Wired Reviews The Hopper with Sling

[Scott Greczkowski]

Wired Magazine has reviewed the Hopper with Sling and to make things interesting they compared it to a DIRECTV Genie system.

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2013/03/dish-hopper/

 

[3HaloODST]

...You can even see a mouse cursor (but you can’t hook up a USB mouse...)

False. You CAN hook up a USB mouse and it works fine. It's pointless, but it works fine.

...No predictive tech to record shows you don’t already know you like. Interface feels behind the times. Only three tuners...

Grasping at straws. PTAT can help you find new shows, as well as "What's Hot." As for the interface, that's pure opinion. Only three tuners? Get another Hopper.

Overall a good review but it's just someone's opinion so I don't take it very seriously.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Tired: Only 3 tuners. I agree and have said so , many times. I think that DISH should of included at least 4 to 6 tuners from the start. Yes ,I Know you can have two hoppers for back up etc, but having only 3 tuners is a bit of a flaw to me. I also think that having a built in ota tuner or even a dual ota tuner like the Vip series , would of been neater and easier for people to use than the usb tuner. Simple plug and play. Maybe the DISH engineers could look at what the Genie does right and try to duplicate it for the hopper. Although having a Tivo search feature that suggests shows you might like to me, was always a nuisance . I can figure out what I like myself. Vods and Search could be handled better by DISH. Right now it is very clunky and cumbersome to search the way we do now.

 

[Smwoodward]

Fairly good article. I do agree that 3 tuners compared to the Genie is a down side. I personally haven't had an issue with 3 tuners, right now it's only my wife, newborn, and myself in the house, and have very few conflicts, but there will come a time. Yes I know I can add a second hopper, and that is great, but I do feel there needs to be better integration with the two hoppers. At least make it a switch so the people that don't want them to be integrated can be happy too. That would push Dish over the top as you will have a modular system, and as your needs grow, you can add more Hoppers, and 6 tuners in a fully integrated system would blow Direct out of the water.

Now the apps should be opened for developers to write their own apps. If there was a netfix and youtube app that would start keeping people to live in their dvr instead of having to leave it to use a different device. That and they should expand the DLNA formats.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If you haven't tried the DLNA feature give it a shot as DISH has been improving it. It supports a lot more file types and also adds new features including being able to fast forward and rewind.

As far a more tuners, I am told its not going to happen. The cost is to great to add them for the small amount of people who actually need more then 3 tuners. For power users who need more then 3 tuners you can get a second hopper which brings you up to a total of 6 tuners (or 8 tuners if you add OTA tuners) plus it gives you 4GB of space, allows you to have Bluetooth audio at two different locations and it actually keeps recordings more organized (throw the kids (or wife) on their own Hopper so their recordings do no clutter up your hopper.) And the nice part is the monthly cost is the same.

 

[lparsons21]

I thought it a pretty fair review and really liked the comparison made betwixt D* and E* with the approach they both took.

Until and unless Dish either offers lists as an option or just changes to them, having 2 Hoppers that don't share a playlist isn't a big deal imo. It is hard enough to manage recordings with the thumbnails as it is now!

As to the predictive recording, well that sounds good and probably looks good on paper, but it just makes managing recordings a bit more daunting. I mean it predicts I'll like something and records it, if it is correct, then I see the recording and all is good, but I have to look to see if it did so that if it didn't set it automagically, then I need to do it manually. Just seems to me that I would ignore it being there at all instead. But that's just me!

From a purely hardware standpoint and ignoring the programming differences, I see the Hopper/Joey and Genie/C31 as two sides of the same coin.

Of course, one side of that coin is pretty slow!!

 

[Centex]

If you haven't tried the DLNA feature give it a shot as DISH has been improving it. It supports a lot more file types and also adds new features including being able to fast forward and rewind.

As far a more tuners, I am told its not going to happen. The cost is to great to add them for the small amount of people who actually need more then 3 tuners. For power users who need more then 3 tuners you can get a second hopper which brings you up to a total of 6 tuners (or 8 tuners if you add OTA tuners) plus it gives you 4GB of space, allows you to have Bluetooth audio at two different locations and it actually keeps recordings more organized (throw the kids (or wife) on their own Hopper so their recordings do no clutter up your hopper.) And the nice part is the monthly cost is the same.

I get what you are saying, but I wish there were some way for it to "work better". I have a 2 hopper system, and I often run into the following:
Wife will set up to record some shows from the Bedroom joey (without regard to which hopper the joey is linked to) Then, when I am trying to watch the basketball game from Living room hopper, there is a conflict--Last night it was Vandersomething rules, Dallas, PTAT, and the Big 12 tourney championship. I have enough tuners (in theory), but the system can't reallocate those recordings to a tuner on the other Hopper, so I had to cancel one of her recordings. And since the game was about to start and I did not want to wait I did not try to reset those recording onto the other hopper. The system should be smart enough to reallocate them, but at present, it is not.

