I got the Hopper 2 days after it premiered in March. One week later, had to have it replaced as it was constantly freezing up while rewinding/fast forwarding live and dvr'd shows... the tech replaced the Hopper and it was bad out of the box. Got another Hopper and had both joey's replaced as they were arbitrarily losing connectivity to the Hopper... I've since setup 60+ timers and struggled for 3 months of more random freezes. I didn't want to replace the Hopper as the timers are such a pain (especially during summer when most shows are on hiatus) and the backup feature hadn't worked the last time... but as the issue(s) continued to escalate, I bit the bullet and had them come back out today. I specifically told them to have 1x Hopper and 2x Joeys to replace what I had and the tech came out and only replaced the Hopper. My girlfriend is home, taking time off of work to deal, and of course the problem hasn't gone away and the backup utility failed... Am I the only one dealing with this? This system was put out before it was ready for prime-time and I feel like their private beta-tester. It would be different if I wasn't spending almost $180 for my equipment and programing, but I'm rebooting this thing 4-5 times a week and 2-3 times a day if I'm home actively using the system.... very unhappy in Hopper-land.
Hopper has been nothing but a big hot mess
- Thread starter dpinkis
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I have never had any issues with mine other than the expected normal hick ups. I wonder if there is not something else in your set up causing the problems. Or you have been really unlucky with equipment.
Mine has not been flawless but much better then the 922 was. I like the Hopper system, the only issue I have is the limitation of the Joey, personally I would rather run another Hopper, I have a 2 Hopper 1 Joey system.
With all your replacement stuff and weirdness I would look to the installation. The wiring, connectors and nodes can cause issues if not done correctly. Your described experience is not typical.
With all your replacement stuff and weirdness I would look to the installation. The wiring, connectors and nodes can cause issues if not done correctly. Your described experience is not typical.
Could you elaborate on the limitation of the Joey? I'm having my install this week, and wondering what to expect.
-Erik
No picture in picture, no ability to record on its own (have to use a hopper timer). 2 Hoppers let you record 6 things vs 1 hopper/joey which does 3 (except for Prime time Anywhere). It can be restricting for some households.
I agree with what mike1213abc said above. Also the Joey is not a receiver, it must have a Hopper for functionality and with that it ties up a tuner on the Hopper. For basic TV watching it is fine, but I prefer the Hopper because it has more features, PIP being a major.
Thats way to many issues . how close are you to a fire department or broadcast tower ? I would also suspect wiring to hopper is less then par but if local Rf signals are leaking into your lines this will give all sorts of strange errors.
Had an install that joeys would not work on 59 so changed it out for rg6 and still would have link issues after running spectrum test we could see we had local RF in the same range the joeys where using so rg6 quad had fixed the issue.
Had an install that joeys would not work on 59 so changed it out for rg6 and still would have link issues after running spectrum test we could see we had local RF in the same range the joeys where using so rg6 quad had fixed the issue.
I wonder if the ones with bad experiences have a bad install or some crappy cable. I know that mine has been almost perfect and I put mine in on the day it was released.
I would bet it's cabling, seems I read in "The Installer Zone" or somewhere about a installer having a hard time with a install. After messing with it for way to long he started checking cable ends and found a bad one. Bingo....all fixed...
Having Dish tech out in an hour to check the wiring, node, etc... Having browsed through the forums, albeit briefly, there seems to be a lot of fingers pointed at the new firmware push... I can only vouch for my semi-tragic experience, but I know I was having freezing issues prior... however, they do seem to have gotten worse in the last 2 weeks or so. On a normal work-week after arriving home I place my butt into it's required place on the couch and I'm surprised if I don't have to reboot the Hopper once that afternoon/nite. During the weekend when we do most of our tv watching, 2-3 reboot is not uncommon. Now that sharing between Hoppers is has been pushed, I can tell when the Joey's will be forever "searching for Hopper" when the button is missing on the screen (on the DVR screen) to switch to the other box.... tell-tale sign... So at the very least the new sharing functionality helps me know that the Joeys are DOA.
