Experience w/ Hopper Duo

bmetelsky

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Aug 18, 2006
959
328
Elyria, OH USA
Thinking of coming back to DISH after getting a come back offer. I had a Hopper 3 in the past but am seeing the Hopper Duo being part of the come back offer. What are your experiences with this Hopper Duo? We only use 1 tv and I am the one usually doing the recording. Except for the way fewer tuners, what are some of the pro's and con's in your experience.
 
Thinking of coming back to DISH after getting a come back offer. I had a Hopper 3 in the past but am seeing the Hopper Duo being part of the come back offer. What are your experiences with this Hopper Duo? We only use 1 tv and I am the one usually doing the recording. Except for the way fewer tuners, what are some of the pro's and con's in your experience.
The con is only a dual tuner so you're relegated to one background recording while watching TV. Also, fewer apps, and no Sling technology. Not 4K, like the Hopper 3 was. The hard drive is 1/4 the size of the other Hoppers
The upside is the lower cost of leasing a Hopper Duo
 
I like the Hopper 3 so much that I do not consider the offers by local cable companies and the other sat guys.

With the Hopper 3 (16 tuners!!!) I can record anything that comes over the satellite plus two channels OTA TV with the USB ATSC tuner dongle. If push comes to shove, you can theoretically record 21 programs simultaneously with PTAT and the OTA dual tuner adapter.

If I'm away from home, I can watch TV off the H3 on my cell phone or PC or any TV with a Fire Stick if I have a moderate internet or cell connection. I just have to be moderate in my viewing because my home internet has a 250GB monthly limit after which I get charged outlandish overage fees.

Last month I was able to access my Hopper 3 from Cozumel Mexico with their 4G LTE phone data service combined with my AT&T Unlimited Elite plan ($175/month for 5 phones) - no data charges anywhere in Canada/USA/Mexico as long as you are on the land based cell service (watch out for the cruise ship cell data - it's a killer at $2 per megabyte).
 
Is the Duo going to be compatible with the plus?
There is a reason "the plus" as you put it is officially named (in every piece of literature, and conversation) The HOPPER+. I'm sure the folks at Dish went to pains to choose that name for the new device in hope of making it clear to the Dish subscriber, but, alas, to avail :).
 
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$175/month for 5 phones
Ouch ouch ouch! I am paying $95/mo to T-Mobil for 4 lines. One of them, my sister's, I got for FREE during one of their Black Friday promos years ago. I also get a substantial discount because of who I work for. Early in the pandemic, T-Mobile upgraded my 2GB plan to unlimited. So I have that too.
 
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There is a reason "the plus" as you put it is officially named (in every piece of literature, and conversation) The HOPPER+. I'm sure the folks at Dish went to pains to choose that name for the new device in hope of making it clear to the Dish subscriber, but, alas, to avail :).
The Duo is called the Hopper Duo, yes?
 
I like the Hopper 3 so much that I do not consider the offers by local cable companies and the other sat guys.

With the Hopper 3 (16 tuners!!!) I can record anything that comes over the satellite plus two channels OTA TV with the USB ATSC tuner dongle. If push comes to shove, you can theoretically record 21 programs simultaneously with PTAT and the OTA dual tuner adapter.

If I'm away from home, I can watch TV off the H3 on my cell phone or PC or any TV with a Fire Stick if I have a moderate internet or cell connection. I just have to be moderate in my viewing because my home internet has a 250GB monthly limit after which I get charged outlandish overage fees.

Last month I was able to access my Hopper 3 from Cozumel Mexico with their 4G LTE phone data service combined with my AT&T Unlimited Elite plan ($175/month for 5 phones) - no data charges anywhere in Canada/USA/Mexico as long as you are on the land based cell service (watch out for the cruise ship cell data - it's a killer at $2 per megabyte).

How did you manage to get AT&T unlimited for $175? I have my family of 5 on an AT&T mobile share plan, not unlimited, and it costs me $205/month (including taxes & fees)
 
How did you manage to get AT&T unlimited for $175? I have my family of 5 on an AT&T mobile share plan, not unlimited, and it costs me $205/month (including taxes & fees)
That $175 is just the cost of the plan ($35 per line).

