Local Dish retailer says new Hopper OTA adapter to be released January 24

JosephB

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If you have a directional antenna, and signals coming from 2 different directions, each scan would remove the channels coming from the other direction.

got ya. I mean maybe it would be something they can add but that is a super niche use case of an already niche feature/product. If I were a betting man, I'd bet against it. Probably a better idea if you need to do that to put up two antennas and use a combiner. Since it's a DVR and multi-room, it doesn't lend itself to manual signal intervention like that very much
 

dare2be

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I would think a signal combiner with two antennas would likely cause more multipath issues where the signal from one station gets picked up by both antennas.

also, it may not be as niche as you think. many people close to two different markets (which happens a lot in dense population areas like the northeast) would want to get stations from both markets, especially if each of those markets is short some stations the other has.
 
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Gaze

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OTA antenna in my area receives over 20 channels, including the main networks ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CW, and one primary local station.

Currently, my HWS receiver has these same main networks plus that additional primary local station, plus 3 spanish lang channels. That's all (10 locals total).

Question:
Will this new Hopper OTA adapter show all the 20+ channels in the guide, or just the same 10 locals I'm seeing now?

I can clarify my question if unclear.
 

Bobby

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OTA antenna in my area receives over 20 channels, including the main networks ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CW, and one primary local station.

Currently, my HWS receiver has these same main networks plus that additional primary local station, plus 3 spanish lang channels. That's all (10 locals total).

Question:
Will this new Hopper OTA adapter show all the 20+ channels in the guide, or just the same 10 locals I'm seeing now?

I can clarify my question if unclear.
You will see all 20 channels in the guide. Some of those channels may not have information beyond the channel name.
 

JosephB

SatelliteGuys Pro
Dec 21, 2004
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Atlanta
OTA antenna in my area receives over 20 channels, including the main networks ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CW, and one primary local station.

Currently, my HWS receiver has these same main networks plus that additional primary local station, plus 3 spanish lang channels. That's all (10 locals total).

Question:
Will this new Hopper OTA adapter show all the 20+ channels in the guide, or just the same 10 locals I'm seeing now?

I can clarify my question if unclear.

I don't think your question was clear.

Let me see if I have this straight..

Local channels in your market have over 20 channels available, but you can only pick up 10 channels at your house?

If that's the case, you will only see the 10 channels you can actually receive. When you connect the tuner you scan the channels in, so that it can see what channels it has a signal for. If there's no signal, the channel doesn't show up in your guide.

Like Bobby said above, some channels may not have guide data from Dish, but they will still show up in the guide and be tunable. Just no actual show data will be displayed.
 

dare2be

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How I understand his question, there are 20 OTA channels he can pick up at his house, but only 10 of them are satellite-delivered by Dish.

What Bobby said, and Joseph's last line are still accurate. The OTA channels that are also provided by Dish will have guide data, and even some of the subchannels, but not all. But all of the 20 OTA channels will show up in the guide, some will just be the channel name and the program listing will say "Digital Service."
 

JosephB

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Dec 21, 2004
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Oh yeah, I can see it that way too.

Either way here is the correct answer: It will scan in any channels you can pick up with your antenna, whether or not Dish carries them or not. Some of them will have guide data, but some might not. Either way you will be able to watch all of them even if they do not have guide data.

And, if you happen to be able to pick up channels from a neighboring city, those will work too, OTA is not limited to the local market Dish has for you.
 
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Hall

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Feb 14, 2004
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And, if you happen to be able to pick up channels from a neighboring city, those will work too, OTA is not limited to the local market Dish has for you.
And just like for your local market, the guide data for the channels that Dish carries for that market will have guide data as well. You don't have to subscribe to the channels in order to get the guide data.
 

Tampa8

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I would think a signal combiner with two antennas would likely cause more multipath issues where the signal from one station gets picked up by both antennas.

also, it may not be as niche as you think. many people close to two different markets (which happens a lot in dense population areas like the northeast) would want to get stations from both markets, especially if each of those markets is short some stations the other has.