I know I was right there at the starting gate when this new system rolled out, and I know that it's gonna have bugs... but this is really ridiculous. I pay way too much to have to fiddle with this thing. I get the clear impression from the Dish onsite techs, from their tech support guys on the phone and from the responses I get in chat that none of them have a CLUE. And if someone does know, they are clearly not communicating with the rest of the minions.
I will update after the tech leaves with any new info.
I know I was right there at the starting gate when this new system rolled out, and I know that it's gonna have bugs... but this is really ridiculous. I pay way too much to have to fiddle with this thing. I get the clear impression from the Dish onsite techs, from their tech support guys on the phone and from the responses I get in chat that none of them have a CLUE. And if someone does know, they are clearly not communicating with the rest of the minions.
I will update after the tech leaves with any new info.
As others have said, your experience is not normal, hopefully this next visit will set things right.
I would have them replace the node and all splitters and taps as well as checking connections.
As to the new firmware, there is a new post on the forum on how to bring up a hidden option to disable bridging. That might help. With the trouble you've been having though, it might be worth pushing for a HIC as an option.
Were the Hopper and Joeys home runs back to the node, or did they re-use existing cabling in the home. If reusing cable, are they sure there are no hidden splitters? Were all unused outlets terminated? Did they confirm the rating of the Hopper cable runs? Are all barrel connectors properly rated? If you go into diag send status, do you get approximately the same signal level on all three tuners (a point or two variance is OK)?
It may be nit-picky, but at this point you've earned that right. If the tech is unsure about any of the answers, asking for the component to be replaced is not unreasonable at this point.
we just had the Dish tech replace all the barrel connectors (tech showed me where some of the connector's he replaced had loose wires he said could have been causing shorts...) and the node was replaced as well... he checked the wiring inside and out and then checked s/n ratio which looked good when he was done - hopefully this'll do the trick - won't know for a while either way....
For us hopper has been good for the most part. Ever since the software update though changing channels has become frustrating. Seems like it slowed it down. Any of you experience that?
Channel changing isn't an issue. The picture will freeze up arbitrarily while watching live and DVR'd shows. Seems to be more of a problem watching shows shared off the other, working, Hopper. Typically the picture will just go black but sometimes the picture will freeze - either way, most of the time it'll start responding in 2-3 minutes... or it won't and I'll have to reboot. 2-3 reboots on a Saturday/Sunday isn't uncommon. We've got 2 Joeys attached to one of the Hoppers and the other big issue we face is that they will randomly loose connectivity and show "looking for Hopper" indefinitely - rebooting fixes this as well. This happens every day. If we're not using the Joey's, one tell-tale sign that the Joeys are DOA is that the new button used to get to the other Hopper will be missing.
We had a Dish tech out today and so far we've had one quick hiccup on the main Hopper and my daughter's Joey went black for a moment, but responded after changing channels, so the jury is out as to whether the work done did the trick.
We had a Dish tech out today and so far we've had one quick hiccup on the main Hopper and my daughter's Joey went black for a moment, but responded after changing channels, so the jury is out as to whether the work done did the trick.
do you have any network connectivity like ethernet or wireless adapters to the hoppers or joeys?
I had my install right when Hoppers were released.
2 Hoppers 2 joeys.
Joeys constantly look for connection. I have to reboot then it finally connects.
Hoppers freeze up. Black screen shows up and i have to reboot.
Had Tech out. He changed LNB. I will see if it improves.
I love some of the neat features but so far its way to buggy.
My experience of course.
My whole system is running connected through ethernet to my internet.
No issues there.
Im really missing my 922(never an issue) 722k and 612.
2 Hoppers 2 joeys.
Joeys constantly look for connection. I have to reboot then it finally connects.
Hoppers freeze up. Black screen shows up and i have to reboot.
Had Tech out. He changed LNB. I will see if it improves.
I love some of the neat features but so far its way to buggy.
My experience of course.
My whole system is running connected through ethernet to my internet.
No issues there.
Im really missing my 922(never an issue) 722k and 612.
