# Hopper/Joey/Remote Details



## Jamus (Dec 10, 2004)

My old DVRs about about done for. I have been with Dish since the 90’s but lately am just more and more disgusted by the whole situation. DirectTV and local cable company seem equally bad just in different ways. Before making a decision to jump or not I decided to look into Dish’s current offerings and see what might be a replacement that does not funnel me into spending more on tons of channels I do not want.

I currently have a Dish VIP722K DVR feeding out to two different TV’s, plus a VIP622 DVR feeding out to a third TV. At first glance it seemed a Dish Hopper 3 with two Joeys would be the best replacement, but then I was told I would be paying extra fees for Joeys, had to pick wired vs wireless, and enroll in automatic billing. I despise automatic billing. The wireless Joeys sound like a cheap way for Dish to screw over customers with slow latent signal for remote TVs without having to go with a reliable but time consuming wired service install.

I do not know anyone that has a Hopper so I have asked Dish customer support directly about my concerns and did not receive very detailed answers to say the least. I have read through quite a few postings but many were older and for older revs of hardware. I apologize for my questions being rather long. I was hoping that some of you that have the current equipment might be able to provide some detailed info with an answer or two...


1. Does the Hopper 3 actually have two different model remote controls: voice enabled and non voice enabled? Or is it the same exact hardware? I currently use a RF remote on one TV and UHF on the other. Is there any difference between the voice and non voice remotes other than one has a microphone? I do not want to have to choose the newer (?) voice enabled Hopper remote to get a better remote when I cannot stand voice remotes.

2. Can someone provide details on how the wireless Joeys work? Does the TV reception look worse than the wired models? Is changing the channels slower? Can the wired models do things the wireless ones do not? Does the Joey remote talk to the Joey box directly or does it talk to the Hopper and it then sends out signal to the Joey? Do the wired models connect via coax or ethernet?

3. If I do not want any wireless Joeys does the Hopper still put out any type of wifi signal? I do not want yet another wifi network soaking through the house causing issues.

4. Currently the 722 is the “main DVR” and the 622 is just for the kids. I like to be able to keep things separate between the two. No Power Rangers on mine and no Game of Thrones on the kids. If I get a single Hopper, do I have an easy way to keep content recorded from one TV only available on that TV? Or does it all get mixed together in one big confusing pile? I am not worried about storage space just do not want non kid friendly recordings on the other TVs.

5. If I currently have X number of channels with my existing 722 service will I get the same exact channels with a Hopper? I have heard troublesome stories from friends who lost channels when they upgraded to a Hopper or Direct’s Genie (mainly superstations and locals).

6. With the 722 and 622 DVRs I can simply press one button and it jumps 30 seconds forward into a recording. I can do the same 10 seconds backwards with a different button. Can I do that with a Hopper or has that been removed and now forced to “fast forward” instead of jump?

7. And the big one... Are you happy with the Hopper 3 from a GUI standpoint? Does it seem fast? Too crowded? Just plain ugly? Can you customize what apps you do and do not want to see or does Dish shove them at you?


Thank you greatly for providing information. Dish and Direct’s hardware just seems like two sides of the same coin at this point. The cable company’s hardware is just a joke (roughly the size of a large VCR and horrible UI). I am hoping I will be ok with Dish’s hardware but do not want to convert over just to get info about how it works and then hate it (AND be stuck in a contract)!


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## crodrules (Nov 21, 2016)

1. Not to make things too confusing, but there are actually four main models of remotes that can be used with Hopper 3: 40.0, 50.0, 52.0, and 54.0 (Older infrared remotes can also be used for Hopper 3, if you enable infrared reception.) Of those models, two are voice-control (50.0 and 54.0) while the other two do not have voice control. Many people consider the older 40.0 to be the best remote for the Hopper 3. It has more dedicated buttons (and more buttons overall) if that is important to you.

4. If you want to keep things completely separate, the best option would be to add a Wally and an external hard drive, and pay the one-time $40 fee to turn the Wally into a DVR. The Wally does not integrate with the Hopper in any way. The Wally has two satellite tuners for recording (and you can add a dual-tuner OTA adapter to add two tuners for recording from an OTA antenna, if you want to) so the Wally would be capable of doing everything that you are currently using the ViP622 for.

5. The channels you receive should be the same, but be aware that many channels will be on different channel numbers with a Hopper/Joey/Wally system, than you are currently used to with a ViP system.

6. With the newer remotes (such as the 52.0 and 54.0) the default function of the skip forward and skip back buttons is to do exactly what you describe with just a short button press. The difference is that you have to press and hold the button down for awhile to do fast forward (or rewind). The 40.0 remote works exactly like you are already used to, for all of those functions.


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## Jamus (Dec 10, 2004)

Thank you for the info about the Wally. I have not seen that equipment.


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## crodrules (Nov 21, 2016)

Jamus said:


> Thank you for the info about the Wally. I have not seen that equipment.


I have three of them, and I like them very much. They do everything that I need a DVR to do, without the monthly DVR fee.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

The Hopper3 itself is a pretty good piece of equipment. I updated several years ago from the 722K and was shocked at the speed difference. It is a VERY different machine from the 722. It took me a little while to find everything. Also, for external drive storage, it has USB 3.0 which is 4-5x faster than the USB ports on a 722.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

IF all your coax is running to where the Hopper3 will be, you can use your existing coax to go from Hopper to Joey. All the Joeys are is an IP client to the Hopper - They all will have a bit of a delay compared to the Hopper, no matter what media you are using. On the plus side - Joeys all do HDTV / 4k (for the Joey 2.0) via HDMI as well as composite video/ analog audio out (and TOSLINK out as well). 

Yes - Dish considers the Joeys as a "receiver" for billing purposes.

You should not lose any programming going from VIP to Hopper, as long as you are getting the same set of satellite slots.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

One other option you can consider - Dish has recently introduced the Hopper Duo. This is supposed to replace your current VIP DVR with a 2 tuner Hopper and a Joey for the 2nd TV.


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