How Hopper/Joey can help my setup?

[CCTX]

I read the sticky thread and dish.com on Hopper but I am a little confused with the features Hopper can add to my existing setup especially with HD on all TVs. Currently, I have one 722k feeding 4 HDTVs; TV1 in living, and TV2 feed in SD to all 3 TVs through the house built-in cable wiring. Now, I am interested in Hopper because it seems I can watch HD on all TVs.

Now, my questions are
How a Hopper or maybe a Joey can improve this setup?
Will a Hopper have TV1, TV2, TV3 since it has 3 tuners or something like this?
Will I need a Hopper AND a Joey to be able to watch HD and record something while watching 2 different TV shows at once?

Your help clarifying how a Hopper works and can improve my setup will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[rajmarie]

1 hopper can support upto 3 joeys....ie upto 4 tvs can be connected. Offcourse only 3 can watch live & 4th can watch dvr programs. Offcourse all 4 can get hd now

 

[Scherrman]

The Hopper should work great for you. One Hopper for the main TV and then a Joey for each additional TV. You would need the Hopper with 3 Joeys. There really isn't a TV 1, 2 and 3 anymore. Whatever TV you are at you just watch one of the available tuners fromt he Hopper. If all three tuners are being used and you want to watch something from a fourth TV you can either watch one of the three tuners in use or watch a recording. You can now watch up to 4 TVs in HD now.

 

[CCTX]

Great. Thank you.

So Joey is basically for HD. Without a Joey, I can still get SD on other TVs, correct?

 

[JM42]

Great. Thank you.

So Joey is basically for HD. Without a Joey, I can still get SD on other TVs, correct?

No. There is not any RF modulated output with a Hopper. You will need a Joey wherever you want to watch TV be it SD or HD.

 

[Dishman1978]

Great. Thank you.

So Joey is basically for HD. Without a Joey, I can still get SD on other TVs, correct?

Have to have joeys in a hopper/joey system even if your tv is sd or hd.

The hopper/joey system doesnt work like the regular satellite systems that are already out there.

 

[dare2be]

Have to have joeys in a hopper/joey system even if your tv is sd or hd.

The hopper/joey system doesnt work like the regular satellite systems that are already out there.

And, it doesn't work WITH the regular satellite receivers that are already out. It will be one (Hopper/Joey system) or the other (ViP, legacy).

 

[CCTX]

Now, this is interesting. Currently, I only pay $6.00 for DVR. With Hopper/Joey and if the numbers on the Price Rumors thread are correct, then it would be $24. If I add another 211k to my existing 722k instead, it would be $13. Then, I would get 2 HD feeds and the rest are SD. I am still interested in the Hopper/Joey system though.

Do you need to run wires between the Hopper and Joeys? That can be a mess.

 

[sparc]

Do you need to run wires between the Hopper and Joeys? That can be a mess.

take a look at the spec sheets in pinned Hopper/Joey thread. I believe the HIC spec sheet includes pictures along with some examples of wiring.

Basically there's a central node that everything needs to connect to somewhere in the house. Not necessarily near the hopper.

 

[mdavej]

No. There is not any RF modulated output with a Hopper. You will need a Joey wherever you want to watch TV be it SD or HD.

You should be able to add an RF modulator to send to SD TVs for free if you want. I had to do that for years with DirecTV because their boxes lacked RF out as well. An old VCR works fine, as does a $10 modulator from walmart. Realize this simply mirrors TV1.

 

[CCTX]

take a look at the spec sheets in pinned Hopper/Joey thread. I believe the HIC spec sheet includes pictures along with some examples of wiring.

Basically there's a central node that everything needs to connect to somewhere in the house. Not necessarily near the hopper.

According to the HIC thread, you should be able to bypass the HIC if you can connect your Hopper directly to the router. Still, it seems I need to run a wire from the outside of the house (dish switch) to the Hopper and every Joey.

 

[CCTX]

You should be able to add an RF modulator to send to SD TVs for free if you want. I had to do that for years with DirecTV because their boxes lacked RF out as well. An old VCR works fine, as does a $10 modulator from walmart. Realize this simply mirrors TV1.

How is the quality? Can you please explain how the connections work?

For my setup, the installer hooked the output of the dish to a switch or something like that in the attic. Then, took the output from 722k to one of the cable outlets. All other cable outlets work as TV2 on channel 60.

 

[steve4810]

You should be able to add an RF modulator to send to SD TVs for free if you want. I had to do that for years with DirecTV because their boxes lacked RF out as well. An old VCR works fine, as does a $10 modulator from walmart. Realize this simply mirrors TV1.

This is fine if everybody but TV1 wants to watch the same thing. The hopper lets each viewer watch something different and in HD to boot.

 

[CCTX]

If I do not have to run wires inside the house from living to bedroom etc. then it would be a switch to the new system for me. I hope they can either go directly from the outside of the house or use the existing cable wiring/outlets.

 

[mdavej]

How is the quality? Can you please explain how the connections work?

