I did transfer dvr to dvr, took about 2-3 days, had about 300 items to transfer. You go to settings, diagnostics, tools and there it is, "restore dvr". Yes !! but i had to update software on old dvr to be able to talk to new Dvr. All in all, been with dish for 11 years. All got transferred. G'luck.
Hey, Mike! This is Jermey McGuire. I have the Hopper 3 whole home DVR from dish.” Since 4/16/22 I have no problem with my Hopper 3!! Tho, I had t replace my original dish 54.1 remote19 days ago.” The original dish remote had problems; I could get the guide button to work every now and then, also the original dish remote for the hopper 3 would not work that well. You would have to push the buttons so hard to get to to work add on to that the number 7 button stopped working.” So had to replace that remote too, it didn’t Acosta a penny to replace the defective dish remotes. I Love dish!!! 🫶🏻🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 Dish is the way to go!! Dish is cheaper than DIRECTV, I had them for 8 1/2 years. They dropped OAN on Monday 4/4/22 then got dish installed on Saturday 4/16/22 DIRECTV is so expensive!! Plus they drop so many channels wait until your neighbor cancels DIRECTV!! He might like them now but just wait!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You can transfer content from a Hopper 3 to a Hopper 3 using an Ethernet cable IF THE HARDDRIVE OF THE OLD H3 is not damaged. Once you hook them up together with an Ethernet cable, you must press menu twice on the remote for the replacement Hopper 3 and go down to the "TOOLS" option on the left hand side of the screen. You will see a few options here including RESTORE RECORDINGS. Click on this tile to Retrieve your DVR recordings from another Hopper. It works because I have done this and I am a Dish retailer technician. You can also restore your timers from your old hopper too. That option is available in the same location and clearly marked.
David Leyva hey david is there a way to force the hopper to to reformat the ext hdd? My ext hdd no longer shows in the menu & the hopper says its not connected, I think the formatting process failed
David Leyva so I’m getting a new hopper 3 to replace an old hopper 3. Do I hook up the new hopper 3 first then proceed to restore my recordings from the old hopper 3???
How can u tell if it is transfering? Our has been transferring 24 hours and does not show any progress. Not sure of it is working and Dish just keeps repeating the steps which is not helpful.
The Hoppers (all) are able to transfer DVR content to ea other as long as they both with the same user interface. You can do this using the Ethernet cables or a DVR Expander (2TB) sold by Dish. This is a slow process and is not automatic. You must press the home button 3 times, then tools, and finally restore recordings. Hope this helps someone.
Mike great video, we just switched from DirecTV to Dish (price), never had a problem, since Dish, all problems. Haven't been able to do the hook to external, but I am wondering, have you found a way to hook the Wireless Joey's into a home configuration, or are you using their access point? I am wondering because I think our home system is overpowering the access point.
I have used multiple external seagate usb drives and one western digital. I have even swapped older drives in the enclosures and they worked fine. I had to enable the external hard drive though on the Hopper 3 through a popup after you plug it into the usb port. If you get no popup asking you to enable the external usb drive port something may be wrong. Maybe a low voltage on the usb line or you are not using a external drive with it's own power supply. If you are using one with it's own power supply than it is still no problem. It happened to me the first time I did it. I called into dish used tele prompts to get to tech support (not cust serv) and asked them to enable the function remotely on the rcvr and after that I had no problems. You can go to your mydish account on the internet to see if the function is enabled on the rcvr it is under "my equipment" tab. Once it actually starts seeing the drive it is pretty easy to transfer to the external but will take a longtime if your dvr is full. Once you get the new Hopper it almost the same process just in reverse. It took me awhile to figure out where the function was to do the transfer but it was under "options" or red button and more functions appeared in the dvr screen to do the transfers.
Now we knew why Dish is going bankrupt. I have been using a 2TB HDD from my hopper 1 on my Hopper 3 but it keeps forgetting it's connected all the time. I love Hopper and Dish tech but I guess the writing is on the wall if something doesn't happen soon. I'd sure hate to have to switch to FiOS and lose all my programs and timers.
I have been able to save recordings, only on a Toshiba storage device that was bought to back up my computer. A hard drive back up, 2"by 2" in size.It was on sale at Sam's Club in Georgia, about 6 or 7 years ago. I ended up getting a new computer, so I never used it. Wanting to save something on the dish hopper, nothing would work. Being kinda like a hard drive triggered the thought of this hard drive backup square thing. It's small about 2 by 2. I haven't been able to find anymore, ever. Sometimes it says it doesn't recognize it, or nothing is hooked up. I unplug and turn off the hopper box for a while. Sometimes it takes days for it to recognize it, leaving me to think the problem may partly be in the hopper plug in, or the system properties.I also use another room to get it to recognize it, plugged in the main room. I save my favorites on it because like you, when you upgrade or replace the unit, all recordings are lost. I was surprised that something that old worked on the new hopper with Joey, and has sling also wrote on it, tho we have the large package.
hey, mike to move things from a hopper to another hopper, you have to use the ethernet port, you can do it with an usb drive, but it needs to be a usb 2.0 hdd and should be one that connects directly to the power outlet and maximum 2tb, a lot of requirements i know, but remembre that you can log into mydish.comand check the information, its really easy to do. the easiest way to do it is by the ethernet port, of course you need to select the things you want to keep, and then select, move to another hopper option!
Transferring from the hopper 1 2 or 3 Works fairly easy connecting an ethernet cable does not automatically download or transfer recordings you will have to do as the other person commented. Press menu three times go down three to tools go over to restore recordings from another Hopper and press start this process depending on how much you have saved onto your DVR can take up to about 16 hours just do it overnight as far as your external hard drive you have to make sure that it has its own power source if it has its own power source hook it up to your Hopper if you do this within the first 24 hours of installing the new Hopper it sometimes will not see it until it goes through its software download of the latest software give it a little bit of Time and it should see it within the first two days next time you have these problems you should ask them to send out a knowledgeable Tech to help you better understand and explain because they do this for a living the phone tech support has not been in the field like a technician has. I am a dish technician and any time that I could go to a customers house that wants there recordings transferred l I set it up for them before I leave and they have the recordings the next day I also walk them through the steps so they have no problems doing it if the hopper will not read the other Hopper or external hard drive at that time because of it downloading the 8 days of program guide, all the information that links each program to each other, all the cast members, timers, downloading of UA-cam, downloading of Netfli, downloading of game finder, downloading of Pandora, there's just a lot of programming that has to be done and software upgrades that might not come on the original box but are getting received off of our satellites I hope that helps
Hey Mike I realize this video is dated. But I want to clear up for anyone that would be watching. To transfer dvr content from one hopper to another hopper 1 2 or 3 using a Ethernet cable. One needs to access this setting in diagnostic under tools. On your remote click Menu(40.0 remotes) or Home(50 52 54remotes) button > settings> diagnostics> tools. You will see the option to start the transfer. Good luck. This is done on the old hopper. Nothing needs to be done on the new hopper apart waiting after it has been activated and software is all up to date.
