You don’t have to have a Hopper DVR to use the app, though that limits what the app can do. The DISH Anywhere app is still free, and you can even access the free on-demand movies. All you need is an active DISH subscription. Note: We won’t cover all of the DISH television packages and costs in this review, but head over to our comprehensive DISH Network review for more details. Here are the most important DISH Anywhere specs, and you can find the full spec list at the end of the article: When you access the app, you see a similar interface to what is on the DVR itself. This includes the familiar programming guide, the DVR, a tab for sports and movies, your watchlist, and any rented or purchased movies and shows. It’s worth mentioning there is no remote control available. That might be obvious, but if you decide to use DISH Anywhere on a laptop, you will need to use the mouse and keyboard. Interestingly, the DISH Anywhere app is also geared for the discerning media streamer, those who like HBO Max or Hulu and know the perks of those apps. Namely, you can create profiles for multiple users who can then use the app with their own settings. You can enable parental controls in the app using a security code. There’s quite a large library of on-demand movies, including 28,000 titles that are free. We also like the simplicity of renting or purchasing a movie using DISH and having that charge added to your bill. In short, everything you can access from your Hopper DVR is available from the DISH Anywhere app. This means the only limitation to what you can watch is your own DISH programming plan. We’ve covered those options in detail in our DISH Network review. To cut to the chase, though, we love DISH. The programming options are varied and the plans are designed to fit your own budget. We also like that several of the premium channels like MGM+ offer 4K movies as part of the premium service. When we tested at a coffee shop from an outdoor patio, we noticed the quality degraded a little. We suspect the Wi-Fi network connection to a slower internet feed caused the issues, not the fact that we were accessing the Hopper 3 remotely. (By the way, you can only access streams remotely and can’t transfer shows for later viewing.) One minor gripe: the DISH Anywhere app does not support 4K streaming. You can stream at 1080p, which is likely what you want anyway on an iPad or your laptop. Other streaming apps on mobile devices do run at 4K in some cases.
