What OTA USB Unit to Look For, For a Hopper/Sling

[cwarren78]

New Dish Dual OTA Adapter Tuner USB for the Hopper/Wally 212553/212131 | eBay

That's the one I just added to our H3, works fine, even over the wireless joeys. Has the dish logo on it.

 

[SandFarmer]

Keep us informed on what happens. Maybe one of the techs here can answer if they carry them on their trucks. HipKat JSheridan

Yes I will.

And it just occurred to me I wonder if the tech roll is with intention of installing my first H3? OF WHICH I told her that I was waiting until the weather got better before I'd make a tech climb a ladder 40' up the side of my chimney to change out the LNB and node since they don't do roofs. Which from the roof side the area that will be worked on is waist high there. Oh well. But then the last guy, that said he was a trainer and had a Supervisor come out too, said it was going to be a 9 hour install until I told him how we were going to do it, so 2 hours and 45 minutes later he was leaving. Most of his time was to drill into the cap on the top of my chimney for the new dish, that he would have had 10 dishes install by then normally. I told him the concrete was the real stuff. Then he stated to swing from it and said that he'd mark that down as an anchor point. So maybe the next guy can use it as that. But that's in the Spring.

 

[navychop]

I thought chimney mounts were forbidden.

 

[Bobby]

I thought chimney mounts were forbidden.

I've got a chimney mount. Of course it's been there for nearly 20 years.... I've had techs out to upgrade things along the way and they never blinked....

 

[SandFarmer]

I've got a chimney mount. Of course it's been there for nearly 20 years.... I've had techs out to upgrade things along the way and they never blinked....

I moved mine from the fascia to the chimney in 2003 when we had the roof redone. I too have had many techs and Field Supers out including when we got the HwS conversion done by a "Trainer" with a Field Super watching. And before that DISH put the second dish up there when 129 went on line. The only objection was for the new 1k2 the newer chimneys they use a weaker form of cement to cap them and the techs experience was that it is not able to support a dish. Back when my house was built, over 50 years ago, which 50 years is when concrete fully cures, they only had one kind of concrete and it was used everywhere. So the tech said he try I had two 500's up there before installed by DISH, but not very well. He climbed up the ladder when he could have stood on the roof and had it all at his waist. I took all the gear up with me and handed it to him. Well he got a lesson on old school concrete. And while doing it he scared the hell out of me by stand on top of the ladder while drilling. He remarked, jokingly, that in the time that it took him to drill down 1/2" on the first hole, he would have installed 10 dishes under "normal" circumstances. When done he grabbed on and gave it a good tug and jumped around on it and said it could qualify as a safety mount. When they do the H3 upgrade they are going to remount, as the 1k2 is on the wing dish. When it went up they didn't have the heavy duty hardware they do now. (tried to use thumbnails, but they failed)

 

[MikeD-C05]

New Dish Dual OTA Adapter Tuner USB for the Hopper/Wally 212553/212131 | eBay

That's the one I just added to our H3, works fine, even over the wireless joeys. Has the dish logo on it.

The one I got from Amazon had the DISH logo on it too and it works great. The one I got from DISH Depot crapped out on one of my VHF channels that I watch all the time. It didn't have the DISH logo on it. I guess if you get a DISH logo on the dual tuner ota dongle you are good to go.

 

[dweber]

The one I got from Amazon had the DISH logo on it too and it works great. The one I got from DISH Depot crapped out on one of my VHF channels that I watch all the time. It didn't have the DISH logo on it. I guess if you get a DISH logo on the dual tuner ota dongle you are good to go.

I wonder if they improved the quality control for the dual tuner OTA dongle. I bought mine from 5 Hive Outlet (Amazon Marketplace) for $56 at the beginning of July 2017. I tested it and it was much less sensitive (10 less stations) than my old single tuner. It also got very hot. It fact it was so hot that it would burn you if you touched it.
It does not have a Dish logo. The white label states 212553 Product of Malaysia. The s/n is 13784653.

I stopped using it and have been using my old single tuner.

 

[cwarren78]

This is the data on the one I'm using:

 

[MikeD-C05]

I wonder if they improved the quality control for the dual tuner OTA dongle. I bought mine from 5 Hive Outlet (Amazon Marketplace) for $56 at the beginning of July 2017. I tested it and it was much less sensitive (10 less stations) than my old single tuner. It also got very hot. It fact it was so hot that it would burn you if you touched it.
It does not have a Dish logo. The white label states 212553 Product of Malaysia. The s/n is 13784653.

I stopped using it and have been using my old single tuner.

The one I got from Dish Depot had the same Malasyia sticker and was so hot that it made my hopper reboot over and over. Same thing on the Wally I got my parents. I ended up putting the one from Amazon on my hopper 3 and no more problems. The second one from Amazon hasn't got here yet ,but I will put it on my parent's Wally.

 

[pattykay]

The one I got from Amazon had the DISH logo on it too and it works great. The one I got from DISH Depot crapped out on one of my VHF channels that I watch all the time. It didn't have the DISH logo on it. I guess if you get a DISH logo on the dual tuner ota dongle you are good to go.

