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The only "new" thing coming is the 4K Joey. It will function with current Hoppers. I've not heard nor has Scott mentioned anything about any new type of Hopper product. However, keep in mind that the Hopper itself doesn't really need anything "new" just yet, and what Dish has brought us new are Super Joey (additional 2 tuners for a total of 5 tuners to a Hopper system), Wireless Joeys, Virtual Joeys, the coming 4K Joeys, and now the new/refreshed Hopper UI promised for this summer, and access to Netflix on HWS's only. Also, the HWS brought us the transfer of recordings to mobile devices, but I can't think of anything that seems in demand that would require a new generation of Hopper.

My personal dream is if the next Hoppers could be MOCA 2.0 capable and maybe even Gigabit Ethernet, but this is still not a change for the Hopper as we know it today. The Hopper was well designed, in that is why there really isn't a need for a "new Hopper" but just making certain the Hopper will support future tech. I suspect when 4K becomes more popular we shall see a Hopper more designed around that and whatever else seems to be in demand in a few years that may require a new generations of chips to achieve.

DishSubLA said:

and what Dish has brought us new are Super Joey (additional 2 tuners for a total of 5 tuners to a Hopper system) ... the coming 4K Joeys

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And what Dish has done by going this route is make somewhat of a modular, whole-home system. Note how they're not modifying the "core" Hopper ? They must feel that it has become a pretty solid base and don't want to change it too much on the hardware side, so the improvements (4K support, add'l tuners, etc) are done by add-on pieces.

I have to agree, that the current UI on the Hopper is getting old now. I was looking at mine the other night and I was thinking about it and was saying yeah it looks nice but it looks out of date now. So I am looking forward to the carbon interface.

As far as a new Hopper goes, if I were a betting man I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. While I have not heard anything I would expect it to be a Super Hopper. With built in 4K Support, MORE Tuners, a larger hard drive (Maybe 3 or 4 TB) a unit that can take DISH through the next 10 years without an issue. Of course I do not expect the Super Hopper to be for everyone at launch. I am sure there will be requirements for people to upgrade to one. But as 4K TV become more common I see more people getting one.

DISH luckily has always been known to be on the bleeding edge and really the only upgrade I can see coming within 10 years is a final speck on MPEG 5. Some consider HEVC to be MPEG 5 but I am told its not, its just an early spec version. So we will see where that going. But again I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. (And of course SatelliteGuys will be there to show you first. )

I still think that 4k is a fad or gimmick to sell more tvs. I don't see the networks ever rushing to do 4k ota or even to sat or cable companies. Besides , they will be on to the next fad 8k by the time there is any movement towards another change in the broadcast standard. HD is fine for me and I don't see me upgrading again till next decade.

MikeD-C05 said:

I still think that 4k is a fad or gimmick to sell more tvs. I don't see the networks ever rushing to do 4k ota or even to sat or cable companies. Besides , they will be on to the next fad 8k by the time there is any movement towards another change in the broadcast standard. HD is fine for me and I don't see me upgrading again till next decade.

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That's because the new 4K UHDTVs do the job for you,they upconvert all the signals they receive.

Jhon69 said:

That's because the new 4K UHDTVs do the job for you,they upconvert all the signals they receive.

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But does the upconversion look good on your tv? I know that I had an upconverting HDTV back in the early part of the last decade and my sd sat receiver looked unwatchable on that tv. I actually got Best buy to come out and take the tv back ,because the over all proportion of tv watching back then was still Sd. IF the 4k upconversion shows all the flaws in an hd sat picture , I would have the same situation all over again.

MikeD-C05 said:

But does the upconversion look good on your tv? I know that I had an upconverting HDTV back in the early part of the last decade and my sd sat receiver looked unwatchable on that tv. I actually got Best buy to come out and take the tv back ,because the over all proportion of tv watching back then was still Sd. IF the 4k upconversion shows all the flaws in an hd sat picture , I would have the same situation all over again.

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Fascinating I have never heard of an HDTV that upconverted the signal before,I thought the new 4K UHDTV's was a new idea never done before.
I think it looks better than before on OTA,Satellite HD&SD.But does it look like 4K? maybe on my Bluray player which always has had the best picture.

Jhon69 said:

Fascinating I have never heard of an HDTV that upconverted the signal before

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All flat-panel type TVs, LCD, LED, plasma, etc, have to "convert" the signal they receive to match it's native resolution. Computer monitors of the same design do allow you to force a non-native resolution but it usually looks horrible when you do that. TV makers, wisely, don't give people that option.

They will down-convert as well. If you have your Dish receiver set to output 1080i and it's connected to a 720p TV, the TV has to down-convert it. When you connect that same receiver to a 4K TV, the TV up-converts to 2160 resolution. Anytime you up/down-convert, data is either thrown out or it's added, neither of which is perfect. Purists are horrified by the idea but good converters and software can often do this and the human eye can't see any difference.

Hall said:

All flat-panel type TVs, LCD, LED, plasma, etc, have to "convert" the signal they receive to match it's native resolution. Computer monitors of the same design do allow you to force a non-native resolution but it usually looks horrible when you do that. TV makers, wisely, don't give people that option.

