Wanting HD on 2nd tv in Bedroom

[mrhermit]

I have a 722K running two HDTV's. The family room TV is HD and the bedroom is SD. From what I'm reading the best way to go to get HD on the 2nd TV is with the Hopper and one Joey.

What I'm looking at though, the price is going to jump up another $17 a month for upgrading to Hopper and Joey.

Is this the cheapest way to get HD on the second TV? I don't need the larger recording on the Hopper. I never fill up the 722 k hard drive.

Are the remote controls the same on the new Hopper and Joey as they are on the 722K? I really haven't found a picture of what the new remote looks like. I just hope that these remotes are similar because of the difficulty it would be trying to train my wife on a new system. We have been Dish customers since 2004.

I already have the old-style Slingbox that works fine on the 722K. If I upgrade to the new Hopper, will this still work? Or will I have to get a new Slingbox?

 

[dvrexpander]

Are you only wanting HD on the TV2 location or you wanting DVR access cause you never said so. If you do then a hopper/joey system is prob the way to go as long as you stay under 3 rooms but if you don't care about the DVR in the bedroom then drop the 722 to a 612 single room DVR and get them to send you a 211 to put into the bedroom and just connect that line to a satellite port unless you are getting a tech to do it. I believe a 612/211 setup would prob be cheaper and IMO better equipment.

The remotes are the same as the hopper/722 - the only exceptions are those colored buttons or the rainbow bar like I call it do have functions now on the hopper.

 

[Mojoe]

If you go to the hopper joey system you will have to get rid of the 722. But the hopper joey will give you DVR capability in both rooms. Think it would be $7.00 more than you are paying now a month. Don't know what they will do for your install charge?

 

[jawxx]

Hopper/joey good solution. Remotes very similar. Bill will jump by $4 ($6 dvr vs. $10 whole home hd dvr) + ($7 for a second box vs no cost for primary box) for a total of $11 approx

 

[TheKrell]

I have a 722 and 2 612s. The 612s add $10/mo each, so $10 is your additional monthly for adding one 612. It's pretty much identical GUI to your 722.

I think trading in the 722 on a single Hopper and a single Joey will cost you another $10/mo as well. My calc is $7/mo for a Joey, and an additional $3 for the Hopper DVR fee. The Hopper gets you the latest/greatest tiled GUI. So far, my family (1) don't want the integration of recorded material nor (2) the new GUI, so for now I'm staying with my good ol' trusty VIP receivers.

 

[dac74]

if your not worried about dvr in the bedroom then the 211 would work.just keep the 722 instead of getting a 612.put it in single mode or hook it to another room.the 722 or 612 would be your primary rec so i believe the cost would be the same.that way you can have a third room or at least keep your recordings.the 612 has less record time and in my opinion not as reliable.

 

[mrhermit]

Answer to drvexpander:
Yes, I would want a DVR for the second room like I have now. I just want the second TV to be able to receive in HD. I don't know why Dish didn't make their 722K able to do two HD connections instead of just one.

The 722K remotes that I already use do have those kind used for colored buttons. So I would assume that the retraining of my wife on the new remote would be minimal. From the pictures I've seen on the dish website, the hopper menu looks quite a bit different than the 722K menu. But if the remote functions the same that would be great.

To Mojoe and jawxx:
yes, I knew I would have to get rid of the 722 if I upgrade.
According to the dish website, for me, upgrading to the Hopper/Joey system, it will cost me another $11 a month. I know a couple of months ago, they increased my bill $5.00 a month.

I've been a good dish customer since 2004. I am paying the $7.00 a month for the protection plan, so I'm assuming that if I upgrade there should be no charge for the new install.

Does anyone know if the old Slingbox that I'm using on the 722K, will work with the new Hopper?

 

[garys]

Answer to drvexpander:
Yes, I would want a DVR for the second room like I have now. I just want the second TV to be able to receive in HD. I don't know why Dish didn't make their 722K able to do two HD connections instead of just one.

The 722K remotes that I already use do have those kind used for colored buttons. So I would assume that the retraining of my wife on the new remote would be minimal. From the pictures I've seen on the dish website, the hopper menu looks quite a bit different than the 722K menu. But if the remote functions the same that would be great.

To Mojoe and jawxx:
yes, I knew I would have to get rid of the 722 if I upgrade.
According to the dish website, for me, upgrading to the Hopper/Joey system, it will cost me another $11 a month. I know a couple of months ago, they increased my bill $5.00 a month.

I've been a good dish customer since 2004. I am paying the $7.00 a month for the protection plan, so I'm assuming that if I upgrade there should be no charge for the new install.

Does anyone know if the old Slingbox that I'm using on the 722K, will work with the new Hopper?

Although it is basically the same remote, there are different functions because of what the receiver does. Your upfront upgrade cost is determined by several factors, and will probably be somewhere between $50 - $100 for the receivers and to change the connections as the hookup is different from the 722. Having or not having the protection plan has no effect on the price. You can get a Hopper with sling included in the receiver or your sling adaptor will work with the original non-sling model. Your monthly bill will increase as the dvr fee is $10 ($7 is charged on the 722) and $7 for the Joey (with the 722 being the only receiver there was no charge) and the $5 you saw in Feb-March was a increase in the cost of the package.

 

[3HaloODST]

722k came out years before Hopper. HD was still relatively new during its introduction. Your options depend on how much you want to be able to share your DVR recordings between TVs and/or DVR capabilities on the second TV.

You can get a 211k receiver for another $7 a month, plus a one-time $40 DVR fee. Then you'll need to purchase an external hard drive for the receiver. 722k and 211k can't share recordings between each other.

You can get a 612 for $10 extra a month, gives you two more tuners plus HD. It's essentially the same as the 722k with a few insignificant differences. The only way to share recordings between TVs would be through an EHD (AKA "SneakerNet.")

You can upgrade to a Hopper and a Joey for anywhere between $0-$100 upgrade fee, plus $10 extra per month. Gives you another HD outlet, an extra tuner, PTAT, new user interface, plus whole-home DVR.

Sent from my iPad 2 using Forum Runner

 

[dare2be]

Another option with getting a 211k for the 2nd TV: Keep the 722, keep it in dual mode, and keep the TV2 wiring to the other TV, but have the 211k installed at the TV2 location. It'll require a diplexer to join the TV2 output from the 722 and the satellite signal from the dish to the 211k, and then a separator to send both of those signals, the satellite signal to the 211k receiver, and the TV2 modulated output to the TV's coax input. This way, you have HD on your 2nd TV from the 211k, but you can still access your 722 content in SD if you want just as you do now.

I think I described that properly.

 

[dwarren2]

If you want to watch what you have recorded on the DVR in hd on the 2nd tv, you cannot do that with the 211. Only with the H/J will you be able to watch HD from the dvr on both tv's.

 

[dvrexpander]

Answer to drvexpander:
Yes, I would want a DVR for the second room like I have now. I just want the second TV to be able to receive in HD. I don't know why Dish didn't make their 722K able to do two HD connections instead of just one.

The 722K remotes that I already use do have those kind used for colored buttons. So I would assume that the retraining of my wife on the new remote would be minimal. From the pictures I've seen on the dish website, the hopper menu looks quite a bit different than the 722K menu. But if the remote functions the same that would be great.

I'd just dump the 722k then for two 612's but that is just me, as for the remotes they are nearly identical and the menu's look a little different so very small learning curve if any. The slingbox should work with the hopper if you go that route but may as well get the hopper with sling if you intend to downgrade like that IMO, I'd still stick to the trusty VIP's as in two 612's to get HD and DVR at both locations. If you go with a hopper/joey setup then look at your cabling and read into restrictions of 3Ghz from dish to hopper and brands that are Dish certified or if you have a installer come they may end up replacing all the cable you have. If you have prewire in walls and its not 3Ghz from sat to hopper location then you will need to drill holes and pull other wire etc etc, the VIP's work on much lower specs of coax.

