Bogey62
11-30-02, 06:35 PM
Here's the Email I sent to Dish Network:
To whom it may concern:
I have owned a PVR721 unit for about 4 months now and I have compiled a list of problems and suggestions that I feel would improve the overall product. Please forward this list to someone who has the power to actually implement these ideas.
Thank you.
* Doing a Search for programs via keywords should only show results from channels I subscribe to, or only for channels contained within my current Guide choice (i.e. All Channels, My Channels, Bill, etc.) It is very frustrating to do a Search and get back 100 results, 75 of which are on channels I don't subscribe to. I realize this is a great marketing tool for Dish Network, but it's very frustrating for me as an end-user. If you won't change this aspect of the Search, at least show the channel's name in the results instead of, or in addition to, the channel's number. Currently, I have to set a timer to see that I do not currently subscribe to that particular channel.
* There should be an option to delete a single entry in the Search History, instead of having to wipe out the entire list just because I mistyped an entry or no longer want an entry to remain displayed in the History list.
* There should be a confirmation prompt before erasing the entire Search History list.
* The Guide should be able to display listings in alphabetical order (ascending or descending order).
* When a program is paused, there should be a feature that allows me to reposition the Time Remaining bar on the screen via the Position button.
* The Swap button should be able to switch between the two tuners on the 721 without having to first use the PIP button.
* There should be a slo-mo/frame advance feature in both the forward and reverse directions when the picture is paused.
* Channel surfing is very sluggish and frustrating. There should be an option to delay the hard drive caching when flipping channels for 5 seconds or so. This delay would enable quick channel flipping when I just want to see what's on at-a-glance. After the 5 second delay, let the hard drive begin recording the current channel.
* The picture quality needs to be improved, especially on the pay movie channels (i.e. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, et al.) The dithering and pixelization in shadowed areas of shows/movies on HBO is unacceptable. I switched from a C-band satellite system to the Dish Network and the picture quality is vastly superior on my C-band system (analog).
* Sometimes, while playing back a PVR recording, the program playback will stutter (noticeable hard drive grinding can be heard). I think this is most likely due to hard drive fragmentation. I should have an option to do periodic hard drive defragmentation, either on a predetermined schedule or manually.
* Pressing the View button during playback of a recorded program should show the Time Remaining, instead of 0:00. Presently, I have to pause the program to see the time remaining.
* If more than 2 timers conflict, only 2 of them are shown. A complete list of all conflicting timers should be displayed so that I can select which timer I want to delete.
* The Hard Drive diagnostic option is ghosted. Why?
* Select Start Over while a program is being recorded and when the timer finishes the PVR will automatically switch back to live mode! If I want to continue to watch the recorded program from where I left off before the live mode kicked in, I have to start the program all over again and fast forward all the way up to the point I left off at -- this point could easily be the last 10 minutes of a 2 hour movie!
* Sometimes, a timer will only record for a very short period of time, i.e., 4 minutes, 1 minute, 10 seconds, 1 second. Once, I had an entire week's worth of recordings ruined because of this.
* How do you defragment the drive? I was told by a level 2 tech at Dish Network that you should power off the system and then hold the power button in for 10 seconds. Well, this isn't any different than pressing the power switch for 5 seconds while it is powered up. Does this really defrag the drive? Seems way too fast to me.
To whom it may concern:
I have owned a PVR721 unit for about 4 months now and I have compiled a list of problems and suggestions that I feel would improve the overall product. Please forward this list to someone who has the power to actually implement these ideas.
Thank you.
* Doing a Search for programs via keywords should only show results from channels I subscribe to, or only for channels contained within my current Guide choice (i.e. All Channels, My Channels, Bill, etc.) It is very frustrating to do a Search and get back 100 results, 75 of which are on channels I don't subscribe to. I realize this is a great marketing tool for Dish Network, but it's very frustrating for me as an end-user. If you won't change this aspect of the Search, at least show the channel's name in the results instead of, or in addition to, the channel's number. Currently, I have to set a timer to see that I do not currently subscribe to that particular channel.
* There should be an option to delete a single entry in the Search History, instead of having to wipe out the entire list just because I mistyped an entry or no longer want an entry to remain displayed in the History list.
* There should be a confirmation prompt before erasing the entire Search History list.
* The Guide should be able to display listings in alphabetical order (ascending or descending order).
* When a program is paused, there should be a feature that allows me to reposition the Time Remaining bar on the screen via the Position button.
* The Swap button should be able to switch between the two tuners on the 721 without having to first use the PIP button.
* There should be a slo-mo/frame advance feature in both the forward and reverse directions when the picture is paused.
* Channel surfing is very sluggish and frustrating. There should be an option to delay the hard drive caching when flipping channels for 5 seconds or so. This delay would enable quick channel flipping when I just want to see what's on at-a-glance. After the 5 second delay, let the hard drive begin recording the current channel.
* The picture quality needs to be improved, especially on the pay movie channels (i.e. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, et al.) The dithering and pixelization in shadowed areas of shows/movies on HBO is unacceptable. I switched from a C-band satellite system to the Dish Network and the picture quality is vastly superior on my C-band system (analog).
* Sometimes, while playing back a PVR recording, the program playback will stutter (noticeable hard drive grinding can be heard). I think this is most likely due to hard drive fragmentation. I should have an option to do periodic hard drive defragmentation, either on a predetermined schedule or manually.
* Pressing the View button during playback of a recorded program should show the Time Remaining, instead of 0:00. Presently, I have to pause the program to see the time remaining.
* If more than 2 timers conflict, only 2 of them are shown. A complete list of all conflicting timers should be displayed so that I can select which timer I want to delete.
* The Hard Drive diagnostic option is ghosted. Why?
* Select Start Over while a program is being recorded and when the timer finishes the PVR will automatically switch back to live mode! If I want to continue to watch the recorded program from where I left off before the live mode kicked in, I have to start the program all over again and fast forward all the way up to the point I left off at -- this point could easily be the last 10 minutes of a 2 hour movie!
* Sometimes, a timer will only record for a very short period of time, i.e., 4 minutes, 1 minute, 10 seconds, 1 second. Once, I had an entire week's worth of recordings ruined because of this.
* How do you defragment the drive? I was told by a level 2 tech at Dish Network that you should power off the system and then hold the power button in for 10 seconds. Well, this isn't any different than pressing the power switch for 5 seconds while it is powered up. Does this really defrag the drive? Seems way too fast to me.