[TDK1044]

How does the DISH Hopper system compare to our HR34 system? I'm very happy with D*, and I don't plan on going anywhere, but I'm curious how the two systems match up?

 

[usnret]

Does anyone on the forum have one of each that they can give an honest comparison?

 

[TDK1044]

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the Gurus here had read a good comparison piece on the two devices.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34.

I'll give you my unbiased opinion:

Hopper is smaller and it does have the clients. DIRECTV hasn't rolled out their client boxes yet.

Hopper has PrimeTime Anytime which gives you up to 6 recordings at once, but not all day.

Hopper works with the Dish Sling Adapter, which is cheaper than a standalone slingbox. It also works with Blockbuster at Home.

HR34 gives you 5 recordings at once, any 5, any time.

HR34+three H25s will let you record 4 things live AND watch another 4 things live. The most you can watch live with a Hopper and 3 Joeys is 3 programs, unless it's primetime. If you have a Hopper and 3 Joeys and you want to watch live TV at 3pm on all of them, sorry Charlie.

HR34 will work in your existing installation, with Hopper they take out all your old stuff.

HR34 will let you play programs from other DVRs. With Hopper... what other DVRs.

Those are the main points. I'd say that pretty much anything else is subjective.

 

[RAD]

It will be interesting to see how the performance of the HR34 holds up once RVU clients are added to it. In the past DIRECTV STB's have been slamed a but for being slower then Dish STB's, if they can't make the performance close to the Dish Hopper/Joey system that might be enough to make folks go with the Dish solution, IMHO, based on all the complaints posted here over the years.

 

[Ira Lacher]

I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34.

I'll give you my unbiased opinion:

Hopper is smaller and it does have the clients. DIRECTV hasn't rolled out their client boxes yet.

Hopper has PrimeTime Anytime which gives you up to 6 recordings at once, but not all day.

Hopper works with the Dish Sling Adapter, which is cheaper than a standalone slingbox. It also works with Blockbuster at Home.

HR34 gives you 5 recordings at once, any 5, any time.

HR34+three H25s will let you record 4 things live AND watch another 4 things live. The most you can watch live with a Hopper and 3 Joeys is 3 programs, unless it's primetime. If you have a Hopper and 3 Joeys and you want to watch live TV at 3pm on all of them, sorry Charlie.

HR34 will work in your existing installation, with Hopper they take out all your old stuff.

HR34 will let you play programs from other DVRs. With Hopper... what other DVRs.

Those are the main points. I'd say that pretty much anything else is subjective.

Don't you also get Hopper as a new DISH client with no up-front equipment fee, whereas with DirecTV, new sub or not, you have to pay an upgrade fee?

 

[lparsons21]

Stewart, thanks for your unbiased look!

One thing that I think is a biggie with the Hopper/Joey is that it is all centrally managed. Meaning you can set recordings from anywhere and also do trickplay from anywhere. Currently that is with one Hopper, but they claim, and some have seen, a bit of integration of 2 Hoppers.

But about that live stuff...

Who watches live? And if they do, why did they get a DVR?

I can't remember the last time I watched anything live that I actually paid attention to. Mostly just noise in the house while I read or snooze!

 

[lparsons21]

Don't you also get Hopper as a new DISH client with no up-front equipment fee, whereas with DirecTV, new sub or not, you have to pay an upgrade fee?

You can get a Hopper + up to 3 Joeys with no upfront fee. Additional Hoppers are $199 (I think), but you can only have 2 Hoppers without jumping through some considerable hoops.

With D*, you can get one HDDVR for free and a few receivers too. If you want more than one, you pay for the additional, and of course, the HR34 isn't free in most cases.

 

[TDK1044]

Very interesting, Stuart. Thank you.

 

[naijai]

Stewart, thanks for your unbiased look!

One thing that I think is a biggie with the Hopper/Joey is that it is all centrally managed. Meaning you can set recordings from anywhere and also do trickplay from anywhere. Currently that is with one Hopper, but they claim, and some have seen, a bit of integration of 2 Hoppers.

