Virtual Joey - Future or Fad

[mfoster711]

I have been trying out the Virtual Joey on my new LG TV and so far I am not impressed. Not as fast as the regular joey and I am running a 100mb wired connection. It is also slow to start up when you turn the TV on. It works, but I will probably just stick with a normal joey.

After searching for threads on the Virtual Joey and realizing there are just a few, this got me wondering if the virtual joey is part of Dish's future plans or just a Fad they developed as a marketing scheme. Is the Virtual Joey just an experiment that will never be as good as the normal receivers?

If this is actually part of the future they should do something to promote usage. Maybe wave the receiver fee on the Virtual Joey for 12 months to see how many people you can get using it?

 

[TheKrell]

I call it a "fad". I see no reason to use it over a real Joey, except perhaps to get rid of some clutter. When it was initially released, some here claimed we could load it onto several TVs for the same $7/mo, as long as only one was in use at the time. Nope.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF it was free, I bet you it would be more than a passing fad.

 

[primestar31]

Is your LG tv set wired to your network, or are you using it wireless?

My LG 3D tv set is wired, and I have no issues with things, but I don't have a Hopper system, so am not using the Joey App. I've owned this set for over a year now, and having it wired makes the difference on internet and home network stuff.

 

[ChadT41]

I think we can call it a mix of both. I don't think it is something they want to switch to as "the solution", but something marketable to those that have trouble the way things are set up, or have limited space. A great example, would be college students in a group house with other college students. It may not be practical to have a hard Joey, and may be easier to have a VJ in their rooms, especially if they are moving in and out on rotations. If I owned a PS3, I would use it for my tenants as they move in and out, so they can decorate their room how they please, without the coax strung all over the place, and havingn a PS3 in there helps me promote the value for their dollar.

 

[Scherrman]

I'm not sure it was ever meant to be the future. To me it's just another option, another solution to a wiring problem.

 

[ChadT41]

Lol. Thanks scherrman, for saying what I said, in 1/4 the words.

 

[Hall]

I'm a geek and the only app I (we) use on our smart TV is the Netflix app (and even then, the remote has a dedicated "Netflix" button, so need to even go into the "apps" menu!). I even configured the "app" section, removing apps I'd never use, adding ones I thought I might like, etc, etc. I have no doubt that the vast majority of smart TV owners use the "smart" part even less.

 

[ChadT41]

I surely don't. I explained my position earlier with the netflix. My tv remote has a dedicated Netflix button, but that would be the only button id use, so that remote sits in a drawer. Netflix, unused. Lol.

 

[JSheridan]

My 8 year old loves the fireplace app.

 

[jessshaun]

I use the virtual Joey on my PS3 with gigabit Ethernet. Absolutely no issues at all. Just as responsive as a regular Joey. Perhaps a little lag changing channels but otherwise works just fine

 

[Hall]

My 8 year old loves the fireplace app.

I need to find one of those. Our son thinks we need a fireplace in our new house (we had one in our previous home) and I'll tell him this is as good as he'll get !

 

[BBCInc]

I'd say it's most likely a fad since Dish can't even come up with an easily accessible and good list of TVs that support it.

 

[ChadT41]

I'd say it's most likely a fad since Dish can't even come up with an easily accessible and good list of TVs that support it.

With it as youg as it is, I think they are testing the waters with its success rate. I'm sure they have a target number, before they spend money trying to get it on more devices

 

[Hall]

I've asked about "apps" like these. Who develops them ? For example, how likely is it for Netflix to develop their app for dozens of TV manufacturers, BD players, streaming boxes, etc ? It's too bad there wasn't some "open" platform that devices shared so that porting apps was so much easier or not even necessary.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[ChadT41]

The way I always thought about it, was companies like Netflix wrote the base code, and then other companies can use that base, and write in their own code to adapt it to their system. It's the only way that makes sense to me, without explanation otherwise, when so many different systems are used. Dish uses a Linux based system, so whatever specifics they have, they can adapt Netflix base code into that for Linux. That was just my thinking. I am completely open to being educated otherwise.

 

[JM42]

Probably depends on the app. Netflix is a must have app for any smart TV, I'd bet the manufacturers pay for it up front one way or another - licensing, putting in the development hours, etc, or some combination thereof to get it on the box upfront. Manufacturers probably get some kickback over time, but with a flat rate service like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc it' probably minimal.

Netflix, with maybe Amazon and Hulu are probably the only ones that have enough leverage to get much up front action. I'd expect most everyone else is doing whatever they can to get on any device possible. I would think they pay the manufacturers one way or another, placement fees, VOD purchase commissions, etc.

 

[ohioankev]

I can say fad, I could never get any of the DVR recordings from my second hopper to stream via choosing it from the drop down box, just a black screen, with the record icon with a line through it with no information banner. However it streamed the DVR events from the paired Hopper with no problem. Pairing and Unpairing from one Hopper to another is a pain, you have to physically walk to the 1st Hopper deactivate it, walk to the 2nd Hopepr get the get the pairing code, then go back to the ps3. After three months I cancelled it and even deactivated one of my other three hardware joeys and sent it back. Cool concept, clears, a hdmi port, or removes something from your grid (even though in my case my ps3 uses more juice than a joey) but to many bugs.

My internet was 50 down/3up, now 75down/3up and my setup was hardwired to the internet.

 

[Stargazer]

A fad since they do not advertise it much, charge the same amount as having an actual Joey and the issues that some people are having. Cable charges nothing to use a splitter to get some channels on their service so why couldn't Dish do the same? Oh thats right, greed.

 

[ChadT41]

Cable is also limited SD. They require additional boxes for the whole range of channels and features.