Dish Goes Wireless With Latest Receivers

Dish CEO Joe Clayton posing with his troop of kangaroos.

At today’s CES press conference, the folks at Dish continued to push its Hopper as the big selling point of its satellite service, with new announcements of additional recording options, along with virtual and wireless DVR experiences.

Last year’s Consumer Electronics Show found Dish at the center of a controversy, with CNET unable to give the company the Best of CES award for its latest Hopper DVR because CNET’s parent company, CBS, is suing Dish over the Hopper.

The satellite company was ultimately victorious, with the Consumer Electronics Association giving it the award and ending its relationship with CNET.

When Dish CEO Joe Clayton referred to the Dish as “award-winning,” he then paused before joking, “Hearing no objections… I guess it’s finally official.”

SUPER JOEY

The first announcement was the introduction of what Dish calls the SuperJoey, a souped-up version of the company’s Joey receiver. The SuperJoey, when combined with the Hopper DVR, gives the user the ability to record up to eight shows at once.

However, that comes with the asterisk that four of those maximum eight shows include the “Prime Time Anytime” service that records all four major network programming for later viewing.

Taking away the Prime Time Anytime channels, Dish says the SuperJoey/Hopper combo allows for simultaneous recording of five shows.

WIRELESS JOEY

Sick of having your TV placement determined by the location of the coax outlets in your house? Dish is the latest to introduce a wireless receiver that should help you get around this problem.

There are two components to the Wireless Joey, an access point and the receiver. The access point connects to the Hopper and then transmits the signal via 802.11ac to up to two wireless receivers in the house at up to 1.3 Gbps.

Since the access point does the WiFi broadcasting for you, users don’t need an Internet connection in the home. It also means that the access point doesn’t rely on your home’s WiFi to transmit the signals.

VIRTUAL JOEY

Dish announced last night that new LG TVs will soon come with a “virtual Joey” app that means no additional receiver is needed to access Dish programming and recorded content.

Today, it added the both the Playstation 3 and 4 will soon have virtual Joey apps that do the same thing. Of course, for all these apps, users would need to be in the same home as the main Hopper DVR.

DISH ANYWHERE

Like several other cable and satellite biggies, Dish has an app that allows for remote access to live programming. Today, it announced that it will soon bring the app to the Kindle Fire. The app is also adding voice-recognition and improved search.

FREE iPADS

Dish confirmed today that it will continue giving free iPad Minis to new Dish subscribers. However, customers must decide on whether they want the iPad or the traditional rate discounts given for the first 12 months of the 24-month contract.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist