OK, Hopper 3 and 4 joeys installed yesterday. WIndow was 12-5 and Tech showed up at 2. Was all done by 4:30. Then it was tweaking settings and preferences on all the TVs up until guests arrived at 5:30.... New 1000.2 dish. old massive switch in utility closet removed and replaced with much smaller ones that look like an old radio shack coax splitter size wise... Tech said it was his first Hopper 3 (guy was a Dish employee, not a third party retailer), but he was professional and knowledgeable and answered all my tough questions.... He laughed when I joked that I would fill up the 2TB drive in a month. He said I was the first to worry about running out of room (I had four external drives with loads of content I wanted to archive, so it won't be hard)
Pluses... I missed out on the first two generations of Hoppers so Sling working more reliably is a big plus (my old 722 had a sling adapter that plugged in via USB but it constantly flaked out during streaming). Better visuals of on demand titles.... Faster channel switching. RF remotes don't require line of sight with the boxes (A REAL issue for me as the old IR remotes didn't work line of sight to my equipment stack in the corner in my media room). Picture seemed a little less darker than my old 722 on my projection screen, but that might be just a function of the content I was watching. Occasional audio weirdness (Announcers during super bowl came in clear, but halftime show mics were like they were in a tunnel.... this could also be my marantz a/v receiver doing things with the signal as well, so may not be E*' doing). I like the lost remote finder... My couch likes to eat them.
Negatives... I'm really underwhelmed by the remote with the SAT/DVD/AUX buttons on the sides... When you press the side buttons indicator lights up the word through the carbon colored plastic. However, the old silver remotes had distinct button layouts that were easily discernible in low light environments.... (Bedroom when the spouse is sleeping, media room during a movie with the lights down). Since it isn't backlit and many of the keys are that same rectanglular shape, it is tough to get used to the new remote on day one. Netflix not working yet. Bar mode not working yet... Hmm... maybe using the Dish app on my phone might be a nighttime workaround.
Jury still out.... I still need to hook up my external hard drives and transfer the archived content over. I have four drives that were paired with a 722, 622, 612, and 211 receivers... I am assuming all of the content will transfer without an issue? I ditched the carbon color guide and went for the light background and large fonts. Easier for these eyes that turn 50 later this year.... Nice to see 16 active tuners, and will try out autohop content for the first time later. No more losing content because three things were on at once anymore....
Thanks to Scott and everyone else who put in input.... Now back to memorizing these new remotes.....
