Scott's Hopper Thoughts

[dare2be]

I'm paying $50 in fees. $34 for the 2 722s. $10 for the 612. $6 DVR fee.

Yeah, I posted my mistake later...I was thinking of a 922 $10 DVR fee.

 

[dont24]

Yeah, I posted my mistake later...I was thinking of a 922 $10 DVR fee.

However you slice it, it's still too much in fees. But, we like watching Dish in our household.

 

[DishSubLA]

Scott was pretty much ON SPOT. Some of the negative posts stank of sabotage, I thought. But there were some valid negative posts with fair points. But yes, I felt the "confusion" was manufactured, as well.

With the exception of the first Joey not being included, I think the proposed fee pricing is decent and competitive and the best we could have ever hoped for. While I am one who would like to keep just ONE ViP, Dish is still providing us with a choice: The Whole Home Solution or the legacy ViP Solution. If we don't like it, we do have other options from DBS to Cable to FiOS to IPTV (AT&T) or even cord cutting. However, I think that once the Hoppers can see each other, Dish will have easily the BEST and most reliable Whole Home Solution of any MVPD.

Further, it seems like Dish is committed to getting customers connected to the broadband at DISH's expense, not customers (I mean it is included in the upgrade fee.) Dish has NEVER been willing to get your system connected to broadband with the ViP's. This "make the broadband connection happen" is a POSITIVE development as, for the fist time, it really allows all Hopper/Joey customers to have access to the additional benefits and programming available via broadband internet (BlockBuster).

I can tell you that without a doubt, once the Hoppers can see each other, I am getting the 2 Hoppers with 3 Joeys, and I really think the upgrade costs as announced for current customers is quite fair (although I do believe I will qualify for the first Hopper for FREE ) even if one has to pay TWO upgrade prices. Even the $7 monthly fee structure is competitive and pretty good, actually. This Hopper/Joey is what I have been waiting for, with a few extra features more than I could have ever imagined, and my monthly fees total would actually DECREASE.

DirecTV is a good service, and would not say anything of significance against DirecTV (even Charlie says you should go DirecTV before you go to cable), from the research I have done regarding DirecTV's 5 tuner model Whole Home Solution and comparing it to Dish's Hopper/Joey, I think Dish's is, overall, a better system with better features and even better aesthetics regarding the UI and lovely EPG with logos (as we seem them on our 922). Of course, such a conclusion is SUBJECTIVE, and others would say DirecTV's is better. But one or the other is always going to be "better" based upon our unique needs and desires.

So, in short, Dish has kept me from going anywhere else. Now, if they can only get the Hoppers to see each other ASAP, I am next in line for the Hopper/Joey. I have to say Good Job Dish!

 

[navychop]

The big hang up for me was the Joey's didn't have their own tuner. If they had that then the 3 tuners combined with primetime using one of them would have probably worked in my home.

That would alter the simple, less costly and centralized concept. I think Dish went with simple and cheap.

 

[Lt Disher]

What I find funny watching from the driver’s seat is that quite a bit of the negative and posts which seem to be aimed to confuse people about Hopper and Joey are being posted by DISH's competition. While do to our privacy policy I cannot name people or their companies they work for there are quite a few of them trying to stir the pot. Why are they doing this? My only guess is this new technology has got them worried and its release could hurt their bottom line. In fact its the only reason I can think of. Some of these folks doing this are new, but many are longtime members posters and even in some cases Pub Members / Supporters. I wish I had a BS meter for you guys to tune these guys out, but being the open forum we are we are not going to stop people from posting negative things about a product or service unless (and only unless) the post(s) are obvious trolling.

First, let me say that I have no problem with people expressing opposing views. This is why I come here, to get information so that I can make an informed choice. On a site like this there is always some trolling. In fact, it sometimes keeps the conversation from becoming boring. It also helps temper the extreme enthusiasm of some of the fanboys(myself included at times.)

Having said that, I am really pissed that people who work for the competition may be posting without disclosing that fact. If they are truly trying to sow misinformation and confusion, it is downright dirty. I know that Scott cannot reveal anymore than he has already said, but I think these people should have the guts to identify themselves. Scott has always been above board (eg, when he was moderator of the DISH technical support board.) This board has been pretty open all along, but if there are people who WORK for the competition posting here, they should be identified. You have to take everything you read with a grain of salt, but I have always assumed that people were posting with good intentions, even if they were a fanboy of one or the other side.

