721 stuttering / freezing on playback

[tm22721]

In the past several days my 721 has stuttered the video on playback. It happens at random intervals and is not related to signal strength which has been a rock solid 95 on both satellites since day one. It does not happen on Live TV, and not while I am recording another program, just during playback of recordings.

Also, it seems to be emitting a loud hum (audible from behind wooden cabinet doors) that I did not hear during the first few weeks of operation.

Is my hard drive dying already ??:(

[Kagato]

I get stuttering on my unit every couple days. I think it's a design issue and not a drive going.

[Jason]

I have had this problem on and off for several months now. I think it is a problem on E* end...but no one seems to know for sure and E* isn't doing a darn thing to remedy the problem.

[lonnman]

I've seen this problem more with L109. I definitely notice it when I'm recording two shows at once and watching a third show. It seems that my box can't keep up when it’s heavily loaded. The first time I hit PIP, it can take up to a minute or more to display the show, at about 20 - 30 seconds into it I get a blank border with no show and then have to wait. I did not have this problem with L108. I only hope that L110 will re-fix the things. Also note that I do reset my machine weekly, or more now where I did not have to with L108.

Jeff

[Kagato]

You've got two possibilities. 1) Some sort of house cleaning process needs to run at a lower priority. 2) Out of physical memory, so the OS is paging memory requests to Disk. I hope it's number 1 and not 2. At least there is hope that something could be done with number 1.

[lonnman]

Kagato,

My wife already believes that my house cleaning process runs at an extremely low priority. :D

Jeff

 

[mattmcg]

Originally posted by Jason
I have had this problem on and off for several months now. I think it is a problem on E* end...but no one seems to know for sure and E* isn't doing a darn thing to remedy the problem.

So, how do you know that they aren't doing a darn thing to remedy the problem?

[Jason]

Because this has been a problem for 6 months now and when people call Tech Support to report the problem they always say that "you are the only one that has reported this problem" when that is simply not the case!

They just aren't going to attempt to fix this problem because they could care less about customer service!

[Bill Mullin]

Originally posted by Jason
They just aren't going to attempt to fix this problem because they could care less about customer service! I think it's more likely they don't know how to cure the problem, so they deny there is any problem . . . this is called politics! :(

BTW - my pixellation, "acquiring signal" messages, and sound dropouts have disappeared for the last 48 hours or so. Hopefully that's the end of the problem (knock on wood).

[mattmcg]

Originally posted by Jason
Because this has been a problem for 6 months now and when people call Tech Support to report the problem they always say that "you are the only one that has reported this problem" when that is simply not the case!

They just aren't going to attempt to fix this problem because they could care less about customer service!

They don't care about customer service? When did this happen? How do you know this? Wouldn't that seem counter to building a successful business?

I wish somebody had told me this before I decided to buy! Frankly, I've upgraded from basic cable to a Dish 721 and can't believe I hadn't done this before!

[Bill D]

I don't like it when advanced tech doesn't know that others have had a problem, when even a quick look here shows several others have. Not sure if they don't want to admit to bugs, or there are just sooo many people that they really haven't heard pf it. I would think that if there is a known problem on any piece of equipment that an email would go out to all the tech people, so they can atleast say, yse we have heard of that we are in the process of fixing, etc..

[Jason]

Bill Mullin,

I just had the 'acquiring signal' message pop up today and the picture pixellated and the sound dropped out during an hour show about 50 times which made it virtually unwatchable.

Mattmcg,

Your sarcasm is a waste of time so I am not even going to acknowledge anything you have to say. If you are happy with your service...good for you. You simply can't relate with those of us who have had a ton of problems and have not had any resolution to them.

Bill D,

I agree with you. The tech support needs to take problems more seriously and pass them onto to the right people to get the problems fixed rather than always telling people that they are the only one that has reported the problem or telling you to reboot your system (like that magically fixes everything).