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Cutting Edge
One of the longest awaited features of the Hopper is finally here and that is the release of the long awaited Digital Off Air Module or as we commonly call it the the OTA Module!
DISH Network chose a number of SatelliteGuys members to help test the OTA Module over the past few months and I was one of the lucky SatelliteGuys members to be included in the tests. The OTA Module arrived in a tiny box and did not contain anything but the module itself and the USB Cable to plug it into the Hopper. We did not receive any instruction manual, but it turns out we didn't need one.
Before I install it I deleted all the channels on my 1 year old 50 Inch Panasonic 3D Television. It was hooked up to my Antenna I have on the roof then I did a scan of all digital channels. When the scan was complete it was picking up 30 digital stations.
I then took the antenna coax from the back of the TV and hooked it up to the USB Tuner Module and then plugged it into the front USB port on my Hopper. Instantly it recognized the module and told me that it would need to reboot.
I let it reboot and then once it rebooted I was back to watching television. There was no mention on the screen of the OTA tuner. To setup the OTA its in a strange place, to get to the OTA settings you need to go into MENU, then SETTINGS, then DIAGNOSTICS then finally OVER THE AIR LOCALS.
After finding the setup for the OTA module in the settings I set it up. And setup was like any other DISH OTA tuner... simple.
I let it scan and was happy as it also found 30 channels, meaning this thing has a decent tuner.
After my first time setting it up I watched a few different channels. You can see the signal strength of each channel by pressing the info bottom on the remote. For all the channels I watched it worked good and locked on quick to the channels. Only on one station did I see some occasional pink pixelation. The signal level for this channel was 75 but it was also very windy outside at the time and this channel is the most distant channel that I can receive.
I was worried as after about 45 minutes of my first time using it I was just seeing the station call letters in my guide and no actually show data for the OTA channels. I had to go do some running around when I came back three hours later I was happy to see that most of the stations had guide data.
I learned that the guide data will fill in and was happy to see listings for channels like THECOOLTV, Antenna TV and THIS!
However it should be noted that Guide Data for the OTA channels is spotty at best. For example, as run down of the channels I can receive, the local CBS has a total of 4 channels, there is guide data for the first 3 but no data for the 4th channel, my local ABC station has Bounce TV as one of its sub channels, there is no listings but then the word "Bounc" in the guide, I get no guide listings for any of the Springfield, Mass channels, instead I just see the channel call letters listed in the guide, the only exception to this is the Springfield PBS which has no guide data for the main channel, but full guide info for it's 3 sub channels. The opposite is true for our local Connecticut PBS which has listings for the main channel but no listings for the sub channels. It is unfortunate that the tuner does not read the PSIP guide data from the channels for which DISH has no guide data for.
For the Hopper to work best for these channels it will need guide data... or manual timers. And luckily DISH is already working on adding manual timers to the Hopper and Joey. It was announced here on SatelliteGuys that a future software update would add manual timers on the Hopper system. Once manual timers are in place this will be an excellent system, and quite honestly what we have today is really usable.
I am happy to report that the OTA module can be viewed on the Joeys, however since the module is single tuner you can only tune to one OTA channel at a time on the entire system. Since I did not have two OTA modules I am unable to tell you if having an OTA module on each Hopper will work or not, but I can only guess that it will work fine. I do plan on ordering an OTA module for the second Hopper as soon as they are available on MyDISH.COM and I will be happy to report my findings when I have a second OTA module to test with.
While without complete guide data and manual timers might sound like a shortfall to some, I got to admit I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the performance of the module over the few months I was able to test it. All the shows I wanted to record had guide data and I enjoyed coming home and finding that the Hopper recorded the Monkees off of Antenna TV and the 80's on 8 off of THECOOLTV.
