Dish Support?

[mbrown3]

I will be moving out to the country next month and have been trying to decide between Dish and DirecTV. But I had a few questions that I couldn't find answers to online. So I contacted Dish and had an extremely difficult time getting answers to my questions. The agent seemed completely uninterested in helping, and kept trying to get off the chat, even though I kept telling her that I had more questions (I only had 4, so it's not like I was spending hours talking with her). It also seemed clear that she didn't speak English well, as she didn't seem to understand most of what I was asking, despite explaining repeatedly in different ways, and she kept giving the same "canned" responses over and over. Then she abruptly ended the chat, and I still have questions she didn't answer. I can post the transcript of the chat if anyone wants to review it.

My question: is this typical of Dish's support? Because if so, I am completely unimpressed. I was leaning toward Dish over DirecTV, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[JasonSu]

I am sorry that you had that experience. I would like to think that is not typical support, because it would never be the support that I would give a customer,

fF you would like to let me know your questions I will be happy to answer them.

 

[KAB]

You are always better off contact a DIRT member here, as opposed to CSR roulette on phone or chat. They are without a doubt the most service oriented folks I have ever had the privilege to work with.
I've read how some can't tolerate Directv's service, so it's a gamble, matter who...but Not with DIRT!

 

[mdram]

i always had a good experience with dish and directv support

you can ask questions here also

 

[dwarren2]

If you don't know what DIRT is, it stands for Dish Internet Response Team. They are employees of Dish that are here to help. They're names are always in red.

 

[mbrown3]

I am sorry that you had that experience. I would like to think that is not typical support, because it would never be the support that I would give a customer,

fF you would like to let me know your questions I will be happy to answer them.

Thank you. I'll attach the transcript here so you can see how the conversation went. I'm not sure if my experience is typical, and perhaps my assessment of the conversation was inaccurate, but she bailed at the end and said, "You can keep your provider if the offer will not work for you." I never said anything about my current provider, nor was I don't asking questions. My provider is Wow, and that's not an option where I'm moving. Then she said bye and shut off the chat. Frustrating.

Anyway, here are all of my questions (two of which I think she did answer, but I'll include them just to make sure the info she gave me was right):
1. I have read that on Dish if you are watching an in progress recording, then switch to something else, then back to the original program, it won't remember where you left off and you either have to start at the beginning, or fast forward to try to find your place again. Is that still the case, or has this issue been fixed?

2. If I add an external hard drive, does it add to my overall pool of available DVR space, or does it attach as a separate drive (like to transfer recordings to), or does it give me the option?

3. I want to initially set up in three rooms, with the likelihood of expanding to four or five rooms maybe 6-12 months down the road. With three rooms, it defaults to a hopper and two joeys. Can I make one of them a super joey (so, hopper, super joey, joey)?

4. When I check the website under "compare channels", it does not list NHL network as a standard channel. However, it shows NHL network as part of the multi sport package. The woman told me NHL network IS included in Top 200 (which is the package I would get), but can I get confirmation of that? I don't want to have to start paying $13/month for one channel (I don't care about the others) in six months.

Another question: I'm not sure what internet will be available out in the country; I'm looking into it. At the moment it seems that our best option will be 12Mbps via satellite. Will that limit the effectiveness of the hopper set up or its features? The same limitations would apply to either service, I know, but it would be good to know if we'll lose out on half of the features due to crappy internet.

Thanks. And thanks for clarifying what DIRT means (that's not sarcastic, I didn't know what it meant!).

 

[JasonSu]

1. I have read that on Dish if you are watching an in progress recording, then switch to something else, then back to the original program, it won't remember where you left off and you either have to start at the beginning, or fast forward to try to find your place again. Is that still the case, or has this issue been fixed? This one I am at a loss on. I rarely watch on my Hopper itself, only through the website and app because it is seldom I am at that house. This would be a good one for the forum, because I have seen a couple reports of this, but nothing has been listed in my known issues list at this time.

2. If I add an external hard drive, does it add to my overall pool of available DVR space, or does it attach as a separate drive (like to transfer recordings to), or does it give me the option? The External hard drive would be a separate storage and viewing drive so it would not add to your hard drive when you are recording on the Hopper, but will give you that extra storage space and you can view recordings on the Hopper and Joey's linked to it from the hard drive.