But about that live stuff...

Who watches live? And if they do, why did they get a DVR?

I can't remember the last time I watched anything live that I actually paid attention to. Mostly just noise in the house while I read or snooze!

1 HR34 & 2 HR2x and I still watch live tv
Also the exteneded storage space is excellent

 

[lparsons21]

1 HR34 & 3 HR2x and I still watch live tv
Also the exteneded storage space is excellent

1 HR34 with receivers would be what I would choose because of the management of recordings all being on the HR34. As you can see in my sig, I have 3 HR24s and I find it a bit of a PITA to manage recordings. The HR34 wasn't available when I signed up.

 

[lparsons21]

It will be interesting to see how the performance of the HR34 holds up once RVU clients are added to it. In the past DIRECTV STB's have been slamed a but for being slower then Dish STB's, if they can't make the performance close to the Dish Hopper/Joey system that might be enough to make folks go with the Dish solution, IMHO, based on all the complaints posted here over the years.

Being one of the complainers about speed, I can relate to that. I'd like to see the RVU client come out and see what overall speed is with those. If it is better, then it will be time to do some negotiating with D* for an HR34 and one RVU and do away with the 3 HR24s altogether.

But these days I've either got used to the bit of slowness, and the blasted remote response (or I should say remote ignoring) enough so that I don't complain much.

 

[carl6]

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app). I've got three HR2x series DVRs (plus an HD receiver and an SD receiver). With the exception of the SD receiver, I can watch anything from any DVR anyplace else. I can schedule recordings to any of them on-line, or at the local DVR. And, I've got more total storage space than either the Hopper or the HR34 offers. I can also schedule recordings to any DVR from the HD receiver.

 

[RAD]

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings.

But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.

 

[TBoneit]

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app). I've got three HR2x series DVRs (plus an HD receiver and an SD receiver). With the exception of the SD receiver, I can watch anything from any DVR anyplace else. I can schedule recordings to any of them on-line, or at the local DVR. And, I've got more total storage space than either the Hopper or the HR34 offers. I can also schedule recordings to any DVR from the HD receiver.

I have to disagree somewhat, Yes with a Hopper or a HR34 as the only tuners you can lose TV if it dies.
With the Hopper as i understand it you can move shows off of it to a External drive and it does not replace the Internal drive. I am going by what I've read, Since I have neither.

And except for rare occasions Two tuners and 2 DVrs does me fine. NO desire for whole home

 

[Beerstalker]

But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.

The thing is though if that USB hard drive fails you still lose the recordings. This is the typical failure whether it is the internal hard drive or external. So in most cases you're still going to lose the recordings whether you have an internal or external drive.

Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first. The only way you can really save the recordings is if you catch on to the fact the hard drive is starting to have issues and make a copy of the recordings before it finally fails completely. Obviously this can be done easier with external drives, but how many times have people really needed to do that?

I know that as soon as I start seeing issues with my recordings skipping, having multiple audio dropouts, etc. that dont' appear when watching live TV I immediately start trying to watch as much content off the DVR as I can and then replace it when I get it empty or when it fails completely. There are very few things that I have ever recorded and lost before I could watch them that were an issue to me. If I want to own the content forever I buy it on DVD/Blu-ray.

People need to realize DVRs are meant for time shifting programming so you can watch it when you get around to it. They are not meant for permanent archiving. If you want a permanent copy you should be buying it on DVD/Blu-ray, etc, or invest in a DVD recorder or computer device so you can transfer the recording to PC and then burn it to DVD or Blu-ray.

 

[RAD]

But at least with the Hopper Dish allows you to connect an external USB drive that can be migrated to another Hopper in case of a failure that doesn't crash the entire box. It would be nice if DIRECTV allowed for a similar capability.

The thing is though if that USB hard drive fails you still lose the recordings. This is the typical failure whether it is the internal hard drive or external. So in most cases you're still going to lose the recordings whether you have an internal or external drive.