The tuners performance was very good for me, however I should note where I live 90% of the channels I receive come in at 100% for me. So dropouts and pixelation was rare for me. The only time I had issues was watching a fringe distant station. While the tuner in the module is very good, it is not a miracle maker able to fill in the missing data when the signal is low. Digital TV works differently then Analog, in the old days if you could get an analog signal you could watch it even if the signal was weak, but you would get ghosting, and noise on the screen, but with digital its not like that you either lock on the signal or you don't. This is a limitation of the digital technology and is not an issue with the Hopper tuner.
If you have been waiting to add OTA to your Hopper then I highly recommend that once the modules are available online that you order one! At $30 its a great buy and I think it is safe for me to say that the OTA Module is the missing link many of us have been waiting for!
When you get your OTA module please share your experience and thoughts on the OTA tuner here at SatelliteGuys!
Our thanks to the folks at DISH for making this First Look possible!
DISH Network chose a number of SatelliteGuys members to help test the OTA Module over the past few months and I was one of the lucky SatelliteGuys members to be included in the tests. The OTA Module arrived in a tiny box and did not contain anything but the module itself and the USB Cable to plug it into the Hopper. We did not receive any instruction manual, but it turns out we didn't need one.
Before I install it I deleted all the channels on my 1 year old 50 Inch Panasonic 3D Television. It was hooked up to my Antenna I have on the roof then I did a scan of all digital channels. When the scan was complete it was picking up 30 digital stations.
I then took the antenna coax from the back of the TV and hooked it up to the USB Tuner Module and then plugged it into the front USB port on my Hopper. Instantly it recognized the module and told me that it would need to reboot.
I let it reboot and then once it rebooted I was back to watching television. There was no mention on the screen of the OTA tuner. To setup the OTA its in a strange place, to get to the OTA settings you need to go into MENU, then SETTINGS, then DIAGNOSTICS then finally OVER THE AIR LOCALS.
After finding the setup for the OTA module in the settings I set it up. And setup was like any other DISH OTA tuner... simple.
I let it scan and was happy as it also found 30 channels, meaning this thing has a decent tuner.
After my first time setting it up I watched a few different channels. You can see the signal strength of each channel by pressing the info bottom on the remote. For all the channels I watched it worked good and locked on quick to the channels. Only on one station did I see some occasional pink pixelation. The signal level for this channel was 75 but it was also very windy outside at the time and this channel is the most distant channel that I can receive.
I was worried as after about 45 minutes of my first time using it I was just seeing the station call letters in my guide and no actually show data for the OTA channels. I had to go do some running around when I came back three hours later I was happy to see that most of the stations had guide data.
I learned that the guide data will fill in and was happy to see listings for channels like THECOOLTV, Antenna TV and THIS!
However it should be noted that Guide Data for the OTA channels is spotty at best. For example, as run down of the channels I can receive, the local CBS has a total of 4 channels, there is guide data for the first 3 but no data for the 4th channel, my local ABC station has Bounce TV as one of its sub channels, there is no listings but then the word "Bounc" in the guide, I get no guide listings for any of the Springfield, Mass channels, instead I just see the channel call letters listed in the guide, the only exception to this is the Springfield PBS which has no guide data for the main channel, but full guide info for it's 3 sub channels. The opposite is true for our local Connecticut PBS which has listings for the main channel but no listings for the sub channels. It is unfortunate that the tuner does not read the PSIP guide data from the channels for which DISH has no guide data for.
For the Hopper to work best for these channels it will need guide data... or manual timers. And luckily DISH is already working on adding manual timers to the Hopper and Joey. It was announced here on SatelliteGuys that a future software update would add manual timers on the Hopper system. Once manual timers are in place this will be an excellent system, and quite honestly what we have today is really usable.
I am happy to report that the OTA module can be viewed on the Joeys, however since the module is single tuner you can only tune to one OTA channel at a time on the entire system. Since I did not have two OTA modules I am unable to tell you if having an OTA module on each Hopper will work or not, but I can only guess that it will work fine. I do plan on ordering an OTA module for the second Hopper as soon as they are available on MyDISH.COM and I will be happy to report my findings when I have a second OTA module to test with.
