Scott's Mini Hopper 3 Review

[Bobby]

Does the sports app work well on the Hopper 3? The one where it shows you scores and you can click on the game. It is nice for us in Northern California since Sacramento Kings games are often on one of the auxiliary sports channels around 412-39 or so. That is one of my favorite apps and sometimes it is slow. I am getting my 3 installed this weekend.

If you are speaking about Game Finder, it will work just fine on the Hopper 3...

 

[Scherrman]

True, but without the OTA tuner, you cannot record anything on the DVR that is OTA only.

You could always purchase an OTA DVR. Channel master has a very nice one. It's obviously much more simple to use the Hopper tuner though, but it is another option.

 

[nyrfan1]

Is anyone getting a Hopper 3 that does not have a 4K TV yet? If so, what are the reasons? Would love PIP on my hopper (4K Joey) and speedier interface.

 

[Bobby]

16 tuners baby!!!

 

[Scherrman]

Is anyone getting a Hopper 3 that does not have a 4K TV yet? If so, what are the reasons? Would love PIP on my hopper (4K Joey) and speedier interface.

I actually do have a 4K TV but I would've upgraded regardless. The 16 tuners and full integration on all my TVs was a big thing. Love the idea of the Sports bar mode. Having faster Joeys and my whole system with the new UI is a plus.

Keeping up with the latest tech so I can talk about it here is also a big reason.

 

[DishSubLA]

That odd the screenshot saying 17 tuner with PTAT being on Tuner 17 it even showing in TV Activity list of 17 tuners in use

Here is what I think is happening: An H3 with an OTA tuner and PTAT active, the H3 is probably just assigning the label "Tuner 17" to the PTAT during recording. This means that, one would think, tuners labeled 1-15 would be Sat Tuners, and tuner labeled 16 is the OTA tuner.

This seems to be just a matter of convention for the organization and labeling of the active tuners. It seems that Dish felt it best to have the tuner being used for PTAT to be the LAST or lowest labeled on the tuner screen so that the remaining tuners are grouped together with no breaks in the list for PTAT. I agree with this organization. It makes for a more simple and intuitive display. Remember, the average subscriber is not going to know or care about the label or have the Power User knowledge to find the label "Tuner 17" for PTAT to be at all curious or a mystery.

 

[DishSubLA]

Nope that's a feature.

If you think its bad I can send you a screen shot from my DirecTV receiver which will make you a fan of the one banner on the screen.

I leave mine on the HWS on because it is easy to ignore, but I also have found them to be of use only a few times.

 

[DishSubLA]

I cannot agree with this. The Hopper OTA is very poor compared to the TV that is connected to same antenna.

In general TV's do have the best OTA tuners. Most other devices won't have the best OTA tuners. What I can say is that the Dish USB OTA tuner is no worse or better than my TiVo S3, HDXL, and Roamio capable of CATV or OTA. The Premiere does have an inferior OTA tuner. I think both TiVo and Dish use the same OTA tuners, at least they did before the USB came out.

 

[eddie willers]

In general TV's do have the best OTA tuners. Most other devices won't have the best OTA tuners. What I can say is that the Dish USB OTA tuner is no worse or better than my TiVo S3, HDXL, and Roamio capable of CATV or OTA. The Premiere does have an inferior OTA tuner. I think both TiVo and Dish use the same OTA tuners, at least they did before the USB came out.

Back in the old days (2008) my Sony HDTV's tuner was superior to the one built into the Dish ViP 622.

Yeah.....if its a cheap TV, I bet the Hopper OTA beats it. Or vice versa.

 

[DishSubLA]

Back in the old days (2008) my Sony HDTV's tuner was superior to the one built into the Dish ViP 622.

Yeah.....if its a cheap TV, I bet the Hopper OTA beats it. Or vice versa.

I find, with my painful transition to digital OTA and a LOT of test situations and TV's and devices, the Dish USB OTA is sufficiently robust, again, equally as good as the TiVo's. Most people would do themselves a favor by placing their OTA antenna on the roof or at a higher place or good location. Location, Location, Location. An antenna in the PROPER location (and the PROPER antenna) will have even an inferior OTA tuner perform like a good one, as is the case for my stinky OTA in the TiVo Premiere.

