# Hopper - A bit Confused



## Lazy Senior (Jan 24, 2005)

Because of recent dis-satisfaction with DirectTV I am considering a different TV provider. I have cancelled my DTV account effective the end of this month. This gives me plenty of time to decide what TV service should be my provider - DISH, Cable, or cut the cord and get a OTA Tivo. I have been looking at Dish promos with the 2 year price lock. They seem to be reasonable.

Does the Hopper they provide with this promo have the sling thing enabled? Not sure If I need sling (kinda confused what it does exactly) but do want to know what I am getting. Also we have 2 HD TVs. If I get a Hopper and Joey, how many tuners does this get me? IOW if I watch tv on the hopper and my wife is watching the Joey, how many tuners is left for recording? Thanks for any info that will make my TV provider decision easier.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I've seen other posts here and there that indicate that the Hopper they provide is the one with Sling. Of course when you call, ask specifically for it, I doubt you'll have any issue getting one.
Sling allows you to view your Dish recordings on some portable devices quite easily, and it will also allow you to view them when you are away from home. The problem usually is that your upload speed at home won't be fast enough to really get a good picture. I've got a HWS and the only time I ever actually used Sling was to see if it really worked. It did and I've added it to the tech I probably won't use again... 

Tuners:
The Hopper has 3 actual tuners. If you watch a live channel on the Hopper and your wife is watching one on a Joey, you have one tuner left to record on. IMO, instead of getting a Hopper with one Joey, get a Hopper with a SuperJoey. That way you have 5 actual tuners all integrated so that it is like having 5 tuners in the Hopper. Reports vary on how much upfront you might have to pay to get a SuperJoey, varying from zero to $100.

Equipment costs are : $12 for Hopper or Hopper w/sling, $10 for a SuperJoey, $7 for a Joey. The 'DVR fee' of $12 is really paying for the first Hopper.

The 2-year price lock deal is nearly identical to the 1 year discounted then 2nd year retail deal in total cost for the 2 years. The advantage of the 2-year lock-in to me would be that it is a flat rate for 2 years with no surprises.

EDIT: You know what a GenieGo on D* is? Well, Dish has the tech to do that without needing to buy a box from Dish. You can transfer almost any recording to an iOS or Android device and watch on them. No extra cost, and the process is quite simple.


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## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

Also with the hopper, if you enable the prime time anytime, the big 4 networks (CBS nbc abc fox) during prime time only take up 1 tuner for all 4 networks. It is a great feature if you watch/record a lot of the big 4 prime time shows.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The big four networks share a tuner any time any one of them is being watched or recorded, regardless of PTAT setting. This works nicely for late night if one wanted Leno and Letterman without costing two tuners - and other times when competing programs are on the big four local channels.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

James Long said:


> The big four networks share a tuner any time any one of them is being watched or recorded, regardless of PTAT setting. This works nicely for late night if one wanted Leno and Letterman without costing two tuners - and other times when competing programs are on the big four local channels.


If you figure out a way to DVR Letterman and Leno on any current DVR, you have done something impressive! 

Sorry, couldn't help myself... but James is right. The Big-4 only use 1 tuner no matter whether PTAT is enabled or not... what you gain by enabling PTAT is the automatic recording of all 4 during primetime each night AND the automatic commercial skip feature on some programming.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

If you are given the choice, I would recommend getting the Hopper with Sling whether or not you intent to use the Sling part. The Hopper with Sling has more memory and a faster processor than the original Hopper.


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## PHL (Jul 15, 2004)

I'm in a similar situation where I'm considering leaving Directv after 11 years. I'm looking at getting a dual hopper setup. Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I thought my questions would be relevant.

Are there any downsides, besides cost, to getting 2 hoppers? Can I schedule recordings from 1 hopper to the other hopper? Are the two hoppers intelligent enough to avoid recording the same show or to dynamically allocate tuners. I presume that the hopper+super Joey treats everything as a 5-tuner dvr. It would be nice if the dual hoppers worked the same way. Currently, I have two DVRs with Directv, but they do not coordinate with each other.

I see that the two hoppers have separate playlists for recorded shows. Are there any plans to have them show up on a unified playlist? I imagine this has been a requested feature.

Finally, has Dish eliminated their 2-dish requirement? I'm in California and I would be subscribing to at200 without any premiums or international channels


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## Lazy Senior (Jan 24, 2005)

lparsons21 said:


> Equipment costs are : $12 for Hopper or Hopper w/sling, $10 for a SuperJoey, $7 for a Joey. The 'DVR fee' of $12 is really paying for the first Hopper.


