Dish Network "Hopper with Sling" - has anyone upgraded?

[BJRSanDiego]

We have a Dish DVD (no cable TV here) and it is 10 years old and showing signs of age. We were contacted to upgrade to "Hopper with Sling". It supposedly is a "free upgrade". But I think that is free for the hardware and they'll want to crank up my (already) high monthly fees.

I'm wondering if other Tuggers have this hardware and whether they found it useful and worth the extra monthly $. Are there any features that are truly valuable? Honestly, we are happy with our "Luddite" vintage DVD satellite receiver - - but it is getting old and less reliable.

 

[jd2601]

I recently did the same thing. We had a system over 10 years old and had a service issue. I decided to upgrade to the Hopper 3. There was an additional fee. The offered me the free upgrade to the Hopper with Sling and never mentioned this was not the most current system. I believe transition times and storage is improved on the Hopper 3 over the Hopper with Sling.

I only upgrade every 10 years or so might as well be current for a short time. System works well and we ended up with joeys in rooms that allow us to watch different programming. There were additional charges for the joeys but a significant upgrade. System automatically records all prime time shows (Prime time anytime). Some shows allow the system to automatically skip commercials (small kangaroo shows hopper is enabled). Not all shows allow this feature.

 

[Bucky]

The upgrade offer is to get you into a new two year contract, not necessarily at a price increase. If you are thinking of going with an upgrade why not go with their best, the Hopper3. Using the DISH Anywhere app really makes the Hopper w/Sling obsolete equipment. 16 tuners is a great feature. If you agree to a new contract I’m pretty sure you can get it free also.

Unless you are watching more than two TVs at a time, it doesn’t make any sense to have a Joey in ea room. You pay $7 mo for ea one. Just get one wireless Joey for the same price and move it to whatever room you need the extra tv. We cut our bill by $21 just doing this.

 

[Carta]

Bucky, Why go through the "pain in the butt" to move a $7 per month joey? First off, I never watch what my wife watches and we go to different rooms most times. Sometimes I watch in Man Cave, kitchen, bedroom, etc..
That being said; I actually have DIRECTV with 6 tv's throughout the house..With Genie; similar to Hopper... I have 3 "clients"; same as "joey".. And I can "mirror" (watching 2 tv's with same station on) in Man Cave
Genie will record 5 stations at once...I also have an HD receiver (records 2 stations) on wife's floor..I pay less than $100 per month...Matter of fact; this month's bill is $84.48 less discounts----$66.42.. I have the Choice Package

My MAIN reason for Directv::::NFL Sunday Ticket...Can't live without it!!!

 

[shorts]

We love the Hopper 3 and have one Joey in the bedroom. With the 16 tuners and Primetime Anytime we record all our programs and watch everything on our schedule without commercials. And with the DishAnywhere app we can watch our recorded programs anywhere we go. We usually take our own jet pack and cellular internet with us as many timeshares or hotels don’t have enough broadband for streaming (plus we don’t want to hog ).

 

[Bucky]

Bucky, Why go through the "pain in the butt" to move a $7 per month joey? First off, I never watch what my wife watches and we go to different rooms most times. Sometimes I watch in Man Cave, kitchen, bedroom, etc..
That being said; I actually have DIRECTV with 6 tv's throughout the house..With Genie; similar to Hopper... I have 3 "clients"; same as "joey".. And I can "mirror" (watching 2 tv's with same station on) in Man Cave
Genie will record 5 stations at once...I also have an HD receiver (records 2 stations) on wife's floor..I pay less than $100 per month...Matter of fact; this month's bill is $84.48 less discounts----$66.42.. I have the Choice Package

My MAIN reason for Directv::::NFL Sunday Ticket...Can't live without it!!!

I tolerate the “pain in the butt” because we seldom watch tvs while in the other rooms but if we have guests it’s nice for them. I also can’t see just throwing away $21mo for something we rarely use. Yup, it’s a tough setup. Unplug, take to whatever room we want and plait back in! I definitely need to take a break when I’m done

I had DTV and I had an HR54. Total junk compared to the Hopper3. The reliability and 16 tuners compared to five made it a no brainer for us. Just my opinion. I’ve also cut the cord before and went with PSVue. Has great potential just not ready for some people’s needs yet. Unfortunately by the time they are, they will be as expensive as cable or satellite providers.

Looking at your costs it looks like you are in year one of a two year agreement. When I go to the DTV website and select the choice pkg and 3 clients it looks like your bill is scheduled to go up $65mo in year2!

 

[Carta]

Bucky, I've been w/ DTV for about 10 years. What I like about DTV is that u can talk to them..They have a retention program for customers that have been w/ them for a long time....I have HR44/500 (Genie) receiver.. and another HD receiver..
If u seldom watch tv, why 16 tuners?...........I also have regional sports package and Showtime

 

[Magic1962]

we've had DTV now for over 10 years.... we had the old Genie HR25 I think... I called the other day and got the lady to get us the new Genie HR 54 and also replace the HD receiver... with NO extra commitment.... what I hate about satellite tv is having to play the game every year to get them to take the extra 25.00 off we also have the regional sports package and JUST took off the bundling and its on its own... no phone or internet with it... we went to spectrum for the internet and Google Voice for phone system... (kept our old number) Dave

 

[Bucky]

Bucky, I've been w/ DTV for about 10 years. What I like about DTV is that u can talk to them..They have a retention program for customers that have been w/ them for a long time....I have HR44/500 (Genie) receiver.. and another HD receiver..
If u seldom watch tv, why 16 tuners?...........I also have regional sports package and Showtime

By being with them a long time you obviously know how to play the CSR roulette game. Unfortunately that is the only way for one to get that type of rate. If you don’t know how to play the game your cost would go up $60mo minimum! You misread my previous statement. We watch a lot of recorded tv, just not in certain rooms. The 16 tuners mean we never have conflicts. It’s just a game with all of them anyway. We’ve been with satellite off and on for the last 20+ years. Both DTV and DISH. Whoever has the best promo after two years usually gets our business. We just got tired of groveling with DTV to lower our bill every few months. Interesting to see the CSR game still going on after the ATT merger. Would have thought they would have stopped that right away.

we've had DTV now for over 10 years.... we had the old Genie HR25 I think... I called the other day and got the lady to get us the new Genie HR 54 and also replace the HD receiver... with NO extra commitment.... what I hate about satellite tv is having to play the game every year to get them to take the extra 25.00 off we also have the regional sports package and JUST took off the bundling and its on its own... no phone or internet with it... we went to spectrum for the internet and Google Voice for phone system... (kept our old number) Dave

Sounds familiar. Bundling is very rarely beneficial once the promo period is over. We’ve been on an old TWC grandfathered plan with Spectrum for a long time for our internet and have no landline. Ported our old number to our cell provider many years ago.