Layer 3 is offers a no obligation 21 day free trial of their streaming internet-connected DVR. They offer over 250 HD only channels, a full time 4K channel (NASA TV), and promise to deliver "white glove customer service". I took them up on their offer. I ran their DVR in parallel with my Hopper 3. This is what I learned.
Layer 3’s new subscriber incentive pricing would result in a savings of about $450 during the first year of service compared with my current Dish subscription. Service for year 2 and beyond, assuming neither Dish nor Layer 3 change their advertised price schedule, Layer 3 would be a few dollars a month cheaper than Dish. The Layer 3 service contract does not require a long term commitment. The user can terminate service at any time.
At my normal viewing position of 12 feet from a 65 inch LG OLED TV, I can not see any difference in 1080p picture quality between the Layer 3 DVR and the Hopper 3. Layer 3's 4K picture quality is exceptional.
I do not know what minimum bandwidth Layer 3 requires for HD and UHD streaming support. I have a 25 Mbps internet line which provided uninterrupted, high quality streaming.
After two weeks using the Layer 3 DVR, both my wife and I agree that the current Layer 3 software is too feature poor and buggy to be acceptable. Regardless of the savings it offers, the Layer 3 DVR cannot compete with the Dish Hopper 3’s functionality and reliability.
What follows are some of the issues I found that need to be addressed before I would consider the Layer 3 DVR as a possible replacement for the Dish Hopper 3.
There is neither a user manual in print nor on line. There is no on-screen help. No channel is dedicated to showing Layer 3 DVR tutorials or user tips. Some people may enjoy the challenge of working out the system’s operation through trial and error, but I am an not one of them.
My main interest in looking at Layer 3 was support for 4K streaming. Layer 3 has a full time 4K channel. It seemed a good bet that Layer 3 will be in the forefront of satellite and cable providers when they start adding 4K content to their programming. I was very disappointed when NBC’s recent 4K coverage of the English Premier League was not available on Layer 3. I was told that Layer 3 has not yet worked out all the details with providers to enable 4K streaming. I was asked to be patient - - - 4K is coming, but they did not give me a definitive delivery date.
During the first week of use I found a serious bug that locked the system up and also corrupted several recorded programs. Layer 3 customer service told me that their tech reps were booked for that day but a tech rep could be at my home first thing the next day. The tech rep arrived on time at 8:30 am. He replaced the faulty DVR with a new unit. In doing so, he found an intermittent fault in my router and guided me through a red button (not a simple power off/on cycle) router reset. This was an impressive demonstration of high quality customer service. A week later the new DVR locked up when I was fast forwarding a recorded program. The recording was corrupted and unwatchable.
I am convinced that the Layer 3 user interface was designed for channel surfers who mostly watch live TV. There is no evidence that much consideration was given to users who are not interested in watching live TV and only watch recorded programs. This shows in Layer 3’s clumsy implementation of its program search and record procedures and lack of external hard drive support.
There are two ways to find a future program to record --- use either the Program Guide or the Search function. Both methods are frustratingly tedious. The Program Guide is a window showing a 1 and a half hour time span and is sized to show 10 entries. There is no forward or backward skip by a day. Even though the Layer 3 DVR provides 6 program categories named ALL, FOR ME, NEWS, SPORTS, KIDS, MOVIES, and LIFESTYLE to limit the number of channels displayed in the Program Guide window, the channel you want is not easy to find when it is hidden among the dozens of other channels that happen to fall into the same category. If the Layer 3 developers had looked at the Dish Hopper 3 they would have realized how powerful and necessary the Hopper 3's Favorite Channels feature is to allow users to quickly search the channels they are interested in.
Using the Search method with its tiny alpha/numeric key pad is equally frustrating. Keying in search text is hampered by slow response from the time of the click to when the character appears in the search text string. Moving the cursor around in the key pad is not very responsive. There are occasional long pauses when the system appears to go to sleep, but eventually wakes up. The system can sometimes lock up when the key pad is clicked too quickly. The lock up is cleared by pressing the remote's Home key. The user can then reenter the Schedule mode. Mercifully, the previously keyed in text is retained during this soft reset.
When the Layer 3 DVR deletes a recording, it is gone forever. There is no Trash from which you can retrieve a program that was deleted by accident.
There are no skip forward/backward buttons on the (non-illuminated) remote. Fast Forward and Rewind must be used to move through a recording. I always over- or under-shoot while skipping a commercial and then have to go through several iterations of FF and REW nudges to continue watching beyond the commercial. This is maddening when one is used to the Dish Hopper 3’s 10 second back and 30 second forward remote buttons.
The Layer 3 DVR does not provide a start early time for a program recording. A recording’s end time can be extended for a maximum of 10 minutes. The Layer 3 DVR’s method for determining a program's end time contains a fatal error. Insufficient time was scheduled to accommodate possible overtime for the recently aired Community Shield Cup soccer match. The recording ended before the winner was determined. Fortunately, I also recorded this match on the Dish Hopper 3. The Hopper 3 got it right and the entire game including its overtime was recorded.
Layer 3 does not offer the BeIn sports channel. As a fan of European football I find this unacceptable. The Smithsonian channel is also missing.
There is a curious thing about the Layer 3’s 4K NASA channel. The material displayed on screen is not what the Program Guide describes. The programming material appears to be on a loop that repeats itself every few hours. I suspect that the NASA TV programming is not being streamed from NASA TV’s normal feed but from a 4K blue ray disk supplied by NASA. This may explain why Layer 3's 4K picture quality is exceptional.
