- Features two-terabyte hard drive for up to 2,000 hours of entertainment
- Never miss a primetime network show with PrimeTime Anytime
- Records up to six programs in HD simultaneously, including PrimeTime Anytime
- Hopper and three small Joeys let viewers watch HD and control DVR in four rooms
Las Vegas – Jan. 9, 2012 – [NASDAQ: DISH] – DISH Network L.L.C., the nation’s third largest pay TV provider, today introduced a whole-home high definition DVR entertainment system featuring the award-winning Hopper™ and Joey™.
The Hopper HD DVR and accompanying small Joey set-top boxes create a whole-home HD DVR entertainment system that lets DISH customers easily record, pause, and play back shows from any room in the home. While most whole-home DVRs do not have the same DVR functionality on every TV, the Hopper and Joey whole-home system offers the same DVR functionality on every TV, letting customers pause, play and rewind both live and recorded HD programs in up to four rooms.
The Hopper was unveiled by DISH CEO Joe Clayton at the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas today, and it is already winning honors as a CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award honoree. Pricing and packaging will be announced later this quarter.
The main Hopper unit features:
- Three satellite TV tuners
- A two-terabyte hard drive for up to 2,000 hours of video entertainment
- Up to 250 hours of HD or up to 1,000 hours of SD user recordings
- Bluetooth for linking to devices such as wireless headphones
- Picture-in-picture for watching any two channels simultaneously
Combined with a Joey, the Hopper whole-home HD DVR system offers more advanced features:
- 750 MHz Broadcom processer – the fastest satellite receiver processor available today for a quick, responsive on-screen guide
- Approximately 50 percent more energy efficient for a four-room installation than previous models
- ZigBee RF4CE using a proprietary protocol remote with “remote control finder” alert
- High definition user interface
- Easy-to-use, fast, graphical, tile-based user interface with predictive search
- Small, sleek chassis for convenient placement
“Building on a heritage of award-winning DVRs, DISH is proud to be the first to introduce a groundbreaking product that delivers the most choices for TV entertainment by integrating multiple sources of video into one set-top box,” said DISH Network CEO Joe Clayton. “The Hopper gives our customers network TV shows on demand and thousands of family movie choices streaming or delivered to the hard drive. With its massive storage, the Hopper leads the industry in delivering the most entertainment options, bar none, for every member of the household.”
The Hopper – Endless Entertainment Options
The Hopper’s new, unparalleled feature, PrimeTime Anytime™ allows customers, with one click, to record using a single tuner all of the primetime TV programming from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC – the networks that deliver the most popular shows during primetime. Once activated by a customer, PrimeTime Anytime records network programming in high definition, where available, every night and stores them for eight days after they have aired. This creates an on-demand library of approximately 100 hours of primetime TV shows, and makes it easy to catch up on episodes from last night and last week’s airing.
The Hopper can record up to six TV shows at once (two live programs and four PrimeTime Anytime shows) while allowing viewers to watch up to four different recorded or on-demand shows in four rooms of the house, simultaneously. This gives a family a variety of options to control or view their recordings and to watch shows in any room from a single Hopper.
The Hopper’s on-demand capabilities give access to DISH’s Blockbuster @Home™ for $10 per month which is now enhanced with more than 10,000 total titles streaming to the TV.
The Hopper also offers on-demand content for customers with limited or no Internet access with a feature called DISH Unplugged. This feature delivers via satellite hundreds of the most popular movies and TV shows to the hard drive, including transactional and authenticated videos on demand. DISH Unplugged provides a high quality picture without buffering and makes available many of the same streaming movie choices offered by Blockbuster @Home, including premium movie access.
And for subscribers of DISH’s America’s Top 120 programming package or greater, the Hopper provides whole-home music distribution from 73 SiriusXM channels, including album art and a unique collapsible list of music channels located at the top of the channel guide at Channel 99, making it faster and easier for SiriusXM music fans to find their favorite music.
Additionally, the Hopper will feature TV apps that give viewers real time access to Facebook, Twitter, Pandora and photo sharing, as well as games, news, weather, sports, and stock quotes.
TV Everywhere
Customers can manage the Hopper via the Internet at DishOnline.com or the DISH Remote Access app, providing the ability to control DVR recordings on their tablets, smartphones and computers. Connecting the Hopper with DISH’s Sling® Adapter provides customers the ability to watch and control all live TV channels, PrimeTime Anytime programs and the DVR on their computer, tablet or smartphone wherever they go.
The Hopper and Joey are designed and engineered by EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS). The Hopper works by distributing HD signals through existing co-axial cable in the home using the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) specification. The Hopper is powered by a Broadcom 750 MHz processor, the most powerful satellite TV processor available today delivering a fast and responsive on-screen guide and a graphical user interface that features channel logos to help search channels, movies or TV shows quickly. The advanced search platform also allows for navigation of programs across satellite TV, broadband and an optional external hard drive.
