[AKDishuser]

Does anyone have release notes on this software, which was forced down to my DVR yesterday? I'm hoping it's the promised fix to P405, which has made name-based recording impossible on my 510 since late April. I've had to use manual timers to get any kind of reliability since then. Can't even select a show from the onscreen guide -- when I've done this, the timer has disappeared once the unit is turned off (no green light but still powered).

Dish of course has steadfastly denied any problem with its software, but has also contradicted itself by saying that another software upgrade to address "known issues" was in the works. Hopefully this is it. Meanwhile I've requested and received -- after a struggle -- several refunds for services paid for but not rendered.

I just did a warm reboot and created a new name-based timer to test the new software. My previous manual timers were all screwed up after the install and before the reboot -- they showed a mixture of timers from two months ago with most of my current timers not showing at all. The manual timers reappeared correctly after the reboot.

Keeping my fingers crossed -- I will be upgrading to HD (new TV and DVR) soon but want to hold off as long as possible in case DTV and Dish merge.

 

[Dax]

I'm also wondering what bugs this update is supposed to fix. I've been avoiding it for several days now. It would be great if it fixed the timer issue.

In my case the timers themselves don't disappear, but everything on the Daily Schedule does. Either way, nothing gets recorded. The only way to fix it is by deleting and then recreating all the timers. Everything works okay for a few days, then it happens again.

Like some others have done, I finally recreated the timers without using the "new" or "all" options. It's been good for over a week now.

Then of course there are the occasional problems of rebooting and recordings being deleted.

 

[dnero]

Maybe Bill Gates is working with E* seems their software updates are hurried along just like Windows then they download patches to cover all thier mistakes.

 

[AKDishuser]

Maybe Bill Gates is working with E* seems their software updates are hurried along just like Windows then they download patches to cover all thier mistakes.

Yeah, but at least Microsoft doesn't blame its software "features" on the customer's computer hardware! I've seen Dish's customer service troubleshooting checklist, and when someone calls in with a timer or recording problem, the official response is to ask the customer to send in their old receiver and get a new (refurbished) one. Which does nothing to solve the software issue and results in:nono: the loss of all recorded content, plus being a complete waste of time! There is no mention of the possibility of a Dish software glitch and most CSAs and techies lack the rudimentary technical understanding they'd need to see why this is far more likely than a hardware problem.

Every once in a while I get an advanced tech support person who admits that Dish's software is buggy. The rest of the time, complete ignorance and denial. If I had just one wish to be granted with respect to Dish, it would be for more honesty and accountability in this area.

 

[KevinRS]

yeah, blame it on the hardware, I had problems back in February, they said it was the hard drive, I was losing all recordings, timers dissapearing or not recording. They said it was an owned receiver, I guess it switches from leased to owned after it's leased for some amount of time. The only options they gave me were the dish'n it up upgrade options. I just kept it, and after a while it worked ok, now recently problems have returned, but obviously it wasn't the hard drive, since I went 5 months without any major issues.
Seeing this topic, I checked, and I do have 406 now, hopefully it will fix the issues again for a while.

 

[AKDishuser]

Tuesday 8/12 update:

So far, so good. I've deleted all my manual timers so they won't interfere with the name-based timers and so far (one week since P406 upgrade) they are firing accurately. But then 405 worked OK for the first month or two. It wasn't until April that the timers started behaving erratically, failing to fire, or disappeared entirely no matter how many times I reset them. So, only time will tell if Dish finally got the bugs out. Meanwhile, how many subscribers have been paying for full DVR service when they haven't been getting it? (Not me!)

 

[P Smith]

P4.07 start spooling.

 

[harsh]

P4.07 start spooling.

I got mine last night.

 

[P Smith]

Is there something good in the P4.07 ? New item(s) in menu or/and Counters ?

 

[Dax]

They probably already found a bug in 4.06 that was quickly fixed in 4.07.

 

[flatus]

The 4.07 update deleted all of my recordings, even the protected ones.

 

[KyleK66]

The P407 update deleted all but 4 recordings on 1 of my 2 DVR510 units. Ooops.... Turns out the hard drive was failing (I think). Tech support was called a second time, and they have sent a replacement 510 unit, which I'll install in a day or two as soon as my wife watches all the shows that are left on it. This makes more sense to me, since my 2nd 510 unit is working just fine with the same software.

 

[Frodo301]

All of my recordings were deleted on my 508 as well. Oddly my wife was in the middle of one of her recorded soaps when the unit did a soft reset. Upon restart all recorded items were lost.

 

[Blowgun]

Sorry to hear of everyones losses with P4.07. Clearly another bad release from the DISH programming dept that should be avoided. I wish DISH would hire better programmers and/or do more thorough testing before unleashing more crap onto their customers. We don't need more bells and whistles until they fix the problems. The last known good firmware version was probably back in early 2007. Since then it's been one problematic release after another.

For those still using pre-P4.06 (my 508 has P4.05), the best thing to do is leave the receiver powered on. Doing this will make the record "New" shows option work correctly and timers should fire normally. Every couple of days you'll have to power cycle the receiver by turning it off for a few seconds and then back on. Of course you'll have to manually update the EPG yourself, but that's trivial compared to having timers fail. Since I've been doing this, all timers have fired correctly and there has been no missed events.

DISH should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to allow their CSRs to recommend an exchange of receiver as a solution when (DISH has to know or should know) there hasn't been a decent firmware version in over a year. Luckily for some of us we can trick our 5xx receivers into almost working correctly -- considering it's useless calling a DISH CSR about these issues.

 

[harsh]

I don't have a bunch of timers set, but I haven't lost any recordings in the transition from 4.05 to 4.07 and all of my timers continue to work fine.

 

[STDog]

I've not had the timer issue with my 501 and P4.05.

The last good 50x software P3.0x in Q1 2006.

 

[AKDishuser]

Too bad none of us knew that the NBR firmware would be so buggy! Had I known, I would have changed the settings on my 510 to refuse auto updates. By keeping the operating system version from last fall I would also still be able to offload the digital contant from the HD using PVR Explorer (see Yahoo group of that name for more info). As of sometime this past spring, Dish scrambled the audio portion of the SD files and so far no one has been able to crack the code, so if I want to save recorded shows safely (i.e. not on the 510 HD where they are vulnerable to OS errors), I have to convert to analog and back to digital again, e.g. by writing to a DVD.

 

[STDog]

I'd still be on P3.69 had P4.05 not been accidentally accepted.

NBR is OK, but sure not worth the headaches.

 

[flatus]

Amen to that. Does NBR work better on the newer receivers?

 

[Blowgun]

I've not had the timer issue with my 501 and P4.05.

My 508 with P4.05 was having a couple timer issues. The one that happened the most was a show was skipped due to a "STB Reboot". In the info it said that a 7 pm recording was skipped due to a 4 pm "STB Reboot". This happened frequently enough to become very annoying. Leaving the receiver on stopped that from happening. Also, back to back timers were not working 100 percent and timers were getting deleted.

The last good 50x software P3.0x in Q1 2006.

With the exception of P3.09. That's when VOD was introduced, along with having to press the PVR button twice to get to your recorded events. As I recall, P3.09 was also another version that wiped clean all traces of recorded shows from the hard drive.

But you're right, there hasn't been a keeper in quite some time and even if you manage to stick with a decent one, it's only a matter of time before DISH does a forced update.