I just yesterday, upgraded to the Hopper3 from the previous version (Hopper2?). Prior to the tech coming, I backed up all my (7%) recorded programming to an external hard drive (Seagate 1EJ164-306 1TB SSHD mounted in a Rocketfish USB/SATA enclosure). When the Hopper3 arrived and was installed, we plugged the external drive and restored the programming - all without issue.Now prior to this my just a few weeks, I had had an issue with a Hopper2(?). I called Dish and they sent a tech out to replace it. At that time, we copied the programming from one Hopper2 (?) to the other via the ethernet ports on the back of the units - also without issue.When I say we, I mean the tech from Dish, so I can't provide any detail on the processes.What I do know is that the support people at Dish MUST have a script they go by and CANNOT deviate and think independently of the script. The other thing that bugs me about them is that they now want to charge me $95.00 to send a tech out. But, with a little push-back, they can either wave the fee or cut it in half. I guess something is better than nothing.
Yes I have gotten the external drive to connect and work. I can transfer container from hopper3 to the external but can not create folders on the external. I also have used the cat cable to transfer from a hopper3 to a new hopper3. It does work.
Sometimes. I'm on my third hopper 3 and its still a problem to non-existent to transfer recordings. I got 46 our of 541 to actually transfer then it went tits up again.
Yep!! Your talking my language here exactly as same problem. It would boot up through first sequence then go blank & repeat. It may have once actually got through the boot to the progress bar. Even half way through and reset. Booo!! So my guess some kind of software issue. As the Hardrive is fine i think. The only way i can think to do this is through the advanced settings on the hopper via Eithernet. It's slow but better then loosing all my olympics stuff. Other option is actually swapping the hard drives temporarily. However, without voiding your warrenty not sure that is possible because of the red sticker. Still working on a workaround but i definitely feel you on this. :/
I was assured most all on my ext HD would either transfer or play EXCEPT anything recorded in SD mode. So, I spent the week before the install of upgrade to H3 going thru and moving stuff HiDef over to the ext drive (also a "My Book" 2TB drive) After a near flawless install (I had also run all new RG6 coax (rated to 4 Ghz) to all rooms) I spent a few days getting to know the new equip. Long and short was.... I plugged in the ext HD and got a menu (forgot how i did that) and it acted like it was transferring stuff over. After a few minutes, it just froze up everything (even the ext drive read/write light was a steady blue instead of flashing - indicating drive activity). Unplugged and re-booted - and now will not even recognize the drive at all. SO.. NO -- I too was unable to either view or transfer anything from the ext drive. I knew better than to blow a gasket with Tech Support and just wrote it off. Pisses me off though......
Little worried since I'm switching to dish today with the hopper 3. But sounds like the hopper is rebooting from either a memory issue or over heating. So it may only reboot when it's under heavy load. You could try moving it to be better ventilated area? Or it could be a power supply issue, if it has a big square block power supply when I would try the new poser supply on the old hopper and see if it stops rebooting. Power supplies also get hot if it's an external block, sometimes moving that to a more ventilated area can also help. I know you may have this resolved already, but I will out these ideas out for others to read in the future that may have the same issue. I don't see why the Ethernet wouldn't work, I've seen this on other systems in the past like with macs using ethernet or even FireWire back in the day. I would also ask dish what format the drive needs to be, then format it first on your iMac and try plugging it in. Since it support up to 2TB drives I would guess it's ext2 or some Linux format. It won't work with bigger drives, sometimes the current format shows the size being different. You could also try to partition the drive to a 1.8TB and see if it recognizes it. If your drives are current formatted as journaled Mac OS then make them ext2 or fat 32 before plugging it in. The hopper runs off a Broadcom chip set with probably Linux and might not recognize Mac OS formatting, so it won't know the drive. Also the hopper 3 is USB 3.0 and I've had issues with the USB to hard drive controllers are proprietary drivers and the device won't see it as a drive. You can try a cheap USB to HD adapter that may work better. If you current USB drive is USB 2.0 you would even benefit from using a USB 3.0 super speed adapter. The super speed has a weird flat plug that plugs into the drive part. Some adapter say it's SS but has a normal USB plug on it so it not doing the fastest it could. Let me know how this all worked out for you. Can you transfer recording schedule also to external when swapping a hopper DVR that failed?
Don't fear the Hopper 3!!!! It's a GREAT DVR and is a reason I'd be reluctant to leave Dish Network. The Quad view mode, the ability to stream my programs to my phone or tablet anywhere in the world (very important to me with my travel schedule), the 2TB of storage. So many reasons to love this DVR. Like all hardware, occasionally it will fail. That's normal, and would apply to any machine. In my case, it was a failing hard disk. I did eventually get it sorted out. I'm still not sure why the hard disk didn't work. But Dish did send me some detailed instructions for the Ethernet process. There is a (fairly hidden) menu option to get it going. In fact, if I have to swap this out again I'm going to make a video on it to make it easier. Sadly, no. The schedules do not transfer. Essentially I had to go to the schedule screen and write everything down, and re-program it. It would be great if Dish would have a method to save that. Ideally, I'd like to see the schedules saved to my account in the cloud. So, if you install a new DVR the schedules could be downloaded from my account profile. (Maybe they'll do that one day ... it makes sense.) Thanks for the great message. I'm sure it will help others.