It is not quite that simple. Both of my dual OTA dongles were made in Malaysia. Neither one has the Dish logo on it, but they both work just fine without the overheating or reboot issues that were mentioned above.

 

[ekilgus]

It is not quite that simple. Both of my dual OTA dongles were made in Malaysia. Neither one has the Dish logo on it, but they both work just fine without the overheating or reboot issues that were mentioned above.

I think the question that needs to be answered is: is there any difference between the dongles with/without the dish logo? I have one without the logo but it works albeit being not as sensitive as the old single tuner dongle. It seems to get hot only at the BNC connector.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It is not quite that simple. Both of my dual OTA dongles were made in Malaysia. Neither one has the Dish logo on it, but they both work just fine without the overheating or reboot issues that were mentioned above.

You got very lucky. The Dish Depot guy Mark said that since they switched to the supplier in Malaysia ,they get tuners that can burn very hot and some need to be replaced . He replaced mine but eventually the tuner started having lost signal issues on the VHF station that comes in at 100%. The new tuner with the DISH logo on the side worked well after a few minutes and so far no more issues.

 

[Roodof]

hello guys,can anyone confirm this,Is it possible two hook up two dual tuners simultaneously into the usb inputs of a hopper3 and have recording capability of 3 or 4 ota signals at once onto the hopper?

 

[Bobby]

hello guys,can anyone confirm this,Is it possible two hook up two dual tuners simultaneously into the usb inputs of a hopper3 and have recording capability of 3 or 4 ota signals at once onto the hopper?

No, you can only use one dongle per Hopper.

 

[ekilgus]

hello guys,can anyone confirm this,Is it possible two hook up two dual tuners simultaneously into the usb inputs of a hopper3 and have recording capability of 3 or 4 ota signals at once onto the hopper?

No. If that were possible I would have used two single tuner dongles to eliminate the heat issue and for the increased reception sensitivity.

 

[Mark609]

There have also been plenty of posts by Flex Pack subscribers who still have OTA guide data without subscribing to locals. I even have OTA guide data on deactivated receivers with no Dish subscription whatsoever. Maybe it varies by receiver model. ViP receivers should still have OTA guide data without a subscription to locals, in my experience. I am not sure about Hoppers, though.

Seems to be correct. Yesterday I upgraded from a VIP722K to a Hopper3 and one Joey4K and only get partial guide population on a few out of 24 scanned and for only an hour or two. I installed an AirTV dual dongle. According to one vendor who says he has sold 1,000's of these dongles, he said AirTV will not work, was surprised when I told him it did. Also said he has the newest DISH model, like 1 month old which is bigger, doesn't have heat issues. P/N 213502 DishDepot, a very caring employee, asked me to drop him a note later to see how things are working (or not working) out.

I asked about getting the DISH subscribed locals back for a spell, populate the guide, drop the DISH locals and see if the OTA dongle would keep the programming going on. Might be worth a try. Will update......

 

[pattykay]

Seems to be correct. Yesterday I upgraded from a VIP722K to a Hopper3 and one Joey4K and only get partial guide population on a few out of 24 scanned and for only an hour or two. I installed an AirTV dual dongle. According to one vendor who says he has sold 1,000's of these dongles, he said AirTV will not work, was surprised when I told him it did. Also said he has the newest DISH model, like 1 month old which is bigger, doesn't have heat issues. P/N 213502 DishDepot, a very caring employee, asked me to drop him a note later to see how things are working (or not working) out.

I asked about getting the DISH subscribed locals back for a spell, populate the guide, drop the DISH locals and see if the OTA dongle would keep the programming going on. Might be worth a try. Will update......

This might be a silly question, but after you scanned the locals, did you try putting both the Hopper 3 and the Joey 4K in standby long enough to let the Hopper 3 do a guide download and fully refresh the guide? Even if you did, sometimes OTA guide data seems to take a few days to fully populate after a re-scan, but it should appear on its own (whenever it finally appears) without any need to add the satellite-delivered locals back first.

 

[Mark609]

This might be a silly question, but after you scanned the locals, did you try putting both the Hopper 3 and the Joey 4K in standby long enough to let the Hopper 3 do a guide download and fully refresh the guide? Even if you did, sometimes OTA guide data seems to take a few days to fully populate after a re-scan, but it should appear on its own (whenever it finally appears) without any need to add the satellite-delivered locals back first.

No we didn't. Thanks for the advice, will do.

 

[Cypresstree]

No we didn't. Thanks for the advice, will do.

Definitely wait for the guide to populate. It should do so overnight or in the next few days.


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[WynsWrld98]

Is anyone in the Seattle area? My Hopper is showing letterbox on all 4 sides of MeTv with 4:3 programming (most of theirs is 4:3) on my 16:9 TV. I contacted Dish and they said that's expected. However I have a friend who lives near me in Seattle with Comcast and with his 16:9 TV he's only getting side letterbox bars which is what MeTv's website says is expected. So I'm considering buying the OTA dongle and OTA antenna and try OTA with MeTV and see what I get. I'm curious if anyone in the Seattle area has an OTA antenna if they can let me know what they're getting re: letterbox bars for MeTv. Thanks!

Another question, are you getting program guide info for the MeTv OTA antenna with the Hopper guide?