Thinking of trying out Dish

[dwarren2]

If you get a 211 series, youd have to get an ehd and pay a 1 time fee of $40 to turn it into a basic dvr. Recordings made on that ehd can not be played on a Hopper.
If you go the 2 Hopper root, you can add 2 ehd's at a time to each Hopper. The Hopper's will accept a3 tb ehd. So you could ser up an ehd on each Hopper that is dedicated to each of them.

 

[Troch77]

I didn't see it mentioned perhaps missed it.
1. Check to be sure you are getting the local channels you expect. Not often, but sometimes the locals DISH says you get can be different than what Cable gives, as Direct TV can be.

2. The Sports RSN's are not in HD full time, normally only for Pro games and some of their pre-games and post games shows. Reruns of games are not in HD. Not too often but sometimes games are joined in progress in HD, and even more rare now but games may not be in HD at all on a particular day.

3. If you encounter problems I highly suggest using the online DISH Csr's here (using the acronym DIRT) for help and not the phone CSR's.

4. I have had DISH from very shortly after they started service in the 90's, so obviously I am happy with it. (I don't have the Hopper system I am happy with individual receivers for each room so I can't comment on that equipment.

As far as locals they should be fine, I saw the list , yes a few are missing but nothing major.
Sports, not really a huge fan.
I like NFL football, But games are always on our locals networks.

I'm in the Philadelphia PA DMA.

 

[Troch77]

Is it best to wait on the 211k, or better to get it installed now.

 

[MGINCHICO]

I have Hopper with sling a Super Joey and a Joey and it all works great! One Hopper limited me greatly in recording especially during Prime Time but with the Super Joey I rarely run into recording problems.

 

[dwarren2]

Just remember with a Hopper and the 211, if both your daughter and wife want to record the same show forlater viewing, they each will have to do it. There is no integration with the 211 and the Hopper.
I think you will be happier with 2H/3J set up with an ota module for each Hopper. If you use PTAT on one, that gives you 9 sat tuners and 2 ota tuners. And any recording on an internal drive can be viewed from any tv.

 

[Troch77]

Just remember with a Hopper and the 211, if both your daughter and wife want to record the same show forlater viewing, they each will have to do it. There is no integration with the 211 and the Hopper.

The 211 is for my mother, she doesn't watch TV with us anyway.
She has her own apartment that is in the same house , but she doesn't share our dvrs now with cable.
So it will be fine.
I might keep her with cable for now, until I get the 211. She doesn't like change.

 

[dwarren2]

That does make a difference.

 

[Ziptied]

Adding a 211 to the mix will require an external 44 switch. As such, you will want to get the 211 installed at the same time as the Hoppers/Joeys.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Instead of 2 Hoppers you might consider a Super Joey that will add 2 tuners to the Hoppers 3 for a total of 5 available.

Was going to suggest that myself

 

[bobvick]

Was going to suggest that myself

Just beware, if that Hopper goes down, the whole system goes down. The second one isn't going to be THAT much more now, and the fee is only $2 per month more. Skip a coffee one day, or a pack of cigarettes if you smoke, and its paid for.

 

[Troch77]

Sorry I didn't update you guys.

I got 2 hoppers with sling, 2 Joeys and a 211k hooked up.
It cost me $149 for the 211k and $49 for the 2nd hopper.
But in return I also got a $250 rebate. So it really didn't cost me anything.
I went with Top 250 pack.
I'm a little surprised there are no RSNs for the Philadelphia area on Dish.
But luckily I like the Eagles and don't care for baseball, basketball or hockey.
Plus I see dish has Red zone.

So far seems nice.
Simple to use , the interface looks great.

The setup took a bit of time, seems like there is quite bit of connections and splitters, a bit more than I expected, but it's neatly in the basement, so it's not too big of a deal.
I noticed thunderstorms can cause an outage, we were without a signal for about 35 minutes yesterday afternoon.
Hope fully it's not that long all the time, and hopefully it's not out everytime it rains.

PQ is okay , SD looks acceptable, the HD is good, but Doesn't seem as good as we had with Fios.
Even my friends Directv seems to just pop more.
It's fine though.
But from what I've even read dish doesn't put out Full HD.
1440x1080?
But anyhow overall everything seem good. No complaints from the family.
My mother doesn't seem to have any issues with the 211k, works really nicely.

But thanks for the help, and if you all have anything to add, feel free.

 

[Troch77]

Had a question, How long should it take for the Channel Icons/logos show up?
We just had a New Hopper installed, and it's been connected for hours, and still no icons.

It's kind of a depressing guide without them. Plus the Joey that's hooked to it looks just as sad lol.

Any help?

Damon

 

[ChadT41]

72 hours is typical for everything to download.

 

[Troch77]

Okay, only reason I asked is because, the other hopper without sling , Had its Icons in like 15 minutes.

So just wasn't sure if something is defective.
When should I worry?

Damon

 

[ChadT41]

Honestly, if it is just the icons, I wouldn't. They will come in eventually. I have seen them take 2 weeks, but they should be there within the 72 hour period. If still missing after 72 hours, you can submit a report to DIRT and they will send it off to be updated a few days later.

 

[Troch77]

Okay, also nothing come up in the Search section when looking for shows, is that something that needs 72 hours too?

Damon

 

[thomasjk]

Okay, also nothing come up in the Search section when looking for shows, is that something that needs 72 hours too?

Damon

Yes. As mentioned earlier the guide needs at least 24 hours go fully download.

 

[JSheridan]

By tomorrow morning your search should work and your icons should be there.

 

[Troch77]

Okay thanks will let you know what happens.

Damon

 

[Troch77]

Okay everything populated, but had some strange glitch on both hoppers this morning.

Each hopper had one tuner recording the 4 PTA channels.
I have that feature shut off by the way.
I had to reboot them to get that to stop.
Anyone know what that was all about?

Also I have one Joey that seems a little laggy in the guide, it hooked to the Hopper with sling, anyone have any idea why it would be laggy?

Damon