The Dish Network Hopper with Sling really impressed us when it was released, partly because of the functional whole-home watching systems with Joey receivers in different rooms. However, it was limited to three tuners which, outside of primetime with four specific networks, could only tune to or record three shows at once. That changes with the Super Joey, a larger Joey receiver that adds additional tuners to your Dish service, expanding just how much content you can watch or record at once. Like the Hopper, the Super Joey itself, is free with a Dish subscription, but you'll have to pay an extra $10 per month fee if you want to use it.

You won't get a Super Joey for simple multi-room watching. That's what the Joey is for. The Super Joey is a one-off expansion to the Hopper that also functions as a regular Joey. It's an advantage you won't see just in the room with the Super Joey, but across your entire home as an upgrade to your Dish service. It adds two additional tuners to the Hopper's three, for a total of five tuners that can work simultaneously in your home—not something everyone needs, but if you want it, it's a solid add-on and a worthy Editors' Choice.

Design

It's called a Super Joey, but it should really be called a Mini Hopper. The two tuners and Dish smartcard slot take up a lot of space, and the Super Joey is three times larger than the regular Joey because of it. It's a 10.8-by-8.7-by 1.7-inch (HWD) slab that's still puny compared to the Hopper, but not quite as Apple TV-sized as the Joey. The front panel holds Power, System Info, Locate Remote, and Up/Down/Select buttons, but not the full direction pad the Hopper's front panel has. It doesn't matter much, because you'll use the Super Joey's remote anyway, which is identical to the Hopper's and the regular Joey's remotes.

The back panel holds the coaxial connection, an HDMI output, an optical audio output, USB and e-SATA ports for expanding DVR storage beyond the Hopper's internal drive and connected drives, and a composite video output. Granted, you probably won't use the composite video output if you're spending money for multi-room, place-shifted, high-definition satellite service with DVR, but it's there.