Well, OK. As if to tell me that I need to hurry this along, the HDMI out on my TiVo Roamio Pro failed today! I can hook it up via component (with an adapter on its way from Amazon), but it's obvious that I've gotten my money's worth out of this system. Calling the installer tomorrow to see if he's still in the biz.
Thinking about coming back, but...
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Aha, so there was communication going on since you were getting the guide, probably a latency/bandwidth issue then. I wouldn't trust the "100% signal" on the WJ though since it is probably just measuring the ethernet connection to the Eero and not the actual Hopper.
The connection to the Hopper showed Weak
Gotcha, what ended happening at this job? Did you end up with a wired Joey? I can think of a few solutions, like if you had a HIC at hand you could of also placed the WAP at another wired Joey location (or as close as you can get with a client line?) that was closer to the room you were trying to get to.
There was a myriad of cabling connected by a mass of splitters all running back to 2 powered and trunked Comcast switches running between two large crawl spaces with a finished basement area between them so the original tech and an FSM went back and fished a cable to that room for a Joey 3. I volunteered to tone and map a route to that room, but it wasn't my job to begin with. I just showed up to try and assist at the end of my route.
Just to wrap up my original question, it looks like I'm going to have to at least consider going with DirecTV as it has some channels that Dish does not. Dish is still in the running, but I have to see if their higher prices are worth the extra couple of channels. Thanks so much to everyone for their help here!
- Nov 29, 2003
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Just wait until that second year with DirecTV, prices go up, roughly, about $60 months 13-24, then their equipment is the dot matrix of the satellite world.
And finally, after some more rooting around for channel info, etc., decided to place an order with my local Dish installer today. Promised one Hopper 3 and a wireless Joey for the install, next Wednesday the 13th around 11:00 a.m. Just in time too, as my old Tivo Roamio Pro is now throwing off additional error messages. Spectrum Internet replaced by TMobile (a downgrade from 300 to 200 MB down) and Spectrum phone replaced by Ooma from TMo, which I will need to set up. It's a bit of a hassle, but it's less than Spectrum and I'm hopeful that when all is said and done that it will be much more reliable than anything with the word "cablecard" anywhere near it.
Give us your honest opinions on the Hopper3 vs your current TiVo setup once you've had it a few days
I'd wait a few weeks to let the Hopper settle in and get it's brains unscrambled.
Actually it's days not weeks...
Yeah, and IIRC mine was working fine right out of the box. I had a tougher time getting used to the infernal tiled interface. Why does everything have to look just as crappy as my phone?
I had the original Hopper with my last go-round with Dish about seven years ago. I really liked that box and have high hopes for this one. I'll be glad to post my thoughts regarding comparing it to Tivo as soon as I get a few recordings on it. Tivo is still in the cablecard business, even as the cable companies threaten to drop it any day now. Frankly, I wouldn't be considering going back to satellite if not for the issues I've had with 1)cablecards, 2)tuning adapters and 3)the fact that my Tivos are elderly and the new ones have an interface that, frankly, sucks.
I thought I'd dredge up this old topic for the benefit of anyone thinking about coming back to Dish. I've now been on board about a month and thought I'd post a few impressions here.
The Hopper 3 is clearly the star of the show. I'm not even going to try to go into all its functions, but let's just say it is the most advanced DVR ever made. Since firing it up, it has not missed a program nor made any other kind of mistake or shown any software glitch. Dish left DirecTV in the dust on this one and the cable DVRs aren't even worthy of coming to this party. However, I do have to say that the menus are not completely intuitive.
The video quality is very good. I won't say excellent, as I think I may have been a bit more pleased in the past with what I saw on DirecTV. But if DirecTV is a 100, Dish is a 99, it's that close. Dish's picture is a bit smoother (it always has been) than DirecTV, and the trade off for that is more noise in DirecTV's video.
If there's been an issue, it was (until today) with the one wireless Joey. The video and audio are just as good as the Hopper, as one would expect them to be. However, this Joey is about 50 feet away from the Hopper, with five walls between the two. And the Hopper is on the floor. Signal strength on the Joey never rose above 35 and I'm guessing this is the cause of it's only problem...sluggishness. Sluggishness in doing anything. Scrolling though the guide, flipping between shows, changing channels, anything. Today, I was trying to watch a on demand title. The title played fine, but once I started rewinding and going back forward, the Joey froze and had to be rebooted. I won't accept that. I shut off the wireless access point and hooked the two up with a straight run of Cat5. Boom. Sluggishness is gone.
