The DISH Hopper 3 is the next generation of the company’s whole-home DVR with a host of new features and a greatly increased processing core.
The Hoper 3 features 16 tuners to effectively eliminate any recording conflicts a household may have. It also allows for an increase of up to 6 Joeys in a home and a new 4K Sports Bar Mode that displays 4 1080 content feeds simultaneously. To match the increase of content processing, the DISH Hopper 3 increases its storage capability to 2TB of internal storage, good for up to 500 Hours of HD content, and includes USB 3.0 ports for external storage expansion. It also features a new modern interface and an interesting voice controlled remote.
With 4K support in the Hopper 3, the big challenge is finding content to fill it. The 4K Sports Bar Mode can utilize the high resolution screen to display a multi-channel view of four different programs in 1080. This simultaneous HD view is great for sports where the most enthusiastic of fantasy players need to keep an eye on multiple games at once for their teams. Additionally, DISH has agreements with Sony Pictures, The Orchard, and Mance Media to deliver movies and other 4K content directly to the Hopper 3 and the upcoming 4K Joey.
The DISH Hopper 3 also takes its already great Netflix integration a step further by offering Netflix results into the universal search results. A great example of this is when a customer searches for episodes of a TV series to find a mixture of results from Netflix, DVR, and on demand options. Netflix 4K will also be available for the Hopper 3 and 4K Joey. Additionally, DISH will bring direct YouTube integration to the Hopper 3 later this year for even more content sources.
DISH has also released the HopperGO, a personal mobile video drive that can store 100 hours of content transferred from the Hopper 2 or Hopper 3 via USB. The HopperGO creates a secure private Wi-Fi hotspot to allow playback on up to five devices at once while on the go. This is perfect for those long family car trips or airline warrior business travelers.
The DISH Hopper 3 will be available in early 2016, while the HopperGO will late Q1 2016
