What is the best equipment configuration for Hopper upgrade from Vip722 multi-room setup?

[robapodaca]

I currently have a ViP722 which feeds HDMI to my home theater, and the TV2 output feeds my home TV distribution network. It has 2 External Hard-Drives associated with it. (I have home runs of 2 RG-6, and 2 Cat6 to every room in the house, plus 2 RG-6 to the home theater, and 4 RG-6 to the roof for Satellite feeds, and 1 RG-6 from the attic where I have a high gain OTA antenna to pick up HD locals).

In my Master bedroom, I have a seperate ViP 612 to record nightly news & Leno from the OTA source to watch as I go to bed.

I want to upgrade to the Hopper so that I can feed the TV distribution network with HD instead of Channel 68 (since I just bought a new HDTV).

Presently there are only 3 HD TVs in the house. I was thinking that I only need 1 Hopper, 2 Joeys & 1 OTA tuner, but I am concerned about the number of tuners. My present timer list is:

Covert Affairs .......................USA Network
Blue Bloods ..........................CBS OTA channel
Burn Notice ..........................USA Network
Suits ...................................USA Network
Terra Nova ...........................Fox OTA Channel
White Collar ..........................USA Network
Royal Pains ...........................USA Network
Big Bang Theory ...................CBS OTA Channel
NCIS ...................................CBS OTA Channel
Psych ..................................USA Channel
Hot in Cleveland ...................TVLand
Necesary Roughness .............USA Channel
Anger Management ...............FX Channel
Last Man Standing................ ABC Channel
NBC Nightly News .................NBC OTA Channel (5:30 pm)
Revolution ...........................NBC OTA Channel

Local CBS News ...................CBS OTA Channel (10:00 pm)
The Tonight Show ...............NBC OTA Channel (10:35 pm)

Questions:

1) Should I get 2 Hoppers & 1 Joey?

2) Can the Hoppers see each others' DVRs? (Can I watch a program recorded on the bedroom Hopper on the other Hoppers Joey?)

3) Is the Slingbox adapter worth it? any monthly fees?

 

[lucky86]

Question 2. Yes, you can view your dvr content from either Hopper or Joeys.

Question 3. I think it's worth it and I use it all the time. I have two sling adapters and a slingbox because my family uses sling so often. There are no monthly fees, the app is free and I believe it cost $50 for the adapter itself.

 

[Yankeeman]

i would suggest getting 2 hoppers and a joey

 

[3HaloODST]

You'll have to go with 2H/2J for Dish to go along with it though... Just, once the installer gets there tell him you really want 2H/1J .

 

[Yankeeman]

I would go with 2 Hoppers and a 1 joey. That would give you 6 tunes so you figure all your shows That are with ABC FOX CBS NBC would all record on 1 tuner with the P/T feature

Yes 2 Hoppers can share shows between the 2



I just got up graded to a 2 hopper and 1 joey system and its great

 

[KAB]

I have about 10 more timers (and less networks than you) and get along fine with one Hopper. BTW...no more Terra Nova.
If you were able to handle all your timers with a 722, one Hopper will be more than enough, thanks to PTAT and OTA.

 

[neonturbo]

I just had a similar issue with my recent Hopper upgrade, and here is what I ended up doing.

Hopper in living room, TV on HDMI output.
Joey in basement outputting to HDMI splitter/switch (monoprice 8155).
Splitter HDMI outputs go to bedroom and basement TV.

This works great, it is a huge improvement over the coax feed that I had for the three extra (in addition to the living room) televisions in the house. Total cost of a 50 foot HDMI cable and the switch was less than $100 on Amazon.

I have one more TV in the kitchen that I want to split from the living room, but I want to experiment with a couple methods and Hopper outputs before I comment what works. I am thinking I will try both composite and component outs and see what works best between the TV and the Hopper. I wish this TV had HDMI, I would have bought another splitter and HDMI cable and been done with it.

 

[robapodaca]

As a current customer, what are the possible deals I can find? Who do I order from? I am not in a 2 year contract anymore.


Current Bill:


America's Top 200 ............$59.99
Blockbuster at Home .........$10.00
HD DVR Receiver ..............$10.00
Protection Plan .................. $7.00
DVR Service .......................$6.00
HD 200 Free ($10/Mo) .........$0.00


Monthly Charges ...............$92.99

 

[satjay]

I would recommend contacting DIRT

 

[KAB]

I would recommend contacting DIRT

+1! What most of us have done.