# Does the Hopper Preserve the 1 Hour Buffer When you Change Live TV Channel?



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

I have a 622. I like to watch 2 channels of live TV on delay simultaneously. I like to be able to (1) skip commercials and (2) switch back and forth between 2 live TV channels without losing the 1 hour buffer on either channel.

Can the Hopper do this? In other words, if you pause live TV on channel A, switch to channel B, and then change back to channel A does the Hopper maintain the 1 hour of live TV buffer on channel A or do you lose it?


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Can't speak to the Hopper3, but the Hopper with Sling does have two independent 1 hour buffers that allows you to swap between them. It also allows you to swap between a DVR event and Live TV in the same way.

Lets say you are on tuner one. Press the "Pause" and then the "Swap" button to change to a different tuner. Change channels and watch something there for awhile. Then press the "Pause" and "Swap" buttons again. When you swap back the first event should still be paused. Chase live TV by skipping the commercials. Press the "Pause" and "Swap" buttons again and you are back the the other paused tuner. This will continue to work indefinitely as long as you are within the one hour buffer limits and there are two free tuners.

I would imagine the Hopper3 does this in a similar way, with the exception of not having to worry as much about having two free tuners.


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## SevenSixTwo (Feb 8, 2016)

It can sort of do it. You have to use the picture in picture which is kind of disappointing to me because I use to like to do the same thing.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

PIP Swap is the answer on Hoppers. You don't have to have the PIP window open.


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## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

patmurphey said:


> patmurphey, on 10 Jul 2016 - 10:12 AM, said:
> 
> PIP Swap is the answer on Hoppers. You don't have to have the PIP window open.


Would you please elaborate on this? I never used a Hopper, so I don't understand how you would use PIP without the window being open..


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

The PIP Swap feature "swaps" between the two tuners that are active. One that you are watching and the other that you can retune after swapping. Then you can "swap" back and forth. It works the same way as PIP Swap when the PIP window is open, but without the distracion of the window. The two channels used are the ones being buffered.


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## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

SevenSixTwo said:


> SevenSixTwo, on 10 Jul 2016 - 12:15 AM, said:SevenSixTwo, on 10 Jul 2016 - 12:15 AM, said:
> 
> It can sort of do it. You have to use the picture in picture which is kind of disappointing to me because I use to like to do the same thing.


Using PIP doesn't sound that bad to me based on the way Pat Murphey describes it. Why do you say it's "disappointing" and that you no longer "do the same thing?"


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

So like the Hopper with Sling,. the Hopper3 can also do full screen swaps and doesn't need PIP open. Cool.


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## SevenSixTwo (Feb 8, 2016)

It was so much easier before. I was actually hoping with 16 tuners you would be able to do it on more than 2. Once you close the PIP window you lose your pause. It dosent work the same. You would have to rewind one tuner every time.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

A bigger question... Can the Hopper 3 do it with more than 2 tuners? I believe the Hopper at some point added the ability to add other tuners to your swap capability, so that you could swap between all available tuners even though you couldn't PiP view them all at the same time. I don't know that the Hopper buffers more than 2 tuners though... so I guess that's two questions.

1. On a Hopper or Hopper w/Sling if you add another tuner, will it buffer more than 2 using the Swap button?

2. On the Hopper 3 has anyone tested to see if you can also add tuners to the Swap feature and buffer more than 2 tuners at the same time?

It seems like this ought to be possible, since it is capable of recording on all available tuners simultaneously... and since you can engage/disengage tuners from the Swap feature it seems like it should be able to handle buffering more than 2 just as if it was recording them.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Stewart Vernon said:


> 1. On a Hopper or Hopper w/Sling if you add another tuner, will it buffer more than 2 using the Swap button?


I'm not aware of a way to add another tuner to the swap function. Both of my Hoppers have a total of four tuners and pressing the "Swap" button only toggles between any two of the available tuners or between a tuner and a DVR event. However, if you could add a tuner to the swap function, then it would only make sense that there would also be a 3rd one hour buffer.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

SevenSixTwo said:


> It was so much easier before. I was actually hoping with 16 tuners you would be able to do it on more than 2. Once you close the PIP window you lose your pause. It dosent work the same. You would have to rewind one tuner every time.


You don't have to open a PIP window to use PIP Swap between two buffers.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Blowgun said:


> I'm not aware of a way to add another tuner to the swap function. Both of my Hoppers have a total of four tuners and pressing the "Swap" button only toggles between any two of the available tuners or between a tuner and a DVR event. However, if you could add a tuner to the swap function, then it would only make sense that there would also be a 3rd one hour buffer.


