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Dish "Hopper"

56K views 231 replies 48 participants last post by  Rick_R 
#1 ·
Isn't it funny that Dish has now adoped a rental unit that seemingly records only commercial broadcast off their sky system for replay into a household and promotes it as HD! Of course, I am referring to the Hopper with the Joeys as substations. At least they have better control over the time and tv guide data.
 
#52 ·
Has anyone confirmed that they get an identical picture from both the Joey and the Hopper? There have been posts here and there that the Joey has additional compression artifacts.
 
#53 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek  /t/1400404/dish-hopper/30#post_22145694


Has anyone confirmed that they get an identical picture from both the Joey and the Hopper? There have been posts here and there that the Joey has additional compression artifacts.
I wouldn't attribute these problem to different decompression (while chips are different, but that part - aka 7411 - should be same) - my observation telling me, it's temprature, overheating (perhaps some MoCA issues for other ppl, my setup is pure 100/1000 switching Ethernet.)
 
#55 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Jones  /t/1400404/dish-hopper/30#post_22159324


that feature is called "Prime Time Anytime" and can be enabled or disabled at your discretion. All you have to do is:

Menu--> Scroll down to "Settings"--> Click the "Prime Time Anytime" logo--> Choose "Enable" or "Disable".

I am a Dish contractor installer, btw.
That's very basic feature, but new in h2k...
 
#59 ·
Has the Hopper cured the 722's many bad faults?


I've had the 722 for almost two years and to be blunt, it is a very poorly engineered, outright POS of a product, probably the worst designed and implemented consumer electronics product I've ever used. Unquestionably, I would switch back to DirecTV, even though I haven't had the 5-8x/year billing problems with Dish that I had with DirecTV, if my only option was to continue with the 722, but I'm wondering if the new Dish DVR has cured its predecessor's problems.


Specifically, does the Hopper have the following problems that the 722 has:


1) Poorly implemented FF and RW. With every other DVR I've ever used, fastforwarding through the commercials, one hits the play button as soon as one sees the programming beginning and the DVR will stop, automatically rewind maybe 10 seconds or so, and then start playing at the very start of the programming. With the 722, when you see the start of the programming while fastforwarding (either FF or 30-second skip), you press play and then it starts playing immediately at that point, maybe 15 seconds into the programming. So then each and every time you fastforward through commercials, you have to hit play, then rewind and watch the last commercial in order to see the start of the programming. This problem has bugged me each and every single day that I've used my 722.


2) Cannot record an entire program unless programmed to do so from the start. Say you start watching a movie and realize that you want to record the entire movie. It will not let you record it all, only from the point that you hit the record button, even if you are able to rewind to the beginning.


3) Cannot rewind or record the entire program that was playing llive in the background after stopping watching a recorded program - with my old DirecTV DVR, if I was watching a recorded program off the hard drive, if I finished and then realized that the program playing live was interesting, I could rewind up to 90 minutes or hit the record button and record the entire program. the 722 won't allow this.


4) Cannot control live programming while in Guide or List Recorded Programming mode. Live TV plays in a window in the top right corner of the screen during these two modes, but you cannot control it at all without exiting the Guide or List Recorded. With my DirecTV DVR, if I wanted to pause the program (say a violent story came on the news when my young daughter wandered into the room or I get a phone call), the Pause, Stop, FF, RW buttons still worked even the though the programming was in the small window, but with the 722 in Guide or List mode, you have to cancel out of the mode altogether to control the underlying program.


5) No screen saver (in essence). The 722's screen saver does not kick in until at least 4-5 hours has passed, which is a major problem since I have it connected to a plasma TV and by the time the 722 decides to throw up a screen saver, whatever has been paused has burned an image into my plasma screen.


6) The 722 will decide to shut down if, after several hours with no remote input, you fail to click on the "cancel" button when it throws up the "DVR has been inactive" window.


7) Random failure to record scheduled programming. I would say that between 5% and 10 % of the time, a show I've got the 722 programmed to record won't record, even when I have verified that there was no conflict with a higher priority sheduled recording. This was true on both the original 722 I had that had to be replaced because of sound problems, and on the replacement unit.


8) Pressing the RW or FF Skip buttons (i.e. 30sec. commercial skip) repeatedly will sometimes skip to the very beginning or the very end of the programming, instead of maybe 5 or 6 30-second skips ahead.


