# Multiple TVs in One Room Advice



## hog1991 (May 31, 2012)

I recently installed 3 TVs in game room for sports viewing. ALong with this I have 3 other TVs in other parts of the house 2HD and one SD).

So my questions are:

1. Would I go with 1 Hopper and 2 Joeys in the "game room" (3 HDTVs) and then 1 Hopper with 2 other joeys for the rest of the house?

2. Would I be able to control the 3 boxes in the game room via one remote? (can it register and control the 3 boxes seperately?)

3. What are some advantages over directv? Currently on cable and about done with them.

Thanks.
db


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## mdavej (Jan 31, 2007)

Directv is a better option for you. They have addressable boxes and more sports. Hopper/Joey use a single IR address and therefore cannot be independently controlled by a single remote. Boxes besides Hopper/Joey are addressable.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The IR can be turned off, which would allow independent control of the Hopper and Joey's in the same room - but it would be separate remotes for each unit. One Hopper/Joey remote can control only one Hopper/Joey. (Multiple remotes can be used on the same Hopper/Joey but multiple Hopper/Joeys cannot be controlled by the same remote.)

If you need to control them separately via IR you could try physical isolation - but you would need to run IR control leads from the controller to each Hopper/Joey and be able to control your controller's programming to make sure the right tuner got the right instructions. No blasting to the whole rack/whole room.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Have to agree with mdavej here, if sports is your thing (as it appears to be), DIRECTV is probably a better option.


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## Wire Nut (Apr 6, 2012)

Are the 3 tvs in the game room HD? Do you plan to mirror them (same image on all three)? Take a look at the available channel packages of Dish/Direct, that should help you make your decision more than the equipment they offer.


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## hog1991 (May 31, 2012)

Thanks All for your replies.

No, the 3 TVs will all be for different channels.

The remote control is a big issue. Without investing another $200 or more in addl RF remotes and isolation setup, etc, it does seem like DirecTV would be a better fit from a hardware perspective. 

The hopper/joey system seemed to be pretty cool and i'm afraid DirecTV will come out with something new in another 6 mos then I will be wanting to pay more $$ to get updated again!

db


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

The Hopper/Joey use UHF frequency, not IR, with a 200 foot range for the remotes. Multiple remotes (32.0 or 40.0) can be linked to the same receiver. Thanks.



mdavej said:


> Directv is a better option for you. They have addressable boxes and more sports. Hopper/Joey use a single IR address and therefore cannot be independently controlled by a single remote. Boxes besides Hopper/Joey are addressable.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> The Hopper/Joey use UHF frequency, not IR, with a 200 foot range for the remotes. Multiple remotes (32.0 or 40.0) can be linked to the same receiver. Thanks.


Yes, but is the inverse of that true? Can one remote control multiple boxes?


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## mdavej (Jan 31, 2007)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> The Hopper/Joey use UHF frequency, not IR, with a 200 foot range for the remotes. Multiple remotes (32.0 or 40.0) can be linked to the same receiver. Thanks.


I think everybody understands that. But we're not talking about UHF. The OP wants to use a single universal remote *in IR mode* to control all 3 boxes independently. You can't do that with Hopper/Joey because they only respond to address 1 in IR mode. Other Dish boxes, like the 722, etc., as well as DirecTV boxes respond to multiple IR addresses (32 in Dish's case, 8 in DirecTV's case), so controlling multiple boxes independently via a single universal IR remote is no problem.

If I were the OP, I'd just use 3 Dish UHF remotes and be done with it. That solves all the conflict, range and line-of-sight issues, like you alluded to. The Dish remotes even have a locate beep, so you can easily find which remote belongs with which receiver if you misplace a remote. That's something DirecTV doesn't have. But the OP wants to use a single IR remote, for whatever reason.

What I would like to see is that Hopper/Joey be made to respond to all 32 Dish IR addresses like all their other receivers and DVRs. Why they failed to do such a simple thing is mind boggling. It's just one byte in the header portion of the signal that determines the address. It should be trivial to implement. The hardest part would be the user interface on the DVR, but that's already been done on other models. Seems like a big oversight to me. And it's already cost you some customers, as evidenced by this thread.


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