Forum Discussion

btcruzer's avatar
btcruzer
Explorer
Jul 01, 2014

this should be simple..right

I have a hopper and an RV. I want to record stuff and then take it on the road while leaving the Hopper at home to continue recording upcoming programs. I was prepared to buy a big hard drive and another receiver and maybe even the tailgater antenna. 3 calls to dish network has me ready to sell the hopper in a yard sale and buy a bunch of tapes and aVCR.

I won't watch LIVE TV at all so don't want or need the tailgater or other antenna. Really just need some 'playback ' device ---- if that has to be a 'receiver' , so be it. First guy at Dish says. ''Let's trade in the hopper and get 2 612 receivers and a HDD. Better yet, the 211 receiver costs less so get a 612, a 211 and the HDD---things will be peachy. So, I'm checking things out and discover the 612 has only about 30 hrs of record time in HD. That's not enough time if we're gone more than a week or 2. Call Dish with my concern-- second guy says that setup wouldn't work anyway--- what he said was a total load of bs---- let's talk to your supervisor----SHE say that the simply thing to do would be to watch my home DVR with my tablet over the internet.... I explained the limitations of a 5 GB data plan and mentioned my preference of a 32 in screen over a 7 in. tablet. She suggested that when I get the urge to watch TV, to park my RV at a motel that has wi.fi. Guess I'll sell the rv and buy a bunch of old movies on tape...

10 Replies

  • TechWriter's avatar
    TechWriter
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    btcruzer wrote:
    strange that you should mention -- I wuz just on ebay looking for a hopper

    If you go with a 2nd Hopper, to activate it, first try contacting a local installer before calling DISH.
  • btcruzer's avatar
    btcruzer
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    strange that you should mention -- I wuz just on ebay looking for a hopper
  • TechWriter's avatar
    TechWriter
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    btcruzer wrote:
    I would like to:

    1 leave the Hopper at home - let it record as usual.
    2 transfer selected media from the Hopper to an external HDD.
    3 take HDD and a second receiver to the RV and hit the road.
    4 transfer media from HDD to receiver and view when convenient.

    How hard is that? I was willing to buy a second receiver and pay the second receiver fee. The Dish supervisor insisted that the receiver in the RV would have to connected to an antenna and activated each time I wanted to use the receiver/HDD as a DVR.

    I know the Hopper will function as a DVR without an antenna connection. I took it on the last trip and used it the entire trip and did not have an antenna of any sort with me. Any recording scheduled during the trip did not happen.


    Get another Hopper. Leave one at home & take the other on the road.
  • btcruzer's avatar
    btcruzer
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    I would like to:

    1 leave the Hopper at home - let it record as usual.
    2 transfer selected media from the Hopper to an external HDD.
    3 take HDD and a second receiver to the RV and hit the road.
    4 transfer media from HDD to receiver and view when convenient.

    How hard is that? I was willing to buy a second receiver and pay the second receiver fee. The Dish supervisor insisted that the receiver in the RV would have to connected to an antenna and activated each time I wanted to use the receiver/HDD as a DVR.

    I know the Hopper will function as a DVR without an antenna connection. I took it on the last trip and used it the entire trip and did not have an antenna of any sort with me. Any recording scheduled during the trip did not happen.
  • btcruzer's avatar
    btcruzer
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    I HAVE one HOPPER and NO Joey's. I have one house -- one TV-- no need for a Joey.

    The Hopper IS a DVR.

    I have little interest in receiving satellite TV while traveling or parked. The hassle of setting up an antenna is more trouble than it (live tv) is worth. Also, note that I said I won't watch live TV. Without the DVR 'fast forward' feature I would not subscribe to either Dish or Direct.

    The point in leaving the Hopper at home is so it can continue to record my regular scheduled stuff. If I were to take it on the road it would not be connected to antenna so it would not be able to record.

    I did not want to use a second DVR for recording but merely as a playback device in the RV. MORE NEXT post
  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    Jul 01, 2014
    First, you must understand that if you get a Hopper and 1 or more Joey's, only the Hopper is a satellite receiver and only the Hopper is a DVR. The Joey's are complete dead boxes if not connected to a Hopper.
    If you want to leave the Hopper behind you will have nothing to take with you.
    Dish appears to be trying to work with you to put together a system that would allow you more flexibility but you are either confused or not willing to accept that reality.
    Before you move to a dual tuner or other DVR option for your RV you will need to decide what kind of antenna you will be using in your RV unless you have NO INTEREST of receiving satellite TV while you are away from home. If you plan only to watch what you have recorded while away from home then any of the high capacity DVR options will allow you to watch what you previously recorded while in the RV. It's only the Joey's that cannot be used when away from a Hopper. One other thing. You cannot use the the Hopper and Joey's and some other DVR in your home setup so you have to pick one or the other.
    Some of these issues go away if you choose DirecTV instead of Dish.
  • btcruzer's avatar
    btcruzer
    Explorer
    Jul 01, 2014
    newman -- can you expand on your statement? I'm not up to speed on all this hi-tech stuff. I have 'transferred' shows from the Hopper to the tablet but it takes forever and a day. And then I don't know how much the tablet with a 16GB sd card will hold. I think that for my tablet the 16GB is the max. size. Also, it appears that an internet connection is required to complete the transfers. Again, the 5GB data limit. I think the 'transfer' is actually done over the home network but the internet is still required to acquire the 'license' to view the stuff.
  • newman_fulltime's avatar
    newman_fulltime
    Explorer II
    Jul 01, 2014
    Download shows to the tablet then link it to the TV that's what I do if I just want movies

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