Hopper Questions: Memory and My Existing System

8848 Views 52 Replies 13 Participants Last post by jeffdb27, Mar 26, 2012

62Lincoln

Discussion Starter · Feb 22, 2012

Will the Hopper memory allow me to create separate areas for my children's recordings vs. the recordings for my wife and I? - And - will I be able to assign a security code to lock the parental recordings?

My existing system has 4 receivers being fed from the latest switch (444?). With the Hopper system (1 Hopper, 3 Joeys) will I be able to utilize the existing cable runs, and essentially 'plug in' the distribution from the Hopper to the existing cable runs that terminate at the current switch?

Thanks for your help!

1 - 20 of 53 Posts

KeViN_VSC

· #2 · Mar 16, 2012

I can answer a part of your question.

The Hopper's hard drive will not let you make separate areas(partitions) for your children and you. It'll be like any other DVR where all recordings are simply saved in the hard drive. Although, you can setup locks on Joey's so that you can restrict your children from watching something that shouldn't.

I hope this helps!

PS: The Hopper has a 2TB HD but only 500GB is for the user. The 1.5TB goes for the system firmware/software and the PTAT recordings. If you don't use the PTAT feature you will have more storage.

Blowgun

· #3 · Mar 16, 2012

Are you sure disabling PTA would give the user more storage? My impression is that if PTA is disabled the Hopper doesn't rebuild the partitions for additional user space. The PTA space is allowed to fallow.

VDP07

· #4 · Mar 16, 2012

The Hopper has a 2TB hard drive. 1TB, 250hrs of hd recording capacity is reserved for the user and 1TB is reserved for Dish. Disabling PTA has zero effect on the 50/50 split of the hd capacity.

P Smith

· #5 · Mar 16, 2012

KeViN_VSC said:
I can answer a part of your question.

The Hopper's hard drive will not let you make separate areas(partitions) for your children and you. It'll be like any other DVR where all recordings are simply saved in the hard drive. Although, you can setup locks on Joey's so that you can restrict your children from watching something that shouldn't.

I hope this helps!

PS: The Hopper has a 2TB HD but only 500GB is for the user. The 1.5TB goes for the system firmware/software and the PTAT recordings. If you don't use the PTAT feature you will have more storage.

India ? Oh, so dish will install h/j in India also. Cool.

Anyway, that part of your post isn't accurate. FW wouldn't use drive as system partition, perhaps for logs.

kstevens

· #6 · Mar 16, 2012

VDP07 said:
The Hopper has a 2TB hard drive. 1TB, 250hrs of hd recording capacity is reserved for the user and 1TB is reserved for Dish. Disabling PTA has zero effect on the 50/50 split of the hd capacity.

I looked on my hopper. I only have 500GB for user storage, not 1TB.

Ken

P Smith

· #7 · Mar 16, 2012

kstevens said:
I looked on my hopper. I only have 500GB for user storage, not 1TB.

Ken

Could you please post the fact, I mean snapshot ?

So far, all testers and techs reporting 1 TB of user space (actually based on dish claim: 250 hours of HD) and no one bring facts.

Blowgun

· #8 · Mar 16, 2012

For 250 hrs, having 500GB free sounds more like it. Does anyone know if DISH still reduces the amount of colors in the stream? Or, is that only for SD? I recall one of the engineers discussing on a Tech Chat a while back that full RGB takes too much bandwidth and DISH uses something like 256K colors. I know on SD the colors look horrible in gradient lighted scenes.

P Smith

· #9 · Mar 16, 2012

Blowgun said:
For 250 hrs, having 500GB free sounds more like it. Does anyone know if DISH still reduces the amount of colors in the stream? Or, is that only for SD? I recall one of the engineers discussing on a Tech Chat a while back that full RGB takes too much bandwidth and DISH uses something like 256K colors. I know on SD the colors look horrible in gradient lighted scenes.

Check other h/j thread - we dissect the numbers very thoroughly and had lengthy discussion (and I did same mistake as you initially).

Blowgun

· #10 · Mar 16, 2012

P Smith said:
Check other h/j thread - we dissect the numbers very thoroughly and had lengthy discussion (and I did same mistake as you initially).

So, then it's not a 500 GB partition for 250 hours as "kstevens" suggests?

Or, are you replying to my question regarding the lack of 32-bit color on the Hopper/Joey?

P Smith

· #11 · Mar 16, 2012

I'm on same track - digging the dish's claim and asking Ken give us real facts as he said differently having the h2k in his hands.

kstevens

· #12 · Mar 17, 2012

I'm away for the weekend. I'll try to post a snapshot Sunday afternoon.

