# Hopper w/Joey vs Hopper using Sling in-home



## BigGeek (Aug 6, 2006)

I'm finally considering a move from my Dish 722k to the Hopper/Joey scenario and have a few questions. First, if I make the move, it will definitely be to a Hopper including Sling technoloyg. No reason to make the move for me otherwise. I have a pretty aggressive whole-home theater PC infrastructure already setup, wherein I use Plex to rip and view all my DVDs/BRs, and play music throughout my house. The entire house is cabled with cat 6 cabling (multiple drops in each room), as well as wifi, and I use Roku devices in many rooms to access the data on my Plex media server.

So here's my inquiry...If I can use the sling tech to view over a network connection, why would I even bother with the added cost of any Joey's in my setup? Since the cost for every additional Joey is $7 per month, I would save about $84 per year to handle my needs this way. I only have need for one (1) additional TV receiver, so this would be acceptable for me. But what would be the UI differences/limitations on usage for using the Sling tech instead of a Joey?

While I understand that this is not a current feature available on the Roku devices, it has been recently reported that the feature is in development. And I know that the WD devices and some others already incorporate a Sling viewer, so I would be amenable to using one of those instead of the Roku to save the extra $$, too. Sorry if this all seems a bit petty over $84/year, but as TV is already so costly I just try to be as frugal and save what I can. Just not ready to cut the cord yet, as we do lots of channel surfing and casual watching of things like Food Network and HGTV. We'd completely miss those shows if everything had to be on-demand.

Thanks for any input you all might have!


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

The problem with your use of sling in home is that the user experience on Sling is not as pleasant as it is with the Joey. You have extremely limited remote capability, opening the guide is clunky, it is just not pleasant trying to use sling as a second TV.

Sling is OK for a temporary stop-gap measure when you are away from home or need to watch something where a TV is not available, but as a replacement for the Joey experience it is pretty miserable.

Another problem that crops up from time to time during extended Sling sessions is the audio and video becomes jerky and you have to reduce the bit rate to calm it down.

If Dish had kept the original idea of the visual remote that actually looked like a Dish remote that you could pop up on the screen to FFWD , REW, pause change channels or even surf the guide, that was roughly the equivalent of the same experience you got watching you Dish network at home, but they dropped that in favor of Windows Media Player type controls that are totally inadequate and a guide that is a conglomeration of all the channels you subscribe to that includes all the trash channels you never even want to see - AWFUL, AWFUL.

Go with a Joey, you won't regret it.


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## sregener (Apr 17, 2012)

If you tend to watch one program from start to finish, the Sling experience is pretty good. If you skip commercials or channel flip, Sling will be a bit frustrating. Even with a very fast network connection, any of these operations takes multiple seconds to complete. And IIRC, AutoHop is not available with Sling. But if you just use your bedroom TV to watch the news or Downtown Abbey, watch a baseball game or playoff game live, etc. you'll be just fine with Sling.

Only you know how much pleasure you'll get from saving $7/month. And whether that offsets the frustrations of the Sling service enough to justify it.


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## BillM (Apr 27, 2005)

Keep in mind that the WD and perhaps other Sling clients don't see the Hopper with Sling as a Slingbox, so you can't just make a "Joey light" with these clients. You typically have to use the Dish client that runs on a PC or iPad if you want the Sling capability from the HwS, or you need an external Sling device. 

Bill



Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

BillM said:


> Keep in mind that the WD and perhaps other Sling clients don't see the Hopper with Sling as a Slingbox, so you can't just make a "Joey light" with these clients. You typically have to use the Dish client that runs on a PC or iPad if you want the Sling capability from the HwS, or you need an external Sling device.


This is a nail in the Sling Adapter coffin as far as I'm concerned.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

I have a related sling question. I have a Hopper with Sling. I went to the Dish Anywhere site and saw that I could see what is on my DVR and perhaps watch shows. When I tried to watch a show it had me download some sling app and then when I tried to watch it, it then said my internet speed was too slow. I would think that inside the house the connection would be just right through my WiFi network, which should be fast enough. Or is the Hopper trying to upload the program to the internet and then my PC is trying to download it? If it is going both ways I can see it being too slow since upload speeds are a load slower. Anyway, if someone can clarify or help setting something to use the home WiFi, it would be good to know.

Thanks,

Neil


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## some guy (Oct 27, 2012)

When using Sling it uploads to a sever and then downloads from said server. So if your speeds are actually slow, that is the problem.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

some guy said:


> When using Sling it uploads to a sever and then downloads from said server. So if your speeds are actually slow, that is the problem.


This is a misrepresentation of what happens. Sling's servers only help in finding the Slinging device on the Internet. Once that's done, the communications between the Sling enabled device and the client is direct.

