Dual Hopper Intergration (From Team Summit)

[356B]

I found it interesting that Auto Hop just showed up, apparently it caught many of us by surprise.
I imagine integration will be similar, the design Scott viewed is not perfect, if in reality is what we actually get.
Regardless I'm pleased that Dish seems to be addressing the issue and not going down the "TV Everywhere Extender" road, or so it seems.
OTA could be another thing.

 

[Scherrman]

I found it interesting that Auto Hop just showed up, apparently it caught many of us by surprise.
I imagine integration will be similar, the design Scott viewed is not perfect, if in reality is what we actually get.
Regardless I'm pleased that Dish seems to be addressing the issue and not going down the "TV Everywhere Extender" road, or so it seems.
OTA could be another thing.

Well they need to keep some things secret so they can have fun announcements during summit. Integration would've been great but everyone is already aware it's coming.

 

[satjay]

I think the first step is a good one when we get it. For example if I wanted to watch something right now that was recorded on a hopper one in one room that I did not record on hopper two in another room that would be handy!

 

[Scherrman]

I think the first step is a good one when we get it. For example if I wanted to watch something right now that was recorded on a hopper one in one room that I did not record on hopper two in another room that would be handy!

I'm looking forward to it. It's really all I need it to do. As long as I can access either hopper from any room I'm a happy camper.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would still just absolutely love to hear somebody give an exact date of when this "integration" will be available.

What if I told you I heard a rumor last night that it's coming out in a month that starts with a J?

 

[n0qcu]

January?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

January?

Kevin you are terrible at charades. Listen to the clues.

 

[n0qcu]

Sorry, I forgot the

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

That's better

 

[NotMe546]

Wow some guys will never be happy with anything Dish does.
In there defense I would find it hard to considering how perfect the other company isn't.

 

[Laddyboy]

Wow some guys will never be happy with anything Dish does.
In there defense I would find it hard to considering how perfect the other company isn't.

I think the disappointment is that the integration really isn't seamless. When the user has to go to a menu to select a source instead of just punching the DVR button to see what's available for watching, that isn't my definition of seamless. Ditto for having to select a Hopper on which to set a timer. It's really just the Joey's current implementation of linking to a Hopper.

 

[CubsWin]

Count me as another disappointed user after hearing about this "seamless integration" with seams.

Part of the Hopper/Joey selling point to my wife was that a future update would integrate the entire system so that timers and recordings are shared between all devices. While Dish's proposed integration is better than nothing, I can guarantee my wife won't know what to do when Hopper 1 has 3 tuners in use and she is trying to watch live TV. She will most likely end up stopping a recording instead of switching to the 2nd Hopper. This is just too complicated for the average user.

 

[NotMe546]

I think the disappointment is that the integration really isn't seamless. When the user has to go to a menu to select a source instead of just punching the DVR button to see what's available for watching, that isn't my definition of seamless. Ditto for having to select a Hopper on which to set a timer. It's really just the Joey's current implementation of linking to a Hopper.

Its a start. They can't be perfect at everything they do.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its a start. They can't be perfect at everything they do.

Yup that is exactly what it is... A start.

It does not mean they are done with integration at all.

First step is making it do people can view their programs from all hoppers anywhere in their house. I am shocked and amazed how much progress they have made on this box since it has come out on March 15th!

 

[manteca]

any info about the "seamless" integration directly from dish? just to know what to expect in the near future and what features are going to be included or just a list on what the hopper will do to comply with the "seamless" integration to avoid speculation

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

any info about the "seamless" integration directly from dish? just to know what to expect in the near future and what features are going to be included or just a list on what the hopper will do to comply with the "seamless" integration to avoid speculation

We only know what was posted, including this is just the start.

 

[dangue]

Yup that is exactly what it is... A start.

It does not mean they are done with integration at all.

First step is making it do people can view their programs from all hoppers anywhere in their house. I am shocked and amazed how much progress they have made on this box since it has come out on March 15th!

Not to mention how stable it's been since release. After reading about the 922 release experience I was a bit weary of being a beta tester on this box. But that simply hasn't been the case.

I will say that this "integration" is a bit underwhelming as described so far. But given that they are saying that it's just an initial roll out and will be improved, I'm hopeful that it will become more robust over time. I also have to commend them on the pace of the software updates. They could have played it safe and held off on bug fixes and feature enhancements until they had enough for one big roll out; instead they're doing incremental releases and getting these updates to consumers at a very rapid pace. This tells me that they are serious about improving this product and enhancing its feature set for the foreseeable future.

 

[Laddyboy]

Yup that is exactly what it is... A start.

It does not mean they are done with integration at all.

First step is making it do people can view their programs from all hoppers anywhere in their house. I am shocked and amazed how much progress they have made on this box since it has come out on March 15th!

In a 2 Hopper system, Joeys could already see each Hopper by pairing to it. All they have done is give each Hopper the ability to pair to the other via a menu option. I also thought you said before they had a combined DVR listing but they thought it was too cluttered so they backtracked to this simple solution.

 

[hojni]

I also want to express my disappointment with the current direction for 2 Hopper integration. Being a 27-year IT professional, the limited integration sure seems to be the easy way out. As expressed by many others, my expectation was full integration into a single, virtual, 6-tuner whole-home DVR. To me this means that the Hoppers would manage timers and PTAT between the two Hoppers, load balance, provide consolidated tuner listings and give you an option to list all DVR and PTAT programs from both Hoppers together. Ultimiately, true integration should make think that you have one big a$$ DVR, not two, and the Joeys should never need to be reassigned because the only know about the one whole-home DVR group.

That is not what appears to be on Dish's immediate road-map; it appears that they have assigned the task of Hopper integration to the dumb or lazy programmer group looking for the easy way out. True integration is seemless and transparent.

Scott, as you've stated, this is probably just the first phase of Hopper integration, but I feel that we need to publicly state our expectations out to ensure that Dish ultimately delivers the product we all believe we were promised. Being an early adopter, I am happy with what Dish has delivered so far; i just don't see any value to the DVR drop-down that Dish is proposing for Hopper integration - retargeting a Joey is pretty easy. (However, the Hopper system still beats option 2 for HD distribution that I had been considering; a couple of $1,200 ZeeVee boxes connected to my Vip722s via component cables.)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thanks Dangue, as I said before this box is the FUTURE of the company. What we are seeing now is just the birth of something great.

Look at all the evolution we have has since March 15th!

Stay Tuned!