DISH HOPPER SPEC SHEETS
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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In what way? From what we know, everything is transparent to the user as far as dual hopper use is concerned. The joey will see the unified content on both hoppers and the software will set a timer requested by the joey on whatever hopper the algorithm dictates. Is that what you mean?
Looks like there wouldn't be 'specific' Hopper#1 and #2, but one big HOPPER. Fat kangaroo.
Scott has said up to four remotes can be paired. I was asking about the Hopper, but would be surprised if its any different for Joey.
What am I missing? You can add another HR34 as soon as D* is willing to activate 2 on an account. That gives 10 tuners with the caveat of two 'to do lists'. They should be usable from any RVU client which is basically the same concept as the Joey. Right now I am using H25's as my clients so they have their own tuners besides playing HR34 content.
Specifically, I was wondering if a given Joey was "assigned" to one and only one Hopper and hence a Joey could only be served by that "assigned" Hopper and hence only have access to the tuners and recordings from that "assigned" Hopper.
As per Scott however, in the scenario of 2 Hoppers and 1 Joey, the single Joey would have visibility to both Hoppers, including their tuners and recordings.
Scott's making a direct comparison on what will available near launch time for Dish.
Can't compare some theoretical thing that DirecTV may or may not do. Unless there's some announcement you can point to?
Scott even pointed out that Dish could go to six tuners in one Hopper (if demand is that great). But that's all theoretical, may never happen, and definitely shouldn't be compared with the existing Hopper/Joey setup.
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It isn't theoretical. I have had a HR34 for over a month now since I am a new customer. If I wanted to buy another one on the internet and pay full price I could have (2) right now. The only pure RVU clients right now are Samsung TV's but they are on the market. I am not using a RVU TV as a client but instead using existing HD tuners that connect to the HR34. So the only limitation I know of to adding multiple HR34's right now is how many I would be willing to buy at full price. That is the only reason I was asking "what am I missing". I am new to all of this but I haven't read anything yet restricting how many a person can have other than cost.
If they priced the Hopper the same as they do the 722 then that gives us an extra tuner for the same price on a single television. If someone wants two Hoppers and has no Joey's then I wonder if they would price it the same as only one additional receiver. They should not charge $17 for an additional one if you have no Joey attached to it.
Maybe this would actually bring the cost down for those that need additional tuners for one television if they price this thing right. Then one can add a Joey for each additional room making it more flexible than the 722's that we have today.
Worst case scenario they may charge $10-15 for a second Hopper which is no more than a 722 without any Joey's. I hope they don't implement some sort of requirement to add a Joey instead of another Hopper. Currently there is no fee for tv2 on the first dual tuner receiver on the account. The Hopper/Joey system could eliminate this by having a charge for every additional tv connected bringing Dish the extra $7 (or whatever they choose to charge). A 722 is $6 DVR fee but no additional fee for TV2. A Hopper = $6 DVR + $7 for a Joey = $13? The advantage though would be the HD on the second tv if someone only has one Hopper. Two Joey's at $14 more per month would cheaper than the $17 they charge for a second 722 but one less tuner overall (but one addition HD feed to a television).
Maybe this would actually bring the cost down for those that need additional tuners for one television if they price this thing right. Then one can add a Joey for each additional room making it more flexible than the 722's that we have today.
Worst case scenario they may charge $10-15 for a second Hopper which is no more than a 722 without any Joey's. I hope they don't implement some sort of requirement to add a Joey instead of another Hopper. Currently there is no fee for tv2 on the first dual tuner receiver on the account. The Hopper/Joey system could eliminate this by having a charge for every additional tv connected bringing Dish the extra $7 (or whatever they choose to charge). A 722 is $6 DVR fee but no additional fee for TV2. A Hopper = $6 DVR + $7 for a Joey = $13? The advantage though would be the HD on the second tv if someone only has one Hopper. Two Joey's at $14 more per month would cheaper than the $17 they charge for a second 722 but one less tuner overall (but one addition HD feed to a television).
I just had a great idea. Why couldn't Dish Network do something similar to what the web browsers are doing now. They save your favorites on the "cloud" (the internet) so if you go to a different computer your favorites are still there. I guess one could technically do that on the sling from a computer but not from another satellite receiver. Anytime you swap out a satellite receiver you could transfer all your favorite channels and timers and settings (even the remote codes) to the cloud and retrieve it from the cloud with the new receiver.
Fair enough. I'm not familiar with the Direct system, so let me ask a different question.
If you have two HR34's, do they transparently see each other's recordings, or do you need to remember which DVR has what? Same for the clients -- if they see both DVR's, do the recordings show up under a single unified view or do you need to switch "which" DVR you're talking to?
That might be the difference you're missing -- with Dish's system, you have two physical Hoppers, but the user just sees one large virtual Hopper, without having to give any thought to which one has which timer/recording.
I would rather have two Hoppers than two HR-34's if the HR-34's and their clients cannot see each other's recordings. It is nice to have more options of shows to watch in case you run out of dvr events of the ones you chose to record. It also allows you to save some space on the drive in case different people end up wanting to record the same things preventing duplicate timers.
I noticed an eSATA port on the Hopper. GOOD GOING DISH! Finally joining every other DVR maker since 2006 with the benefits of eSATA instead of just USB 2.0. I'm glad they didn't go with USB 3.0 because it would have left a lot of people out as eSATA is a legacy.
My only DVR is the HR34. My reading of posts from other people that have multiple Direct DVR's is that even old models of Direct DVR's share a single playlist of recordings if they are on a single whole home viewing network. I have read of people limiting out at 10 DVR's playlists being combined with the current software at the client.
The only limitation I am not happy with is that if I want to see a list of pending recordings I have to go directly to the DVR that it is assigned to.
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As long as you get your locals in HD it should work. I'm a Dish tech in Indianapolis and our market is WA, we use EA when no line of sight but Indy locals aren't broadcast on the EA birds. If the customer has to have them we'll put a wing dish at 129 to get HD locals or 110 for SD locals.
And does it really make any difference? Probably not. But if they had decided to go with USB 3.0 that doesn't mean that they would have left eSATA out... they are not mutually exclusive technologies. It probably had more to do with cost as most controller chipsets have USB 2.0 and eSATA on the same chip. USB 3 has been on it's own separate controller.
