DVR-942 Bug Tracking List

[Mark Lamutt]

I'm starting this thread as a place to track current user-reported bugs with DVR-942. Please keep commentary to a minimum. I'll be updating the first post in the thread reguarlary with reported bugs as they happen, and deleting reported bugs as they get fixed.

Current Bug List (Software Version L222):

1. Some users reporting audio/video sync issues improvements made in L224

2. Loss of video nightly requiring a check switch if connected to legacy LNBs with SW21 switches FIXED in L224

3. Setting up scheduled programs in the guide, and create a conflict (more that two programs at the same time), an error message screen will pop up telling me that there is a conflict. The only choices are to automatically reset according to priority or to change the priority of one of the programs. if I select the option to manually change, after making any changes and selecting done, the program guide will close. If I try to open the guide again, the unit will freeze and another screen will pop up indicating that the 942 is going through hard drive diagnostics which could last up to 45 minutes. The test only lasts about 30 seconds and then the 942 reboots. FIXED IN L223

4. HDMI passing only 2 channel audio, not spdif

5. Missing guide data for some OTA subchannels (-2s, -3s etc)

6. Manual timers are not named correctly if they are set to start before the start of the hour or the start of the half hour. Timers and events recorded from those timers are named the previous program’s title. For example, an event recorded from a manual timer set to record from 8:58pm to 10:00pm will be named the title of the program from 8pm to 9pm, rather than being named the title of the program from 9pm to 10pm.

7. You can’t watch OTA analog channels yet.

8. There's no Discrete OFF remote command.

9. When in Single User Mode, the TV2 output of downconverted 16:9 programming is displayed horizontally squished rather than being displayed in a letterboxed format.

10. None of the aspect ratio formats work when tuned to high definition satellite channels or digital OTA channels. This means that the DVR-942 cannot apply stretch, partial zoom or zoom to upconverted 4:3 broadcasts.

11. There currently is a problem outputting DD5.1 audio when PIP has been activated (either with the PIP button or with the SWAP button). DD5.1 audio is only active on the main PIP window. Once a Swap has occurred, the DVR-942 will only output PCM audio until the main window is swapped back. Same situation when recording one program in DD5.1, another one watched won't be able to decode the DD5.1, but will be in PCM audio instead.

12. Occasionally, the 942 will enter a state where TV1 and TV2 output is overlaid by green lines. See the pictures posted in this thread for what this looks like. (http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=382341&postcount=126) The only way to restore normal video at this point is to either do a front panel reset (push and hold the front panel Power button), or to do a power cycle reset (unplug and plug back in). The green lines will display regardless of channel tuned.

13. The 942 may have a hard time locking onto and saving OTA digital channels that do not have a ".1" subchannel. Reported CBS station in Charlotte, NC - broadcasts on channels 23.3, 23.4, 23.5, the 942 can't tune or save.

14. Closed captioning data not being sent through the TV2 output signal - meaning that the SD televisions TV2 output is connected to cannot decode the CC data from the TV2 output signal.

15. EDID problem - I had my Sony KD-34XBR960 HDTV ISF calibrated today. We happened to notice when switching between inputs on the TV that the HDMI input where I have the 942 installed takes a long time for the video to lock in - and my TV reports the signal as being "1080i - 4:3". I hooked the 942's component output to my TV and it is seen as "1080i - 16x9". The 942 is set for a 16x9 screen.

16. The 942 gets into state where the Daily Schedule screen does not load on today's date, and does not show any future timers scheduled to fire, even though you have timers defined. Also, in this state, the guide will not show the timer icons where they should be. If your 942 gets into this state, delete all of your timers from the timer list and redefine them. Once you get them redefined, things will be back to normal. This isn't a common bug, but it has hit me once in testing, and it has hit at least one user running L223. That's why it's on the list.

[SaranWrap]

:(

[Mark Lamutt]

I believe both of those issues are covered by #5 on the list, aren't they?

[SaranWrap]

I believe both of those issues are covered by #5 on the list, aren't they?

I'm a freaking idiot! My post is edited to hide my shame.

[Mark Lamutt]

No worries, SW. :)

[goaliebob99]

hey mark i have noticed that when you are recording a program in dd audio you cant tune to a dd program and get dd audio, you get pcm audio (its simular to the problem described above) with the exception that your not using pip your recording instead

[Mark Lamutt]

goaliebob99 - it's the same mechanism controlling the DD processing as is listed in #11, and has been a well known and documented bug in beta.

[JM Anthony]

Jeeeze - after reading this list, I'm glad I got my 921 :lol: Mawahahahahaaaa.

[leemathre]

It appears that L2.23 fixed number 3 in the list. The 942 no longer freezes nor goes through the hard disc diags after resolving a conflict as documented.

[Mark Lamutt]

Good Deal. I've edited the list to indicate the fix. I'm going to be relying on you guys to tell me when these things get fixed because I don't necessarily see the same software you do.

[goaliebob99]

ok gota mark, thats what i thought just wasnt sure if you were aware of it.

[leemathre]

Problems with timers firing since L2.23. I had over 25 hours of programming scheduled to record on my 942 yesterday. Not one timer fired. I am an early riser, and do my program scheduling between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning on all of my receivers. This morning at about 2:20, I opened the EPG on the 942 to create my schedule for the day. As soon as I opened the EPG, a pop-up message appeared indicating that the guide was out of date and needed to be updated. This seemed strange, because I have the update scheduled to happen at 3:00 A.M. I let the update go through and came back about ten minutes later. I created my timers then went to another receiver to watch some recorded programs. I came back to the 942 at about 4:00 A.M. to watch what I had recorded yesterday. I opened the DVR menu and that is when I discovered that nothing had been recorded. I also saw that everything I had scheduled for today had been deleted. I recreated the timers and I will find out tonight when I get home from work if any of them fire. It appears, that when the guide gets updated at 3:00 according to my setting, it erases any scheduled recordings. I will try this again tomorrow morning prior to 3:00 to see if the scheduled recordings get deleted again. This is a major problem and I have reported it to the 921/942 support team. This never happened prior to L2.23.

[Mark Lamutt]

Lee - check 2 things for me. First, what does the Daily Schedule History show for those events that either were or weren't recorded yesterday? And second, check your free space available reported on your DVR screen - does it report that you have 0 hours 0 minutes free of both HD and SD?

If so, do a front panel reset and then report back how much space is reported, please.

[leemathre]

Mark - I am not at home right now, but I did notice both of those things this morning. The daily history for yesterday shows nothing at all and the free space available showed 180 hours free. It is just like no events were ever scheduled.

[Mark Lamutt]

Lee, when you get home, check your timers list then to see if they're still there, or if they are scheduled to fire at a later time. What kind of timers did you define to record yesterday?

[leemathre]

The timers were mostly one-time only, but two or three of them were set to record all "new" episodes. Another thing that I did not mention before, all of the EBR "new" timers that I had set up were also gone. I will check when I get home to see if the timers are still there and if any of the shows I had scheduled to record during the day did actually get recorded.

[JimD]

12. Occasionally, the 942 will enter a state where TV1 and TV2 output is overlaid by green lines. See the pictures posted in this thread for what this looks like. (http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=382341&postcount=126) The only way to restore normal video at this point is to either do a front panel reset (push and hold the front panel Power button), or to do a power cycle reset (unplug and plug back in). The green lines will display regardless of channel tuned.

Hello. I am a recent purchaser and currently happy user of the 942.

Mine suddenly exhibited the symptom above a couple of days ago, and when it happened I had not yet read this thread. I thought it was a serious problem that would require sending the unit back to Dish. I tried powering it off via the remote, then powering back on, but the lines remained. I tried several other things like switching to another channel and to a different favorites list, and somewhere during my button pressing the lines went away. They have not come back.

I thought I would mention this because it must be the case that there are other ways of eliminating the green lines than initiating a reset or power cycle via front panel or power cord. Unfortunately I do not know what it was that I did - I just know I never touched the front panel or power cord.

I am not sure whether this all happened before or after my receiver upgraded itself to L223, or whether that matters.

[Mike Johnson]

Mark,

I've done some checking on the XDS problem I observed earlier. I now believe this issue is related to #9 on the known bug list, so I am not going to post a bug report.

When the 942 is in single user mode, closed captioning is not passed on the TV2 composite output. However, XDS seems to be passed, briefly, when changing channels. Just enough for my TV to display the data. But the data is not "live". It only changes when I change channels, and the data is not cleared until another channel with XDS is tuned. In dual user mode, captioning/XDS works as expected.

In single user mode, the 942's internal caption decoder does work on both outputs TV1 and TV2 as expected.

Again, I suspect this is related to the aspect ratio problem on TV2 which is #9 on your list. Also relating to that problem, if the 942 is set for a 16x9 display on TV1, all programming output on TV2 is anamorphic 16x9, 4x3 programming included. This anamorphic squeeze would disrupt the closed captioning signal if it is present.

Mike J

[gevange]

My caller ID has to keep being reset. It will work once then I have to go in the menu and disable it then enable and it will work again once or twice. Anybody else having this problem? George

[Mark Lamutt]

What kind of phone line are you connected to, George? Land line coming straight from a jack? Wireless? DSL? VoIP?

[Mark Lamutt]

Mike - I'm sitting here right this moment in Single User mode, watching my local NBC channel's news with closed captioning on. I see closed captioning displayed on both TV1 and TV2. The CC is in sync on both outputs. So, either it was fixed in the current beta, there's something wrong with your 942, or I'm not following what the problem is correctly.

[gevange]

Hey Mark, I'm using a land line with DSL. I had a 508 before the 942 and the ID worked perfect. I'll have to keep an eye on it . George

[Mike Johnson]

Mike - I'm sitting here right this moment in Single User mode, watching my local NBC channel's news with closed captioning on. I see closed captioning displayed on both TV1 and TV2. The CC is in sync on both outputs. So, either it was fixed in the current beta, there's something wrong with your 942, or I'm not following what the problem is correctly.

Mark- The 942's built-in captioning decoding works fine on both TV1 & TV2 in both single and dual user modes.

The captioning decoder in my TV set can only decode captions on TV2 if I put the 942 in dual user mode. In single user mode my TV doesn't decode any captions from TV2. (It does, however, ocassionally see some XDS data.)

Make sense now?

[Mark Lamutt]

Gotcha Mike. I'll check into this.

George - keep an eye on it, but also keep in mind that E* boxes notoriously have problems with callerid on DSL lines, whether the 508 works or not. The modems in the receivers aren't the same.

[leemathre]

All of my timers fired as scheduled yesterday. I created some timers today before the EPG update at 3:00 then checked them after the update. They were not deleted. The problem seems to have been a one-time incident. Maybe I did something to cause it, but I don't know what.

[gevange]

You know Mark I read somewhere that putting in two filters can help alot. If it keeps acting up I'll give it a try and let you know. George

[Mike Johnson]

Mark,
I had my Sony KD-34XBR960 HDTV ISF calibrated today. We happened to notice when switching between inputs on the TV that the HDMI input where I have the 942 installed takes a long time for the video to lock in - and my TV reports the signal as being "1080i - 4:3". I hooked the 942's component output to my TV and it is seen as "1080i - 16x9". The 942 is set for a 16x9 screen.

I used to have my 811 hooked to the HDMI input on my TV and it was reported as "1080i - 16x9". I'm not sure what to make of this or if it's important or not. The displayed picture is fine. Technically there is no "1080i - 4x3" so I'm not sure why my TV thinks that's what the 942 is outputting.

Noted this today:
While my TV is locking to the 942 video, the displayed raster is only 4x3.

[Mark Lamutt]

That's interesting, Mike. I have no idea what it means either, but I'll pass it along to the 942 engineers. Might be important.

George - we've been recommending dual DSL filters on lines connected to the 921 for more than a year. Sometimes it has helped, a lot of the time it hasn't made any difference. Please let us know how it works for you!

[ngoldrich]

mark,

Im running 2.23 - I have 45+ timers. Now that I have 2.23, the timers are still listed, but the guide does not show the indicator on the program that they are going to record.
If I edit the timer and click done, then it shows up in the guide.

Did 2.23 introduce a bug that when it updated, it deleted some of the timer data ?
During testing I realized that the timers did still exist and editing them made them active.
I left 1 timer alone and did not edit it for a show tonight. I will see if it actually records even though the guide shows no indication that it will.

Mark, due to the 2.23 update do I just need to delete all the previous timers and reenter them - then will it work correctly ?

