# Number of wireless Joey and pic quality



## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

Hey! Been a Dish customer since 96, but left about 4 years ago because I count get the hardware I needed. Now it looks like what they have will work perfectly for me...

5 TVs - Hopper w/ Sling, Super Joey, and some Joeys should get me just fine.

My question is around the Wireless Joey. 

1. Is the picture quality just as good on the wireless Joey?
2. How many Wireless Joeys can you run at a time without causing quality issues?

Thx!


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

The system you propose won't easily cover five TVs if they are all in use at once. I'd suggest a 2H/3J system as feeding four TVs with a single Hopper requires some serious cooperation and five aren't supported. One Hopper can serve three Joeys, but two of them will be watching the same program.

The signal going to the Joey is the same signal that goes to any other receiver. The picture should be more or less indistinguishable. Three or four HD client sessions should be a piece of cake.


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## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

My understanding was the Hopper had 3 tuners and the Super Joey added 2 - for a total of 5. What would two hoppers give me over the Super Joey?

I was more concerned about the bandwidth on wireless to multiple Wireless Joeys, but also thanks for the additional info to look at!


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

tafische said:


> My understanding was the Hopper had 3 tuners and the Super Joey added 2 - for a total of 5. What would two hoppers give me over the Super Joey?


You get a couple things having 2 Hoppers.
1. If one craps out you can still watch on the other. The Joey and SuperJoey require a Hopper to be there or you get nothing.
2. You get 2 big storage devices that can share their recordings.

The one thing you can't do with 2 Hoppers is set a timer on the 'other' Hopper.

Personally I prefer the Hopper/SJ setup as it is all seamless, but it is a consideration that if the Hopper quits I'm out of TV until they send me a replacement.


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## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

Good points! Right now I have two Direct DVRs - one for the adults and one for the kids - so that is not a big deal at all and same as I have today. I assume all the Joeys can see both DVRs seamlessly like I do today?

Having a little trouble getting info out of dish, but my understanding is to get a second Hopper it would be an additional $49 one time and then $12 a month (as opposed to $10 for the Super). Do I have that correct?


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I don't know what the upfront cost is, but that monthly is correct. SJ=$10 and Hopper=$12.

And yes both Hoppers can see the other's playlist. I can't remember if it is a unified playlist or if you have to select. I currently have the Hopper w/Sling and a SuperJoey.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Hoppers can see each other's recordings as can the Joeys. The one limitation is that IF you have an EHD with additional recordings, I believe you can only see those on the Hopper to which that EHD is directly attached.

With a 2-Hopper setup (as opposed to Hopper + Super Joey) you also end up with 6 tuners instead of just 5. You could also have an OTA adapter on each Hopper and be able to record two different OTA channels as well if that is something you might need.

Also, if they are still limiting the number of Joeys you can have per system... I could be wrong, but I think the 2 Hopper setup + maximum Joeys would give additional room support over Hopper + Super Joey + maximum Joeys. Someone more knowledgeable than I on the current restrictions can jump in if I've misspoken here.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Hoppers can see each other's recordings as can the Joeys. The one limitation is that IF you have an EHD with additional recordings, I believe you can only see those on the Hopper to which that EHD is directly attached.


That is correct or at least was back when the Hopper came out, and still was when the HWS came out. I don't think it has changed.


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## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

Thanks for the input. Sounds like it would be well worth the extra $50 one time and $2 a month for 2 Hoppers.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Hoppers can see each other's recordings as can the Joeys.


Which, if for some reason you do not want the Hoppers to communicate with each other, they can be optionally isolated through hardware.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

I have a 2 HWS / 3 Joey setup on 5 tvs for a family of five the youngest being almost 14. It works well especially now that the Hopper will push a timer to the other Hopper if all 3 tuners are in use. As mentioned above the HWS can access recordings on the other Hopper, but Joeys can access either Hoppers recordings and can set timers on either and watch available tuners on either. 1 Hopper and up to 4 Joeys used to be supported, not sure if it still is but you would probably end up with a lot of conflicts. With 2/3 we rarely have had conflicts and now that the timers push to the other Hopper if tuners are maxed we have had 0. Also the point about a Hopper dying: that happened here recently and we just moved a lesser used Joey to the Master bedroom and kept on going until the replacement arrived about 5 days later. To me the extra $2 a month for second HWS over SJ is well worth it, and $49 upfront sounds very reasonable for a new customer considering everything Dish will be providing including the install.


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## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

David - thanks for that valuable insight, exactly what I am looking for. I am going to do the two HWS as suggested, along with 2 wired and 1 wireless Joey. Pretty excited about the wireless. I have a big projection screen I use outside for movie and sports nights. Sure will be nice not to have to run a long coax out there.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Blowgun said:


> Which, if for some reason you do not want the Hoppers to communicate with each other, they can be optionally isolated through hardware.


Without completely partitioning the system into two separate systems, I'm not sure that's true.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Lets say you have a two Hopper household. The only thing the Tech has to do is install a small piece of hardware behind one of the Hoppers and that will isolate that Hopper from the other. I know this to be true, because I have the isolator behind one of my two Hoppers.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

One Hopper can be isolated ... but it needs to be totally isolated for the isolation to work.

The isolator placed behind the receiver blocks MoCA ... which (in general) blocks other Hoppers and Joeys from seeing that receiver. But if you wanted to split your household so (for example) one Hopper and Joey could see each other and the rest of the equipment could not see those two there would be a lot more wiring involved. (A tap would need to be placed on the feed to the Hopper and the isolator would be placed between the hub and the tap.)

BTW: Hoppers and Joeys can also communicate over Ethernet.

The basic design is intended to allow Hoppers and Joeys in the same households to communicate. Breaking that design is not trivial.


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## tafische (Jan 30, 2004)

I appreciate the advice...they installed my 2 hopper / 3 Joey system yesterday. So far this is a great setup with one exception I am trying to figure out.

They installed a Hopper w/ sling and a standard Hopper. I don't seem to be able to transfer programs recorded on the standard Hopper over to my iPad. Am I missing something or is this a limitation of having two Hoppers?


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## thomasjk (Jan 10, 2006)

Its a limitation of the original Hopper. Only Hoppers with sling can do transfers.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

thomasjk said:


> Its a limitation of the original Hopper. Only Hoppers with sling can do transfers.


The encoding process requires the Sling hardware.


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