Ken

inkahauts

· #13 · Mar 17, 2012

Just for comparison, I can get 408 hours of mpeg 4 hd recording on a 2tb drive with a directv hd receiver. 100 gig is reserved for Directv. So around 200 - 250 per 1 tb, so if they are getting that in 500 gigs, they are doing something funky to that signal.

It also doesn't make sense that they should need 1.5 tb space saved for 96 hours of hd. That fits in more like 500 gigs of space, so the math is real weird here. Maybe a dish internet response team member can shed some light on this? I am curios...

James Long

· #14 · Mar 17, 2012

inkahauts said:
It also doesn't make sense that they should need 1.5 tb space saved for 96 hours of hd. That fits in more like 500 gigs of space, so the math is real weird here. Maybe a dish internet response team member can shed some light on this? I am curios...

There is a lot of other stuff that DISH downloads to the receiver to serve as DISH on Demand content, including Blockbuster @ Home content and HBO and Cinemax on Demand content (call it DISH unplugged). Some of that content is downloaded over one's own home broadband connection on demand, but a lot is predownloaded overnight when the receiver is at "rest".

If 500 GB is enough for 250 hours of the customer's satellite HD recordings, the 1.5 TB would be enough for 750 hours of other content. Which could be a month of 24/7 television viewing. Not that anyone would watch it all, but it would all be available instantly, without waiting for download or scheduling.

Hopper / Joey can also do 3D ... which in DISH's world is on demand only (no "live" channels). So some of that "reserved" space is used for that.

Blockbuster @ Home requires subscription to the Blockbuster package. HBO and Cinemax content requires subscription to those premium packages. The other content would either be included with your subscription (such as Epix and Starz! content or other channel related content) or be available as PPV. Stored on your receiver, start any time.

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P Smith

· #15 · Mar 17, 2012

We did that already, why repeat same mistakes ?
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2937586

James Long

· #16 · Mar 17, 2012

P Smith said:
We did that already, why repeat same mistakes ?
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2937586

It has been a while since I measured ---

MPEG4 in 2010 ...
An hour of The Discovery Channel is 1.9-2.0 GB
An hour of CNN is 2.1 GB
An hour of Speed is 2.0-2.3 GB
An hour of Style HD is 5.9 GB (surprisingly high!)
An hour of my local CBS via satellite is 2.5-3.0 GB
An hour of my local NBC via satellite is 2.2 GB
An hour of my local FOX via satellite is 2.2 GB
(source post)

2 GB per hour x 250 hours = 500 GB

Blowgun

· #17 · Mar 17, 2012

I'm still curious about this....

Does anyone know if DISH still reduces the amount of colors in the stream? Or, is that only for SD? I recall one of the engineers discussing on a Tech Chat a while back that full RGB takes too much bandwidth and DISH uses something like 256K colors. I know on SD the colors look horrible in gradient lighted scenes. Such scenes as moonlight, submarines under water, etc.

Since using less colors per channel mean less bandwidth to stream, the results are also smaller files on the hard drive for each recorded event.

Has this changed?

Joe Bernardi

· #18 · Mar 17, 2012

I was extremely pleased with the picture quality on the Hoppers and Joeys I had installed on 3/15/12. They must have a great processor because HD programs looked almost as good as it did ten years ago before HD channels got so compressed.

P Smith

· #19 · Mar 17, 2012

Blowgun said:
I'm still curious about this....

Does anyone know if DISH still reduces the amount of colors in the stream? Or, is that only for SD? I recall one of the engineers discussing on a Tech Chat a while back that full RGB takes too much bandwidth and DISH uses something like 256K colors. I know on SD the colors look horrible in gradient lighted scenes. Such scenes as moonlight, submarines under water, etc.

Since using less colors per channel mean less bandwidth to stream, the results are also smaller files on the hard drive for each recorded event.

Has this changed?

It's not just the quantization, but little more complicated. Rod put it regarding MPEG-2 on his web site awhile, but the method still the same for MPEG-4.
Read the chapter "What's 4:2:2 and HHR MPEG-2?" here http://www.tsreader.com/legacy/

P Smith

· #20 · Mar 17, 2012

James Long said:
It has been a while since I measured ---

MPEG4 in 2010 ...
An hour of The Discovery Channel is 1.9-2.0 GB
An hour of CNN is 2.1 GB
An hour of Speed is 2.0-2.3 GB
An hour of Style HD is 5.9 GB (surprisingly high!)
An hour of my local CBS via satellite is 2.5-3.0 GB
An hour of my local NBC via satellite is 2.2 GB
An hour of my local FOX via satellite is 2.2 GB
(source post)
2 GB per hour x 250 hours = 500 GB

If someone would get data about 813's partitions, then we will settle it.

1 - 20 of 53 Posts

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