Other Source Component Reviews

I spoke to Dish this week and was told that The Hopper has no IR capability. This means that it can't be integrated with system remotes like Crestron, AMX, RTI, or URC. Apparently you must use their UHF remote to communicate with the Hopper and Joey. If true, this makes this unit useless in a fully integrated system. Who's going to have a $2000-$4000 integrated remote system with one touch channel icons, etc. and settle for a Dish Remote to run the Sat Receiver? Does anyone have additional info on this? It's hard to believe they made the decision on their SOTA Sat System to have it not be compatable with any after market remote controls. Norm

Norm, I think the person you spoke to was misinformed. You simply have to go to settings and turn on IR on the Hopper and Joeys. I have personally not tried this, but I got my info from here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/279777-Hopper-Remotes-and-My-Harmony Satellite Guys is a reputable site (so much so that Dish hash a internet response team dedicated to it.) You can direct message one of the Dish team members from their forum and ask for more info. Those support guys know what they are doing because the members of Satellite Guys know more than most.

I too started checking Sat Forums, and found that, even though I spoke to 3 different Tech Support guys including a Supervisor, that the Hopper and Joey respond to IR. They do not recognize the full code set that Dish has used in the past, but they do work with code set 1 from the old 941 rceiver. I made an order with Dish, even though my Dish Rep also didn't know this info, and had the units installed yesterday. I have programmed an RTI T2C+ and XP-850 to run the Hopper, and an URC MX-880 to run the Joey with no problrm. Both RTI and URC have the 941 code set #1 in their database, so you don't even need an old Dish remote to learn the codes. The Hopper is all that is said in Darryl's report. I have asked the Dish Tech Support people to "pass this info up the line," so people won't miss out on this great new product due to mis-information. Norm

I too started checking Sat Forums, and found that, even though I spoke to 3 different Dish Tech Support guys including a Supervisor, that the Hopper and Joey do respond to IR. They do not recognize the full code set that Dish has used in the past, but they do work with code set 1 from the old 941 rceiver. I made an order with Dish, even though my Dish Rep also didn't know this info, and had the units installed yesterday. I have programmed an RTI T2C+ and XP-850 to run the Hopper, and an URC MX-880 to run the Joey with no problrm. Both RTI and URC have the 941 code set #1 in their database, so you don't even need an old Dish remote to learn the codes. The Hopper is all that is said in Darryl's report. I have asked the Dish Tech Support people to "pass this info up the line," so people won't miss out on this great new product due to mis-information. Norm

I am impressed, I have the old Xstreamer and have been quite happy with that but I think it is getting a bit old and outdated so I need something new and this might do it. Thanks for the review. Best, Allan Lederman.