New Software release for the 721 (L109)

[factory]

Is anyone else getting downloads for the 721? My unit is downloading now..

Anyone know anything about the update??

Jason

[Doug E]

Jason, mine is also downloading something. The green "ON" light is flashing so I assume something is going on. BTW, what does the "17/29" mean in your post above??

[John Corn]

Mine is downloading something as well......:righton:

[factory]

Originally posted by Doug E
Jason, mine is also downloading something. The green "ON" light is flashing so I assume something is going on. BTW, what does the "17/29" mean in your post above??


That was the group # it was downloading. I edited that out of my original message - guess it was confusing!

[mattmcg]

Me too. 23 of 29 so far...... We'll see what's new!

[Doug E]

mine is now rebooting

[John Corn]

I'm at L109. :)

[Doug E]

same here. Now, how do we find out what they changed with this new software??

[jannlinder]

L109 too...but that godforsaken sh*tty pause bar is STILL at the bottom of the screen!!!!!!

Jann

[GadgetGirl]

Our L 109 update just finished now too... have not figured out yet what changed.

[Doug E]

Jann, the way you are able to rid the screen of the pause meter at the bottom is just hit the back boomerange button (just above the left "back" button on the remote). This eliminates the bar and keeps the picture paused.

[John Corn]

I'm still looking, but haven't noticed anything yet......:confused:

[TerryC]

For one thing, when I hit the guide button the guide seems to come up instantly, as opposed to the second or so it used to take.

Frame by frame seems to work a little smoother than before, I think.

So, maybe this is just a performance enhancement.

[Doug E]

ditto TerryC.....I have the same results. Man, the guide really pops up fast now!

[mattmcg]

The timer management screen has been updated. Also, how you sort your timers is updated as well.

I also noticed that on channel 101 at 1am, there is a 30 minute show on new features for the Dish PVR. The summary lists frame by frame, slow-mo, timer management, and more......

[Doug E]

Thanks mattmcg..........I just set it to record

[mattmcg]

Heck, performance upgrades are always a welcome thing!!! Will be interesting to see what they talk about for the new feature show......

[MikeW]

The channel 101 show has been there for a little while. It is for the 1.68 upgrade on the 508.

[Doug E]

I'm wondering when we will finally get the OpenTV options like the 501/508 have?

[Chaos]

I also noticed that my Tuesday night timer for 24 shifted time for this week. Although it did so to record American Idol. No triple timer conflict screen, but this seems encouraging. Still no 129 locals though. :-(

[GadgetGirl]

Looks like the annoying sound-screw-up thing when doing 30sec jump aheads that showed up in L 107 is gone now.

Oh, I think the Page Up, Page Down, Next Day and Prev Day buttons on the search screen are new too.

[greylar]

Maybe it will fix the problem with us 119 onlyers.*hoping* Currently I don't get a guide unless I do a reboot. Its been that way since the last update.

Greylar

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am still STUCK at the pre release L1.07 Dish Sent me last month. :(

I am kind of disapointed they didn't conact me about this release. :(

[Doug E]

Yes, Scott, I (and possibly all of us) are disappointed too. We would then all have the "skinny" on what to expect from L109. Hopefully sometime soon channel 101 will show us what we should know about L109

[Chris Blount]

I was wondering what was going on. While watching TBS earlier I turned off the receiver and the power light started blinking. I thought I was having Dishplayer flashbacks but it ended up being the software upgrade. Very cool!

[factory]

Originally posted by Doug E
Yes, Scott, I (and possibly all of us) are disappointed too. We would then all have the "skinny" on what to expect from L109. Hopefully sometime soon channel 101 will show us what we should know about L109

As we talked about with the last release: it sure would be nice if we had a 'release notes' - from Dish - posted somewhere with all the changes! I'd bet they maintain a copy for internal use..

Jason

[Filip1]

I have 109 too! I agree that the 30 sec. jump problem may be fixed. My guide has come up both slow (like before) and a couple of times very fast. The slo-mo still jumps ahead a couple of frames when it starts. (at least it seems so) This could just be a bug fix(the jump button for instance) hopefully Scott or someone can dig out the info on this release.

[MikeW]

The E* site has this update listed. Of course, no info on what's changed.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/support/technical/software_versions/index.asp

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I got the scoop on the new software.

This release cleans up some things in the 721 software, speed should be faster and the sound lag problem should now be fixed.