Any input on these issues would be appreciated. Thanks
 
#61 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by P Smith  /t/1400404/dish-hopper/30#post_22323186


Counting the point "Unquestionably, I would switch back to DirecTV" and answers at DBStalk for your the same post, I would say - go for DTV and don't waste your and our time.

Waste YOUR time?


What kind of nonsense is this?


I've just celebrated my 8th anniversary on this site and in that time I've read many hundreds, if not thousands of posts in which members made inquiries and expressed opinions about home theater equipment. How the hell is a post that explains in detail problems with my old equipment (and thus provides a clear frame of reference) and asks for advice about new equipment a "waste of time"??? What exactly do you think is the purpose of this website if not to allow a forum for expressing opinions and asking for advice? How about providing an actual, substantive answer when someone asks a question? Otherwise, isn't being a twit and posting an obnoxious non-response the real waste of everyone's time?


I guess that someone like P Smith needs this spelled out for him, but I had not made up my mind altogether about whether or not to swtich back to DirecTV, although I was leaning in that direction. If the problems I had and listed in my original post were unique to the model 722 DVR, rather than were issues with all Dish DVRs and the Hopper did not have those issues, I probably would stay with Dish and would not go back to DirecTV (it's a lot easier to have a pair of receivers replaced than to switch satellite companies altogether).


This thread hasn't been a particularly active one lately, so I did post my inquiry over at DBStalk, too, and although PSmith appears to have posted a similarly obnoxious and useless response there as well, someone else did post a helpful response that said that the inactivity timer can be shut off and the Hopper screen saver can be set for 2 hours (still too long for those of us who have plasmas - if a $20 DVD player designed more than 5 years ago can get the screen saver function right, why can't this new high-end DVR?), but otherwise the issues I had with the 722 were carried over to the Hopper.
 
#62 ·
Chill out, sport. You area liar - I didn't post in your thread at DBStalk, but ppl got same feeling about your rant.


Who need to read about your problems with 722 in a Hopper thread ? - it's pure violation of basic rule. Any newbie knows - posting off-topic in No-No. That would be good reason to spell out.


Enough for off-topic posting. If you want to vent off - use PM.
 
#63 ·
Wow. How do I spell it out more clearly for you PSmith - I asked if the HOPPER had the same issues that I disliked about the 722. It's called a product comparison. I suggest that you try to engage in a certain activity before posting such an asinine statement - it's called "thinking".


At this point I am convinced that the Hopper would not be satisfactory, notwithstanding its unique features and strengths, and I will be going back to DirecTV. I will discontinue posting on this thread.
 
#72 ·
I have previously had bad experiences with Dish Network. Whenever I think about subscribing again, I remember their poor customer service and lousy installers, and it prevents me from taking the leap.


If you are with Dish Network, pray that nothing goes wrong. If you suffer any kind of failure, you will find yourself on your own with an inescapable contract and worthless gear.


This reflects my experience, which has shaped my opinion.
 
#73 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rgrahamok  /t/1400404/dish-hopper/60#post_22490173


I have previously had bad experiences with Dish Network. Whenever I think about subscribing again, I remember their poor customer service and lousy installers, and it prevents me from taking the leap.

If you are with Dish Network, pray that nothing goes wrong. If you suffer any kind of failure, you will find yourself on your own with an inescapable contract and worthless gear.

This reflects my experience, which has shaped my opinion.
I have had the opposite experience. I have been a Dish subscriber for over 12 years and they have had excellent customer service and installs. I moved 4 years ago and they installed the new Dish at my new home at no cost. Just kept on working

Rick R
 
#74 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rgrahamok  /t/1400404/dish-hopper/60#post_22490173


I have previously had bad experiences with Dish Network. Whenever I think about subscribing again, I remember their poor customer service and lousy installers, and it prevents me from taking the leap.

If you are with Dish Network, pray that nothing goes wrong. If you suffer any kind of failure, you will find yourself on your own with an inescapable contract and worthless gear.

This reflects my experience, which has shaped my opinion.

I was a Dish sub for several years. I always had good customer support experiences. I did find I had to be patient with the Tech Support people the couple of times I called them, but that was more about me than them. They have their script which ultimately gets them to the root cause of whatever problem people are experiencing, and that can take a long time if it is an obscure issue. I always had professional, polite people who were able to help me.


-Ted
 
#75 ·
So, from reading here and there I am led to believe that I cannot order 2 Hoppers and 1 Joey. Any truth to that? On the website, there isn't any where to "order" the equipment you want, just a box saying how many TV's you have. I want to do it through the website as there is a 30 dollar discount deal for new subs.
 
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