 

[DishSubLA]

OK, I am just waiting for Dish to support TWO H3's. I really do need TWO like we currently have two HWS's, not one. As you know, as of today, Dish is only allowing ONE H3 per account. However, I am optimistic as Vivek confirmed a switch designed to handle multiple H3's coming later this year, which suggests Dish will allow more than one H3 in the future. My only concern is that it may be a "coming soon" option. Scott's review extremely helpful and all additional info from posters is chock full of good bits. Keep up the good work. I shall continue reading.

 

[DishSubLA]

I can't honestly speak to that. Mine picks up pretty much everything available in my area that I would expect it to. By "working well", I was more referring to ease of setup and how well it integrates to the Hopper for viewing/recording.

Only real hiccup is the fact Dish doesn't always carry guide data for some subchannels outside the four main networks.

And that is the big rub for my mom as she likes and watches the content on the sub-channels with no guide data, but she really dis-likes there is no guide data for some of her favorite OTA channels. She just has to tune in if she remembers, but she often forgets and can only watch part of the program. She always asks me why can't Dish provide guide data for ALL the OTA's as they do for some of them. I always tell her it may be an issue with money. I suppose such additional data may make the guide data stream even longer than it already is. No one really knows why. I would sure love to get a straight answer about it like we used to get during the Charlie Chats or Tech Forums. At least we used to know the reason for some limitation back then.

 

[charlesrshell]

And that is the big rub for my mom as she likes and watches the content on the sub-channels with no guide data, but she really dis-likes there is no guide data for some of her favorite OTA channels. She just has to tune in if she remembers, but she often forgets and can only watch part of the program. She always asks me why can't Dish provide guide data for ALL the OTA's as they do for some of them. I always tell her it may be an issue with money. I suppose such additional data may make the guide data stream even longer than it already is. No one really knows why. I would sure love to get a straight answer about it like we used to get during the Charlie Chats or Tech Forums. At least we used to know the reason for some limitation back then.

I bet the Iceberg can answer why your OTA sub-channels have no guide data! He is the pro for OTA info.

 

[smokey982]

And that is the big rub for my mom as she likes and watches the content on the sub-channels with no guide data, but she really dis-likes there is no guide data for some of her favorite OTA channels. She just has to tune in if she remembers, but she often forgets and can only watch part of the program. She always asks me why can't Dish provide guide data for ALL the OTA's as they do for some of them. I always tell her it may be an issue with money. I suppose such additional data may make the guide data stream even longer than it already is. No one really knows why. I would sure love to get a straight answer about it like we used to get during the Charlie Chats or Tech Forums. At least we used to know the reason for some limitation back then.

I use the TV Guide app on my iPad for OTA sub channels. It shows all of the channels in my area.

 

[ralfyguy]

I use the TV Guide app on my iPad for OTA sub channels. It shows all of the channels in my area.

Makes you wonder why the Dish box couldn't just do the same..

 

[Scott D]

It looks like H3 and the 4K Joey have Bluetooth built in. I don't need a usb stick for either is that correct?

 

[ralfyguy]

It looks like H3 and the 4K Joey have Bluetooth built in. I don't need a usb stick for either is that correct?

I saw that USB stick on the Dish Store for $15. I wonder if that thing would work on a Windows PC, because that price isn't bad. I always wanted one for my old PC, but I don't know which of them out there has audio streaming capabilities.

 

[bmetelsky]

It looks like H3 and the 4K Joey have Bluetooth built in. I don't need a usb stick for either is that correct?

That is correct.

 

[smokey982]

Has anyone confirmed about DVR folders? Can shows be sorted inside of folders like they can outside of folders?

 

[odbrv]

I cannot agree with this. The Hopper OTA is very poor compared to the TV that is connected to same antenna.

On my HWS I got 24 OTA channels. On my H3 I only got 8 channels. With the same source my 4K TV gets 28 OTA channels. I have 2 OTA toggles and both work poorly on the H3.