Yeah you will lose the recordings if the tuner or power supply or something else fails in the HR34 (or HR2x HD-DVR) but now days those failures are a lot less common, it is usually the hard drive that fails first. The only way you can really save the recordings is if you catch on to the fact the hard drive is starting to have issues and make a copy of the recordings before it finally fails completely. Obviously this can be done easier with external drives, but how many times have people really needed to do that?

I know that as soon as I start seeing issues with my recordings skipping, having multiple audio dropouts, etc. that dont' appear when watching live TV I immediately start trying to watch as much content off the DVR as I can and then replace it when I get it empty or when it fails completely. There are very few things that I have ever recorded and lost before I could watch them that were an issue to me. If I want to own the content forever I buy it on DVD/Blu-ray.

People need to realize DVRs are meant for time shifting programming so you can watch it when you get around to it. They are not meant for permanent archiving. If you want a permanent copy you should be buying it on DVD/Blu-ray, etc, or invest in a DVD recorder or computer device so you can transfer the recording to PC and then burn it to DVD or Blu-ray.

I've had two HR34's that needed to be replaced due to harddrive issues. The first time it was a died completly, woudn't even boot up so being able to migrate to an external drive would have done no good. But the second time I knew before a total failure due to an error posted in the self test screens. If DIRECTV had the ability to migrate off to an external drive and then back like DISH does have with their DVR's I wouldn't have lost anything.

I also disagree with your comment about DVR's are meant for time shifting and I think the majority will also agree on that. I have a bunch of movies on there that I can play when the granskids come over for a visit/overnighter. I also have a number of movies that I didn't want to purchase on DVD/BD but like them enough that I'd like to have them laying around just in case I want to view them again.

 

[hasan]

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings. With multiple DVRs, you spread the risk out, with the associated disadvantage of not being able to schedule recordings from one DVR to another (but you can schedule on-line or with phone app).

This is a very important, and often missed point. I plan to get an HR34 at some point, but it is merely replacing an HR20-700. I do very much like the convenience of having a receiver only in the bedroom, as I schedule non-series recordings nearly every evening from the bedroom. Of course, I could use my iPOD touch for that, but that's just one more thing to carry around.

The idea of a single DVR like the HR34, and multiple receivers looks nice on the surface, but it is a disaster waiting to happen.

I have a 2 TB eSATA on the HR20-700 which could suffer the same problem, so I keep > 80% free (most of the time). I do like being able to have no concerns whatsoever on recording space, but to prevent the "all is lost" situation, I do manage the disk space carefully, so when the inevitable happens, little is lost. Any recordings I consider highly important are either archived to DVD (there are almost none of these), or are redundantly recorded on one of the other two DVRs.

 

[damondlt]

I did a lot of research on Hopper, and I have an HR34.

I'll give you my unbiased opinion:

Hopper is smaller and it does have the clients. DIRECTV hasn't rolled out their client boxes yet.

Hopper has PrimeTime Anytime which gives you up to 6 recordings at once, but not all day.

Hopper works with the Dish Sling Adapter, which is cheaper than a standalone slingbox. It also works with Blockbuster at Home.

HR34 gives you 5 recordings at once, any 5, any time.

HR34+three H25s will let you record 4 things live AND watch another 4 things live. The most you can watch live with a Hopper and 3 Joeys is 3 programs, unless it's primetime. If you have a Hopper and 3 Joeys and you want to watch live TV at 3pm on all of them, sorry Charlie.

HR34 will work in your existing installation, with Hopper they take out all your old stuff.

HR34 will let you play programs from other DVRs. With Hopper... what other DVRs.

Those are the main points. I'd say that pretty much anything else is subjective.

That was the best explanation there could be!

2 Thumbs up!

 

[damondlt]

To me, one downside of either the Hopper/Joey or the HR34, is that all of your eggs are in one basket so to speak. You have a single point of failure that can result in loss of all recordings.

This is true, But it is only TV, its not a Pacemaker.:lol: