Hopper Still To Buggy? I may cancel my VIP to Hopper Installation

Most of the negative post I've read about the Hopper seem to be particular things that they enjoy. Overall the Hopper system is great and reliable. If some of the things people have been having issues with may be the same problems that would upset you then maybe you should wait. All the little quirks that others are having do not affect my everyday veiwing at all so I've had a great experience.
 
I can not think of a single issue that I have had with my system outside of some missing features that I would like to have.
As far as performance and function, it has been great.
 
I have had to reset my hopper every day since I received it. New installation 1 month ago. I had Dish a few years ago but went to Uverse. Should have stayed there, never had a problem but like the PTAT. Every day I turn the Joey on (since they installed that in my living room and the hopper in my bedroom, because something about the line not being strong enough in living room), it says searching for hopper. It never finds it and the only solution is to reboot hopper. Once the reboot is done its fine until its shut off for another long period and then does it again. The internet hooked up to hopper and Joey always goes out too, again never had that problem with Uverse. Tech coming on 24th to hopefully fix and telling them to put hopper in living room. They'll have to go up in attic and will take a long time but I don't care. At first installation he said the hopper being in the bedroom and joey in living room doesn't make a difference but I don't care. I never watch in bedroom and I want the main drive where I watch most.
 
I have had to reset my hopper every day since I received it. New installation 1 month ago. I had Dish a few years ago but went to Uverse. Should have stayed there, never had a problem but like the PTAT. Every day I turn the Joey on (since they installed that in my living room and the hopper in my bedroom, because something about the line not being strong enough in living room), it says searching for hopper. It never finds it and the only solution is to reboot hopper. Once the reboot is done its fine until its shut off for another long period and then does it again. The internet hooked up to hopper and Joey always goes out too, again never had that problem with Uverse. Tech coming on 24th to hopefully fix and telling them to put hopper in living room. They'll have to go up in attic and will take a long time but I don't care. At first installation he said the hopper being in the bedroom and joey in living room doesn't make a difference but I don't care. I never watch in bedroom and I want the main drive where I watch most.

You definitley have either bad hardware or a bad install. Based on the post I'd put money on a bad install with a tech trying to take shortcuts. The "line not being strong enough" is BS. It's the tech's job to put the Hopper/Joey where you want them, and replace any cable if necessary. An unusual wall fish or other situation may require an extra fee, but Dish is usually pretty reasonable on those.

My personal opinion is that most existing RG6 cable is probably capable of the Hopper required 3Ghz bandwidth even if not labelled as such, but my understanding of Dish standards is that any cable not labelled as 3Ghz be replaced. Since you have had problems, insist the tech show you the rating stamped on the side of the cable for the Hopper run. Make sure any barrel connectors at wall plates have blue inserts. Joeys can use traditional RG6 or RG59 cable, but again since you are having issues, it won't hurt to request the line be replaced if possible.

Some uverse installs use coax for the STBs, make sure no coax is connected to the UVerse router.

If you are not comfortable with the tech, insist on at least talking to his supervisor.

None of the extra "personal supervision" should be necessary, but not all techs are as good as they should be. Hopefully the next tech will be on top of things.

PS: It can be hit or miss, but a lot of folks have gotten answers to questions from the forum while the tech is there.
.
 
Last edited:
I've had 1H/1J for a few months now. I've had 2 recordings get "skipped by user in X room" that no one skipped. I've had to reboot the Joey 4 times. I have lost connection to the internet several times where pressing the * button immediately reconnected. There are a few issues with not being able to delete programs from the HD at certain times, which ultimately are just inconsequential annoyances. I wish they would increase the max # of event timers. That's ALL of my issues/complaints. I wouldn't hold off because of reported bugs. That's just my opinion.
 
I am starting to think I have a bad H/J hardware if others are having no problems, because I've had a lot of annoying problems. Joey's that suddenly stop working and can't find a Hopper to connect to. The DVR controls are so much worse than the 722 (slow responding, back 10 does not go back 10 seconds but more like 22, slow motion doesn't work as well). Resuming DVR programs off auto hop result in the show starting from the beginning not where it was left off at. Some shows I recorded on HBO while I subscribed I can replay on my DVR, others not. The menu displays get cut off at the bottom and edges of the screen. Even little things like hitting guide and then the channel I want to search for, I have to wait about 3 seconds before I can enter the channel number on the remote or the guide doesn't respond correctly.
 
Most of those bugs you mention I have in fact seen myself. My Joeys sometimes do things like forgetting where the Hopper is until I reset them. It's not often enough to upset me, but it does happen. DVR controls on the Joeys really do need some work, mainly when you're doing 1/4 etc. ... Skip Fwd/Skip Back for me generally work OK but the other trick play controls involving slo mo and the likes REALLY need some work on the Joeys. Not quite as bad on the Hoppers themselves. The "not subscribed" issues with recordings of channels you no longer subscribe to is a pretty well-known issue around here. As for menus getting cut off, that is an overscan issue that Dish needs to address, but the way to fix it is to press YELLOW button > Click Format TV > Click Screen Adjustment > Then click the Minus button to zoom it out a couple of times so that the edges are no longer cut off.

The guide does seem a little slow when you first pull it up on my Hoppers as well. After that it's very fast (not as fast on the Joeys but still plenty fast enough.) As you said I have to wait a second to input the channel number or else it only gets the last few digits. VIPs never had that problem, but I figure that's just the tradeoff for the "prettier" interface.

Overall these quirks aren't bad enough for me to regret the Hopper upgrade, and it can only get better as future software updates are released. When I first got my 722Ks they had some quite annoying bugs that were ironed out eventually. It's just the nature of early adoption.
 
As you said I have to wait a second to input the channel number or else it only gets the last few digits. VIPs never had that problem, but I figure that's just the tradeoff for the "prettier" interface.
Performance for prettier interface is almost NEVER a good tradeoff, IMO.
 
Last edited:
True to an extent, however it's not THAT bad. Once the guide's pulled up it's blazing fast. Just took a little getting used to. Just wait about a second or two for the guide to pull up, then race away.
 
The menu displays get cut off at the bottom and edges of the screen.

You can fix this in the menu under Settings->Format TV. You can move them incrementally up, down, left and right on the screen, shrink them, expand them, whatever you need to do to get them closer to how you want them. That DOES work. :)
 
Well, after being able to talk extensively and over time with an advanced technical rep (who's been playing with S213) we decided to swap from VIP to HJ...Going to take the plunge this week with a 2H 1J system!
 
Welcome to the Hopper Club! hooper.jpg
 
Even though it has a couple of quirks, you will enjoy this receiver. I love mine and love it even more now that the hopers can share recordings. Lots of tuners, lots of storage and only missing OTA support which will hopefully be here soon!!

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys