[jgoggan]

So, Dish just "upgraded" my 721 to a 522 (even though they said that they were sending the 625, but no biggie). Last night, I went through and set up all my timers for the new shows starting up. Tonight, it was supposed to record two 30-minute My Name is Earl shows (at 8pm and 8:30pm) and then an hour long The Office at 9:00pm -- and then ER at 10pm.

So, I just got home at about 9:59pm and went to watch my recordings -- and I have:

Absolutely nothing for both Earl shows -- and a 1 minute recording of either the first or last minute of The Office. I'm not sure which end.

It DID start recording ER at 10pm and appears to be continuing to do that.

What the heck is going on here? Is it normal that the 522 is this poor at recording shows?? My 721 didn't have name-based stuff, but it also didn't drop shows like this -- ever!

So, my first experience with the 522 is not going well...

- John...

P.S. I only have the 522 for a few weeks. My 722 is supposed to be installed the first week of October and this is just a temporary unit... So, I have hope for the future -- but it would be nice if it actually recorded my shows for the next 3 weeks until the 722 arrives!

 

[ch3]

I don't have a direct answer to the problem (though I have seen something similar on our 625 and 508 recently upgraded with NBR), but I have some thoughts.

First, there are defaults for events to start 1 minute early and 3 minutes late. This can cause problems on events that are back to back. On the single tuner 508, with these defaults it will not record the lower priority event because of the time overlap (so in your case, it would only record every other show). On the two tuner 522, it should - and use different tuners for each. I don't know why it din't do this for you (I assuming no one else was using the receiver and canceled the timer when it was about to start - another problem I have in my house ). These defaults can be changed (I have them set to 0 and 0 on both receivers).

When first learning to use NBR, I strongly suggest you look at the schedule (push the DVR button 3 times), to see what the receiver is planning to do. If it's not going to record an event, there will be a reason why, e.g. duplicate event (already recorded on DVR), not a new event (only when selected to record new episodes), by priority (other events higher in priority), etc. (I can't think of any others at the moment). This may give you a hint what the problem is.

Lastly, sometimes I just can't get NBR to do what I want, and so I set up a manual timer. For example in your case, if you always watch NBC on Thursday nights, set up a manual timer from 8:00 to 11:00 - then you're guaranteed to get what you want (though not necessary convenient to skip through repeats - I which there was a 15 or 30 minute skip ahead feature). And make this timer high priority. I do this on Monday nights on NBC, and Friday nights on Sci-Fi (mainly because you lose a moment of show between when one event stops and the next begins - since they sometimes tend to run the shows right up to the second).

 

[jgoggan]

First, there are defaults for events to start 1 minute early and 3 minutes late. This can cause problems on events that are back to back. On the single tuner 508, with these defaults it will not record the lower priority event because of the time overlap (so in your case, it would only record every other show). On the two tuner 522, it should - and use different tuners for each.

Indeed -- the 721 was the same way. Both tuners were available (and I had the system in single mode -- there is no second TV) -- and no one was home when it skipped the first three shows (except for that last minute of Office).

Actually, it appears to have started recording that last minute of The Office when I got him and hit the power button like I always do. So, it was like it was stuck and as soon as I pressed something, it realized that it was supposed to be recording.

When first learning to use NBR, I strongly suggest you look at the schedule (push the DVR button 3 times), to see what the receiver is planning to do. If it's not going to record an event, there will be a reason why, e.g. duplicate event (already recorded on DVR), not a new event (only when selected to record new episodes), by priority (other events higher in priority), etc. (I can't think of any others at the moment). This may give you a hint what the problem is.

I had checked and there appeared to be no problems -- it had the little number icons on each of those shows that it was supposed to record also -- so they were clearly set to record. I checked one coming up that is a repeat and it has the icon saying that it doesn't need to record it. So, that all seemed good.

In the end, I don't know if it is NBR related or not. It seemed to know it was supposed to record them -- it just didn't start doing it until I pushed a key.

- John...

 

[Blowgun]

I found with my 508 (P4.07) that it's best to just leave it on and power cycle it every couple of days and do a manual EPG update. As to back to back timers, that problem was fixed. I have no problem leaving a 1 minute before and after as the default.

If Earl was a repeat and you set the timer for NEW, then it wouldn't record it.

 

[jgoggan]

If Earl was a repeat and you set the timer for NEW, then it wouldn't record it.

Of course, but it was not a repeat (and was clearly marked as such in the guide).

And, again, I saw it after I had set it -- these were clearly marked to record. It just didn't do it.

- John...

 

[ch3]

I remembered something else about the Schedule. You can go back in time (on mine as of today goes back to Sept. 16) and it will tell you what it recorded and what it didn't and why.

Last Monday, it didn't record two shows it was suppose to - the reasons were 'stopped' (hitting info on the event said "Event stopped by STB reboot .. Time of Reboot 1:33 AM") and 'canceled' (info said "Event Canceled"). It had this for both events (6.30pm and 8.00pm). I have no idea what the problem was. Only foul up so far with P4.07 on the 508.

 

[Blowgun]

Of course, but it was not a repeat (and was clearly marked as such in the guide).

And, again, I saw it after I had set it -- these were clearly marked to record. It just didn't do it.

I'll presume you mean by "clearly marked as such in the guide" you saw an active timer icon in the guide after returning to the EPG from setting the timer. Although you could be also talking about the event description showing "New" in the guide.

