Scott's Review of DISH's Hopper with Sling

i have the option to get a new hopper with sling built in for 100 bucks or get a sling adapter for 49 and add it to my current hopper.

any advantages to either of the above? Wasn't sure which performed better or if the new hopper did something else mine didn't and so forth

Zach from Dirt said he has both and doesn't notice a difference

can the hopper run more than one USB device at a time? EHD and sling both attached at the rear USB ports (i think there are two back there)

thoughts?

thanks guys
 
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i have the option to get a new hopper with sling built in for 100 bucks or get a sling adapter for 49 and add it to my current hopper.

any advantages to either of the above? Wasn't sure which performed better or if the new hopper did something else mine didn't and so forth

Zach from Dirt said he has both and doesn't notice a difference

can the hopper run more than one USB device at a time? EHD and sling both attached at the rear USB ports (i think there are two back there)

thoughts?

thanks guys


There are a number of threads on here stating the differences between the original Hopper and the Hopper with Sling. Here are some quick differences: the Hoper with sling is fast, has built-in WiFi, built-in Sling and can transfer recorded shows to an iPad.
 
Im in process of transferring a movie.
Any reason why transfer is so painfully slow?
My download speeds from Uverse are fast??
Hopper has direct internet connection.

Just received new sling loaded Hopper yesterday.
Taking out for a spin right now.
 
When you set up to record a show you should select the prepare for transfer option. Once it's available to transfer it should only take 5 - 10 minutes depending on the length of the show.
 
When you set up to record a show you should select the prepare for transfer option. Once it's available to transfer it should only take 5 - 10 minutes depending on the length of the show.

Im downloading a full length movie just to try it.
Its been 30 minutes and its only at 25%?

Set up to transfer correct?
 
When you set up to record a show you should select the prepare for transfer option. Once it's available to transfer it should only take 5 - 10 minutes depending on the length of the show.

I tried that on a couple of shows, it didn't seem to make any difference. If it would've I was going set set all my timers to prepare for transfer so any show would be ready.

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner
 
please educate me. I currently have a dish 625 DVR with 2 receivers. am interested in the hopper with sling if I can pick up my dish programming anywhere with wifi? will the 625 need to be replaced? and will the new receiver have capability of two receivers?
thanks
sorney1
 
please educate me. I currently have a dish 625 DVR with 2 receivers. am interested in the hopper with sling if I can pick up my dish programming anywhere with wifi? will the 625 need to be replaced? and will the new receiver have capability of two receivers?
thanks
sorney1

What do you mean "with 2 receivers?" Two tuners?

The Hopper system will not coexist with a 625.

You could set up a Joey with coax and then shift to wireless.
 
What do you mean "with 2 receivers?" Two tuners?

The Hopper system will not coexist with a 625.

You could set up a Joey with coax and then shift to wireless.

my 625 will feed two TVs with different programming. can a "Joey" work with my 625? or do I have to junk the 625 and just go with a hopper?
thanks,
sorney1
 
My original Hopper just had a hard drive failure last week. Dish shipped a replacement. I hooked it up and noticed the menus were far faster (sure seems that way anyway -- but I don't have the old one to do a comparison). As far as I know, this is not a Hopper with Sling though. Doesn't say so on the front.

Did Dish switch to revised hardware on the basic Hopper that includes the extra CPU horsepower? Or do I have a Hopper with Sling and not realize it? I did hook up my external Sling adapter and it's working fine.
 
My 722 crashed this past Tuesday so I think I'm going to finally get the 2 Hopper / 2 Joey system (currently have 722, 612, 211). Seems a lot of the initial bugs/problems have been worked out (been following this group for over a year now!). I PM'd Ray (one of the DIRT members) and he was very prompt with his reply. However, I have some questions I'm hoping the group could answer.

1. Is there truth to the fact that if I got 1 Hopper with Sling and one without that I can't see the other Sling-less Hopper's programming from the Internet. Not the home network. I know you can see Hopper content from the home network.

2. Or is it just that you cannot create iPad ready content from the Sling-less-Hopper's recordings. Only the Sling Hopper.

