I'm one of the "few" lucky ones that lives in a market without HD locals offered by Dish. I'm currently using a single 722k with TV2 mirrored to our daughter's bedroom, but we're moving into a new house next month. I have a Hopper/Joey(s) installation scheduled for the new house and plan to use 2-3 HDTVs and 1 SDTV. The whole-home DVR and multiple-HDTV capabilities are obvious positives for me, but I was really looking forward to PTAT since that is where the majority of our recordings come from anyway. But, that's obviously not an option with our SD locals. Is anyone else out there still using the Hopper/Joey system without access to HD locals (and PTAT)? Is it worth it still? Do I really have any other options since I want whole-home DVR?
Hopper without HD locals - anyone still using it?
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I don't use ptat and I love it. My wife doesn't get mad about my schedule recordings and I have the 3rd tuner always available. If you have more than 3 Tvs I would get a second Hopper. It cost more upfront but is well worth it
You can always "Move" to a nearby dma that does have hd. You would get the big 4 networks in hd and ptat would work. Drawback is there is no way to watch your actual news and local channels, unless you have an antenna on your tv. Once ota usb tuner is released for use , you could then get ota and hd networks on the same receiver, like the Vip dual tuner dvrs do today: 722k.
Is there integration between the Hoppers yet? Or will it be just 2 separate independent systems?
That's rolling out now. At least, to the extent you can see what's on both Hoppers. Later we'll probably see pooled timers and load balancing.
What would be the benefits of going with 2 Hoppers and 1 Joey rather than 1 Hopper and 2 Joeys? Just more tuners and storage, correct?
murpbrad said:
You would have PIP on both TVs connected to Hoppers.
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Started off with 1 Hopper 2 Joeys...moved and was going to just add a joey...last min decided to get a 2nd Hopper...best decision I made...$100 added to my bill...well worth it..if you can get a 2nd Hopper do so...same $7 fee as Joey helps too
Same fee for NOW. I often wonder if this will change next year when February rolls around and the price hikes come . Not just programming price hikes, possibly equipment fees too. Any one remember the 2010 additional receiver fee HIKES? Went from $6.00 for sd and $7.00 for hd receivers to anywhere from $7.00 - $17.00 for dual tuner dvrs. I for one am wondering how long they will keep this $7.00 price for the second hopper. I mean $17.00 for a second dual tuner dvr and the three tuner Hopper is just $7.00? I just don't want to get a second hopper and find out that DISH will hike the fee on the second hopper to say $17.00 .
That's what I expect. Lure in new customers and existing customers now to new 2-year agreements with the low additional Hopper fees (with the up front initial outlay), and then in less than a year...boom! $17 (or more) per additional Hopper.
I live in the Parkersburg, WV market which doesn't have locals in HD and have a 2 Hopper/3 Joey set up and love it. The benefits of having a hopper in an area that isn't served by HD yet is you will have a 3 tuner system instead of a 2 tuner system, (but it will only record up to three events at a time instead of 6) the Joeys are HD (instead of SD TV2) and the hard drive space is awesome. I actually filled up my Hopper with movies, TV shows in SD (on the channels w/o HD) and HD programming. A total of 540 recorded events and my DVR only reached 90% capacity. Another added plus is when upgrading from a previous VIP 622/722 model if you have an external drive people can simultaneously watch recordings that have been transferred over to the external hard drive so you can basically turn your 1 TB Hopper in an even larger DVR with an external drive. The only drawback is if you are upgrading from a 211, your external hard drive will have to be reformatted and you'll lose those recordings.
Add another Hopper and with Hopper to Hopper integration you could have a total of six tuners, record six TV shows at the same time and have a 2 TB recording capacity through the receivers. I know once my other Hopper gets the update i'll never have a recording conflict in the future.
One last plus, if they ever add HD to your market and dish picks it up then you would already have the set up for PTAT enabling you to record six programs at once during prime time.
I wouldn't want it but could see them raising the Whole Home & DVR fee from $10 to $15 or $20 to match TiVo subscription prices but only one TV is served by the household per Hopper and the other 3 TVs are served by Joeys. I cannot see how they could pull that this is a second TV outlet shenanigans like they did with additional 625/622/722(k) systems. They could start charging per tuner $7 if not prime time enabled or $7 for the first two and $15 for PTAT. I don't see that happening either since they touted that people could drop their Hulu+ subscriptions. They could also say DLNA is beta right now and then deactivate it in the future and then charge a DLNA fee. I should probably just shut up before the bean counters see my post. Right ?
Add another Hopper and with Hopper to Hopper integration you could have a total of six tuners, record six TV shows at the same time and have a 2 TB recording capacity through the receivers. I know once my other Hopper gets the update i'll never have a recording conflict in the future.
One last plus, if they ever add HD to your market and dish picks it up then you would already have the set up for PTAT enabling you to record six programs at once during prime time.
I wouldn't want it but could see them raising the Whole Home & DVR fee from $10 to $15 or $20 to match TiVo subscription prices but only one TV is served by the household per Hopper and the other 3 TVs are served by Joeys. I cannot see how they could pull that this is a second TV outlet shenanigans like they did with additional 625/622/722(k) systems. They could start charging per tuner $7 if not prime time enabled or $7 for the first two and $15 for PTAT. I don't see that happening either since they touted that people could drop their Hulu+ subscriptions. They could also say DLNA is beta right now and then deactivate it in the future and then charge a DLNA fee. I should probably just shut up before the bean counters see my post. Right ?
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Seems that the current ViP extra DVR receiver fee structure starts at $7 per single outlet, single tuner receiver (211), then add an additional $3 for more tuners or $7 for more outlets...612 ($10) adds another tuner for $3 more...622/722/922 ($17) adds another $7 for the additional outlet. Before the Hopper had been renamed from the 813 (one outlet, 3 tuners), using the same pricing structure, an additional Hopper could potentially be justified at $13 ($7 + $3x2 for the two additional tuners).
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