For more information about the award-winning Hopper and Joey by DISH, including technical specifications, please visitdish.com/hopper.
To watch live TV on the iPad, subscribers need a Sling Adapter from DISH and a broadband-connected compatible DISH HD DVR receiver. More information is available at dish.com/tveverywhere/remoteaccess.
About DISH Network
DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), through its subsidiary DISH Network L.L.C., provides more than 13.945 million satellite TV customers, as of Sept. 30, 2011, with the highest quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value, including HD Free for Life. Subscribers enjoy the largest high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels, and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network’s subsidiary, Blockbuster L.L.C., delivers family entertainment to millions of customers around the world. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.
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Aug 11
18
Phone Line Required?
Paul from Bethlehem, PA writes:
In the past, I believe it was DishNetwork that required a phone-line hook-up for it’s equipment. Is that still a requirement for either of these companies now? If no phone line in house, what are other options: internet hook-up?
Thank you! I found your site very informative.
I can’t speak for Dish Network because I currently have DIRECTV. They don’t require a phone line or internet connection. Everything comes through the dish as far as I can tell, and i have whole home DVR. I even have an iPhone app that I can use to view upcoming shows and tell my DVR to record it.
So for Dish Network, you’ll have to call and verify, but my feeling would be no, they don’t require one anymore.
Hope this helps.
Dustin
Did you know you can watch YouTube videos on your DIRECTV HD DVR? Neither did I, until today. DIRECTV’s Answer Center tells us how:
Can I watch YouTube videos on my TV?
Yes. If you have an HD DVR receiver or a model R22 DVR receiver and it’s connected to your home broadband Internet network, you can access and watch YouTube videos right on your TV. Here’s how it works:
- Press MENU on your remote and select Smart Search
- Type a title or other keyword(s) to search for videos
- YouTube videos matching your search words will appear as the last items in your search results. They will be marked “YouTube” in the right column
- To view, highlight the YouTube video using your arrow buttons and press SELECT, and then select Play.
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Feb 11
15
Old TVs & Weather Q&A
Debby from Minneapolis writes:
Do you have to have a HD TV to get Dish?
I’ve had friends that complain they lose TV with the slightest wind or rain, is that still a frequent problem with Dish?
Debby,
No, you don’t have to have an HDTV. Their receivers work with older models of TVs.
As far as loss of signal with satellite TV, your mileage may vary. In one home I had DISH Network for 3 years and I don’t remember it EVER going out. I live in Utah so we also deal with a lot of snow. Once we moved we got DISH again and it was great for about 2 years, then it started going out frequently with minor overcast. I suspect that it got moved a bit. Rather than paying for a technition to come look at it and adjust it, I just switched to DIRECTV. I didn’t have issues with DIRECTV after that (we had DIRECTV for over 2 years).
Then we moved once again to a new area and I got Comcast. Oddly enough, even though there was no satellite we kept having issues during bad storms. It made no sense to me. We are now back with Directv. It has gone out a couple times with bad snow storms. It seems to me that the best reception we had was with our first house where we had it mounted on the side of our house rather than the roof.
I hope this helps.
Dustin
http://satelliteinfo.org
Posted in Q&A by .
Programs that are broadcast live, such as sporting events, may run over their scheduled timeframe. To ensure you don’t miss an exciting finish, at the time of booking, we’ll ask if you’d like to extend the recording time for any program that’s broadcast live.
Here’s how it works:
- Schedule a live broadcast recording
- View on-screen message asking if you’d like to extend the recording time
- The default setting extends recording by 30 minutes
- Modify the extension to be 1 minute up to 3 hours
This feature is currently available on the DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR (models HR20 and up) and the DIRECTV Plus® DVR (model R22) receivers.
Posted in Uncategorized by .
Nov 10
8
DIRECTV Drops G4
I noticed on my guide recently that G4 is no longer available. I have to admit, I never watched that channel. I was excited to get it, but once I had learned it is all about video games and no longer had TechTV, I had no interest.
DirecTV will not carry G4 anymore after negotiations between the satellite provider and G4′s parent company, Comcast, ended Sunday. “At this time we are no longer negotiating and we have no plans to put G4 back up,” a DirecTV rep said in an e-mail. “We are constantly evaluating our lineup in a new world where programming costs continue to rise at significant rates. Since G4 is among the lowest rated networks based on the latest Nielsen data, we decided that it made sense to focus on preserving programming that is more relevant to our larger customer base.”
According to a statement from G4, “We have been trying to engage DirecTV in fair and reasonable discussions to continue to carry G4. G4 offered DirecTV the same basic deal we have had for the past three years. However they still plan to drop the network and deny G4 fans the only network that focuses on the popular gaming lifestyle.”
