L1.09 does not seem as stable as L1.07

[krlauver]

My PVR-721 has been rebooting (crashing) once or twice a day since the update. Also when watching a recorded program the audio seems to drop out for a second every once in a while. And like others have mentioned skipping forward in a recorded program sometimes display problems with audio out of sync with the picture. Last night I had a problem with one tuner not working (black screen and no audio) but I did not want to reboot it at that time because it was recording on the other tuner. This morning the symptoms were the same but somehow it sensed something was not right (i.e. crashed) and rebooted itself automatically and now both tuners are available.

I think I was happier with L1.07.

Anyone else having similar problems?

Thanks,
krlauver

[Scott Greczkowski]

Last night I had a problem with one tuner not working (black screen and no audio) but I did not want to reboot it at that time because it was recording on the other tuner.

This happened to me last night as well. I was also recording on the other tuner. The time was 9 or 10pm.

[tm22721]

Right after the new download my 721 got hung up (no response to the remote buttons) after 43 minutes on Pause.

I left it that way and by the next day it had magically recovered on its own without a reboot.

?????????

[Bill Mullin]

Originally posted by krlauver
Anyone else having similar problems?
I agree that 109 isn't as stable as 107. The worse problem I've noticed is that when recording one channel while watching another, the "watched" channel is plagued with pixalation (sp?) and sound dropouts. I tried watching other channels to see if the problem was just that single channel, but ALL channels were bad. The problem was 109, not the transmission!

Additionally, the sound dropouts when skipping forward or backward are as bad as ever, IMHO.

- Bill

[Bob Haller]

I have had some of these issues as well. Scott will not like this thread. He wants to believe the 721 has no problems. I reported some of this and was instruced to quit posting since I was the ONLY one with a problem.:(

My replacement 721 crashed last night about the same time, since I was out and found spilt recordings whe I got home.

I appreciate all the E workers efforts on this box but this stuff should of been decided and fixed prior yo introduction....

We all did the beta test thing with the DPs. Are we on that same path AGAIN?

Yes the 721 is much more stable than the DPs but still....

E should build it RIGHT out of the cartoon rather than build a half fimnished proiduct and revise it later.

[dbronstein]

I have only had one or two problems with my 721 in the three months that I've had it. It locked up once and I had to reboot it. It's never missed a recording. Maybe I'm lucky that I got one of the few good ones. Maybe it's because I don't push it as hard as you guys do. Or maybe it's something else in your systems like the switch or something that is causing the problems. Who knows.

Dennis

[zimm0who0net]

I've also experienced the audio drop outs since 1.09. When I play back a segment in a recorded show that has the audio dropouts it always seems to be in the same place, so it's probably related to recording rather than playback.
Some shows had so many dropouts that I couldn't watch them anymore. The dropouts are compounded by the longer no-audio lag bug with the digital out.
The receiver has also rebooted a number of times since the 1.09 release.

[Bob Haller]

Well When I get back I am upgrading to all new dish pro equiptement with all new coax and everything. If I replace EVERYTHING but the physical dish will this elmiinate the possiblity that those of us with a problem have a system problem?

Perhaps I should put in a new dish too? Although my present signal strength is around 120 on most transponders and over 100 on all core ones. Can we agree its not the physical dish?

I for one would like to get to the bottom of this one way or another. Its interesting that we with problems have similiar ones?

I am not trying to be argumentive just curious.

Those of you with troubles? My 721 is on ports one and two of my SW64. How about the rest of you?

[dbronstein]

Bob,

I wasn't trying to be argumentative either. I agree the whole thing is weird. Those of you with problems have similar issues, and some of us have hardly any problems at all.

As far as equipment goes, I have the two dishes - a 500 and 300 - and a DP34 switch with the 721 on outputs 1 and 2. I'm using the coax output to connect to the TV. This is also my only receiver.

I think it might be at least partly how many timers and recordings people have. We have about 15 weekly timers set and max out at about 20 hours of recordings at a given time.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

I think there is something wrong with the hardware myself because others are having problems with losing signal a well. They need to figure out what mistake they made when making the receivers and then give people replacements or fix the ones we have now RIGHT!!! Without a charge for shipping and handeling, giving us something for our hassles.

[Karl Foster]

Originally posted by dbronstein
I think it might be at least partly how many timers and recordings people have. We have about 15 weekly timers set and max out at about 20 hours of recordings at a given time.

