921 L276 Release Discussion.

SimpleSimon · 03-31-06, 05:32 AM

That's all I know so far, except as usual it was real flaky after the reboot.

Took a hard (pull power) reboot to settle it down.

tthomps · 03-31-06, 06:17 AM

My 921 took the update this morning without a hitch and works just fine. The program guide is only one hour long. After updates it may fill in during the day or after the nightly reboot.

boylehome · 03-31-06, 07:36 AM

Every update affects my EPG. I have the, "NO INFO." for all except the current event. If I hit the PIP I get the 861 screen that reads, "PIP no available due to a guide update. This update takes less than 7 minutes. Please try again later." Well I've tried many times later and it keeps popping up. I did the power cord reset and it didn't help.

Zarom · 03-31-06, 07:48 AM

I've had the no info problem beyond the current one or two programs since the L276 program downloaded. I've tried the usual, power button, power cord, and smart card reboots, and nothing has helped. In the past, when this problem has occurred (except for version L273), the EPG was restored within ten minutes after rebooting. This time, it doesn't help.

Hope it's just my 921, not the new 276 download. I talked with Dish Technical support about the very noisy operation yesterday, but they said if it's not squealing or severely clicking, it's normal.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the EPG guide problem came back the day before the 921/942 upgrade program starts.

DVR921: - Jan 12, 2005
Boot 150B
Flash F054
SW L276HEED-N

SummitAdvantageRetailer · 03-31-06, 08:43 AM

I guess it's the usual semi-annual DST work-around.

David_Levin · 03-31-06, 09:20 AM

Wow, this has to be the fastest they've ever whipped out 921 software updates....

Zarom · 03-31-06, 09:31 AM

I get a blank screen in PIP and the weird multicolored rectangle appears top left on the TV. Turning off the TV, or the 921 does nothing. It requires a reboot. Haven't seen that in quite a while. Used to be a common occurence on the 921.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boylehome

Every update affects my EPG. I have the, "NO INFO." for all except the current event. If I hit the PIP I get the 861 screen that reads, "PIP no available due to a guide update. This update takes less than 7 minutes. Please try again later." Well I've tried many times later and it keeps popping up. I did the power cord reset and it didn't help.

harsh · 03-31-06, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SummitAdvantageRetailer

I guess it's the usual semi-annual DST work-around.

I thought that was what L275 was for.

mwgiii · 03-31-06, 11:04 AM

This is just a giant conspiracy by Dish to crash our 921s so we call tomorrow for the 622 upgrade.

SummitAdvantageRetailer · 03-31-06, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harsh

I thought that was what L275 was for.

Nah, if you read the L275 release notes, they mentioned E10 support. I don't know why they couldn't put in both E10 support and DST update but traditionally DISH likes to roll out a DST update just a few days before DST happens on Sundays.

Michael P · 03-31-06, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwgiii

This is just a giant conspiracy by Dish to crash our 921s so we call tomorrow for the 622 upgrade.

You may be right!

This morning I saw that my 921 was on (I never leave it on) and in safe mode.

When I turned my TV on I was greeted by the light blue screen "your hard drive has failed..."

While I finally got my 921 running, I lost EVERYTHING

:burning:
I lost all my recordings, preferences, and OTA scans.

I called tech support twice. The first time I could not get a signal, so they wanted me to call back later (it was raining lightly). What brought the 921 back to life was rescanning OTA locals. Then I checked for life on any transponder (I can usually count on 110 tr. 10 which is the spotbeam where my locals reside).

L276 was the kiss of death. I'm ready to call it quits with E* DVR's.

Does anybody know if there is shuch a thing as a stand-alone DVR with DVD burner and no monthly fee?

harsh · 03-31-06, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael P

Does anybody know if there is shuch a thing as a stand-alone DVR with DVD burner and no monthly fee?

Not that will record digitally off of satellite. There are computer based DVR solutions that may work for SD programming but I don't know if any support a Dish program guide.

Note that there have been increasing reports lately about DRM interfering with DVD burners (even when they shouldn't have been). I would imagine that this is just a sign of things to come.

socceteer · 03-31-06, 04:15 PM

I know that tivo has an HD DVR which will work in conjunction with your HD box. Tivo also offers a SD box that will DVR and copy to DVD all in one box. Not sure if that have that combination for HD yet

Zarom · 03-31-06, 04:36 PM

It stayed at 1-2 programs in the guide until about 4:00pm, when the entire 9 day guide popped into view. Interesting...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarom

I've had the no info problem beyond the current one or two programs since the L276 program downloaded. I've tried the usual, power button, power cord, and smart card reboots, and nothing has helped. In the past, when this problem has occurred (except for version L273), the EPG was restored within ten minutes after rebooting. This time, it doesn't help.

Hope it's just my 921, not the new 276 download. I talked with Dish Technical support about the very noisy operation yesterday, but they said if it's not squealing or severely clicking, it's normal.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the EPG guide problem came back the day before the 921/942 upgrade program starts.

