721 - anyone else see these bugs ??

[kstuart]

Hello,

I purchased a never used 721 on ebay and I've been pleased with it so far. Hey - better late than never.

I've experienced two bugs that I was surprised are not fixed in a "mature" DVR. The 721 has the latest L322 software.

1) The infamous "jump to live" bug that was the subject of much celebration when it was fixed in the 501 years ago. I'm surprised to see it now in my 721 - particularly when it has two tuners.

For the newbies, the "jump to live" bug is when you are recording a program that you are also watching "delayed" at the same time (from using pause or start-over). Right at the moment that the recording finishes, the receiver jumps ahead to live.

This is especially odd with the 721, since it should be recording the program on a different tuner than the delayed viewing. I've encountered this bug twice already.

2) Some of the "Weekly" timers that I have created, will mistakenly record every day at that time and channel. I've encountered this bug three times already. I think that in each case, I have edited the timer to remove the 3 minutes extra at the end.

Has anyone seen these bugs while using their 721 ?

 

[kstuart]

Since writing that, I had another jump-to-live on the 721.

No one else has seen that ?

 

[Stargazer]

I've noticed a lot of "bugs" with the 721 but I use my 522 most of the time since it has name based recordings. I use the 721 to record new episodes only that come on once a week where a name based recording would not be needed quite as much and to store some movies that I have recorded in the past. Some of the bugs have been around for a while.

 

[kstuart]

I used to have a TiVo and used it Name Based Recording.

I found that there were 3 times of programs:
- The ones that were on the same time every week, so the NBR wasn't really needed.
- The ones that were very irregular (such as sports magazine shows that were always being moved and bumped by games on the sports channels) - those often did not have the correct schedule information in the Guide Listings and so the NBR failed to record the show.
- The ones that were re-airs of shows long over (such as Seinfeld), and the Listings descriptions of individual episodes were never correct, and so you did not end up with the right eps.

In other words, the Listings are never accurate enough to use the "Names" in them as the basis for recording - either way you have to manually check what is happening.

So, since then, I have never been enthusiastic about NBR. The channels don't have any motivation to make the listings more accurate - so that we can use our DVRs more effectively in skipping the commercials.

Also, it seems likely to me that when the E*-TiVo lawsuit concludes (months/years from now), DISH will have to remove NBR from all their receivers, since it seems obviously to have been copied ("Season Pass", "Dish Pass").

 

[scrufmcgruf60692]

Read on back of receiver where it was made.....In Mexico.,.China?

 

[Charise]

I have never experienced the "jump to live" bug with my 721. If I want to watch something that's already being recorded, I select "start over" from the dvr list, hit "pause" when I need to, and have always had it start from the last point regardless if the recording is still going or has finished. I have mistakenly pressed "view" on occasion, but those are the only times I've gone to live.

I have multiple recordings set for M-F and weekly, but I haven't seen what you are encountering with those either.

Sorry, not much help for your problems, but at least you know not everyone is seeing them.

 

[DishSubLA]

Yes, access your "recording in progress" via the DVR menu. I have found that to be bug free. I can't say that I have experienced any of your bugs.

 

[rsmith7]

I am not sure that your described bug is a bug for all. I have had my 721 and have not experienced the jump to live bug. On Thursday I was recording Gray's Anatomy and then went to DVR to start from the beginning. Once recording finished I was ok.

I have however experienced other gremlins like powering the unit on and hitting guide will sometimes power the unit off. I thought it was just my wife but I too have had it happen to me.

Ray

 

[kstuart]

Okay, I think I left out a detail.

When I see this "Jump-To-Live" Bug, I am watching the live TV "pause buffer", not the recording.

However, so far, I have indeed always seen this when I am watching the same channel that it is recording.

I think that the situation is:

Tuner 1 - tuned to channel XYZ for past several hours
Tuner 2 - recording channel XYZ during one particular hour

The recording timer is there just in case I cannot watch the channel live. But sometimes I am not doing something else and do watch it live - except that I will pause occasionally for bathroom break, etc.

I assume this is what the two tuners are doing, because during the recording, I can rewind the pause buffer back before the start of the recording.

When the timer recording finishes, the TV image loses all the delay and goes live. Pressing rewind allows me to go back to where I left off, so no big deal.

When I get some more spare time I'll check if the same thing occurs if the recording is a different channel.

 

[kstuart]

I tried watching the recording for the DVR list, and then delaying it, but the jump-to-live bug still exists - but this is still with the same channel on both.

 

[fire_317]

On my 721, since about October or early November, we have seen lockups. Can't change channels, can't hit guide, can't even power the unit off. Only way to fix is to unplug the power and then plug back in. This happens often. I also see lockups when the dish home button is pressed. It sometimes will go into DishHome and work fine and other times it will just lock up on a black screen. Or when it does go in fine, when I make the exit back to regular programming it will lock up. Very frustrating. Would like to upgrade to new receiver, but not wanting to part ways with the $$$.

 

[navychop]

I understand there are good prices on the few available 721s on eBay. Might want to sell and move up. Stop going to Dish Home.

 

[rsmith7]

On my 721, since about October or early November, we have seen lockups. Can't change channels, can't hit guide, can't even power the unit off. Only way to fix is to unplug the power and then plug back in. This happens often. I also see lockups when the dish home button is pressed. It sometimes will go into DishHome and work fine and other times it will just lock up on a black screen. Or when it does go in fine, when I make the exit back to regular programming it will lock up. Very frustrating. Would like to upgrade to new receiver, but not wanting to part ways with the $$$.

I have seen this same problem on my 721. I love this receiver but it has become unstable. Servral times a week I have to reboot the system.

Dish please fix the problem that you introduced....

 

[thiggin2]

I think Dish does this on purpose sometimes just to try and get people to upgrade there receiver.

 

[Jordan420]

I think Dish does this on purpose sometimes just to try and get people to upgrade there receiver.

Ding ding ding WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

[jrbdmb]

Here's a big hint on the 721 ... lock out Dish Home, or at least NEVER NEVER try to switch to one of the mosaic channels. These have *never* worked on the 721.

I have come to accept occasional lockup / reboots on the 721, kinda of like those little endearing problems you find with an old car. I just get upset when a stable DVR like the 5xx series is "broken" by a SW update and now misses timer repeatedly.

 

[kstuart]

I need the head-striking-wall smilie - as the 721 does not have the "Jump To Live" bug. When I setup my 721, I copied all the timers from the 501 it replaced. This included an "Auto-Tune" timer for the same channel as the preceding 1 hour recording (so that the buffer would remain on that same channel - the 501 has a tendency to change to a previous channel after a recording).

I had forgotten this (partially because the 721's "date sort" of timers is faulty and also because I have turned off the annoying flashing timer icon), and so was assuming that there was a Jump-To-Live bug.

PS Nevertheless, I have recently encountered another instance of the second bug the "weekly timer records daily" bug. For some reason, this bug seems to be corrected simply by editing the timer, and clicking done...