Obviously, there are a lot of these so-called "bugs." Is the Hopper.Joey really worth it? Thinking of switching from D* to save some money and get latest equipment, but is it really worth the aggravation with such buggy hardware?[/QUOTE
I switched from D* after nine years and outside of being unable to get my local MLB games for the first month (was a local issue) and a couple of nights where PTAT didn't work, I have been happy. They resolved my issues so I am satisfied. The picture is almost a good as Directs and I am saving about 600 the first year without losing any programing. With that said, if you are not in your local RSN area and sports are important to you, Direct is a hands down leader and you would probably prefer their service but if your like me and in your teams area our sports its of no importance, then I would strongly recommend Dish. Their new Hopper is a nice box. We have one Hopper and one Joey for our two TV household. I like the small Joey for the bedroom and since the HDD is in the Hopper the joey makes no noise. In our house a good percentage of our viewing is on prime time networks so this works very well for us. Love the speed of the box compared to what I had with Direct and the ability to save programs to an EHD and have the ability to transfer them to a new box should the need arise. The interface took a little getting use to but now that I've been using it for a few weeks now I am totally use to it and have no problem with it. There are plus and minus with both system and for me it came dow to cost. I have no regrets.