Hopper S217 Feedback

[syphix]

Oh come on, 2 day uptime is an industry standard now. Didn't you get the memo?

My DirecTV receivers (all four HD DVR's) weren't this unstable. I'm leaving town in a few weeks for about 10 days. I fear that 10 minutes after I leave, the Hopper will lock up and I'll miss EVERY recording.

Starting to have a bit of buyer's remorse.

 

[Dudleydog73]

My DirecTV receivers (all four HD DVR's) weren't this unstable.

Yeah, I wish there was a sarcasm tag like bold and italics. My post was certainly dripping with it. My wife was wanting me to call to see about Dish paying us to be beta testers, but I'm sure that has about as much chance of happening as me winning the lotto. Ahh, the life of a Dish Network customer.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Yeah, I wish there was a sarcasm tag like bold and italics. My post was certainly dripping with it. My wife was wanting me to call to see about Dish paying us to be beta testers, but I'm sure that has about as much chance of happening as me winning the lotto. Ahh, the life of a Dish Network customer.

I hate to break it to you , but when you have DISH , you ARE the beta testers. Have been going on 16 years come January .

 

[GaryPen]

I see that I now have 217. The telling sign that something had happened over night is that my Hopper was unresponsive this morning. It would not react to RC commands, and the red record LED was lit. (Although, it wasn't actually recording anything. In fact, it borked its 10am timer.)

I do not notice any changes from 213 in regard to menu, guide, dvr, or on-demand options. I don't think there are any new apps either. I never had 215 or 216, so I don't know if they added anything or took away. But, 217 looks an awful lot like 213. It even has the system lockup "feature".

I wish they would add the ability to choose a default guide, already! Or, at least default to last-used. I'm still hating nested channels for our ONE international channel and TWO sports nets. It would be nice to be able to disable that useless feature, as well.

It's so good to see that nothing has changed with Dish in regard to product engineering. Deja vu to the days of the 921, 941, and 800. Oh, it's good to be back.

 

[satjay]

I had some hiccups before 216/217, with 216 and 217 things seem to be working well!

 

[Dudleydog73]

I hate to break it to you , but when you have DISH , you ARE the beta testers. Have been going on 16 years come January .

I have been with Dish for a good number of years as well, but I guess I always had stable hardware in the past. My 522/622/722/211k progression was fine when I had it and it actually did what it was supposed to do which was record / play television. I think they added too many bells / whistles to this box which may be fine for some, but when it breaks the prime purpose of the system I think they need to take a step back and reevaluate rather then trudge ahead. Just my $0.02.

 

[GaryPen]

I have been with Dish for a good number of years as well, but I guess I always had stable hardware in the past. My 522/622/722/211k progression was fine...

You missed the glory years of 721, 921, 800, and 941. And, you didn't get to enjoy the 922. If you had, you'd understand some of the references to Dish's bad history in this area.

 

[GaryPen]

The Favorites bug is still there where previously selected channels drop off the list, new channels aren't added after selecting them, and some channels aren't deleted after deselecting them.

This is basic stuff. Why can't they fix this?

 

[syphix]

You missed the glory years of 721, 921, 800, and 941. And, you didn't get to enjoy the 922. If you had, you'd understand some of the references to Dish's bad history in this area.

Did any of those get STABLE? I can handle some bumps in the road, as long as that road eventually smooths out.

 

[Poke]

Well looks like I'm finally on the S217 no issues so far..

 

[jcourcha]

It sounds like a red button reboot may do something different than a power cable unplug.. Has anyone had better stability by hard rebooting the hopper every night with a power timer? I've been considering this but think I would have to do it on the Joey also...

 

[navychop]

Did any of those get STABLE? I can handle some bumps in the road, as long as that road eventually smooths out.

I had a 721. In fact, I had several of them. After the early days it was wonderfully stable. Except for the HDDs. Oh, and the power supplies.

But the software was wonderful. Of course, things are a lot more complicated now.

 

[GaryPen]

Did any of those get STABLE? I can handle some bumps in the road, as long as that road eventually smooths out.

Eventually, the 721 finally became a pretty damn nice DVR (SD, of course.) But, as soon as it did, they discontinued it. Plus, the bumps were more like potholes.

Personally, I don't like bumps in the road, and firmly believe that every product released should be a smooth-driving experience from day one. The more people like you there are, and there seem to be more and more, the more crap these companies will throw at us. "Release and iterate" is an actual, accepted business practice. Damn shame.

 

[DFPope]

With 217, same as before. Hopper/Joeys work fine with no network connection to the Hopper.
With network connected to the Hopper (bridging off) I still have the blank screen issues with the Joeys. And now, as an added bonus, the Hopper locks up about twice a day.
I have found a work around though, I dropped Blockbuster, bought a BluRay player with WiFi, and signed up for Netflix so I no longer need broadband to the Hopper anyway.

 

[Lt Disher]

Eventually, the 721 finally became a pretty damn nice DVR (SD, of course.) But, as soon as it did, they discontinued it. Plus, the bumps were more like potholes.

Personally, I don't like bumps in the road, and firmly believe that every product released should be a smooth-driving experience from day one. The more people like you there are, and there seem to be more and more, the more crap these companies will throw at us. "Release and iterate" is an actual, accepted business practice. Damn shame.

Unfortunately, the alternative is to wait and wait and wait until everything is 100% perfect. Your opinion is certainly a valid one, but I'm on the other side. I am glad they released the Hopper as is. Sure there are some problems, but for me nothing at all serious and they are outweighed by the great DVR that I can use now.

 

[navychop]

With 217, same as before. Hopper/Joeys work fine with no network connection to the Hopper.
With network connected to the Hopper (bridging off) I still have the blank screen issues with the Joeys. And now, as an added bonus, the Hopper locks up about twice a day.
I have found a work around though, I dropped Blockbuster, bought a BluRay player with WiFi, and signed up for Netflix so I no longer need broadband to the Hopper anyway.

Must be nice to have that money to throw away.

 

[syphix]

Must be nice to have that money to throw away.

He earned his money, he can spend it any way he wishes.

 

[DFPope]

He earned his money, he can spend it any way he wishes.

DITTO !

 

[dish m]

Got 217 installed last night, still having issues with tv's joey and hoppers getting blank screens in the middle of watching tv. Can't change channel, joey doesn't show linked.

me too whats the dead now dish says s218 will be sent out in 15 days pandora is gone from joeys too and my joeys unlink too

 

[GaryPen]

Must be nice to have that money to throw away.

He earned his money, he can spend it any way he wishes.

DITTO !

Plus, he didn't throw his money away. He bought a network-connected BDP loaded with Smart TV apps. I would imagine he spent no more than $150, at that.