Thanks,
Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

Possibly, Norm. I didn't have that problem when I (briefly) had L223 on mine, and I haven't heard of anyone else having the problem, but it's possible.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

The timer that existed but was not showing on the program guide and which I did not edit - which does seem to reactivate the timer, did not fire.

So I am guessint that 2.23 caused this as everything worked perfect until that update.

I will delete all 45 timers and reenter them. I will let you know if that resolves it.

As a side note, I did not actually notice the problem until I switched to dual mode. I dont know if it had anything to do with it or I just did not look at the guide right before I did it.
I have switched back to single mode with the same results.

I will delete all of them tonight and let you know if it happens again. Most likely it will solve it.

As I mentioned, this is the first real problem I have encountered.

Thanks,
Norm

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

Since you only has 2.23 brief on yours, what are you running now ? A beta version of the next release ?

Thx,
Norm

[Neal]

I am seeing the problem described as Bug #2

2. Loss of video nightly requiring a check switch if connected to legacy LNBs with SW21 switches

I have a Dish 500 and every morning when I turn on my TV I see the floating Dish icon (screen saver mode?) and I need to do the switch test. I found that this is related to the 3:00 am channel guide update. If I turn off the update, I don't need to do the switch test and I don't see the icon. Someone complained about the icon in the morning keeping them from seeing the news for the 'past' hour. Try turning off the update.

[Mark Lamutt]

Norm - if you see this before you blow away all of your timers, please take a look at your Daily Schedule page first and tell me if what day it comes up on when you bring it up. Is it showing today, or some day in the past? And, does the Daily Schedule show any timers set to fire in the future at all? My current feeling on this is that you're seeing something similar to a problem that I'm seeing on mine and want to confirm.

Neal - it's being worked on, and they're close to a solution last I heard.

[Mark Lamutt]

Mark,
I had my Sony KD-34XBR960 HDTV ISF calibrated today. We happened to notice when switching between inputs on the TV that the HDMI input where I have the 942 installed takes a long time for the video to lock in - and my TV reports the signal as being "1080i - 4:3". I hooked the 942's component output to my TV and it is seen as "1080i - 16x9". The 942 is set for a 16x9 screen.

I used to have my 811 hooked to the HDMI input on my TV and it was reported as "1080i - 16x9". I'm not sure what to make of this or if it's important or not. The displayed picture is fine. Technically there is no "1080i - 4x3" so I'm not sure why my TV thinks that's what the 942 is outputting.

Noted this today:
While my TV is locking to the 942 video, the displayed raster is only 4x3.

Mike - I received confirmation this morning that this is an EDID bug with the 942 that will be fixed before the next version's release.

[gevange]

Hey Mark, Lost the ID completely. They sent me a ground cable for the 508 so I am Thinking about putting it on this one. What do you think? George

[Mark Lamutt]

Not following you, George. What do you mean ground cable? When they're talking about ground cable, I think they're talking about properly grounding your satellite dish, not your receiver.

I think your DSL is going to keep you from getting callerid with your 942 if the dual filters didn't work.

[Jerry 42]

Excuse me for being old & dum but when you refer to "dual DSL fitlers" do you you mean 2 DSL filters in series e.g. one plugged into the other or something else?
Installing 942 tomorrow, April 12, so I want to be sure I understand.
Thanks

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

I had actually checked that before and did not mention it (sorry).

The daily schedule showed only a couple of past timers. Nothing going forward even though there was 45 timers.

Last night I went to delete all the timers and just for the heck of it checked to see if the guide now showed that it would be recording shows and the guide is now showing them again...

It almost seems like on Sunday the system was setting itself up for the next week. But it took nearly a day to sort itself out ?

So I am not sure what happened. I think I may goa head anyways and delete them all and re-add them for safety.

But currently they do all appear again. Maybe I will wait until this coming Sunday and see if it happens again.

Very strange...

Norm

[gevange]

Mark, it was a ground wire that screwed on to the back of the receiver and went to a three plug adapter. George

[gevange]

Jerry, thats correct two in a series. George

[Mark Lamutt]

Jerry, like George said, 2 DSL filters plugged in in series. That helped some 921 folks get callerid out of their DSL lines, but not everyone. Two reasons that callerid can work in some of the older receivers on DSL lines but not the newer ones - the modems used are different and the modem drivers are different (running under Linux vs running under whatever OS the other receivers use). The linux modem drivers just don't seem to work as well.

Norm - I ran into the same thing yesterday on mine. I had 28 timer rules set, but no future timers scheduled. I resolved my issue by deleting all of the timers, and then setting them all up again. Until this bug gets tracked down, I would recommend you delete all of your timers and redefine them. Also, get in the habit of checking the Daily Schedule screen everyday to keep an eye on it.

[gevange]

Mark, I had a defective inline DSL filter. Something made me try changing the filters one at a time and bingo on the second one. I tried it on my phone and could bearly hear the dial tone. Thanks for all the valuable info you provide. George

[Mark Lamutt]

Glad to hear it, George!

[SaranWrap]

Do a search for "the wiggles" (no comments please) then try to set up a recording. When you try to record it , it only records the next program and won't record the wiggles. It must have something to do with the program being 25 min. long.

[Mark Lamutt]

SW - "try to set up a recording" meaning select one of the search results to define a timer? What kind of timer did you try to define?

[Pat A]

I got my 942 hooked up last wednesday and it took 2.23 when it fired up. Before yesterday, the only bug that I saw that hadn't been identified above had to do with closed captioning. When I first went through the menus, the CC showed up as "on", so I turned it off. In the off position, the closed captioning started working. I then turned it back to the "on" position, and the captioning went away. Not a big deal, but it seemed a little strange. Up until yesterday, I had been extremely happy with the unit.
Anyway, when I can home from work yesterday, I noticed that none of my scheduled timers fired. It looks like the same problem as ngoldrich had. When I brought up my schedule it displayed the past data for April 7, and when I scrolled down it stopped at the 12th. No info on any of the skipped timers for the 13th, or any future events. At the bottom of the screen, it said "timers 0", however when I went to the timers screen it showed 27 timers. I tried both a power button and power cord reboot and the system still would not recognize my timers. I then deleted them all and re-entered them. When I was entering "new" and "all episodes" timers, they did not seem to be working correctly as they seemed to be missing episodes in the guide (I stopped trying to figure out what was going on about 11:30 last night). We will see what happens when I get home tonight.

[Mark Lamutt]

Pat -

The CC setting is a toggle, and you were looking at it exactly backwards (just like I did when I first saw it).

You're now #4 that has had the timer database glitch. Deleting and readding all of my timers cleared up the problem for me. Are you saying that it didn't solve the immediate problem for you?

[Pat A]

Mark, I am not sure yet if deleting all the timers fixed it. I will post my results when I got home from work tonight. When I was reentering timers last night, it looked like it was not finding all episodes of a show when I selected "all episodes". It was late last night when I noticed the problem, and so I am not sure if it was an operator error, or a problem with the system. I'll try to get a follow up report posted tonight.
By the way, thanks for your reviews and all of your efforts here. Hopefully they'll get these issues taken care of soon. I am stepping up from a pair of 508s and a 6000. Having two tuners and being able to pvr HD is way cool!

[Mark Lamutt]

No problem, Pat. I agree - even with the current problems the 942 has, using it is amazing compared to the older receivers!

[ngoldrich]

Pat & Mark,

I agree too. My old one was a 6000 and I am still using the 721 as well as the 942. So I can record 4 programs simultaneously. Although, with the 942 being much cooler, I use the 721 a lot less.

Norm

[Jerry 42]

Mark I must thank you. Set up my 942 yesterday using your notes and its working really well. Have not yet tried all the features yet but following your notes has made what I have done easy.

I do hope Dish will provide more aspect ratio modes for Digital OTA channels soon. I will wait to see if I get the timer issues noted above, but otherwise I think I will finally sell one of my TiVos and 301 that is dedicated to it.

[JimD]

Mark, I had a defective inline DSL filter. Something made me try changing the filters one at a time and bingo on the second one. I tried it on my phone and could bearly hear the dial tone. Thanks for all the valuable info you provide. George

I have the same issue with caller ID (it stops working after a few successful operations and I have to disable/re-enable it to get it back).

I do not have DSL. This is just an ordinary phone line.

[JimD]

I seem to be experiencing a problem with the guide.

About every other day, the guide is out of date and I have to fetch it.

Today I pressed search while watching the tail end of something interesting. I was going to record the next iteration. When I pressed search, I was greeted with the guide download screen, so I let it do it. When it finished updating the guide, the search box was empty instead of being pre-loaded with the name of the current program as I expected it would be. So I hit "done" - thinking it would go back to the live program and I could hit search again instead of typing in the program name. Instead, when I hit "done" the guide outdated screen popped up again!! So I had to wait twice in rapid succession for the guide download to complete.

Why is it not fetching it at night like it is supposed to? I use the "power" button on the remote to shut it off at night, so it's not busy at the appointed time.

I did not see this listed as one of the known bugs, but my guide seems to be frequently out-of-date.

As an aside, turning off the receiver via the remote displays a "press OK to continue" screen, which is still there when I turn on the TV the next day. Is this normal?

[Pat A]

Mark, After getting home, none of my timers fired today. It is showing the same symptoms I noted above. Nothing is showing up in the future schedule. I again deleted all timers and rebooted. I tried to set an all episode timer for a show, and it only schedules the episode that I highlighted in the guide. I then tried to set a dishpass event for the show, and did not find any of the episodes that are present in the guide. It is as if the unit can not see the guide info at all, however the guide does seem to be updating as I can scroll a full week out. I have tried both power button and power cord reboots, but I can not seem to snap it out of what ever is going on.

[Pat A]

I just tried to run a simple search, and it is not working. At the top left corner of the search results screen, it is displaying "error". I imagine that this guide search bug is causing all scheduled timers that rely on the guide search to fail.

[Mark Lamutt]

JimD - don't know what to tell you about your callerid. Guide data...that's strange. Check your Updates (Menu-8-5) to make sure the guide data update is enabled. Also, make sure that you don't have another receiver trying to do something at exactly the same time as your 942 is. Also, make sure that you don't have 2 satellite timers recording at the time of the update.

When you put the 942 into standby mode, you should see the floating DISH logo saying Press Select to Continue. That's normal.

[Mark Lamutt]

Pat A - I'm going to have to escalate this issue to get some help for you, because what you tried is what got me out of the state. Please email me a description of what you're seeing, what you've tried, your receiver CA ID, your Smartcard ID, your Bootstrap version, and a phone number where you can be reached. I'm going to take this both to the 942 support team and through the beta channels to see if I can get a resolution. But, I need the email from you to get it started.

[goaliebob99]

hey mark I too am noticing that timers will not fire. It will show up in the guide that there suppost to be recording but when i go to the dvr portion to verify there not there.. Also to tonight when I was recording CBSHD (via 2nd dish) OTA NBC and ABC via dish locals WLS (chnl 80?? AKA CHNL 7) all at the same time my reciver locked up and went to a blank black screen after about 40 mins into the programs. only two of the shows recorded out of the 3. the only fix was a soft power reboot. after that timers started to fire again Still same problem where one of my timers did not fire. Also one last thing is I got the green spot bug too.. only seen it once though..

[Mark Lamutt]

goaliebob - are you seeing the same thing as Pat A? When you bring up your Daily Schedule, does it come up stuck on a day in the past, with no timers showing in the future to be recorded? If not, then your issue is something else, and you didn't give me enough information to even know where to start.

As for the green "spots", that'll be fixed with a video driver update that we're waiting on.

[goaliebob99]

ok mark my guide is updating I will document my timers not fireing later tonight when the latest batch of timers are suppost to fire. to get you more information on exactly what im experianceing. also this morning when i got out of bed I turned on the 942 and no picture. but i could see all the menus. I think this could be related to the video driver update that were wating on. Any idea on when the next sofware update is coming along?

[Mark Lamutt]

goaliebob, were you able to get video working again after a reboot? If not, we can talk privately about something you might be able to do.

[Mark Lamutt]

For those of you with the stuck daily schedule, or your timers not firing, please respond to the DATA COLLECTION thread that is stuck at the top of this forum!

[SaranWrap]

SW - "try to set up a recording" meaning select one of the search results to define a timer? What kind of timer did you try to define?

Mark - It makes no difference. Before and after you set up the recording it shows that it will record the next program. Someone else please try it, so I know if it is just something wrong with me.

