Dish changed 721 guide screen?

[bsobel]

Ok, has anyone else seen their 721 guide screen change? My guide screen now has a different font which is MUCH more unreadable than the normal screens. It also seems to have 'shrunken' (I have a large gap at the bottom where it seems an extra row of info could go). The new font used is just unreadbale on my big screen (the other 721 menus still look just fine).

I called Dish and they said (and you know how reliable this can be...) that they are currently rolling this change out to groups of 721s. Now my SW version still says 1.09, so I strongly suspect something else is actually going on (bug?).

Has anyone else seen this?

Bill

[Danbo]

Mine looks fine, at the moment anyway... No change here.

[bsobel]

I also just noticed that all of the record indicators (the red dots on guide entries that show a timer exist) are no longer shown. I guess I'll have to wait a day or two and see if others get it also.

Bill

[bsobel]

Ok, I suspect that some of you think I'm nuts so I took my digital camera to capture my 'new' 721 guide screen.

My current guide (http://outbox.esobel.com/dishguidebad.jpg) (note the red dot is from my flash, I no longer have the 'red' recoding indicators on ANY timer)

Normal guide for reference (http://outbox.esobel.com/dishguidegood.jpg)

I just spent another hour with Dish technical support. Yesterday Dish indicated this was an intentional change. Todays technican contradicted the Dish person who told me yesterday this was rolling out to everyone. He had me reset the unit to factory, go in and reset the nvm. However the 'bad' guide remains.

I figure my choices are:

a) Dish really is rolling this out to everyone and I get hit first
b) Someone in the house hit a key sequence which put us into an 'alternate' guide mode, one the manual doesn't discuss
c) I don't know what C is.

Does anyone have any ideas whats going on here?

Desperate,
Bill

[cmaier]

That guide is ugly. Why would they list the date twice?

[bsobel]

Originally posted by cmaier
That guide is ugly. Why would they list the date twice?

I have absolutely no idea. Whats more concerning is that dish can't even tell me if this is intentional or not (but I can't think of a bug that would cause 'this' to happen, so I remain stumped)

Bill

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have looked at your picture, it appears you have a 721 which is slightly artistic. :)

As someone who has been running the new software for close to two months now (L1.10 Alpha/Beta) I can say that there are no visable changes to the guide (especially ones that look like what you show)

What I want to know if how you are getting both the East and West Coast network feeds. :)

[dbronstein]

The date is twice because one is the current date and time (in the box) and the other is the date the guide is displaying. So if you move ahead in the guide, the "Wed Mar 12" with change to "Thurs Mar 13" and so on.

Dennis

[md_paul]

What I want to know if how you are getting both the East and West Coast network feeds.

Scott, those of us that are unlucky (lucky?) enough to not receive a grade B off air signal of local networks and do not live in an area where Dish provides locals, are still able to subscribe to DISHNETS. The location of my home in northern MD near the Pennsylvania line qualifies me for ABC & CBS feeds. Dish allows you to pick up to two for each network. I chose New York & Los Angeles for the network feeds. My wife really likes that we can come home and catch the end of a network show that we like, and then set the PVR to record the show when it broadcasts on the West coast feed. I understand that when locals are available (my market is Baltimore), I'll have to give up dishnets. For this reason, my feelings are mixed about wanting Baltimore locals.

Anyway.. I'm off topic for this thread.

I just looked at my 721 guide and it still looks the same as it always has. It hasn't reformatted to look like the image bsobel has posted.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ahh cool, I didnt know you could get both. :)

Your screen should not look reformated like bsobel's image does. :)

[bsobel]

Well, no one else I know with a 721 has seen this either (hence my doubt when Dish told me it was intentional). I just emailed their support the screen shot URL and asked they include it in my open case. I guess I'll need to follow up with them in a few days...

Bill

[Chris Blount]

Could your 721 software be corrupted? I remember that when I first turned on my 721 and before the software download, the fonts were all small and hard to read just like the ones on your screen capture.

[Gregg W]

bsobel --
What software version does your PVR 721 show?

[bsobel]

Originally posted by Gregg W
bsobel --
What software version does your PVR 721 show?

First thing I checked, but it still shows 109
Bill

[jcrash]

I'm betting you have some corrupted files. Most likely font related files are corrupt and the interface is defaulting to a system font or something.

But, I can't look because your JPG is not loading.

[bsobel]

Originally posted by jcrash
I'm betting you have some corrupted files. Most likely font related files are corrupt and the interface is defaulting to a system font or something. But, I can't look because your JPG is not loading.

