# It seems to be a good idea but............



## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

no way am I going to increase my monthly bill. 

I have been a customer of DISH for 11+ years. I called today to get an Hopper installed along with one Joey. First thing they told me is it's not free............I had to buy the Hopper (~$525) and pay for each Joey ($7.00/month). They told me that TV 2 would no longer be a part of my DISH system without the Joey and they also told me that I should get additional Joey's now in case I added more TV's in other parts of the house at a later date. Also I was told my OTA hookup could not be used on the Hopper. After going back and forth for a bit I was handed off to a "supervisor". She offered to lease the Hopper to me for a $100 upgrade fee and charge me $7.00 a month for each Joey (hooked up or not). 

Right now I can record on my 722 on TV1, TV2 and OTA. The only reason for the Hopper was to get TV2 to run in the HD mode for when the grand kids are visiting.

So I guess the moral of the story is.............unless you need to record more that 3 things a one time, and you upgrade to the Hopper, check and see what your monthly bill will go to.

ADDING one thing....................I was told that if I was a new customer I could have the Hopper for free and no charge on the Joey's.....................I guess it does not pay to be a long term customer.


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## mdavej (Jan 31, 2007)

Very good points. An $11/month increase was not worth it in my situation either. My solution for replacing a 722k is a single Hopper, no Joeys, and an HD transmitter to mirror TV1 to TV2. I get all the benefits of the Hopper (PTAT, HD GUI, bigger drive, more tuners, etc.) for only $4/month. If you include the $1 in power savings (50W Hopper vs. 60W 722k), it's only $3/month. I will miss OTA a little for the time being, but a USB OTA solution for Hopper is coming in the future.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

I understand it might not be worth it to you, but you are comparing SD apples to HD oranges.

When you get a Hopper you are upgrading. For it to be a meaningful comparison you have to compare if you upgraded not using a Hopper.

If you upgraded to get your second TV in HD (which is what the Hopper does) using an existing VIP DVR receiver, that would cost you $10 more than what you pay now. Upgrading the Hopper way is all of $1 more than that. Adding another TV? Then you would pay $3 LESS using a Hopper.
It's not even a comparison to say you have a second TV in SD with two satellite tuners, to having two TV's in HD with three satellite tuners, plus many other advancements, like being able to see all tuners and recordings from all locations. 
All that may not be useful to you certainly, so if you wouldn't consider $10 more for another VIP receiver to get HD to other TV's, then yes you would also not get a Hopper.


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## dclaypool (Jul 11, 2005)

mdavej said:


> Very good points. An $11/month increase was not worth it in my situation either. My solution for replacing a 722k is a single Hopper, no Joeys, and an HD transmitter to mirror TV1 to TV2. I get all the benefits of the Hopper (PTAT, HD GUI, bigger drive, more tuners, etc.) for only $4/month. If you include the $1 in power savings (50W Hopper vs. 60W 722k), it's only $3/month. I will miss OTA a little for the time being, but a USB OTA solution for Hopper is coming in the future.


mdavej, be interested in knowing which HD transmitter and how that worked out for you...


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## mdavej (Jan 31, 2007)

dclaypool said:


> mdavej, be interested in knowing which HD transmitter and how that worked out for you...


See THIS post.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

mdavej said:


> dclaypool said:
> 
> 
> > mdavej, be interested in knowing which HD transmitter and how that worked out for you...
> ...


I've looked at that system before. Amazon has a transmitter-receiver set for $199.99. The customer reviews are, for the most part, reasonably good. But people do have problems.

We decided to use a Slingbox PRO HD hooked up to our theater system which includes a 722 and a 612. Other than in our home theater, this allowed us to get rid of all our old TV's and use computers instead of buying new TV's for other rooms and our iPads or a laptop outside.

In looking at the Hopper setup, the idea of a single Hopper replacing both our ViP DVR's appeals because of the PTAT function.

But part of the reason I'll never do that is that when either the 722 or 612 fails, I'll still have the other one. That can cover most of what I want to record while the replacement gets shipped.

I guess I just can't quite believe that a Hopper will never fail.:sure:


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## mdavej (Jan 31, 2007)

Thanks for the link. A lot of the complaints are related to incompatible cable boxes. It works fine with Dish (722k and Hopper for sure). It has HDMI pass-thru, but I don't use it because it will only pass PCM due to my second TV being limited to that. I run optical from the Hopper to my AVR, component to my TV and HDMI to the transmitter, and it works flawlessly. PQ is outstanding. You can easily update it to the latest firmware via USB. It has an IR receiver and blaster, but I just use Dish UHF remote instead. 

The price tag is pretty hefty, so I got mine used from ebay for less than 1/3 the retail price.

It's a great solution if you want to save $7 on a Joey, don't mind mirroring TV1 and can't pull new cables to TV2. If TV1 and TV2 need to be independent, then you really have no choice but to get Joeys.

I think the best insurance for a Hopper failure is a second Hopper.


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## clotter (Apr 12, 2008)

Steve H said:


> no way am I going to increase my monthly bill.
> 
> I have been a customer of DISH for 11+ years. I called today to get an Hopper installed along with one Joey. First thing they told me is it's not free............I had to buy the Hopper (~$525) and pay for each Joey ($7.00/month). They told me that TV 2 would no longer be a part of my DISH system without the Joey and they also told me that I should get additional Joey's now in case I added more TV's in other parts of the house at a later date. Also I was told my OTA hookup could not be used on the Hopper. After going back and forth for a bit I was handed off to a "supervisor". She offered to lease the Hopper to me for a $100 upgrade fee and charge me $7.00 a month for each Joey (hooked up or not).
> 
> ...


Hey Steve, I basically came to the same conclusion.

I was excited about the Hopper/Joey announcement and have been eagerly anticipating the time when I could upgrade to this system. Like you, I have two 722k DVR's. After the cold hard ($$) facts became clear, I feel like I will be paying an additional $11 per month and most likely will have recording conflicts. Sure, there are some advantages to the new system, but I feel liberated at this point and time to sit back now, and at least wait for the bugs to be wrung out before making the leap.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

Steve H said:


> no way am I going to increase my monthly bill.
> 
> I have been a customer of DISH for 11+ years. I called today to get an Hopper installed along with one Joey. First thing they told me is it's not free............I had to buy the Hopper (~$525) and pay for each Joey ($7.00/month). They told me that TV 2 would no longer be a part of my DISH system without the Joey and they also told me that I should get additional Joey's now in case I added more TV's in other parts of the house at a later date. Also I was told my OTA hookup could not be used on the Hopper. After going back and forth for a bit I was handed off to a "supervisor". She offered to lease the Hopper to me for a $100 upgrade fee and charge me $7.00 a month for each Joey (hooked up or not).
> 
> ...


There is even more choices,if you want to record 4 programs at once(while watching a prerecorded program) you can go with the VIP722k/wMT2.

If you want the new format you can buy a VIP922/wMT2.Both can record 4 programs at once(while watching a prerecorded program) 2 SAT+2OTA.

Choices,choices,DISH has alot of choices just like their programming packages.

With the MT2(Dual Over The Air Tuners Module) you can also see your OTA channels when your in TV2 DuoMode in your guide.

But if you need your 2nd HDTV in HD? it's the Hopper& Joey all the way.Dish Depot has a good purchase price to compare DISH upfront lease prices against. Good Luck!


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