3. Was quoted a $200 upgrade for 2 Hoppers w/Sling and $0 for two regular Hoppers. Am I missing something in thinking that I could just get two Sling adapters at $50 each and save $100? From what I'm reading there is no difference in add on vs. integrated (performance, options, etc...).

Waiting anxiously for any replies as I want to get going on this. For those member's with wives you'll know what I mean by *really* need to get the DVR replacement in soon. ;-)
 
I wanted to be able to use the Hopper Transfer since I don't think the Dish Anywhere quality is very good but was disappointed that it doesn't work with the external sling. I chatted with Dish about swapping out my Hopper and Sling for a Hopper with Sling and was told they wanted $100 to do it. I think that is ridiculous. I'm one sad Dish customer right now.
 
My 722 crashed this past Tuesday so I think I'm going to finally get the 2 Hopper / 2 Joey system (currently have 722, 612, 211). Seems a lot of the initial bugs/problems have been worked out (been following this group for over a year now!). I PM'd Ray (one of the DIRT members) and he was very prompt with his reply. However, I have some questions I'm hoping the group could answer.

1. Is there truth to the fact that if I got 1 Hopper with Sling and one without that I can't see the other Sling-less Hopper's programming from the Internet. Not the home network. I know you can see Hopper content from the home network.

2. Or is it just that you cannot create iPad ready content from the Sling-less-Hopper's recordings. Only the Sling Hopper.

3. Was quoted a $200 upgrade for 2 Hoppers w/Sling and $0 for two regular Hoppers. Am I missing something in thinking that I could just get two Sling adapters at $50 each and save $100? From what I'm reading there is no difference in add on vs. integrated (performance, options, etc...).

Waiting anxiously for any replies as I want to get going on this. For those member's with wives you'll know what I mean by *really* need to get the DVR replacement in soon. ;-)

One difference is you can't do Hopper Transfer with the external sling.
 
1. As far as i know that is correct but i would talk yo a more experienced person, never seen a dual hopper set uo with one of them built in sling.

2. Correct, The non sling hopper can't be used with the iPad transfer app.

3. The hopper with sling costs $100 per unit for an upgrade. Its a little more then just the sling. You get the built in sling adapter, built in wifi, access to the iPad transfer feature. Slightly improved system performance.

Sent From My Samsung Hercules
 
1. I think this may be possible but if not you can always move stuff from the old Hopper to the new one.

2. Move from old to new.

3. NewHopper is faster, with more memory, faster CPU and an improved chipset. I call that future proofing for any added features and apps that may arise down the road. You may well regret that short term $100 savings.
 
Thanks to everyone's reply to my post. I did get the 1 Hopper w/built-in Sling (no adapter), 1 regular Hopper and 1 Joey. All installed fine, MoCA connection all, I can see DVR content from any device, broadband works, everything. However, from the H w/Sling I can see the regular Hopper w/o Sling contents like you would expect but when I try to play back any recording from the regular Hopper I get some other non-HD channel programming (seems a random pick, but from one of the PTAT channels recording) and not the recorded event I selected. If I use the DVR controls I get a red "oh no you can't" icon like the function is not possible (ff, rwd, etc...). Then if I press the channel up or down buttons to exit the recording the video goes out but I can hear the audio for that channel. If I play around with switching tuners on the H w/Sling I can at least get one tuner's video, but only one. Mostly get a black screen with audio.

The one Joey connects and plays recordings just fine from either Hopper. Same for the other Hopper w/o Sling. The system was just installed Monday so I'll let it sit one more day before I have to contact DISH. Almost seems like a defective Hopper w/Sling. And BTW, a power cycle does get the Hopper w/Sling to play nice again and work like it should...until I try to access the other Hopper's contents. Very frustrating.



1. I think this may be possible but if not you can always move stuff from the old Hopper to the new one.

2. Move from old to new.

3. NewHopper is faster, with more memory, faster CPU and an improved chipset. I call that future proofing for any added features and apps that may arise down the road. You may well regret that short term $100 savings.