721 & L116 Bugs!

[Bogey62]

Will I be a nerver-ending bug tester for Dish and the 721?

Ever since the L116 "update" I have noticed the following bugs:

* Timers won't always fire when they are supposed to.

* Sometimes I can be recording on one tuner and the 721 will allow me to switch channels while I am viewing the tuner that is recording! The warning message never appears and it will switch to the new channel. If I then use the PIP button, the channel that is being recorded will appear there. Is this a bug or a new "feature" that I never knew about?

* Sometimes, while the light on the front panel of the 721 is lit and one, or both, of the tuners shows that it is recording via the Info button, pressing the PVR button will not show the recording in progress on its screen and I can switch channels on either tuner.

* When entering the Search screen via the # key sometimes garbage characters will appear in my search history. If this happens, doing a search on any of the history items and then returning to the history list afterward can cause the screen to go black (but the audio remains). At this point I can sometimes press the power button on the remote for a few seconds and the system will go back to normal (displaying the video and audio, but it is no longer in the Search screen) -- if this does not work then I am forced to do a hard reboot of the system via the unit's power button. This only happens when you get the random garbage in your search history and the only fix for this is to erase your entire list of searches and re-enter them all! This is ridiculous and Dish should have added an option to delete a single entry in the history instead of forcing you to delete the entire list (I can have as many as 40+ searches to re-enter via the remote!)

And while I'm on the search feature, how about adding the ability to scroll either way in the list, not just top to bottom! Let the list loop in both directions. Talk about frustration and a poorly thought out feature.

* Doing a search on any show, let's say "The Shield" for instance, will show all days and times for that show but they all have duplicate entires for the same show, time, channel, and day except that the duplicate entry always has an X beside it indicating that I don't get that channel. Example:

-----
Sunday March 14, 2004

FX 10:00pm The Shield
X FX 10:00pm The Shield
-----

I have tried rebooting the 721 and pulling the smartcard, doesn't fix it.

* The "stuttering" video/audio problem has ALWAYS been there since day one of owning my 721 (over 1 year and counting) and remains to this day. I can't trust this thing to dub a movie to tape since the hard drive seems to get too busy and screws up the playback of the show you're watching/dubbing -- in short, I have to babysit the unit and watch every second of the show that I'm dubbing to make sure I have a clean copy on tape.

The only way I have found to get around this problem is to tape the movie onto video tape "live", but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a PVR, right?

* I won't go into the poor "digital" picture quality (artifacts) on Dish's channels (especially pay movie channels like HBO) as compared to my good old C-band analogue signal. Watch any "shadowy" area of a movie sometime to easily see this. I wish they would dedicate more bandwidth to the PAY MOVIE CHANNELS!

[Mike D-CO5]

Get a rma from Dish , I have none of these problems and I have 2 721s. This does not sound normal.

[dbronstein]

I haven't had any of these problems either. Sounds like you have a bad unit.

[Bogey62]

I haven't had any of these problems either. Sounds like you have a bad unit.

Somehow I doubt it. This is my second unit in about 1 year or so worth of use and the first one had most of these same problems. Also, most of the problems I listed have been reported by others too. For instance:

* Timers won't always fire when they are supposed to.

* When entering the Search screen via the # key sometimes garbage characters will appear in my search history.

* Doing a search on any show, let's say "The Shield" for instance, will show all days and times for that show but they all have duplicate entires for the same show, time, channel, and day except that the duplicate entry always has an X beside it indicating that I don't get that channel.

* The "stuttering" video/audio problem has ALWAYS been there since day one of owning my 721 (over 1 year and counting) and remains to this day.
__________________

[retiredTech]

Bogey62 quote
"duplicate entry always has an X beside it indicating that I don't get that channel."

this is NOT a malfuction or bug
if you press info on the listings you will see one is FX on 137 and the "red x one" is FX on 878 which is part ot the "latino package"
granted it should be changed this so that "unsubscribed" listings don't show but this is the way that it works for all, at this time

as for your timers not working, that most likely is a malfunction of your 721

also studdering sound or video and garbage characters in your search history
is most likely a hard drive malfunction on your 721
or at the very least corrupt files on your hard drive

the only "bug" or quirk that I have is sometimes when using skip ahead the audio is lost breifly, but back skipping will bring it back.