Mike Fury Tech thanks formthe reply, hear is my initial impressions so far from today alone. Ok, well I've had my play with it. I need to find a external hard drive with space now and try the backing up the timer and the shows I have recorded already. Being a youtuber myself I was looking forward to UA-cam easy access on the big screen but it cusses the system to reset. It's logged as internal resets, so they see the issue. The other one is Netflix claiming network issue and wants me to reboot my internet. What? It works on 9 other devices in the house off the same internet. So new hopper 3 out of the box and need to backup and hope that a reset default fixes these only two apps I was going to use. On the other hand an iPhone is a cell phone, not everything else that everyone cares about, so I expect the phone to work, not the apps. With that said and hours of testing and playing the DVR works great. Way more love tv channels to sling stream compared to DirectTV. Voice remote, well worth the $30. I don't need to memorize the channels, or search for it I just ask for channel. So it's main feature is Satalite TV and DVR, and it does it great with the added bonus of streaming your shows when out of the house and does that good also. Joey boxes for the other two TVs? Why? To pay $7 a box extra? No, if you already have Apple TV (mine are v2) chrome cast, rokue or even a smart TV that will allow casting from a windows tablet or laptop then just run the show on the tablet or phone and wirelessly cast it to that device on the other TVs. Save some money, you probably already have the tech. Dish could have been a $%!# like direct tv and disabled the Apple airplay in the dish app, but they didn't. So use it while you can. Direct TV disables this so you have to buy or lease other boxes for your other TVs. I like the way Dish thinks at this point, and if they don't jack me up 125% over the next two years then I'll probably stay with them for a while.
Alright, running now. I figured out the Netflix and UA-cam issue. Now I have to meet up with dish and Netflix to let them know what needs changed or fixed in their code. But this is sort of hard since I don't have access to the code. I can say after a few hours of research I was able to pin the issue down to a specific thing. I guess this issue has been going on since the hopper 2 with sling and the haven't been able to figure out the reason. Well everything is running, apps. DVR, TV, and all. So far I'm enjoying it and it works great. Much faster on demand downloads and quieter box. No more hard drive noise like the genie. But I have the first genie with the 500gb drive so that might be part of the loud hard drive thing with mine. Thanks for the reply and recommdation. Scott
Mike Fury Tech Will do, I want to do a review on the Hopper 3, well mainly review the sling part in refused to bandwidth used on the home UpLoad of the home internet. It's impressive the quality it does using my cell phone tethers to my iPad. I did this while monitoring my home network and it was using an savage of 3mg upload from the home internet, when changed to SD it uses an average of 1.5mg upload. Since I have a 10mg upload from home it won't interfere wth other users at home. But I would suggest turning on QoS or bandwidth manager on your home router to keep it balanced and so other home users uploading large files won't affect you Sling TV remote stream when your out of the house. I think I found one bug besides Netflix and UA-cam app. If your in the DVR and you select and empty folder, then hit back it will take you back to live TV and not back to the DVR. Can you confirm this bug with yours? One annoying factor is using folders in the DVR with Prime Time recordings. It doesn't listen to my timer that says the show needs to go to a folder. So I spent time setting it up for no reason. I wanted to keep Prime for the commercial skipping. Then I realized only a few shows allowed this, and the few shows are ones I don't even watch. So I've decided to turn off Prime Time Anytime. I would rather keep the DVR organized wth folders since the commercial skip didn't work for the shows I watch anyway. Having shows record to a specific folder is great when you have multiple people in the house. Now I just go to my folder for my shows, I don't have to search for them.
My Hopper3 has oddly rebooted by itself 4 times in 6weeks. They dont know why that is happening. It has frozen couple times. I have had no problem transferring movies to HopperGo but i am having issues figuring out how to transfer them back to H3?? It only offers to WATCH or DELETE, but not TRANSFER BACK TO H3 option??!! Can any1 help me with that?
Mike they have their drive now that sells for $100,. On hooper 3 they might have changed the formatting so the format of the internal drive is not compatible with external drive which is Fat32 or NTFC, just few thing to consider, I will try my drive and let you know.
From the way I understand it the Hopper 3 automatically formats whatever hard drive you hook it up to. The only problem I have heard is that some people have needed to use a powered hub because the Hopper 3 does not supply sufficient power for the portable drive to power up and be recognized.
Hi mike, i am thinking of upgrading , was the install easy -- i have 2 wired joeys and one Hopper in the main living room... is it just a swap out of Hopper and Joeys, using the same wiring? Thanks
I had Dish install it. Everything appeared to be a basic swap. They didn't have to do anything special. Two issues I had: 1) My dish was misaligned. (Which explained some previous issues I had). They fixed it while on site and 2) Setting up the Joey using Wifi (and not cable) in my office proved to be a bit of a challenge. (I had to take it to another location and plug in a cable to set it up before going wireless). Beyond that, it was uneventful.
I did the install myself and it was really easy. I had to buy a new LNB swap it out and switch (HYBRID 1000.2 LNB and the Hybrid Solo Node). You can buy them on ebay pretty cheap. You may need a bigger Hybrid node than a solo though if you have a lot of Joeys hooked up. It took me about 10 minutes to swap the LNB and move the wires to the new Hybrid node (switch). Make sure all the cable are new sat cable standard RG6 if you are using your sat cable to run the internet through your cables to your Joeys instead of wifi. You can google search a diagram on different install methods and Hybrid nodes needed. I purchased my own equipment including the hopper so I was able to do my own install but if you are leasing the hopper 3 and joeys they will not allow you to do your own install. I but all my own equipment to save on paying fees on the receivers.
You have to backup before you wipe. But their instructions don’t tell you to do that so by the time you find out, it’s too late. That’s what I found out.
Not Seeing or reading anywhere if you ever got the Ethernet to Ethernet transfer to complete. My Hopper 3 is flaking out, and rebooting, losing Joeys' etc and intermittent HD availability. Although it can recognize my external HD, is reboots before any transfers can complete. I am hoping that if I get a replacement Hopper 3 that I can at least complete a transfer via ethernet with out it flaking out and before I need to send the flakey on back. Software is U939 and I can't determine if a recent software upgrade flaked it out....
Seagate is my hard drive i have it hooked up now i can add and take off as i wish with no problem I pulled off the Hopper 2 and installed on to the Hopper 3 bought it from the guy how installed my equipment
all you had to do was make sure the power on the hopper you were trying to transfer from was "off" . when you power it on , it is automatically "on" . if you would have just turned it "off" the transfer would have started with any combo of ethernet ports.
I know this is very dated but just wanted to say your statement about the DVR that your transferring from being plugged in But Power OFF was spot on! Thanks rljudd
Okay I found a hopper in the house I am renting brand new I don't have dish . Do I trash it or can is it still of ANY use. Elaborate. Please I am ignorant please get me on some sort of minimal underrstanding
Most likely it is tied to an account of the previous owner, call dish and ask them. If that is the case then it is useless as they will not turn it on, but they will send you a box to return it to them. If it is not on an account with money due, then you could sell it on eBay for $50 or buy dish service and use it, but when you buy dish service they give you one with the service, so no advantage really in that aspect either unless you want to use two of them.