Go to the search feature and search for "the wiggles" and then click to record one. When it comes up with the timer it will show the next program and try to record the next program and not the wiggles. (No "so whats the problem with not recording the wiggles" jokes)

[Jerry 42]

Just got off phone with Dish Advance Tech surport. They need to "pass it up the line" but it seem the 942 reciever will need to be replaced.

Message
Problem with hard drive
Error message 0521
Call Dish 1 800 ....

Whole story
Left the 942 on this morning to record golf. When I got home I put on TV on - Dish logo was on screen, pressed select and got Error Message. Called Dish - as instructed when I pressed DVR button got new error message function not available and machine locked up. Did a power button reset and 942 will work with live broadcasts but I can not use DVR functions at all.
Waiting to hear about replacement

[Mark Lamutt]

Jerry, if you don't get a call tomorrow (Saturday), email me what's happened, what you've done, who you've talked to, you receiver info, and phone number. "Up the line" means sending it to the same people that I work with on the 921 support team - they are also handling at least the initial 942 support as well.

[deweybrunner]

Don't know if bug or not. on local digital stations uhf all come in fine with a strength of 72 or up on the meter. The only vhf station is nbc, channel 8-01 or digital 7 is showing a strength of 88 or up. however, i just cannot get it to come in complete. it's just pixeled. Tried plug and switch reboot. Rescanned all locals. rescanned just that channel and nothing works. Sd channel 8 comes in fine. Was getting this channel fine with 921 and 6000. Is there something else i can do? I know i must be missing something! Thanks Dewey, Tampa

[goaliebob99]

mark the video does comeback after a reboot. it just gets annoying turing the 942 off at night and coming back in the morning with no video and having to do its morning wakup reboot. Pm me with with what you wanted me to do. i might be up to it..

[deweybrunner]

False alarm on nbc not coming in. The local station had cut down power for repairs, however, now back up.. thanks dewey

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

I am still having timer problems. The timers do not fire reliably and sometimes show up in the guide and sometimes not - it changes during the day..

I tried not deleting them for this week and it did not help.

I just deleted all of the timers. They showed as deleted. I then rebooted - I held the power button down for 10 secs. It came beack up - not with a checking hard disk like my 721, but it found the satellites then prompted to press select.

The timers were still showing as deleted. I then added a new timer. It then restored a bunch of the deleted timers even though I did not tell it to do so.

How do I truly delete the old timers. I do not want them staying on the system marked as deleted, because that is not fixing the problem.

Is that the way to reboot the 942 ?

So right now the recording only works sporadically.

What should I do next ? This is becoming frustrating as I missed many good events.

Thanks for the help Norm.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

I just spoke with Dish tech support and they had me reset to factory defaults to truly delete all timers. This seemes to really have deleted them.

I will renter and see if they now work.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Norm

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

I checked closer and it did not truly delete them. they are still there and not working properly.

Norm

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

I just spoke with tech support again and they said that to help insure the issue gets fixed that anyone with this problem needs to call in. They said I wam the only person they have received a call from with this problem.
Thx,
Norm

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

One more question - is there a way to downgrade back to 2.22 - I had no probelms at all with 2.22.

The problems all started the day 2.23 was installed.

Thx,
Norm

[goaliebob99]

i dont think there is any way to downgrade back to 2.22...

[ngoldrich]

goaliebob99

Thanks,
Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

mark the video does comeback after a reboot. it just gets annoying turing the 942 off at night and coming back in the morning with no video and having to do its morning wakup reboot. Pm me with with what you wanted me to do. i might be up to it..

goaliebob99 - are you connected to legacy LNBs and/or SW21 switches? If so, that's the problem, and it's being worked on.

[Mark Lamutt]

Norm - what exactly is the problem again? You're saying that you delete your timers, then add one of them back, and other timers that were deleted of other programs get added back as well? Did you do a power plug reboot after deleting your timers and resseting factory defaults? If you delete the timers, they show up in the history as deleted, but if they're not shown in the timers list, they aren't there.

Please try running me through this again from the top, if you would. What does your Daily Schedule look like? What does your timer list look like?

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

Here is the whole picture :

(1) Everything worked fine until 2.23 - it was stable
(2) I have 45+ timers
(3) Once 2.23 was installed - my 45+ timers still existed and showed active, but the guide did not have the icons indicating they would fire - nor would they actually fire.
(4) I would look at the schedule and even though the timers did exist in the timer list and appeared to be active, the schedule for today and future was empty even though there should have been many in the schedule.
(5) Then mysteriously the guide started showing some icons, not all. So I let it stay that way during the week to see if it worked itself out. It did not. Some timers firted, some did not. Some showed on the guide some did not.
(6) So today I deleted all timers. Unfortunately with the 942 it appears you cannot really delete a timer. It simply marks it as deleted, but it still stays on the machine.
(7) I checked and all timers showed as deleted.
(8) I added 1 new timer.
(9) I checked the guide and it had randomly turned back on aome of the deleted timers.
(10) I even tried rebooting and it did not help.

The following appears to be the case -

(a) It appears timers really cannot be deleted - just marked as deleted.
(b) There are several really bad bugs in the timer firing/management code.
(c) One of the bugs being that deleted timers are being made reactive and do not properly work anyways.
(d) Another bug being that when you do have active timers they do not always show up on the guide nor do they reliably fire.

** I just got home and the screen is blank and the system switched itself from mode 1 to mode 2 and all lights are on. Almost like they are spooling new software - is that what it looks like when software downloads ?

The screen is staying black. So I rebooted. It is still not back up yet.

I will leave it overnight...

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,
Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

Norm, email me in the morning if you don't have video back.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

Video is indeed back and playing fine...

Hopefully my detailed issue description made sense.

Glad to see Im not the only really early person...

Norm

[goaliebob99]

Mark, im on a DDP 44 sw with dp lnbfs. (superdish 119 feed all, 110 dp dule all, 61.5 dp dule all, 121 feed all) . with seporator in play. 119 on port 1,110 on port 2,61.5 on port 3 and 121 on port 4. It looks like ngoldrich ran into the same prob with the video that im having being black with everything on, no picture and i got audo and am able to see the menus. as far as my timer issue everything seems to be fireing again mabey just a hiccup? but im still getting the same problem with the video.

[Mark Lamutt]

goaliebob - does your checkswitch matrix report the correct results? I'll try to talk to someone at Dish about this tomorrow.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, I am having problems getting ota guide data, digital, for only three stations, nbc, cbs, and fox. I get all others. Also on "all channels" I get data on all stations for sd. I've re-scanned, re-booted, double checked if "enabled". My telephoneline is hooked up. The unit is turned off at night so it can down load. Also, in am It calls for a check switch(when all is always ok) it then askes to download guide data. I let it do every time. Still no guide data for my three main stations. Never had this problem on my 921. Am I doing something wrong or is there something I should do? Thanks for all your help and patience.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, forget about the above questions. For five days I have not had guide info on these three stations, even at 7 this morning. When i returned a couple of hours later, i had guide info for the first time. I still have problem with asking me to do a switch check every morning, even with it ok. Thanks!

[deweybrunner]

Mark, got another check switch, lost guide info again. I do not have a legacy or sw21 and still keep getting check switch. I have dish 500 with dual lines into 942 as i did on the 921. Check switch is always ok. I think it all starts with the download at 3 in the morning. Is this something to be fixed in the next soft ware update?

[Mark Lamutt]

dewey - what exactly are you seeing? What's the text and number of the error message? What LNB do you have? Do you have a switch? When do you see the error message? Please be as specific as you possibly can, so that I can see if this is something that's known of if it's something that's new.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, I will have to get the error no and text when it happens again. I have a dish 500 with a twin lnb. I have no switches in the line. It usually occurrs in am when first turn on. It will just come on and say do a check switch. which i do. I have two lines coming in from lnb as i did on the 921. Check switch shows equal advancement and no problems. Sometimes I have digital guide info and other times not, mostly not. SD has guide info all the time. I'll get back with you on the error no and text. Thanks so much.

[Mark Lamutt]

Please let me know if it's an Error 604 "There has been a problem detected with your switch..." message.

[SaranWrap]

Legacy switches and LNBF's are not compatable with 942 at this time.

[Mark Lamutt]

That's what I'm trying to determine - if it's the legacy switch problem, or if it's one of two other issues that I know about but haven't talked about because no one's brought them up.

[Patrick Bennett]

I thought there were people with SW64's using it? Isn't that a 'legacy' switch?

[Mark Lamutt]

Yes it is, and yes, there's a potential issue that may happen for you with your SW64 switch and legacy LNBs. But, it's one that should be fixed in the next software version.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, could it be my check switch problem is coming from the ports my two leads are connected to the twin lnb's? This set up worked fine with the 921. Just a thought after reading an answer of yours in another thread. Thanks

[goaliebob99]

mark, I will see if i can e-mail the 942 support team (im in dns and working untill wendsay. shifts are sun- wed. hey how about this for a bug.. and i got pictures to. I was watching cbs hd. and this black box appeared. It was recording cbs hd at the same time too. All check switches are fine and it shows everything good. I turned on PIP. and it wasnt working but there was the PIP box. with nothin in it. let me know what you think.. allthugh i found it pritty wicked but yet again another anoying bug... a soft reboot fixed it though.. sucked cauz my program got split into 2 timers on the dvr screen again :mad:

[Mark Lamutt]

GB - I've never seen it do that...

[goaliebob99]

Please let me know if it's an Error 604 "There has been a problem detected with your switch..." message.


oh by the way i get that one about 3 times a week but i just ignore it and do the check switch.. I dont think that i have mentioned that one before. but lately havent had it come up. then again i have been workin.

[goaliebob99]

GB - I've never seen it do that...
hahahaha thats why i took the pictures...

[Foxbat]

goaliebob99: man, you need to lay off the caffeine this late at night! :D

Or, you could try what I do when taking pictures of the TV and use the back of a chair to help steady the camera (of course, using a tripod works great, too!) Fortunately, the bug you were photographing was gross enough to be seen. Did the black box appear on the recording as well, or was it a Live display "feature"?

[deweybrunner]

Mark I told you I would get back with you on the next Check Switch episode. I was watching ESPN HD when the signal was lost and the screen went black. Then the check Detection came on the screen. The code was 004. Again i have the dish 500 with twin lnb and no switches in the line. Also, my digital local guide data comes and goes. This am it was lost. Around 8 oclock it came back on. at 11 it was gone again. Could it be the connection at the lnb might be in the wrong place?. It was fine with the 921. Thanks

[Mark Lamutt]

dewey, I think you're running into the legacy LNB problem, but I'm not sure. What's the weakest signal strength on 110 that you're seeing?

[deweybrunner]

Mark, my signal on 110 was 84-86 pretty steady, however, on 119 it stays 100-101. Maybe this could be the problem. I watched 110 for several minuites and never saw any drastic changes in strength, however 84-86 might not be strong enough? Thanks

[Mark Lamutt]

Should be unless you're in a severe weather event.

[deweybrunner]

The weather is great. Should 110 signal be higher? What should I do? What could be the problem, if any? Do I need to change the leads going into the lnb to a different port?

[goaliebob99]

you know what that was a good question that will be never known.... i deleted the recoriding lastnight. IF the bug happens again i will let you know.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, I wanted to let you know the latest with my check switch problem. Yesterday, I spent over an hour with a hd tech. with this problem. He found a few problems and said he would report this to engineering and that they would be calling me soon; either to tell me what else to do, or to return for exchange(which I do not want). Before he hung up he told me it was a long shot, but to switch, on the back of the receiver, the leads from the lnb. I did that and have not a check switch since then. Hopefully it won't return. Thanks for all your help, keeping my fingers crossed at this time.

[JimD]

JimD - don't know what to tell you about your callerid. Guide data...that's strange. Check your Updates (Menu-8-5) to make sure the guide data update is enabled. Also, make sure that you don't have another receiver trying to do something at exactly the same time as your 942 is. Also, make sure that you don't have 2 satellite timers recording at the time of the update.
Thanks, Mark.

I have 2 501s and a 508, they probably all try to get guide data at the same time. It has never been an issue for them, why does it matter with the 942?? The 942 is set for 3 AM at the moment. Should I change this to 4 AM?

By the way, I have noticed that it *does* happen *exactly* every other day. I check it about 24 hours after having manually fetched it, and the guide is complete all the way to the end - yet another 24 hours later it says "no info" in all the slots one hour or so from the current time slot and I have to manually grab it again.

