We are considering moving from a 622 and 322 to a Hopper system, and I have lots of questions. Here are the current ones.
It is hard to run cable in our home. When we built it we ran coax to possible TV locations throughout the house, terminating in a block in the attic that went to the antenna. When we changed to DirecTV soon after, they had receivers with RF remotes, so we put two of them upstairs just a few feet from the block, but in the living space next to the attic. They connected to a selection of the coax cables and we just carried the remote to whichever TV we were going to watch.
When those receivers were made obsolete by DirecTV they did not have RF-remote-capable receivers. Dish could put the 622 in the built-in audio cabinet next to our new HDTV, which gives us two receivers for it, and put the 322 by the TV in the kitchen, with that TV using the remote 1 (IR) and a distant TV using remote 2 (RF). We don't like this very much because of the heat generated by the 622 in the audio cabinet -- the plan when we designed the audio cabinet was that we could leave the door open when the components were on (listening to music...) and generating heat. Of course, the 622 can heat the room when it is turned off, so now the door is permanently propped partway open with a piece of cardboard. The 322 is also sitting on the kitchen cabinet, not optimal, and we have much less flexibility in TV location.
As I read about the Hopper system with its RF remotes, could we just put the Hoppers and Joeys upstairs near the block where all of the coax is, and make short runs from the block to the Hoppers and Joeys? I envision having two Hoppers, because we have four tuners now and need more (so many more channels carry football games today...) then having one or two Joeys. One Hopper would serve the main TV, and the other Hopper and one or two Joeys would let us have TV in more locations than we have now, especially if the second Hopper and the Joeys can serve two TV's (think I read somewhere that this can be done).
In addition to the general question as to whether I am even understanding the system correctly to think that this could work, I have three detailed questions from reading the posts and installation guides. First, in my plan the Node would be upstairs, pretty much in line and with short runs between the dish and the Hoppers and other components. This probably exceeds the recommended grounding distance, yet the present dish is grounded from the roof, and couldn't the Node use the same ground, or have an adjacent one? Second, I read that if you want to use PIP the Hopper needs to be adjacent to the TV that uses the PIP. Is this true? Is this because the PIP is IR? If so can I use an IR repeater? I would really like to have this Hopper upstairs instead of overheating in the audio cabinet. Third, we didn't install phone lines next to any of the TV locations. We and the cable installer thought at the time (2000) that a TV would not need to use a phone. So, we have the neat devices made in Utah that relay the phone lines over the house wiring to the receivers so Dish won't think we are up to no good. If we can put any components that need phone lines upstairs, it will be easy to get phone lines to them.
Sorry this post is so long, but I would really appreciate advice.
It is hard to run cable in our home. When we built it we ran coax to possible TV locations throughout the house, terminating in a block in the attic that went to the antenna. When we changed to DirecTV soon after, they had receivers with RF remotes, so we put two of them upstairs just a few feet from the block, but in the living space next to the attic. They connected to a selection of the coax cables and we just carried the remote to whichever TV we were going to watch.
When those receivers were made obsolete by DirecTV they did not have RF-remote-capable receivers. Dish could put the 622 in the built-in audio cabinet next to our new HDTV, which gives us two receivers for it, and put the 322 by the TV in the kitchen, with that TV using the remote 1 (IR) and a distant TV using remote 2 (RF). We don't like this very much because of the heat generated by the 622 in the audio cabinet -- the plan when we designed the audio cabinet was that we could leave the door open when the components were on (listening to music...) and generating heat. Of course, the 622 can heat the room when it is turned off, so now the door is permanently propped partway open with a piece of cardboard. The 322 is also sitting on the kitchen cabinet, not optimal, and we have much less flexibility in TV location.
As I read about the Hopper system with its RF remotes, could we just put the Hoppers and Joeys upstairs near the block where all of the coax is, and make short runs from the block to the Hoppers and Joeys? I envision having two Hoppers, because we have four tuners now and need more (so many more channels carry football games today...) then having one or two Joeys. One Hopper would serve the main TV, and the other Hopper and one or two Joeys would let us have TV in more locations than we have now, especially if the second Hopper and the Joeys can serve two TV's (think I read somewhere that this can be done).
In addition to the general question as to whether I am even understanding the system correctly to think that this could work, I have three detailed questions from reading the posts and installation guides. First, in my plan the Node would be upstairs, pretty much in line and with short runs between the dish and the Hoppers and other components. This probably exceeds the recommended grounding distance, yet the present dish is grounded from the roof, and couldn't the Node use the same ground, or have an adjacent one? Second, I read that if you want to use PIP the Hopper needs to be adjacent to the TV that uses the PIP. Is this true? Is this because the PIP is IR? If so can I use an IR repeater? I would really like to have this Hopper upstairs instead of overheating in the audio cabinet. Third, we didn't install phone lines next to any of the TV locations. We and the cable installer thought at the time (2000) that a TV would not need to use a phone. So, we have the neat devices made in Utah that relay the phone lines over the house wiring to the receivers so Dish won't think we are up to no good. If we can put any components that need phone lines upstairs, it will be easy to get phone lines to them.
Sorry this post is so long, but I would really appreciate advice.
