# HR34 V Hopper



## TDK1044 (Apr 8, 2010)

How does the DISH Hopper system compare to our HR34 system? I'm very happy with D*, and I don't plan on going anywhere, but I'm curious how the two systems match up?


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## usnret (Jan 16, 2009)

Does anyone on the forum have one of each that they can give an honest comparison?


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## TDK1044 (Apr 8, 2010)

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the Gurus here had read a good comparison piece on the two devices.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34. 

I'll give you my unbiased opinion:

Hopper is smaller and it does have the clients. DIRECTV hasn't rolled out their client boxes yet. 

Hopper has PrimeTime Anytime which gives you up to 6 recordings at once, but not all day. 

Hopper works with the Dish Sling Adapter, which is cheaper than a standalone slingbox. It also works with Blockbuster at Home.

HR34 gives you 5 recordings at once, any 5, any time. 

HR34+three H25s will let you record 4 things live AND watch another 4 things live. The most you can watch live with a Hopper and 3 Joeys is 3 programs, unless it's primetime. If you have a Hopper and 3 Joeys and you want to watch live TV at 3pm on all of them, sorry Charlie.

HR34 will work in your existing installation, with Hopper they take out all your old stuff.

HR34 will let you play programs from other DVRs. With Hopper... what other DVRs.

Those are the main points. I'd say that pretty much anything else is subjective.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

It will be interesting to see how the performance of the HR34 holds up once RVU clients are added to it. In the past DIRECTV STB's have been slamed a but for being slower then Dish STB's, if they can't make the performance close to the Dish Hopper/Joey system that might be enough to make folks go with the Dish solution, IMHO, based on all the complaints posted here over the years.


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## Ira Lacher (Apr 24, 2002)

Stuart Sweet said:


> I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34.
> 
> I'll give you my unbiased opinion:
> 
> ...


Don't you also get Hopper as a new DISH client with no up-front equipment fee, whereas with DirecTV, new sub or not, you have to pay an upgrade fee?


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Stewart, thanks for your unbiased look! 

One thing that I think is a biggie with the Hopper/Joey is that it is all centrally managed. Meaning you can set recordings from anywhere and also do trickplay from anywhere. Currently that is with one Hopper, but they claim, and some have seen, a bit of integration of 2 Hoppers.

But about that live stuff...

Who watches live? And if they do, why did they get a DVR? 

I can't remember the last time I watched anything live that I actually paid attention to. Mostly just noise in the house while I read or snooze!


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Ira Lacher said:


> Don't you also get Hopper as a new DISH client with no up-front equipment fee, whereas with DirecTV, new sub or not, you have to pay an upgrade fee?


You can get a Hopper + up to 3 Joeys with no upfront fee. Additional Hoppers are $199 (I think), but you can only have 2 Hoppers without jumping through some considerable hoops.

With D*, you can get one HDDVR for free and a few receivers too. If you want more than one, you pay for the additional, and of course, the HR34 isn't free in most cases.


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## TDK1044 (Apr 8, 2010)

Very interesting, Stuart. Thank you.


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## naijai (Aug 19, 2006)

lparsons21 said:


> Stewart, thanks for your unbiased look!
> 
> One thing that I think is a biggie with the Hopper/Joey is that it is all centrally managed. Meaning you can set recordings from anywhere and also do trickplay from anywhere. Currently that is with one Hopper, but they claim, and some have seen, a bit of integration of 2 Hoppers.
> 
> ...


1 HR34 & 2 HR2x and I still watch live tv 
Also the exteneded storage space is excellent


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

naijai said:


> 1 HR34 & 3 HR2x and I still watch live tv
> Also the exteneded storage space is excellent


1 HR34 with receivers would be what I would choose because of the management of recordings all being on the HR34. As you can see in my sig, I have 3 HR24s and I find it a bit of a PITA to manage recordings. The HR34 wasn't available when I signed up.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

RAD said:


> It will be interesting to see how the performance of the HR34 holds up once RVU clients are added to it. In the past DIRECTV STB's have been slamed a but for being slower then Dish STB's, if they can't make the performance close to the Dish Hopper/Joey system that might be enough to make folks go with the Dish solution, IMHO, based on all the complaints posted here over the years.