Yesterday I tried a power cycle, I'll see what happens in a couple of days.

[deweybrunner]

Every morning after the download at 3 I turn on the tv to a local station. No guide info. I then scroll down to espn hd click on and the screen goes blank. then the menu comes up to do a scan disc. After that I can get espn hd, however, no local guide info. I do have guide info on about half of the local digital stations, however, none on nbc, cbs or fox.

[Moridin]

1) If I turn my TV off, and then back on, I no longer get DVI output from the 942. The only way to resolve this is by a soft reboot. An E* engineer asked me the model of my TV (Samsung HLN567W), so apparently there are some known issues with DVI.

2) I was watching a recorded DVR Event and accidentally pressed the raised Dish logo button on the remote. The interactive application loading screen came up, and after a few seconds a "Hard disk diagnostic" dialog was on screen for all of a quarter of a second before the 942 rebooted.

3) I was trying to find Hellboy to record, and entered "hell" using muti-tap style entry on the remote, and then selected Search. There were too many results, so I selected Done and pressed 2-2 to add a "b". The cursor in the search criteria field advanced, but no additional letters were present. Every numeric key press as well as cursoring over the onscreen keyboard and pressing select advanced the cursor, but only a space was present. The Search button was disabled. I cancelled out of the search, tried the same thing, and this time it worked. I've been unable to reproduce this problem again.

4) Since I have a legacy switch, I've disabled the nightly guide update. I wanted to force an update, so I brought up the guide and skipped to the end, and chose to update the guide information from the dialog that popped up. After well over 5 minutes had elapsed (close to 10) the progress bar had not even begun to be highlighted, so I cancelled, and started a check switch. After it completed and the guide download dialog came up, I walked away, expected it to work. Close to 15 minutes later, the progress bar had no highlighting showing progress. After a soft reboot and another check switch (grrr! that's getting annoying; I hope the fix gets pushed out soon) the guide download succeeded.

[rjenkins]

I've just upgraded to the 942, and it refuses to recognize my phone line. No matter what I do, it doesn't detect a dialtone. (This is the same line that I used with my 721 and 921 previously.) And during initial setup, it won't install without a phoneline. I had to call dish and have them put the monthly $5 phone charge on my bill in order for it to even get setup. Needless to say, I'm not too happy about that.

Perhaps I have a bad modem? If I listen in while I test the connection, I can hear the modem click as it picks up the line and click as it puts down the line. But it doesn't detect a dialtone. I do have DSL, and I've tried it with no DSL filter on the line, with 2 filters, with 1 filter, it doesn't seem to matter. Not sure if I should just live with the $5 monthly fee, get a replacement 942 with (hopefully) a good modem or what.

[vivek1263]

i am having a similar problem. My 942 refuses to detect digital channels ABC and CBS. I have three other 921 connected to the OTA using splitters and 50-75ft RG6 cables and are able to pickup these channels without any problems. When I connect a 921 at the 942 location it detects the signal without any problems. Eliminating all splitters, factory default reset, hard reset and talking to Tech support has not helped. Tech support had no explaination.

Mark do you think that this an inherent problem with the OTA tuner (hardware issue) or a software issue that could be fixed later.

Anybody else having similar problems.

[Mike D-CO5]

No problems of any significance at this end. I do see the ota strength is lower than with the 921, but that may be because the 942 runs form 0 -100 and I think the 921 runs from 0-125, but I can't really compare anymore since I sent the 921 in as a trade-in. I used to get 85-100 on my 921 and now it runs from 70 - 88 on the 942.

The phone line connection I am using is with SBC and I have dsl and I am using a wireless phone jack for the 942 and it all works. The only problem I see that I don't like is if I use the single mode and I hit pip or swap the tuners, I lose the dolby digital sound if it isn't on the main tuner. I just don't use the pip anymore or swap the tuners. I hear the software fix is coming soon.

All in all this box works pretty damn good right from the start . I had the 921 working pretty well too but it took 11 months to get to be reliable and I still suffered from the ZSR when I tried to record 2 hd events at the same time. No problem with the 942 , even when I record the ota and two hd events from the sat. It all worked. I love this box, especially with the name based recording . It is what the 921 should have been .

[SimpleSimon]

I used to get 85-100 on my 921 and now it runs from 70 - 88 on the 942.85/125 = .68, 100/125 = .80 Pretty close correlation to 100 vs. 125 max.

[deweybrunner]

I hate to be ignorant, however, How do you tell if you have a legacy. I just cannot tell. Anyone got any clues?

[vivek1263]

No problems of any significance at this end. I do see the ota strength is lower than with the 921, but that may be because the 942 runs form 0 -100 and I think the 921 runs from 0-125, but I can't really compare anymore since I sent the 921 in as a trade-in. I used to get 85-100 on my 921 and now it runs from 70 - 88 on the 942.

The phone line connection I am using is with SBC and I have dsl and I am using a wireless phone jack for the 942 and it all works. The only problem I see that I don't like is if I use the single mode and I hit pip or swap the tuners, I lose the dolby digital sound if it isn't on the main tuner. I just don't use the pip anymore or swap the tuners. I hear the software fix is coming soon.

All in all this box works pretty damn good right from the start . I had the 921 working pretty well too but it took 11 months to get to be reliable and I still suffered from the ZSR when I tried to record 2 hd events at the same time. No problem with the 942 , even when I record the ota and two hd events from the sat. It all worked. I love this box, especially with the name based recording . It is what the 921 should have been .


Mike

The signals strength for NBC is 58/125 on the 921 vs 58/100 on the 942. For fox 921 is 78/100 vs 112/125 on the 942. I am not sure if I am comparing apples to apples but by simple math it appears the 8vsb tuner is not as good as the 921. I am hoping that the heavy snowstorm in ohio is in someway responsible for it. Whether this can be fixed by a software upgrade or is inherently a inferior 8vsb tuner remains to be seen. Mark claims in his review that the OTA tuner of 942 is superior to that of the 921. So far I am not impressed. I hope this is a software issue otherwise this baby is going to the slaughter house(ebay), a similar fate for some of my previous dish network receivers.

[Mark Lamutt]

rjenkins - I don't know what to tell you. There's obviously differences between different company's DSL service, as it works just fine with some, but not others. Sorry...

dewey - look that your LNB(s) on your dish. If they have a black DP logo, they're Dishpro. If they have no logo, they're legacy. You can also look at your checkswitch screen.

Vivek - from my experience, you need a minimum signal of 62 to get an OTA channel lock with the 942. Snow can very definitely affect your signal, especially if you're not getting full power broadcasts in your area (wherever that is)...

[deweybrunner]

Mark, it looks like I have a legacy lnb. Engineering called me this morning and said the 942 was having problems with old legacy equipment. He said a software update was coming soon. He said if the installer hooked up my 942 they would have updated my dish and lnb. I'd do that if i could get free? Thanks for putting up with me over the past week or so. You have been a great help. I've turned off my 3am download. Now 942 is working great with no check switch or loss of signals.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

Just an update - my event timers continue to now work correctly.

One question, I do not and will not aconnect a phone line to any of my receivers. So I pay the monthly addtl charge which is fine.

However, I now get that pop up dialog telling me that if I connect a phone line I will not be charged the monthly fee. How do I disable this pop up ?

Thanks for all your ongoing support.

I really like the 942.

Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

I don't believe you can disable the popup.

[srbigbutt]

Hmmm...I haven't connected my phone line and I don't get that popup.

[vivek1263]

rjenkins - I don't know what to tell you. There's obviously differences between different company's DSL service, as it works just fine with some, but not others. Sorry...

dewey - look that your LNB(s) on your dish. If they have a black DP logo, they're Dishpro. If they have no logo, they're legacy. You can also look at your checkswitch screen.

Vivek - from my experience, you need a minimum signal of 62 to get an OTA channel lock with the 942. Snow can very definitely affect your signal, especially if you're not getting full power broadcasts in your area (wherever that is)...


Mark

Clear skies in Ohio but my OTA problems continue. 942 refuses to pickup any cbs or ABC (Strong signal (100+) on the 921 which is on a splitter and has a 100ft cable running from the splitter) There is no doubt in my mind now that the 8vsb is not as good as the 921 atleast on this unit if not overall.

[Tom in TX]

Here's a new one: I am watching WB, via OTA, live. The show goes to a commercial, and closed captioning appears from nowhere. It continues for about half the commercial, then the CC stops in place (a certain phrase), and hangs there for a few moments, then by the next commercial, disappears completely! It does not appear during the show (Everwood), but reappears during the next commercial break, and disappears just as before. Anyone else see this weird occurence?
Tom in TX

[srbigbutt]

I had a wierd bug yesterday I forgot to post. I was watching Fox OTA and changed the channell and suddenly everything was in 4:3 format. couldn't get it to stretch back to 16:9. Even the menu's were in 4:3 with black bars. I finally had to reboot the receiver to get it to go back. Wonder if anyone else has seen this.

[JimD]

Since I power cycled my 942 and changed the download time to 4:00 AM, it has not presented me with the "guide is out of date" requester over the last 4 days or so. Maybe that one is now corrected.

Unfortunately the caller ID still refuses to work. The phone line diagnostic says the phone line is OK. Caller ID worked a few times but now does not. My 501 and 508 still show the caller ID when I dial my home using my cell phone, but the 942 does not.

I have tried disabling caller ID and re-enabling it, as well as powering off (via remote) and back on after each change (disable and enable).

Still no caller ID.

Any other suggestions for troubleshooting this problem?

[Mark Lamutt]

Sorry, Jim - I have no idea about the callerid problem.

[ngoldrich]

srbigbut,

I did not initially get the dialog. I went for a few weeks without it ???

Maybe it will stop after a few times. It has only happened about 4 or 5 times lately.

Norm

[samlooker]

I got the same problem. Dish is sanding a replacement.
I have a theory on this. I have the unit to to update on 3AM daily. When the problem I had a recording event scheduled at 2-4 AM. I think the receiver has a bug that when the 2 happen at the same time, something goes wrong on the hard drive...

Just got off phone with Dish Advance Tech surport. They need to "pass it up the line" but it seem the 942 reciever will need to be replaced.

Message
Problem with hard drive
Error message 0521
Call Dish 1 800 ....

Whole story
Left the 942 on this morning to record golf. When I got home I put on TV on - Dish logo was on screen, pressed select and got Error Message. Called Dish - as instructed when I pressed DVR button got new error message function not available and machine locked up. Did a power button reset and 942 will work with live broadcasts but I can not use DVR functions at all.
Waiting to hear about replacement

[Mike Johnson]

Still no caller ID.

Any other suggestions for troubleshooting this problem?
JimD - You could start by unplugging as many telephone devices on your line as you can and see if that makes any difference. You may have a phone, answering machine or caller ID box that is loading the line in a way the 942 doesn't like. I had a Telezapper box (one of those devices to discourage telemarketers) on my line that would cause the caller ID to not work some of the time. If you have a surge supressor on the 942's phone line, try removing it. (I had this issue on an older Dish receiver once. The surge supressor couldn't pass the caller ID signal.) DSL has also been a reported problem with caller ID and the 942. If you have DSL make sure the 942 has a filter (or two) on it. One other user found a bad DSL filter on his line.

[calikarim]

I have a dvi geffen switch, i have voom, my upconverting dvd player , adelphia and now my 942 all inputting into the dvi switch. The 942 is hdmi to dvd. I have a Mitsubishi Diamond 65813 rptv. I notice that if i switch my dvi switch, or sometimes i change input on my Mitsubishi net command 3.0, then the dvi signal is lost completely. I have my screensaver blue screen. What is weird is that component video is still fine, thru my other input, as is SD from the second tuner. Only dvi is effected. The only way for me to correct this is to go to my HD settings change to 480p, get dvi back working,, and then switch back to 10801. This is so annoying, only happens with DVI. I have a 64 switch and legacy equipment, but i don't think it is connected, since it only happens to hdmi/dvi input not component.

[Mark Lamutt]

calikarim, I have no idea how to help you with that one. It seems to me that there's probably a sync issue between the 942 hdmi output and your DVI switch. Do you have the problem if you bypass the switch completley?

[JimD]

JimD - You could start by unplugging as many telephone devices on your line as you can and see if that makes any difference. You may have a phone, answering machine or caller ID box that is loading the line in a way the 942 doesn't like.

