721 Software Revision L1.07 - So what do you think?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now most everyone has had a chance to play with the new software for the past few day.

Now that you have had a chance to play with it, what do you think of it?

What are it's plusses?
What don't you like?

We all know Rome wasn't built in a day so what would you like to see changed or improved?

I personally feel this new software is a giant step forward for the 721. I have been VERY happy with mine.

[Bill D]

Posted elsewhere but makes more sense here...
This is a very nice upgrade, love the slo motion, but during the Giants game yesterday it did highlight the poor bandwidth given to local channels that carry sports, very pixely. Can Dish finally figure out that locals do carry a lot of sports.
I do miss being able to hit skip back 10 from the pause mode, since this was a good work around from the delayed audio out of pause.
What is the deal with the sort not remembering my last selection when I go back to the PVR menu. Every time I get back in I have to scroll all the way to the the top, and if the recording I just watched was at the bottom of the PVR list I have to scroll all the way through the recordings to the top..
I think one of the biggest requests besides fixing bugs was for some sort of folder setup. The sort by name is very helpful but not if I have to select it every time I enter the PVR list.. ughhgh !!

I love the temperature reading especially since my 721 is in and enclosed cabinet. I bought a small 3: fan when I got the 721 and always wondered how much difference it made. It makes about a 25 -30 degree improvement..!!

Also curious why are some of you asking for a button to get right to the other tuner. If you are recording something it will take you to the other tuner when you change channels..
or am I missing something...
wondering if you tune to a lets say ch 138, hit record then select ch 300, hit record, and hit recall last channel, could you bounce back and forth between tuners ??? I;ll have to try that one..

[Scott Greczkowski]

or am I missing something... wondering if you tune to a lets say ch 138, hit record then select ch 300, hit record, and hit recall last channel, could you bounce back and forth between tuners ??? I;ll have to try that one..
Yes thats the way it works, with the old software if you tried channeling channels it would tell you that the tuner is un use (as you are recording channel 300) To switch tuners in this situation before you had to press PIP, then SWAP and PIP again. Now all of that is eliminated. :)

[marshalk]

I would like a way to jump to the other tuner even when not recording. I tend to jump back and forth between programs and sometime just want to see what is going on on the other tuner. The pip is ok but usually I don't want it on screen. Just a convenience thing and mostly a function of how one uses the device.

[krlauver]

Can someone confirm that when you are watching a program from the begining that has been recording for a while and press view, to see the current time, that it immediately jumps to the live program? If it does this, I kind of miss being able to press view to see the time.

Thanks,
krlauver

[Scott Greczkowski]

Originally posted by krlauver
Can someone confirm that when you are watching a program from the begining that has been recording for a while and press view, to see the current time, that it immediately jumps to the live program? If it does this, I kind of miss being able to press view to see the time.

This is working fine for me, when I press view while watching a recorded show it shows the correct information and does not kick me out to live.

[Jason]

I previously had my weekly and Mon-Fri timers set as "Once" due to the problems with the timers not firing on L1.04.

After I received L1.07 I deleted all my old timers and set them up as weekly and Mon-Fri timers.

Well my first Mon-Fri timer DIDN'T fire! So I guess they didn't fix all the timer issues in the new update.

Has anyone else had any weekly or Mon-Fri timers not go off?

It looks like I may have to go back to setting up "Once" timers each week!

[Jacob S]

I like the new sorting on the PVR Events screen, the change in search, the larger channel number on display bar, the screen saver, and the frame advance functionalities. I do not like the way they chose to have the transparent program guide, and the way they have chosen to do the new frame advancing with the buttons. They could use the channel up down browse and theme buttons to use the advanced framing features after pause is pressed.

[krlauver]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski


This is working fine for me, when I press view while watching a recorded show it shows the correct information and does not kick me out to live.

Scott,

Please try it while it is recording and you start watching from the beginning. Mine is fine for already recorded programs too.

Thanks,
krlauver

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ahh, I was just able to reproduce this bug krlauver.

Steps to Reproduce.

Tune to a channel you want to record.
Press Record
Let it record for a few moments
Rewind the buffer.
Press VIEW
You are Kicked to Live from this screen.

My suggested fix is instead of pressing VIEW press INFO, since you are just trying to see the time which is displayed on the info screen as well.

Thanks for the report.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Jason,

Please give me more details about your event, what time and channel, I believe you said you set it up as a Monday through Friday timer.

Can you do me a favor and press the PIP button and tells me if your PIP comes up ok?

I have a feeling your second tuner was frozen. Remove the smart card and reinsert it (Or press the Power button on the 721 for 7 seconds)

This should fix the frozen second tuner.

[RandomBites]

One thing I have noticed, and I think it was also a problem in the previous software is that when I am watching a currently recording program from the beginning and I want to stop viewing and resume later like on previously recorded program I select stop but if the program is still recording it stops the recording at that moment. This is very annoying as I normally watch parts of previously recorded shows stop and resume later. The dishplayer would know that were watching a recording show and have another button called "Stop Recording" on the screen as well as the "Stop" button.

[RandomBites]

The info button also acts as a skip to live button when watching a program delayed.

[Nightmare]

Hi all. I have not had any problems with the new L107. I must not be pushing it enough. My Hard drive is getting full only about 24 hours left, I really need to get a good VIVO card for my PC. I played 2 of the "games" last night, Invaders and Pong. These games suck.. DISH please , no more time wasted on the "games".

[SParker]

Scott,

Hitting the cancel/Exit button will also show the info he wants with out kicking to live.


Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Ahh, I was just able to reproduce this bug krlauver.

Steps to Reproduce.

Tune to a channel you want to record.
Press Record
Let it record for a few moments
Rewind the buffer.
Press VIEW
You are Kicked to Live from this screen.