Taxes and fees are about another $25, so my monthly is about $200.

With 5 lines Unlimited Elite with my Signature AT&T is about the same price as Mobile share plus we all get unlimited data.

I went to Unlimited Elite when I got my 5G phone in December 2020.
 
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So, you wanted someone with experience with the Hopper Duo to chime in. Here I am! I don't want to go off on a rant here...
(This is your warning that this post is the TL,DR version. Get out while you can! You've been warned.)

The Hopper Duo is not as much of a downgrade from other Hoppers as you might expect, considering that Hopper Duo has the 24/7 feature that allows recording from all four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) on a single tuner (if you subscribe to the satellite-delivered locals) just like all other Hoppers. Yes, "24/7" is Dish's actual code name for this feature. Apparently, they couldn't come up with a catchy name like Prime Time Anytime to explain this feature, which is probably why they don't advertise it for the Hopper Duo.

The difference between "24/7" and PTAT is that the Hopper Duo does not support the automatic recording of everything in prime time, nor do you get AutoHop. Therefore, you need to manually set individual timers for each show you want to record, and manually skip commercials. This is the same way this feature works outside of prime time hours on all Hoppers.

Still, with the 24/7 network recording feature and a dual-tuner OTA USB adapter, this means that the Hopper Duo is capable of recording up to seven shows at the same time. All this while allowing you to watch something else previously recorded (or streaming, or On Demand) while your shows record in the background. This is still a huge step-up from any ViP DVR, although it is obviously nowhere near as nice as the Hopper 3.

Now, on to my one major gripe with the Hopper Duo: the lack of apps. Yes, there are some apps included, but nowhere near as many as the Hopper 3 currently supports. Some of the most popular streaming apps (such as YouTube and Amazon Prime) are missing from the Hopper Duo, for example. There are cases where the Wally (a standalone receiver even older than the Hopper Duo) has perfectly functional apps that, on the Hopper Duo, do not work properly or are completely missing. The Dish Music app and Hopper Arcade (when that was still a thing) are examples of that.

Even in a case where the Hopper Duo has an app that the Wally doesn't have (Gallery) it is not that big of a deal. There is a work-around for Wally where the additional Dish Scapes in the Gallery app are available in the regular On Demand section during free previews. I assume it is also that way full-time for people who subscribe to Gallery, although I have never actually subscribed to it in order to check that for myself.

The lack of YouTube on Hopper Duo is a real shame, since Dish actually was working on testing both the regular YouTube app and YouTube Kids app on the Hopper Duo on two separate occasions. I have seen this myself, so I know the Hopper Duo was technically capable of supporting both of those apps just fine at the time. I suppose some changes could have been made to these apps in the meantime that would make them no longer technically compatible with Hopper Duo. However, I choose to believe that it is simply Dish policy keeping them from being added to Hopper Duo, until someone can prove otherwise.

At the time the YouTube apps were removed from testing on Hopper Duo for good, Dish added the Locast app. I guess Dish needed to free up some room in the Hopper Duo in order to add Locast. Yeah, that was a good business decision! Locast was only actually available in seven markets at the time. Locast eventually expanded to a few dozen markets, but now they are completely out of business. Meanwhile, YouTube is still doing just fine nationwide. So, where is the YouTube app for Hopper Duo now?

Hopper Plus would go a long way toward addressing the lack of apps on Hopper Duo. Unfortunately, Hopper Duo is one of the models that will not support the Hopper Plus, at least not right away. So, the receiver that is in the most need of adding more apps is the one that gets the shaft, while the receiver that already has the most apps (Hopper 3) gets even more added. Yeah, that seems fair.

This is similar to how the Hopper Duo does not support the Super Joey, which would add two more satellite tuners. Again, the receiver that is in the most need of additional tuners is the one that cannot get them. Super Joey will not work with Hopper 3 either, but obviously the Hopper 3 does not need any additional tuners in the first place.