G4 is best known for Attack of the Show, its popular gamer-oriented series which launched Olivia Munn‘s career. It also airs Web Soup and Ninja Warrior.
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Oct 10
27
DIRECTV Featured on Undercover Boss
Watch as Mike White, chairman, president & CEO of DIRECTV goes undercover in his company to work with employees on the front lines and discovers how hard their jobs are, and sees ways that things can be improved for the good of employees and customers.
Posted in News by .
One of the greatest technologies when it comes to watching TV in the past decade is the Digitial Video Recorder (DVR). It has totally changed the way my family watches TV.
Why is it so great? Here are some common uses for our DVR:
- Pause live TV when the phone or doorbell rings. Pick back up when you left after when you get back from the interruption – plus skip commercials to make up for lost time.
- Schedule you favorite TV shows to record. What night is Modern Family on? Who cares? We watch it on our schedule, not vice-versa.
- Get a collection of time-killer shows. Sometimes when there is nothing to watch on TV and I have caught up on my favorite shows, I’ll open my collection of “How it’s Made” recordings. It’s not one of those shows that I can’t miss, but it is show that tends to entertain our whole family.
- Keep kids shows on file. Need a 30 minute baby-sitter to get something done? Start up one of you kids’ favorite shows. For us, it is Phineas & Ferb or Tom & Jerry.
- Enjoy sports the way they were meant to be enjoyed. Watch highlights as many times as you want. Get a a bit behind and skip commercial breaks.
Both DIRECTV and DISH Network have created their own DVR equipment. I briefly want to discuss some of the pros and cons of each.
Let me start by saying that both services will do all that I mentioned above. But there are some minor things that might make one service more desirable depending on your situation.
There is one big feature that I have always thought DISH Network has done well from the very beginning – the 30 second skip feature. Instead of pressing fast-forward though commercials, you can generally hit the skip button four times to get where you want. If you go over, you hit the skip back button which goes back about 2 seconds.
DIRECTV has implemented this in their latest DVR, but it simply fast-forwards 30 seconds and stops. It still takes 3-4 seconds, it is not an instant skip. The skip back does work the same. For the instant skip forward 30 feature. I would give DISH the win.
Recently, DIRECTV has created what the call the Whole Home DVR service. Now, you can own just one HD DVR and connect to that DVR from other HD DVR receivers in your house. This is what we currently have installed. We have an HD DVR in our family room and a regular HD receiver in our master bedroom. Now we can access all the recorded shows in on our DVR in our bedroom. Because it is not a DVR itself, we can’t just pause & rewind live TV. As far as a workaround to pause, you can hit the record button, then pause it. We can schedule and manage our DVR from our bedroom as well.
DISH Network has a dual-TV DVR that could work in our situation. The reason we went with DIRECTV though is because with DISH’s DVR, only one TV will get HD, the other will be standard definition. Also, you are limited to 2 TV’s. If we decide to get a TV for another room, with DIRECTV we could simple add another HD Receiver and access our existing DVR.
So overall, with DVR technology, I would give DIRECTV the win. But, I must add, you will pay a premium for the extra features. There is a monthly fee for the whole-home DVR service.
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Sep 10
13
Bundled Services
Rebecca from Jackson County (?) writes:
I have comcast triple play now, looking into switching need/want to have all 3 in 1…does dish offer phone and internet services? I know Direct TV does, but its not mentioned here. Thank you for this site. I found it to be very helpful.
Hi Rebecca,
Neither DIRECTV or DISH Network have phone & internet service. DIRECTV does partner with other companies to provide bundles savings & billing. I don’t know of any such bundles with DISH.
I personally have DIRECTV for satellite TV and Comcast for high-speed internet. I use Ooma (I used to have Vonage) for telephone which basically allows you buy their hardware and get free local & long distance phone service. I actually pay for Ooma premier which is about $100/year. Ooma runs over your high-speed internet so you do need internet service to use it.
Hope this helps.
Dustin
http://satelliteinfo.org
Posted in Q&A by .
As you know, I recently had DIRECTV installed. The installer that came was from a 3rd party company. He had on a shirt with both the DIRECTV and DISH Network logo.
I asked him if he had a preference. His short reply was, “I have DIRECTV in my house.”
The more we talked, the more I learned why he prefers DIRECTV. Some of his answers made me laugh.
- He said DISH Network uses a lot of refurbished equipment to save costs
- DISH Network’s most popular DVR that controls two TVs often overheats and he has to replace them.
- DIRECTV’s satellites install much more securely on roofs. You know they won’t move around in the wind.
- “People with money always get DIRECTV. You will only see DIRECTV on the roofs in Park City.”
Still, having a been a DISH Network customer also, I know it has its advantages – the price point is the biggest. Take the above comments for what they’re worth.
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