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Dish's Hopper DVR powers up and Sling simplifies at CES (pictures)

At its press conference, Dish unveiled the next generation of its Hopper DVR and a portable drive for wireless streaming, while Sling showed its forthcoming simplified interface and new features.

Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Lori Grunin
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Hopper 3

Dish's Hopper 3, the update to its Hopper 2, doesn't look as powerful as it is. I think it's the Kangaroo remote holder.

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2 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

New partner announcement

Did you guess YouTube? That's coming this year. Not the levitation technology, though.

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3 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

4K multichannel view

Targeted at sports fans -- despite the weather-crisis-junkie graphic -- the 4K multichannel view lets you tile four quadrants of HD video.

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4 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

Specs

The Hopper 3 supports all the latest buzzy video technologies: high dynamic range video, 60-frame-per-second 4K, the expanded 10-bit color gamut, H.265/HEVC decoding, plus the current versions of HDMI and the HDCP copy-protection specification.

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More specs

This is such a happy little slide. It wraps up the main aspects of the Hopper 3, including the fact that it has 16 tuners so you can record up to 16 shows and play on 7 TVs simultaneously , a 2 terabyte hard drive, USB 3 support (you need that bandwidth!), and the logos of its latest partners. It's based around a 1.5GHz quad-core ARM chip, which the company claims makes it seven times more powerful than the earlier model.

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6 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

Unified search

The interface now delivers search results across all the available content, including Netflix.

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7 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

Hopper Go

Its brand new product, the Hopper Go, is a portable hard disk that enables you to carry some of your recorded content for streaming wirelessly to mobile devices.

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8 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

Hopper Go

Yet another puck-sized device. It has 64GB of memory and can stream to up to five devices. The battery is rated at 4 hours. It will run you $100.

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Streaming

This cleverly emphasizes how the Go can broadcast to five devices at a time.

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Who's slinging?

The unsurprising data given that the company has been targeting cord-nevers with its $20-per-month service.

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Who's watching where?

What I find surprising here is that 'boomers watch more total video than anybody. Sling considers those viewers "supplementers" -- people who watch streaming video as well as traditional TV.

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12 of 17 Sarah Tew/CNET

ESPN 3 comes to Sling

It aggregates all the games available on ESPN 3, even if they're running simultaneously.

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Unified search

Just like its sibling service, Sling's new interface aggregates all search results across types of content.

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myTV

Why is every personalization capability represented by a bunch of hearts? Sling says its version can learn your preferences over time and make recommendations.

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myTV

It looks very similar to other streaming services. That's not a bad thing, though.

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Hopper Go availability

Springing in this spring.

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Hopper 3 availability

This month!

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