Just a heads up so you know and are prepared when the tech looks at you and says its gonna be a nightmare to downgrade to the hopper/joeys.

 

[bhawley]

I have a 722K running two HDTV's. The family room TV is HD and the bedroom is SD. From what I'm reading the best way to go to get HD on the 2nd TV is with the Hopper and one Joey.

What I'm looking at though, the price is going to jump up another $17 a month for upgrading to Hopper and Joey.

Is this the cheapest way to get HD on the second TV? I don't need the larger recording on the Hopper. I never fill up the 722 k hard drive.

Are the remote controls the same on the new Hopper and Joey as they are on the 722K? I really haven't found a picture of what the new remote looks like. I just hope that these remotes are similar because of the difficulty it would be trying to train my wife on a new system. We have been Dish customers since 2004.

I already have the old-style Slingbox that works fine on the 722K. If I upgrade to the new Hopper, will this still work? Or will I have to get a new Slingbox?

HDMI splitter, HDMI cable to bedroom, no monthly fees, no new receivers.

 

[Tampa8]

That was my first thought actually, as long as you are not trying to watch two different HD programs at the same time.

Also about why Dish did not make the second output HD on the 722... as already said at that time so very few had HD let alone two HD sets. But you are making what I would say is a very wrong assumption - that the price you are paying would be the same if both sets could be HD. I can confidently say it would not.

 

[mrhermit]

dwarren2.
I just want the Hopper/Joey. I want HD at 2 TV's with both having access to the DVR.

Can you or anyone else verify this for me. I have been reading about the Hopper on a few sites, and one of the complaints I have read with it is when you pause a recorded program, the The TV will now go to the Live TV mode. When you want to go back to the same program that was just paused, it goes back to the start and not where you paused it. Is this true?

The 722k that I have will let me pause a program and it will stay paused until I press a button to got to live mode or I can go to the TV guide or even turn off the TV. When I want to resume watching the same program again, all I do is find it in my menu, press Resume, and I pick up the program where I had paused it previously. I would would think that the Hopper would do the same thing.

 

[Tampa8]

I would say read the threads on the Hopper here. While there may be alot, since you do not know anything about it you will gain great insight into what it does.

 

[mrhermit]

That sounds like a great idea. I will have to try it.
But does doing this mean that the TV 2 remote will no longer work and you will need to use your TV 1 remote instead?
I read on a Amazon review where someone tried this and the TV 2 remote did not work as long as the HDMI cable was connected. This would make sense since the 2nd TV is actually now receiving a signal for TV1.

 

[3HaloODST]

The TV2 remote would work while in Single Mode.

 

[dwarren2]

Don't know where you are reading about paused programs. My H/J system does just what my 722 did. In fact, with 2 Hoppers, if I've paused the same program or stopped it after it's been recorded on either of the 2 Hoppers, I get a message about which one I want to resume.

 

[mrhermit]

Don't know where you are reading about paused programs. My H/J system does just what my 722 did. In fact, with 2 Hoppers, if I've paused the same program or stopped it after it's been recorded on either of the 2 Hoppers, I get a message about which one I want to resume.

Thanks dwarren2. This is good to know. I could not imagine that Dish would change that feature. I didn't look close enough, but the two reviews on the two different websites may been from the same person. Also could be that this person was not familiar with the Dish remote.

One other thing could you confirm for me. I read another complaint, saying that with you. The new Hopper menu, they are no longer in list form, but have icons instead. They said there was no setting to go to a list view to get rid of the icon. But the big complaint was that the words on the icon telling you what the show was was too small to read. Do you find that you have any problems reading the print under the icons? And can the icons be changed to a list view?