I believe you need to be reporting the "studdering" and timers not working to tech support and get those documented , so you can get a replacement if necessary.

[Bogey62]

Bogey62 quote
"duplicate entry always has an X beside it indicating that I don't get that channel."

this is NOT a malfuction or bug
if you press info on the listings you will see one is FX on 137 and the "red x one" is FX on 878 which is part ot the "latino package"
granted it should be changed this so that "unsubscribed" listings don't show but this is the way that it works for all, at this time

as for your timers not working, that most likely is a malfunction of your 721

also studdering sound or video and garbage characters in your search history
is most likely a hard drive malfunction on your 721
or at the very least corrupt files on your hard drive

the only "bug" or quirk that I have is sometimes when using skip ahead the audio is lost breifly, but back skipping will bring it back.

I believe you need to be reporting the "studdering" and timers not working to tech support and get those documented , so you can get a replacement if necessary.

Yes, you are right about the duplicate entries with the X's, but you would think the descriptions would be in Spanish, see? :)

I also have the sound issue you mentioned and can fix it the same way.

The funny thing is, my first 721 did most of these things straight out of the box. :( This unit is a replacement.

[Bogey62]

OK, I just got off of a 30 minute talk with a Level 2 tech at Dish. She said that every one of the issues I posted here are known issues and that the "stuttering" video has been a known issue on every one of their DVRs since the beginning. She went on to imply that those who are not experiencing that issue should consider themselves lucky. :)

She also said that replacing my unit wouldn't solve these issues.

My question is, if they have known about the stuttering issue for that long and on that many different PVR models, why hasn't it been given top priority?

*sigh*

[Slordak]

Stuttering on every single DVR? Since when?

I have both a 508 and a 921 and I have never noticed stuttering during normal playback. There are sometimes issues with the audio not coming back on until after a second or two after the video has been paused and then resumed, but no issues during steady state playback.

[dbronstein]

I've never had stuttering either. The only problem I have is losing the sound with skip ahead occasionally. I don't think I've ever had a timer not fire.

Dennis

[Bogey62]

I don't think she was implying that every unit made has this issue, but rather that is was an issue in every model line. Hey, what can I say, I'm just repeating what I was told.

As for me, both of the 721s I've had have had this problem.

[retiredTech]

I don't think she was implying that every unit made has this issue, but rather that is was an issue in every model line. Hey, what can I say, I'm just repeating what I was told.

As for me, both of the 721s I've had have had this problem.

Sorry, I was hoping that advanced tech would have the solution for you.

Anyway, I hope you got in on the $1.99 ext warranty (back in Feb),

if not you might consider the new plan ($4.99 I think)

I never get extended warranties,
but with a DVR that the customer is "discouraged" from trying to repair.
I did get the warranty for my 721.

[Bogey62]

Sorry, I was hoping that advanced tech would have the solution for you.

Anyway, I hope you got in on the $1.99 ext warranty (back in Feb),

if not you might consider the new plan ($4.99 I think)

I never get extended warranties,
but with a DVR that the customer is "discouraged" from trying to repair.
I did get the warranty for my 721.

They basically offered no solutions, other than to say that they are aware of the problems and are "working on it". Every problem, except one, the tech looked up in her book of problems for the 721 and confirmed.

Yes, I am in on the $1.99 warranty, and I too never buy into what are usually scams for making more money. In this case, however, it has already paid for itself. I believe the $4.99 warranty includes a guy coming out to your house to unhook the defective unit and plug the new one in -- I think for $3 less per month I'll plug the new unit in myself. :)

[retiredTech]

Yeah I know about the repairman,
That's what I did for a living.(I didn't want that either)
I meant that the $1.99 one is "NO longer available" if you didn't already have.