Questions about The Hopper?

Smith P.

On Vacation
Oct 4, 2003
8,907
2
Bay Area, CA
No its still beta software until the units are RELEASED. That is when it stops being beta.

Then you'll wait for new RELEASE FW on March 15. :p

[Perhaps ppl are not aware of some business rules in SW Dept - there is no way to release beta version under production designator - S2.00 or S2.52 are production versions]
 
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butters

SatelliteGuys Family
Jan 17, 2005
111
0
Northern Lower Michigan
Wait, isn't it alpha now and beta when the customer gets it? I thought we were all beta testers for Dish equipment? ;)

In all seriousness the Hopper looks very promising and I am hoping this ends up being a homerun for Dish.
 

John Kotches

SatelliteGuys Master
Supporting Founder
Nov 21, 2003
6,765
197
Troy, IL (STL Area)
Is Dish willing to share the priorities for the following features:
OTA USB Tuners
Multiple Hoppers functioning as one big DVR
USB Devices attaching to Joeys
TP Ethernet access for all MoCA attached devices via any Joey or Hopper on a MoCA network segment.
 

Scott Greczkowski

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Sep 7, 2003
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Then you'll wait for new RELEASE FW on March 15. :p

[Perhaps ppl are not aware of some business rules in SW Dept - there is no way to release beta version under production designator - S2.00 or S2.52 are production versions]

That is what you say... not what DISH says. How can you have production software when there are no receivers? It's all beta until the hardware is released.
 

bf3000

SatelliteGuys Pro
Jan 8, 2004
220
17
Bel Air, MD
Scott - thanks for all the answers. Now that we know how the Hopper will deal with recording shows to keep that are in the PTAT block, I have another question about the PTAT recordings. Can you ask Dish if consecutive shows recorded on the same network (setup w/ tiers in the PTAT block) can each be padded at the beginning and the end? In other words, can there be overlap on the recording so that one recording can run 3 minutes past, but the recording of the next show can still start 1 minute early. This is a feature they have not incorporated on previous DVR's, but I know that DirecTV does it so it shouldn't be any major technical issue - they just need to save a few minutes to 2 separate files instead of 1. Thanks!
 

dare2be

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Jul 15, 2011
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This is a feature they have not incorporated on previous DVR's,
This has been discussed before ad nauseum...my settings of 2 minutes early and 2 minutes past, in dual mode, will ALWAYS record the overlaps, using both tuners. So yes, the feature is incorporated.
 

bf3000

SatelliteGuys Pro
Jan 8, 2004
220
17
Bel Air, MD
This has been discussed before ad nauseum...my settings of 2 minutes early and 2 minutes past, in dual mode, will ALWAYS record the overlaps, using both tuners. So yes, the feature is incorporated.

But if all of the tuners are in use (as is often the case in the Prime Time hours), it will override the early/past settings, and just start the second recording right after the first. Typically, this ends up missing a few seconds that don't appear in either recording (and normally the punchline of the final joke). I am just wondering if I set timers for consecutive shows on the same network in the PTAT block, how will the overlap that I set up in my timers be handled? Will it use another tuner if it sees the overlap (not desired, and somewhat defeating the purpose of PTAT), will it handle it like the current DVR's do and start one recording immediately after the other, possible missing a few seconds of a show (not desired), or will it write the overlapped portion to both recordings and not miss a thing (desired)?
 

dare2be

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It has been my experience that if there are timer conflicts, then one of them will get skipped entirely. If a tuner is in use watching or recording live TV, then you get a pop-up asking what you want to do, stop recording, or stop the timer. If no one is there to answer the question, the timer will override the live tv viewing/recording. In other words, in my setup, back-to-back timers on the same channel will always attempt to use the other tuner...if it can't, then the timer with the lower priority will get skipped.

As far as PTAT goes, since the entire TP stream is being saved to another partition, I would hope that same-channel overlaps are not a problem for a single tuner, just as being able to save 2 or more programs from different channels from the same time slot.
 
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bf3000

SatelliteGuys Pro
Jan 8, 2004
220
17
Bel Air, MD
It has been my experience that if there are timer conflicts, then one of them will get skipped entirely. If a tuner is in use watching or recording live TV, then you get a pop-up asking what you want to do, stop recording, or stop the timer. If no one is there to answer the question, the timer will override the live tv viewing/recording.

That is true if the timers are for different channels. Let me give you an example - let's assume that I only have 1 tuner available betweent 8:55 and 10:05. I have a timer set to record Modern Family (1/2 hour show) at 9:00 and start 1 minute early and end 3 minutes late - no problem. I also have a timer set to record Happy Endings (half hour show - same channel) at 9:30 and start 1 minute early and end 3 minutes late (problem - timer overlap). If these shows were on different channels, my timer priorities would kick in and the lower priority show would not record. In this case, with the conflict occurring on the same channel, the Modern Family recording would start 1 minute early as scheduled, but the recording would stop at the scheduled end time (9:30), without the 3 minute overrun. The Happy Endings recording would start at 9:30, without the 1 minute early, and end 3 minutes past the end of the show.

Sorry for discussing this here, but I just want to make sure that the question I have about the Hopper is understood. I could explain it in less than a minute face to face in conversation, but in a typed paragraph it is sometimes tougher to get across.
 
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chrisn

SatelliteGuys Guru
Feb 7, 2009
137
0
Wisconsin
I assume the answer is "yes", but will a joey be able to get the network stream of a dlna connected hopper? In other words, can I watch a movie streaming from my computer on my joey connected television? Or just the main room hopper? Thank you.
 

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