Being one of the complainers about speed, I can relate to that. I'd like to see the RVU client come out and see what overall speed is with those. If it is better, then it will be time to do some negotiating with D* for an HR34 and one RVU and do away with the 3 HR24s altogether.

But these days I've either got used to the bit of slowness, and the blasted remote response (or I should say remote ignoring) enough so that I don't complain much.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app). I've got three HR2x series DVRs (plus an HD receiver and an SD receiver). With the exception of the SD receiver, I can watch anything from any DVR anyplace else. I can schedule recordings to any of them on-line, or at the local DVR. And, I've got more total storage space than either the Hopper or the HR34 offers. I can also schedule recordings to any DVR from the HD receiver.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

carl6 said:


> To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings.


But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

carl6 said:


> To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app). I've got three HR2x series DVRs (plus an HD receiver and an SD receiver). With the exception of the SD receiver, I can watch anything from any DVR anyplace else. I can schedule recordings to any of them on-line, or at the local DVR. And, I've got more total storage space than either the Hopper or the HR34 offers. I can also schedule recordings to any DVR from the HD receiver.


I have to disagree somewhat, Yes with a Hopper or a HR34 as the only tuners you can lose TV if it dies.
With the Hopper as i understand it you can move shows off of it to a External drive and it does not replace the Internal drive. I am going by what I've read, Since I have neither.

And except for rare occasions Two tuners and 2 DVrs does me fine. NO desire for whole home


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## Beerstalker (Feb 9, 2009)

RAD said:


> But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.


The thing is though if that USB hard drive fails you still lose the recordings. This is the typical failure whether it is the internal hard drive or external. So in most cases you're still going to lose the recordings whether you have an internal or external drive.

Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first. The only way you can really save the recordings is if you catch on to the fact the hard drive is starting to have issues and make a copy of the recordings before it finally fails completely. Obviously this can be done easier with external drives, but how many times have people really needed to do that?

I know that as soon as I start seeing issues with my recordings skipping, having multiple audio dropouts, etc. that dont' appear when watching live TV I immediately start trying to watch as much content off the DVR as I can and then replace it when I get it empty or when it fails completely. There are very few things that I have ever recorded and lost before I could watch them that were an issue to me. If I want to own the content forever I buy it on DVD/Blu-ray.

People need to realize DVRs are meant for time shifting programming so you can watch it when you get around to it. They are not meant for permanent archiving. If you want a permanent copy you should be buying it on DVD/Blu-ray, etc, or invest in a DVD recorder or computer device so you can transfer the recording to PC and then burn it to DVD or Blu-ray.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

RAD said:


> But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.





Beerstalker said:


> The thing is though if that USB hard drive fails you still lose the recordings. This is the typical failure whether it is the internal hard drive or external. So in most cases you're still going to lose the recordings whether you have an internal or external drive.
> 
> Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first. The only way you can really save the recordings is if you catch on to the fact the hard drive is starting to have issues and make a copy of the recordings before it finally fails completely. Obviously this can be done easier with external drives, but how many times have people really needed to do that?
> 
> ...


I've had two HR34's that needed to be replaced due to harddrive issues. The first time it was a died completly, woudn't even boot up so being able to migrate to an external drive would have done no good. But the second time I knew before a total failure due to an error posted in the self test screens. If DIRECTV had the ability to migrate off to an external drive and then back like DISH does have with their DVR's I wouldn't have lost anything.

I also disagree with your comment about DVR's are meant for time shifting and I think the majority will also agree on that. I have a bunch of movies on there that I can play when the granskids come over for a visit/overnighter. I also have a number of movies that I didn't want to purchase on DVD/BD but like them enough that I'd like to have them laying around just in case I want to view them again.


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## hasan (Sep 22, 2006)

carl6 said:


> To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app).


This is a very important, and often missed point. I plan to get an HR34 at some point, but it is merely replacing an HR20-700. I do very much like the convenience of having a receiver only in the bedroom, as I schedule non-series recordings nearly every evening from the bedroom. Of course, I could use my iPOD touch for that, but that's just one more thing to carry around.

The idea of a single DVR like the HR34, and multiple receivers looks nice on the surface, but it is a disaster waiting to happen.