Tried it with that same drive :-( I wonder if my unit is really defective. Dish finally got back to me about my issues. They want to send me another Hopper 3, and they actually gave me the procedure to do an Ethernet transfer. (It still sounds sketchy and it can take 72 hours, but I'll give it the college try ... if it works, it could be a good technique for others if the hard disk plan isn't work.
I have been trying for several weeks to get some "real" support from Dish on the subject of transferring programs from my Hopper to an EHD. They can't (or won't) recommend any specific EHD and keep just quoting their EHD requirements. Last night I had a "live chat" with them and they told me to contact a local Dish satellite guy and have him answer my questions. I contacted him but he was even further in the dark than me. I see that Dish shows a WD "My Book" on their website and I've also sent an inquire to Seagate on their models. I assume that I can just take the new EHD out of the box, plug it in, and let the Hopper guide me the rest of the way. I want to upgrade to the Hopper 3 soon and I don't want to loose my recording on my older model. Any advice?
I'm in the same boat as you. The drive I had for my previous Hopper (2?) won't work with the Hopper 3. The specs are useless as I've tried multiple drives that meet the specs and they won't work. I'll try to contact Dish and see if I can get a (finally) definitive answer for us.
This is a common problem with the hopper 3 I'm on my third hopper 3 and still the external HHD connection is flakey at best non-existed on average. Dish is bullshitting and lying to its customers. Their system does not work well with any external HHD. Trying the ethernet process is also very flakey, hit and miss.
Its because its a different Hopper 3. I bought a new hopper 3 and same problem, it wants to format my external hard drives which would wipe out my movies. I also experienced their "Support" and they are useless. Worst service in my life and I was a customer for years.
jake madden that’s quite unfortunate. I’m glad I didn’t have any of those issues. Did you reach out to Dish? Perhaps you have a defective unit? (Something is wrong for sure!!!)
I was on the phone for most of the night with Dish trying to get this working. Dish finally told me it will take a few days to have working right. They have down load updates to it at 1AM
If you don't mind and can remember, please post the final outcome here. Other people do view these comments, and I'd like a good range of experiences represented. (Oh, and to be honest, I'm really curious how this works out too.) Good luck. I hope it works out.
It is working much better today. Some channels freezes up at times . The Sound is working good today..I had dish since 2002 and never had problem since Hopper 2 sling broke down 2 years ago. Ever since I have bad luck Dish Hoppers. The Hopper 3 Joey some times goes blank and I have to reset it but today it is working fine.
+daniel brown I had mentioned in the video, couldn't get it to work. Dish Tech support couldn't figure it out. A few people in the comments section had suggestions that I didn't get the opportunity to try.
Happy to do so if the Hopper would recognize it. Can't format what you can't see. Now externally I did wipe it. I did format it to FAT32. I think originally it was NTFS. But even the old drive I had from the Hopper 2 wasn't recognized. So who knows ?
DISH will not give me an OTA antenna unless I pay 45 dollars for it. They will only give me a credit of $5 off my bill. We pay a total of 12 for our locals.
Check hard drive format j believe it has to be fat32. You need to use a utility freeware to format it correctly. NTFS is not supported. The drive can not be partitioned .. the entire drive has to be. Fat32
I know this is an old post but with my old 722 I had to change my file system on my external hard drive from a FAT filesystem to NTFS this could've been your problem
You might be on to something. I blew away the entire file system, because I know from past experience that the Hopper will (I think??) re-partition it into it's own Unix file system (I don't remember which one). But then again, I had this drive working on my old 722 (and Hopper 1), but not the Hopper 3.
This was my initial thought, too. You mentioned you have a Mac; if you've formatted them with it, it's almost certainly a file system incompatibility (ie - FAT32 when it needs NTFS).
I think I tried formatting it to NTFS on my PC. But at the end of the day the Hopper is supposed to recognize it and format it with it's on FS, no? (If it ever comes up again, I'll try it)
I'm told it is an SSD soldered to the motherboard. (I did think of that, and I personally have doubts it would be a 2TB SSD) However the problem in my case was a failing hard drive. So by transferring the drive to a new DVR, I'd have transferred my problems as well.
No way it has an SSD in it. The cost of a 2TB SD would be more than the entire PVR system! As for PVR HDs failing, be sure not to move the box around whilst it's running and that means even soft off. Be sure to UNPLUG the unit before moving it around. Often customers jar /jolt the HD by moving the STB causing premature failure.
You are right on all counts. So far the new unit continues to run without issues. (Even though I still haven't gotten an external hard disk to work with it.)
Dish sucks, they have the worst tech support ever. I've gotten the external HHD method to work and I've used the Ethernet method also. The problem is neither is reliable enough to be effective. Dishes hardware is the worst and substandard in everyday. Their is zero quality control. I have been through 6 Hopper 3 in the last year and half, worst system they have come out with so far.
![Review: Tablo (4th Generation) Over-the-Air [OTA] DVR](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X9KTuPq603w/mqdefault.jpg)
I did transfer dvr to dvr, took about 2-3 days, had about 300 items to transfer. You go to settings, diagnostics, tools and there it is, "restore dvr". Yes !! but i had to update software on old dvr to be able to talk to new Dvr. All in all, been with dish for 11 years. All got transferred. G'luck.
Hey, Mike! This is Jermey McGuire. I have the Hopper 3 whole home DVR from dish.”
Since 4/16/22 I have no problem with my Hopper 3!! Tho, I had t replace my original dish 54.1 remote19 days ago.”
The original dish remote had problems; I could get the guide button to work every now and then, also the original dish remote for the hopper 3 would not work that well. You would have to push the buttons so hard to get to to work add on to that the number 7 button stopped working.”
So had to replace that remote too, it didn’t Acosta a penny to replace the defective dish remotes. I Love dish!!! 🫶🏻🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
Dish is the way to go!!