DVR921: - Jan 12, 2005
Boot 150B
Flash F054
SW L276HEED-N

debpasc · 03-31-06, 05:39 PM

Had the EPG "no info", too, right after the download -- pulled plug for 5 minutes brought it back. My DVR list and timers are all in tact, my aspect button works, my HD is still at 1080i. All is right with the world. I can't switch between HD and SD, everything is running on HD all the time but that was a problem before either of the last downloads. I have a good picture and the DVR is working like it's supposed to so I haven't tried to solve this issue.

By the way, I had a number for the Advanced Tech for 921s given to me many months ago. I called it a couple of weeks ago and got a message the next day that that number no longer provides 921 support and all 921 problems should be refered to the regular tech support number. As expected, the beginning of the end for 921 support.

SummitAdvantageRetailer · 04-01-06, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by debpasc

Had the EPG "no info", too, right after the download -- pulled plug for 5 minutes brought it back. My DVR list and timers are all in tact, my aspect button works, my HD is still at 1080i. All is right with the world. I can't switch between HD and SD, everything is running on HD all the time but that was a problem before either of the last downloads. I have a good picture and the DVR is working like it's supposed to so I haven't tried to solve this issue.

By the way, I had a number for the Advanced Tech for 921s given to me many months ago. I called it a couple of weeks ago and got a message the next day that that number no longer provides 921 support and all 921 problems should be refered to the regular tech support number. As expected, the beginning of the end for 921 support.

Aww, man, they're really going to drop support of the 921's as people swap their receivers for the 622's. I'm planning to keep the 921 as long as I can until we have many more new HD channels coming but if the software won't be as updated as frequently as it is now (which is a joke at 1 update every 2-3 months before the E10 and this non-sense fix came out), I might just drop our personal DISH account.

If they got the 921 relatively bug-free and dropped dedicated support, then sure, it should work fine like the 721, but it hasn't gotten there. This is a shame, really. And I'm a pro-DISH guy most of the time, too.

SummitAdvantageRetailer · 04-01-06, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harsh

I thought that was what L275 was for.

Yeah, Scott at the other forum said that 276 was for a fix for the new software download pop-up disabling video on Tuner 2, which nobody I've seen report on here by the way.

ibglowin · 04-01-06, 08:27 AM

Can't wait to get back home ande see what L276 has done. L275 just about killed one of my 921's and wiped the hard drive. Hope it doesn't happen again this time.

harsh · 04-01-06, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by socceteer

I know that tivo has an HD DVR which will work in conjunction with your HD box.

TiVo (or their hardware partners) currently don't offer a standalone HD DVR. The one that they've been dragging around to trade shows (Series 3) isn't designed to record HD satellite content.

boylehome · 04-01-06, 12:16 PM

My 921 experienced a missed timer for the first time in months. It was for trading spouses on OTA. It has worked fine the past couple of weeks. Now lets see how the other timers work.

Allen Noland · 04-01-06, 07:57 PM

Here are the Release Notes.

921 L276: Fix for the download available pop-up 872 interrupting viewing on Tuner 2.

SimpleSimon · 04-02-06, 03:12 AM

I would expect that they just get rid of that worthless message.

There's no point in it.

DonLandis · 04-02-06, 03:29 PM

Don't have the time to decipher these weekly updates anymore but I do now see a popup that tells me to hit a button to let the receiver know I haven't fallen asleep or it will explode yada yada...

Anyway it's something like that. I see this popup after watching a moviefor about 90 minutes or so. This started with L275 and I now have 276 and it still shows up.

Rotryrkt · 04-02-06, 06:15 PM

Well, they really screwed my 921 up again. About half the time when I hit the guide button the wrong time (a few minutes to an hour in the past) is displayed as the current time. I have timers firing wrong all over the place for the first time in a year or more. After I exit the guide and go back in it usually displays the correct time, but not always. I guess I should be used to this flaky behavior by now, but it's really frustrating after over 2 years of this. This crap is really getting old, especially when I look at how much I pay these people every month for service that doesn't work half the time.

brettbolt · 04-05-06, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael P

Does anybody know if there is such a thing as a stand-alone DVR with DVD burner and no monthly fee?

Before I activated my 921 it had basic DVR functionality for the OTA locals. It would let me receive and record HD OTA locals, but without any guide data.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael P

L276 was the kiss of death. I'm ready to call it quits with E* DVR's.

De-activating my 921 is very tempting for me too. I mostly just watch the local channels, which I can receive very well with my OTA antenna. I have a NetFlix account for DVD movies. That's probably the way to go. The total monthly cost (aftering dropping E*) would only be $14.99 for 2 movies at a time, OTA locals, and the NASA channel (always free). But I can't count on always having a functional 921, since the software "updates" frequently break features that worked before.