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Dish's Hopper 3 DVR lets you watch four shows at once on your 4K TV

Dish's Hopper 3 DVR lets you watch four shows at once on your 4K TV

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It's got 16 tuners inside

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Consumers really don't need to worry about how many tuners their DVRs have nowadays; most allow you to record several shows simultaneously, which is all anyone really needs. But here at CES 2016, Dish is declaring itself the new recordholder with the unveiling of its Hopper 3 DVR. The latest Hopper (the brand has some history at CES, to say the least) contains 16 tuners. So you can set multiple DVR recordings at once, or watch live shows in even more rooms throughout your house.

Dish Hopper 3

But what's really cool about that ridiculous tuner count is a new "Sports Bar Mode" that it makes possible for 4K TV owners. Sports Bar Mode is a multi-channel view that splits your TV screen into quadrants, each with its own dedicated 1080p feed. You can choose which one is outputting audio, so as the name implies, it's a pretty great way of absorbing football on Sundays, or maybe keeping multiple channels in view when there's breaking news. Credit where it's due: this is a pretty clever way of taking advantage of all the resolution offered by 4K TV sets.

And on the subject of 4K, Dish has partnered up with Sony to expand the number of films and TV shows that customers can rent on the Hopper 3 (or the 4K Joey). If they're available on Sony's Video Unlimited store in 4K, you can also probably get that same film from Dish; selections include The Amazing Spiderman and American Hustle, among others.

HopperGo

Hopper 3 is seven times faster than its predecessor thanks to a new Broadcom chip, and Dish claims it's the first DVR to utilize USB 3.0 for external storage of content. But Dish is also giving customers more options for taking their recordings out of the home. A new HopperGo accessory can be plugged into your DVR. From there, you load movies and shows (up to 100 hours onto it), unplug it, and take the small device with you. The HopperGo sets up a private Wi-Fi network that can be accessed by five devices simultaneously. That could prove very useful for long road trips. HopperGo will be available for a one-time added fee of $99; there's no monthly cost to use it. Hopper 3 itself will be released in "early 2016."

See all of our CES 2016 news right here!