 

[odbrv]

The Joey has better intergration software than the Hoppers. You can link the Joey to either Hopper and see its tuners, Internal Hard Drives and external hard drives. The Hoppers only integate at the internal hard drive. The next time I have a service call or upgrade to Hoppers with sling I will have the service tech move the equipment around so I have a Joey in my main viewing room. The Techs who install the Hopper/Joey systems should be trained to explain this Joey integration advantage at the beginning of an install. I hope in the future Dish can add the extra integration the Joey has to the Hopper.

 

[dare2be]

Until and unless Dish either offers lists as an option or just changes to them, having 2 Hoppers that don't share a playlist isn't a big deal imo. It is hard enough to manage recordings with the thumbnails as it is now!

Perhaps the full integration will coincide with a list view to make management easier.

Did anyone else initally read the thread title as "Weird Reviews"?

 

[theoak]

The Joey has better intergration software than the Hoppers. You can link the Joey to either Hopper and see its tuners, Internal Hard Drives and external hard drives. The Hoppers only integate at the internal hard drive. The next time I have a service call or upgrade to Hoppers with sling I will have the service tech move the equipment around so I have a Joey in my main viewing room. The Techs who install the Hopper/Joey systems should be trained to explain this Joey integration advantage at the beginning of an install. I hope in the future Dish can add the extra integration the Joey has to the Hopper.

You won't get PIP or bluetooth though. Something to consider when having a Joey as the main interface.

 

[Smwoodward]

If you haven't tried the DLNA feature give it a shot as DISH has been improving it. It supports a lot more file types and also adds new features including being able to fast forward and rewind.

As far a more tuners, I am told its not going to happen. The cost is to great to add them for the small amount of people who actually need more then 3 tuners. For power users who need more then 3 tuners you can get a second hopper which brings you up to a total of 6 tuners (or 8 tuners if you add OTA tuners) plus it gives you 4GB of space, allows you to have Bluetooth audio at two different locations and it actually keeps recordings more organized (throw the kids (or wife) on their own Hopper so their recordings do no clutter up your hopper.) And the nice part is the monthly cost is the same.

It's been a while since I last used the DLNA and it wouldn't play any of the files that were encoded for an apple TV 3. I'll try again tonight.

I personally like the fact that the Hopper is a more modular system that the genie. Adding a second Hopper is great when it comes time that I need a second one. Right now 3 tuners is enough. When my daughter becomes a teenager I have a huge feeling that will change. Plus adding a second hopper has the added benefit of double the storage of an already largest DVR on the market. But here's the deal. I am a technical person, I know how to tell when a joey is one which hopper. My wife though isn't. She will just set it, and if she can't find the show she wants to watch because it's on a different hopper, guess who is the one that will hear about it... even if it is a simple 2 button solution.

 

[charlesrshell]

Perhaps the full integration will coincide with a list view to make management easier.

Did anyone else initally read the thread title as "Weird Reviews"?

LOL, yep I did. Wired (Weird) caught my attention so I clicked on it. Pretty good review. Too bad Dish didn't really dish it up. Four tuners and two OTA tuners along with the PTAT would have been a shocker to the DVR world.

 

[Gobucks]

So if I add the OTA module my Hoppers will have eight total tuners that can record at the same time? I have two Hoppers so I was thinking of buying two OTA modules.

 

[Scherrman]

So if I add the OTA module my Hoppers will have eight total tuners that can record at the same time? I have two Hoppers so I was thinking of buying two OTA modules.

Yes indeed

 

[navychop]

Yes. Plus more "virtual" tuners if you use PTAT.

 

[Gobucks]

Thanks for the reply guys. That's just awesome! We use PTAT on one of our Hoppers. Now we can use the OTA module to record my wife's CW shows. That frees up tuners for cable shows. So how could anyone think the genie is better?? Hell most people watch broadcast shows. That's why they get better ratings than cable shows for the most part. PTAT and OTA is just awesome. Plus I can own a Hopper with sling for $199.

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[mpeltz]

I've read in this thread and others how the two hopper setup may be better that one Genie because of "BACKUP" capability. Or at least that's one justification. However, it doesn't appear that the two Hoppers will back each other up. When I think of a backup, I'm thinking a RAID-like set up. Have Hopper one backup the recorded shows, timers, etc. to Hopper two and vice versa.

If Hopper one goes down, you still have ALL your recorded shows, times, etc. on Hopper two. Am I missing something?

 

[navychop]

Redundancy is probably what they meant.

One Genie goes out, maybe you have no sat TV at all. If 1 out of 2 Hoppers fails, you can still watch sat TV on the other one.

 

[mpeltz]

True, but you lose all your recorded shows on that Hopper.

 

[3HaloODST]

True, but you lose all your recorded shows on that Hopper.

Correct. The Hoppers don't back each other up. Still better than relying on a single DVR and having it fail. Plus, with two Hoppers, it's twice as much space as Genie.

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