OTA dongle for Hopper

[shadowfrom88]

Hey everyone.....I got my Hopper with Sling last week and love it and my dish anywhere app works flawlessly. Now i have a question about the OTA dongle for the Hopper. I want to be able to receive my true local stations and substations.....Ive seen a few screen shots on google showing how the stations show up in the guide.....and I thought I read in another thread that having this dongle somehow gives you another tuner for your locals. Is this true, or did I misunderstand?

 

[thomasjk]

Yes the OTA dongle gives you another tuner for your locals. Its plug and play. Plug it in and follow the prompts.

 

[Scherrman]

The OTA Module is an antenna tuner so it is adding an extra tuner for you. It's only for your off air channels but it does free up your satellite tuners for other recordings. It's a pretty awesome feature.

 

[shadowfrom88]

thanks for the replies!!

 

[KAB]

Two words: Get One!

 

[Bobby]

Just to be certain, you do need an antenna to receive channels with the dongle....

 

[dwarren2]

There is a problem with ota recording right now. You can only record from the primary channel and not the subchannels for each station. If you try to set a timer or press the record button on those channels, nothing happens. We're waiting for a fix.

 

[foghorn2]

Yep, its badly broken- all my ota channel timers do not work and in my city, most of the subchannels will not have guide data

 

[dvrexpander]

Just to be certain, you do need an antenna to receive channels with the dongle....

Can't tell ya how many people I went to that got the dongle and were like " I can't get my locals!!" and didn't have an antenna... I remember getting hit with at least two TC's for it cause the CSR's were too stupid to ask.

 

[larrykenney]

I'm still waiting for the "Add digital channels" feature for OTA stations that has been "coming soon" for a long time. With stations coming in from several directions, it's impossible to get all of them into the OTA list. Point the antenna in one direction you get some stations, point it in another direction you get different stations... there's no way to add ALL of the stations since it remakes the list every time you scan. We have stations coming in from the Northeast, East, Southeast, South, West and Northwest, so we need the "Add" feature really bad.

On the positive side, the Dish OTA tuner is the most sensitive one in the house. It'll lock in stations where other tuners show "No Signal".

Larry
SF

 

[KKlare]

If you archive, you should note that OTA recordings are 2 to 4 times larger in storage that satellite ones, but are often better defined.
-Ken

 

[Scherrman]

Can't tell ya how many people I went to that got the dongle and were like " I can't get my locals!!" and didn't have an antenna... I remember getting hit with at least two TC's for it cause the CSR's were too stupid to ask.

When we lost our local ABC due to a dispute we had customers calling Dish to complain about it. The CSR's way of fixing their issue was to send them an OTA module and they promised that they would pick it up that way. They never told the customer about needing an antenna or anything. Pure stupidity just to get a customer off the phone.

 

[Grandude]

There is a problem with ota recording right now. You can only record from the primary channel and not the subchannels for each station. If you try to set a timer or press the record button on those channels, nothing happens. We're waiting for a fix.

I've figured out what works for me. If I bring up the channel and program I want to record, I then press the record button three times. This brings up a screen giving a few options. Tab over and select 'manual timer' which then changes the screen again and hit create, after you have made any changes you want, like start/stop time.
If you don't tab over to the Manual Timer button at the bottom, this will not work.

Any other sequence will not work.

Seems a bit more than should be needed to record a -2 or above timer, but what do I know.

 

[dwarren2]

Thanks. I learned a new trick.

 

[lucky86]

That is also the known work around, creating a manual timer.

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[edisonprime]

Haven't had Dish since July of last year. I had the OTA dongle with my Hopper, and since the introduction of the OTA dongle until I left, the "add locals" feature was never enabled. Did Dish ever enable that since I left?

 

[thomasjk]

Answered here http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/thr...cals-feature-for-the-ota-dongle.339790/unread

 

[DishSubLA]

Haven't had Dish since July of last year. I had the OTA dongle with my Hopper, and since the introduction of the OTA dongle until I left, the "add locals" feature was never enabled. Did Dish ever enable that since I left?

No.

 

[ChadT41]

Gonna bite the bullet. I'm gonna get an indoor OTA. Check out my local subs. Any recommendation on an indoor CHEAP antenna? Keep in mind, I want indoor because, frankly, it's 118 outside and I just don't even want to deal with that bs.

 

[dwarren2]

Depending on how far the tv towers are from your location, a cheap antenna mau or may not work. Go to tvfool.com, plug in your location and you will see what type of antenna you need.