3. I want to initially set up in three rooms, with the likelihood of expanding to four or five rooms maybe 6-12 months down the road. With three rooms, it defaults to a hopper and two joeys. Can I make one of them a super joey (so, hopper, super joey, joey)? Yes, you can install a Hopper, Super Joey and Joey in a 3 room install, but when you expand you would lose the Super Joey and Go to a 2nd Hopper if you need 6 tuners.

4. When I check the website under "compare channels", it does not list NHL network as a standard channel. However, it shows NHL network as part of the multi sport package. The woman told me NHL network IS included in Top 200 (which is the package I would get), but can I get confirmation of that? I don't want to have to start paying $13/month for one channel (I don't care about the others) in six months. Yes NHL network is part of the Top 200. If you click on the link and then select on Sports it will show the channels included in the Top 200 http://www.mydish.com/upgrades/english-packages/americas-top-200

Another question: I'm not sure what internet will be available out in the country; I'm looking into it. At the moment it seems that our best option will be 12Mbps via satellite. Will that limit the effectiveness of the hopper set up or its features? The same limitations would apply to either service, I know, but it would be good to know if we'll lose out on half of the features due to crappy internet. I do apologize, I do not work with our satellite internet service, but if you are on a service that has a limited amount of bandwidth available that can affect downloading on demand or streaming remotely since that will use that bandwidth. The DISHnet Satellite I believe maxes out at 15 MB from 8am-2am and then 50 MB from 2am-8am, but definitely research that because I could be wrong, and will freely admit that when it comes to the satellite internet. If you have land line available to you it would be the better option, but I know those can be limited in rural areas.


I would have to agree not the best interaction in that chat. I am going to forward that along so we can have that looked at further. Definitely not the interaction that I would have liked to see.

 

[mbrown3]

I tried quoting and replying in-line, but it told me I was trying to post inappropriate content.

Re: 1, can anyone else speak to this?

Re: 2, to clarify, the EHD gets attached as an external drive, but you can still view recordings from it via the hopper/joeys. I guess the question that follows, then, is this: does the hopper automatically record to the external drive if it's running out of (internal) space, or do I have to manually tell it to save recordings to the external drive?

Re: 3, can you clarify this a bit? So if I initially order a hopper, super joey, and joey, then want to add a 4th room, I can't just get one more joey? Why would I lose the super joey, and why would I need a 2nd hopper? Would a 2nd hopper mean two separate recording lists, or do they all get combined together into one list that can be accessed throughout the house?

Re: 4, great news, thank you.

Re: additional question, Dish has built-in internet?

Re: the chat interaction, I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but it was extremely frustrating. She kept saying the same "canned" things over and over, and was in a huge rush to get off the chat. Almost like she wanted to go out of her way to NOT get my business. It was very odd, and frustrating.

 

[Brussam]

Item 1 is one of technique. I always watch my recordings from Start Over, even though they have just started the recording. I can then stop the playback at anytime, go to something else, and then return and select Resume.

It is a matter if you want to do it or if you only want to do it you way.

 

[ChadT41]

I don't believe you can record directly to EHD. It would have to go on the internal drive, then manually be transferred over. Not necessarily built in Internet, but they offer DishNet which is satellite internet. Depending on location it is either via sat or HughesNet. Likely HughesNet as Echostar bought them in 2012, and expanding on Dish. The Hopper and SJ can do a total of 5 tuners. With an extra hopper, you get 6 tuners. There is a limit to how many Joeys can be linked to a single Hopper, and I beleive it it 3 or 4. You'd have to get clarification on that from a DIrT member as those limitations can change. With 4 or 5 TVs, you're better off with 2 hoppers anyways. They would work independently of one another, but the Joeys can link to either, and you can watch recordings from any hopper or Joey throughout the house.
If you are watching a live show, change the channel, then come back to it, you will lose the playback. If you pause it on multiswap, however, it will retain the info up to an hour. You can use multiswap on 4 shows, but each uses a tuner(so 2 of them would have to be locals, such as during Football season) or the SJ. Here is one not mentioned, only the Hopper and the soon to release 4K Joey have the PiP ability. If that's important, know which room the hopper is in.