Yep. In both Ct and Tampa I can get stations not in my Market. (In fact in Ct some are better received from out of market) Both TIVO and my VIP receiver allow me to add channels without deleting what was there, very handy since some channels are in different directions even in Market.
 

charlesrshell

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Yep. In both Ct and Tampa I can get stations not in my Market. (In fact in Ct some are better received from out of market) Both TIVO and my VIP receiver allow me to add channels without deleting what was there, very handy since some channels are in different directions even in Market.
Several years ago I scanned in OTA channels in a relative's TV in a little town outside of Tampa. It seemed like it was over a 100 channels. I didn't know there were so many OTA channels for a town.
 
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Tampa8

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Several years ago I scanned in OTA channels in a relative's TV in a little town outside of Tampa. It seemed like it was over a 100 channels. I didn't know there were so many OTA channels for a town.

I can get somewhere around 70 - 75 channels, including sub channels of course. HSN and QVC have their own channels here, there are a few LD channels some from Schools, some mostly advertising, Biz Network etc... A few from Orlando sometimes, and two from Sarasota. Huge Greek community where I live and they have their own radio and TV station, the TV station has some good programming actually.
A side note - another interesting thing is being able to hear Caribbean Island and Central America radio stations at night.
 

charlesrshell

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I can get somewhere around 70 - 75 channels, including sub channels of course. HSN and QVC have their own channels here, there are a few LD channels some from Schools, some mostly advertising, Biz Network etc... A few from Orlando sometimes, and two from Sarasota. Huge Greek community where I live and they have their own radio and TV station, the TV station has some good programming actually.
This little town is Sun City Center down a little ways from Tampa on I-75. I was just using rabbit ears. I should of counted the number of channnels. I know it was bunches of them.
 
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Gaze

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Jun 15, 2014
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You will see all 20 channels in the guide. Some of those channels may not have information beyond the channel name.

How I understand his question, there are 20 OTA channels he can pick up at his house, but only 10 of them are satellite-delivered by Dish.

What Bobby said, and Joseph's last line are still accurate. The OTA channels that are also provided by Dish will have guide data, and even some of the subchannels, but not all. But all of the 20 OTA channels will show up in the guide, some will just be the channel name and the program listing will say "Digital Service."

Oh yeah, I can see it that way too.

Either way here is the correct answer: It will scan in any channels you can pick up with your antenna, whether or not Dish carries them or not. Some of them will have guide data, but some might not. Either way you will be able to watch all of them even if they do not have guide data.

And, if you happen to be able to pick up channels from a neighboring city, those will work too, OTA is not limited to the local market Dish has for you.


Thanks for the great answers. You deciphered my question...LOL

Yeah, I meant with an OTA antenna (not via the DISH service), I can get about 20 OTA channels (that are at least somewhat worth watching). I actually can get many more, but they're foreign language and of no interest to me. So, my question was basically what will show up in the guide once I hook up the subject device (Hopper OTA adapter).

That's pretty cool, such that I'm convinced about buying one. I don't suppose anyone has heard whether they'll be available via the Dish store anytime soon?

Another question comes to mind: I assume I can record any of these channels that will appear in the guide? Or only those that include the additional guide data (i.e., those that have info beyond just the channel name)?
 

Hall

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Feb 14, 2004
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Germantown OH
I assume I can record any of these channels that will appear in the guide? Or only those that include the additional guide data (i.e., those that have info beyond just the channel name)?
Yes, you can definitely record them. You simply have to do a "manual" recording - define the channel, start time, and stop time. Otherwise, without the guide data you refer to, the receiver doesn't know when to start recording and worse, when to stop.
 

Tony S

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I found Dish OTA to be unacceptable because the Dish OTA interface is so bad. Where I live, I can get channels from 4 different directions. With Dish, I could only do one scan, and there was no way to add channels that I could receive from a different direction (after rotating the antenna). Using my TV's tuner, it was easy to add channels that were in different directions.

Also, the tuner in my TV is much better than the current HWS/OTA dongle. I could pick up over twice as many stations with my TV vs the Dish tuner. I hope that the new OTA adapter has a better tuner.
 

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