Can you try again, I just hit it from work and my home site is up. I thought about corruption also, but it's not just a font change, the location of layout of items on the guide changed also. Its almost like the system reverted to a previous version of the guide, however I've never seen 'this' previous version on any machine (however 107 was the first version I had)

Bill

[mgavin]

You could force the 721 to reinstall the harddrive image to see if that fixes the problem - I'd suspect something on the harddrive is corrupted. To get it to reinstall the HD image you'd have to power the unit off, remove the top cover(it slides back), unplug power to the harddrive(unplug the 4 pin cable from the mainboard) and then power the 721 on - it will think the harddrive has failed and powerup in basic mode. Once its running remove power again and plug the harddrive back. When you power it back on it will find the harddrive again and reinstall the OS.

Of course this procedure is not for everyone, it may void your warranty, it will certainly remove anything stored on the harddrive - this means recorded programs, timers, favorites etc.

The above will also fix the timer reboot problem if you have too many timers.

So proceed at your risk...but again it will likely fix the problem...

[patmac01234]

Is anyone else receiving the NEW revised guide? My 721 has been off all day; I was expecting to come home to a new guide. I even pulled out the smart card and rebooted --- but still have the same 'ol guide. The new one is better -- more words of a program title appear in the box

[rjenkins]

Isn't there an option under preferences for font size or something? I seem to recall setting the font to the smaller size at one point, but it was too small, so I switched it back.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Welcome patmac :hi:

There is no new guide coming, the problem is something currupt on the users 721.

I am running the upcoming software and the guide is the same a L1.09 (The version that is available now)

[JohnB]

My guide also changed to the new compressed format. I was watching ER delayed when the system froze (11:00pm) during timer transfers. It did a spontaneous reboot. After the normal 4 minutes of validation and satellite acquisition, I checked the guide to find out it had switched to the smaller format. The software version is still L109 and the machine still operates with all of the features of that update. I rebooted again, did a nv-ram reset, factory reset but the guide stays the same.

Has anyone else done a hard reset in the last day and had their guide remain as the standard guide?

My theory is that the 721 downloads some guide presentation and layout codes during system resets and Dish put up a new layout for the 721 on Wednesday but it only shows up if you do a reset. Just a theory. Any one else want to try a reset on their machine to validate this?

[UpOnTheMountain]

I tried the front panel reset (held down the power button for 10 seconds to force a reboot).
This did not appear to change my guide.
Here is a vidcap :

hmmm ... how do you insert an image? I tried an attachment but no joy.

Anyways, I tried with transparent guide and without, but no obvious change after the reset.

*note that i did not go so far as a nvr reset :-)

[bsobel]

Well, I got a response from Dish. They emailed me and said I could a) RMA the unit or b) wait for 110 which would resovle the problem (which makes sense, presumably it will have a new image even for files which haven't changed).

Since I don't want to lose what I have on the device, I'm going to wait.

Scott, are we still hoping it's coming out this month?

Bill

[bsobel]

Hi John,

Just noticed your post, Dish seems to be telling me this is not intentional. I have no evidence to back this up other than being a developer myself, what I'm suspecting is; Dish was using a downloaded layout file and something 'bad' occured to it. The software is then defaulting to a built in one, which is likely not a 'new' layout but the original layout that (thankfully) Dish never actually shipped enabled. My theory is based on a) the guide definately changed and b) the 'new' guide has less functionality than the old one.

Bill

[Bob Haller]

Arent bugs interesting? A least this one allows you t continue to use your box. I am saving how to erase the HD info in case my goofy wife causes endless reboots again:)

[JohnB]

Well I felt brave and I had caught up on most of the shows on the 721 so I took a stab at the hard drive reload procedure listed above and presto, the standard guide is now back again. Of course it wiped out all timers and shows but it is nice to have the standard guide back.

Good luck on your restoration Bill. Hopefully L110 will be out soon and solve your problem.

John

[Bob Haller]

Will removing the cover cause a warranty problem? I guess not since our home uis pretty dusty and I pulled the cobvers on most of the receivers and blow the dust out from time to time. Have done this for my computers too, I guess static attracts dust and the E boxes are mostly open on the top.

[sjhill01]

From what I've read about the "how to make your 721 a webserver" stuff, even unplugging the hard drive cable isn't violating the warrant - only removing it does, so you should be safe..

[l.i.t.e.]

hi guys,

id like to know if you figure this out, i often use theater wide mode on my tv and the regular guide is cut off at the bottom and top just a bit, looks like your new guide will fit just right...i know your trying to get rid of it, but looks like it would work great for me...LOL

thanks

[bsobel]

No, dish said 1.10 would fix it. Bear in mind that basic features such as the red 'this item has a timer' indicator don't exist on 'this' version of the guide. That and the font is very unreadable. I also had to move the screen position as far down and right as I could to get it on the screen, luckily the other screens still are fine.

Bill

[Scott Greczkowski]

The reason 1.10 will fix it is because 1.10 will wipe out your existing software on the unit. :)

Think of it as spring cleaning. :D

[bsobel]

Thats what I expected it to do. More importantly, WHEN ;) Any update, we still looking at this month?