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. 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]

Originally Posted by Mark Lamutt

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 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]

Originally Posted by Mark Lamutt

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. 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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.