The next version will be L1.10 and will have some new (but unannounced) new features.

Lets hope the features are the two you voted on here at DBSTalk!

Thanks to the 721 staff for finally filling me in. :D

[cse42]

Thanks guys... I powered off and the update went in. Would be nice if one of those lights would flash (ie the message light) to let us know that there's a new software version to be installed. But it's a minor thing. Better performance is always a good thing....

cse

[billben1]

Better performance is great. Where is the audio fix for the 4 digit channels?????i.e. sky angel...


Bill

[DAN]

Hey guy's, can we put up a vote next time for a SLEEP function? it's s@ks not having that, i know some of you think thats not important, but i fall a sleep everynight with my baby toy 721 ZZzzzzz........ :sleeping:

[bfennema]

The sound lag seems to be much better, but I'm still getting it... especially on skips backwards. Hopefully the wierd AUX search results are fixed as well.

[EvanS]

I also have still noticed the audio lag...but it IS MUCH better.

PVR event resume play now shows correct "time emaining" immediately. Used to show 00:00 until after show was resumed and THEN you could go check

[Jacob S]

Maybe they did not want to announce it because it did not release any new features, just a minor update to tweak the current features we have. I bet we do get a few features that we voted for on this site in the next software release. Didn't Dish ask this site to vote on those and they would select a list for us to vote on or was that just something this site had done?

[DLF]

I know it's probably buried in one of a couple of mult-page"New 721 Feature" threads, but ycan you cut to the chase on the two features people wanted most?


Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Ok I got the scoop on the new software.

This release cleans up some things in the 721 software, speed should be faster and the sound lag problem should now be fixed.

The next version will be L1.10 and will have some new (but unannounced) new features.

Lets hope the features are the two you voted on here at DBSTalk!

Thanks to the 721 staff for finally filling me in. :D

[EvanS]

the ONE feature that would really enhance my day-to-day PVR viewing would be having RESUME be the defalt selection when restarting a previously stopped PVR event

[Jacob S]

They already have this feature I believe.

no, it defaults to Start Over, which I agree is quite annoying.

Mitch

[Lark]

I must be the only one, but every time I get an update, my machine cuts off midshow and starts loading and booting. I haven't had to turn off my machine since I bought it 5 months ago to get any of the last three or so releases. I also haven't had any problems and needed to reboot. Gosh, It's kinda a catch 22. I like that it just gets the update so I don't have to keep turning off my machine in case there's one out there, but it stinks when I'm in the middle of a show and I've buffered 15 minutes, then it takes 15 minutes for the software update and so I've pretty much lost the show I'm watching. But I know I'd rather get the update. I think it would be nice if it asked would you like to do it now or later, and you could select later and finish your show. ACK! As a matter of fact, I realized that I record a very special show on the secondary timer that I'm getting every show for the season so I can have the season set and it just did the software load all in the middle of it. Uggg!! That's Very frustrating. Everything just loaded and I'm missing about 15 minutes of the show.

[Jacob S]

I thought it was supposed to download on the other tuner? Maybe you had it on the other tuner when it happened.

[JohnH]

Originally posted by billben1
Better performance is great. Where is the audio fix for the 4 digit channels?????i.e. sky angel...


Bill

It is not only the 4 digit audio channels. It is all the audio channels which are encrypted. I subscribed to RFI since it is only a dollar and it has no sound on the 721 as well as the Sky Angel channels. The CD channels and Mono Music channels work because they are not encrypted.

[Jason]

Was L.109 supposed to fix the sound skipping when you forward or rewind using the quick step button?
Someone said that it fixed it and I can confirm that it DID NOT!
I still have the delayed sound when jumping forward or back on recorded material.

[makman]

I also initially thought it was fixed. However it is definitely NOT fixed.

Mitch

[Jacob S]

I have also noticed that as well.

[Chaos]

If anything, it's worse than it was. I never had a problem with 107, but with 109, I see it every time I jump forward or back.

[TEXMIKE]

Didn't fix the Dolby Digital Only output software switch yet.
Has anyone else noticed this? If you check the DD only box, it should turn off the light on the fiber optic digital output cable, like it does on the 508, but it doesn't. There should be no light when you are tuned to a local channel or CNN, or any other non DD channel.
Mike

[marshalk]

109 also did not fix the problem of the guide not updating like it did prior to 107 for those who only have access to the sat at 119.