The problem here is likely that the would be Slinger's upstream speed simply isn't enough or they haven't punched a hole in their firewall. For a standalone Slingbox, the sustained speed needs to be:

HD Viewing: 2 Mbps
SD Viewing: 600 Kbps
Mobile Viewing: 250 Kbps


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

harsh said:


> The problem here is likely that the would be Slinger's upstream speed simply isn't enough or they haven't punched a hole in their firewall. For a standalone Slingbox, the sustained speed needs to be:
> 
> HD Viewing: 2 Mbps
> SD Viewing: 600 Kbps
> Mobile Viewing: 250 Kbps


I'll have to check what upload speed I really am supposed to get. Thanks for the info.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

neilo said:


> I'll have to check what upload speed I really am supposed to get.


Better yet, you should check the speeds that you're actually getting. Do a web search for "Internet speed test".

What you're supposed to be getting and what you actually get may not be all that similar.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

harsh said:


> Better yet, you should check the speeds that you're actually getting. Do a web search for "Internet speed test".
> 
> What you're supposed to be getting and what you actually get may not be all that similar.


I tried two different internet speed tests. One gave me a 4.69 Mbps and the other gave me 4.7 Mbps. So, this implies that my service is fast enough. I guess I should give it another try.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

Well, tried again and got an error with the app thinking my system was insufficient. It suggested I go to http://dishconnectivity.sling.com
and test.

The results were:
Computer:
Your computer meets the minimum requirements for remote viewing

Network:
Preliminary results indicate that you will be able to watch TV remotely with the ViP®922 SlingLoaded™ DVR or Sling® Adapter. However, a successful connection test could not be completed.

This can be due to your computer security level setting and/or installed anti-virus software. Please reduce the security level, disable the anti-virus software, and try again.

-------

I don't think I want to disable my anti-virus software at the moment for this test. I am using avast - does anyone know if there is a setting there that might be preventing the test?

Thanks.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

There's a pretty good chance that you need to reset your router to allow the Sling thing to communicate directly with a client. Some routers don't work as reliably as others.

I suspect that this may have something to do with Sling trying to get around manually setting up port forwards.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

harsh said:


> There's a pretty good chance that you need to reset your router to allow the Sling thing to communicate directly with a client. Some routers don't work as reliably as others.
> 
> I suspect that this may have something to do with Sling trying to get around manually setting up port forwards.


It is a long time since I've worked with any router settings. It is a Netgear WGT624 v3. I guess I need to do some research unless you or someone else knows what to change. Thanks.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

neilo said:


> I guess I need to do some research unless you or someone else knows what to change.


You could do a search here using the search feature but most reset processes start with a 30 second power cycle.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

Well, I did a chat support and that person recommended unplugging both the router and the receiver. Plugging the router back in after 3 minutes, then once it was ready plugging the receiver back in, then after it rebooted waiting another 5 minutes and trying again. This time Firefox asked about opening up the firewall and I tried that. Unfortunately, the results were the same: no sound or video and then after a
period of time the message
"We have detected that your Internet connection is insufficient for playing video. (Error 16)

"Please try connecting again, use another Internet connection, or disconnect other devices from the home network to free up bandwidth."

Maybe next time I reboot the PC I'll get another story, but no luck so far trying to sling anything from my DVR to my PC.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Have you done a bandwidth test?


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

harsh said:


> Have you done a bandwidth test?


I've done plenty of speed tests. The Dish support chat people keep sending me to http://www.speedtest.net/ and the last time I did that I got download 15.13 Mbps and Upload 4.69 Mbps.

Trying Dishanywhere with a show I recorded and the indicator there of bitrate is 4336 Kbps, but no video or sound and the same error message 16 after a minute or so. When I tried it again just now it realized that I had already started the show on a previous attempt and asked whether I wanted to start from the beginning or resume. It is all very weird.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

How is your Hopper connected to your router ? It will probably work best if you're using ethernet rather than Wifi,


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

I don't what the story is with connected to my PC via the dish website, but I just bought an ASUS tablet, downloaded the dish anywhere app and that appears to work accessing programs from my DVR.

By the way, the Hopper is connected to my router via WiFi, but I have a Joey connected via ethernet cable.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

I still have the Protection Plan on from the install - I was thinking of possibly getting a service call to work out some of these issues. Would the protection plan cover this entirely or most of the cost? Thanks.


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## rapeb (Dec 28, 2013)

With the protection plan it's like $15 I think? Without it's like a $100 service call.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

DO you have uPNP enabled on your router ? if you don't enable and try again.


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## neilo (Aug 7, 2006)

Yes, I do have uPNP enabled on the router. It is weird that I can stream to a tablet but can't to my PC. Some handshake mustn't be taking place. Anyway, now that I do have the tablet, streaming to my PC is no longer needed, but it would be nice to know what was going on.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Have you reset the IE on your laptop, maybe even downgrade/upgrade IE to fix program irregularities?

Other devices working and the laptop not, may point to problem with the laptop (spyware or phantom settings killing the connection).


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