I went to Best Buy and got the external harddrive I needed. Turns out it was considerably more expensive than I thought it would be so that was a bit of a drag. So what did I do? I procrastinated backing up the DVR. Yeah, you probably guessed it. It died for good on Wednesday (the day before the Hopper was coming) and I hadn't backed it up yet. What the fuck was I thinking? My reasoning was to clear out as much as possible (as in watching it) before I backed it up. Murphy's Law. Now it's all gone. Dammit.
I was able to get the box working so I could watch tv. Damn, how spoiled am I? I found tv kinda boring without the ability to record it or even pause it. I missed my late night shows that I don't stay up for. I handled it pretty well I think. I was resigned instead of stomping around swearing about it. I didn't dwell on it, and watched DVDs instead. Have quite a few I haven't watched yet so that was ok. When I did watch tv, it was the old-fashioned way...short attention span channel surfing.
The Hopper came yesterday. Turns out Dish Network isn't completely upfront in advertising what it can do. Yes, it can record 6 things at once, but there's a catch. The old unit had 2 tuners. That's how you record 2 things at once, or record one while watching another. The Hopper has 3, but the 3rd tuner is dedicated to just the 4 primetime networks. ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. You can't pick the shows on these networks. Your only options are the days of week and the networks, and it will only record the primetime slots. That's 8pm to 11pm. It records all the primetime shows on the days and channels you choose.
Now that I understand it, I can live with that. Thursday and Sunday are the only days (at this time) that I have set up for it. Thursday, there are things I like on all 4 networks and that worked out well last night. I gave up some things on Thursdays with the old box. I just deleted the ones I didn't want to watch. Sunday, there's just the 2 networks I'm interested in. Otherwise, I have to do as I always have...juggle time slots by setting timers individually. That's ok, I'm pretty good at that.
There's also the Auto Hop that Dish is touting to skip commercials. Don't know how long that will last if they lose the suit challenging it. I tried it this morning, and it's pretty cool. It begins the skip with the beginning of 1st ad in the commercial slot and ends at the end of the last one. So you see snippets of the 2 ads, but the rest is invisible. This only works on the primetime recordings set up with the 3rd tuner, and you can't use it until the next day. It doesn't work the same day the recording was made. It's not a deal breaker for me. I'm used to the skip button to fast forward past ads. Believe it or not, I do occasionally back up to see an ad that caught my attention for whatever reason.
I have to rave about the technician! He was AWESOME! I wish he could see this so he'd know how much I appreciate all he did for me. I did answer the phone when Dish called for my feedback survey, and gave him all the highest marks.
He definitely went beyond the call of duty. I mentioned that I'd like to talk about moving the dish. It was mounted on the porch roof which is going to need rebuilding in the near future. He said he couldn't do it today, but would be glad to come back out when he could. He said it could be put on the pole behind the house that holds my electric service. There was a dish there (still there as I never took it down) when I moved here, but the guy who installed my dish back then said it couldn't go there even though he tacked the Dish connector box on the pole. Turns out it was a safety thing being so close to the electric service, not a technical issue. And probably a lazy grumpy tech. Quentin said he wasn't bothered by it. Then he just went ahead and did it! He was having trouble getting the new box to respond to the dish, and was using the process of elimination to solve the problem. The first thing he tried was the cable coming into the house. He replaced it all! I helped with that by feeding it through the floor while he pulled the end outside. Then he moved the dish (and removed the one that was there) which I didn't know he had done until he told me. He was that fast! Then he replaced something on the dish. He was getting frustrated by then, and as a last resort, he forced the box to reboot again. Voila, fixed. But I got all that other stuff upgraded in the process. He also gave me his personal number. Told me to call him directly if I had any problems. He doesn't live far from me. He was just great!
In other tech news, I think there's a solution to my internet problem. Verizon has been pushing this new mobile hotspot gadget. I thought it was for wi-fi which I don't have available so I didn't look into it any further. When I was at Best Buy getting the harddrive, I also talked with the Geek about the Microsoft Surface. Remember, I said a while back that this was the tablet for me. Yeah, still is. Maybe when the back-to-school tax holiday comes around, but it's pretty pricey for what would mostly be a toy for me so I can wait to see if prices come down. So anyways, the conversation digressed to the hotspot and apparently it is something I might need. It's not about wi-fi, it's about sharing the internet connection between devices. It works like the mobile broadband modem I have without the buggy software to run it, and should connect to 4G just fine. I think it's cheaper than my current plan, or I can get more bandwidth for what I pay now. Either way, I'd come out ahead. I'll be dropping in the Verizon store to talk to a guy. Not sure when my 2 yr contract is up on the modem. It should be up. The Best Buy guy could have set it up for me but I needed to make sure I was clear for a new plan first. There's a closer Verizon store right here in town so I'll just go that way.
Good morning.
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