Based on your description, you probably have a Hopper with Sling, or even worse, the original Hopper. The Hopper 3 was released almost two years ago, and has had the new software the entire time. Earlier this year, the new software was released for older models. Whether this should have happened or not has been debated to death so I won't go into that, but the fact is new software + old hardware almost always = bad times. Try installing Windows 10 on a 486, you'll see what I mean.
The bottom line is if you do have older hardware, a future software release is very unlikely to fix it. While possible, Dish (nor would any other company) just simply isn't going to spend a lot of time rewriting code for older hardware. So the solution would be to get the new hardware, the Hopper 3, which will get you a much faster CPU, 16 tuners, and a bunch of other nifty new features. Unfortunately, upgrading to the Hopper 3 will almost certainly come with a fee, your DVR fee will probably rise, and it will definitely require a new contract, probably for 2 years. If you've loved Dish for the last 6-7 years that last part probably won't be much of an issue.
A word of advice if you do go the upgrade route, hold onto your remotes. The installer will probably say he has to take them, but he's wrong. The Hopper 3 initially came with a remote that a lot of people didn't like. I understand they've since come out with another one that addresses some of the issues but frankly (while I admit I've not used it) from the looks of it, I'd still keep your current remotes.