For my setup, the installer hooked the output of the dish to a switch or something like that in the attic. Then, took the output from 722k to one of the cable outlets. All other cable outlets work as TV2 on channel 60.

There is no change to the way you're wired today except that you insert an RF modulator between the output of the DVR and your coax out to the rest of the house. The quality is just as bad as you get today. It will be on channel 3 or 4 instead of 60.

If you go this route, you may as well just keep your 722k. I was just trying to point out that it was possible, not that there is any good reason to actually do it.

 

[kwindrem]

How is the quality? Can you please explain how the connections work?

Based on my assumption of how the system works: quality will be the same as a current HD dish/receiver combination.

A Hopper contains three satellite receivers, the DVR and ONE decoder/TV output (HD or SD).

Each Joey contains only ONE decoder/TV output (HD or SD).

As I understand it, the MPEG stream that's extracted from the satellite transponder optionally recorded on the DVR and decoded for display on a TV is passed around the home over MoCA WITHOUT DECODING to video -- one stream to each Joey.


The three receivers need signals from 1.5 dual satellite connections. Recall that in the ViP series receivers, a "separator" splits a single coax into two satellite inputs. For Hopper, you need one fully used dual satellite feed plus half of another. (The other half can be used by a second Hopper along with a third dual feed from the dish.)

A "Solo Node" (for one Hopper) or "Duo Node" (for two Hoppers) combined the dish feeds with MoCA signals that feed the Joeys. This is the central cabling hub for the system.

In a Hopper/Joey system, modulated video is not routed around the house. It's the MoCA signal. MoCA is also bidirectional so that a Joey can control the DVR that's in the Hopper. (and also send video from one Hopper's DVR to a second one for play out).

For my setup, the installer hooked the output of the dish to a switch or something like that in the attic. Then, took the output from 722k to one of the cable outlets. All other cable outlets work as TV2 on channel 60.

[/QUOTE]
In your current system, there must be an RF splitter that rouges the TV2 output from the 722 to the three TVs. As long as this network of cables is not used for off-air TV, it seems like the RF splitter could be replaced by a collection of MoCA "taps" to get signals to the Joeys that live with each TV. Otherwise, additional wiring will be necessary.

I have not seen any limitations on cable lengths so it may be possible to locate the "Node" near the dish and distribute MoCA over house wiring. This may make it easier to retrofit Hopper/Joey systems into existing ViP systems even where RF distribution is used to feed additional TVs.

Of course this is all speculation.

 

[BobaBird]

If I do not have to run wires inside the house from living to bedroom etc. then it would be a switch to the new system for me. I hope they can either go directly from the outside of the house or use the existing cable wiring/outlets.

2 lines of RG6 from the dish to the XiP Node, then 1 direct run of RG6 from the node to the Hopper. That run also carries the MoCA backfeed for the Joeys to the node. The node has a Joey output that can connect to your home's coax distribution.

I have not seen any limitations on cable lengths ...

I was told 200' from Hopper to Joey.

 

[CCTX]

2 lines of RG6 from the dish to the XiP Node, then 1 direct run of RG6 from the node to the Hopper. That run also carries the MoCA backfeed for the Joeys to the node. The node has a Joey output that can connect to your home's coax distribution.

I checked my 722k wiring. The dish output (4 cables) goes to a switch with 4 output but only one is used, this output goes to the existing coax distribution box (outside the house). Then at the receiver, from a cable outlet to a Video Path Power Inserter (as it reads) then out of the inserter to a Triplexer, then 3 cables from the triplexer to the 722k. All TV2s are connected directly to regular cable outlets and tuned to channel 60. This leaves the house with almost no cabling inside. Will the Hopper/Joeys be similar to such?

 

[kwindrem]

I checked my 722k wiring. The dish output (4 cables) goes to a switch with 4 output but only one is used, this output goes to the existing coax distribution box (outside the house). Then at the receiver, from a cable outlet to a Video Path Power Inserter (as it reads) then out of the inserter to a Triplexer, then 3 cables from the triplexer to the 722k. All TV2s are connected directly to regular cable outlets and tuned to channel 60. This leaves the house with almost no cabling inside. Will the Hopper/Joeys be similar to such?

I think so. You'd locate the "Node" that interconnects satellite dishes and receivers at the coax distribution box. If you run one Hopper, you need two cables from the switch to the "Solo Node" then one to the Hopper and one to each Joey. With two Hoppers, you'd need three cables from switch to a "Dual Node" but other wiring would remain the same. You'd eliminate the triplexer but would retain the power inserter for the switch.

If you have off-air or cable involved in the system then there would need to be more to this setup, but I'm not sure what. From what I have dug up on MoCA, it can coexist with off-air TV signals but I don't know what you'd need to combine/split the signals. It also appears the MoCA "taps" are nothing more than TV/cable splitters.

Of course this is all speculation until official documentation is released and/or installer training occurs. It does seem reasonable to assume you can do all of the splitting and combining of signals at the coax distribution box though.

 

[CCTX]

This would be nice if it is basically through the existing coax box/distribution.