I discussed all of the above issues at length with several Layer 3 tech support people. They all agreed that my points were valid and they would inform the developers to make fixes or add functions. I was told that a new system update was coming soon that would address some of these issues. They could not tell me what issues were being addressed nor when the update will be released.
Layer 3’s new subscriber incentive pricing would result in a savings of about $450 during the first year of service compared with my current Dish subscription. Service for year 2 and beyond, assuming neither Dish nor Layer 3 change their advertised price schedule, Layer 3 would be a few dollars a month cheaper than Dish. The Layer 3 service contract does not require a long term commitment. The user can terminate service at any time.
At my normal viewing position of 12 feet from a 65 inch LG OLED TV, I can not see any difference in 1080p picture quality between the Layer 3 DVR and the Hopper 3. Layer 3's 4K picture quality is exceptional.
I do not know what minimum bandwidth Layer 3 requires for HD and UHD streaming support. I have a 25 Mbps internet line which provided uninterrupted, high quality streaming.
After two weeks using the Layer 3 DVR, both my wife and I agree that the current Layer 3 software is too feature poor and buggy to be acceptable. Regardless of the savings it offers, the Layer 3 DVR cannot compete with the Dish Hopper 3’s functionality and reliability.
What follows are some of the issues I found that need to be addressed before I would consider the Layer 3 DVR as a possible replacement for the Dish Hopper 3.
There is neither a user manual in print nor on line. There is no on-screen help. No channel is dedicated to showing Layer 3 DVR tutorials or user tips. Some people may enjoy the challenge of working out the system’s operation through trial and error, but I am an not one of them.
My main interest in looking at Layer 3 was support for 4K streaming. Layer 3 has a full time 4K channel. It seemed a good bet that Layer 3 will be in the forefront of satellite and cable providers when they start adding 4K content to their programming. I was very disappointed when NBC’s recent 4K coverage of the English Premier League was not available on Layer 3. I was told that Layer 3 has not yet worked out all the details with providers to enable 4K streaming. I was asked to be patient - - - 4K is coming, but they did not give me a definitive delivery date.
During the first week of use I found a serious bug that locked the system up and also corrupted several recorded programs. Layer 3 customer service told me that their tech reps were booked for that day but a tech rep could be at my home first thing the next day. The tech rep arrived on time at 8:30 am. He replaced the faulty DVR with a new unit. In doing so, he found an intermittent fault in my router and guided me through a red button (not a simple power off/on cycle) router reset. This was an impressive demonstration of high quality customer service. A week later the new DVR locked up when I was fast forwarding a recorded program. The recording was corrupted and unwatchable.
I am convinced that the Layer 3 user interface was designed for channel surfers who mostly watch live TV. There is no evidence that much consideration was given to users who are not interested in watching live TV and only watch recorded programs. This shows in Layer 3’s clumsy implementation of its program search and record procedures and lack of external hard drive support.
There are two ways to find a future program to record --- use either the Program Guide or the Search function. Both methods are frustratingly tedious. The Program Guide is a window showing a 1 and a half hour time span and is sized to show 10 entries. There is no forward or backward skip by a day. Even though the Layer 3 DVR provides 6 program categories named ALL, FOR ME, NEWS, SPORTS, KIDS, MOVIES, and LIFESTYLE to limit the number of channels displayed in the Program Guide window, the channel you want is not easy to find when it is hidden among the dozens of other channels that happen to fall into the same category. If the Layer 3 developers had looked at the Dish Hopper 3 they would have realized how powerful and necessary the Hopper 3's Favorite Channels feature is to allow users to quickly search the channels they are interested in.
Using the Search method with its tiny alpha/numeric key pad is equally frustrating. Keying in search text is hampered by slow response from the time of the click to when the character appears in the search text string. Moving the cursor around in the key pad is not very responsive. There are occasional long pauses when the system appears to go to sleep, but eventually wakes up. The system can sometimes lock up when the key pad is clicked too quickly. The lock up is cleared by pressing the remote's Home key. The user can then reenter the Schedule mode. Mercifully, the previously keyed in text is retained during this soft reset.
When the Layer 3 DVR deletes a recording, it is gone forever. There is no Trash from which you can retrieve a program that was deleted by accident.
There are no skip forward/backward buttons on the (non-illuminated) remote. Fast Forward and Rewind must be used to move through a recording. I always over- or under-shoot while skipping a commercial and then have to go through several iterations of FF and REW nudges to continue watching beyond the commercial. This is maddening when one is used to the Dish Hopper 3’s 10 second back and 30 second forward remote buttons.
The Layer 3 DVR does not provide a start early time for a program recording. A recording’s end time can be extended for a maximum of 10 minutes. The Layer 3 DVR’s method for determining a program's end time contains a fatal error. Insufficient time was scheduled to accommodate possible overtime for the recently aired Community Shield Cup soccer match. The recording ended before the winner was determined. Fortunately, I also recorded this match on the Dish Hopper 3. The Hopper 3 got it right and the entire game including its overtime was recorded.
Layer 3 does not offer the BeIn sports channel. As a fan of European football I find this unacceptable. The Smithsonian channel is also missing.
There is a curious thing about the Layer 3’s 4K NASA channel. The material displayed on screen is not what the Program Guide describes. The programming material appears to be on a loop that repeats itself every few hours. I suspect that the NASA TV programming is not being streamed from NASA TV’s normal feed but from a 4K blue ray disk supplied by NASA. This may explain why Layer 3's 4K picture quality is exceptional.
I discussed all of the above issues at length with several Layer 3 tech support people. They all agreed that my points were valid and they would inform the developers to make fixes or add functions. I was told that a new system update was coming soon that would address some of these issues. They could not tell me what issues were being addressed nor when the update will be released.
