Not happy with the Dish Hopper DVR

I'm watching a Football game right now,the wife is watching QVC in the bedroom (hopefully not ordering anything), two kids each in their own bedroom watching something. That is pretty typical in my home, and I am sure quite a few others.
 
three–tuner Whole–Home HD DVR that lets you record up to six live HD channels at once* and stream four HD programs to different TVs simultaneously. No other competitor can offer this!
Hopper - DISH Network

There is where the false advertising starts.

Id much rather have a Directv HR35 with 5 Tuners, than a Hopper with 3 Tuners and Prime Time anytime.

You tell people that they can record 6 shows, they expect to record 6 shows. People are not going to understand the concept of using 1 Tuner to record all 4 networks because all the programming happens to be on the same transponder.

Yes Mr customer the Hopper can record 6 shows at once, but not the shows you want to watch. 4 Of those shows have to be a network Tv channel between 8 and 11pm. If you don't care to watch whats showing on Fox for example, your DVR is going to record it for you anyways,
 
rapidturtle said:
I'm watching a Football game right now,the wife is watching QVC in the bedroom (hopefully not ordering anything), two kids each in their own bedroom watching something. That is pretty typical in my home, and I am sure quite a few others.

Agreed. We have a 922 and two 722's for 4 TV's. I can say that 4+ tuners are in use more often than not.
 
I'm recording both games that we will watch after dinner (at about 90mins each). And don't the kids have timers to catch their shows? But i admit TV shopping and news aren't DVR material.

Hmmm. Maybe I should start a TV watching boot-camp. Sounds like too many amateurs out there.

Speaking of DVRed football, don't you hate hurry up offense? Got to jump ahead 30 then back a 5.
 
For sure is not from Engineering - they came with DP544 device long time ago, it's those VP or bean-counters who are watching each $.
I'm betting it was seen as a solution in search of a problem (much like PTAT).

I'm assuming you munged the model number but what is the motivation behind a five slot switch back in the DP days?
 
I believe Dish set their MRV system with hoppers for two reasons.

1. To do something nobody else in an attempt to attract a different market.

2. With their low base prices, they depend a lot on equipment fees. By limiting the number of tuners it forces people to use additional equipment and thus equipment fees.

They can now claim that subs can record just as much or more at one time as any other provider. Even though they are using fewer tuners.

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Yes Mr customer the Hopper can record 6 shows at once, but not the shows you want to watch. 4 Of those shows have to be a network Tv channel between 8 and 11pm. If you don't care to watch whats showing on Fox for example, your DVR is going to record it for you anyways,
you can turn off PTAT and set timers like normal. That would give you all 3 tuners available
 
Here is what I don't like about it..

#1 The receiver only has 3 Tuners. For a 1 or 2 Television household I don't see this as being much of an issue. The problem when you add 3, 4 or 5 Televsions to this setup, you become very limited in the amount of things you can watch live, and the more shows you have recording in the background the even more limited this DVR becomes.

Granted you can add another Hopper, but with DISH Networks track record on additional receiver outlet fees, I bet we are looking at an additional $20 per month, not to mention another few hundred dollars upfront.
i agree, it would be a downgrade in my household to go to a three tuner hopper when i have four tuners now and don't watch much PTAT.

It ultimately comes down to pricing. If they make it very inexpensive to upgrade without higher monthly fees, then I'll live with one less tuner.

Customers are ok with making concessions as long as the price is right. There are benefits to the system like having HD and internet connectivity in every room.
 
It seems to me that if the Joeys aren't really a independent receiver, then they should be very cheap, or free as far as a monthly fee goes. If the first receiver (Hopper) is free then maybe equipment fee's will be minimal for this setup. $7 dvr and a $5 multiroom fee possibly. I really doubt it, but it would be good marketing against D*, and also nice for us.
 
About the privacy issue that was mentioned. Maybe Dish already has an incognito feature built in.
 
Having only 3 tuners is really starting to sink in with me. I am not sure why but I thought the 3 tuners worked more like 6 but at the end of the day the Hopper really only has 1 tuner more that a 722. In a 4 TV household there is no way to watch 4 live programs at the same time without paying for an additional Hopper. And I don't want to hear about OTA as the solution because it is not even supported yet not to mention I am not in a major area that has ton of OTA. If we happen to be recording a show then only TWO of the 4 TVs in my household would be able to watch live TV. This really, really is not good and makes Directs home whole setup with their new 5 tuner receiver sound MUCH better. The only way I see Dish eliminating this issue is if they make adding a second Hopper very easy and VERY REASONABLY priced.

How often do you watch live TV? Unless it's sports nobody in my house watches live TV anymore unless we are absolutely bored to death - at which point I jump onto these forums.

Case in point, we have 35 weekly timers, and that's just on my 922 (we watch way to much TV). There are very few conflicts except on Monday, and the PrimeTime Anytime feature would completely eliminate that. So for us, having HD and full DVR functionality on all 4 tv's in the house is perfect and much better than D* HR34.

Not to mention that my older kids don't even watch traditional TV anymore. Unless it's on their laptop, then it's a no go. They watch more stuff at dishonline.com than anything else. Plus, I have a daughter at Mizzou and she uses dishonline.com a ton and, on the extremely rare (and I mean extremely) times she wants to watch something live, she accesses our 922 remotely.

I think everyone's getting wrapped up into how many tuners are on the Hopper as opposed to realistically evaluating our viewing habits.
 
I agree on the price concern for the 2nd Hopper.

Any thing more than $99 extra for the 2nd Hopper and they risk loosing new customers to the DirecTV HR34, they need to price match BASED on the total number of tuners for the total solution.

Two Hopper and Two Joey= a 6 Tuners solution that matches the DirecTV HR34.

One Hopper and Two Joey= really a 2 Tuner solution as one it tied up to Prime time.
 
It seems that there’s a lot of people complaining about the hopper’s capabilities/limitations, specifically that it has only 3 tuners. The hopper is perfect for my desired configuration because I have 4 HD TV’s. One hopper and three Joey’s would suffice for me because there are never than more than 2 TV’s on at any time.

With the hopper and Joey’s I can now have HD on all TV’s, something that previously required 4 VIP type receivers. It looks like the main complaints are from people that want individual programming on more than three TV’s simultaneously while recording other programming. The solution is, of course, a second hopper (or even a third), but then there is the cost factor.

I’d wager that my desired configuration would accommodate the vast majority of subscribers.


I agree with your Bet. In a house hold with just Two Viewers it is perfect. In a House with 3 to 4 viewers you need a 2nd Hopper. Hopefully it will only be $99 for a 2nd one and they wont make us out right buy it for $400 like they have done in the past for a 2nd new generation box.
 

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