direct tv genie vs dish hopper

[piglet50]

we are considering upgrading from regular dish to hopper or to direct tv with genie.

we think that the genie gives you five recordings in hd. not sure about the hopper. ds is concerned that the hopper will only record six (hope that's right) during the 7-11 prime time period. also, he is not sure if all of hopper's recordings are in hd.

would like some help with these basic questions from folks who have used these systems before we call so we will know if we are getting correct information and not just a sales pitch.

pricing information we'll figure out after we know how each system works.
thanks for any help.

 

[yoopermom]

I don't have answers for you, but an excellent forum (like this one) is dbstalk.com

We have DISH, and have been debating the Hopper, as well (since my 722 is about to give up the ghost). I went into stores where I could actually handle them, to see what I liked and didn't like.

Good luck!

Terri

 

[gshumaker]

we are considering upgrading from regular dish to hopper or to direct tv with genie.

we think that the genie gives you five recordings in hd. not sure about the hopper. ds is concerned that the hopper will only record six (hope that's right) during the 7-11 prime time period. also, he is not sure if all of hopper's recordings are in hd.

would like some help with these basic questions from folks who have used these systems before we call so we will know if we are getting correct information and not just a sales pitch.

pricing information we'll figure out after we know how each system works.
thanks for any help.

DTV Genie can do 5 HD recordings...can not speak to anything about DISH

 

[gshumaker]

I don't have answers for you, but an excellent forum (like this one) is dbstalk.com

We have DISH, and have been debating the Hopper, as well (since my 722 is about to give up the ghost). I went into stores where I could actually handle them, to see what I liked and didn't like.

Good luck!

Terri

DSStalk is an excellent forum for this topic....

 

[iheartdisney]

The Hopper can record 6 programs- as long as you have 2 hoppers. With one hopper, you can record 3. If you don't want four of those lines being used up by the network Prime Time, you can turn off the Prime Time Anytime option and only record the shows that YOU want.

And that is six shows at a time, not six total.

If the channel is available in HD, it will record in HD.

 

[piglet50]

thanks for the replies. we'd just like to see the recorded programs in hd and have fox sports 2 and espn u in hd. our dish rep said that our upgrade to two hoppers would give us that - new equipment, receivers and sat. dishes.

I checked the website and found the answer to one of our questions. fox sports 2 and espn u is not in hd for now. the dish rep said that they would be with equipment upgrade. the website given said that fox sports 2 is still not in hd. who do we believe?

obviously, sports in hd are the main concern in our house.

 

[mrodgers]

I have the Genie. It has 5 lines. That means you can record 5 channels. Recording 5 channels means you can only watch one of the channels you are recording, or watch something in the playlist. If you are recording 4 channels, then you can watch live whatever you want on the 5th line.

If you have other rooms you can get client boxes for the other rooms. When using a client, you are using one of the five channels on the Genie and can't use it for recording.

Instead of the client boxes, you can use separate HD receivers and they will have their own lines separate from the 5 Genie lines.

With my researching switching last year, Dish markets the Hopper as 6 lines but I believe 3 of those lines only record prime time automatically. I assume this to be the major networks but I don't know. That leaves 3 lines to use as you want all the time vs. the 5 lines on the Direct Genie. I don't know about the Joey or other separate receivers. I assume it would be the same as the Genie clients.

 

[RAD]

You better check about ESPN U in HD on Dish, last I knew it wasn't available in HD, only SD. Rumor has been around saying that Dish is very close to a new contract with Disney to add that channel and some other Disney HD channels, but that rumor has been floating around for months.

 

[DenMig]

I have 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. I absolutely love the hopper. As some have noted, the Hopper has 3 tuners. One can be dedicated to ABC,CBS,NBC, and FOX. Primetime live automatically records all of the shows on those networks from 7-10 pm central time. (can be disabled, by default saves them for 8 days which can be altered) The next day you can autohop (automatically skip commercials) from those prime time shows. ONLY THE PRIMETIME LIVE shows have autohop.

If you are using primetimelive you can record 6 shows. Other times you can record 3. Since I have 2 hoppers I can record 6 on one during primetime and 3 on the other (not using primetime live). So technically I can record 9 shows at once. Like someone noted with the genie, if you use the joey you are taking one tuner, but it can be shared. It's really cool actually how they sync into one another.

Only negative for 2 hoppers is the monthly fee.

Also, if you get the Hopper, get the one that is "slingloaded". If you are connected to the internet you can watch your hopper from anywhere with your cell phone, computer, etc. Great feature.

As for ESPN U in HD, as someone has said, DISH does not have that. They had a dispute a few years back and ABC/Disney pulled HD from the disney channels and the espn channels with the exception of ESPN and ESPN 2. There is hope a deal will restore those, but not confirmed. I haven't watched Fox 2 but assuming Dish doesn't have that in HD. Doesn't matter what receiver you have, this is true for all Dish customers.