January 12, 2015

DISH Announces the 4K Joey, the Industry’s First Ever ‘Ultra HD’ Set-Top Box

by Shayne Rana

As of now DISH Network L.L.C. is the first ever pay-TV provider to launch a 4K ‘Ultra HD’ set-top box. Called the 4K Joey, the unit has been designed to very easily integrate with DISH’s Hopper Whole Home HD DVR system enhancing its overall functionality.

So the 4K Joey may not be the first system to offer cable TV viewers 4K content, it is however the first bit of hardware in the segment that does so, and is also fully compatible with all HDMI 2.0/ HDCP 2.2-compliant televisions. In addition to the support for 4K ultra HD content the box also features the ability to display two programs side-by-side in HD i.e. picture-in-picture (PiP) capability. Sports fans can delight in the fact that they won’t have to keep switching channels between games to find out the scores if two games are playing simultaneously on different channels. Other features include functionality for standard televisions and 60fps in 10-bit color support. The 4K Joey is also equipped with a Broadcom dual-core chipset and a Broadcom 7448 dual-core ARM processor, features Bluetooth, coax or Ethernet connections, Toslink and RCA analog audio output and support for Hopper apps such as Vevo, Netflix and Game Finder.

DISH will announce their 4K content providers closer to the actual launch of the device, which should be around the second quarter of the year.

“Our new 4K Joey offers the most versatile, future-proofed 4K setup for our customers,” said Vivek Khemka, senior vice president of Product Management. “It’s easy to install and works with the most 4K televisions, so no matter what brand customers bought over the holiday season, they can enjoy content through DISH.”