ViP222K removed from my account after Hopper 3 purchase

[BobInTN]

I was pretty happy with my ViP222K that I have owned since 2010. After I bought a 55" 4K TV a few months ago, I contacted Dish about a 4K receiver option. They emailed me ads and called me repeatedly, trying to entice me to upgrade to the Hopper 3 and a 4K Joey. Dish sent me a new smart card for my ViP222K last week, and after inserting it in the empty card slot as directed, my ViP222K stopped working. They had to mail me a second smart card, which worked. The ViP222K not working is what pretty much forced me to buy the Hopper 3 and Wireless Joey/Access Point at the time. Since my other TVs are not 4K, I chose the Wireless Joey/Access Point (I was told that it was $25 purchase offer from Dish if you activate a Hopper 3) for one of my other TVs. My existing home dish was the 1000.4 EA with the triple DPP LNBF, and my RV dish is an in-motion dish in a rooftop dome. After modifying the 1000.4 EA LNBF mount to accept the DPH-EA.2 LNBF, I found it was only picking up 77, and I could only get SD programming. I called Dish and the Mr Dish tech support agent told me to align my dish to the 77 and 72.7 orbitals. Not able to do this with that LNBF after hours of trying, I called back to confirm the orbitals that I had been given. I was told that I had been misinformed, I needed to align to 61.5 and 72.7! That made perfect sense, since feedhorn spacing seemed way too wide for the 77 and 72.7 orbitals. I'll fix that today after I get back from a Dr appt. I'm still waiting for the $25 Wireless Joey/Access point to arrive.

I specifically told Dish that I want to keep my ViP222K receiver on my account so that I could reactivate it in the future for use in my RV when I travel. When I checked my account after activating the Hopper 3, I noticed that my ViP222K receiver had been removed. I own all of my equipment, always have from day 1, and I have no contract with Dish. The in-motion dish on the RV will only work with a DPP compatible receiver. Since my ViP222K has 2 tuners, it covered the living room and the bedroom with the one receiver box, which is perfect for the 2 TVs in the RV. Has anyone else had their ViP receivers retired by Dish after upgrading to a new Hopper?

Bob

 

[rvvaquero]

The only VIP receiver allowed on a Hopper 3 account is the VIP211 series. You should buy a VIP211K or a Wally for your RV. Both of these receivers can me made into DVR's with an external hard drive and a one time $40 fee.

 

[navychop]

I’m not sure you can sell that ViP222 now. I’m not sure Dish will activate it now, as most ViP receivers are being slowly phased out.

On edit: SELL not See

 

[JSheridan]

222K's are done. From what we've been told they can't be activated or re-activated.

An eastern arc Hybrid LNB on a 1000.4 is a bad idea. You might be able to kludge it to work but it's not efficient and is definitely not supported by DISH. You need a 1000.2 dish for the hybrid LNB.

If you want to use your old 1000.4 dish you would need a Hybrid DPH42 switch to use with the old LNB.

 

[pattykay]

I was pretty happy with my ViP222K that I have owned since 2010. After I bought a 55" 4K TV a few months ago, I contacted Dish about a 4K receiver option. They emailed me ads and called me repeatedly, trying to entice me to upgrade to the Hopper 3 and a 4K Joey. Dish sent me a new smart card for my ViP222K last week, and after inserting it in the empty card slot as directed, my ViP222K stopped working. They had to mail me a second smart card, which worked.

I am curious why Dish needed to send a new Smart Card for the ViP222k. Is there a new version of the Smart Card that would allow older ViP receivers to stay activated on a Hopper account?

I specifically told Dish that I want to keep my ViP222K receiver on my account so that I could reactivate it in the future for use in my RV when I travel. When I checked my account after activating the Hopper 3, I noticed that my ViP222K receiver had been removed.

If that is exactly how you phrased it, then that explains why it was deactivated. The ViP222k is likely still tied to your account, you are just not being charged a monthly fee for it, since it is deactivated. Deactivated receivers never show up when you log into your account.

 

[navychop]

No magic smart card to overrule Dish business rules.

 

[pattykay]

No magic smart card to overrule Dish business rules.

That's what I was wondering: if the rules have changed now that most models of ViP receivers can no longer be reactivated. I can understand not allowing new customers to sign up for service with them, and not allowing these receivers to be reactivated once they are deactivated. However, since these receivers can no longer be used for anything else, perhaps existing subscribers with active ViP receivers should be grandfathered, and should be allowed to continue using them as long as they still work, regardless of what other new equipment these subscribers may add to their accounts.