They will down-convert as well. If you have your Dish receiver set to output 1080i and it's connected to a 720p TV, the TV has to down-convert it. When you connect that same receiver to a 4K TV, the TV up-converts to 2160 resolution. Anytime you up/down-convert, data is either thrown out or it's added, neither of which is perfect. Purists are horrified by the idea but good converters and software can often do this and the human eye can't see any difference.

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OK like the Emerson 32" I have in my bedroom which says it's 720p,but will do 1080i/p through the HDMI connection,Thanks Hall I just was not thinking of that.

Jhon69 said:

OK like the Emerson 32" I have in my bedroom which says it's 720p,but will do 1080i/p through the HDMI connection,Thanks Hall I just was not thinking of that.

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I do not think you can see that much detail on a 32" UHDTV. You need 50" or bigger to tell the difference. The bigger the better.

jerryez said:

I do not think you can see that much detail on a 32" UHDTV. You need 50" or bigger to tell the difference. The bigger the better.

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Sorry I should have provided more information in that statement the Emerson 32" TV in my bedroom is a 720p display HDTV.The TV I had to replace in my livingroom was a Vizio 1080p 55" HDTV that went out,I replaced that with a Vizio 55" 4K UHDTV.

Hall said:

And what Dish has done by going this route is make somewhat of a modular, whole-home system. Note how they're not modifying the "core" Hopper ? They must feel that it has become a pretty solid base and don't want to change it too much on the hardware side, so the improvements (4K support, add'l tuners, etc) are done by add-on pieces.

Click to expand...

Scott Greczkowski said:

I have to agree, that the current UI on the Hopper is getting old now. I was looking at mine the other night and I was thinking about it and was saying yeah it looks nice but it looks out of date now. So I am looking forward to the carbon interface.

As far as a new Hopper goes, if I were a betting man I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. While I have not heard anything I would expect it to be a Super Hopper. With built in 4K Support, MORE Tuners, a larger hard drive (Maybe 3 or 4 TB) a unit that can take DISH through the next 10 years without an issue. Of course I do not expect the Super Hopper to be for everyone at launch. I am sure there will be requirements for people to upgrade to one. But as 4K TV become more common I see more people getting one.

DISH luckily has always been known to be on the bleeding edge and really the only upgrade I can see coming within 10 years is a final speck on MPEG 5. Some consider HEVC to be MPEG 5 but I am told its not, its just an early spec version. So we will see where that going. But again I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. (And of course SatelliteGuys will be there to show you first. )

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And if they do reveal such a new SuperHopper, I will gladly WAIT for them to work out the kinks on the first customers to get them before I even consider an upgrade to that. But I have to say, I have no 4K upgrade plans for my main HDTV's are fairly new, and won't even consider a 4K unless one of my HDTV's dies.

Hall said:

And what Dish has done by going this route is make somewhat of a modular, whole-home system. Note how they're not modifying the "core" Hopper ? They must feel that it has become a pretty solid base and don't want to change it too much on the hardware side, so the improvements (4K support, add'l tuners, etc) are done by add-on pieces.

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Also, I don't think Dish wants to add to the cost to produce the Hoppers (HWS included) by sticking in new hardware to support MoCA 2.0 even if the chip can handle it. I think they would rather spend the money on the next Gen Hopper systems.

The only reason I am considering a 4K TV is because my gf's son has a cheap 19" TV in his room, that is hard to see. I can give him the one in my bedroom, I can take the big one from the living room and put that in my bedroom, and then put a big 4K in the living room. That would give me everything I'd want, but really don't feel like upgrading to a 4K Joey or any other equipment currently.

Scott Greczkowski said:

I have to agree, that the current UI on the Hopper is getting old now. I was looking at mine the other night and I was thinking about it and was saying yeah it looks nice but it looks out of date now. So I am looking forward to the carbon interface.

As far as a new Hopper goes, if I were a betting man I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. While I have not heard anything I would expect it to be a Super Hopper. With built in 4K Support, MORE Tuners, a larger hard drive (Maybe 3 or 4 TB) a unit that can take DISH through the next 10 years without an issue. Of course I do not expect the Super Hopper to be for everyone at launch. I am sure there will be requirements for people to upgrade to one. But as 4K TV become more common I see more people getting one.

DISH luckily has always been known to be on the bleeding edge and really the only upgrade I can see coming within 10 years is a final speck on MPEG 5. Some consider HEVC to be MPEG 5 but I am told its not, its just an early spec version. So we will see where that going. But again I would expect to see a new Hopper at CES. (And of course SatelliteGuys will be there to show you first. )

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Yes, Scott, it was my understanding that HEVC was MPEG's reaction to a coming need for the 4K content, and that I was aware of MPEG working on something beyond HEVC (the MPEG5 or such as you said), but I think that will take a few more years now that all the effort and manufacturing and chip makers are focused on HEVC and in large quantities to make the scale of economy work. I think the HEVC interruption has pushed back MPEG5 for years. One hopes MPEG5 can handle 8K, and we should have the chips powerful enough to achieve that in the coming years.