Checkout the Multi-Swap feature in the Diagnostics menu... It's buried in a weird place, and maybe is disabled by default... but when enabled, it is a feature that lets you add all available tuners to swap between. I just can't test it myself, but I've read about it.


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## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

SevenSixTwo said:


> SevenSixTwo, on 10 Jul 2016 - 5:23 PM, said:
> 
> It was so much easier before. I was actually hoping with 16 tuners you would be able to do it on more than 2. Once you close the PIP window you lose your pause. It dosent work the same. You would have to rewind one tuner every time.


Thanks, SevenSixTwo. That gets to the essence of my question. If the feature is much less convenient to use on the Hopper, then that's a deal breaker for me. I'll stick with the 622/722 series because that's by far my primary mode of watching TV.

Are you saying that on the Hopper when you swap from channel A to channel B and then back again to channel A that channel A is positioned now (i.e., live) rather than with the original delay before the swap? Is that why you have to rewind it?


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## SevenSixTwo (Feb 8, 2016)

Yes it is live every time you switch unless you leave the pip window open.


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## SevenSixTwo (Feb 8, 2016)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Checkout the Multi-Swap feature in the Diagnostics menu... It's buried in a weird place, and maybe is disabled by default... but when enabled, it is a feature that lets you add all available tuners to swap between. I just can't test it myself, but I've read about it.


I found how to do this on a Hopper but not a Hopper 3.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

There's some fuzzy receiver identification going on. The Hopper is first generation. Hopper with Sling is second generation. Hopper 3 is third generation. Calling something a Hopper, when you meant one of the others can get confusing, mostly because the Hopper 3 didn't replace the previous generations -- all three receivers are still deployed.

As I said earlier, the feature works as you would expect on the Hopper with Sling. As such, upgrade to the Hopper with Sling and at a later time upgrade to the Hopper 3 when things get sorted. Another benefit of the Hopper with Sling, you can have two of them.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Checkout the Multi-Swap feature in the Diagnostics menu... It's buried in a weird place, and maybe is disabled by default... but when enabled, it is a feature that lets you add all available tuners to swap between. I just can't test it myself, but I've read about it.


Multi-Swap, agree buried in a weird place, allows the Hopper with Sling to keep four channel buffers, but it doesn't increase the amount of paused channels, which to me is more important. No matter what, there is a limit of two paused channels at any one time.


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## Jon J (Apr 22, 2002)

Blowgun said:


> Multi-Swap, agree buried in a weird place, allows the Hopper with Sling to keep four channel buffers, but it doesn't increase the amount of paused channels, which to me is more important. No matter what, there is a limit of two paused channels at any one time.


Please post directions for finding the multi-swap feature.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

The Multi-Swap option can be found on my receiver by going here:

*Yellow button --> Diagnostics --> Multi-Swap*

There are three Multi-Swap options:

*On*
*On, Immediate*
*Off*

I currently have the option set to *Off* so that each press of the "Swap" button immediately toggles between two paused channels.


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## Jon J (Apr 22, 2002)

I have an H3 with a 52 remote which has no yellow button. I should have been more clear.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Substitute the Yellow button for however the Hopper 3 gets into settings.


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## SevenSixTwo (Feb 8, 2016)

There is no option. Substituting buttons dosent help.


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## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

DavidZ said:


> I have a 622. I like to watch 2 channels of live TV on delay simultaneously. I like to be able to (1) skip commercials and (2) switch back and forth between 2 live TV channels without losing the 1 hour buffer on either channel.
> 
> Can the Hopper do this? In other words, if you pause live TV on channel A, switch to channel B, and then change back to channel A does the Hopper maintain the 1 hour of live TV buffer on channel A or do you lose it?


I posted this message 5 years ago. Based on the responses, I upgraded to a 722k (instead of a Hopper) because I use this functionality all the time. In the last 5 years, has the Hopper been modified to provide this functionality or sometime similar?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The answer remains yes. Using Picture In Picture and SWAP works to watch two programs with either or both on pause. It is tricky, but the feature remains.


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## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

James Long said:


> The answer remains yes. Using Picture In Picture and SWAP works to watch two programs with either or both on pause. It is tricky, but the feature remains.


Thanks. It's the "it's tricky" part that bothers me. It's so easy to do on the VIPs. That's why I don't want to switch. I use this feature constantly. It's how I watch TV.

Are you saying that it's no easier (on the Hopper) than it was 5 yeas ago?


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