Dish's technical support via phone is NOT good. I have called about simple things, such as programming remote controls, changing programming packages, etc., and each and every call is a struggle, both because of language issues and simple training on the product. If there is a time of day when Dish has US- based technical support available, I'd love to know when it is.
I'm not completely thrilled with the remote, model 54.0. I still can't program it to change sources on my living room set, a six month old LG OLED. However, the two programmable keys at the bottom are very welcome! And the fact that it's UHF is a welcome bonus. It has excellent range.
As far as pricing is concerned, there is no contest. Dish is far cheaper (for the moment) than DirecTV. I've had both systems in the past, and came from TiVo running on a Spectrum Cablecard. The only advantage Spectrum had was channel selection and of course, YMMV. The hassles of keeping Cablecards up on the TiVo were nothing short of astounding. I'm glad to know that when I turn on the TV, the receiver will...just...work.
I purchased the external OTA tuner, that was a good move. Now I get all my local stations and save $10 per month over satellite delivered locals. That's a good thing for Dish to do, DirecTV didn't give me that choice with locals. But you do need to remember that you can record only two locals at once. That can be tough when you have all kinds of tuners for satellite channels at your beck and call!
There are so many features I have yet to explore, external hard drives, Dish Anywhere, etc. But if you're struggling with your current provider, especially if you're having DVR issues, Dish is an excellent alternative.
Thanks to everyone here for helping me make the right decision.
The Hopper 3 is clearly the star of the show. I'm not even going to try to go into all its functions, but let's just say it is the most advanced DVR ever made. Since firing it up, it has not missed a program nor made any other kind of mistake or shown any software glitch. Dish left DirecTV in the dust on this one and the cable DVRs aren't even worthy of coming to this party. However, I do have to say that the menus are not completely intuitive.
The video quality is very good. I won't say excellent, as I think I may have been a bit more pleased in the past with what I saw on DirecTV. But if DirecTV is a 100, Dish is a 99, it's that close. Dish's picture is a bit smoother (it always has been) than DirecTV, and the trade off for that is more noise in DirecTV's video.
If there's been an issue, it was (until today) with the one wireless Joey. The video and audio are just as good as the Hopper, as one would expect them to be. However, this Joey is about 50 feet away from the Hopper, with five walls between the two. And the Hopper is on the floor. Signal strength on the Joey never rose above 35 and I'm guessing this is the cause of it's only problem...sluggishness. Sluggishness in doing anything. Scrolling though the guide, flipping between shows, changing channels, anything. Today, I was trying to watch a on demand title. The title played fine, but once I started rewinding and going back forward, the Joey froze and had to be rebooted. I won't accept that. I shut off the wireless access point and hooked the two up with a straight run of Cat5. Boom. Sluggishness is gone.
Dish's technical support via phone is NOT good. I have called about simple things, such as programming remote controls, changing programming packages, etc., and each and every call is a struggle, both because of language issues and simple training on the product. If there is a time of day when Dish has US- based technical support available, I'd love to know when it is.
I'm not completely thrilled with the remote, model 54.0. I still can't program it to change sources on my living room set, a six month old LG OLED. However, the two programmable keys at the bottom are very welcome! And the fact that it's UHF is a welcome bonus. It has excellent range.
As far as pricing is concerned, there is no contest. Dish is far cheaper (for the moment) than DirecTV. I've had both systems in the past, and came from TiVo running on a Spectrum Cablecard. The only advantage Spectrum had was channel selection and of course, YMMV. The hassles of keeping Cablecards up on the TiVo were nothing short of astounding. I'm glad to know that when I turn on the TV, the receiver will...just...work.
I purchased the external OTA tuner, that was a good move. Now I get all my local stations and save $10 per month over satellite delivered locals. That's a good thing for Dish to do, DirecTV didn't give me that choice with locals. But you do need to remember that you can record only two locals at once. That can be tough when you have all kinds of tuners for satellite channels at your beck and call!
There are so many features I have yet to explore, external hard drives, Dish Anywhere, etc. But if you're struggling with your current provider, especially if you're having DVR issues, Dish is an excellent alternative.
Thanks to everyone here for helping me make the right decision.
If you go to Settings/Remote Control and scroll down, is Limited Mode toggled to Off?? It should be if it's not. Then if you hit TV on the side buttons and then the Input button, it should rotate through your TV inputs.
YES!
I checked that on the Joey but not on the Hopper. MANY thanks for the reminder!
I checked that on the Joey but not on the Hopper. MANY thanks for the reminder!