Interesting suggestion. I have 3 other devices on the line. These are a Dish 501, a Dish 508 and the base station of my 5-station telephone system. It should be simple enough to disconnect them and try it.

[Moridin]

I have a dvi geffen switch, i have voom, my upconverting dvd player , adelphia and now my 942 all inputting into the dvi switch. The 942 is hdmi to dvd. I have a Mitsubishi Diamond 65813 rptv. I notice that if i switch my dvi switch, or sometimes i change input on my Mitsubishi net command 3.0, then the dvi signal is lost completely. I have my screensaver blue screen. What is weird is that component video is still mine, thru my other input, as is SD from the second tuner. Only dvi is effected. The only way for me to correct this is to go to my HD settings change to 480p, get dvi back working,, and then switch back to 10801. This is so annoying, only happens with DVI. I have a 64 switch and legacy equipment, but i don't think it is connected, since it only happens to hdmi/dvi input not component.

calikarim--

I have my 942 connected via DVI directly to my Sammy HLN567W and see a similar problem. I haven't tried changing resolution to see if the signal returns; my solution was to perform a soft reboot of the 942. I'll have to give your workaround a try when I get home today; that would be a lot less painful.

I had a Dish engineer ask me my television model number when I reported losing DVI, so apparently they're working some issues with DVI. FWIW, I also have legacy equipment.

[calikarim]

Mark i posted earlier about my screen going black with dvi input if i make a change of my dvi switch do you think the 942 has an issue with sync with hdmi converted to dvi. I have read about things such as hdmi not outputing the correct colorspace via dvi on upconverting 480 p . Is there such a think as an incorrect conversion between hdmi and dvi, especially magnified with things such as dvi switches.

[Buckett]

OK, back to questions on the DD5.1/tuner issue.

What is the rhyme or reason as to which tuner has the DD5.1 capability? This might get confusing, but here is a scenario that I just created and tested:

Step 1: While viewing one program(A) on the main tuner (1), I started recording. I then changed channels (effectively switching tuners) to watch a prog(B) with dd5.1. As suspected, the new prog(B) did not output the dd5.1. I then stopped all recording to set up for step 2.

Step 2: Tuned to a program(B) with dd5.1 on tuner 1. Pressed SWAP to bring up tuner 2. Began recording program(A). Changed channel (effectively switching tuners back to tuner 1) to porg(B), finding dd5.1 in full effect, as suspected. Here is the kicker, when I pressed the DVR button to make sure that prog(A) was being recorded on tuner 2, I found the tuner 1 icon. WTH

Again, is there any rhyme or reason as to which tuner has dd5.1 capability? IF so, can anyone explain it?

[Moridin]

Mark i posted earlier about my screen going black with dvi input if i make a change of my dvi switch do you think the 942 has an issue with sync with hdmi converted to dvi. I have read about things such as hdmi not outputing the correct colorspace via dvi on upconverting 480 p . Is there such a think as an incorrect conversion between hdmi and dvi, especially magnified with things such as dvi switches.

No signal conversion occurs going from HDMI to DVI; it's just a simple change of pin configuration. As I posted above, I see exactly the same thing you're seeing, and I'm connected directly, not via switch.

[Mark Lamutt]

Mark i posted earlier about my screen going black with dvi input if i make a change of my dvi switch do you think the 942 has an issue with sync with hdmi converted to dvi. I have read about things such as hdmi not outputing the correct colorspace via dvi on upconverting 480 p . Is there such a think as an incorrect conversion between hdmi and dvi, especially magnified with things such as dvi switches.

Did you try bypassing your switch like I suggested to rule it out?

[Beer Kahuna]

I originally posted this on the DVI-Component thread but think it should be here:

I am having a problem w/ my DVI: After a couple of minutes of output, the screen goes all weird and the picture scrunches up. (The picture is still there but it is out of focus and distorted). I have to power the TV off and back on and then all is well for a few more minutes. It will not do it if I'm on the setup screen, guide, or any menus. It will only do it when watching tv. Any ideas?

My setup: Sony KP57-WV700, Dish 500 w/ Quad LNB, 2 direct runs from LNB ports 1& 4 to the 942, a 501 on LNB 2, a 508 on LNB 3, attic mount Yagi antenna w/ Channel Master preamp straight to 942 (no diplexer).

Edited for clarity: DVI is not the only video mode that goes hay-wire - all 7 inputs suffer form this. It has never done this before hooking up the 942 using the HDMI to DVI cable. Tonight I'm going to hook up the component cables (and disconnect the HDMI-DVI) and see if it still does it. If it still does it then I'm thinking I coincidently suffered a tv failure of some kind. (I think not since it's fine with menus displayed) Is the 942's digital output stream not being encoded properly?

[Beer Kahuna]

I almost forgot - I have another problem like #2 on the list:
"2. Loss of video nightly requiring a check switch if connected to legacy LNBs with SW21 switches"

I have a Quad LNB and no other switches. This morning the unit was on even though I turned it "off" from the remote last night. I had the floating Dish Logo on screen when I turned the tv on. I had to do a check switch and acquire the satallite signal and download the guide again.

Is a Quad LNB a Legacy device? It has a built-in switch if I'm not mistaken and I have 4 RG6 Quad shield runs all the way to the LNB.

Could I just have a guide download conflict like others? (I have a 501, a 508, and the 942)

[Daryl Zero]

Hi, I am new to the forum. I started Dish Network service on April 27, 2005 taking advantage of the HD offer with the 942 coming from Direct TV with TiVo service. I experienced the #12 bug (green lines) which included the wiping out of my previously recorded events. I did a front reset as per the manual and it went away. I also have experienced the search error. I would do a simple search and an error message came up. Just checked this morning, a simple search was successful.

A couple of questions. First, are these bugs a symptom of some recurring problem with the hardware? Should I do anything (software or hardware upgrade)? Second, the installer told me that the receiver should always be turned off at night so the unit can download new information at night (the 3:00 am download). I can't find anything in the manual that confirms that. I am connected to a phone line for the 942. Is this necessary? Thanks.

BTW, this site is great. It was really nice to immediately find the exact same problem I saw. :)

[Mark Lamutt]

Beer - yes the quad LNB is a legacy LNB. This should be fixed in L224, though, which you may already have at this point.

Daryl, what do you mean the green lines caused the wiping out of your recorded events? That's a brand new one for me that I've never seen, and has never been reported. Please elaborate. Also, I'm not yet sure what error you're talking about with the search. What error message did you see?

You need to be connected to a phone line or you will be charged a $4.99 per month fee. Yes, you should turn your 942 off at night so that the nightly updates can happen. Or at the very least, you should make sure that you have your update time set to a time when there are no timers firing. The nightly update is when the guide data comes down.

[Daryl Zero]

I first saw the green lines while watching a recorded program. With TiVo, sometimes the signal was corrupted on a recorded program and the digital picture would be messed up and at first I thought it was this problem. So I scanned through the program and found that the green lines were throughout. I deleted the program and switched to live. On the live, I saw the green lines no matter what I did. I then went to the other recorded show which I had seen a little bit of and knew that there were no lines. After hitting play, the screen was just black. No matter what I did, I could not get a picture of the recorded show. I could forward it or switch back to live (with the green lines). I looked at the manual which indicated a front reset. I did the front reset and the green lines went away. I rechecked the recorded program but it was still black with apparently no information. I wish I had saved the first show to see if the green lines were gone on it.

The search error is as described above in another post from Pat A. A normal search is done and the screen comes up with the screen that looks like a search result only it is empty with "error" in the caption of the result menu. No matter how many times the search is repeated, the same result.

As I said, I repeated the same search this morning and received the normal results. I also checked the status of the schedule (in TiVo it was a "To Do List") and everything appears to be fine though I have no recordings scheduled until tonight.

Back to the turn off time. I rarely record anything at 3:00 am. So as long as the recorder is not recording, it is ok to leave it on? Or is that bad? I am used to the TiVo recorder being on all the time. Is that wrong?

[Mark Lamutt]

I recommend turning it off, but try it for a couple of days and see if your guide data is updating. If it isn't, you'll need to turn it off.

[Beer Kahuna]

Mark,

As of today I do now have the 224 download and I had no check switch this morning. Good to see.
As far as my DVI problem, I had 2 hours of perfect picture last night until 3 minutes to go in CSI. Had to power cycle the TV and then it was OK again. I'm now going to watch using the component cables for a while and see if it fails.

[Jerry 42]

Mark
Like Daryl, I got green lines while watching a play back - note I start the play back 5 minutes before the recording of that show was to finish. Switch to live and green lines remained. Changed to an other show that was previously recorded and green lines disappeared. Then went back to live and then the play back of the show I was watching when it happened and green lines were gone in both cases.
This was the only time I had green lines problem.

[Mark Lamutt]

Jerry - you got rid of the green lines without rebooting? Huh...I honestly didn't think that was possible. The green lines looked like the link in the first post of this thread?

[Jerry 42]

Mark - Sorry for day in reply been away all day.

Yes the green lines look just like the ones in the first post. It has not happened again so based on the one time it happened I can not say it a sure fix.

An other interest thing - I could not get caller ID to work on 1st 942. Put a second DSL filter on line as suggested. Now caller ID is working on 1st machine. But the caller ID is not working on the second 942. Put the second DSL fitler on so it has exact same set up as 1st 942 but caller ID still not working on 2nd machine. Really not sure when caller ID starting working on first 942. I did unplug 1st machine for a short time so I am going to try that on 2nd machine and see if that's a fix.

[gevange]

I'm not sure if this is a bug but it bugs me. My caller ID works perfect until the ID log is full then it stops working. I have to go to the ID setup and disable then enable it and it works again. God forbid I forget to empty the log. George

[Mark Lamutt]

How many entries is "full", George?

[gevange]

Hey Mark, I'm pretty sure it's 8. There are 6 on the first page but I can't get to the second page because I emptied it. George

[Mark Lamutt]

Hummm, that's odd, as I have 50 entries in my calledid history list.

[ArabHorse1]

Hi, I'm a new member and am going to be having DN w/ the 942 installed tomorrow. My husband and I are wondering if any of you also use Vonage through broadband, and dont have a "regular" phone line? We are thinking about making that change too. If using vonage, instead of a reg. phone line is a problem, we will just stick w/ our reg. phone line :( .

We are soo grateful that this thread is up! Now we will know what glitches may happen and which ones we can fix :)

Sheila

[Mike Johnson]

Hi, I'm a new member and am going to be having DN w/ the 942 installed tomorrow. My husband and I are wondering if any of you also use Vonage through broadband, and dont have a "regular" phone line? We are thinking about making that change too. If using vonage, instead of a reg. phone line is a problem, we will just stick w/ our reg. phone line :( .

We are soo grateful that this thread is up! Now we will know what glitches may happen and which ones we can fix :)

Sheila
Dish Network only officially supports "regular" phone lines - although some have reported that broadband VOIP works for them. Others report that it doesn't. Dish will charge a $5/mo fee if the 942 cannot call home.

[Mark Lamutt]

Precisely what Mike said. Maybe it'll work for you, maybe it won't. But, it's not supported, so it's a "try it at your own risk" situation.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, I know you are tired of hearing from me with my "check Switch" problem, I believe this was fixed on the last update. The one thing I cannot understand is why my guide data for nbc, cbs, and fox will load and data will extend a week or so in the future. I have strong signals on these stations. I feel the data is stored somewhere in the 942. It could be an hour, or six or seven before these three stations will drop the guide info. I can do a manual reload. Sometimes the guide will come up, most they won't. I have done plug pulls, on/off button held down, sometimes I have guide data only just to lose them again. I have actually been scrolling down the guide and visually saw the guide info. being dropped. I feel this is a bug since the guide is loaded into the 942 over extended time, then it just drops the guide. Even though it says "digital service", the program is on, but with no guide data. I have spent hours trying to figure this out and trying every thing I know. I have called hd techs. They just said they would pass the info on. Are there anyothers having this same problem. Appreciate feed back if you do. If I'm the only one maybe my hard drive is dropping info sporatically and have a bad 942.

[Mark Lamutt]

I don't have any idea at all, dewey, but I'll try to find out through channels. I personally haven't seen that happen, or heard of anyone else other than you that's seeing it.

