* recievers.

All you need is the iPad app and it will show you all of them.

 

[Whiteyguy]

rofl if claude is doing this then he shouldnt be married

 

[3HaloODST]

I hope the Hopper does have some sort of privacy functions. I personally prefer that everyone in the house doesn't know what I'm watching and/or recording all the time. No, I'm not always watching/recording porn, hell I've even got it all locked out, I mean, haven't you heard? The Internet is for porn!

Anyway... Point is, the hopper needs some privacy settings, or if it doesn't, I will be sticking with ViP receivers.

I also don't want conflicts with the small amount of tuners. For example, say I have 3 HDTVs, 1 Hopper, 2 Joeys. Well say someone with the Joey wants to record 3 things at once. Well then that leaves the other 2 TVs SOL. I moved away from U-verse for this reason (among many others.) Depending on fees, I might prefer 1 722K and 2 612s over the Hopper/Joey. Then you get 6 tuners, and no conflicts.

I don't want to have to explain to everyone, "Now you can only record 1 thing at a time and you can't watch Live TV while recording that way other TVs can be watched." I hated that with U-verse, hope that's not the case with Hopper/Joey.

Hopper, for me, and I think other tech-savvy people with lots of TVs and viewers, will be a tough sell if the fees are outrageous.