Dennis

So are you saying that trying to use the full capacity of the equipment is causing problems? I thought it was supposed to hold up to 90 hours not 20 hours. If that is the case, that is a MAJOR problem.

[Bob Haller]

Jen probably has 50 timers set on the 721 and has filled the HD till it starts deleting stuff. Were a heavy user if that means anything...

[DmitriA]

L1.09 definitely does not fix audio dropouts. Haven't had any of the other problems though

[dbronstein]

Originally posted by karl_f
So are you saying that trying to use the full capacity of the equipment is causing problems? I thought it was supposed to hold up to 90 hours not 20 hours. If that is the case, that is a MAJOR problem.

It does hold up to 90 hours. The most I've ever had stored at a given time is about 20 hours.

What I'm saying is that it's possible that the reason some people are having problems with it and others aren't is because of how heavily they use it. I don't use it that heavily and I've only had a couple of problems. Bob and his wife use theirs very heavily and have had a lot of problems. So maybe that's a factor.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

One should be able to use it any way they want to without problems. This should NOT be an excuse for problems. I do understand your view point though.

[DmitriA]

Originally posted by dbronstein
It does hold up to 90 hours. The most I've ever had stored at a given time is about 20 hours.

What I'm saying is that it's possible that the reason some people are having problems with it and others aren't is because of how heavily they use it. I don't use it that heavily and I've only had a couple of problems. Bob and his wife use theirs very heavily and have had a lot of problems. So maybe that's a factor.

I've stored close to 70 hours on it for many weeks without any problems whatsoever. Currently, I have about 40 hours on it. Can't seem to find time to watch all that recorded stuff.:hair: That's the biggest downside to having a PVR with such a large harddrive - it allows you to record things that you know you will never have the time to watch :D

[Jacob S]

Maybe they can lower the price of pvr's since the hard drives are big enough, and reduce the size, instead of making them bigger and bigger. The only thing is that since they will be having two tuner pvr's they will need to make the hard drives bigger to accomodate that second tuner.

[Bob Haller]

Jen has become a tv junkie and tries to watch EVERYTHING she records. She also records cant miss stuff on a VCR with our 4700 as a back up. She doesnt completely trust our pvrs. :(

I record stuff mostly on the 508s which I prefer. I dont watch nearly as much tv as Jen.

[UpOnTheMountain]

We have had our 721 for about a month now, and have kept it at around 70 hours the whole time, with constant new additions and deletions.

We are frequently watching recorded events while both tuners are chugging away at getting our next gotta-get-that-one-too show.

We watch about three hours per workday and maybe six hours per weekend day.

So .. we are semi-heavy users ...

We have NO serious issues with our 721. We have had NO real failures.

The box has been a true pleasure to use .... except ...

Those darn pause and skip resync issues! The sound and frame re-sync problem has gotten worse for us. It is very annoying! We use the frame control (pause,back skip,forward skip) all of the time.

So I have to agree that L1.09 has not helped and ... perceptually ... appears to have hurt. :-(

[Bob Haller]

These symptoms so boxes work others dont, upgrades create new bugs are EXACTLY the DPs history:(:(:(!!!!

Were $600 beta testers:(

[Jacob S]

You have not had the receiver long enough to experience all the other problems, although some never have all the issues that others have, and you are blessed to not have had those problems.

[UpOnTheMountain]

Well, I guess I jinxed myself. I had a spontaneous reboot yesterday.

The unit was on but not being watched when I noticed the light go off on it so I changed the tv input to the 721 and found it reporting that it was checking the drive, moments latter it was back up and running fine.

... Strange!

[tm22721]

My 721 froze up yesterday afternoon when I hit the guide button. It took a power cycle to clear up the problem.

Why do 721 power cycles take >5 minutes ? My NT system at work takes less than two minutes to completely boot up from a powered down state. Is Linux really that much slower ?

And since when will J6P accept a computer-like reboot sequence instead of a 2-3 second delay to turn on his TV ?

This is why PVR is not taking off.

And never will until E* gets a clue.

I bought my 721 on condition that I could return it if it did not measure up.

It's looking more and more as if I will have to send it back. It's great when it's working but I refuse to keep an expensive piece of equipment that's unreliable.

The 721 could give Linux a bad name.

[Jacob S]

Ah, see what I told ya? It is just a matter of time until there is some bug that will haunt you. Some have more problems than others. Instead of asking who has had a reboot, who hasn't? Some may have and just have not known it yet.

[Danbo]

What I'm saying is that it's possible that the reason some people are having problems with it and others aren't is because of how heavily they use it. I don't use it that heavily and I've only had a couple of problems. Bob and his wife use theirs very heavily and have had a lot of problems. So maybe that's a factor.

I'd have to disagree with this personally. I'm not a heavy user. I have only a few timers set, and rarely change them (which I should, since I'm recording shows I don't want because of network changes). I've had issues since I received the receiver. Timer problems, audio drop-outs since L1.07, pixelation during "live" play (but not necessarily on recorded), and freezing. Oddly enough, the freezing and "acquiring satellite" problem didn't really come to the surface until L1.09. Since then I've had a few "acquiring satellite" issues.

Not to mention that, when pausing during the most recent "Star Search", the receiver literally froze. I couldn't do anything. No remote functionality (occassionally the banner would pop up). Even using the power button on the receiver itself did nothing. It was either pull the card out or pull the plug. I opted for the card. After about 10 to 15 minutes, the system doing it's check, and staying in "Acquiring satellite" for five minutes, it was finally back. Of course I lost what I had paused, and what was to be recorded after (the initial part of it).

When I heard that the audio issue was resolved in L1.09 (during skip ahead or back), I was thrilled. It seemed for a time to function okay. That thrill didn't last all that long. It has been annoying getting the "Acquiring satellite" problem tho during a few critical times. I'm well aware of terrestrial interference, being an owner of a big dish, and small dish, for years. There was nothing. No rain, no trees, no snow, no wind. Just the acquiring satellite for, obviously, no apparent reason.

I'm looking forward to some more updates that might actually be useful, or correct these issues. I'm also looking forward to the 921, preferably one that includes an upgrade path for current dish users. Yet, with all these problems on the 721, hearing of problems at shows featuring the 921, I'm reluctant to consider going early with it. I've already felt I've been a part of the beta test of the 721 for some time. Just as I'm tired of hearing, from tech support, that I should power off my unit in the evenings from the front panel, and not the remote. That seems to be their catch all, correct all phrase.

[Jacob S]

Acts just like a computer, freezing up and stuff. I thought Linux was more reliable, that is what the 721 uses, right?

[visitor 88]

Its all Microsoft's fault!!!

. . . Oh, wait . . .

[Bill R]

Originally posted by Jacob S
I thought Linux was more reliable, that is what the 721 uses, right?
Yes, the 721 uses Linux (so does the DirecTV TiVos). The operating sytem itself is not the issue. Other software programs that control what the 721 does (and how it does it) is where the bugs are. The 721 is a new system and it is definately a learning curve for the programming team. The system has LOTS of potential and I think we will be seeing a lot of improvements in the coming months (and a lot of neat features).

[jerryyyyy]

I used to be a major complainer on this forum, but L107 & 109 have worked fine for me with no reboots. I just wish the fan were fixed. BTW, have two linux systems in my lab and they never need reboots either. This is the right OS for the job.

[TEXMIKE]

I agree.  I was much happier with L107.  I never had "hang up problems", now something weird happens every day.  I'd rather have L107 back.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I think many of the problems I am hearing (and that I have seen) have something to do with the new screensavers in some way (almost like they have a memory leak)

It seems like most problems happen after you leave your receiver on for a long time and the screen saver kicked in because you left the PVR screen up because the show recorded ended.

Anyone else have anything to add to my guess?

[Bill D]

Scott, I thought the same thing when my receiver locked up about a month ago (last time it happened) it looked like one of the screen savers was up. It was black for a few seconds then a bunch of trees or something popped up, and then evenutually it gave me the big X.

[BobMurdoch]

Originally posted by Danbo

Just as I'm tired of hearing, from tech support, that I should power off my unit in the evenings from the front panel, and not the remote. That seems to be their catch all, correct all phrase.

This is interesting... I haven't heard this. Do they report less problems if the power button on the receiver is used regularly vs. the remote power down. I had a problem after the recent upgrade with my caller ID not working anymore. It fixed itself after I pulled the smart card, but is powering down via the front panel a preferred method of reducing exposure to bugs?