Cancelled Service, want to keep Hopper

jeffmikey

Member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2017
5
2
Jefferson City
I finally cancelled my Dish Network service after 6 years. I'm familiar with the process, and they're sending me the prepaid boxes. I get to keep the LNB, whoo hoo, since it's 30' off the ground on the back of the house.

Here's my quandary. I don't care about the Joey. I want to keep the Hopper since I have years worth of DVR content on there that I can't easily extract. I'm not talking movies/ tv series. But local news broadcasts that have my kids singing Christmas carols, a couple of late night, out-of-print movies I recorded like the "Peanut Butter Solution" that cannot be reacquired easily. Along with some old documentaries from LinkTV, etc. that were indie produced, old nfl/ mlb games, etc...

Anyone have any idea what they will charge me not to return it? I'm probably ok with up to $150, but not much more.

Thanks for any insight!
 
$299 going by the contract. Other option is to play the important ones and record in real time to analog to DVD recorder if you have one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DishSubLA
I found some terms of service online and they said: "Hopper and Hopper with Sling, $249; and Hopper 3, $349." I'm not sure which you have, but those are the unreturned equipment fees for those Hopper products.

EDIT: mydish.com has this listed: "Hopper 3, Hopper with Sling, or Hopper $299.00"
 
I finally cancelled my Dish Network service after 6 years. I'm familiar with the process, and they're sending me the prepaid boxes. I get to keep the LNB, whoo hoo, since it's 30' off the ground on the back of the house.

Here's my quandary. I don't care about the Joey. I want to keep the Hopper since I have years worth of DVR content on there that I can't easily extract. I'm not talking movies/ tv series. But local news broadcasts that have my kids singing Christmas carols, a couple of late night, out-of-print movies I recorded like the "Peanut Butter Solution" that cannot be reacquired easily. Along with some old documentaries from LinkTV, etc. that were indie produced, old nfl/ mlb games, etc...

Anyone have any idea what they will charge me not to return it? I'm probably ok with up to $150, but not much more.

Thanks for any insight!

Assuming these are of special significance to you, I would work on getting them onto some less temporary medium than a DVR hard drive. Ideally, a digital format which can be stored in the cloud. You could spend $250 or more to keep your Hopper, but then the disk just dies some day. That does not seem the most economical or long-term of plans.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DWS44
Can you play back recorded content on a Hooper 3 once your Dish subscription is cancelled and the Hooper 3 is “deactivated”? And if so, for how long after the cancellation?
 
Can you play back recorded content on a Hooper 3 once your Dish subscription is cancelled and the Hooper 3 is “deactivated”? And if so, for how long after the cancellation?
Reports of "how long after" have varied. Generally I think it has been around a month or so.
 
When I had my 722k disconnected last year, the dvr function was disabled nearly immediately with internal and external drive recordings. All it takes is a "kill hit", and it's gone.

I don't imagine the Hopper is much different. If the OP didn't already pull off his recordings, he's most likely going to be SOL real soon...
 
I forgot to mention it's the 1st generation hopper. I didn't consider "kill" switch command. It's hard-wired to my home switch. I'll unplug it when I get home. They probably already initiated a lockout command on a timer or something. I do know when I put the service on pause a year ago, I figured they would at least let me sling the dvr content, but they locked me out of that service, so the commands from Dish HQ are probably timely.
 
even when not connected, it eventually will stop working, as the authorization is not permanent
time frame varies
 
It will also lock itself out after so much time without seeing a satellite signal.
EGADS! Thanks for the information. I guess my only option is to setup an analog recorder and do it in realtime. Heck I should have been on this while I had sling capabilities because I have a stream recorder rig on my laptop. That would have at least kept it in digital, compressed format... I was under the impression I could move the hopper (disconnect from satellite) and set it up on my work bench and get some of the content off that way. I'm not able to haul a bunch of crap up to the den with wires running all over the place.

So once the service is disconnected, the Hopper becomes a boat anchor? I wonder why they're all over eBay then. I guess they can be wiped and reactivated for another customer?
 
EGADS! Thanks for the information. I guess my only option is to setup an analog recorder and do it in realtime. Heck I should have been on this while I had sling capabilities because I have a stream recorder rig on my laptop. That would have at least kept it in digital, compressed format... I was under the impression I could move the hopper (disconnect from satellite) and set it up on my work bench and get some of the content off that way. I'm not able to haul a bunch of crap up to the den with wires running all over the place.

So once the service is disconnected, the Hopper becomes a boat anchor? I wonder why they're all over eBay then. I guess they can be wiped and reactivated for another customer?

Yes, they can be reactivated if Dish wants. IF you REALLY want to get those recordings off, I highly suggest you call Dish back and cancel the cancellation until that's done. Or maybe put it on a small subscription.
 
even when not connected, it eventually will stop working, as the authorization is not permanent
time frame varies
are you sure about that?
I am watching a show that was recorded 2/21/16 on my H2 that was on an account deactivated almost a year ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pattykay
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)