Am I just too naive?

[Halfsek]

The way I look at it is how hard is it to program something to record a program? I figure it's an on/off thing, right? If the scheduled program is on, then record. If not, then don't.
Not only did the 721 not record something, but it had in the PVR menu that it did, but it was the show one hour earlier. I've tested other shows and they're fine.

After a reset it works fine.

I'm not so worried about the missed recording, actually. It's about 85%-90% accurate, which isn't too bad; although my Tivo was 100% accurate. :) But my point is that the Tivo people got it right- on pretty much their first try. How hard is it for Dish to get it right? Especially since this isn't their first PVR product.

I'm not a programmer and the few programming classes I took ended with absolute frustration; so I don't pretend to know all the details. But on the outside it looks pretty basic:

The Dish guide has what is on and coming on. The user programs the needed shows. The recording side of the 721 follows what the user entered. But not only will it skip, but it'll record phantom shows, get the times wrong or come up with conflicts that don't exist.

At any rate, I'm still quite happy with the 721. The picture and audio are great. I love the dual tuner aspect and as I said, the accuracy is not that bad. But at this point, with the technology already being out for a few years and the experience that Dish already has, I think these are problems which should not be coming up.

[Halfsek]

Okay, just did the math. Actually, of the 14 shows recorded on the PVR screen, it's 70% accurate. That's suddenly not so good. Luckily, the 70% consists of all the important shows. :)

[Bob Haller]

I hear you. E REALLY needs to spend lots more money producing a 100% reliable PVR.

My 721 is good but not great. Bringing about us back up recording cant miss shows.

PVR subs are the best, but also the most demanding. Poor reliablity will cause churn, of the best subs. Espically if TIVO has a great reputation....

[DarrellP]

A bug I discovered with my 501 that really annoys me: When I select a program from the EPG and it is not in the far left hour slot, sometimes it records what is in the left hand hour slot.

For instance: Viewing the guide for channel 300 (HBO) on sunday at 6 PM. You should see at 6PM Sopranos, 6:30PM, Sopranos then 7PM, Whatever. If I choose to record Whatever, sometimes it will record the Sopranos instead. For some reason known only to God and Dish programmers, the machine jumps to the time slot to the left of the program I've selected.

Luckily I catch it 99% of the time this happens. I've learned to always check the time and show in the guide after setting the timer to make sure the clock is showing.

So, if you think you are spaced out while setting recordings, fear not, you have been struck by the random timer gremlin.