It's amazing how DISH gets a pass from some of its actions. The digital tuner is sold and marketed for use with the Hopper, not for Hoppers with S/W S229 and above. What about the pre-release testers and the selected beta testers from right here on this forum? Was that a fruitless endeavor? Is the testing methodology flawed because enthusiasts test with "rose colored glasses"? The wait for the OTA dongle should have included the wholesale release of supporting software. The only disclaimers on the limitation of their use are rumors on the Internet. I'm sorry if you feel DISH is justified on relying on the word put out by user's experiences with their products.
It seems DISH has made missteps in the past on releasing items that were not quite ready for stable (let alone top notch) performance. It could be a cycle where they are getting used to the acceptance of these shortfalls, so to the corporation evolves with a sense of acceptability for premature products being released.
DISH has made it known from the start of the Hopper/Joey program that OTA would be a future release. I would bet that almost every person that wants/needs OTA is following this, and is aware of needing the supported software, and that incluse a bunch of folks here. So for these folks crying about having the OTA module, but not the software, oh well. It seems to be the same folks bitching about the H/J anyway. Once again, nobody twisted thier arms to buy into the new system, or now. the OTA module. Those who didn't know, or don't care about OTA for the H/J, would be aware of the OTA option after thier receiver got the update, by the new message that now appears explaining what what was updated. That's when they would probably order it. So, order it and wait for the SW update, Or wait for your SW update, then buy one. Has every SW update for every receiver been released at the same time? No. So why would this one be any different.