# Hopper or Genie?



## orijonl

First of all I am sorry for starting another thread with this title, but I've read through all of the similar threads and haven't been able to get answers to the particular questions that I have so here goes...

I am in the process of a move, and when I get in the new house I am looking to drop cable for satellite (not sure what I'm going to do about internet yet, that is for another thread). I have been interested in the Hopper, but the Genie looks pretty good too. I wanted to ask about your experiences with either of the devices and if anyone has been in the same boat, what did you choose and why?

Some issues I would like to clarify:

It looks like both will "drive" up to 3 clients, but I've heard that Dish only feeds the 3rd client with material from the DVR and not live TV, while Direct supports 4 different live feeds.
Dish Anywhere with Sling vs DirecTV Everywhere (How do they compare? Is live TV supported on iOS/Android? Can I feed more than one device at a time?
Picture Quality; any difference?
Dish charges $7/month for each client, while Direct charges $6
anything else?


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## puckwithahalo

orijonl said:


> It looks like both will "drive" up to 3 clients, but I've heard that Dish only feeds the 3rd client with material from the DVR and not live TV, while Direct supports 4 different live feeds.
> Dish Anywhere with Sling vs DirecTV Everywhere (How do they compare? Is live TV supported on iOS/Android? Can I feed more than one device at a time?
> Picture Quality; any difference?
> Dish charges $7/month for each client, while Direct charges $6
> anything else?


Hopper will drive 3 clients, but only 3 of the 4 tv's can get live tv at one time. unless two of them are on one of the big four networks (ie, if one is on ABC and the other on CBS). However, you can have two hoppers which will drive up to 6 clients combined, 6 can be live at a time. (again with the caveat about all could if at least two were on one of the big four networks). Technically you can have up to three Hoppers, but an exception has to be made, and you have to purchase the third Hopper. From what I understand, you are only allowed one Genie on Direct regardless (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Dish Anywhere streams from your recordings or from one of your tuners, so it can view anything your receiver can. Not sure about DirectTV Everywhere.

Picture quality I can't say myself, so I'll leave that to someone else to answer.


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## lparsons21

Dish Anywhere is where DirecTV Everywhere may get at some point. Dish has had there's implemented for quite a bit longer which gives them the leg up.

One of the things that the Dish Hopper with Sling can do is transfer a video from your Hopper to an iPad. With Direct, you have to use the Nomad box to accomplish that.

Picture quality is technically better on DirecTV, but I just switched from DirecTV to Dish with Hopper and I can tell you that the quality difference is not an issue. If anything, the Hopper HD is very slightly better than Direct's.

In my own view, the two big considerations are about what you watch and record.

1. If you watch quite a bit of the broadcast channel's primetime schedule, then the PTAT with Hopper is a big plus over the Direct Genie

2. Then which service provides the channels you want in HD better should be the considered. Neither will be a perfect match probably.


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## RAD

lparsons21 said:


> One of the things that the Dish Hopper with Sling can do is transfer a video from your Hopper to an iPad. With Direct, you have to use the Nomad box to accomplish that.


Did I hear that when you transfer a program from the Hopper to your iPad that it's not viewable on that Hopper until you put it back? If that's the case then it's different from nomad since nomad allows you to copy a transcoded recording to up to 5 other portable devices while still making it available on the source HD DVR.


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## lparsons21

I haven't used it enough to know how all of it works.

That said it seems like, if yo transfer a drm'd program (like from HBO), then what you say is true. But I transferred a show from one of the other channels and it was still available on my hopper.

All of this works for free with Dish, the Nomad must be purchased.


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## dpeters11

Keep in mind the Hopper only works with a Joey, so like a Genie with a C31. The Genie can use a C31, but also works with a regular receiver (minus rewind/pause live etc) or a second DVR (minus setting up recordings on the remote box.)

For me, Genie is more flexible, adding in the 5 discrete tuners.

