New DISH customer? Or not?

[musiciseverything]

Hello, to all. Thanks in advance for any information you could give me regarding a decision to switch from DTV to DISH. I couldn't find the answers in the posts I researched here. DTV has been my sat provider for 17 years but DISH has the sling, new promotions that would easily beat any loyalty promos that DTV has offered, and the Hopper/Joey combo looks better than my amp/splitter system now. I would need one Hopper and 3 Joeys for my current system of 4 HDTVs. Here goes...

1. To use the sling to broadcast to another location, an apartment I have 50 miles away, I would use the rural ATT DSL connection in my home but the most uplink speed I can use is 0.375 Mbps. Is that enough bandwidth to sling programming to the apartment? The apartment is in the city (Charter) and has 10x the speed, so the limiting factor would be the upload from my home.
2. I have had bad experiences with ham-handed installers and would prefer to run the connections in my home myself. I have plain RG-6 running through the house but the forums suggest i need to upgrade the RG-6 to 3 MHz or better and maybe quad-shielding. What do you suggest?
3. Are the remotes RF or IR? In other words, would I need each Joey to be visible by each HDTV for the remote to work?
4. I was quoted monthly prices from DISH for the first (promo) year and subsequent years but they didn't break it down for me for equipment rentals. Is there a monthly fee for the Hopper and Joeys?

Again, thanks in advance. Maybe someday i can return the favor.

TG

 

[lucky86]

First receiver is free, $7 for each additional and $10 dvr fee.

That speed is way to slow in my opinion. It may work but will be horrible.

Rg6 is fine.

The remotes are 2g, range of 200 ft.

 

[musiciseverything]

Thanks for your quick reply. By receiver do you mean the Hopper is free I only need one at this time) and each Joey would be $7/month plus the DVR fee of $10/month?

 

[Rizon216]

I have occasional buffering on my 768kbps connection sometimes, especially when someone else is trying to use the upload part of my DSL. The quality is always low, as I expected - you will not get an HD stream and it will look worse than SD does on your TV. With your .375 Mbps, you will likely have lots of buffering and it may only get 1-2 seconds of video between buffering sessions.

 

[Rizon216]

Thanks for your quick reply. By receiver do you mean the Hopper is free I only need one at this time) and each Joey would be $7/month plus the DVR fee of $10/month?

No fee for the Hopper, you pay $10/month for the DVR on your account, plus $7/month for your Joeys. With 1 Hopper & 3 Joeys, you will have $31/month + taxes/surcharges in fees for them.

 

[lucky86]

Thanks for your quick reply. By receiver do you mean the Hopper is free I only need one at this time) and each Joey would be $7/month plus the DVR fee of $10/month?

If you have one hopper and one Joey, it's $17 total. $7 for joey, $10 for dvr fee.

 

[musiciseverything]

I thought it would be too slow. Thanks for the info. The other option is to download programming to my ipad and take it with me. I have the latest ipad but my wife has the first generation one and I am wondering if it will work. What would be the memory storage necessary to carry a movie or show with me? Is it compressed on the ipad or full size when it downloads from the DVR to the Ipad?

 

[Smwoodward]

your internet speed might be ok to watch something if you really want to watch it, but it will not be stellar. If you have an ipad and you get the hopper with sling then you could load the recorded shows one your ipad and take them to the other house and watch them and that will be fine.

 

[musiciseverything]

Thanks. Our messages crossed each other. Memory requirement for the Ipad for movies or shows?

 

[lucky86]

Thanks. Our messages crossed each other. Memory requirement for the Ipad for movies or shows?

Shows I've transfered range from 125mb to 750 MB. Movies 1-3gb.

 

[musiciseverything]

Thanks. You all have been very helpful and I appreciate it. Now, I have to think and crunch numbers......

 

[Bobby]

One Hopper and three Joeys is not a good configuration, unless two of those TVs are not in use when the other two are being used. A better way to go, although a bit more expensive upfront is to go with two Hoppers, one with Sling, and two Joeys. The monthly costs are the same.....

 

[navychop]

One Hopper and three Joeys is not a good configuration, unless two of those TVs are not in use when the other two are being used. A better way to go, although a bit more expensive upfront is to go with two Hoppers, one with Sling, and two Joeys. The monthly costs are the same.....

QFT.

I really MUST strongly encourage you to go with the 2H/2J configuration. As stated, the monthly fees will be the same, but the utility of the extra tuners will be far greater. 6 satellite tuners for 4 TVs is a whole lot better than 3 tuners for 4 TVs. And you'll still have TV service if one of the Hoppers dies. It will likely be cheaper to get 2 Hoppers up front than to add one later. If added later, there will have to be another truck roll, to replace the solo node with a duo node and other work.

 

[dwarren2]

I highly recommend that you use a Dish installer. I haven't had any problems and they can do the wiring and then quickly do the programming of the Hoppers and Joeys.

 

[mike123abc]

You need the good RG6, if you are worried about the installer, do what I did when I first had Dish installed. I ran all the cables the way I wanted to have them run. They just had to put on the end connectors, mount the dish and put in the receivers.

 

[the mack]

N plus $7/month for your Joeys.

Always thought the $7.00 fee for each of the Joey's was kinda lame as they are just mirroring your main receiver. just me though, I guess...

 

[lucky86]

I don't know of a TV provider that provides additional outlets without a monthly cost per outlet or receiver box other than basic cable that doesn't need set top boxes.

 

[the mack]

I don't know of a TV provider that provides additional outlets without a monthly cost per outlet or receiver box other than basic cable that doesn't need set top boxes.

your right, but one $7.00 fee for all the joeys attached to one receiver seems fair to me. otherwise I would have a hopper on each TV.

now, me as a buy your own stuff kinda guy, I would exploit the adding joey without telling dish exploit, cuz last I heard they still have that flaw in there system.

 

[lucky86]

your right, but one $7.00 fee for all the joeys attached to one receiver seems fair to me. otherwise I would have a hopper on each TV.

now, me as a buy your own stuff kinda guy, I would exploit the adding joey without telling dish exploit, cuz last I heard they still have that flaw in there system.

S238 corrects that issue, so no more adding a Joey without telling dish. You would see the 1318 message appear.

 

[3HaloODST]

S238 corrects that issue, so no more adding a Joey without telling dish. You would see the 1318 message appear.

Woah, people were using unactivated Joeys?

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