 

[thomasjk]

Re: 2. The EHD is additional storage only. You can transfer recordings you wish to keep. Direct recording is not possible but playback is.

 

[mbrown3]

Item 1 is one of technique. I always watch my recordings from Start Over, even though they have just started the recording. I can then stop the playback at anytime, go to something else, and then return and select Resume.

It is a matter if you want to do it or if you only want to do it you way.

Thanks, but...I don't understand.

 

[mbrown3]

I don't believe you can record directly to EHD. It would have to go on the internal drive, then manually be transferred over. Not necessarily built in Internet, but they offer DishNet which is satellite internet. Depending on location it is either via sat or HughesNet. Likely HughesNet as Echostar bought them in 2012, and expanding on Dish. The Hopper and SJ can do a total of 5 tuners. With an extra hopper, you get 6 tuners. There is a limit to how many Joeys can be linked to a single Hopper, and I beleive it it 3 or 4. You'd have to get clarification on that from a DIrT member as those limitations can change. With 4 or 5 TVs, you're better off with 2 hoppers anyways. They would work independently of one another, but the Joeys can link to either, and you can watch recordings from any hopper or Joey throughout the house.
If you are watching a live show, change the channel, then come back to it, you will lose the playback. If you pause it on multiswap, however, it will retain the info up to an hour. You can use multiswap on 4 shows, but each uses a tuner(so 2 of them would have to be locals, such as during Football season) or the SJ. Here is one not mentioned, only the Hopper and the soon to release 4K Joey have the PiP ability. If that's important, know which room the hopper is in.

Every DVR I've ever used, when you add an esata hard drive, it just adds it to the pool of available recording space. If Dish doesn't work that way, I'll have to think hard about whether I want to go that route. I know they have 2TB out of the box vs 1TB for DirecTV, but I can add a 2TB drive on DirecTV and it gives me a total of 3TB. If Dish won't allow it to work that way, I'm still essentially limited to 2TB, because the ability to manually transfer to an external drive really doesn't help me.

When you say the joeys can link to either hopper, do you mean you set that up once, and that joey is always linked to that hopper, or can you change them at will, back and forth between the two hoppers?

 

[dwarren2]

The Hopper will tell you what % of the internal hard drive us used. That way you know when to transfer recordings to the ehd.

 

[JSheridan]

Every DVR I've ever used, when you add an esata hard drive, it just adds it to the pool of available recording space. If Dish doesn't work that way, I'll have to think hard about whether I want to go that route. I know they have 2TB out of the box vs 1TB for DirecTV, but I can add a 2TB drive on DirecTV and it gives me a total of 3TB. If Dish won't allow it to work that way, I'm still essentially limited to 2TB, because the ability to manually transfer to an external drive really doesn't help me.

When you say the joeys can link to either hopper, do you mean you set that up once, and that joey is always linked to that hopper, or can you change them at will, back and forth between the two hoppers?

When you 'add' an external hard drive to a DirecTV receiver it doesn't add to the internal drive, it replaces it.

https://support.directv.com/app/ans...ording-capacity-of-my-standard-dvr-or-hd-dvr?

 

[Bobby]

You can tell the Joeys which Hopper to link to....

 

[mbrown3]

The Hopper will tell you what % of the internal hard drive us used. That way you know when to transfer recordings to the ehd.

That seems like a lot of extra work. It might not actually be, in reality, but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not just have them all combine together as one pool of space.

 

[mbrown3]

When you 'add' an external hard drive to a DirecTV receiver it doesn't add to the internal drive, it replaces it.

https://support.directv.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1763/~/can-i-increase-the-recording-capacity-of-my-standard-dvr-or-hd-dvr?

I think that's either old (from before I had DirecTV) or new (since I got rid of DirecTV), because when I had it, it would add to the pool. Either way, if I can add a 4tb drive and it replaces the 1tb drive, that's still better than 2tb.

 

[mbrown3]

You can tell the Joeys which Hopper to link to....

Each time you start it, or just once (when you set it up)?

 

[ChadT41]

ESata is not an option with Dish. Must be USB2.0 or greater. Also, supported is limited up to 2 TB on each EHD. There are those that report to have larger, and more than one, but that is the supported. Also, must be self powered.