Dish is cheaper than DIRECTV, I had them for 8 1/2 years. They dropped OAN on Monday 4/4/22 then got dish installed on Saturday 4/16/22 DIRECTV is so expensive!! Plus they drop so many channels wait until your neighbor cancels DIRECTV!! He might like them now but just wait!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You can transfer content from a Hopper 3 to a Hopper 3 using an Ethernet cable IF THE HARDDRIVE OF THE OLD H3 is not damaged. Once you hook them up together with an Ethernet cable, you must press menu twice on the remote for the replacement Hopper 3 and go down to the "TOOLS" option on the left hand side of the screen. You will see a few options here including RESTORE RECORDINGS. Click on this tile to Retrieve your DVR recordings from another Hopper. It works because I have done this and I am a Dish retailer technician. You can also restore your timers from your old hopper too. That option is available in the same location and clearly marked.
David Leyva hey david is there a way to force the hopper to to reformat the ext hdd? My ext hdd no longer shows in the menu & the hopper says its not connected, I think the formatting process failed
David Leyva so I’m getting a new hopper 3 to replace an old hopper 3. Do I hook up the new hopper 3 first then proceed to restore my recordings from the old hopper 3???
Wish our installer had told us this, thanks.
How can u tell if it is transfering? Our has been transferring 24 hours and does not show any progress. Not sure of it is working and Dish just keeps repeating the steps which is not helpful.
The Hoppers (all) are able to transfer DVR content to ea other as long as they both with the same user interface. You can do this using the Ethernet cables or a DVR Expander (2TB) sold by Dish. This is a slow process and is not automatic. You must press the home button 3 times, then tools, and finally restore recordings. Hope this helps someone.
I've tried both, still didn't work.
@@Raffterman2003 That was 4yrs ago. Maybe they have a better way now. You can always contact dish for support.
Mike great video, we just switched from DirecTV to Dish (price), never had a problem, since Dish, all problems. Haven't been able to do the hook to external, but I am wondering, have you found a way to hook the Wireless Joey's into a home configuration, or are you using their access point? I am wondering because I think our home system is overpowering the access point.
I have used multiple external seagate usb drives and one western digital. I have even swapped older drives in the enclosures and they worked fine. I had to enable the external hard drive though on the Hopper 3 through a popup after you plug it into the usb port. If you get no popup asking you to enable the external usb drive port something may be wrong. Maybe a low voltage on the usb line or you are not using a external drive with it's own power supply. If you are using one with it's own power supply than it is still no problem. It happened to me the first time I did it. I called into dish used tele prompts to get to tech support (not cust serv) and asked them to enable the function remotely on the rcvr and after that I had no problems. You can go to your mydish account on the internet to see if the function is enabled on the rcvr it is under "my equipment" tab. Once it actually starts seeing the drive it is pretty easy to transfer to the external but will take a longtime if your dvr is full. Once you get the new Hopper it almost the same process just in reverse. It took me awhile to figure out where the function was to do the transfer but it was under "options" or red button and more functions appeared in the dvr screen to do the transfers.
Now we knew why Dish is going bankrupt.
I have been using a 2TB HDD from my hopper 1 on my Hopper 3 but it keeps forgetting it's connected all the time.
I love Hopper and Dish tech but I guess the writing is on the wall if something doesn't happen soon.
I'd sure hate to have to switch to FiOS and lose all my programs and timers.
I went back to the hopper 2, because on the 3 I couldn't make a favorite list. Any idea if this has been fixed? (tech support was no help)
Jeff Brockman yes you can make a favorite list.. i have one made to block out all the garbage shopping channels
Nice video Mike can you hang this dvr on the back of the tv? I want to hang it on the back of lg oled65b5p tv
I have been able to save recordings, only on a Toshiba storage device that was bought to back up my computer. A hard drive back up, 2"by 2" in size.It was on sale at Sam's Club in Georgia, about 6 or 7 years ago. I ended up getting a new computer, so I never used it. Wanting to save something on the dish hopper, nothing would work. Being kinda like a hard drive triggered the thought of this hard drive backup square thing. It's small about 2 by 2. I haven't been able to find anymore, ever. Sometimes it says it doesn't recognize it, or nothing is hooked up. I unplug and turn off the hopper box for a while. Sometimes it takes days for it to recognize it, leaving me to think the problem may partly be in the hopper plug in, or the system properties.I also use another room to get it to recognize it, plugged in the main room. I save my favorites on it because like you, when you upgrade or replace the unit, all recordings are lost. I was surprised that something that old worked on the new hopper with Joey, and has sling also wrote on it, tho we have the large package.
hey, mike to move things from a hopper to another hopper, you have to use the ethernet port, you can do it with an usb drive, but it needs to be a usb 2.0 hdd and should be one that connects directly to the power outlet and maximum 2tb, a lot of requirements i know, but remembre that you can log into mydish.comand check the information, its really easy to do. the easiest way to do it is by the ethernet port, of course you need to select the things you want to keep, and then select, move to another hopper option!
Transferring from the hopper 1 2 or 3 Works fairly easy connecting an ethernet cable does not automatically download or transfer recordings you will have to do as the other person commented. Press menu three times go down three to tools go over to restore recordings from another Hopper and press start this process depending on how much you have saved onto your DVR can take up to about 16 hours just do it overnight as far as your external hard drive you have to make sure that it has its own power source if it has its own power source hook it up to your Hopper if you do this within the first 24 hours of installing the new Hopper it sometimes will not see it until it goes through its software download of the latest software give it a little bit of Time and it should see it within the first two days next time you have these problems you should ask them to send out a knowledgeable Tech to help you better understand and explain because they do this for a living the phone tech support has not been in the field like a technician has. I am a dish technician and any time that I could go to a customers house that wants there recordings transferred l I set it up for them before I leave and they have the recordings the next day I also walk them through the steps so they have no problems doing it if the hopper will not read the other Hopper or external hard drive at that time because of it downloading the 8 days of program guide, all the information that links each program to each other, all the cast members, timers, downloading of UA-cam, downloading of Netfli, downloading of game finder, downloading of Pandora, there's just a lot of programming that has to be done and software upgrades that might not come on the original box but are getting received off of our satellites I hope that helps
Hey Mike I realize this video is dated. But I want to clear up for anyone that would be watching. To transfer dvr content from one hopper to another hopper 1 2 or 3 using a Ethernet cable. One needs to access this setting in diagnostic under tools. On your remote click Menu(40.0 remotes) or Home(50 52 54remotes) button > settings> diagnostics> tools. You will see the option to start the transfer. Good luck. This is done on the old hopper. Nothing needs to be done on the new hopper apart waiting after it has been activated and software is all up to date.
