DISH HOPPER SPEC SHEETS

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qcarm said:
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.
Click to expand...

Easier said than done. It's not as easy as simply buying another HR34 and plugging it in. A single HR34 must be installed using a DirecTV SL3S Slimline KA/KU SWM LNBF and an 8 way splitter which both come free of charge with a standard DTV install for a new customer. However, you can't simply plug in another HR34 - it won't work.

To add another HR34, not only would you have to pay $399 plus tax for the receiver, you'd have to purchase a SWM16 - another $225, a completely different LNB (SL3 with 4 outputs - predates SWM tech) for another $60, and then have it all installed. Your talking $800 - $900 including install.

I don't know about you, but cost can be a helluva restriction.

For all intents and purposes, unless your willing to drop a bundle of cash, the HR34 is a four room system and that's it. Which brings up another problem. If you have an HR34 with three clients (RVU or H24/H25) then you have to hardwire the HR34 to the internet since a DECA can't be used in that situation. To make matters more challenging we've been experiencing issues specifically with this configuration whereby the remote clients aren't able to connect to the internet for DTV Cinema, etc. D* is aware of the problem and they're working on it.

Now to the Hopper. First one is said to be free with two-year agreement, rumor is that you will be able to add a second for $99. A two-Hopper system will easily accommodate 6 HDTV's with the ability to record 6 HD programs simultaneously (9 during primetime). There are a ton of advantages to the Hopper system beyond aggressive pricing. Full DVR functionality in every room (the ability to manipulate live programming) which the HR34 can't do, and connectivity for streaming content is a breeze, just to name a couple.
 
So will there be a way to disable these forced downloads of bs we do nit necessariky want? PTA will be diasabled by default but if the receiver is constantly dling vod movies as they exit the theatres hoe long do you think that platter hdd is going to last? Seriously...

Sent from my fingers.
 
Like any DISH DVR the hard drive runs 24/7 as its always downloading something.

Hard Drive life has not been an issue with their DVR's, don't see that changing when Hopper comes out.
 
Well like most of you I'm drooling over the possibilities of the Hopper/Joey system. We would be looking for a 5 HDTV setup. The spec sheet at the beginning of this thread indicates that in a typical 5 tv setup you need three coax lines coming in to a duo node switch and then from the switch out to 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. My question if anyone knows is if I have 3 coax coming in the house from the dish through the attic, two run to the basement where 1 is connected to a VIP722 and the other is unused. The third coax runs direct to an upstairs bedroom 2 floors away feeding a VIP612. Am I going to need to run another coax from the house attic entry point to the basement so the switch can be installed there or should I just try to extend the coax going to the bedroom down to the basement to meet up with the other two? I also have coax running from the basement to all 5 HDTV's for OTA so I would be all set with the outputs from the duo node as it has been mentioned that you can diplex the signal with OTA. I'll just have to figure that out later.
 
david_jr said:
Well like most of you I'm drooling over the possibilities of the Hopper/Joey system. We would be looking for a 5 HDTV setup. The spec sheet at the beginning of this thread indicates that in a typical 5 tv setup you need three coax lines coming in to a duo node switch and then from the switch out to 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. My question if anyone knows is if I have 3 coax coming in the house from the dish through the attic, two run to the basement where 1 is connected to a VIP722 and the other is unused. The third coax runs direct to an upstairs bedroom 2 floors away feeding a VIP612. Am I going to need to run another coax from the house attic entry point to the basement so the switch can be installed there or should I just try to extend the coax going to the bedroom down to the basement to meet up with the other two? I also have coax running from the basement to all 5 HDTV's for OTA so I would be all set with the outputs from the duo node as it has been mentioned that you can diplex the signal with OTA. I'll just have to figure that out later.
Click to expand...

I'd put the duo node in the attic, put one Hopper where you 722 is and the other where your 612 is, then take your currently unused coax that runs to the basement connect one end to the node in the attic and the other end into a standard cable splitter in the basement to feed your other TV's. Done.
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
Hard Drive life has not been an issue with their DVR's, don't see that changing when Hopper comes out.
Click to expand...

Gotta disagree a bit. I've had several hard drive failures over the years. My 722 twice and once each for both my 612's. My original 622 is still humming along fine, go figure. :)

Single Point of Failure is one reason I probably won't be moving to Hopper anytime soon.
 
digitalblue said:
Easier said than done. It's not as easy as simply buying another HR34 and plugging it in. A single HR34 must be installed using a DirecTV SL3S Slimline KA/KU SWM LNBF and an 8 way splitter which both come free of charge with a standard DTV install for a new customer. However, you can't simply plug in another HR34 - it won't work.

To add another HR34, not only would you have to pay $399 plus tax for the receiver, you'd have to purchase a SWM16 - another $225, a completely different LNB (SL3 with 4 outputs - predates SWM tech) for another $60, and then have it all installed. Your talking $800 - $900 including install.

I don't know about you, but cost can be a helluva restriction.

For all intents and purposes, unless your willing to drop a bundle of cash, the HR34 is a four room system and that's it. Which brings up another problem. If you have an HR34 with three clients (RVU or H24/H25) then you have to hardwire the HR34 to the internet since a DECA can't be used in that situation. To make matters more challenging we've been experiencing issues specifically with this configuration whereby the remote clients aren't able to connect to the internet for DTV Cinema, etc. D* is aware of the problem and they're working on it.

Now to the Hopper. First one is said to be free with two-year agreement, rumor is that you will be able to add a second for $99. A two-Hopper system will easily accommodate 6 HDTV's with the ability to record 6 HD programs simultaneously (9 during primetime). There are a ton of advantages to the Hopper system beyond aggressive pricing. Full DVR functionality in every room (the ability to manipulate live programming) which the HR34 can't do, and connectivity for streaming content is a breeze, just to name a couple.
Click to expand...

Some of what you say isn't how I understand it.

As a NEW Direct customer, which I am, if I would have added one more tuner giving me a total of 9 tuners (5 in the HR34 + 4 more tuners for 5 rooms total) they would have given me the different LNB and SWM16 for free. The SWM16 is still SWM even if it takes 4 lines from the LNB it still uses only one line per device after that. So no cost there.

The SWM16 bridges DECA between the two SWM8 ports but that is a recent change. Even if it didn't you could bridge them at an ethernet switch/router with two Cinema Kits and still have a full whole home DVR system with internet access for VOD etc.. I haven't had any problems connecting to the internet with the Cinema Connection Kit from any of my clients or the HR34 but that isn't to say nobody else isn't having problems.

I would bet that both Dish and Direct are going to have multiple firmware updates before everything is resolved. Also, the HR34 is the first DVR from Direct that can bridge Ethernet with its built in port simultaneously with the DECA so that could take the place of the Cinema Connection Kit. So I don't see any negatives from a technology standpoint.

Now the disadvantage I can see is if a person uses Joey's for Dish or RVU's for Direct is that if the main box goes out you lose all TV. That is why I went to separate tuners for the HR34 so that if it bites the dust I can still watch TV in addition to watching recordings.

So the true cost for a NEW customer would be the additional $399 internet purchase to add one more HR34. The HR34 and H25's and Cinema Connection kit were all free for me, I just had to pay for the $20 install/handling fee.

That probably isn't much different than how Dish will charge new versus existing customers
 
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