[MQuinn]

We have a fairly crappy signal from our CW station in the San Jose area - I've been trying to record it, but it's not really watchable.

But, here's the annoying part. If I'm watching a recorded show, or some other channel, with the bad signal recording in the background, Various alerts pop up on the screen to tell me about it. These end up being very confusing because at first it's not clear that it's an alert about something happening in the background. There are also not enough choices to dismiss the dialog boxes (one of them just has a "help" button - not very useful). If Dish is going to pop these up, they need to be better worded, and have ways to quickly dismiss them......

Occasionally, after this happens, the 622 needs to be powered off and back on - it stops showing video of any kind (has happened twice now).

 

[Rob Glasser]

When you watch or record a station with signal issues like that the 622 tends to get very flakey. I'd really recommend that you do not record or watch that station unless you can get a stronger signal.

 

[Ron Barry]

Next time this happens MQuinn it would be nice if you can take some digital photos and post them or at jot them down. Hard to tell what exactly you are seeing and I am sure the folks at E* would have a hard time also.

 

[normang]

There are things that can be done to resolve poor signal issues, it all depends on whether you are willing, able or it is possible to take the needed action to get a stable signal for CW. Better antenna, pre-amp, better aiming etc..

If you intend to record a channel that has a poor signal, the error messages are there for a reason IMHO. Whether they should be supressed, merely because your not watching it, that maybe another issue, but I would prefer to know whether my recording is going down the tubes because of signal issues.

 

[Paradox-sj]

Where are you in San Jose and what antnna are you using that you dont get the CW very well? I use an indoor rat-shack antenna and get it just fine and I am in Blossim valley

 

[Mike D-CO5]

Just get the superstation for CW from Dish. It will only cost 1.50 and I got mine from Denver (KWGN) as it has the best picture quality out of the superstations. No pq problems or signal problems.

 

[MQuinn]

Just get the superstation for CW from Dish. It will only cost 1.50 and I got mine from Denver (KWGN) as it has the best picture quality out of the superstations. No pq problems or signal problems.

I get the superstations - but they're not in HD - the OTA CW is in HD (I do record the superstation as a backup).

For Paradox-sj - I'm in Campbell, using a directional attenaa pointed towards sutro (works great for ABC). I'm going to try playing with some other antennas, but CW is the only Sutro signal I don't get well.

For Ron Barry - the issue isn't the channel - it's what Dish software does. Interrupting my foreground viewing for something that's going on in the background is not a great user experience, IMO. Dish should know what alerts they're popping up in those situations - they basically say they've lost the signal. They should be recorded with the channel that's being recorded, not popped up in front of my face on the channel I'm watching, or at least act more civilized (like I write below).

For normang - I have a pre-amp, the aim is good. Other channels on the same channel come through very well. I would have less of a problem with the error messages if they would "pause" my current viewing, but they don't, and they do not have clear buttons about how to get out of the dialog (HELP is not a useful button - that's all that's on the dialog, no cancel, no return to program, nothing else).

To Rob - apparently so, but that doesn't make it right. Yes, CW for me is always flakey, but sometimes one of the other channels goes crazy, and just because that happens, I don't need the DVR to go belly up - it's an issue that should be fixed, or at least looked at.

 

[Rob Glasser]

To Rob - apparently so, but that doesn't make it right. Yes, CW for me is always flakey, but sometimes one of the other channels goes crazy, and just because that happens, I don't need the DVR to go belly up - it's an issue that should be fixed, or at least looked at.

I completely agree. This has been a problem on every DVR with OTA Recording capabilities I've had, the 921, the 942, and the 622.

Typically I've found that a signal loss here and there usually doesn't cause problems, but when you have a station that is dropping out every couple of minutes or so, after a bit the receiver starts experiencing slow downs in the GUI and eventually stops responding or commands and reboots. I'm guessing the DVR is getting tied up trying to manage that bad signal/recording and can't respond to other commands? Hard to say not being a programmer for DVRs. Because of that I tend to stay away from the one OTA station that I don't see that great of signal on because of tree interference (my local PBS)

 

[hdaddikt]

I will add my 622 problems, which have been sporadic at best.

1. Auto reboots are rare. But manual resets are necessary to clear most problems.

2. I 'think' problems may be worse since L365, but it has gone almost 2 weeks with no problems, but now they are rearing their ugly heads again.

3. Often if I run 'INFO' I get 61.5 showing a red crossout, implying there is a signal strength problem.

Now the real kicker is I get this indication right after I check signal strength (all 3 dishes are in an 82 to 95 range) and 'check switch' passes, AND I AM RECEVING ALL MY CHANNELS!

4. Last problem is just a black screen when changing channels, no audio, for no apparent reason. Suddenly it will restore after 15 seconds or so.

I have thought of exchanging receivers. Maybe that will solve some problems (or create new ones). It appears in many cases I read about, that does not solve many problems.
I am using components right now. Tried HMDI when I first got my receiver, it worked out ok but no real difference. I only have one HDMI input that presently is dedicated to a DVD player. I have no desire to try HDMI again, and make my list longer.