 

[BobInTN]

I am curious why Dish needed to send a new Smart Card for the ViP222k. Is there a new version of the Smart Card that would allow older ViP receivers to stay activated on a Hopper account?

If that is exactly how you phrased it, then that explains why it was deactivated. The ViP222k is likely still tied to your account, you are just not being charged a monthly fee for it, since it is deactivated. Deactivated receivers never show up when you log into your account.

I aligned the dish for the 61.5 and 72.7 orbitals today. All is working as it should. I called Dish about the ViP222k and they said it's still on my account and can be reactivated at any time. The smart card was to update it so that it could continue to be used, at least that was what they told me. Who knows. The Wireless Joey and Access Point will be here friday according to tracking. I bought a new DPH42 switch in case I needed it, but the Dish tech support guy told me not to use it. Then again, he's the one that told me to aim the dish for 72 and 77. LOL

 

[BobInTN]

Update!

I re-connected my ViP222k, then called Dish to add it back to my active receiver list. While I was waiting on hold for them to answer, I was watching TV on it. It was still activated because I had it disconnected when they sent the deactivation sequence for that receiver ID. The guy asked for my receiver number, so I read it off to him. While he was working on that, I continued to watch TV. He came back on the phone and said he could not turn it back on, that it was incompatible with my Hopper 3 package. I laughed. He asked what was funny, and I told him I was watching it right now, and it was connected to the dish for my Hopper 3 with the Hybrid LNBF!

He started arguing with me about it not being able to work, and I told him it was not connected along with my Hopper 3, it was connected in place of my Hopper 3. All you do is run a switch check and it will recognize the Hybrid LNBF as an HE.2 on both ports. I told him, I know it works, and you know it works, so now connect me to a supervisor, or I will be dropping the Hopper 3 and going back to my ViP222k by itself. In less than 2 minutes, he came back and told me it was reactivated and it would add $7/mo to my bill. LOL

It will not work on the same dish system with the Hopper 3 connected, but it will work solo on that dish. I went ahead and bought a new 1000.2 Eastern Arc dish package that I will set up for the Hopper 3, and I'll resume the use of my original 1000.4 Eastern Arc dish for my ViP222k.

Bob

 

[littlecloud319]

Update!

I re-connected my ViP222k, then called Dish to add it back to my active receiver list. While I was waiting on hold for them to answer, I was watching TV on it. It was still activated because I had it disconnected when they sent the deactivation sequence for that receiver ID. The guy asked for my receiver number, so I read it off to him. While he was working on that, I continued to watch TV. He came back on the phone and said he could not turn it back on, that it was incompatible with my Hopper 3 package. I laughed. He asked what was funny, and I told him I was watching it right now, and it was connected to the dish for my Hopper 3 with the Hybrid LNBF!

He started arguing with me about it not being able to work, and I told him it was not connected along with my Hopper 3, it was connected in place of my Hopper 3. All you do is run a switch check and it will recognize the Hybrid LNBF as an HE.2 on both ports. I told him, I know it works, and you know it works, so now connect me to a supervisor, or I will be dropping the Hopper 3 and going back to my ViP222k by itself. In less than 2 minutes, he came back and told me it was reactivated and it would add $7/mo to my bill. LOL

It will not work on the same dish system with the Hopper 3 connected, but it will work solo on that dish. I went ahead and bought a new 1000.2 Eastern Arc dish package that I will set up for the Hopper 3, and I'll resume the use of my original 1000.4 Eastern Arc dish for my ViP222k.

Bob

That’s dish for you. They’ll tell you something isn’t possible that’s working right in front of you. Lol

 

[HipKat]

There's a difference between won't work and not authorized

 

[BobInTN]

There's a difference between won't work and not authorized

So true. I started out as an FCC licensed (1st Class) broadcast engineer, then I was hired by the Department of Defense for the Directed Energy program (Strategic Defense Iniative - aka Star Wars program). I spent decades in aerospace, including satellite design and launches, aircraft and spacecraft design/testing. I guess I'm not used to being told that something cannot be done. I spent too much of my time finding solutions for problems that others had difficulty solving. I was re-activated back in early 2015 and I worked in DC for 11 months. I decided that I wanted to re-retire in early 2016. Everything had become so political, and I wanted no part of that! My last trip to DC was to sign patent application documents for a new medical diagnostic and treatment technology that I invented and developed to the prototype stage. I had a radiation induced terminal cancer that there was no cure for, and I was not going to let that cancer define my future. I assigned all medical rights of that patent to a startup medical company in MD. They appointed me as a presidential advisor in 2017, though I refuse to go back to DC. All I did on that front was to advise on constitutional issues pertaining to tax code revision. I'm not political, never have been. I'm a techno-geek I guess. LOL

