921 - L185 Software Release Notes

[Mark Lamutt]

A standby reset feature has been added to the L184 code whereby after a period of inactivity in standby during early morning hours the receiver will reset itself.

This is intended to help stabilize timers (specifically timers that stop firing after a period of time), in the near-term until we can get more permanent timer fixes released.

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From me: This is a temporary patch fix to keep the timers going until the testing process can be completed. The testing problem that we're hitting here is that it's a 10-12 day turnaround to test the timer failure fixes.

So, rather than make you wait for another month at least for the real fix so that we can test it thoroughly, L185 will reboot the 921 on a nightly basis.

The reboot will only take place if the 921 is in standby mode (ie turned off) AND only if there are no timers set to fire or already recording around the time the reboot will take place. So, the reboot will not necessarily happen at a specific time overnight, but will work around any timers that you have set to fire overnight. If you leave the 921 on overnight, it won't reboot. And if you have timers set to record all night, the 921 won't reboot.

If that's not clear, I'll try to clarify by answering your questions.

EDIT: I'd also suggest doing a power plug reboot after L185 installs, unless that procedure adversly affects your OTA channels.

[Mike D-CO5]

I already did the power plug reboot after the software downloaded since the timers that were supposed to go off at 12:00 noon didn't fire. I guess because of the software update. I hope the reboots won't screw up my receiver's ability to record ota timers. I finally got that to work yesterday and would hate to lose this feature again.

[Mark Lamutt]

It shouldn't, or at least it didn't cause me any OTA timer problems.

[kmcnamara]

Mark, are you still having good luck with your OTA in terms of not losing channels? I haven't checked yet with L185 but with L184, I lost all but 2 channels every day (NBC and PAX never die) and I'd have to go back in and set them all up again.

[Eagles]

So this is the L-DonLandis Version. !pride

[Mark Lamutt]

Mark, are you still having good luck with your OTA in terms of not losing channels? I haven't checked yet with L185 but with L184, I lost all but 2 channels every day (NBC and PAX never die) and I'd have to go back in and set them all up again.

I haven't lost any of my OTA channels since the beta before L182 (which has been about 7 weeks now).

[jsanders]

I haven't lost any of my OTA channels since the beta before L182 (which has been about 7 weeks now).


I'm glad to hear you don't loose OTA channels, but I loose a bunch of mine every time it reboots. I'm really hoping that I'm not going to have a HUGE problem with this release. For me, I have to do a re-scan then a manual add every time it reboots. I don't loose OTA channels if I don't reboot, since L182 like yourself. Do you know if they fixed that problem or not? I'm almost afraid to go home tonight to find that my timers didn't fire because I lost the channels!

[sgt940]

A standby reset feature has been added to the L184 code whereby after a period of inactivity in standby during early morning hours the receiver will reset itself.

This is intended to help stabilize timers (specifically timers that stop firing after a period of time), in the near-term until we can get more permanent timer fixes released.

--------------------------------------

From me: This is a temporary patch fix to keep the timers going until the testing process can be completed. The testing problem that we're hitting here is that it's a 10-12 day turnaround to test the timer failure fixes.

So, rather than make you wait for another month at least for the real fix so that we can test it thoroughly, L185 will reboot the 921 on a nightly basis.

The reboot will only take place if the 921 is in standby mode (ie turned off) AND only if there are no timers set to fire or already recording around the time the reboot will take place. So, the reboot will not necessarily happen at a specific time overnight, but will work around any timers that you have set to fire overnight. If you leave the 921 on overnight, it won't reboot. And if you have timers set to record all night, the 921 won't reboot.

If that's not clear, I'll try to clarify by answering your questions.

EDIT: I'd also suggest doing a power plug reboot after L185 installs, unless that procedure adversly affects your OTA channels.
My 921 looses all OTA channels above digital 5 every single time I do a power plug reset. Is this reset going to cause a loss of the OTA's daily like the power cord reset?

[Mark Lamutt]

jsanders and sgt940 - I don't know how this is going to affect you. Please let me know.

[kmcnamara]

My 921 looses all OTA channels above digital 5 every single time I do a power plug reset. Is this reset going to cause a loss of the OTA's daily like the power cord reset?

Sgt, what market are you in? I daily lose my channels over digital 5 too every time I power plug reboot.

[Rodney]

A standby reset feature has been added to the L184 code whereby after a period of inactivity in standby during early morning hours the receiver will reset itself.

This is intended to help stabilize timers (specifically timers that stop firing after a period of time), in the near-term until we can get more permanent timer fixes released.

--------------------------------------

From me: This is a temporary patch fix to keep the timers going until the testing process can be completed. The testing problem that we're hitting here is that it's a 10-12 day turnaround to test the timer failure fixes.

So, rather than make you wait for another month at least for the real fix so that we can test it thoroughly, L185 will reboot the 921 on a nightly basis.

The reboot will only take place if the 921 is in standby mode (ie turned off) AND only if there are no timers set to fire or already recording around the time the reboot will take place. So, the reboot will not necessarily happen at a specific time overnight, but will work around any timers that you have set to fire overnight. If you leave the 921 on overnight, it won't reboot. And if you have timers set to record all night, the 921 won't reboot.

If that's not clear, I'll try to clarify by answering your questions.

EDIT: I'd also suggest doing a power plug reboot after L185 installs, unless that procedure adversly affects your OTA channels.

Does the above quote indicate that it will be atleast another month before we see another update? Any chance that a OTA fix will be issued before the permanent timer fix is released?

[Mark Lamutt]

No, my statement in no way is meant to imply that it will be another month before the next version is sent. I have no idea when the next version will be ready to go. I am, however, meaning to say that it will be around a month (plus or minus) before the timer problem is fixed, assuming that the fix takes 2 testing cycles to nail just because of the long turnaround time this testing is going to require. If it takes 10 days for a bug to manifest, it will take 10 days minumum to test per cycle.

