The latest enhancement to Dish's Hopper line of DVRs, called SuperJoey, lets users record up to eight shows at once, the company announced at a pre-CES press conference on January 6.
SuperJoey is a new client that can be paired with any existing Hopper model to add two additional TV tuners to the Hopper's existing three.
And the Hopper still stores 2,000 hours of content.
That's got to be enough, right? How many different shows can you possibly need recorded at once?
The catch
There is a catch though, there are restrictions on what channels the Hopper with SuperJoey can record simultaneously.
With their combined five tuners, the Hopper with SuperJoey can record five shows on any five channels at the same time.
But go beyond five and you start being restricted to shows on the major broadcast networks NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox.
It seems one tuner can record multiple shows simultaneously, but only from broadcast networks; so if you want to record six shows at once, two of them need to be on those networks, and will be handled by a single tuner, while the other four tuners can record four other shows on whatever channels you want.
By extension, to record eight shows at once, four of them need to be on broadcast networks and four can be any channel.
Wireless Joey
Dish also announced a Wireless Joey that extends the Hopper's reach to any television screen in the house using Wi-Fi and wireless receivers, and Virtual Joey apps for PS3, PS4 and LG Smart TVs.
"The Hopper continues to break new barriers in terms of accessibility, affordability and mobility," Dish CEO and President Joseph P. Clayton said in a statement.
He continued, "You see that in the way in which Dish delivers more content and virtually ends channel conflict with SuperJoey."
