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Recently my original DISH Hopper started having issues with its hard drive, so thanks to DISH I was able to replace it with a new Hopper with Sling!

Now if you remember last year I called the Hopper the "best DVR ever made... so far!" and was wondering if this new Hopper could live up to the hype. I was wondering if the engineers from Echostar and DISH could make the new Hopper with Sling better then the original. I would have to wait for a DISH Tech to deliver my new Hopper with Sling to find out.

Once the Hopper with Sling was delivered I was in a hurry to get it hooked up. so I unhooked the old Hopper and plugged in the new Hopper with Sling in. I imediately saw in the first screens that DISH has made improvements in the install process and got rid of "A problem has been detected" screen when you first plug in your Hopper. The install wizard went through and got all the software it needed and setup the remote. This was the smoothest install I have ever had of any DISH receiver!

Once everything was done I was at the activation screen, so I shot off a private message here on SatelliteGuys to Matt from the DIRT team to turn it on and within minutes I was watching TV! (They call Matt "Speedy" for a reason you know!)

I jumped in and the first thing I noticed was it felt a lot more snappier.. and I say this because I never felt the original Hopper was slow in any way. Overall everything was much more responsive.

Next thing up was trying out one of the main new feature of the Hopper with Sling and that is Hopper Transfers. I quickly went into the guide and set up a few timers to record. In setting the timers I checked the box to also prepare the recordings for mobile. I then went out and had dinner and came home to find the 3 shows I set times for recorded on the DVR. I then grabbed my iPad and downloaded the Hopper Transfer App from the App store transferred my shows to the iPad.

I then watched one of the shows on my iPad and was impressed with the picture quality of the show on the iPad. For those of you wondering, HD shows do have black bars on the top and bottom since the iPad does not have a 16x9 display.

The transfer features works well and I can see myself using this feature a lot, not only for my enjoyment but also for my kids. Now I can carry all their favorite shows with me and if I need something to entertain them, I always have my iPad handy.

Next up I fired up my DISH Anywhere app and with no configuration at all to the app my new DISH Hopper with Sling was shown in the DISH Anywhere app. Within a few seconds I was watching live TV. The PQ looked very good on the iPad from within my house. A day later I tried both my iPad and iPhone with live Sling and was very happy with the PQ, I would say that the picture looked almost as good as my Slingbox 500. I should note at home I have a COX Cable connection with 50MB Down and 10 MB Up.

One of the other features of the new Hopper with Sling is the built in Wifi, to test this I needed to unhook my Hopper Internet Connector (HIC) which provides broadband to all Hopper / Joey units in the house. After that I was able to go into the Hopper and setup WIFI. The setup was painless, I picked my WIFI connection from the list of WIFI signals it was receiving and then input my WIFI password. The Hopper is sitting within 3 feet of my wireless router so I expected a 100% signal, but was surprised my signal was only in the 60's. I am not sure if its just my setup or if the WIFI pickup on the Hopper with Sling is weak. (The router is a Netgear WNDR4000) After tinkering with it for a few minutes I went back and hooked up the HIC again. So the WIFI does work, but if you have a hardwired connection available I advise you to use that or to invest the $39 and get the HIC which delivers broadband to all your Hoppers / Joeys in your house.

In the time I have had my Hopper with Sling it has been flawless in its operation.

Without hesitation I can safely say that DISH has made the Best DVR Ever Made even better! My mind just wonders now what else they can add to make it even better. I know some would like more tuners but honestly I don't see that happening, in fact I think having two Hoppers is best.

If I could make a few suggestions for what I would like to see changed on the Hopper with Sling is I would like to be able to initialize transfers to my iPad from the Hopper. For me I carry my iPad with me in my laptop bag when I get home I leave it in the bag, and only get it when I need it. I would like to see a way to initiate the transfer of recordings from the Hopper to the iPad without me having to physically go get the iPad and start it. I would also like to see a way to transfer shows from my other Hopper (which is NOT a Hopper with Sling) so that I can transfer them to my iPad. There needs to be file sharing between the Hoppers to make this happen, it would even be nice to mark shows for Mobile on the old Hopper and have the Old Hopper automatically send the file to the new Hopper with Sling for mobile preparation and transfer. But Rome was not built in a day so who knows this may be possible in the future!

The new DISH Hopper with Sling is not a revolution like the original Hopper was but it is a very nice evolution. Now with the new Hopper with Sling out one can only wonder what can they add to the next generation? I am sure what ever it is, it will surprise us and many of us will want one. Yes folks... it's true the best DVR got better!