SatelliteGuys FIRST LOOK - DISH's Hopper and Joey

[rklein]

Whenever I have had service work done in the past, DISH has always setup the appt. through a company called Miller who I am guessing represent them thoughout the state of Ohio. Wouldn't they be able to take care of this transition to the Hoppers/Joey?

Thanks

Randy

 

[Bobby]

Only if you work directly with Miller. As Scott said, Dish's computers will not allow their CSRs to order up 2 Hoppers and 1 Joey. Now, if you're even close to that basement setup, you could order up 2 Hoppers and 2 Joeys directly with Dish. It's $7 a month for the extra Joey.

 

[rklein]

Thanks so much for all of your replies. I ended up just getting a 622K solo DVR for the new TV in the bedroom. It will cost me $10/month. However, because my wife recently(unknown to me) bundled our dish with our DSL
(Frontier) I was able to sign up for free HiDef package on mydish.com which saved $10 making it a wash pricewise

My HT room is still 3-4 months away from being functional and that will give me plenty of time to properly learn about the Hopper/Joey system. In addition, maybe DISH will have OTA available with the hopper by then. I am not sure of the views over here, but I feel my OTA gives me a bit better picture than the satellite does in regards to my local channels.

The CSR did make one statement that kind of threw me...she said that if whichever unit was recording that it would make that TV non-functional for viewing. Is this a true statement?

Regards,

Randy

 

[Bobby]

No, that is not true. If you are recording on one tuner, you will be able to watch another channel off of the second tuner. If you are recording off of both tuners, you are able to watch a previously recorded program or one of the programs that you are presently recording.

 

[Lt Disher]

No, that is not true. If you are recording on one tuner, you will be able to watch another channel off of the second tuner. If you are recording off of both tuners, you are able to watch a previously recorded program or one of the programs that you are presently recording.

You are correct, Bobby. I love DISH but it just amazes me that they can't get their CSRs trained so they don't give out such ridiculous information.

 

[Hall]

One thing I noticed on the Hopper (probably on Joey as well) was that the horizontal bar 1/3 of the way down has a shadow that bleeds into the times, i.e. 2:00 PM, 2:30 PM, and so on. I see from the screenshot from Scott's OP here

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=75103&d=1331748997

that it's not something unique on my TV. Does everyone have that ?

Also just noticed, and I tried to adjust it but couldn't find the option, that that guide only displays (6) channels (like older receivers and their default setup). On my Hopper and Joey, it's showing maybe 2x that number of channels and subsequently, the text is smaller. No one (wife or kids) have mentioned it, i.e. complained, so even if it can be changed, we'll try it for a while. I also wondered if that contributes to the "sliding" effect I notice when paging up/down through the guide.

 

[Lt Disher]

The shadow bleeds into the times on both of my TV's also. It appears that this is the design of the guide.
My guide only has 7 channels per page. You can turn the last row banner on which then only shows 6 channels of information. I would like to know how to get more channels like you have, just to try it.

 

[Hall]

I turned off the EPG banner right away. As for the more-than-6 rows, I did nothing - that was out-of-the-box setting. I actually looked how to change it and the guide format options are fairly limited, as far as I can tell. In the past, and I believe Dish was working on changing this, you could show ~6 rows with the video preview window, ~10 rows without the video, etc, etc. Lots of options...

 

[oryan_dunn]

How do you disable the EPG banner?

 

[n0qcu]

yellow, 2, 2

 

[Hall]

My guide only has 7 channels per page. You can turn the last row banner on which then only shows 6 channels of information. I would like to know how to get more channels like you have, just to try it.

I must not count very well ! It is only (7) after all. It must be, I think, the additional time slots it shows in the grid that tricked me.

 

[broeddog]

I am adding a Joey to a two Hopper system and I was told by the CSR this would only work on a Samsung TV. The CSR told me that I would only have limited use on the Joey if it was hooked up to any other brand of high definition TV. I told her I thought she was incorrect but she insisted she was right and that I would only have limited access on my Vizio TV. I was wondering if anybody could confirm the CSR comment or will I have full functionality on my Vizio TV.

 

[sethwell]

I am adding a Joey to a two Hopper system and I was told by the CSR this would only work on a Samsung TV. The CSR told me that I would only have limited use on the Joey if it was hooked up to any other brand of high definition TV. I told her I thought she was incorrect but she insisted she was right and that I would only have limited access on my Vizio TV. I was wondering if anybody could confirm the CSR comment or will I have full functionality on my Vizio TV.

The CSR is wrong. It will work fine on any tv.

 

[broeddog]

Thanks for your quick response sethwell.