I just yesterday, upgraded to the Hopper3 from the previous version (Hopper2?). Prior to the tech coming, I backed up all my (7%) recorded programming to an external hard drive (Seagate 1EJ164-306 1TB SSHD mounted in a Rocketfish USB/SATA enclosure). When the Hopper3 arrived and was installed, we plugged the external drive and restored the programming - all without issue.Now prior to this my just a few weeks, I had had an issue with a Hopper2(?). I called Dish and they sent a tech out to replace it. At that time, we copied the programming from one Hopper2 (?) to the other via the ethernet ports on the back of the units - also without issue.When I say we, I mean the tech from Dish, so I can't provide any detail on the processes.What I do know is that the support people at Dish MUST have a script they go by and CANNOT deviate and think independently of the script. The other thing that bugs me about them is that they now want to charge me $95.00 to send a tech out. But, with a little push-back, they can either wave the fee or cut it in half. I guess something is better than nothing.
Yes I have gotten the external drive to connect and work. I can transfer container from hopper3 to the external but can not create folders on the external. I also have used the cat cable to transfer from a hopper3 to a new hopper3. It does work.
Sometimes. I'm on my third hopper 3 and its still a problem to non-existent to transfer recordings. I got 46 our of 541 to actually transfer then it went tits up again.
Mr. Krauser, what external hard drive did you use? what usb port did you use? Thanks
Yep!! Your talking my language here exactly as same problem. It would boot up through first sequence then go blank & repeat. It may have once actually got through the boot to the progress bar. Even half way through and reset.
Booo!! So my guess some kind of software issue. As the Hardrive is fine i think. The only way i can think to do this is through the advanced settings on the hopper via Eithernet. It's slow but better then loosing all my olympics stuff.
Other option is actually swapping the hard drives temporarily. However, without voiding your warrenty not sure that is possible because of the red sticker. Still working on a workaround but i definitely feel you on this. :/
I was assured most all on my ext HD would either transfer or play EXCEPT anything recorded in SD mode. So, I spent the week before the install of upgrade to H3 going thru and moving stuff HiDef over to the ext drive (also a "My Book" 2TB drive) After a near flawless install (I had also run all new RG6 coax (rated to 4 Ghz) to all rooms) I spent a few days getting to know the new equip. Long and short was.... I plugged in the ext HD and got a menu (forgot how i did that) and it acted like it was transferring stuff over. After a few minutes, it just froze up everything (even the ext drive read/write light was a steady blue instead of flashing - indicating drive activity). Unplugged and re-booted - and now will not even recognize the drive at all.
SO.. NO -- I too was unable to either view or transfer anything from the ext drive. I knew better than to blow a gasket with Tech Support and just wrote it off. Pisses me off though......
avflyguy thanks for this.
I'm starting to wonder if content transfer is even possible with the Hopper 3 ?
Little worried since I'm switching to dish today with the hopper 3. But sounds like the hopper is rebooting from either a memory issue or over heating. So it may only reboot when it's under heavy load. You could try moving it to be better ventilated area?
Or it could be a power supply issue, if it has a big square block power supply when I would try the new poser supply on the old hopper and see if it stops rebooting. Power supplies also get hot if it's an external block, sometimes moving that to a more ventilated area can also help.
I know you may have this resolved already, but I will out these ideas out for others to read in the future that may have the same issue.
I don't see why the Ethernet wouldn't work, I've seen this on other systems in the past like with macs using ethernet or even FireWire back in the day.
I would also ask dish what format the drive needs to be, then format it first on your iMac and try plugging it in. Since it support up to 2TB drives I would guess it's ext2 or some Linux format. It won't work with bigger drives, sometimes the current format shows the size being different. You could also try to partition the drive to a 1.8TB and see if it recognizes it. If your drives are current formatted as journaled Mac OS then make them ext2 or fat 32 before plugging it in. The hopper runs off a Broadcom chip set with probably Linux and might not recognize Mac OS formatting, so it won't know the drive. Also the hopper 3 is USB 3.0 and I've had issues with the USB to hard drive controllers are proprietary drivers and the device won't see it as a drive. You can try a cheap USB to HD adapter that may work better. If you current USB drive is USB 2.0 you would even benefit from using a USB 3.0 super speed adapter. The super speed has a weird flat plug that plugs into the drive part. Some adapter say it's SS but has a normal USB plug on it so it not doing the fastest it could.
Let me know how this all worked out for you.
Can you transfer recording schedule also to external when swapping a hopper DVR that failed?
Don't fear the Hopper 3!!!!
It's a GREAT DVR and is a reason I'd be reluctant to leave Dish Network. The Quad view mode, the ability to stream my programs to my phone or tablet anywhere in the world (very important to me with my travel schedule), the 2TB of storage. So many reasons to love this DVR.
Like all hardware, occasionally it will fail. That's normal, and would apply to any machine. In my case, it was a failing hard disk. I did eventually get it sorted out.
I'm still not sure why the hard disk didn't work. But Dish did send me some detailed instructions for the Ethernet process. There is a (fairly hidden) menu option to get it going.
In fact, if I have to swap this out again I'm going to make a video on it to make it easier.
Sadly, no. The schedules do not transfer. Essentially I had to go to the schedule screen and write everything down, and re-program it. It would be great if Dish would have a method to save that. Ideally, I'd like to see the schedules saved to my account in the cloud. So, if you install a new DVR the schedules could be downloaded from my account profile. (Maybe they'll do that one day ... it makes sense.)
Thanks for the great message. I'm sure it will help others.
Mike Fury Tech thanks formthe reply, hear is my initial impressions so far from today alone.
Ok, well I've had my play with it. I need to find a external hard drive with space now and try the backing up the timer and the shows I have recorded already. Being a youtuber myself I was looking forward to UA-cam easy access on the big screen but it cusses the system to reset. It's logged as internal resets, so they see the issue. The other one is Netflix claiming network issue and wants me to reboot my internet. What? It works on 9 other devices in the house off the same internet. So new hopper 3 out of the box and need to backup and hope that a reset default fixes these only two apps I was going to use.
On the other hand an iPhone is a cell phone, not everything else that everyone cares about, so I expect the phone to work, not the apps. With that said and hours of testing and playing the DVR works great. Way more love tv channels to sling stream compared to DirectTV. Voice remote, well worth the $30. I don't need to memorize the channels, or search for it I just ask for channel.