I have a 2 TB eSATA on the HR20-700 which could suffer the same problem, so I keep > 80% free (most of the time). I do like being able to have no concerns whatsoever on recording space, but to prevent the "all is lost" situation, I do manage the disk space carefully, so when the inevitable happens, little is lost. Any recordings I consider highly important are either archived to DVD (there are almost none of these), or are redundantly recorded on one of the other two DVRs.


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

Stuart Sweet said:


> I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34.
> 
> I'll give you my unbiased opinion:
> 
> ...


That was the best explanation there could be!

2 Thumbs up!


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

carl6 said:


> To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings.


 This is true, But it is only TV, its not a Pacemaker.:lol:


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

RAD said:


> I've had two HR34's that needed to be replaced due to harddrive issues. The first time it was a died completly, woudn't even boot up so being able to migrate to an external drive would have done no good. But the second time I knew before a total failure due to an error posted in the self test screens.
> .


WOW RAD, what are you doing to these poor HR34's?:lol:

I've never had a failed Directv Brand receiver Exceptfor the Very First H20 I paid $199 for and the H20 that replaced that one.

I have Still Have an HR20 in my Vacation house that I've Owned since 2007. No issues. I have an R15 in my closet Too , that worked when I put it away.

Now TIVO"s I have 6 Failed units in 5 years.


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## Jason Whiddon (Aug 17, 2006)

RAD said:


> I've had two HR34's that needed to be replaced due to harddrive issues. The first time it was a died completly, woudn't even boot up so being able to migrate to an external drive would have done no good. But the second time I knew before a total failure due to an error posted in the self test screens. If DIRECTV had the ability to migrate off to an external drive and then back like DISH does have with their DVR's I wouldn't have lost anything.
> 
> I also disagree with your comment about DVR's are meant for time shifting and I think the majority will also agree on that. I have a bunch of movies on there that I can play when the granskids come over for a visit/overnighter. I also have a number of movies that I didn't want to purchase on DVD/BD but like them enough that I'd like to have them laying around just in case I want to view them again.


Man, that stinks. Ive been lucky so far with my 2TB external, but it went in on day 1.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

"Jason Whiddon" said:


> Man, that stinks. Ive been lucky so far with my 2TB external, but it went in on day 1.


I should say I was part of the early testing group so I had them a little longer then most.


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## Jason Whiddon (Aug 17, 2006)

With the wear and tear the drive gets with 5 tuner (and OTA in my case), I'll prob replace the EHD yearly or so, whenever i get into times I might clean it up. At least swap it for a 2nd then run tests on the first. Right now Im 5 weeks behind, and thats a lot of shows Id lose.


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## unixguru (Jul 9, 2007)

Beerstalker said:


> The thing is though if that USB hard drive fails you still lose the recordings. This is the typical failure whether it is the internal hard drive or external. So in most cases you're still going to lose the recordings whether you have an internal or external drive.
> 
> Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first. The only way you can really save the recordings is if you catch on to the fact the hard drive is starting to have issues and make a copy of the recordings before it finally fails completely. Obviously this can be done easier with external drives, but how many times have people really needed to do that?
> 
> ...


Agree with DVD/Blu-Ray for things that you really want to keep a long time.

I'm sometimes 6-8 weeks behind on watching series. Even though I don't keep them after I watch I still need reliability as some series have episodes that are heavily built upon prior episodes (Game of Thrones for one). As I've said before, if my drive/DVR dies is D* going to give me a 2 month credit for having lost everything? Not to mention the unhappiness of my wife that I would endure  It isn't an issue for most - until it is!

I have been using RAID-1 since the HR20 came out. So far I've had 2 times where a drive has died - *but I didn't lose anything*. The HR34 should never have came to market without RAID-1 and user-swappable drives. Ditto for Hopper.

The inability to move storage from one DVR to another is really inexcusable. We pay for the programming that is stored and if the box dies before we watch it then we got ripped off.


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## unixguru (Jul 9, 2007)

Beerstalker said:


> Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first.


They should really spin down the internal drive when an external is connected (AFAIK they don't today) as that would eliminate a big source of internal heat (and save energy).

Even though my HR20 is inside a relatively warm rack I've never had a failure. Possibly because I have a couple of small fans laying on the top of it extracting heat...


