Brand new 508 record problems

[nicepants]

I just signed up for Dish Network, got a brand new 508 receiver and I'm having some major issues. I've got about 35 hours left on the hard drive according to the PVR screen, and last night i tried to record Roswell. Well throughout the show there were audio dropouts. They started small & quick but they started getting longer & more frequent. I have no problem watching shows live, but it seems like my more recent recordings are no good. I'll be watching and the audio will drop out..then the picture will freeze for a bit, and then it skips ahead a few frames or more, freezes again, etc, etc.

I'm wondering if I have a bad hard drive or something. Has anyone else had any similar problems? Is there anything you'd recommend? (I tried rebooting it -power button for 5 secs- and that didn't seem to help) I also have this problem when I pause TV. Doesn't matter what channel.

I plan on calling Dish tonight when I don't have to worry about my minutes, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions in the meantime.

[tampa8]

There was a post similar to this - though the symptoms you describe only happened to him while recording sports I think. I believe he ended up getting it replaced.

[ScottK]

Have you tried a reset? Resetting the box will almost any problem.

Hold down the power button on the receiver (not the remote) until the red light comes on.

Resetting will take 1-2 minutes... more if it wants to download the guide.

-Scott

[Bob Haller]

Ahh my brand new 508 is doing this too, didnt do its time records today and playing back something I recorded manually there were audio drops as well. I pulled the card hopefully whatever it was is gone for good.

[firephoto]

The signal outage the other day caused some timer and record time issues on my 508. All is fine now and I have the 168 update too.

Wasn't that big of a deal and I knew what it was from because I was watching TV when the outage happened. I just turned it off for a while and it was working later. 2 timers didn't go off after that but they seemed to fix themselves.

It surprises me how quick some people are to pull the card, or reset the receiver when a small issue arises. On my receiver it seems to do some self maintenance when you turn it off. Hard drive is working a little bit before it spins down.

508 is a great receiver, the new features of P168 are excellent too.

Tom

[spanishannouncetable]

Originally posted by firephoto
It surprises me how quick some people are to pull the card, or reset the receiver when a small issue arises.

Tom

This statement leads me to believe firephoto has never had the unique pleasure of being a Dishplayer owner :p

[ScottK]

I reset my box about once a week. In my view, just as servers and computers should be rebooted periodically for stability, so should a PVR.

I hear so many complaints of odd behavior and missed recordings on the 508, but in the 7 months I've owned one I've had only ONE missed timer recording, and that was after the outage a week and a half ago.

Reset the box weekly as a preventative maintenance measure... it's well worth the minute it takes.

-Scott

[Bob Haller]

Originally posted by spanishannouncetable


This statement leads me to believe firephoto has never had the unique pleasure of being a Dishplayer owner :p

Yeah they really wouldnt understand.......

[firephoto]

The 508 is NOT a dishplayer.

So what does a dishplayer have to do with how a 508/501 operates? nothing

Just because you had or have a dishplayer doesn't mean you need to treat all your receivers like you did your dishplayer.

I owned a Ford once, but I don't operate my current vehicles in the way I did the Ford. LoL (not bashing fords btw.) Just because it has 4 wheels or lets you watch satellite TV doesn't mean it's the same thing.

My 508 works great.

There should be a dishplayer owner forum.

Tom

[Bob Haller]

With a DP, active resets and reboots are a necessary way of life. Theres no walking away expecting it to fix itself. That sadly just does NOT occur.

Does this explain the comment? Anyone going from a DP would EXPECT this to still be the case with another PVR model.

Besides YOUR box is ONLY AS GOOD as the programmer who puts the latest code in your box.

It MAY get hosed at any time since the software is CONTINIOUSLY CHANGING.

It can happen to anyone at any time:(

[nicepants]

I finally got someone on the line who knew (or at least thought they knew) what they were doing. I was told that I need to erase everything I've got recorded on the unit. Then hold the power button for 10 seconds to reset it.

They told me that this "should" fix the problem I'm having.

I'm betting that this problem was somehow caused by this software update. I wasn't having any problems until the day that I noticed I had the 168 software, I wonder if clearing out the HD and resetting the unit will somehow cause it to re-initialize the hard drive for the new software (or something to that effect).

Either way it's frustrating. I'm gonna keep playing with it to see if I can get it to behave long enough for me to copy off everything I've got in there. I'll post an update when I try DN's solution & let everybody know if it worked or not.

[Bob Haller]

Thats the irst I EVER heard of erasing all recordings to help a problem. Thatrs already not a good sign:(