Really disappointed with Dish and the Hopper

navychop

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I've never heard of QS RG-59, so it's probably RG-6. Since the only "virtue" of RG-59 is it's slightly thinner, quad really negates that. OK, maybe it's a tad cheaper. And I can't imagine any respectable AV shop using 59.
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
Ok just to show you guys I am not smoking crack I took pictures of the "exercise room" screen. I reset the Joey and it connected to "Living Room1" Hopper. The other hopper did not show in the "detected equipment" list even though it is on and working. I watched a live TV movie for roughly 20 minutes before the "looking for hopper living room1" error 1303 came up. I went to the "whole home" screen and it shows the room linked to the Hopper. The "diagnostic page" showed full MOCA and linked to the hopper as well. I tried to post the pictures through the upload manager, but I am having no luck. I would be happy to email the pictures to someone if they could post them for me.
 

khemka

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Feb 20, 2011
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Denver
The RG-6 on the hoppers and 2 of the Joeys is 20 gauge QS. The 2 upstairs bedroom Joeys are the original Belkin 18-gauge RG-59.

Is your system connected to your home network/broadband?

If yes - can you disconnect the Hopper from your home network - so no wireless, wifi or Hopper Internet Connector. Once the Hopper system has no access to the internet, reset the Hopper's and Joeys and see if you still face this problem.

Depending on what is happening on your home network, it could be effecting the communication between the hopper and joey. By disconnecting, we can eliminate that as a source of problem

Vivek
DISH Product Management
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
Is your system connected to your home network/broadband?

If yes - can you disconnect the Hopper from your home network - so no wireless, wifi or Hopper Internet Connector. Once the Hopper system has no access to the internet, reset the Hopper's and Joeys and see if you still face this problem.

Depending on what is happening on your home network, it could be effecting the communication between the hopper and joey. By disconnecting, we can eliminate that as a source of problem

Vivek
DISH Product Management

Thank you for that information. Yes, the Upstairs Hopper is connected via Sling Wi-Fi. When you say disconnected, are you referring to turning off the home Wi-Fi completely or using a menu feature in the Hopper to disconnect? Thanks!
 

rjruby

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Sep 13, 2003
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Nazareth, PA
Interesting. I have a 2 Hopper 1 Joey setup and only have RG6 from the node to the Hoppers. The line to the Joey is RG59. I asked about that over a year ago during install and the tech said it wouldn't be a problem (and it hasn't been). I wonder what has changed in that time to make RG6 to everything the new standard for 2 Hopper systems.

I have a systerm similar to yours.
Length of RG6 from the duo node to each of the two Hoppers with sling is about 50ft.
Length of RG59 from the duo node to the Joey is about 25ft.
Haven't had any problem since I installed them 3 months ago.
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
Well, so far so good on the internet disconnect. With the internet disconnected all Joeys fired up and immediately attached to Hoppers. I left all six TVs running for 15 minutes without a hiccup. I then had to run back to work, but left all of them on and my wife is going to keep an eye on them. One question, though: The upstairs hopper had 2 Joeys attached and tuning independent stations along with the Hopper TV tuning it's own as well. There were then 3 available stations that could be tuned from that hopper. The other two Joeys are independently tuning channels as well and that hopper has it's own channel; however, when you try to change a channel on one of the Joeys it makes you change a channel on one of the other TVs. It does not show any available channels beyond the three being used.
 

Scherrman

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Well, so far so good on the internet disconnect. With the internet disconnected all Joeys fired up and immediately attached to Hoppers. I left all six TVs running for 15 minutes without a hiccup. I then had to run back to work, but left all of them on and my wife is going to keep an eye on them. One question, though: The upstairs hopper had 2 Joeys attached and tuning independent stations along with the Hopper TV tuning it's own as well. There were then 3 available stations that could be tuned from that hopper. The other two Joeys are independently tuning channels as well and that hopper has it's own channel; however, when you try to change a channel on one of the Joeys it makes you change a channel on one of the other TVs. It does not show any available channels beyond the three being used.


I'm a little confused as to what's happening here. Is one of the units on a local channel? That would bring up all the local channels on one tuner then.
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
I'm a little confused as to what's happening here. Is one of the units on a local channel? That would bring up all the local channels on one tuner then.