[Mike D-CO5]

Well I didn't lose the ota channels and the timers fired fine. I only wish my local abc station would increase the power on their signal so it wouldn't break up about 10 times a minute. I have to remember we are still just getting started in my area with digital . The engineer I talked to at the station said he couldn't figure why I wanted the channel in digital and that there was no reason why I should have bought a hd tv since this is all a fad and will go away as soon as it came. With this kind of predjudice against the digital transitition I can see the dead line for analog signals being cut off being extended way past 2010. For the record, the digital version of my abc station is very good when it is coming in strong and makes the satellite version look pale in comparison.

[bytre]

Thanks for posting the list.

[ocnier]

Hey, does anyone know if this software update would include recognition of a dp plus 44 switch. I know they're not available yet, but at least recognition would give some assurance they're in the pipe for distribution in future. I am getting tired of not having my CBS HD feed east with my west feed.

[sgt940]

Sgt, what market are you in? I daily lose my channels over digital 5 too every time I power plug reboot.
Dallas/Fort Worth, actually I have only been loosing them every 5 or 6 days or everytime I do a reboot of any kind.

[sgt940]

OK, Mark I lost my OTA's overnight just as if I had un-plugged it and did a re-boot. Given several of my timers are OTA timers this creates a bigger disaster than before. Guess I will not put the unit in stand by at night. Here is the details on the OTA loss that the engineers might find interesting as it happens EVERY TIME on re-boot. I scan in (tried manual and auto) channels 4 (broadcast 35), 5 (broadcast 41), 8 (broadcast 9), 11 (broadcast 19), 21 (broadcast 18), 33 (broadcast 32). In every case after a re-boot channels 4 and 5 stays and 8,11,21,33 go away. Broadcast channel wise they are all over the board. All are in the Dallas market.

[Mark Lamutt]

ocnier - DPP44 support is not yet in the 921. It was going to be in the "next" version before all of this timer mess came up.

sgt940 - please send me in a PM or email the station details for your channels 8,11,21,33. I need station call letters, website addresses, contact information for the operations manager or chief engineer, etc - as much info as you can provide. Dish is going to have to contact each of them about this.

[snathanb]

ocnier - DPP44 support is not yet in the 921. It was going to be in the "next" version before all of this timer mess came up.

sgt940 - please send me in a PM or email the station details for your channels 8,11,21,33. I need station call letters, website addresses, contact information for the operations manager or chief engineer, etc - as much info as you can provide. Dish is going to have to contact each of them about this.

This page supplies the phone number, urls, etc for all Dallas stations.

http://www.town-mall.net/media/television.html

By the way.... I'm in Dallas, and I don't lose these channels if I reboot my 811.... I left mine unplugged for 10 days when I was on vacation, and they were all still there when I plugged it back in.

I don't know if that makes a difference or not.... just some data.

[ocnier]

Well Mark, all I can say for now is crap!!!!!..... Maybe next software update I'll get lucky.

[ocnier]

snathanb, I think it's a 921 specific problem. I live in the DFW metroplex as well and i have the same problem as sgt940. In fact ever since the L185 update I have to rescan my OTA's daily. I may start leaving it on all the time, but that seems like a waste in a way. Oh well, here's looking forward to L186 soon.

[jsanders]

A standby reset feature has been added to the L184 code whereby after a period of inactivity in standby during early morning hours the receiver will reset itself.


This wasn't the only change!
Before, when a channel was "lost", and it was tuned to the lost channel when the 921 was powered on, I always saw a blank screen. When I would turn to a satellite channel, the blue light would turn on (on the front panel), and then I would see a picture. If I then switched back to the lost channel, I would see the message, "Channel x.x not found".

Now, when I turn on the 921 under the same circumstances, the blue light is off, however, the screen is not blank, I see the message, "Channel x.x not found" on the screen!

If you would like to verify my findings, tune to an OTA channel, then power down the 921. Disconnect the OTA antenna, then power the 921 back up. You should see the channel not found message and the blue light on the front panel is not illuminated.

This is an improvement over previous versions, but it is scarry nonetheless.
It suggests there is a problem with managing software releases somewhere. From your release notes, it sounded like they just checked out the "L184 Release" tag, and added some reboot code to it. The software is not acting in that manner. Eldon should know that they either forgot about that fix, or that they have a real problem with their version control system (CVS), or the 921 has a mind of its own.

[BobMurdoch]

I went home last night and noted that the screen still said L184. I pulled the smart card and reinserted and then it said it was installing new software. When it was all done I only had 2 hours of guide data. I'll check tonight to see if the guide data filled back in......

[Mark Lamutt]

jsanders - you have to keep in mind that not everything that is changing in the software is being released to the public. I only pass along to you what I get from the software team. I don't believe at any time have I said that the lists of changes that I post are a complete list of all changes made.

[jsanders]

jsanders - you have to keep in mind that not everything that is changing in the software is being released to the public. I only pass along to you what I get from the software team. I don't believe at any time have I said that the lists of changes that I post are a complete list of all changes made.


I was definetly considering that not everything that is changing is being released. Because I was thinking along those lines, what I mentioned was looking like a big problem. Checking out a release tag, then making a single addition is what I was expecting. What I was observing was starting to look like a non-structured version control system, complete with feature leak! That is a big problem from a project management standpoint.

A non-complete list I guess is a little more assuring when looking at it from that perspetive. It makes the problem a lot smaller in scope.

[SimpleSimon]

Might it be that they're not telling Mark what's being release because THEY don't know!?!?!

If they actually had reasonable version control and modular software (I have my doubts that the overall system design is structured at all), they would know what's coming out, and be able to let Mark know.