Power Off now works on Hopper 3

[kwindrem]

POWER OFF in software version U307 works properly. This could have been fixed in an earlier version as I haven't checked since my H3 was installed and it had an early version like U302.

Prior to the fix on H3 it functioned as a power ON.

 

[Foxbat]

That may explain why the Hopper 3 LED was off when I left for work this morning. My son catches up with SportsCenter before school and uses our Harmony remote to control the system. Before U307, when everything got shut off from the remote, the Hopper 3 would still be active. Good to hear!

 

[bobl]

OMG-I wonder if this fix will migrate to the original Hopper and the Hopper w/Sling? I first noticed the problem in January 2013 on the original Hopper and again last summer when I migrated to the Hopper w/Sling. I've called four or five times about this issue with my pleas to fix the problem going unanswered, at least until now. Very interested to see if the fix is in the next update for the Hopper w/Sling.

 

[stimpson]

Didn't know that was an issue. Exactly what was the problem?

 

[patmurphey]

That may explain why the Hopper 3 LED was off when I left for work this morning. My son catches up with SportsCenter before school and uses our Harmony remote to control the system. Before U307, when everything got shut off from the remote, the Hopper 3 would still be active. Good to hear!

You could set the startup and shutdown to toggle on/off on Harmony remotes.

 

[Bobby]

You could set the startup and shutdown to toggle on/off on Harmony remotes.

Yep, I've had my Harmony programmed for toggle for years. That allowed it to turn the Hopper on and off with a single button.

 

[Foxbat]

But when you press the "All Off" button on the Harmony, it sends the "Power Off" code to the Dish Receiver. My 942, 622, and 722k all responded by going into standby, just like the Hopper 3 does now with U307. Before, the discrete Off signal wasn't being acknowledged.

 

[Bobby]

But when you press the "All Off" button on the Harmony, it sends the "Power Off" code to the Dish Receiver. My 942, 622, and 722k all responded by going into standby, just like the Hopper 3 does now with U307. Before, the discrete Off signal wasn't being acknowledged.

I guess this a moot point now, but, if you had programmed the Harmony to use Toggle instead of Off it would have put your receiver into standby when All Off was pressed. This has been a Hopper thing since the beginning back in 2012.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm using the Activities mode of the Harmony, so it sends the "Turn On" code when I select "Watch Dish" and the "Turn Off" code if I power down or switch to another Activity. The problem with Toggle Power is it does exactly that. If the Dish Receiver is already On, I don't want to turn it off if I press "Watch Dish".

That's why I have this Harmony, BTW. I had given it to my in-Laws for Christmas many years back but the FIOS DVR they had did not have discrete power commands, just a power toggle, so the Harmony remote would sometimes get out of synch, requiring my Father-in-Law to grab the FIOS remote to turn the DVR back on. He appreciated the gift, but using it was actually more frustrating than using the DVR's remote to control everything. It sat in its box for five years until my Harmony 880 stopped charging because the gold wore off the charging contacts. The Harmony (forget the model number right now) has a magnet to insure good contact between the remote and the charging base.

 

[Bobby]

If the Dish receiver is already on and you are coming out of a different activity you are not synchronized correctly. Your Harmony is smart enough to know what your activity is and what should be on or off. If you have toggle set as your code, your receiver should turn off when you press All Off. If the receiver is already on when you press Watch Dish the Harmony will turn the receiver off. Simply press Select on the Harmony and that will turn the receiver back on. Once you have that set correctly you will be back in synch.

I have several devices that my Harmony controls. An H3, a bluray player, an AppleTV, a Roku, an AVR. and of course, the HDTV. When my Harmony is programmed correctly, and it is, the remote knows what to turn on and off, by activity. I can watch a program off of my Roku by pressing Watch Roku. the Harmony will turn the TV on, the Roku on, and the AVR on, all while setting the TV and AVR to the correct inputs. Now, when I'm done with that program and want to watch some TV from dish I simply press Watch Hopper. The Harmony will turn off the Roku, leave the TV and AVR on, setting the proper inputs, and turn on the Hopper. There was no need to shut everything down, the Harmony knows where it is at when everything is in sync.

 

[Foxbat]

I have the Inactivity Timer set on my HDTV, my Hopper 3, and my Yamaha AVR so if (when) my son falls asleep watching SportsCenter everything shuts off at some point. I find it hard to believe that the Harmony would "know" that happened and therefore flip itself into the Inactive mode.

I've had a Harmony to control my home theater for almost a decade and it's been the single best investment I made. It controls everything and makes it easy to watch whatever anyone wants to see.

I'm just saying that my domestic situation requires the discrete power codes for the Hopper, that's all, and I'm glad that it now supports both the power toggle as well as the discrete on/off commands. If my family had to toggle the Hopper power because it had somehow gotten out-of-synch, I would hear about it!

It was bad enough when my Toshiba set in the bedroom died and I replaced it with the Sony Bravia. Different remote and philosophy of operation. The Toshiba remote had activity buttons for TV, DVD, and Aux (Satellite) and controlled everything (for the most part, still needed the Dish remote) while the Sony required pressing the Input button, arrowing up/down to the desired input, then pressing select. At least the 4K Joey and my new AppleTV support CEC over the HDMI connection so press SAT on the dish remote and the Sony switches over to that input. My wife is still adapting to the Carbon UI from the ViP 211, plus there's the whole client/server relationship of how the Hopper system works. And, I did this during Tax Season, so that was another kink.

Anyway, Bobby, let's agree to disagree and get back to enjoying our Hoppers!

 

[david_jr]

I'm using the Activities mode of the Harmony, so it sends the "Turn On" code when I select "Watch Dish" and the "Turn Off" code if I power down or switch to another Activity. The problem with Toggle Power is it does exactly that. If the Dish Receiver is already On, I don't want to turn it off if I press "Watch Dish".

That's why I have this Harmony, BTW. I had given it to my in-Laws for Christmas many years back but the FIOS DVR they had did not have discrete power commands, just a power toggle, so the Harmony remote would sometimes get out of synch, requiring my Father-in-Law to grab the FIOS remote to turn the DVR back on. He appreciated the gift, but using it was actually more frustrating than using the DVR's remote to control everything. It sat in its box for five years until my Harmony 880 stopped charging because the gold wore off the charging contacts. The Harmony (forget the model number right now) has a magnet to insure good contact between the remote and the charging base.

My 880 did the same thing several years ago. I bought a cheap plug in battery charger for it off of Amazon and an extra battery and the remote was good as new again. I keep the spare charged so when the battery indicator drops I swap batteries and throw the depleted one in the charger and then it becomes the spare until needed. I really only use the harmony to turn the system on and off and otherwise use the original remote from whatever component we're using to watch.