Scott's Mini Hopper 3 Review

bobvick said:

That would make sense, the rural customer was the original bread and butter of the DBS companies in the mid 90's (DirecTV, USSB, Primestar, and Dish). For many (myself included) cable was or is not available so TVRO, DBS, or OTA was the only option. I had TVRO for many years prior to finally going with DBS about 2001. Also, in a lot of rural areas, and small towns, even if they are served by cable, it is expensive and the service is horrible (few channels, still analog only, no HD, etc...).

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Yeah, good points all. And don't forget the REALLY MINOR DEMOGRAPHIC like those of us who don't live in a sticks 'n bricks house at all, but travel around the planet (at least the not water part) aimlessly in an RV full time. I wonder what the Census says about folks like us? Last I heard, of the 300 million or so pop of the US, there are less than 200,000 of us. what's that, like 0.06% if my math is correct? And of THOSE, how many of us fulltimers have a Hopper 3 installed? Not many, I'd guess. I like that. "The allure of the obscure", I call it.

Cheers. Gene

Jurrens said:

Hey Bobby, "diagnostics screen" sounds like something I'd like to see. No Menu button on 52.0 remote. Other? Also, has anyone posted a set of shortcuts for the 52.0 like I saw for the older remote? Brand new to this stuff, so have only been with dish and hopper3 for 48 hours (still downloading software to my Joey 2 right now actually). I'm gonna have the coolest sat TV installation of any RV in our park!
Thanks. Gene

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With the 52 remote, press Home twice....

KenSoren said:

Buy one of the 40.0 remotes and pair it to your new hopper - you should be on more familiar ground with that remote and you will find most functions where they were with your 722.
Once my install was done I pulled the batteries from the 52 and stored it in my backup drawer and paired my old 40. At the current time I think the old remote is much more functional.

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Hey, do you know if you can pair multiple remotes to a single Hopper 3? My wife and I like to each have our own remotes like we had when we were DTV customers. She's been using my daughter's 40 at her house and I've just decided to bite the bullet on getting used to the 52. Since I had no experience with the 40, I don't really miss it. Alternatively, I'm thinking of pairing the Joey's 52 to the Hopper along with the other 52 until I get her a 40 (we don't use the Joey and bedroom TV in the RV much at all. Do y'all know if this is possible?

Thanks guys. Awesome forum! Gene

DishSubLA said:

And that is the big rub for my mom as she likes and watches the content on the sub-channels with no guide data, but she really dis-likes there is no guide data for some of her favorite OTA channels. She just has to tune in if she remembers, but she often forgets and can only watch part of the program. She always asks me why can't Dish provide guide data for ALL the OTA's as they do for some of them. I always tell her it may be an issue with money. I suppose such additional data may make the guide data stream even longer than it already is. No one really knows why. I would sure love to get a straight answer about it like we used to get during the Charlie Chats or Tech Forums. At least we used to know the reason for some limitation back then.

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Hey gang, I know I'm late to the party (new to Dish and to this forum), but thought I'd weigh in anyway.

Plus, I thought you guys might enjoy hearing from "the lunatic fringe" on OTA. I live in an RV full time, but have just completed a self-install of a Hopper 3, etc. Awesome! I'm still putzing around with the Joey 2 - tracing pre-existing internal cable runs to it and what works with my old AV distribution panel.

Normally, in the RV I crank up my "batwing" (Winegard Sensar III with Wingman array) OTA rooftop antenna when I arrive in an area, select that antenna on my distribution panel directing the input to one or both TVs, select the appropriate input on the appropriate TV, scan and enjoy. I do this every 3 to 6 weeks or so whenever we change locations.

Integrating OTA into my Hopper onscreen guide (and one less signal source select) sounds cool, although in some places where we might park far from population centers ("boondocking"), we'll receive few if any OTA stations. That's fine as each location has its other fine points. I find this discussion of the quality of reception interesting as I've done everything reasonable to receive as many OTA stations as possible when no (RV park) cable or maybe sat TV is available (trees on a narrow site that doesn't allow me to relocate my tripod/1000.2 antenna to a clear view of the SW sky).

So here's my question: If sat signal is interrupted or not available, will I still get OTA signals through the hopper (3) and on my onscreen guide? Or is the Hopper just out of commish when no clear view of the sats?

