[Guest]

I am having some problems and was hoping someone could explain what's going on. I have a very basic system and do not know much about the tech of it (spotbeams, transponders, switches, etc...). I have a single dish with service from e* and a receiver that's one of the old ones, 2700 I think. It's been used a few years with no problems. Lately (for awhile) the program guide has become frustrating (VERY slow with alot of "no info available"). When it would do that I would just advance the guide a few hours in then back track and the info would show up.

Here's my current problem which just started today. ALL channels on the guide are listed as "no info available". If I try to advance the guide it stays on "retreiving program info" until it tries to go back to the last channel it was on. Now as for the channels, they seem to be on ok as far as I can tell except for 241 and 247 nbc/fox) which does say transponder 3. Oh also I just noticed that ALL my pay-per-view channels are now listed in red. Normally the ones in red I can't get so I guess they are all gone.

This crap is pissing me off. The guide was difficult before but now it is acting weird and is unreadable. Also, at this moment, I do not know how reliable those two channels which are gone will be and I normally watch them all the time.

Sorry to go on but it is frustrating. I know my receiver is old but it has been completely reliable until now, today. Any advice would be great.

Thanks for your time!
gtc

 

[Mark Lamutt]

GTC - pull the smartcard out of your receiver for a little while (30 seconds or so) then put it back in, and see if that helps. I've been getting similar problems on my 4900, and that seems to work for me.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I share your pain GTC I have an old 2700 too, and the EPG is a PITA most of the time. As Mark siad, try pulling the card. Hope it works!

 

[DarrellP]

With my 6000 I've found it helps to tune to channel 120 (History channel) and the guide will update faster. Thanks to Dan Collins at DBS Forums, he told me that is the transponder that has the guide info. It really works, try it.

 

[Guest]

Hi. Thanks for the great advice. I went to the satellite all ready to pull the card when the guide just came back all on it's own. It's been what passes for normal since. It just acted weird that day. They at dish must have been screwing with something I guess. Thanks for the tip on the history channel. I'll do that.

One of these days I'll try to figure out some way to upgrade. I'm very interested in a pvr but the 501 does not sound reliable and I would really like two tuners. The 721 (if it ever comes out) not only sounds unreliable but it will cost too much (out of my range). I really do not want to switch to D* as I like the superstation package and nbc/fox (which I currently get for now). I don't want to loose them plus those would be the stations I would want to record off of the most. Oh well. If you are curious I am in the dma listed on the chart as #97 (evansville, indiana). That is where my locals come from although I really like the idea of getting distants (I do NOT like my local stations).

Anyway, thanks again.
gtc

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't dismiss the 501 so easily. I have had one for 6 months now and it has been wonderful. Yes, it has had some minor bugs, but nothing like some of the tales of woe that you read on the forums

 

[Kevin]

I have the same problem with my EPG, and yes, it is very frustrating. I have programming info for the next 2 shows on each channel and then it is "Info Not Available" after that. I've noticed that if you repeatedly press the Guide button on your remote while you're in the EPG, the programming info loads more rapidly. I'll have to try The History Channel trick like Darrell said and see if that works.