[deweybrunner]

Mark, I just unplugged the 942 and left it off for some time. When I plugged it back in all guide data came up. I've done the same thing before with the same results. Maybe letting it cool down helped. I'm sure the guide data will be dropped again in the next few hours. sorry to bother you, however this is driving me nuts(because i cannot figure it out)

[Mark Lamutt]

OK, back to questions on the DD5.1/tuner issue.

What is the rhyme or reason as to which tuner has the DD5.1 capability? This might get confusing, but here is a scenario that I just created and tested:

Step 1: While viewing one program(A) on the main tuner (1), I started recording. I then changed channels (effectively switching tuners) to watch a prog(B) with dd5.1. As suspected, the new prog(B) did not output the dd5.1. I then stopped all recording to set up for step 2.

Step 2: Tuned to a program(B) with dd5.1 on tuner 1. Pressed SWAP to bring up tuner 2. Began recording program(A). Changed channel (effectively switching tuners back to tuner 1) to porg(B), finding dd5.1 in full effect, as suspected. Here is the kicker, when I pressed the DVR button to make sure that prog(A) was being recorded on tuner 2, I found the tuner 1 icon. WTH

Again, is there any rhyme or reason as to which tuner has dd5.1 capability? IF so, can anyone explain it?

Bucket, I'm sorry that I missed this the first time I went through this page, but this is one of the current bugs that needs to be fixed.

[ArabHorse1]

Mark and Mike - thanks a bunch with the info..... after thinking about it, we decided we would rather not play the "hope this works" game lol.

[gevange]

Mark, do you know if there is a setting for this? George

[Mark Lamutt]

George - for the number of entries in the callerid history? No, not that I know of. You are trying to scroll up and down your list, beyond the first page of it, aren't you? How about using the Page Up/Page Down keys?

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

My events are still working great.

For the first time I saw the following error - here is the sequence :

(1) I had an event set to record an hour long show

(2) The event fired and recorded and the PVR list showed 1:00 (exactly 1 hour recorded). Normally I think it shows 1:03. Not a big deal, but I thought It was strange.

(3) I selected the recorded item and instead of showing info about the recorded show it said :

A file open error has occurred. Error : 07

(4) So I tried play and it of course would not play either. I had to delete it.

What does the Error 07 mean and what caused it, how do I keep it from happening again ?
Has anyone else had this happen ?

Thanks,
Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

Norm - did you have one or two other events to record immediately after this one? Specific timer details might help me (or Dish) diagnose. Time, date, channel, timer type, etc.

[kspeters]

Mark,

My events are still working great.

For the first time I saw the following error - here is the sequence :

(1) I had an event set to record an hour long show

(2) The event fired and recorded and the PVR list showed 1:00 (exactly 1 hour recorded). Normally I think it shows 1:03. Not a big deal, but I thought It was strange.

(3) I selected the recorded item and instead of showing info about the recorded show it said :

A file open error has occurred. Error : 07

(4) So I tried play and it of course would not play either. I had to delete it.

What does the Error 07 mean and what caused it, how do I keep it from happening again ?
Has anyone else had this happen ?

Thanks,
Norm
I got something sililar but with no error code. Wher it normally shows the channel recorded it was blank and when I try to play it back, nothing but a blank screen shows.

[Mark Lamutt]

Please, details...

[leemathre]

I got the error code: 07 message on five recordings from May 1st. All five were on Russian channels. Three on RTVI+ and the other two on CH1. The recordings were not all back-to-back and were not recorded at the same times. I had at least ten other recordings from Russian channels on the same day that were ok. All recordings (both successful and unsuccessful) were set as one-time-only recordings. I have several recordings from the Russian channels from May 2nd that I have not had a chance to check yet. I have reported this problem to John V. and Allison with E*.

[DVDDAD]

This happened to me on my 921 with the last software update, but is also apparent in my 942's guide. There is no guide info for my OTA UPN channel, WWOR-DT in NY. All other OTA's show guide info. This channel broadcasts on UHF on 38 and remaps to 9.1. Like I said, all was well on my 921, until the software upgrade that helped many with their OTA's but broke the guide info for this channel. I was surprised to see that the problem still exists in my 942.

[Buckett]

No prob Mark. Thanks for the reply.

On another note (a bit off topic)... Have you found a discrete power code for 942? I have a very basic Pronto TS1000 ccf that I am wanting to share, but would rather have the discrete power codes for macro purposes. LMK. Thanks again.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

It was Desperate Housewives and was on channel 8352 or something like that - the local channel that I pay for.

It recorded last Sunday (5/1) evening.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Norm

[Mark Lamutt]

Bucket - the Select button is a discrete ON, but there is no discrete OFF (yet). This was one of the first feature requests that I put in.

[Buckett]

Cool thanks.

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

One other note - I now get the 'if you connect your phone you wont have to pay the $4.99 per month' dialog every time I press select to turn the 942 back on.

Not a big deal, but a little irritating, since I dont mind paying the extra $ versus conecting the line...

Hopefully they will eventually put in a disable feature. Not a high priority, just something nice to have...

Thx,
Norm

[ngoldrich]

Mark,

A bug I just had happened for the first time yesterday - when did 2.24 get downloaded ?

On 2 different recorded shows the audio was not smooth on playback. Almost sounded like an old VHS tape that was choppy and out of sync. It happened for a while and then stopped.

Both were recorded from paid local channels.

I am running 2.24.

Thx,
Norm

[Jerry 42]

Just got green lines problem for 2nd time. Solved it same as last time - see earlier post- with out reset.
I'm not a tech person be it would seem the video data stream gets over load and locked and therefore displays green lines. Going back to an earlier recorded event seems to break the data stream / lock so that the video out put returns to normal e.g. no green lines.

[dougmcbride]

OK - here's one that I ran into this morning.

Symptom: OTA Audio/Video OK. Certain channels (101, 103, 262, 407, 480, 490, 500 which are all channels available without a sub I think) Audio and video OK. Audio channels (CD, etc. minus Sirrus) OK. All the rest no Audio or video, just blank (black) screen. Channel banner shows OK when changing channels, guide data in guide.

I believe this started (I had not checked sat stations prior to doing this as I recall) when I had the 942 crash (no error message, just did a reboot) while I was toggling up channels in the add locals screen trying to get a new local added. I tried soft boot, hard (power) boot and check switch. No change.

Called tech support and after initial troubleshooting, the fellow had me go through a sequence of checking transponders on 110 and 119, doing a check switch and letting the guide reload (my guide does not reload on a soft or power boot). Apparently this is a known problem where the guide gets corrupted and does not contain the sat/transponder info for the receiver to use even though you still see the programming info in the guide. He also mentioned there was a specific sequence that needed to be followed in this state (I believe it boiled down to being on a "free" channel like 101) and maybe even a specific transponder when doing the check switch and forcing a guide download. I asked for the sequence and he said if it happens again to just call back in as they have a flowchart, and also are collecting data to use in troubleshooting at this point.

I also had a second crash of the box when flipping up through the channels to see what came in and what didn't prior to calling DISH. As I recall, I was just toggling through the channels fairly quickly and just like I noted above, the box just crashed (no video) and rebooted itself.

Sorry if I don't have a lot of good data here other than symptoms and would not venture to say it can be logged until it can be reproduced - which I have no intention of trying at this point after a couple of hours of TS. Just wanted to post this if anyone else has their box get into this state to save you some time. I'd guess the first thing to try is put the box on 101 and do a check switch to reload the guide and see if it fixes itself. If not, call tech support and they can walk you through it.

Doug

[Buckett]

Bug #16 (see OP) has happened to me twice in the past 48 hours. Have there been any new fixes or workarounds for this?

Also... I had a weird problem where when I would go to the Daily Schedule - select a specific timer - and then select the timer button - on the timer page, in the top left where the timer/show title would normally be there was just gibberish, containig a bunch of Xs and dashes. In the window that showed the timer scheduled recordings would be events from different timers. Sorry, I know that is probably hard to follow. Currently, I cannot reproduce the problem, but thought that I would convey the experience nontheless.

Thanx.

[Mark Lamutt]

Buckett - I know exactly what you're talking about with your second part. It's happened to me several times, but I haven't added it to the list because no one's said anything about it yet...and now you have. :)

I'll do list updating this weekend.

[Baxter]

guide issue
watching a channel 605 in my favorite list , then decide to change the channel to 208 using the numbers on remote #1, the tuner changed to 208, the selected channel. Then press the guide button which shows my favorite list and 605 is highlighted, push select and the turner goes back to 208 the same channel that I was watching. The receiver will not tune a different channel until one other than 605 is selected. I only used the channel numbers as an example as this bug is valid all the time no matter what two channels are used. The recall functions work fine which is great if I'm the only user, but not for someone else.
this is an opposite function of my 921 which will tune to the channel hi-lighted bu pushing the select botton.

942 SW V. L224MAED-N, B.V. 1110MAED
single mode
2x DP SW34

921 SW V. L213HECD-N, B.V. 120B

Baxter

[chiefclerk]

I am unable to search for programs using text strings. I receive error in the list window regardless of the lenght of the search string.

Using a 942 with L224 release

Is this a bug?

[Mike Johnson]

I am unable to search for programs using text strings. I receive error in the list window regardless of the lenght of the search string.

Using a 942 with L224 release

Is this a bug?
Yep. It's a bug. See the lengthy discussion here (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=41436) . If you enter any new timers for "all" or "new" events, they likely won't work beyond the first event they are set for.

There are some tips to try, but they didn't work for me until after three nightly updates. Please add any info you have to that thread. Mark says they are still trying to pin this one down.

[Foxbat]

I have had L2.24 for about 10 days. I have noticed that all of my Digital OTA channels are "NR/AO". Since I have a young child in the household, I have my receivers locked down. As a result, I need to enter in my lock code to see what is on each sub-channel (since there is no PSIP data in the Guide)(Note: I don't subscribe to L-i-L.) This behavior is 180 degrees from the 811, which shows a blank rating for OTA channels.

If my son wants to watch "Barney" on PBS, he needs an adult to unlock the 942. This is very user-unfriendly. If I have to give my son the receiver lock code so he can watch his programs, that is counter-intuitive.

[Mark Lamutt]

I see ratings of "NR", not "NR/AO" on my local channels under both L224 and a newer beta. Is that what you're seeing, what ratings do you see for the same programming on your Dish local channels?

[Foxbat]

I see ratings of "NR", not "NR/AO" on my local channels under both L224 and a newer beta. Is that what you're seeing,Mark, what I'm seeing for my Digital Locals is "NR/AO".

I've attached a few pictures to illustrate: The first is my EPG showing my Digital OTA stations. As you can see, it shows up as "NR/AO". The second picture shows the Info pop-up for 016-01 (which, interestingly enough, has an open lock!)

The third picture shows my Rating Lock settings. 4th picture shows that the lock channels are not locked. The fifth photo is TNT-HD, which shows as "NR", but isn't locked. If I try to tune in 016-01, I get the lock challenge as seen in the last picture. what ratings do you see for the same programming on your Dish local channels?As I mentioned, I don't subscribe to my Locals.

[Mark Lamutt]

Thanks for the pictures, Roland. Submitted as a bug report through beta channels.

[Baxter]

Mark
I'm unable to change the channel on my 942 (see my post #177) if I select the guide button on the remote, I'm able to display my favorite list. I then push the select botton and the receiver displays the last station and not the hi-lighted station in my favorite list. to change the channel, I need to scroll down or up to another station not highlighted in my favorite list. my 921 and 510 receivers work opposite of the 942

[softwiz]

I just got my 942 tonight and all hooked up.

I'm sure hoping they get thie Dolby Digital issue fixed soon. I got into a state tonight where I had to turn off the receiver to get Dolby Digital to come back on the Voom channels (or any other channel).

Also, maybe I'm not understanding how the Recall button works. Tonight I was recording the Pacers game from TNTHD and O'Reilly from FoxNews. Both tuners were humming away. I pressed recall and it went from the Pacer to O'Reilly. I pressed recall and all it would do is bring up the information band that comes up with you press View TV. I would manually switch back to the Pacers game from Fox and recall would take me back to Fox but then again it would not take me back to TNTHD.

Am I missing something?

[Mark Lamutt]

If you were recording both, use the Swap button to switch between them.

[softwiz]

If you were recording both, use the Swap button to switch between them.

That'll work, but so should the recall button right?

[Mark Lamutt]

The recall button won't work if you're recording, because it switches channels on a single tuner, as opposed to the Swap, which switches tuners. If you weren't recording, the Recall button should work, if you specifically tune to both channels on the same tuner. You indicated in your post that one program was on one tuner, and the other was on the other tuner.