I think this lack of features (or only having stripped-down features) is deliberate self-sabotage of the Hopper Duo on Dish's part. They want to force customers to spend more money to get the additional features (even ones that the Hopper Duo can technically support) by upgrading them to a higher model, rather than offering a true lower-cost alternative.

Anyway, for the above reasons, I finally sold off my purchased Hopper Duo receivers, and instead purchased a Hopper 3 last year. So, I am withdrawing from the battlefield, since I no longer have a dog in this particular fight. Thanks for reading my one final rant about the Hopper Duo, and have a nice day everyone!
 
Anyway, for the above reasons, I finally sold off my purchased Hopper Duo receivers, and instead purchased a Hopper 3 last year.
If you still only sub to locals, it seems to me that an H3 with 16 tuners is overkill. Just to get a couple more apps? The ability to plug in a Hopper+? Maybe Sling pushed you over the edge.
 
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If you still only sub to locals, it seems to me that an H3 with 16 tuners is overkill. Just to get a couple more apps? The ability to plug in a Hopper+? Maybe Sling pushed you over the edge.
The Hopper 3 is currently deactivated. My active receiver is a purchased Wally with an external hard drive. This way, I still get the extended nine-day guide and DVR functionality when I need it, all without any receiver fees.

I am hoping to get a Hopper+ to go with my Hopper 3, just to try it out. The ability to add a web browser alone may be worth it to me. That way, I could stream the broadcast networks from Puffer on the big screen, without needing to connect my laptop to the TV or change inputs. Puffer is a reasonable substitute for Locast, if you want west coast broadcast networks from San Francisco. For me, that would be a three-hour delay, but it is a good backup in case my satellite signal goes out during prime time. That is, it is a good backup when Puffer actually works. It is a research project that only supports a limited number of users at the same time. So, reliability is spotty, but I have successfully used it to watch network programming on occasion. Unfortunately, Puffer does not have a Roku app, and my Rokus do not have a web browser. So, I am hoping Hopper+ can help with that. Hopper+ compatibility with the Wally would be even better, but that is not likely unless Dish is about to release a new 4K Wally that I don't know about.
 
One more thing I thought of: the receiver fee for a second Hopper Duo is $15 per month. This is true even if one or both Hopper Duos are purchased. (Which is likely always the case, since Dish requires at least the second Hopper Duo to be purchased in order to have two on the same account.) This makes the receiver fee even higher than the DVR fee, which means that it is not worth it to me.

At least with two Hopper 3's (which Dish also requires the second one to be purchased in order to allow two on the same account) the receiver fee is the same as the DVR fee ($15) which may be slightly more worth it for the more advanced receiver compared to the Hopper Duo. This pricing is true in spite of Dish publishing a price chart listing a purchased Hopper 3 as only $5 per month, just like almost any other purchased receiver on that list. Did anyone here ever successfully get Dish to honor that $5 rate for your purchased second Hopper 3? (Not just with temporary promo / courtesy credits, but with the Hopper 3 actually showing up as $5 on the bill as the regular rate.)
 
One more thing I thought of: the receiver fee for a second Hopper Duo is $15 per month. This is true even if one or both Hopper Duos are purchased. (Which is likely always the case, since Dish requires at least the second Hopper Duo to be purchased in order to have two on the same account.) This makes the receiver fee even higher than the DVR fee, which means that it is not worth it to me.

At least with two Hopper 3's (which Dish also requires the second one to be purchased in order to allow two on the same account) the receiver fee is the same as the DVR fee ($15) which may be slightly more worth it for the more advanced receiver compared to the Hopper Duo. This pricing is true in spite of Dish publishing a price chart listing a purchased Hopper 3 as only $5 per month, just like almost any other purchased receiver on that list. Did anyone here ever successfully get Dish to honor that $5 rate for your purchased second Hopper 3? (Not just with temporary promo / courtesy credits, but with the Hopper 3 actually showing up as $5 on the bill as the regular rate.)
Not for me. 2nd purchased Hopper 3 never got the $5 fee.
 

2 Recording questions that confuse me!

Has anyone got Amazon Prime working on their Joey's?