So it's main feature is Satalite TV and DVR, and it does it great with the added bonus of streaming your shows when out of the house and does that good also. Joey boxes for the other two TVs? Why? To pay $7 a box extra? No, if you already have Apple TV (mine are v2) chrome cast, rokue or even a smart TV that will allow casting from a windows tablet or laptop then just run the show on the tablet or phone and wirelessly cast it to that device on the other TVs. Save some money, you probably already have the tech. Dish could have been a $%!# like direct tv and disabled the Apple airplay in the dish app, but they didn't. So use it while you can. Direct TV disables this so you have to buy or lease other boxes for your other TVs.
I like the way Dish thinks at this point, and if they don't jack me up 125% over the next two years then I'll probably stay with them for a while.
Alright, running now. I figured out the Netflix and UA-cam issue. Now I have to meet up with dish and Netflix to let them know what needs changed or fixed in their code. But this is sort of hard since I don't have access to the code. I can say after a few hours of research I was able to pin the issue down to a specific thing. I guess this issue has been going on since the hopper 2 with sling and the haven't been able to figure out the reason.
Well everything is running, apps. DVR, TV, and all. So far I'm enjoying it and it works great. Much faster on demand downloads and quieter box. No more hard drive noise like the genie. But I have the first genie with the 500gb drive so that might be part of the loud hard drive thing with mine.
Thanks for the reply and recommdation.
Scott
Please keep me posted with your experiences.
Mike Fury Tech Will do, I want to do a review on the Hopper 3, well mainly review the sling part in refused to bandwidth used on the home UpLoad of the home internet. It's impressive the quality it does using my cell phone tethers to my iPad. I did this while monitoring my home network and it was using an savage of 3mg upload from the home internet, when changed to SD it uses an average of 1.5mg upload. Since I have a 10mg upload from home it won't interfere wth other users at home. But I would suggest turning on QoS or bandwidth manager on your home router to keep it balanced and so other home users uploading large files won't affect you Sling TV remote stream when your out of the house.
I think I found one bug besides Netflix and UA-cam app. If your in the DVR and you select and empty folder, then hit back it will take you back to live TV and not back to the DVR. Can you confirm this bug with yours?
One annoying factor is using folders in the DVR with Prime Time recordings. It doesn't listen to my timer that says the show needs to go to a folder. So I spent time setting it up for no reason. I wanted to keep Prime for the commercial skipping. Then I realized only a few shows allowed this, and the few shows are ones I don't even watch. So I've decided to turn off Prime Time Anytime. I would rather keep the DVR organized wth folders since the commercial skip didn't work for the shows I watch anyway. Having shows record to a specific folder is great when you have multiple people in the house. Now I just go to my folder for my shows, I don't have to search for them.
On my hopper 1 there is only an Esata port on the back of unit. I will see if there is anything such as a eSata to USB cable on eBay.
My Hopper3 has oddly rebooted by itself 4 times in 6weeks. They dont know why that is happening. It has frozen couple times. I have had no problem transferring movies to HopperGo but i am having issues figuring out how to transfer them back to H3?? It only offers to WATCH or DELETE, but not TRANSFER BACK TO H3 option??!! Can any1 help me with that?
Mike they have their drive now that sells for $100,. On hooper 3 they might have changed the formatting so the format of the internal drive is not compatible with external drive which is Fat32 or NTFC, just few thing to consider, I will try my drive and let you know.
From the way I understand it the Hopper 3 automatically formats whatever hard drive you hook it up to. The only problem I have heard is that some people have needed to use a powered hub because the Hopper 3 does not supply sufficient power for the portable drive to power up and be recognized.
Hi mike, i am thinking of upgrading , was the install easy -- i have 2 wired joeys and one Hopper in the main living room... is it just a swap out of Hopper and Joeys, using the same wiring? Thanks
I had Dish install it. Everything appeared to be a basic swap. They didn't have to do anything special.
Two issues I had: 1) My dish was misaligned. (Which explained some previous issues I had). They fixed it while on site and 2) Setting up the Joey using Wifi (and not cable) in my office proved to be a bit of a challenge. (I had to take it to another location and plug in a cable to set it up before going wireless).
Beyond that, it was uneventful.
Thanks for the reply..
I did the install myself and it was really easy. I had to buy a new LNB swap it out and switch (HYBRID 1000.2 LNB and the Hybrid Solo Node). You can buy them on ebay pretty cheap. You may need a bigger Hybrid node than a solo though if you have a lot of Joeys hooked up. It took me about 10 minutes to swap the LNB and move the wires to the new Hybrid node (switch). Make sure all the cable are new sat cable standard RG6 if you are using your sat cable to run the internet through your cables to your Joeys instead of wifi. You can google search a diagram on different install methods and Hybrid nodes needed. I purchased my own equipment including the hopper so I was able to do my own install but if you are leasing the hopper 3 and joeys they will not allow you to do your own install. I but all my own equipment to save on paying fees on the receivers.
I have used a Samsung hard drive to transfer my recordings to my new hopper three. I had the same issue as you.
Can you use a USB to transfer all my movies recorded on to?
The Dish hopper hardware broke down and lost all my movies recorded on the DVR.
You have to backup before you wipe. But their instructions don’t tell you to do that so by the time you find out, it’s too late. That’s what I found out.
Not Seeing or reading anywhere if you ever got the Ethernet to Ethernet transfer to complete. My Hopper 3 is flaking out, and rebooting, losing Joeys' etc and intermittent HD availability. Although it can recognize my external HD, is reboots before any transfers can complete. I am hoping that if I get a replacement Hopper 3 that I can at least complete a transfer via ethernet with out it flaking out and before I need to send the flakey on back. Software is U939 and I can't determine if a recent software upgrade flaked it out....
Seagate is my hard drive i have it hooked up now i can add and take off as i wish with no problem I pulled off the Hopper 2 and installed on to the Hopper 3 bought it from the guy how installed my equipment
all you had to do was make sure the power on the hopper you were trying to transfer from was "off" .
when you power it on , it is automatically "on" .
if you would have just turned it "off" the transfer would have started with any combo of ethernet ports.