[softwiz]

The recall button won't work if you're recording, because it switches channels on a single tuner, as opposed to the Swap, which switches tuners. If you weren't recording, the Recall button should work, if you specifically tune to both channels on the same tuner. You indicated in your post that one program was on one tuner, and the other was on the other tuner.

Hmmm, guess I got too used to my dual tuner DirecTV UltimateTV DVR. When you pressed Recall on it, it was smart enough to switch tuners if you were recording on both tuners at the same time.

I'll have to get used to the quirks and differences.

Does the PIP window have to be activated for SWAP to switch tuners?

Thanks

[Mark Lamutt]

No, Swap works whether you have PIP enabled or not. But, just keep in mind the DD bug that isn't fixed yet with Swap.

[softwiz]

No, Swap works whether you have PIP enabled or not. But, just keep in mind the DD bug that isn't fixed yet with Swap.

Is the DD issue supposed to be fixed in L225?

[Mark Lamutt]

No, I don't believe so.

[chastulsa]

My local CBS does not have guide data. I went to record RAYMOND finale and was setting up the manual timer setup time start and finish and then when I put it on DATE selection it locked up. I could still see and here the channel I was on in the window but remote would not function and nothing let me escape except holding down the power button. I think the error is it does not know how to record without guide data?

[Justin]

Had trouble the last two days when I deleted a DISH Pass. It deleted the pass; however never updated the schedule. The shows continued to record. The pass was #1 in my priority list. When I went to my list and looked - the pass was gone; however the first pass listed was priority #2 (#1 was missing). I ended up holding down the power button on the front of the unit today and it appears to have fixed the problem.

EDIT - Okay, I spoke too soon. When I re-added my pass now the only thing that my dvr is scheduled to record is this one show. I have roughly 22 other timers and none of them seem to be finding anything. Any ideas?

EDIT EDIT - Fixed the problem by manually deleting and recreating my timers list... WHAT A PAIN IN THE #&$!! But at least it appears that it knows about my shows now. I do like this receiver; however I do have to admit that it seems to have way too many bugs.

EDIT EDIT EDIT - :) Also ran into that, while readding my timers, a hard disk diagnostic popped up and ran. After the reboot I was missing most of what was recorded in the last 12 hours.

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT - Many of my recent recordings come up with an error code 07 when I attempt to play them. I have gone through and deleted all of these; however it makes me wonder if I am having some sort of harddrive or database corruption issue?

[softwiz]

Mark L

In addition to the bug tracking list, what do you think about a 942 Feature Wish List thread?

[Justin]

Mark L

In addition to the bug tracking list, what do you think about a 942 Feature Wish List thread?

I'd vote for it - I have a whole list of small stuff that I would love to suggest. :)

[softwiz]

I'd vote for it - I have a whole list of small stuff that I would love to suggest. :)

Me too... I had a DirecTV UltimateTV dual tuner DVR for almost 3 years and there were a lot of little things that it did that were nice.

Examples

If you were tuned to a channel at the beginning of a show and then decided to record halfway through, it would record the show from the beginning.

When you setup a series to record, you could decide how many episodes to keep. It would then automatically delete the older one as it recorded a newer one.

I'll save the rest for the list ;)

[deweybrunner]

For past three days all recordings have had pixilation when fast forwarding X4. x15 and faster is ok. I use x4 when watching recording of nascar races so i can follow positions and keep up with the race. checked other recordings and all have pixilation on x4.

[deweybrunner]

A coupla times a day screen pop-up will say "guide data Outdated' then drops down to download. I let it download, then all guide information is returned.The guide for the first hour or two, both local and satellite, will say "digital service".Extended past that will show guide information. This happens even though download is "enabled" for 3am.

[jbjsm]

No problems of any significance at this end. I do see the ota strength is lower than with the 921, but that may be because the 942 runs form 0 -100 and I think the 921 runs from 0-125, but I can't really compare anymore since I sent the 921 in as a trade-in. I used to get 85-100 on my 921 and now it runs from 70 - 88 on the 942.

The phone line connection I am using is with SBC and I have dsl and I am using a wireless phone jack for the 942 and it all works. The only problem I see that I don't like is if I use the single mode and I hit pip or swap the tuners, I lose the dolby digital sound if it isn't on the main tuner. I just don't use the pip anymore or swap the tuners. I hear the software fix is coming soon.

All in all this box works pretty damn good right from the start . I had the 921 working pretty well too but it took 11 months to get to be reliable and I still suffered from the ZSR when I tried to record 2 hd events at the same time. No problem with the 942 , even when I record the ota and two hd events from the sat. It all worked. I love this box, especially with the name based recording . It is what the 921 should have been .

Mike D,
My 942 will be installed 5/28. This is a new installation. I have no phone line where the 942 will be installed. You mentioned a wireless phone jack for your SBC DSL line. I also have SBC DSL. Is the wireless jack available retail, or do I have to call SBC? Thanks for your help.
Joe

[HobeSoundDarryl]

An interesting thing happened that I thought I should post here. Many people in my area have been having trouble getting a stable DTV signal from one of our local channel providers. The station is well aware of the problem and is (endlessly) working on it (long, long, painful story). Some people are doing better with the signal than others and one solution seems to be using an attunuator (spell?) to crank down the signal strength.

So, I tried this. While working with the device, I crashed my 942 for the first time. When it booted back up, the problematic digital channel was no better. But suddenly, I had all of my local analog channels along with the digital channels. They work too (and can be recorded). I wondered if this was just a coincidence (perhaps a new software update had just happened to download at the same time?) but the "scan local channels" screen will still ONLY allow the digital channel option to be selected.

The analog channels end in -00 (see the attached screenshot). The software version that shows up on the system info screen is L224MAED-N.

[vincent007]

I just added 61.5 to my DPP44 and am receiving excellent signal on my 721 and 522. However, the 942 signal for that Sat is nonexistant even though the checkswitch "sees" the Sat.

The 110 and 119 signals are excellent on the 942, just not the 61.5 Sat. I had the switch changed, moved the receivers around. The problem follows the 942.

All the receivers are using separators. I had to have the Dish Tech here twice BEFORE they would RMA the box. Still doesn't make any sense why the 61.5 signal is poor on just the 942.

Vinny

[SimpleSimon]

... I had all of my local analog channels along with the digital channels. They work too (and can be recorded). ...No they can't. Dunno what you're seeing, but there is NO MPEG encoder in any current E* receiver. Therefore, there's no way for it to get onto the HDD.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

SimpleSimon, I am new to Dish (this week), but I also know for sure that I am recording analog local channels on the 942. See the 3 attached photos as some evidence of this. I just grabbed these by going to local channel 5 (NBC). On the guide, I have a 5-1 (the DTV channel that is the problematic one referenced previously) and this one (channel 5-00- the analog version of the channel).

The pictures show the (analog) channel number and various versions of illustrating the recording function is working. I can start over (the program), pause it and restart it, etc.- just like any DISH or any other local channel.

Now, I know this is just my 2nd post and you have nearly 4700, and I am fully respectful that you know wayyyy more about DISH than I do, but I can tell you with great certainty that the 942 is recording these analog channels in what appears to be as seamless as any of the digital channels.

Note: I can't lock in 5-1 (the DTV local version of this same channel, and I don't subscribe to the Palm Beach locals through DISH).

[Mike Russell]

Just got my 942 hooked up Friday and worst 2 things so far is while setting up back to back timers some will be x out and not record. It says there is a conflict and I know there is not one.

The other is ff 4x during nascar is terrible, 15x and faster seems allright.

[SimpleSimon]

SimpleSimon, I am new to Dish (this week), but I also know for sure that I am recording analog local channels on the 942. See the 3 attached photos as some evidence of this. I just grabbed these by going to local channel 5 (NBC). On the guide, I have a 5-1 (the DTV channel that is the problematic one referenced previously) and this one (channel 5-00- the analog version of the channel).

The pictures show the (analog) channel number and various versions of illustrating the recording function is working. I can start over (the program), pause it and restart it, etc.- just like any DISH or any other local channel.

Now, I know this is just my 2nd post and you have nearly 4700, and I am fully respectful that you know wayyyy more about DISH than I do, but I can tell you with great certainty that the 942 is recording these analog channels in what appears to be as seamless as any of the digital channels.

Note: I can't lock in 5-1 (the DTV local version of this same channel, and I don't subscribe to the Palm Beach locals through DISH).
Well, anyone else want to chime in here?

[DRJDAN]

HopeSound,

I think what you are seeing as 5-00 is the Dish sat channel for 5 and the 5-1 is the OTA. Disconnect your OTA and see if you can still get the 5-00. If so, you are looking at Dish.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

DRJDan: does your idea apply even if I do NOT subscribe to DISH locals??? I don't subscribe to DISH locals, so if those were DISH locals, shouldn't I get a blank screen on those "-00" channels? 5-00 is just the example I used for the recording screenshots, I'm also getting 12-0, 25-0, 29-0, 34-0, etc.

Plus, I know the "-1" channels are the DTV channels because the primtime lineups are in HD on those channels (I never see 16x9 high resolution on the "-00" channels). And relative to 5, I know the "-1" is it's DTV channel too because everyone in my area is having trouble getting that DTV channel from 5, but the analog channel comes in just fine.

I'm a little reluctant to unhook the OTA in case it costs me these channels (and I doubt I could recreate the sequence of events that made them appear in the first place).

[Mark Lamutt]

Hobe - you better go take a look at your bill, because you are definitely subscribing to Dish locals, even if you think you aren't. You have guide data for your OTA digital channels, and that is only provided if you sub to your Dish locals, and what you are seeing with the -00 channels are your Dish locals downmapped by the 942 to your analog equivalent channel numbers. If you go into the local channel setup, and select the Sat Locals box, you'll see that the Enabled box is checked.

Vincent - do you have a superdish? If so, make sure that you have the inputs in the right order on your DPP44, otherwise you'll have problems like you're describing.

Mike - there is a current bug (that I haven't added to the list yet...really have to get some free time to get that updated...) that can affect the PQ during FF and REW. Sometimes, it gets very pixellated.

And, I'll start a feature request thread, but please keep in mind that new features won't be added as quickly as bugs getting fixed. And, as there are a major set of new features in process of being added right now to support the pocket dish, and the other multimedia features (talked about last week on the tech chat, including external storage!), I wouldn't expect to see a lot of other things added immediately.

[vincent007]

Mark,

No, I dont have a Superdish, just a DishPro Plus Twin(110, 119) and a DishPro Dual(61.5) feeding into Ports 1, 2, and 3 respectively on the DPP44.

Vinny

[Mike D-CO5]

Mike D,
My 942 will be installed 5/28. This is a new installation. I have no phone line where the 942 will be installed. You mentioned a wireless phone jack for your SBC DSL line. I also have SBC DSL. Is the wireless jack available retail, or do I have to call SBC? Thanks for your help.
Joe

I got my wireless phone jack from DishNetwork. YOU can order them on the dishnetwork website under accessories. :)

[Mark Lamutt]

Vincent - you're running the 61.5 line straight to the switch, right? You aren't connecting it to the DPP Twin, and then running only 2 lines to the switch? If so, it does sound to me like your receiver is toast.

[vincent007]

Mark, yes the 61.5 goes right to the switch....

However........

Not satisfied with a reciever that gets the other two birds and not the third while the other receivers work fine......

I moved the 61.5 to port 1 on the DPP44 and re-ran switch test, NOW the 942 is getting 61.5 fine (signal 92-95 on all transponders). Also other receivers are still fine.

Strange since the switch was changed out. The repalcement 942 is still on its way just in case it goes south again and this was just coincidence.

Vinny

[Mark Lamutt]

That makes no sense to me. For a couple of days, I had 119/110/61.5 conencted to a DPP44, and my 942 was just fine and dandy with it. :shrug:

[vincent007]

Mark, this makes no sense to me either.....thats why I'm not canceling the replacement. I cant explain why putting 61.5 on port 1 made a difference.

Things that make you go hmmm....lol

BTW, do you remember if you had 61.5 on port 3? Not that should matter, just curious.

Vinny

[Mark Lamutt]

Yup, port 3. I currently have it on port 4, with 148 on port 3. Which also works fine and dandy. One of my 942s is connected with a separator, the other isn't. But, neither 942 is connected to output port 1 of the DPP44, if that makes any difference.