While without complete guide data and manual timers might sound like a shortfall to some, I got to admit I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the performance of the module over the few months I was able to test it. All the shows I wanted to record had guide data and I enjoyed coming home and finding that the Hopper recorded the Monkees off of Antenna TV and the 80's on 8 off of THECOOLTV.
The tuners performance was very good for me, however I should note where I live 90% of the channels I receive come in at 100% for me. So dropouts and pixelation was rare for me. The only time I had issues was watching a fringe distant station. While the tuner in the module is very good, it is not a miracle maker able to fill in the missing data when the signal is low. Digital TV works differently then Analog, in the old days if you could get an analog signal you could watch it even if the signal was weak, but you would get ghosting, and noise on the screen, but with digital its not like that you either lock on the signal or you don't. This is a limitation of the digital technology and is not an issue with the Hopper tuner.
If you have been waiting to add OTA to your Hopper then I highly recommend that once the modules are available online that you order one! At $30 its a great buy and I think it is safe for me to say that the OTA Module is the missing link many of us have been waiting for!
When you get your OTA module please share your experience and thoughts on the OTA tuner here at SatelliteGuys!
Our thanks to the folks at DISH for making this First Look possible!
712 Replies
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183948 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Cutting Edge
I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.
521 Replies
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47184 views
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.
As I said above, and, FWIW, I run Win11 Pro and Arch on separate 250 GB NVME drives, using F8 to select which I boot to, with a 1TB SSD for storage, accessible to both OSs and a third formatted Nvme I want to use to learn Kali. It was much faster to setup Arch than it was to strip down Windows. Windows still takes much longer to boot.
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
527 Replies
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17907 views
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. 
WTF… …What the Foxbat!Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
S
wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming youWTF… …What the Foxbat!
I know. Here's what Scott has in store for me if I get out of line:wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming you
Help, I'm a little confjused on the activation process.
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
6 Replies
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192 views
All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
S
i bought mine straight from dish as it was only $ 100.00 bucks!!! had the protection plan they came out removed and deactivated the 4k joey and activated and installed the joey 4.All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Apple has finally released their Apple TV 4K with built-in Siri and a microphone so it can respond to your queries even if you don't have the remote. It also increases in price, to $299. I had been planning on updating my current Apple TV 4K streamers, but that's $600 for the two of them, and that's a pass at this point.
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K. New Siri AI and hands-free control. Stunning picture and immersive HomePod surround sound. Works with your Apple and smart home devices.
www.apple.com
14 Replies
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174 views
S
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
they all do that anyways.. ever notice your cell phone slows down when you come up for an upgrade..
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
The new curated multiview is now live.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
3 Replies
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158 views
Supporting Founder
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
141 Replies
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1348 views
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
This thread is a place to discuss the 4K events that appear on channel 540. We are getting, at this point, one college football game a week. Let's hope there is more coming.
1931 Replies
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298854 views
Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.
I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.
edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
As I recall you have the Flex package. Do you sub to multisport? -02 is FS1 and -03 is ESPN. -01 is Fox so you would get that if you sub to locals.Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.
I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.
edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87N42NxLPC0
Direct YouTube Link - 8 U.S. States Sue OpenAI Over Safety Concerns With Younger Users
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87N42NxLPC0
Direct YouTube Link - 8 U.S. States Sue OpenAI Over Safety Concerns With Younger Users
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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12 views
Pub Member / Supporter
On Tuesday, I recorded the first episodes of the new season's NCIS shows on CBS (Dish provided, not OTA). The new New York series and Origins will both do Auto Skip, but the original, now season 24 does not. What's stranger, when I do a search for NCIS, Origins and New York show the current recording and the next episode it will record, but the original show only shows the current recording and some other channel showing the very first episode of season one. It makes no sense. When I set up the timers, I was able to use search for Origins and New York, but for the original, I had to scroll ahead in the guide until last Tuesday when the show was airing. Then set the timer from there. You can see its timer type is DVR where the other two are Seek. What am I missing?
Thanks!
Thanks!
20 Replies
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392 views