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## RD in Fla (Aug 26, 2007)

lparsons21 said:


> Stewart, thanks for your unbiased look!
> 
> One thing that I think is a biggie with the Hopper/Joey is that it is all centrally managed. Meaning you can set recordings from anywhere and also do trickplay from anywhere. Currently that is with one Hopper, but they claim, and some have seen, a bit of integration of 2 Hoppers.
> 
> ...


Obviously not a sports fan


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

RD in Fla said:


> Obviously not a sports fan


Boxing and Golf, yep I love 'em, the rest not so much.

But even them, I don't watch live, always delayed by some amount of time. I have no compelling need to see the actual win exactly when it happens.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

RD in Fla said:


> Obviously not a sports fan


I am a sports fan, but I seldom watch a live event. I'm watching the Devils-Kings hockey game right now, precisely 10:57:11 PM PDT on Saturday, June 9, 2012, and will watch the BB game after that. Tomorrow I will watch the men's finals of the French Open, and later the Giants BB game. All recorded, though with those two I will time it so I end up live the last few minutes/sets/innings.


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

lparsons21 said:


> I have no compelling need to see the actual win exactly when it happens.


I agree, as long as you live alone, and don't have someone telling you scores and who won right when you walk in the door.:lol:

Very common in my house. Hey Dad, Jimmie Johnson won, Hey dad Jeter go his 3000 hit.

So yes Live is very important to me!

If you don't care about Live tv, then 1 hopper and 3 joeys should work just fine for your 4 rooms.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Well, I don't live alone, and yeah, most times I know who won or whatever before I watch the event. I'm a big boxing fan, so I tend to watch a match the next day before I read the paper or online, and way before my son gets up to tell me who won, so it is 'live' enough for me! 

And of course, I enjoy the fight even if I know the outcome. That's why I enjoy watching some classic old fights. It is all about the action, who won or lost is very much secondary to my enjoyment. And of course, there are enough judge screwups in boxing so who really won may not be what the paper tells you!! 

For golf, it just isn't a big deal. I enjoy watching, but I skip lots of the time during a match and not just the ads. Usually I watch the golf match of the day that same evening, but at the pace I want to watch it, not the slow pace that pro golf is actually played.

Other sports are just not that interesting to me, though I do watch them on occasion, but I skip a lot of the time out.

In my house, there are only 2 rooms, so 1 Hopper + 1 Joey would get the job done. Almost all of my recording contentions are because of broadcast primetime since they don't incessantly repeat everything. And the bulk of what I watch is scripted shows.

My son is a bit different, but seldom does he record more than one show at a time and most of them are sports related. But he works 6 days a week and most shows he watches are recordings too because of that. His most often watched stuff is UFC, and that is just like the scripted shows, on 'cable' type channels and incessantly repeated. And since he seldom can watch them live, what time they actually record isn't important either.

As I said, which is better or worse isn't really an issue. For our use, an HR34 with one receiver, or one Hopper with one Joey would accomplish the same thing. And either of those installations could very well replace the 3 HR24s I have now with no loss of the functionality I need/want.

The only reason I have 2 of the HR24s for my use is the recording contentions of broadcast channels. Basically they replaced the Vip722k that I had that would also accomplish the same functionality of the 2 HR24s because of the 2-channel OTA and Dish allowing for all 4 tuners in that box to record at the same time.


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

lparsons21 said:


> .


 Whats stopping you from Switching to Dish and Getting the Hopper?

Sounds like you want it, Nothing wrong with that.

Directv ETF's to high? Dish Missing something in there line up?

Hey you want to switch, 100% nothing wrong with that. Its your money you should do as you please, regaurdless of what anyone thinks.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

At some point in time, I will most likely switch back to Dish. You've noted some of the reasons I haven't yet.

The ETF I could live with, and actually save quite a bit by switching UNLESS Dish drops AMC, then it isn't worth doing imo.

But if by August, when it makes any kind of financial sense, Dish has AMC back on, I probably will switch back. It is up in the air right now. With my current rebates from D*, and only missing BBCA-HD which has nothing on right now that is of real interest, and the equipment is running reasonably well, there is no compelling reason to make the switch.

Because of what/how I watch, both services offer nearly the same thing to me. It really is more about the benjamin's than any other reason.


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