Why isnt hopper a 6 tuner dvr??

[dishfan82]

I know you can record 3 shows at a time but why didn't dish make it so where hopper could record up to 6 shows in hd anytime?? Do they want people getting 2 hoppers?? My local cable company just came out with a new whole home DVr and it can record 6 shows at a time anytime. Plus it's 25 bucks a month for it but that includes 3 additional receivers included into the cost. I'm not going to switch to them because I just got dish.

I'm just disappointed that they advertised hopper up to 6 shows at a time when it will only record 6 shows during prime time hours. How do customers get around the 3 tuner solution without spending money on a 2nd hopper?

 

[John Kotches]

Just speculation on my part , but I would guess that they did some market research which determined that 3 tuners with PTAT would cover the lions share of their needs.

cheers,

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

That is it exactly, the majority of DISH customers never use more then 2 tuners at any one time sp why put the expense of adding more tuners in a box that wont be used.

For us power folks who need more then 3, DISH has that covered as well by allowing us to add a second Hopper unit giving us a total of 6 tuners.

 

[StevenD]

For us power folks who need more then 3, DISH has that covered as well by allowing us to add a second Hopper unit giving us a total of 6 tuners.

That is a valid explanation only after they have updated the software so the Hoppers share timers, tuners, recordings, etc.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I think it made more sense to make a 6 tuner hopper from the start. But then again , I thought it would of made sense to release the hopper with ota support and fully functioning software as well. But once again those are supposedly coming SOON!

 

[John Kotches]

That is a valid explanation only after they have updated the software so the Hoppers share timers, tuners, recordings, etc.

Your tuner count with 2 hopper units is 6 regardless. The pooling software to make them function as one 6 tuner box is the missing piece.

I thought 6 tuners visible to 1 Joey was shown @ CES and if that's truly the case it might not take long to release it into the wild.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

That is a valid explanation only after they have updated the software so the Hoppers share timers, tuners, recordings, etc.

Correct, but again they wanted to get it out in a configuration that most people will use first. Thus why not 2 hopper sharing support at the moment. I am told that it is coded and working but the reason its not out yet is because the code is cruse and needs to be polished and properly programmed to interface with the menus.

Again they wanted to get the Hooper out on time and have the features that a majority of the people would use instead of delaying it for features that most will not use.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I thought 6 tuners visible to 1 Joey was shown @ CES and if that's truly the case it might not take long to release it into the wild.

Negative there was never a 6 tuner version shown at CES, I have mentioned this a few times.

 

[dare2be]

Modularity is the key to flexibility and lower equipment costs. As was said, the overwhelming majority of customers will only need 1 hopper and a joey or two. Being able to expand on that with additional joeys and a 2nd hopper then meets the needs of the power users.

Seriously, installing a 6-tuner box in a one or two TV household would be overkill and a wasteful equipment expense. Likewise, having to manufacture and support both 3-tuner and 6-tuner varieties would also be more costly. Dish would likely save money on their overhead with just 1 Hopper model and 1 Joey model to produce, deploy and support. Too bad they don't appear to be sharing that potential savings in their fee structure.

 

[powerhouse1960]

That is it exactly, the majority of DISH customers never use more then 2 tuners at any one time sp why put the expense of adding more tuners in a box that wont be used.

For us power folks who need more then 3, DISH has that covered as well by allowing us to add a second Hopper unit giving us a total of 6 tuners.

Maybe most people only use two tuners because the second receiver cost 17.00 plus you can not share the content
If they had more they would use more

 

[digitalblue]

From what I understand there is also a limitation with MoCA 1.0 that MoCA 2.0 would alleviate making a 6 tuner box possible. Of course I'm in way over my head here and only repeating nuggets discussed at Team Summit last year while dining with an Echo engineer.

 

[Stargazer]

Why didn't Dish Network put an expansion slot in the Hopper then to allow one to add three more tuners to it? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have done that instead of coming out with a whole different receiver? That would have kept it down to just a Hopper and Joey. Now they have to come out with yet another receiver again. Perhaps they can make a new Hopper that lets you add more tuners to it next time around making it three tuners or six or heck, maybe more than that.

 

[dare2be]

What "whole different receiver"? Adding another Hopper gets you more tuners, and they still have it kept down to a Hopper and Joey.

 

[navychop]

If the Hopper had 6 tuners we'd have people here complaining about Dish driving up costs needlessly.

 

[Stargazer]

They would probably charge an additional fee per additional tuner (a few bucks perhaps) that was added to the Hopper if they had expansion ports on it to add more. They would also probably charge each customer an upgrade fee which covers Dish's cost making it pure profit. If they charged a few bucks per tuner then you might as well add another Hopper since that would get you an additional tv hookup included unless someone just needed one additional tuner. Might make it too complicated for them in their software.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The issue is the wiring. Going to 6 Tuners would require 1 more satellite cable from the Dish.

Most homes are pre-wired with 1 cable, and thus a 2 cable Hopper could cancel lots of pending installations, because there would be no way to run a second wire.

 

[rglore]

For more than three tuners, the box would need two coax feeds and separators would not work since the coax frequency range is maxed out. The design Echostar chose is perfect as only one coax is needed to each location for full functionality and works with existing DPP LNBs and switches. Want more satellite tuners, just switch any Joey for a Hopper and now you have six sat tuners.

The only function missing is PIP at the Joeys and Dish could enable that as a user option understanding that it would use two MoCA streams from a single or even different Hoppers. Also, you have hardwired Ethernet available at all TV locations using another HIC or third party MoCA/Ethernet bridge.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

If the Hopper had 6 tuners we'd have people here complaining about Dish driving up costs needlessly.

If the Hopper had 6 tuners we'd have people here complaining that it didn't have 9.

 

[ScottChez]

Technically it could be 6 tuner system with the add on.

It will cost $199 more to add the 3 more tuners.

That add on is really just a second Hopper box that you add. They probably designed it this way so you could ADD tuners to your system as they knew there is no way 3 tuners would be enough for house holds with more than 2-3 people.

This 6 tuner system will not work at release though as the Two Hoppers will not talked to each other. It is something that will be out some soon.

SOON as in dish terms= could be a month , or a year later, or never so if you have more than 2-3 people living there, I would NOT buy it yet.

 

[dare2be]

Why would I complain about not having 9 when I can get 2 Hoppers for a total of 12 tuners?

/you know this post will generate a rumor about a 12-tuner hopper now....