As far as I can tell, this update was one step forward and a couple steps....sideways

[sneakymoose]

It took me a day to realize this, but after my box updated to 1.09 it picked up my phone and never disconnected it. Just for kicks, I tried the Line Check in the diagnostics screen while it had the line picked up for a day (with no dial tone) and it reported success! Rebooting the 721 by holding down the power button got it to finally release my phone line.

[sjhill01]

sneakymoose - I've had this problem since day one, and E* has no idea why.. whenever I get an incoming call it grabs the line and won't let go. If yours continues, please post here or PM me so we can try to find similarities!

[Randy_B]

Hmmm, I am in the process of bringing my brand new 721 on line right now. I will be curious to see how my unit works in light of some of the comments.

[Chris Blount]

I lost the caller ID function. I had to reboot the 721 twice to get it back. Very strange.

Also, is anyone having a problem with their skip forward and skip backward? After 2 or 3 quick skips forward it starts slowing down and I have to wait for it to catch up. My 501 is lightning fast when skipping forward.

[doode968]

Mine is at 109 and tuner-1 now can receive CH205 and signal strength on check signal is better. Coinsidence?

[BobMurdoch]

I lost my caller ID as well. Just rebooting it clears it? Because powering down and powering up doesn't clear it.

I'll pull the mart card when I get home and see if it clears it.

[Big D]

L109 also did not fix the time remaining glitch after you have finished watching a recording. Watch an hour program and hit stop, the bar on the bottom of the screen showing the time remaining for that recording is always wrong, usually it shows the time remaining as the same time you had when it started watching or the last time you had hit stop. Sometimes it goes away to fast to see anything for time remaining. It has been this way since L107 came out I believe, at least I remember it working correctly at first, it always showed the 3 or 4 minutes remaining it actually had.

[Big D]

To comment on the audio pause while skipping, my unit is much better than it was with L107. I really put it through the test last night and noticed very little audio lag where as with L107, it was always there. It is not gone, but for me anyway, it is much better. Makes one wonder what is going on when we have posts that some as seeing the problem better than L107, some see it the same and some even saying it is worst.

[Filip1]

I'm one of those that thought the audio lag on the skip buttons was better or maybe even fixed. I now feel it is only slightly better. The audio lag is still there. That's too bad, it is my most used feature and I had hoped they had cleared this up. This is another feature(with slo-mo) that is much smoother on the 50x's. I hope the 721 team is still working to improve these very important features. For the price of this box, all of it's features should work at least as well as the 50x's!

[Kagato]

So does this release have the new FOX logo in it? *ducks*

[Jacob S]

I have also noticed that the bar at the bottom indicates the same time as the last time it was stopped and in order to get the correct time you have to do a pvr function then pause it.

[steveT]

So in the end, L109 doesn't really accomplish anything?... I wish they would just go back to L105. For the few months I had L105, I had virtually no problems. I'd much rather have the "Kick back to live" bug, than all the other problems with L107 and L109.

[GadgetGirl]

I agree with everyone that the audio lag is better but not fixed.

[Jacob S]

So what was the purpose of L 1.09?

[Bob Haller]

Originally posted by steveT
So in the end, L109 doesn't really accomplish anything?... I wish they would just go back to L105. For the few months I had L105, I had virtually no problems. I'd much rather have the "Kick back to live" bug, than all the other problems with L107 and L109.

Twilight zone music plays.....

What other E receiver does this remind you of????


Fix one bug perhaps and generate 2 new irritating ones. My 721 worked better moinths ago when I bought it tha it does today....

Actually the outer limits would be better.

We control the functions. We can change it from mostly functional or make it a bug ridden clone of a DP, all by some code changes.......

YES! The 721 is way better than the DP, but why are we still beta testing? A $600 box?

[MAllen]

The caller ID responded WAY better on 1.07 than 1.05 or now 1.09!! I can't really find any significant differences on the menus.

[rickwyo]

I have observed the same old gray screen with X problem on 1.09 that I had earlier seen on 1.07. (30 seconds after after erasing a recording that had just reached the end.) Thus, I tend to think that 1.09 did not include a fix for this bug.

Incidentally, I have never seen the gray screen with X after erasing programs via the cleanup menu -- only after erasing programs via the menu that pops up when a program reaches the end.