 

[BobInTN]

There's a difference between won't work and not authorized

You know, this reminds me of a court case that I was involved in regarding General Instruments over their VideoCipher technology. General Instruments started deactivating VC-II units because they wanted customers to return them in exchange for newer VC-II units. Because of my position in the aerospace industry at the time, I was approached by council for a class action suit. I connected a computer to an IRD and I wrote a program to intercept and decode the datastream. I was given a list of customer decoder IDs to monitor activity on. When it was time to go to court, we let General Instruments explain why these decoders failed. They blamed it on the batteries that held the seed keys, which were required for decoding the content. I set up dish on a trailer outside of the courthouse, cabled to a receiver, decoder, and computer in the courtroom. I demonstrated to the court that General Instruments was sending deauthorizations to the targeted decoders, and that the batteries in those decoders were fine, and the seed keys were intact. I did all communications with the decoder via the com port that I had set up in the receiver. They claimed that I had modified the decoders of the plaitiffs, so I showed them the decoder modules, unopened and seals intact. General Instruments has authority to recall decoders and replace them with updated technology, but they do NOT have authority to dectivate decoders, tell the customers the decoders failed, and charge the customer for the replacement. We proved that they were committing fraud! When they said that the keys were lost and could not be rewritten, I showed the court how I could extract those seed keys, archive them, and rewrite those keys back into a decoder. I also showed the court that a simple reactivation sent from my computer via the IRD into the decoder would make it come back on and function 100% normally with exact same programming that the subscriber was paying for. General Instruments claimed that I could illegally modify a decoder to get programming that was not authorized. I responded that I could, but when that decoder ID cycled through the datastream again, it would revert back to the subscribed programming. I even demonstrated that by allowing the receiver in the courtroom to remain on after I had reactivated it, and within 15 minute it went out and displayed the message to contact General Instruments with a phone number on the screen. I sent a reactivation packet into the IRD and it came back on again. Needless to say, we won the case and General Instruments was ordered to replace ALL deactivated decoders with new decoders at no cost, and to refund all subscribers that were charged for replacements. I don't know the outcome after that, because I went back to my job and never looked back. General Instruments hated me after that, even sent the FCC to my house to check the legality of my own satellite TV system, and the chief engineer at the local FCC office called me to tell me they were being encouraged to investigate me. I told them go ahead, investigate me, I did not care. LOL

 

[pattykay]

...I will be dropping the Hopper 3 and going back to my ViP222k by itself. In less than 2 minutes, he came back and told me it was reactivated and it would add $7/mo to my bill. LOL

That makes one more piece of news to come from this thread: the additional receiver fee for a ViP222k is now only $7 per month. It used to be $14.

 

[brice52]

There's a difference between won't work and not authorized

When I had a problem with having to restart the hopper2 for the Joey to maintain connection, the Dish Technician was trouble shooting and I asked him about my 3 EHD and and usb two tuner module, which I connect all four devices to an USB Hub would it work? He said because Hopper could not see the the Hub.

I tried anyway and have all four devices coming through the Hub and my connections show external drive 1, 2 & 3. the ota tuner works without any problem

 

[Claude Greiner]

Dish and Directv are doing this to slowly phase out all the older equipment.

With Directv they are going after SD equipment only which makes perfect sense.

Dish on the other hand makes no sense. Granted SD equipment Is obsolete, but what does not make sense is the 222’s since they are all MPEG4, 8psk capable.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I think DISH is finally doing what I’ve been saying for years: Simlify your receivers and stop supporting all the older than dirt receivers. It will save them money on software and maintenance cost in all those other boxes. The KISS method: Keep it simple Stupid.

 

[HipKat]

I think DISH is finally doing what I’ve been saying for years: Simlify your receivers and stop supporting all the older than dirt receivers. It will save them money on software and maintenance cost in all those other boxes. The KISS method: Keep it simple Stupid.

Well they still have one too many Hoppers and need to trim down from FIVE different Joeys......

 

[pattykay]

Well they still have one too many Hoppers ......

The Hopper Duo?

 

[HipKat]

The Hopper Duo?

Hopper 2000. It's time to shut that one down