While DISH’s CES press conference remains 24 hours away, the missing pieces have somewhat clarified since we first began tracking a refreshed DISH Hopper and “Super Joey” — which passed through the FCC in November. Of course, the DISH Hopper (with Sling) is the award winning satellite TV DVR, that acts as a hub to Joey extenders. And DISH’s 2014 show message is all about expanding those whole-home Joey capabilities. From recent press outreach:
DISH will be showing new ways for viewers to enjoy their favorite channels with the award-winning Hopper HD DVR, to address family channel conflict, cabling issues, and to control clutter.
It’s all Joey, all the time. With even money on the Super Joey sporting it’s own tuner. Further, a wireless Joey has been confirmed. And, last but not least, DISH Network will be unveiling Joey television apps – for the likes of LG Smart TVs and Playstation consoles! Unlike DirecTV’s competing RVU implementation, we’re told performance is quite good as the Hopper handles the heavy lifting.
Update 1, Sunday Evening: Here at the CES Unveiled event this evening, DISH pulled back the curtain on their first announcement. And as expected, we were treated to the DISH Hopper experience extended to a “virtual” Joey app running on an LG Smart TV (as you can see in the video above). Like DirecTV’s RVU, Dish will require a monthly service fee and both that number and app availability are expected later in Q1. DISH PR has confirmed for me that Auto Hop will be supported along with 5.1 audio output. No other client devices have been announced yet, but the show is still young…
Update 2, Monday Morning: Boom! Super Joey, Wireless Joey, and PS 3/4 Virtual Joey apps have been announced. I’ll plan to track these down tonight and/or tomorrow, then circle back with some impressions and photographic evidence.
Update 3, Monday Evening:Â DISH was on display at the Digital Experience with the new Joeys, so I’ve swapped out the original FCC label image with the new photo up top. And I’m quite liking the scooped design of the Wireless Joey. Hoping to catch the PS3/4 app in action on Wednesday.
Update 4, Tuesday Morning:Â Shot the video below of the Virtual Joey running on a PS4. Looks very slick!
Wish TiVo would make a TV-based app…
Yeah, but some how Tivo would try to charge us a monthly fee per app. Hopefully the Verizon Media Server actually arrives with Apps….
Not trying to thread-crap, but has there been any evidence that the equipment “arms race” among providers helps attract/retains customers?
I was always under the impression that customers are attracted by channel selection & prices rather than advances in STB capability that comes with additional fees.
It’s a good question and one I don’t know the answer too… but virtual/app clients are probably of long term benefit to both consumers and providers. As to other set-top features, I bet Hopper’s commercial skip and Sling capabilities have attracted a number of customers. Can’t say if that number is “significant” tho.
By the by, I had a few exchanges with DISH… and they HAVE now confirmed the Virtual Joey app will indeed support Auto Hop and output 5.1 audio. Sweet!