 

[sca]

I am adding a Joey to a two Hopper system and I was told by the CSR this would only work on a Samsung TV. The CSR told me that I would only have limited use on the Joey if it was hooked up to any other brand of high definition TV. I told her I thought she was incorrect but she insisted she was right and that I would only have limited access on my Vizio TV. I was wondering if anybody could confirm the CSR comment or will I have full functionality on my Vizio TV.

yes, i have no idea why the csr would have told you that. the only tv's that have an issue are very old non-hd tvs with no video input.

 

[Scherrman]

I'm getting to the point where I think Dish should fire every CSR they have and start over. It has to be over 70% of them being worthless. I shouldn't be so hard on them I guess since it's Dish's job to hire and train them.

 

[Cheapshot]

Hello,
I am new to the forums, and am a current Dish subscriber. My wife and I have been rolling the idea of exchanging our 722k DVR and vip222 dual tuning receivers (4 rooms, 4 tv's) for the hopper/joey setup. After reading this thread, i have some serious reservations about switching now and would like to ask a question or two, and I would like to describe a scenario that SME's like yourselves would be able to answer. My first question is, does each joey have it's own separate remote control? The scenario that I imagine being a problem is this: When the hopper receiver is recording for TV #1 (living room), and joey #1 (master bedroom) is recording a show, and joey #2 and joey #3 (children's rooms) are watching cartoons, then the hopper receiver and joey #1 are restricted to watching what is currently being recorded or a previously recorded dvr may be viewed, correct? What happens when the hopper and all three joeys are recording programs at the same time? Then I assume that the only thing that can be viewed is what is being recorded on all units at that time, correct? Also I am still unclear as to how the PTAT works. I read in this thread that you can turn that option off but how does that affect recording and viewing programming. What time does PTAT start and end, and is the hopper and its joeys dedicated to recording programs during PTAT? To me this seems like a lot of hassle to achieve what my Wife and I were hoping for. We both imagined multiple programs recording at the same time on the main unit (hopper) itself. thus allowing other programs to be watched in other rooms.

 

[Smwoodward]

Hello,
I am new to the forums, and am a current Dish subscriber. My wife and I have been rolling the idea of exchanging our 722k DVR and vip222 dual tuning receivers (4 rooms, 4 tv's) for the hopper/joey setup. After reading this thread, i have some serious reservations about switching now and would like to ask a question or two, and I would like to describe a scenario that SME's like yourselves would be able to answer. My first question is, does each joey have it's own separate remote control? The scenario that I imagine being a problem is this: When the hopper receiver is recording for TV #1 (living room), and joey #1 (master bedroom) is recording a show, and joey #2 and joey #3 (children's rooms) are watching cartoons, then the hopper receiver and joey #1 are restricted to watching what is currently being recorded or a previously recorded dvr may be viewed, correct? What happens when the hopper and all three joeys are recording programs at the same time? Then I assume that the only thing that can be viewed is what is being recorded on all units at that time, correct? Also I am still unclear as to how the PTAT works. I read in this thread that you can turn that option off but how does that affect recording and viewing programming. What time does PTAT start and end, and is the hopper and its joeys dedicated to recording programs during PTAT? To me this seems like a lot of hassle to achieve what my Wife and I were hoping for. We both imagined multiple programs recording at the same time on the main unit (hopper) itself. thus allowing other programs to be watched in other rooms.

I'll try and answer this the best I can.

Yes, each Joey has their own remote.

The hopper has three tuners in it. So, that means it can only do three items off the satellite at anyone time. The joeys are only viewers and do not record the shows, they get recorded on the hopper. If you are recording 1 show, then you can watch 2 different shows on 2 of the other joeys. The 3rd Joey can watch a recorded show. If you are recording 3 shows then you can only watch something that is recorded on the other tv's. no matter if you are watching a live stream on a channel or if you are recording it, that ties up a tuner. Watching a show that has already recorded does not use a tuner.

PTAT takes one of the tuners, and instead of recording only 1 show on the third tuner, it will record 4 shows on the one tuner, but it will only record the 4 shows during prime time and only on CBS, fox, abc and NBC. Prime time for me, in the central time zone is from 7pm to 10pm.

 

[gdarwin]

Each Joey has its own remote. You should do what we do.... I have a Hopper and my wife has one. That way we never have conflicts on what we are recording.

 

[sca]

if you really expect to be using 4 tvs at the same time frequently, then you will want 2 hoppers. in my home 1 hopper 3 joeys works just fine with 4 family members, never a conflict. i dont use ptat becuase this DID cause conflicts in my home. it takes one tuner every night, like it or not. its a great system, the top of the line, though i havent seen a dtv genie in action yet.