Agreed, the installers came to replace my old 622, 722k systems with 2 Hoppers and 4 Joeys. They refused to use the RG-6 used by the previous tech just 2 years ago as it was not labeled (they didn't give a crap about doing a frequency scan) and said that Dish is forcing them to use labeled 3GHZ cable between the Dish, the Duo Nodes and Hoppers. They put up one of the newer dark gray dishes, and reran all the cable from the outside to the basement. Hooked up to a Duo-Node and then we had an issue. The 722k was in the Family room so pulling a new 3GHZ cable to the outlet was not bad. But they refused to rewire the MBR where the 622 was even though I showed them pre-plumbed conduit running from the basement to the attic. They said that running a new cable down the wall was an extra charge of $200 so I said Bullsh!t!
So I had to work out alternate plan 2. I put the 2nd Hopper in my Den again on 1st floor and easier to pull and restring cable. The Dish main guy (Russian with an accent that not even Chekov could match) was a royal PITA. So I have now a Hopper in a room that doesn't have any hi-def TV (GRRRRR) and they said that Joey's can run over existing coax RG-6 even RG-59. So they hooked up one of the Joey's to my MBR and paired it with the Den Hopper which was supposed to be the MBR Hopper.
End result, Hoppers works great, Joeys work like sh*t all around. Every Joey has a voice lose problem, pixelation, picture freezes, RED MOCA signals and the only way to get them back in sync is to backup 7 secs and then go forward 30. But when the picture freezes up, it's generally screwed. It's not just one Joey but at least 2 of the 4 they installed. The other two I can't speak about because one is in a room without a TV that I plan to put a TV into and the other is in the Master Bathroom that we don't use that often. Both of the goofed up Joey's are each paired with a different hopper.
I may end up running some Eithernet to the Joey's to try to fix the issue, but there is something definitely wrong with MOCA to the Joey's. I even tried to enable Internet over MOCA as in a previous thread. No difference. Problem is that we watch 90% of the TV in the home in 2 rooms. The Family Room and Master Bed Room. Now that the MBR has the Joey the WAF is for crap for the new equipment!
Is it a 100% requirement that Hoppers be fed with branded 3GZ cable. I have RG6 quad shield running to the MBR, can I get away by moving the Hopper from the Den upstairs on the RG6-Q?
I was so sick of the installers after them being here for 6 hours and their the Russians condesending attitude I just said screw it, get the damn things with pictures and I'll do the rest myself! They just tacked up wire which I made them take down and run it through the holes already in the rafters. And pissed off my wife to no end when they took the old equipment and drug it BANGING down the expensive Cherry railed stairs. She screamed at him and he said they were told to destroy the old equipment so they drag it down stairs. I told them a sledge hammer outside would do the same thing. His tool belt was scraping the wood and brand new wall paint. I wonder if I can file a claim for the wood and wall repairs. None of them were a result of the install, but of their carelessness.
Everybody has mentioned coax, and RG-6, but nobody had mentioned to make sure it is RG-6 rated for 3Ghz, or 3000 Mhz. Shame on them all! Run 4 coax in from the outside, this will cover max dish network cables needed and an additional for OTA, if you need or want. I would run at least 2 coax to each room, and cat6 to each room, it's not that much more than cat5,and who knows what the future will bring for capabilities with that. Bring all the cables together in a central location, preferably in a room on an outside wall. Don't put your furnace/utility room in the middle of the basement, put it on an outside wall, so you can always get more stuff into it after the basement is finished.