[Jacob S]

How about letting us choose whether we want to back to a previous software version or not? I know that there was a function in the receivers in which allowed us to be notified of future software upgrades or if we wanted to upgrade without our permission or something like that, is that in these newer receivers?

[ScottE]

The Sound Delay is MUCH MUCH better. It appears to be fixed on my machine. However I HAVE A BIG ISSUE. I used to be able to stop a show and select ERASE. This feature has been removed. Now when I stop I have to re-select the show then erase it. This is a huge PAIN as it is an extra step. Scott if you are reading this please tell them to PUT IT BACK IN.

Scott Eguires

[Filip1]

Scott
The sound delay on the skip button is NOT fixed when you move a little fast the delay is horrible. I thought it was better, but if you compare it to the excellent way the same feature works with the 50x, it stinks. Sorry dish, back to the drawing board.

[Filip1]

Scott
I must not understand your problem with the stop button. I just checked my 721, and when playing back a recording I hit stop and got the erase, resume, and cancel screen. What am I missing.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I understand that the sound issue is better now but still randomly happens, this has been addressed and should be fixed in 1.10.

[dbronstein]

Originally posted by Filip1
Scott
I must not understand your problem with the stop button. I just checked my 721, and when playing back a recording I hit stop and got the erase, resume, and cancel screen. What am I missing.

Mine still works fine too.

Dennis

[Filip1]

Scott
Thanks for the info. The reason I responded on the sound issue, was my worry that Dish would mistakenly think the problem was fixed. Now that we have once again gotten inside info from you I will relax and wait for 110.

[marshalk]

So Scott, are you hearing something about L1.10 (or what will probably be released as L1.11, they seem to like odd numbers)? Any hints that they will fix the guide problem for us 119ers?

[md_paul]

I've only had my 721 for 6 days now. Upon connection to my dish, it immediately downloaded L109. This is the only release I've used, and I can't say that I've seen any problems with it yet. I've rapidly skipped forward and backwards and don't see any sound lag. There are no noticeable sound dropouts in my recordings either. I did however cause it to reboot by opening all of the games at the same time. (just because I noticed I could do that) After closing all the games, the receiver was extremely sluggish in response to my remote commands. About 5 minutes later, I saw the X windows screen... then black then the dish logo and reboot. It had no issues after it came back up though. (I didn't try running all of the games at the same time again though).

Are there any rumors about new features in L110? A potential release date?


- Paul

[ScottE]

Originally posted by dbronstein


Mine still works fine too.

Dennis


I rebooted my system and the erase option is back now except my sound lag is back. LOL. Musta been a glitch.

Scott Eguires

[Scott Greczkowski]

If you get the sound lag reboot again. :) It happens at totaly random times. :D

[GaryK]

A couple of months after getting my 721, the caller ID history screen stopped coming up. At times it appears to be trying to display the window under the main windows! I have not seen anyone else reporting the same problem here. I got my 721 back in the beginning and I was hoping that one of these upgrades would solve the problem. Reboots, card removal, etc have no effect.

Am I the only lucky one:shrug:

Gary...

[makman]

My caller ID WAS working, now it is not. I do not know how long it hasn't worked, or if it is intermittent. Last noght the phone rang twice, and the caller ID showed up on the telephone, not the TV.

Mitch

[Tony Trent]

Do a Switch Check, then a forced reboot and your Caller ID should work again. MIne quit twice, this seems to be the combo that fixes it each time.

[makman]

My unit crashed. The remote turned the green light on and off, that was it. No matter if the power was on or off, it showed the last channel we were watching, even after I removed the smart card. A reboot fixed everything, including the caller ID.

Mitch

[mattmcg]

Yeah, this 1.09 seems much more buggy to me. I've had weird problems that I didn't have the the 1.07.

Here are a couple that I've experienced:
1. Excessive hard drive spinning that has resulted in pausing of playback of PVR'd shows
2. Two crashes so far.
3. Menu system when controlled by remote freezes for extended periods for some time.

[marshalk]

From where I sit 1.09 was a significant step back. In particular breaking the guide for those with access to 119 only is the biggest problem.

[dwforslund]

On the 2/10 tech broadcast, it was stated that if I put my 721 in standby it will download videos of the new features that I can view. I've not seen this. What do I need to do to get this to happen?

[mgs24]

I think that they have only done that with the 508. Have not seen it on the 721.