FWIW, an event description with "New" listed is not what NBR uses to determine whether the show is new or not. Sometimes the show is new and "New" doesn't appear in the description, but the receiver will still know it as a "New" show.

Also, with your description of coming home and hitting the power button, I think it's best to just leave it on, power cycle it every couple of days and do a manual EPG update at that time. My 508 receiver has been doing much better ever since.

 

[Blowgun]

Last Monday, it didn't record two shows it was suppose to - the reasons were 'stopped' (hitting info on the event said "Event stopped by STB reboot .. Time of Reboot 1:33 AM") and 'canceled' (info said "Event Canceled"). It had this for both events (6.30pm and 8.00pm). I have no idea what the problem was. Only foul up so far with P4.07 on the 508.

Before, when I would do the so-called power off of the receiver, I would see the occasional 'STB reboot/cancel' entries and the loss of the event. That stopped happening after I decided to always leave the receiver on and since then all timers have been firing when they are suppose to fire.

I have no idea what a "STB reboot" is beyond the obvious "STB" acronym and definition of the word "reboot", why, like yours, would pick such a horrible time to do it and why the description always had such disproportional information.

Besides the purpose of messing up the timer, anyone know what the receiver was trying to accomplish with a "STB reboot"?

 

[ch3]

Before, when I would do the so-called power off of the receiver, I would see the occasional 'STB reboot/cancel' entries and the loss of the event. That stopped happening after I decided to always leave the receiver on and since then all timers have been firing when they are suppose to fire.

I have been leaving mine on ever since I think P3.63 was force downloaded (from P3.04). That version would not record at all if the receiver was turned off, so I just left it on all the time (P3.04 and prior worked fine and I always turned it off). I have assumed that they fixed that bug since P3.63, but I didn't play with it to find out.

I think it does a reboot every night (I do have the Inactivity Power Off enabled - since the receiver has been working mostly ok, I left this setting as is). I think this causes a reboot every night (I frequently hear it do something in the early morning hours when nothing is set to record, though the time is not consistent - anywhere from about 3am to 6am).

I suspect what may have happen in my case (just a wild guess), is that it attempted to reboot Sunday night (early Monday morning), and it didn't go right putting the receiver into a stuck state. (Occasionally when I turn it on in the morning, it wouldn't go on or be working very strangely and would require a hard reboot - hold the power button, but I haven't seen this happen yet with P4.07 that I had for about a month - I had P3.69 without NBR before that - P4.07 was forced.)

Anyway, I didn't use the receiver on Monday, so I don't know if it was in a stuck state or not, but I am guessing it may have been. When the time came for the next night reboot (early Tuesday morning), it corrected itself. When I used it on Tuesday, everything appeared fine - except for the two missing events.

The fact that I have been leaving it on may be the reason I haven't seen this happen before. It's also possible I turned it off by accident Sunday. I use the red TV on/off button to turn off the TV and sometimes I do accidentally hit the red receiver on/off button. I usually turn it right back on when I do that. Perhaps I didn't Sunday.

Thanks for a clue of what may have happen.

 

[neilo]

First, there are defaults for events to start 1 minute early and 3 minutes late. This can cause problems on events that are back to back. On the single tuner 508, with these defaults it will not record the lower priority event because of the time overlap (so in your case, it would only record every other show). On the two tuner 522, it should - and use different tuners for each. I don't know why it didn't do this for you (I assuming no one else was using the receiver and canceled the timer when it was about to start - another problem I have in my house ). These defaults can be changed (I have them set to 0 and 0 on both receivers)....

Lastly, sometimes I just can't get NBR to do what I want, and so I set up a manual timer. For example in your case, if you always watch NBC on Thursday nights, set up a manual timer from 8:00 to 11:00 - then you're guaranteed to get what you want (though not necessary convenient to skip through repeats - I which there was a 15 or 30 minute skip ahead feature). And make this timer high priority. I do this on Monday nights on NBC, and Friday nights on Sci-Fi (mainly because you lose a moment of show between when one event stops and the next begins - since they sometimes tend to run the shows right up to the second).

Is there a manual way to which tuner it will use? On Tuesday I have CBS shows from 8 to 9 and 9 to 10 and FOX shows during the same timespan. When I checked what it had scheduled, for some reason it had one one timer a CBS and a FOX show while on the other timer it had a FOX and CBS show which may cause some problems (or may not). I played around with priorities and skipping and restoring a show and at that moment it seemed to work, but for all I know it will revert back later.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Blowgun]

I think it does a reboot every night (I do have the Inactivity Power Off enabled

I have that disabled. At one time it was the cause of problems.

 

[Blowgun]

Is there a manual way to which tuner it will use?

A 508 only has one tuner. You use the priority system to determine which event is more important when two timers conflict.

 

[shadough]

There are 2 settings within the reciever (as I have been reading the manual lately since i JUST got a 522 last week). 1st setting is to set the time for the receiver to 'turn off' and download a new guide. Default is set to 3am. Not sure why the receiver can't just download a new guide while its still ON!! I mean my 721 seem to have no problem doing this (allthough my 510 does not). The other setting is to define 'where' you want your recordings to take place. You can define it as TV2 or 2nd tuner, and I think by default it is set to that anyway.

 

[robert koerner]

My guess is that I have the same problem while using playback and recording off both tuners while dish is attempting to down load something "Dish on Demand" stuff.