Any recommendations are fully welcome. I should mention I have played with a notebook cooler under the 622, and while the average temp. seemed to drop some, no real improvement noted in other aspects.

 

[normang]

For normang - I have a pre-amp, the aim is good. Other channels on the same channel come through very well. I would have less of a problem with the error messages if they would "pause" my current viewing, but they don't, and they do not have clear buttons about how to get out of the dialog (HELP is not a useful button - that's all that's on the dialog, no cancel, no return to program, nothing else).

If the aim is good, and you feel your antenna is good, and there are no other available options, then as I see it, you have two choices, record an SD sat channel, to get a recording of the show you can watch, two, you can try and raise your antenna higher or see if there is any other antenna optimization that will enable you to get better signal for CW.

According to a generic antennaweb.org look at your area, they recommend a medium range antenna for CW, as opposed to a small range model for all the rest of the channels in your area, if you went to antennaweb.org and entered your specific address, perhaps it could give more detailed info and you could determine if your antenna met those specs. If not, then perhaps an antenna upgrade will solve your problem.

As for the dialogs, it would be nice if they were cancellable. However, at the moment they are not..

 

[Ron Barry]

For Ron Barry - the issue isn't the channel - it's what Dish software does. Interrupting my foreground viewing for something that's going on in the background is not a great user experience, IMO. Dish should know what alerts they're popping up in those situations - they basically say they've lost the signal. They should be recorded with the channel that's being recorded, not popped up in front of my face on the channel I'm watching, or at least act more civilized (like I write below).

Never said the issue was the channel and the fact that all you get is a help button is something that should be addressed. I believe in these cases cancel does remove the dialog. Also agree the box should not belly up in this situations. I think Rob has a few times indicated the OTA recover needs to be more robust with the 622 though. I personally have not had any OTA issues, but OTA is definitely the biggest variable with all the HD receviers.

As for it being in the background.... I personally don't see it that way though I can see how some would. I see it as a series of streams (2 Dish, 1 OTA, and 1 recorded) that I can view. So if one of those streams is having an issue recording I would like to know. Perhaps there is a more eloquent way that this could occur, but I personally would vote for letting me know rather than either silently failing or just continuing to record with break up.

As for Dish knowing... Well I am sure with a code search they could find the dialog, but then again a picture is worth a thousand words.

What signal strength are you seeing with your other channels compared to this one?

 

[Ron Barry]

As for the dialogs, it would be nice if they were cancellable. However, at the moment they are not..

I have not gotten one of these in a while. The cancel button does not dismiss the dialog? I thought it did.. but my memory is not as good as it used to be.

 

[normang]

I have not gotten one of these in a while. The cancel button does not dismiss the dialog? I thought it did.. but my memory is not as good as it used to be.

When I've seen these dialogs, I recalll they have help, and they stay until you take some other action, like change the channel. Now when it happens while your doing something else, like recording, it seems to get more complicated.

However its been a while since I've seen the dialogs as well. I get good signals on channels I want to record. I don't bother trying to record poor OTA, even if there was something I wanted to watch, because I know it would be a poor viewing experience at best. And unwatchable at worst.

 

[James Long]

They stay until the problem goes away. On playback it pops up a "part of this recording was lost" box that one can press select to acknowledge. On a recording with a lot of loss a series of losses can be very annoying. (Lots of popups to confirm.)

 

[Ron Barry]

I have seen the part of recording is lost and that is a dialog... Guess that happend while the box was in standby because I have not seen the first part of this one. Maybe I have, but been a while and don't recall the exact user experience under these conditions.

 

[James Long]

When watching OTA live and the signal is lost the attached popup appears. If you select HELP the receiver will blame the signal loss on your OTA antenna or local station. There is nothing else your receiver can do if it's not receiving a signal other than a black screen and an explaination - changing channel (or the signal coming back) would be the only ways of getting a picture.

Replaying a DVR'd OTA that has signal losses is peppered with the normal "a portion of this recording has been lost" message. The annoyance I described was with a marginal signal (which has since been fixed by adjusting my antenna). Each little snip of recordable material interrupted by the popup.

 

[boylehome]

When watching OTA live and the signal is lost the attached popup appears. If you select HELP the receiver will blame the signal loss on your OTA antenna or local station. There is nothing else your receiver can do if it's not receiving a signal other than a black screen and an explaination - changing channel (or the signal coming back) would be the only ways of getting a picture.

This is a common occurrence in our DMA. The screen is a pain but the help information works if it gets followed. 100% of the time it has been a problem with the stations. They generally get corrupted data for channel mapping or simply go off the air. Now how can we get E* to make the receiver more interactive, so it will call the station to report the problem? Another option, make it so the user can select to have the messages disabled, but listed elsewhere like in the diagnostics page where the date, time, channel, and problems are logged.