Yet again ... No Hopper-compatible EHD available

[bookworm370]

There were a number of posts from a decade or more ago when several Dish EHD users with Linux PCs examined how events were stored in the multiple partitions. We were able to take two EHDs and migrate programs from one drive to the other, effectively making backups of the events. I was most interested in going from a 1 TB EHD to larger EHDs over the years. I'm at 6 TB which has been plenty big for me.

I still do, transferring programs is much faster drive to drive using Linux.

 

[Strega]

1. Well I have 10 EHDs. Had 5 large self-powered drives going back to around 2009 or 2010, then when I got the hopper 3 I wanted to switch to small buss powered drives, so I got 5 portable drives, (and a powered hub) let the Hopper format them, then copied shows from the big old drives over while taking the opportunity to clean them up - ie: sorting the new disks into cleaner categories. This was done using a Linux system and a Bash script. No issues encountered. That's not to say that nothing will ever go wrong for anyone or you won't find someone complaining about any imaginable problem on the internet. It's good to be forewarned by the internet, but in my experience, most of that doesn't happen to any specific individual.

2. 50 calls to Dish is about 45 more than I've had in the last 25 years. I had an old analog cable system in the 80s and 90s. Around 2000 I had Dish come out and I pointed him at the connection between the cable company and and the wire the home builder put in the home and said - connect it there. Then around 2008-2010? they came out and put a 722K in in place of the old SD receiver (and TiVo) and then they came back about 2 years ago to put a Hopper 3 in. (They claimed my 722K was just way too old.) Besides that I think I called them once or twice because I couldn't update my credit card online.

Can't say anything about Google nest. I have a router I bought at Costco (around 2017?), and I have another older router that I have wired to it working as an Access Point. The two routers are far enough apart that at any place in my house, at least one of them is not shadowed by the HVAC system which is roughly in the middle, and they have Ethernet between them. They're only about 15 feet apart but that does a great job in this home.

Possibly I'm more the Luddite here though because I don't even have a TV in the shop. (And shop means my garage!)

 

[navychop]

I thought about Geek Squad, but their reviews are absolutely rock bottom.

In my experience, and from others, I expect the Geek Squad would have to look up to see rock bottom.

 

[John2021]

Geek Squad Don't waste your money on Geek Squad half of the time they can't figure out whats wrong!!!

 

[tjboston5676]

1. I'd love to believe that, but my own personal experience supports those of hundreds of buyers: Good luck with that.

2. EVERY call to Dish (about 50 in the last few months) has produced two unwanted responses: a LONG spiel about Boost and 2-3 minutes of my screaming obscenities in a vain attempt to talk to a human being. A tech in my home recently agreed, apologized, sympathized, and gave me a direct phone number that often works much better. Result in one case: 15 minutes of him operating my system remotely, followed by a curt "It's not the mesh we promised would solve all your problems and sold you; call Spectrum and the manufacturers of your router, modem, and TVs." Other such calls to that number led to "We'll send a tech out right away". THAT has produced no-shows, 24 hours, and two weeks.

No WONDER it took several months to fire Spectrum and expand my 18-year Dish service to replace Spectrum's 25-year TV service (for 25 years both were extremely unreliable and could not provide the services we want anyway: independent viewing on every TV). I find it hard to believe the newest independent comparisons' findings that the Google Nest Pro mesh system is 98% as good as ANYTHING else unless one needs parental control features.

After I hit POST REPLY, I'm unplugging my modem, my Spectrum wireless router, my Nest mesh router, and every Nest "Point", sequentially returning power to each of those, and running my network tests. IOW, I'm repeating everything the Dish tech did to install my mesh system but with two additional mesh Points. That shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

If that works, I'm happy. If not, I call Dish one more time to come tomorrow, add two mesh Points to their mesh system, and see whether they can back up their claim of far superior coverage. If they can't, I'll return all the mesh crap, go back to a wireless system (probably some TPLink), and live with it.

The "funny" part? The TV in my steel shop -- the remotest TV from my base mesh router -- has never missed a beat in all this, even with all three mesh points unplugged.

I wish I had more hair to tear out, or could at least find someone who could come to my home and fix all this ****. (I thought about Geek Squad, but their reviews are absolutely rock bottom.

How far is this steel building? If it's more than like 30-40ft, you're never going to get great results with mesh. What you need is an outdoor point to point system.

 

[Pepper]

Just throwing some advice out there, worth every penny you paid for it:
1. Don't waste any more money on mesh. Spend it on ethernet cabling inside, and fiber between buildings.
2. Don't waste any more time trying to get your Dish equipment to play nice with wifi. Use ethernet.
3. USB docking station and a pile of bare drives is my preferred method for EHD.

 

[TheKrell]

the Dish guy who installed my system suggested today an even simpler Hopper swap approach: Cable my old Hopper directly to a new Hopper, tell the old empty one to regurgitate its contents into the new one, and when that's complete return the old one to Dish. No middleman -- no EHD, no hub, no added risk of losing some content during two transfers -- and I can watch TV as usual during the day or two it takes to transfer the contents.

I did this earlier this year when I was swapping Hoppers while diagnosing my aforementioned 6TB Seagate. My old Hopper could never see either my Seagate nor an earlier 2TB WD disk from a 612, so Dish replaced the old Hopper. The new one can "see" the 2TB disk just fine. So I ran an Ethernet cable from old to new with the new one on the dish coax and the old one just sitting there with the Ethernet cable plugged in. I requested the transfer via the new Hopper of several hundred programs (internal to internal) and went away and came back days later. All but 4 programs had been transferred and I think the 4 missing programs were ones I deleted. So, other than a slow transfer, everything worked as advertised.

Write it off. Use an EHD.

I disagree. Ethernet was a no brainer, other than the time required.

I even Called The Guy to upgrade some of my home's light switches to fancy, smart sliders, but I hate 'em. I'm calling the same guy to go back to simple, dumb toggle switches.

I love my smart switches. I set up a routine to turn on my outside lights at dusk and turn them back off again at dawn. My wife and I also like to control our kitchen recessed lighting by voice because we often have our hands full or messy when we want more light.

You do know that they still function as dumb switches too...