[vincent007]

Mark,

It shouldn't make a difference, but thanx. I guess I'll chalk this up one to of those things that we just can't explain. :D

Just did notice that the Caller ID started working again........hmmmm

It was working since I installed the 942 three weeks ago and "seemingly" stopped when I installed the 61.5 bird.

I hate when I just can't explain these things, but I guess after all these years of working with electronics and computers I should be used to it, lol.

Thanx for your input and trying to keep me "sane".

Vinny

[Tom in TX]

I tried to record "Everyone Loves Raymond" on OTA, and also on CBSHD (sat). It would only "take" one of the recordings. It "X'd" out one of them, saying it was a duplicate recording. So I tried the same thing with CSI-Miami on OTA and concurrently on CBSHD, and got the same error. Am I doing something wrong? I thought you could record on a Sat tuner, and an OTA at the same time. It used to do one on TV tuner1, and another on TV tuner2, but not this time. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong?
Tom in TX

[Mike Johnson]

By default, the 942 won't record duplicates of the same program no matter where it is coming from. You can manually go into the schedule and "restore" the skipped event to get it to record both. It just won't do it automatically.

[Tom in TX]

You can manually go into the schedule and "restore" the skipped event to get it to record both. It just won't do it automatically.
Thanks, I'll give it a try!
Tom in TX

[dathead2]

Just got my 942 hooked up Friday and worst 2 things so far is while setting up back to back timers some will be x out and not record. It says there is a conflict and I know there is not one.

The other is ff 4x during nascar is terrible, 15x and faster seems allright.

my 942 by default has record 1 min before show starts and 3 mins after.
you can modify this in the "options" setting.

i tried 4x tonite and it seemed ok, man, 300x was sick i couldn't hit stop before
it was at the end!

the DVR menus definately need some improvement - i'm still struggling with
them after two days and usually these things just fall in place for me, maybe
i'm just spoiled by my panasonic E80 - amazingly intuitive layout on that unit.

[Foxbat]

I tried to record "Everyone Loves Raymond" on OTA...I got home Monday night and punched in my local CBS affiliate's HD channel. Since I don't subscribe to my locals, I pressed the "record" button and specified in the Options that I wanted to manually end the recording at 10:00 PM (I figured I'd record CSI: Miami while I was at it.) The red LED on TV1 lit up and the recording showed up on the DVR Events menu. "Cool," I thought, "I'll watch it in the morning..." and went upstairs.

Tuesday morning was bad (backups server at work croaked,) so when I finally got home from work Tuesday night, I was surprised to see the red TV1 LED was still on. I checked the DVR menu and sure enough, I had 22h58m worth of 22-01! I played it back, and everything was there, plus more than I wanted. (The 300x mode came in real handy :) )

So, my question is, what did I do wrong? I specified the end time, but it's almost like I needed to be able to specify an end date as well. Obviously, if I had thought about recording this earlier, I would have set up a manual timer event instead of pressing the "record" button, but I thought setting an end time for the manual recording would have worked. Maybe if it was an elapsed time, like "record starting now, for x hours and y minutes?"

[Mark Lamutt]

dathead - what are your issues with the DVR screen?

Roland - you're sure that you set an end time to the recording under the options, and didn't select the user stop option? I haven't had that one happen to me, and I've tried to make it happen in testing.

[Foxbat]

Roland - you're sure that you set an end time to the recording under the options, and didn't select the user stop option? I haven't had that one happen to me, and I've tried to make it happen in testing.Mark, I was looking at it earlier tonight, and I believe the issue is my Digital OTA stations are showing up as 9 day-long events in the EPG. So, when I pressed "record" Monday night, the 942 was going to record the current program, even though it was over 200 hours! The "end time" that was shown (and I assumed was for the current day) was actually nine days off. I also base that on the observation (that I failed to mention before) that a reoccurring OTA manual timer I had for "Enterprise" on Friday night showed up as skipped due to a recording conflict. Since "Enterprise" is no more, I went ahead and deleted the manual timer.

[Mark Lamutt]

That makes more sense, now.

[dathead2]

my 942 by default has record 1 min before show starts and 3 mins after.
you can modify this in the "options" setting.

i tried 4x tonite and it seemed ok, man, 300x was sick i couldn't hit stop before
it was at the end!

the DVR menus definately need some improvement - i'm still struggling with
them after two days and usually these things just fall in place for me, maybe
i'm just spoiled by my panasonic E80 - amazingly intuitive layout on that unit.

hmm, i thought after you change the options start before/stop after that
it remained in effect for future shows, but i was wrong.

another data point on 4x, it did seem fine on HD, but SD i got artifacts, i'll
have to do another HD test to make sure.

mark, i'll have to make a list of issues with 942 DVR menu system, some
are subtle, but a few are fundamental.

[leemathre]

Two new error messages this morning when trying to playback recorded programs. The text is exactly the same as the error code: 07 messages, but the numbers are 04 and 06. symptoms are the same as the 07 also. Cannot play the recordings. Cold boot does not fix the problem. I have twenty recordings on my 942 that I cannot play. Sixteen have error code: 07, two 06, and one 04. Some of the recordings were single events not close to any others. some were recorded simultaneously or back-to-back. Nothing common that I can find. So far, I am not at all impreseed with this receiver.

[cdehmer]

I can confirm. I get pixlation when using x4 fast forward, but only on recordings from the SPEED channel (Formula 1 - all recordings over several days). Have not seen it in any others. Also, do not see the problem on any other fast forward speeds (x15, x60, x300).

SW: L225MAED-N
Boot: 1110MAED
Mode: Single Mode

[M492A]

On some menu screens, when a button or option is disabled, navigating to other options or buttons on the same screen is more difficult than it should be. For example, on the "Check Switch" screen, if the "Done" button is disabled (due to a bad switch config), the "SuperDISH" option cannot be reached by moving up, down, left, or right. And on the attached "Recording Options" screen, with "Weekly" disabled, you can't get to "New" or "All Episodes" on the right until you move down to "Create Recurring Timer" on the left. Likewise, with "Record Entire Event" disabled, you have to move up to "New" on the right before you can get to the items on the left.

[wobin]

Our showroom 942 is having some of the same problems lee is experiencing. Error code 07 on recorded shows. Talked to advanced tech this am and everyone having this problem should call in and have them email engineering so that they are aware and can start working on this. [that is if dish has any engineers on staff any more :mad: ]

[Foxbat]

I can confirm. I get pixlation when using x4 fast forward, but only on recordings from the SPEED channel (Formula 1 - all recordings over several days).I noted the same issue, but not all the time. One issue I noticed watching the pre-race coverage was a "wavering" quality to Peter Windsor's voice, but only from the playback buffer. "Live", the audio seemed fine, it was only during playback later that I noticed this.

[pmsmith66]

Has anyone run into trouble with the 942 not being able to rewind at the 4x speed? I've found that when I hit the button for a 4X rewind that it will often rewind at closer to a 15x pace. My apologies if this has been previously noted.

[mrplow]

Has anyone seen this problem, on remote #2, while in the guide if you hit the arrows too fast it gives you the info screen. I don't know if i have a bad remote.

[dathead2]

Has anyone seen this problem, on remote #2, while in the guide if you hit the arrows too fast it gives you the info screen. I don't know if i have a bad remote.

i noticed by accident if you double press cancel button you get info screen too.

[dathead2]

i was deleting some stuff while recording in DVR menu and
the "disk drive diagnostics" page comes up (i'm thinking "bye bye to
what i have on disk!") and says it may take 45 mins to scan, it then
only took about one minute and went blank and then the unit crashed (or
shut itself off).

after it rebooted it was fine so just hit some glitch - not sure if it was
really h/w or just a s/w bug.

[deweybrunner]

Dathead, this is what happens, automatically, when your unit does it's daily download. You can watch this happen if you set you download about 3 minuites from the current. It will go thru a disc diagnostic check, then blank out, then do a search, then return to regular programming. In your case it might have sensed it needed a download, even if not at your established time. Mine has done the same.

[Tom-Tx]

My 942 lists calls as "Out of Area" with no phone number or name information, while my previous 500 series listed the full Caller ID information from the same source calls.

[mrplow]

On the sirius chs, after about an hour the song info stops updating.

[johnnyd1023]

When I push the Dish Home button on my remote a screen pops up and says " Dish Home Interactive is in use on the other tv, try again later ".
I don't have any other tv connected .
Any ideas ?

[Paradox-sj]

When I push the Dish Home button on my remote a screen pops up and says " Dish Home Interactive is in use on the other tv, try again later ".
I don't have any other tv connected .
Any ideas ?


This has been reported but no one seem to know what is casuing it or when it started or when it will be fixed. Your're not alone on this.

[Justin]

I can confirm. I get pixlation when using x4 fast forward, but only on recordings from the SPEED channel (Formula 1 - all recordings over several days). Have not seen it in any others. Also, do not see the problem on any other fast forward speeds (x15, x60, x300).

SW: L225MAED-N
Boot: 1110MAED
Mode: Single Mode

I also get this; however it does not seem to be limited to the Speed channel.

[Tom-Tx]

When I push the Dish Home button on my remote a screen pops up and says " Dish Home Interactive is in use on the other tv, try again later ".
I don't have any other tv connected .
Any ideas ?

Just found this on mine as well. I am in single user mode but do have another TV connected. Can't seem to get into Dish Home Interactive from either the remote button or by using the guide.

[johnnyd1023]

It seems to be spreading like a virus. Some have the problem others don't. :confused:

I hope they are working on a fix.

[Buckett]

I don't know where this belongs, but...

many of the shows that we watch are flagged as having CC, but maybe only 25% of them produce CC. Is this a problem with the 942? Dish?

Never had this prob with the dreaded D*. Please help.

[Avillant]

I have 2 942s and they both experience the same problem. In most respects, the 942 tuner seems as good or better than the 921 that I owned previously. All of the OTA stations come in just fine on the 942 with the exception of WPTV-DT on 5-1 from West Palm Beach, FL which transmits on channel 55. The signal meter shows me getting a locked signal properly mapped to 5-1, but the signal strength bounces wildly from about 30 to about 53. Naturally, I cannot receive this station.

I always noticed the same thing on my previous 811 and 921 except that the signal bounced around from 85 to 105, but I was able to lock in and receive it.
I have tried re-orienting the antenna but with no improvement - the signal just gets lower.

I do have L226MAED-N software and it made no difference. I also installed DC Blocks on both receivers with no effect.

This particular station has had significant problems since it went on the air about 2 years ago. However, most of the time I was able to receive it on a 6000, 811 or 921. One of my sets (a Mits WD-52525) has a built in OTA tuner which I have always considered to be inferior to the DISH OTA tuners, but today, I noticed that it can receive WPTV-DT just fine.

This has me baffled. Is it the station (probably), is the 942, or is it a quirk in my antenna system?? I really like my 942s. It is a GROSS improvement over the 921. This tuner problem is the only trouble I have had.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

Tony

[Mark Lamutt]

Tony - try a 6dB or variable strength attenuator in your antenna line. That's helped a lot of people, including me.

[Avillant]

I did try a 6db attenuator and it just made the signal smaller and I lost many of the stations I did get.

Tony

[cebbigh]

If I am doing a duplicate post to something someone else has already mentioned I'm sorry. Since hooking up my new 942 I haven't had a lot of time. The day I hooked it up (verified L226 was in the mix) I had problems going from OTA to SAT tuners. When I swithched channels it just went to grey screen. This would clear after a soft boot. Occurred several times. Did not occur on the second day. Another issue I had was losing sound, again after going from OTA to SAT. Again cleared after soft boot.

[RBenson]

Is anyone else having trouble recording events on their 942? Every Time I make a recording, somewhere during the recording a pop-up will appear saying "Part of your recording has been lost due to lack of signal" . Then it will pixelate several times and cut in and out. From then on in the recording it is constantly doing this. The 942 worked great when I first got it and then the software updates started and things went to Hell. Is part of the Eldon team now in Denver? I have to check switch several times a day now and it will work OK for a while. Getting very frustrating. I have a DPP twin lnb with a DP twin on the 61.5 dish in case that makes any difference. Is there any help coming? Thanks for letting me vent.

[foosnake]

I recorded the show Oil Storm on F/X last night by highlighting it in the PG. There were two consecutive showings and the 942 recorded the first on Timer 1 and the second showing on Timer 2. I only asked for a record of the first showing. This sounds like a bug to me.