Of course this assumes that both carriers carry the channels you care about, including HD.


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## RasputinAXP

RAD said:


> Did I hear that when you transfer a program from the Hopper to your iPad that it's not viewable on that Hopper until you put it back? If that's the case then it's different from nomad since nomad allows you to copy a transcoded recording to up to 5 other portable devices while still making it available on the source HD DVR.


It'll keep the recording on the Hopper unless the DRM flag is set (like from HBO) and in that case it'll 'move' the recording to the iPad until you're done, then move it back.


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## Laxguy

Dish sends out fewer pixels than does DirecTV, so technically, the picture is better. Some swear it's much better; others say they can't see a difference. A few posit that Dish's picture is better.

What's key is whether you can see a difference! 

Five tuners each of which you direct (pun intended) is a big plus for me and my family.


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## Alebob911

I agree wit Laxguy about the 5 tuners. Its nice to not have any conflicts. I have not used the hopper so I won't be able to give you a fair comparison of both.


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## tigerwillow1

Laxguy said:


> Dish sends out fewer pixels than does DirecTV, so technically, the picture is better. Some swear it's much better; others say they can't see a difference. A few posit that Dish's picture is better.
> 
> What's key is whether you can see a difference!


I've read a lot of times about Direct's HD picture being better. Having just made the switch to Dish I was surprised that it looks the same to me. What really surprises me more is that my wife has 2 times, unsolicited, told me that the Dish picture is sharper. She's never made such a comment before, even when we went from SD to HD.


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## acostapimps

lparsons21;3167850 said:


> I haven't used it enough to know how all of it works.
> 
> That said it seems like, if yo transfer a drm'd program (like from HBO), then what you say is true. But I transferred a show from one of the other channels and it was still available on my hopper.
> 
> All of this works for free with Dish, the Nomad must be purchased.


I am too a Directv subscriber that just switch to Dish to new hopper and original hopper for saving a few bucks, and even though I'll be keeping Directv for now, how was the installation process with two dishes on the roof, would the cable lines be a problem at all for the same location as directv receivers.


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## lparsons21

acostapimps said:


> I am too a Directv subscriber that just switch to Dish to new hopper and original hopper for saving a few bucks, and even though I'll be keeping Directv for now, how was the installation process with two dishes on the roof, would the cable lines be a problem at all for the same location as directv receivers.


In my case it wasn't a problem at all since the two dishes had to be at different locations. That's because for my area, Dish points SE instead of SW, I'm on the Eastern Arc.

That said, it shouldn't be a problem to have 2 dishes on the roof. The cabling could be no big deal, or it could be a bit more daunting to install depending on how cable has to run at your house. The cabling coming down from the dish to the Node would be new cabling, then how easy or difficult depends on how cable has to be run from there to the TVs.


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## domingos35

orijonl said:


> First of all I am sorry for starting another thread with this title, but I've read through all of the similar threads and haven't been able to get answers to the particular questions that I have so here goes...
> 
> I am in the process of a move, and when I get in the new house I am looking to drop cable for satellite (not sure what I'm going to do about internet yet, that is for another thread). I have been interested in the Hopper, but the Genie looks pretty good too. I wanted to ask about your experiences with either of the devices and if anyone has been in the same boat, what did you choose and why?
> 
> Some issues I would like to clarify:
> 
> It looks like both will "drive" up to 3 clients, but I've heard that Dish only feeds the 3rd client with material from the DVR and not live TV, while Direct supports 4 different live feeds.
> Dish Anywhere with Sling vs DirecTV Everywhere (How do they compare? Is live TV supported on iOS/Android? Can I feed more than one device at a time?
> Picture Quality; any difference?
> Dish charges $7/month for each client, while Direct charges $6
> anything else?


just get 2 Hoopers.that will give you 6 tuners
also u can add external HDD 's to the Hooper that WILL NOT REPLACE the internal HDD in the Hooper like directv does.


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