No, The Hopper that is only allowing 3 separate stations to be tuned is currently tuned to AMC, Discovery, and History channel. When you hit the red button it shows these three channels being tuned and no other channels available. If you hit guide and try to tune a channel that is not listed on the red button screen it will tune to the channel you want, but will also change the channel on one of the other TVs as well. I did not reboot this hopper after disabling the Wi-Fi, so maybe that is an issue?
 

mdonnelly

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The Hopper only has three tuners. That's a limitation of the Hopper/Joey. If you need more simultaneous tuners, you need another Hopper. The Joeys don't have their own tuners, they use the Hopper's tuners. One tuner can be used for PTAT (Prime Time Any Time) during the evening hours, to get four broadcast network stations using that one tuner.
 

Scherrman

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No, The Hopper that is only allowing 3 separate stations to be tuned is currently tuned to AMC, Discovery, and History channel. When you hit the red button it shows these three channels being tuned and no other channels available. If you hit guide and try to tune a channel that is not listed on the red button screen it will tune to the channel you want, but will also change the channel on one of the other TVs as well. I did not reboot this hopper after disabling the Wi-Fi, so maybe that is an issue?

How many Joeys are synced with this Hopper? If you have 3 Joeys synced with the 1 Hopper you can run into issues since there are only 3 tuners available. It sounds like two devices are stuck on the same tuner.
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
The Hopper only has three tuners. That's a limitation of the Hopper/Joey. If you need more simultaneous tuners, you need another Hopper. The Joeys don't have their own tuners, they use the Hopper's tuners. One tuner can be used for PTAT (Prime Time Any Time) during the evening hours, to get four broadcast network stations using that one tuner.
Got it - thank you for the clarification. I realize the Joeys did not have a tuner, but I did not realize that the Hopper could tune all 4 broadcast networks using just one tuner. That makes sense since the other 3 channels that are "Available" are local networks. That still does not make sense with this hopper, though. With the 2nd hopper only having two Joeys attached and not recording anything I should be able to change the channel on a Joey without it warning me that it will interrupt another TV tuned into a different channel. Also, the local networks do not show as "available" on the second hopper. I suppose a reset would fix this.
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
It appears that disabling the Hopper with Sling WI-FI has cured the problem of the Joeys failing. Now, would one suspect that the Hopper and/or sling adapter within the hopper is bad or is it a network communication issue with my Netgear router? Before disabling the router I had a WI-FI signal that was green in the 50-55 range. Is the HIC adapter a better solution?
 

toddsanderson

Active SatelliteGuys Member
May 29, 2013
15
0
Indiana
were both hoppers connected to your network separately?

Not sure what you mean there. I have one regular hopper and another hopper with Sling that uses Wi-Fi to connect to my router. I assumed that only the one with sling could be used through the internet? If not, does that mean that the other hopper communicates through the first hopper and connects with my internet devices?
 

Bobby

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Not sure what you mean there. I have one regular hopper and another hopper with Sling that uses Wi-Fi to connect to my router. I assumed that only the one with sling could be used through the internet? If not, does that mean that the other hopper communicates through the first hopper and connects with my internet devices?

Yes! As long as you have bridging enabled...
 

sparc

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Jul 24, 2006
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I would have the installer try a HIC instead. That might bypass the network issues you're having. Worth a shot at least.
 

khemka

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Feb 20, 2011
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Denver
It appears that disabling the Hopper with Sling WI-FI has cured the problem of the Joeys failing. Now, would one suspect that the Hopper and/or sling adapter within the hopper is bad or is it a network communication issue with my Netgear router? Before disabling the router I had a WI-FI signal that was green in the 50-55 range. Is the HIC adapter a better solution?

That's good news - so there is no issue with your cabling etc...

It looks like an issue with your router or the connection between router and Hopper.

When there is no internet connection, Joey's get IP address from Hopper and looks like that is working fine.
When the system is connected to your router, the Joey's get an IP address from your router - and it looks like this connection is dropping.
Either there is a lot of network traffic, wifi interference or router cannot handle the traffic

I would try to eliminate the problem by

1. Try direct ethernet connection - so we can rule out any wifi issues in your home
2. If you still see a problem then I would try a different router and see if that solves the problem

Thanks

Vivek
 

Auto switch to SD when signal drops out

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