My suggested fix is instead of pressing VIEW press INFO, since you are just trying to see the time which is displayed on the info screen as well.

Thanks for the report.

[Jacob S]

I agree, the CANCEL button is the solution to the problem.

I am glad that they had fixed the Time Left bug on a previously recorded event instead of me pressing pause to see the time left and then pause to resume.

Pressing INFO should not kick you to live mode, if it does, they should fix that in a software update because I dont remember this happening in the past, it never done that to me before.

[krlauver]

Okay, I can press CANCEL as a work around but do we really want the operation of the VIEW button to be based on whether or not the program you are watching is currently being recorded vs. a previously recorded program? In my opinion you want the VIEW button to function the same way everytime it is used. What am I missing?

krlauver

p.s. Since you can see a VIEW button on the screen after selecting a program from the PVR operation (at least while it is being recorded) I bet the programmers thought it should work this way.

[Bill D]

Originally posted by RandomBites
One thing I have noticed, and I think it was also a problem in the previous software is that when I am watching a currently recording program from the beginning and I want to stop viewing and resume later like on previously recorded program I select stop but if the program is still recording it stops the recording at that moment. This is very annoying as I normally watch parts of previously recorded shows stop and resume later. The dishplayer would know that were watching a recording show and have another button called "Stop Recording" on the screen as well as the "Stop" button.

I got bit by this once watching a Giants game..
What I do now is just turn off the receiver..not a great workaround..

[Jacob S]

The VIEW button being used during a PVR Event could be a quick way to get out of it to get to live tv, instead of having to press several buttons.

[LarryH]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Now that you have had a chance to play with it, what do you think of it?


I love the upgrade. I'm very impressed with the amount of changes that went into this update (and surprised that people are actually compaining about it). The audio-sync problem when using the commercial skip buttons is a little anoying, but it's much more tolerable than the "bounced to live" bug it replaced! Yesterday, it appeared that one of my M-F timers misfired. However, it worked fine today. I'll keep an eye on it. Some of the screen savers are a little "hokey". I was happy with the floating Dish symbol. Maybe they could make the screen saver selectable. I think the sort options should "stick". If I set it a certain way I would like it to stick until I change it again. Overall, a great upgrade and a huge leap forward for the 721!

[Jacob S]

I would also like to see an option to use just one type of screen saver or even better, which ones you would like and would not like to show up. I like the new screen savers. I like them better than the Dish screensaver on a black background.

[Bogey62]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Now most everyone has had a chance to play with the new software for the past few day.

Now that you have had a chance to play with it, what do you think of it?

What are it's plusses?
What don't you like? 


I am going mainly by your list of featrues posted a while back and only a few hours  to play with the upgrade. Here's what I found:

When the picture is paused the time remaining bar does not fade away after a few seconds -- it remains there just like before.

I can't flip to the other tuner with a single button, I still have to use the PIP/Swap.

Still seems to be no real way to defrag the HD. My programs will sometimes stutter when being played back -- very annoying and unacceptable if you want to dub them to VHS.

Still don't trust the timers to work right 100% of the time. If the show is really important to me (like the Sopranos' season finale) I will set two timers for two different times for the same show. 

[Jacob S]

When you say 'flip to other tuner with the flip of a button but have to use PIP/swap instead' you mean if you want to activate other tuner without going to PIP and having PIP (both tuners at the same time) in the screen.

I would like to be able to have the second tuner going all of the time that way you could flip between both tuners instantaniously. I think this is what Bogey62 is referring to.

[treiher]

Very pleased with the upgrade as well!

Really like how they bolded the fonts on the programming guide. Much easier to read now.

We don't use the transparent guide. I see what they're trying to accomplish there, but the size of the window behind the guide is not much bigger than the PIP window, and everything is easier to see/read using the PIP format. We will stick with that for now. I always thought that a transparent guide would be just that. Full screen view of the program with a transparent guide overlayed on top. Maybe they found that was too difficult to read also.

Fixing the kick-to-live bug while watching a recorded show that has been paused has been a real nice improvement!

I was disspointed to see that they did not change the unscribed channels to red when programming your favorites, so you still have to check that from the programming guide and write them down before you program your favorites. Seems like a simple fix that exists in the 501/508 and 301. Hope they get that on the next upgrade. And they need to make it auto advance to the next channel after you have checked one which the 501/508 and 301 do as well.

Adding the sort by name in the PVR list was great, but it doesn't keep that setting after you escape out. It should.

Overall, I'm very pleased. If they address a few of the minor things I've listed here and get Open TV running, I'll be a happy camper!!

[Bwulfe]

I've noticed a glitch. When I use the 30 sec skip ahead or 10 sec skip back, I've noticed half the time the audio is not in sync with the video. It will still be playing the audio from before the skip. After about a second or so it catches up. It didn't do this before the upgrade.

The other problem I've had twice now. When skipping ahead the entire screen when mutlicolor bars with a mouse cursor in the middle of the screen. After a minute or two, the system shut itself off. I had to plug the card and reseat it in order to bring the machine back to life. I also wish that the power led came on when you turned the system on even while it goes thru the boot up. That way you at least know it's doing something.

[dbronstein]

Originally posted by Bwulfe
I've noticed a glitch. When I use the 30 sec skip ahead or 10 sec skip back, I've noticed half the time the audio is not in sync with the video. It will still be playing the audio from before the skip. After about a second or so it catches up. It didn't do this before the upgrade.

I'm getting this as well. It's very annoying.

Dennis

[TEXMIKE]

I've noticed that even though I checked the box for "Dolby Digital only", the output to my Sony Receiver is still PCM, which is annoying because I can't use my normal TV volume control when on non-dolby digital channels. This feature worked fine on the 508.