Thanks guys. I appreciate being able to weigh in here. Gene

Jurrens said:

Hey, do you know if you can pair multiple remotes to a single Hopper 3? My wife and I like to each have our own remotes like we had when we were DTV customers. She's been using my daughter's 40 at her house and I've just decided to bite the bullet on getting used to the 52. Since I had no experience with the 40, I don't really miss it. Alternatively, I'm thinking of pairing the Joey's 52 to the Hopper along with the other 52 until I get her a 40 (we don't use the Joey and bedroom TV in the RV much at all. Do y'all know if this is possible?

Thanks guys. Awesome forum! Gene

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You can have up to 8 remotes paired to a Hopper. They can be 40.0, 50.0 or 52.0 remotes.

Jurrens said:

So here's my question: If sat signal is interrupted or not available, will I still get OTA signals through the hopper (3) and on my onscreen guide?

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Yes, you can watch OTA channels on the Hoppers even when the sat signal is down. You would need to purchase the Dish OTA Adapter. You connect the coax from your antenna to the adapter, then the adapter plugs into one of the USB ports on the Hopper. You can get the adapter directly from Dish, or from Amazon, ebay, etc. Once installed, you have to have the Hopper scan for OTA channels, then save the ones it finds in order to be able to watch them and receive whatever guide data is offered (more on this in a sec). In your RV scenario, every time you go to a new location, you would have to go in and re-scan for OTA in your new location.

As far as OTA guide data...there are a few caveats to be aware of. For one, every time you get to the new location and re-scan for new channels...it may be up to 24 hours before your guide data completely updates for the new OTA channels. Second, Dish's position on OTA guide data is pretty convoluted. For main OTA channels like ABC, CBS, etc., you will most likely receive guide data anywhere Dish also provides those local channels via satellite. Subchannels like MeTV, AntennaTV, etc. are hit or miss. Dish originally started providing guide data for subchannels, but reversed position on that a few years ago. Any channels that received guide data at that time still receives it, but any new subchannels added in the markets will not receive guide data. You can still receive and watch these subchannels via OTA...you just won't get guide data.

Lastly, one more thing to be aware of with the H3 specifically, is that OTA Recording is still not working properly due to unresolved bugs in the software since its release. You can watch OTA live without any issue, but when you record anything on an OTA channel, it will be full of pixelation and random audio drops. They are supposedly working on a fix, but no one knows when this will be resolved.

Jurrens said:

Hey, do you know if you can pair multiple remotes to a single Hopper 3? My wife and I like to each have our own remotes like we had when we were DTV customers. She's been using my daughter's 40 at her house and I've just decided to bite the bullet on getting used to the 52. Since I had no experience with the 40, I don't really miss it. Alternatively, I'm thinking of pairing the Joey's 52 to the Hopper along with the other 52 until I get her a 40 (we don't use the Joey and bedroom TV in the RV much at all. Do y'all know if this is possible?

Thanks guys. Awesome forum! Gene

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I have a 40 a 50 and a 52 paired and all work fine. When you use the 40 it even puts the colored button in the menus, pretty cool.

JSheridan said:

You can have up to 8 remotes paired to a Hopper. They can be 40.0, 50.0 or 52.0 remotes.

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Outstanding. I'l figure out how to actually do that now that I know it's possible. Thanks.

spoiler1041 said:

I have a 40 a 50 and a 52 paired and all work fine. When you use the 40 it even puts the colored button in the menus, pretty cool.

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Nice. I'll look forward to figuring out how to do it! Cheers. Gene

Jurrens said:

Nice. I'll look forward to figuring out how to do it! Cheers. Gene

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All you have to do is go to the Diagnostics screen and then hit the SAT button on the remote you want to pair. You'll hear a short series of beeps from the remote to let you know it paired.

To get to the Diagnostics screen using the 52 remote, hit the Home button three times. On the 40 Remote, hit the Menu button twice.

Jurrens said:

Nice.I'll look forward to figuring out how to do it! Cheers. Gene

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On the receiver, behind the front panel is a button that reads "sys info". Press that then "sat" on any remote and you are now paired.

Just an alternative.