721 missed event timers (again)

[factory]

I have seen few (maybe not any) posts about missed timer events since the L104 upgrade on the 721. Seems the update fixed issues for many.

However I am seeing missed timers for the locals that are set as the "true local" channel number (e.g. channel 2, 5, 36, etc.)

Anyone else seeing missed timer events only on these local channels?

I've since switched the channel for the timer over to the previous 8xxx channel number. I'm interested to see if this makes any difference... I don't see why it would, but it was a suggestion from advanced tech support at Dish.

Also, I did reboot my unit when this first occurred. Obviously this isn't really a good solution..

Jason:shrug:

[lonnman]

I can tell you that I missed the news (Channel 11) the last 2 nights. These were onetime manual timers that I set a couple hours before. My weekly timers worked flawlessly for Alias, Sopranos, and a few others. My machine did lock up on me at 10:30 last night and required a hard reset. The last I rebooted before that was about 4 days ago.

Jeff

[Nightmare]

I missed a timer that I set about 10 min before the show too. It recorded a couple seconds and thats all. Weird.

[RandomBites]

I have never missed a timer. I do not have my locals remapped as I am a Distant Nets sub. I also don't do repeating events as I can never remember if the are there or not because they don't display the program title. Generally I use the 8xxxx number and not the 7xx.

[factory]

Well, it missed Sopranos on HBO-W last night. So much for a problem with the channel remapping...

Jason

[DmitriA]

This is very strange. Some people (like me) have absolutely no problems with missed timers (or much of anything else for that matter) despite having a number of them setup for each week (both weekly and one-time ones) and others have problems all over the place. The software is the same, the guide data is the same, the hardware is pretty much the same (I find it almost impossible to believe that such problems are caused by hardware component failures - and that would mean there are way too many of them occuring than can ever be expected). So what is the problem? Is it the difference in the way it is used by some users where certain things are causing memory corruption that is resulting in all these problems? I just don't get it.

[LarryH]

I only have problems with "M-F" timers. "One-time", "daily", and "weekly" timers appear to work fine. To get by, I have changed all of my "M-F" timers into "Daily" timers. I get unwanted junk on the weekends, but I don't miss any more shows.

[factory]

All the failed timers I use have been weekly. I know I've had a few one-time timers work fine.

Also, I've noticed some odd behavior with editing timers. I check the timer to edit and select edit; the unit doesn't respond. The same has occurred for deleting timers. Select the timer and then select delete. Doesn't work. I rebooted and the issue went away.

I'm tired of rebooting!

Jason

[greylar]

DmitriA,

I have been wondering the same thing. I have come to the conclusion that it is usage differences. Some people may have both tuners with record before/after , and the pvr running while playing a game, on crappy power with the hard drive completely full. And, others may never record more than one thing at a time and have the unit on a UPS.

I'm not really sure maybe we should start a survey and see if there is a pattern.

How full is your HD, How many shows recorded per week,  How many missed timers, reboots etc...

Greylar

[TerryC]

Originally posted by LarryH
I only have problems with "M-F" timers. "One-time", "daily", and "weekly" timers appear to work fine. To get by, I have changed all of my "M-F" timers into "Daily" timers. I get unwanted junk on the weekends, but I don't miss any more shows.

Similar situation here. I only had probs w/M-F timers (it would fail once or twice a week). Reset them all to weekly and haven't had a problem since.

[jerryyyyy]

I am sure 104 is an improvement- I have been one of the big complainers- have not missed a timer, even M-F, since upgrade. Have been stressing the system by recording two shows at the same time.

I currently have no problems with the system except the $%$$% fan.

[gsusser]

Originally posted by LarryH
I only have problems with "M-F" timers. "One-time", "daily", and "weekly" timers appear to work fine. To get by, I have changed all of my "M-F" timers into "Daily" timers. I get unwanted junk on the weekends, but I don't miss any more shows. Just to add my 2 cents, I have a problem with 2 timers-- one event is scheduled M-F on a local channel and occasionally doesn't record, while the other is weekly and is on HBO and usually does not record.

[rolou21]

I have to admit that I too have missed (2) events from the 721 and sometimes I do not see local ch's 2 thru 5 or 47-68...Just pull out the smart card and or unplug the receiver corrects this problem.
Started to get this weirdness when L104 was introduced!

[lonnman]

I was trying to record Will & Grace last night for my wife, and I clicked on it and told it to do an extra 30 minutes. Went back to the guide and it showed 2 red dots, one for the first hour (7:30 to 8:30), and one for the 8:30 to 9 show. I then tried to record the Wild Hockey game on channel 436, and it told me I had a conflict, then I deleted the timer from 7:30 to 8:30 and went to back to the guide, the red dot was still there for the 8:30 to 9 and then I deleted that one (which was odd, because I thought it was one timer). I then tried the hockey game again and still a conflict, tried to delete the non hockey game, but no red dot and no timer. I then checked the guide and it showed Will & Grace as one show with a length of 1.5 hours. I had very few timers, and I checked them and nothing for that day. It did record Will & Grace as 3 half hour shows and I watched the hockey game on the 4900, but racing back to check the 721 every 20 minutes or so.

My wife was out of town and said it would be my head if it didn't record Will & Grace for her.

I've had other instances where I have had problems recording 2 things at once, and am very careful to uncheck the 1 minute b4 check box and put 0 in the other box. Usually I have to delete all the timers opposite the show I want then select the show and then put the previous timers back and it usually works. It seems sometimes to decide that some show will be recorded simultaneously on both tuners.

Jeff

[Kosh_5x5]

MAJOR SNAFUS for me

After three weeks of heavy use, all the timers worked fine. Then I went on vacation on Friday, November 15th and returned Friday November 22nd. I had timers set for every day, a mix of weekly and one time events on both local and other channels. I left the 721 in standby mode while I was gone. I have software version L104.

When I got home, I had no recordings from Friday through Tuesday. Wednesday it recorded the West Wing but not the Amazing Race (which may have been preempted). Thursday it recorded Survivor and CSI but not Friends and ER (which I assume were on as scheduled). Friday it recorded the Firefly time slot which was occupied by the first hour of Happy Gilmore on Fox.

Did this happen to anyone else? Any advice on how to avoid this in the future? I am planning on calling Advanced Tech Support but I thought I would ask here also.

Minor additional question - assuming the Amazing Race was not on Wednesday, how did the 721 know to skip the weekly timer for that show but it didn't skip the weekly timer for Firefly, which was preempted on Friday?

Thanks,

The Vorlon

[doode968]

I was missing timers on a regular basis. Manual power off in the evening seemed to work. The one thing that has made all timers fire-off and not miss yet is setting the start time one minute into the show. It fixed the problem of having the wrong show title in the PVR list as well.