What don't you like about the Hopper

inazsully

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 15, 2010
899
56
Sun City West, AZ
I'm thinking about switching from my 722 to the Hopper. We all see the ads telling us what is so great about the Hopper but we all know that nothing is perfect, what don't you like about the Hopper. The remote? the guide, the speed, the looks, the apps? What would make it perfect for you? Here's one. The Hopper remote will not operate my Yamaha 663 AVR while the 722 remote will. Maybe a true learning remote would be a nice feature. How about a lighted remote, sweet.
 
Fast fwd is not as smooth as I would like.

Some DVR listing options would be nice, like list view.

Naming each EHD would be nice.

Direct EHD to EHD transfers would be nice.

Showing more connected EHDs would be nice.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
 
Remote is identical to the 722k so I like it. Guide is very nice just wish it had font options like on the 722. Overall it's a great upgrade from the 722.

I thought you already got the Hopper once and hated it? Weren't you the one that didn't like how it doesn't show the episode numbers on the screen without pressing info?
 
The Hopper remote will not operate my Yamaha 663 AVR while the 722 remote will. Maybe a true learning remote would be a nice feature. How about a lighted remote, sweet.
Hopper's remote is a learning remote (window on left side), lighted remote would be nice but the layout is easy to memorize. Make sure you are selecting audio receiver and not audio amplifier in remote manager setup.
 
Remote is identical to the 722k so I like it. Guide is very nice just wish it had font options like on the 722. Overall it's a great upgrade from the 722.

I thought you already got the Hopper once and hated it? Weren't you the one that didn't like how it doesn't show the episode numbers on the screen without pressing info?

Yep, that's me, but my 722 is on it's last legs so I may as well jump on the Hopper band wagon. It's either that or go Genie which I can't bring myself to do. I know the Hopper has a 2TB hard drive but is all of that space available for all recordings or is 1TB specifically dedicated to the PTA feature? Will I have any problem watching my current EHD material? My original 722 remote (grey) was malfunctioning so they sent me a new remote a couple of months ago and it was black. It never occurred to me that it was the 722K remote but I Guess it was. I could not get it to operate my Yamaha 663 even after using the learning technology. I called Tech Service and they verified it was a no go. it's not the end of the world but it certainly will be an extra pain to require using the Yamaha remote just to turn it on and off.
 
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1.2TB is available for user recordings/PTAT recordings.

The Hopper remote has more codes in its database and an easy-to-program on-screen interface to program it with. Chances are it will control your audio receiver just fine. Just follow the advice mentioned in post #4.

EHD recordings from your 722 will play back just fine, but I recommend against moving your 722 recordings to the Hopper hard drive due to the potential to lose recordings in the process.
 
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The remote stores the info from the Hopper. When I switched from the original Hopper to the HWS, the tech just downloaded my set up from the remote to the new HWS. No reprograming for ota locals or timers
No problem with the ehd from the 722. You can address 2 ehd's at a time. If you had a sling with the 722, one feature is missing. You cannot access your ehd from Dish Anywhere.
 
The remote's position button doesn't toggle side-by-side PIP on and off as it does on the 722.

Pressing skip back once will skip back but after a few seconds will automatically skip forward to live tv.

Pressing select on a future show in the guide doesn't offer an Auto Tune option. You have to pick Record This then go back and edit the timer.
 
I don't like not having anything other than Hoppers (or a single 211) on the account!
 
As others have mentioned, I'd have to say the inconsistency of all the trick play functions (skip back, skip ahead) are the most annoying things I experience on the Hopper. Original Hopper tends to be a bit slow sometimes, too, but sounds like the HWS takes care of a lot of the speed issues. As far as the Hopper vs the 622/722, I really miss how the user-created folders worked on those DVRs and I miss being able to rename recordings.
 
I hate the lousy picture I get with OTA on the Hopper. I never had any pixilation on the 722, the picture was perfect. Also, it's annoying when one of my EHDs does not show up in the list, which happens quite often. Then I have to unplug it and plug it back in again. I shouldn't have to do that.
 
You have an OTA problem. Perhaps a bad dongle?

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
 
I hate the lousy picture I get with OTA on the Hopper. I never had any pixilation on the 722, the picture was perfect. Also, it's annoying when one of my EHDs does not show up in the list, which happens quite often. Then I have to unplug it and plug it back in again. I shouldn't have to do that.
It certainly seems odd that you would experience a difference in PQ with OTA, especially going from perfect to lousy. Has anybody else seen this problem? My neighbor went from the 722 to the Genie and swears the PQ is better. Is he wrong? Is it DirecTV vs. Dish? Does the Genie just utilize a more advanced/better chip than the 722? Does the Hopper also use a more advanced/better chip than the 722?
 
My Hopper and Joey OTA is equal to or better than the satellite locals, no pixilation or other issues. To set an auto tune timer from the guide, just press record three times.
 
I hate the lousy picture I get with OTA on the Hopper. I never had any pixilation on the 722, the picture was perfect. Also, it's annoying when one of my EHDs does not show up in the list, which happens quite often. Then I have to unplug it and plug it back in again. I shouldn't have to do that.

You have a problem with either your cabling or the ota module. I have 2 HWS's and an ota module on each. My ota reception is the same with the ota as it is with the Dish supplied locals. As far as the ehd's, I had the same problem with my 722.
 
The EHD recognition problem is due to the drives going to sleep, rendering them unrecognizable. Seagates always had the problem and appears new WDs do as well.
 
The only big problem I have is that the folder system is utterly useless, as I recently posted in another thread.

I don't know what trick-play problems everybody is talking about, I've seen no such thing. (Other than FF and RW won't go to faster than 4X on an EHD, but I assume that's a limitation of the hardware.)
 
You have a problem with either your cabling or the ota module. I have 2 HWS's and an ota module on each. My ota reception is the same with the ota as it is with the Dish supplied locals. As far as the ehd's, I had the same problem with my 722.

I get a beautiful picture with OTA. I used the term lousy because every time I tune to an OTA channel, there is pixilation for the first few seconds, and also at several times throughout the program. I've been tuned to OTA for football today, and it has happened several times throughout the games. That NEVER happened with my 722.
 
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