Dish made a huge impact with their Hopper at last year’s show, earning the CES Best In Show award. With 2,000 hours of recording storage, the Hopper changed the game, making “primetime anytime” a reality and prompting a series of failed lawsuits from content owners like Fox.
This year, they are slowing their roll a bit – announcing improvements to the existing Hopper system to expand its functionality. Chiefly, they are announcing “Super Joeys.” The new Super Joey set-top box will add two additional network tuners to the Hopper platform that can program 8 shows simultaneously – any four plus the four major networks CBS, NBC, FOX and ABC. Previously this was limited to six shows. There are also improvements in accessibility with the release of the Wireless Joey converted from to sling DVR and Live TV content over wifi throughout your home.
Beyond the ultimate DVR, they are clearly trying to improve the overall viewing experience like recommendation capabilities and voice activation. Soon will be able to provide home automation capabilities. Dish is undoubtedly a disruptive force, providing commercial-free TV.