 

[Stargazer]

I think Dish should have had a slot for a tuner or two in each Joey. This would have solved different problems. One, it would have given this as an option for a non DVR receiver added onto the account without much if any upfront cost as an additional or main receiver. Two, it allows tailgaiting without the need to take the Hopper with you. Three, it could have added additional tuners without the need for another Hopper like Directv is doing.

 

[is2gu]

I have to mostly agree with Scott. I think the Hopper/Joey setup is one of the best new technologies since DVR and I will place my order on 3/15 (unless there is a way to get it sooner).

A few thoughts:

Tuners:
A lot of discussion has been generated about the lack of tuners but I don't think enough emphasis has been placed on the Prime Time Anytime functionality and how that significantly changes the number of tuners needed.

However, the lack of OTA tuners is troubling. I live in an area with a significant amount of severe weather and we rely on the OTA tuners when the satellite signal drops out. I hope this is available soon.

Pricing:
The install fee is trivial; I think the install fee if you wanted a 922 was at least $199 and that was only one receiver.
From an econ/finance perspective I don’t think it makes since to make the first Joey free; although significantly discounting the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] or 4[SUP]th[/SUP] does.
I personally don’t want to see my bill go up with the Hopper/Joey setup from my current 622/510 setup that I have “feeding” 4 TV’s. I think for us tightwads getting a Hopper with 1 or two joeys and an RF modulator to feed multiple SD TV’s from one Joey will be the cheapest. We never have more than 1 or two TV’s on at any one time and it was confirmed that you can have multiple remotes tied to the Hoppers and Joeys.

Tailgater Compatibility:
What is dish thinking on this? Why would they force you into two accounts? This seems stupid for those who use this. It doesn’t affect me but I can see why it would be frustrating.

 

[NotMe546]

Let me explain...

First I have seen a lot of negative comments and what ifs posts about Hopper and Joey, some of the warranted... while others not so much. What I find funny watching from the driver’s seat is that quite a bit of the negative and posts which seem to be aimed to confuse people about Hopper and Joey are being posted by DISH's competition. While do to our privacy policy I cannot name people or their companies they work for there are quite a few of them trying to stir the pot. Why are they doing this? My only guess is this new technology has got them worried and its release could hurt their bottom line. In fact its the only reason I can think of. Some of these folks doing this are new, but many are longtime members posters and even in some cases Pub Members / Supporters. I wish I had a BS meter for you guys to tune these guys out, but being the open forum we are we are not going to stop people from posting negative things about a product or service unless (and only unless) the post(s) are obvious trolling.

I've come to expect nothing less.

 

[Character Zero]

At first I didn't like that the first Joey wasn't included in with the Hopper fee. And I think it was because I wanted to replace my 722 so I wanted to pay the same. But this isn't being pushed as a replacement, its not like for some patent or technology push (liek MPEG4) that they need to replace the VIP recivers with H/J recievers. So really they don't have to provide that TV2 that I was getting for free with eh VIP. What I needed to do was re-examine my needs. At first I was going to get 1 H and 2 Js, the main TV, master bedroom, and guest bedroom. But the guest bedroom is used maybe 2-3 times a year for a weekend (which is why the 722 TV2 worked well) and the master bedroom TV doesn't get used as much. So I will go with 1 Joey, have them wire up the Guest and Master bedrooms so I can move it when I need to. But the whole 722 TV2 was what impressed me about Dish since the thought was you needed a box at each TV. I guess with the digital changeover and even cable companies are requiring some kind of box at each TV levels the playing field. Anyway, I think some of the anger towards the pricing is trying to force this to be a VIP replacement when its not. Its a new system that provides HD to multiple TVs from a central DVR and its costs what it costs.

 

[Vinylfreak]

I am very excited about the Hopper system from Dish.
For the last 7 years I have been a DieHard Windows Media Center fan. I still currently run a full HTPC in my family room.
Unfortunately there has never been an easy way for me to get my HD Dish signal into my HTPC.
The Hopper technology seems to be enough to finally to move me off of Windows Media Center. I still will however still use it to record my OTA content.

I did e-mail Dish over the weekend for more info about Hopper and installation. They e-mailed me back and told me to call and speak to customer service.
I called customer service. The young lady on the other end had nothing for me. When I mentioned the March 15th date,she was surprised at that , and said she thought Hopper wasn't
coming out until April. I asked about a waiting list for installation, she stated they didn't have one. She suggested that I subscribe to there newsletter for more information about the release of the Hopper system.
Needless to say, I was somewhat dissapointed with the lack of information I got from Dish Hopper from Dish Customer Service. :-(

 

[ScottChez]

The Better Business Bureau is reporting that there are some out there creating FAKE Product Review. I wonder if FAKE or confusing posts is a part of there paid works.
News Story Link
Experts: Online Product Reviews Could Be Fake - Baltimore News Story - WBAL Baltimore

I think the Hopper looks real good. Its just not finished. They need to add OTA and make it so Two Hoppers can see each other to support families of 3 or more that also want to use MyPrime Time. I plan to get one once they add OTA and a Hopper Link (so they can see each others recordings). Adding OTA should not be hard to do as they already have it in the 922. Adding a Hopper Link so they can see each other could be harder as they have never done it before. Again this brings up the definition of SOON.

First, let me say that I have no problem with people expressing opposing views. This is why I come here, to get information so that I can make an informed choice. On a site like this there is always some trolling. In fact, it sometimes keeps the conversation from becoming boring. It also helps temper the extreme enthusiasm of some of the fanboys(myself included at times.)

Having said that, I am really pissed that people who work for the competition may be posting without disclosing that fact. If they are truly trying to sow misinformation and confusion, it is downright dirty. I know that Scott cannot reveal anymore than he has already said, but I think these people should have the guts to identify themselves. Scott has always been above board (eg, when he was moderator of the DISH technical support board.) This board has been pretty open all along, but if there are people who WORK for the competition posting here, they should be identified. You have to take everything you read with a grain of salt, but I have always assumed that people were posting with good intentions, even if they were a fanboy of one or the other side.

 

[dwarren2]

I think that the posts that are dlibertely confusing and posted by the competition need to be either deleted or marked as such. If they are being paid to post, they need to be banned.

 

[Scherrman]

I am very excited about the Hopper system from Dish.
For the last 7 years I have been a DieHard Windows Media Center fan. I still currently run a full HTPC in my family room.
Unfortunately there has never been an easy way for me to get my HD Dish signal into my HTPC.
The Hopper technology seems to be enough to finally to move me off of Windows Media Center. I still will however still use it to record my OTA content.

I did e-mail Dish over the weekend for more info about Hopper and installation. They e-mailed me back and told me to call and speak to customer service.
I called customer service. The young lady on the other end had nothing for me. When I mentioned the March 15th date,she was surprised at that , and said she thought Hopper wasn't
coming out until April. I asked about a waiting list for installation, she stated they didn't have one. She suggested that I subscribe to there newsletter for more information about the release of the Hopper system.
Needless to say, I was somewhat dissapointed with the lack of information I got from Dish Hopper from Dish Customer Service. :-(

Calling Dish is a waste of time. The information does not get communicated well there. You're better off getting your info from here.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I look at it this way . Today you can use a vip dual tuner dvr for Two rooms and pay nothing more than 6.00 dvr fee(except for the 922). Now if you want to come out with a WHOLE HOUSE DVR , you should be able to have the hopper and joey included for the same price: FREE ,just like the Vip dual tuner dvrs are now. With the exception of the whole house dvr fee of $4.00,I can see why they want to charge that. Otherwise you are paying an extra $7.00 to watch in HD in a second room ,not to mention an extra $4.00 =$11.00 total, to do what you can do now with a Vip dual tuner dvr like the 722k -but in sd in second room. So for the privilege of having the second tv in hd you are hit with an $11.00 fee if you have the same two room setup. IF DISH would of matched that one thing, there wouldn't be so many negative posts. People would of jumped on the hopper/joey system. If the Joeys had tuners or even ota tuners built in , I could see charging an extra $7.00 each ,but they don't. They are nothing more than a thin client to relay your hd tv in another room. So I think that a $5.00 charge per Joey would of made more sense. If you had a sat tuner and or a ota tuner built in to the Joeys, I could see charging $7.00 because it would be like having a 211k in another room, that you could watch something else on . Since DISH has worked to blow these fees up as high as they did on the Hopper /Joey system , I have to conclude that they only intend on getting their short term revenues up, and they aren't concerned with adding more subs . All in all ,another missed opportunity to make a change for the better with their new technology. And their 4th quarter earnings reflect that so far they are still stuck under the magic 14 million mark for years now and only gained a net of 22,000 subs for the year. OH but their revenues and profits are still growing over last year at this time. Because of ever increasing ,higher FEES.