I know this is very dated but just wanted to say your statement about the DVR that your transferring from being plugged in But Power OFF was spot on! Thanks rljudd
Okay I found a hopper in the house I am renting brand new I don't have dish . Do I trash it or can is it still of ANY use. Elaborate. Please I am ignorant please get me on some sort of minimal underrstanding
Most likely it is tied to an account of the previous owner, call dish and ask them. If that is the case then it is useless as they will not turn it on, but they will send you a box to return it to them. If it is not on an account with money due, then you could sell it on eBay for $50 or buy dish service and use it, but when you buy dish service they give you one with the service, so no advantage really in that aspect either unless you want to use two of them.
When I plugged my external drive in my Hopper 3 the screen prompted me to format the drive, did you get that pop up?
No. Not at all!
What drive did you use?
Mike Fury Tech WD Passport 2TB
Tried it with that same drive :-( I wonder if my unit is really defective.
Dish finally got back to me about my issues. They want to send me another Hopper 3, and they actually gave me the procedure to do an Ethernet transfer. (It still sounds sketchy and it can take 72 hours, but I'll give it the college try ... if it works, it could be a good technique for others if the hard disk plan isn't work.
I have been trying for several weeks to get some "real" support from Dish on the subject of transferring programs from my Hopper to an EHD. They can't (or won't) recommend any specific EHD and keep just quoting their EHD requirements. Last night I had a "live chat" with them and they told me to contact a local Dish satellite guy and have him answer my questions. I contacted him but he was even further in the dark than me. I see that Dish shows a WD "My Book" on their website and I've also sent an inquire to Seagate on their models. I assume that I can just take the new EHD out of the box, plug it in, and let the Hopper guide me the rest of the way. I want to upgrade to the Hopper 3 soon and I don't want to loose my recording on my older model. Any advice?
I'm in the same boat as you. The drive I had for my previous Hopper (2?) won't work with the Hopper 3. The specs are useless as I've tried multiple drives that meet the specs and they won't work.
I'll try to contact Dish and see if I can get a (finally) definitive answer for us.
just transferred from hopper 3 to Hopper 3 with an ethernet cable.
I got the hopper one I'm trying to hook that up to internet
Did you ever figure that out?
This is a common problem with the hopper 3 I'm on my third hopper 3 and still the external HHD connection is flakey at best non-existed on average. Dish is bullshitting and lying to its customers. Their system does not work well with any external HHD. Trying the ethernet process is also very flakey, hit and miss.
Its because its a different Hopper 3. I bought a new hopper 3 and same problem, it wants to format my external hard drives which would wipe out my movies. I also experienced their "Support" and they are useless. Worst service in my life and I was a customer for years.
Yeh like i have an ethernet cable laying around. Hell i dont even know what they are
Upgraded to the Hopper 3 it took me 3 days to get all my channels and the sound goes off once in while. What a piece of junk full of bugs.
jake madden that’s quite unfortunate. I’m glad I didn’t have any of those issues. Did you reach out to Dish? Perhaps you have a defective unit? (Something is wrong for sure!!!)
I was on the phone for most of the night with Dish trying to get this working. Dish finally told me it will take a few days to have working right. They have down load updates to it at 1AM
If you don't mind and can remember, please post the final outcome here. Other people do view these comments, and I'd like a good range of experiences represented. (Oh, and to be honest, I'm really curious how this works out too.) Good luck. I hope it works out.
It is working much better today. Some channels freezes up at times . The Sound is working good today..I had dish since 2002 and never had problem since Hopper 2 sling broke down 2 years ago. Ever since I have bad luck Dish Hoppers. The Hopper 3 Joey some times goes blank and I have to reset it but today it is working fine.
The Dish Hopper 3 is finally working normal today with no bugs .
You can transfer with the Ethernet cable just a fyi
+daniel brown I had mentioned in the video, couldn't get it to work. Dish Tech support couldn't figure it out. A few people in the comments section had suggestions that I didn't get the opportunity to try.
You have to format the external hard drive
Happy to do so if the Hopper would recognize it. Can't format what you can't see.
Now externally I did wipe it. I did format it to FAT32. I think originally it was NTFS.
But even the old drive I had from the Hopper 2 wasn't recognized. So who knows ?
DISH will not give me an OTA antenna unless I pay 45 dollars for it. They will only give me a credit of $5 off my bill. We pay a total of 12 for our locals.
Check hard drive format j believe it has to be fat32. You need to use a utility freeware to format it correctly. NTFS is not supported. The drive can not be partitioned .. the entire drive has to be. Fat32
Tried that as well. (Even on the same drive that used to work on the Hopper 2) It was just odd.
The dish box formatted my hard drive portable back up, just like a computer would any storage device.
I know this is an old post but with my old 722 I had to change my file system on my external hard drive from a FAT filesystem to NTFS this could've been your problem
You might be on to something. I blew away the entire file system, because I know from past experience that the Hopper will (I think??) re-partition it into it's own Unix file system (I don't remember which one). But then again, I had this drive working on my old 722 (and Hopper 1), but not the Hopper 3.
This was my initial thought, too. You mentioned you have a Mac; if you've formatted them with it, it's almost certainly a file system incompatibility (ie - FAT32 when it needs NTFS).
I think I tried formatting it to NTFS on my PC. But at the end of the day the Hopper is supposed to recognize it and format it with it's on FS, no? (If it ever comes up again, I'll try it)
I used Seagate HD, no problem transferred files using ethernet as instructed.
the hopper should be using a normal HDD you could have just taken a screw diver poped it open and swapped the drives no copying needed.
I'm told it is an SSD soldered to the motherboard. (I did think of that, and I personally have doubts it would be a 2TB SSD)
However the problem in my case was a failing hard drive. So by transferring the drive to a new DVR, I'd have transferred my problems as well.
No way it has an SSD in it. The cost of a 2TB SD would be more than the entire PVR system! As for PVR HDs failing, be sure not to move the box around whilst it's running and that means even soft off. Be sure to UNPLUG the unit before moving it around. Often customers jar /jolt the HD by moving the STB causing premature failure.
You are right on all counts. So far the new unit continues to run without issues. (Even though I still haven't gotten an external hard disk to work with it.)
dude . its faster and safer to transfer recordings from hooper to hopper...!!!
Upgrading to the hopper will not give you the local channel that is in dispute with dish and cbs network.
Dish sucks, they have the worst tech support ever. I've gotten the external HHD method to work and I've used the Ethernet method also. The problem is neither is reliable enough to be effective. Dishes hardware is the worst and substandard in everyday. Their is zero quality control. I have been through 6 Hopper 3 in the last year and half, worst system they have come out with so far.