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Dish Hopper 2000/Joey

Last Changed 3/26/2012

Dish Network released a Whole Home DVR solution which mean there is a central receiver unit with remote clients for each TV  The advantage over the VIP722K and the VIP612 units we replace is that all TV can be HD now and all recording are available to all TVs.

Previously when we had a Dish VIP622, the living room TV was HD but the bedroom TV was limited to SD images.  Both TVs could watch the same recordings.

When we changed out the VIP622 with the VIP722K and added a VIP612, we had HD for both the living room TV and the bedroom TV.  However, now neither TV could see the other receivers recordings.

Because the previous wiring modifications we had done for the VIP622 with the Winegard AS-2003 dish and the replacement of the AS-2003 with a Winegard Trav'ler automatic roof dish, we were in fine shape to implement the Hopper 2000 system.

Hopper 2000 The Hopper is the Whole Home DVR unit with three tuners from Dish.  The Hopper 2000 can attach directly to one TV.  The Joey is a client unit which received decoded programs from the Hopper.  The interconnect for the Hopper to the Joeys uses MOCA (Multimedia Over Coax Association) which uses coax cables. 
Hopper 2000 This is a view of the cable side of the Hopper compliments of SatelliteGuys.us
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Hopper 2000 We originally had  these muffin fans on the VIP722K which was thicker.  The masking tape is an inelegant attachment but it works.
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Both coax cables from the satellite dish attach to a muxing unit called the Solo.
Hopper 2000 The normal wiring for the trailer as it was built had one satellite dish coax cable going to the living room and the other to the bedroom.

When we had the Winegard AS-2003 roof dish and the VIP622, we had to get the bedroom satellite coax to the living room.  We accomplished that by using Carlon conduit and fittings mounted under the trailer belly so we could run a coax cable extending the bedroom cable.

We also used this conduit for running CAT-5 cable to our roof ,mounted CPE radio.
Cable Run
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With the VIP722K and the VIP612, each DVR could operate with a single coax cable using a Dish Separator.

To connect the Solo, we changed the coax jumpers to again run the bedroom coax signals to the living room.
Hopper 2000 We carry a DPP 1000.2 dish mounted on a tripod that we use when the roof dish is blocked.
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originally we used the most basic of switching methods, we would remove one set of cables and attached the other.  That was cumbersome at the best,
Hopper 2000 We acquired high frequency rated coax switches to move the connections to one set of cables or the other.  We used these switches to be able to switch the Solo unit to the roof dish or the ground dish.
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Hopper 2000 Here is the Switches, the Solo, and the Splitter in the Entertainment Center.
Hopper 2000 Here the items are labeled.

Could you imagine manually swapping cables without the switches?
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At one time, we had the cable from the TV Antenna (Batwing) to the bedroom TV on a switch to move the cable between the antenna or the VIP622 TV2 output.  We used this cable with the Joey distribution network which is a cable from the Solo unit to a standard high quality coax splitter.  The splitter was connected to the cable to the bedroom TV and also to an external coax feed we had so we could have a Joey outside the trailer.

Hopper 2000 In the bedroom, the Joey was connected to the sable that used to bring the TV Antenna signals. The Joey connects to the TV with a HDMI cable.

The Joey is the black unit, about the size of the white cable modem.
Hopper 2000 This the cable attachment side of the Joey compliments of SatelliteGuys.us.
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Hopper 2000 All the Wi-Fi electronics and the Joey are located behind the bedroom TV.
TV This is the current cabling for our TVs.  To facilitate moving the Dish Hopper 2000 between the Winegard Trav'ler SK-1000 and the ground DPP 1000.2 using the same set of switches we had used before.
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Disclaimer: The information in this site is a collection of data we derived from the vendors and from our personal experiences.  This information is meant as a learning guide for you to  make your own decisions  Best practices and code should always be followed.  The recommendations we make are from our personal experiences and we do not receive any compensation for those recommendations.
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