 

[pabeader]

how could the joey. possibly have a tuner? What would it be tuning into?

 

[sparc]

Needless to say, I was somewhat dissapointed with the lack of information I got from Dish Hopper from Dish Customer Service. :-(

product has only been announced as coming soon to the public.

The march 15th date is all internal and picked up from the Retailer Chat which is not a public announcement.

Dial down your expectations until the product is actually available to order and the CSRs are trained.

 

[ggw2000]

I look at it this way . Today you can use a vip dual tuner dvr for Two rooms and pay nothing more than 6.00 dvr fee(except for the 922). Now if you want to come out with a WHOLE HOUSE DVR , you should be able to have the hopper and joey included for the same price: FREE ,just like the Vip dual tuner dvrs are now. With the exception of the whole house dvr fee of $4.00,I can see why they want to charge that. Otherwise you are paying an extra $7.00 to watch in HD in a second room ,not to mention an extra $4.00 =$11.00 total, to do what you can do now with a Vip dual tuner dvr like the 722k -but in sd in second room. So for the privilege of having the second tv in hd you are hit with an $11.00 fee if you have the same two room setup. IF DISH would of matched that one thing, there wouldn't be so many negative posts. People would of jumped on the hopper/joey system. If the Joeys had tuners or even ota tuners built in , I could see charging an extra $7.00 each ,but they don't. They are nothing more than a thin client to relay your hd tv in another room. So I think that a $5.00 charge per Joey would of made more sense. If you had a sat tuner and or a ota tuner built in to the Joeys, I could see charging $7.00 because it would be like having a 211k in another room, that you could watch something else on . Since DISH has worked to blow these fees up as high as they did on the Hopper /Joey system , I have to conclude that they only intend on getting their short term revenues up, and they aren't concerned with adding more subs . All in all ,another missed opportunity to make a change for the better with their new technology. And their 4th quarter earnings reflect that so far they are still stuck under the magic 14 million mark for years now and only gained a net of 22,000 subs for the year. OH but their revenues and profits are still growing over last year at this time. Because of ever increasing ,higher FEES.

Mike, want to say I always enjoy reading your posts!! But a correction is needed in this one. Dish gained 22,000 subs in the 4th Quarter. But for all of 2011 LOST 166,000 (!) according to the report if i'm reading it correctly...
Gerry

 

[steve4810]

Mike, want to say I always enjoy reading your posts!! But a correction is needed in this one. Dish gained 22,000 subs in the 4th Quarter. But for all of 2011 LOST 166,000 (!) according to the report if i'm reading it correctly...
Gerry

You are and they did lose 166K for the year.

 

[patmurphey]

I don't understand where all the griping is coming from. I'm happy. My fees for 3 HD TVs (722,622,211) will drop from $30 to $24 (2 Hoppers, 1 Joey) for those TVs with a great improvement in capability. If it doesn't work for you, OTA, tailgating, Hopper communication, your current system isn't turning into a pumpkin. Just keep it until the necessary new features are implemented. If you don't think you're getting your money's worth, $7mo for the first Joey, make a Joey a Hopper instead. Is it to much for you to be happy for those of us that see it as an upgrade, instead of complaing that all features be implemented before release.

 

[dare2be]

If you're overpaying now for extra receiver fees, then yeah, there's nothing to gripe about with the upcoming H/J, and you don't understand.