With the 2 year lock deal there is no equiptment cost for the Hopper. No DVR or HD Fee. A Super Joey is $10 a month xtra. Also with excellent credit (which I have) there is NO upfront costs at all...

Thanks to your info I will pay the extra 3 bucks to get a Super over a regular Joey, so I will have the xtra tuners. $3 a month is little to pay to not have the wife complain about not enough tuners..... :rolling:

I just took a closer look at the 2 year lock deal and it says Hopper with Sling:

2-Year TV Price Lock

*America's Top 250*
View 290 Channels

$74.99/mo for 24 mo.

Local Channels Fee $0/mo.

Regional Sports Fee $0/mo.

Hopper with Sling® - Whole Home HD DVR
1st TV Fee $0/mo.

Super Joey $10/month

HD Fee $0/mo.

DVR Fee $0/mo.

One Time Charges Total $0

Monthly $84.99/mo


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Actually with the 2-year deal there is a cost for that Hopper, it is built in to the deal price. I don't know how an actual bill for it will show it though.

Yeah the Super Joey works and integrates so well with the whole system. The only downside is if the Hopper quits you don't have any TV, but that would also be true with just a Joey.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

PHL said:


> I'm in a similar situation where I'm considering leaving Directv after 11 years. I'm looking at getting a dual hopper setup. Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I thought my questions would be relevant.
> 
> Are there any downsides, besides cost, to getting 2 hoppers? Can I schedule recordings from 1 hopper to the other hopper? Are the two hoppers intelligent enough to avoid recording the same show or to dynamically allocate tuners. I presume that the hopper+super Joey treats everything as a 5-tuner dvr. It would be nice if the dual hoppers worked the same way. Currently, I have two DVRs with Directv, but they do not coordinate with each other.
> 
> ...


I've never had a 2 Hopper install myself, so hopefully someone will come along and answer your questions about that. I think I read that there is some recording situations that will prompt to put a recording on the other Hopper if no tuner is available on the one you are on. But I certainly could have read that wrong or be misremembering.

I think the only time a 2 Dish install is done is if you want some foreign channels or some such. Good question to ask the CSR when you call in.


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## Zulu (May 11, 2012)

PHL said:


> Are there any downsides, besides cost, to getting 2 hoppers? Can I schedule recordings from 1 hopper to the other hopper? Are the two hoppers intelligent enough to avoid recording the same show or to dynamically allocate tuners. I presume that the hopper+super Joey treats everything as a 5-tuner dvr. It would be nice if the dual hoppers worked the same way. Currently, I have two DVRs with Directv, but they do not coordinate with each other.


Well, for a whopping $5 more/month than a Super Joey you get 3 additional tuners (instead of 2 with SJ) + another DVR.

Each Hopper records the shows it records to its hard drive which is accessible to all the other Hoppers in the same network. I have 3 Hoppers ("Living Room 1", "Master Bedroom" & "Basement"). The Living Room 1 Hopper's DVR menu looks like this:










Select a Hopper's name from the dropdown and you see all the recordings on that Hopper.

If I run out of tuners on the Hopper that I'm currently using, then a prompt will appear asking if I want to record the show on one of the other Hoppers. BTW, the 2 (or 3 or whatever) Hoppers are not smart enough to know they're recording the same show. I've made (and still make) that mistake. But with 2TB of DVR space per Hopper + optional external hard drives, you _really_ have to try to run out of recording space.

Finally, with 2 Hoppers you'll have 6 tuners -- one of which you will probably want to dedicate to PTAT (Prime Time Any Time). So 1 tuner records all your network stations (ABC, CBS, CBS, FOX) and the 5 other tuners are free for anything else. Lovely.



PHL said:


> I see that the two hoppers have separate playlists for recorded shows. Are there any plans to have them show up on a unified playlist? I imagine this has been a requested feature.


Don't hold your breath.



PHL said:


> Finally, has Dish eliminated their 2-dish requirement? I'm in California and I would be subscribing to at200 without any premiums or international channels


No dual dishes needed. In California you'd get a 1000.2 dish. Even for International programming, you'd get a single dish (a 1000 Plus).


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

PHL said:


> ...I see that the two hoppers have separate playlists for recorded shows. Are there any plans to have them show up on a unified playlist? I imagine this has been a requested feature...


The play lists on the other Hopper are on a drop down menu - fully accessible one to the other. There is a feature that uses the other Hopper for recording, if all tuners are already scheduled. For along time my wife didn't like to schedule her timers on her Hopper so I use an extra Joey on my main TV to do that for her. Her Hopper is upstairs, so I can use also use the Kitchen Joey for scheduling and making sure the programs she wants are being recorded.

Edit: Zulu beat me to most of it...


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