why won't Dish fix their idiotic guide issues?

[BarnRat]

Dish network's EPG is obeying Sturgeon's Law (Sturgeon's law - Wikipedia)

"90% of everything is crap."

 

[BarnRat]

My favorite (useless) EPG info of the week . . .

From the movie "The Mauritanian" with Jody Foster: "Based on the book by Mohamedou Ould Slahi."

I bet most of us have read all his books.

 

[DishSubLA]

While I prefer the changes for the INFO descriptions, they do suffer from a few things: generic descriptions or far too short so that they lack sufficient INFO to know which episode it is (The young wizard and his friends investigate a dark force that is terrorizing their school: Hogwarts) is that not like every Harry Potter movie?; Also, oh so too clever, and LAZY descriptions (The family take a trip. Misadventures abound); and spoilers for the NEW viewers (Blanche dreams of a visit from her deceased husband . . . --as opposed to the different INFO just a day earlier never mentioning that it was a dream--[something like] Blanche discovers her deceased husband is alive . . . ) of course that episode was designed not to give away that it was all a dream until near the end, although a regular NEW viewer could get a sense that it could be a dream because of the outrageous situations, but it was fun (the first time viewing) not having it confirmed until the end, which was clearly the intention of the writers.

The above are just examples to many more that I've observed. On the other hand, other descriptions are both concise and spot on, and are truly objective descriptions, although I do miss mentions of a move having won and Oscar or several and for what and a famous director mention that could entice us to view the film. Overall, still an improvement. I really do find the INFO descriptions less frustrating despite the fact that they could do a little better. A good switch by Dish.

 

[ekilgus]

Has anyone ever wondered where these EPG providers get their guide information? How is it some can provide much better guide info while others provide far inferior info? I distinctly remember seeing rather complete info for a particular program, but this new guide barely provides a brief sentence for that same program that tells me next to nothing.

 

[BarnRat]

. . . this new guide barely provides a brief sentence for that same program that tells me next to nothing.

Yeah. Next to nothing describes it perfectly.

An example: The movie "Maverick" with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. The one sentence "synopsis" is :

"Based on the 1957-1962 TV series."

That's great. I'm old enough to have seen that series but how many other people here (under 65 years old) have? And even so, this doesn't come close to describing the plot of this movie.

Dish doesn't understand what the word "synopsis" means. But then again, they care little for us legacy customers -- those that have been loyal customers for 23+ years.

 

[Jon J]

The program descriptions have gone from too long to rediculously short. Somewhere in the middle would be perfect. Any chance of that Scott?

 

[BarnRat]

I wouldn't mind "ridiculously short" if there was even a hint of a a synopsis.

There is almost no way to know what a movie is about with one of my (worthless) favorites: "Based on the graphic novel." Yeah great, a "comic book" about what? Superheroes, space travel, a Greek war, a 1940s film noir, a contemporary drama ?????

 

[ekilgus]

I wouldn't mind "ridiculously short" if there was even a hint of a a synopsis. There is almost no way to know what a movie is about with one of my (worthless) favorites: "Based on the graphic novel." Yeah great, a "comic book" about what? Superheroes, space travel, a Greek war, a 1940s film noir, a contemporary drama ?????

 

[ekilgus]

Does anyone know from whom Dish is currently getting their guide info, and from whom they were getting it just a couple of months ago? And possibly, the reason for the switch to this most obvious bargain basement guide info provider.

 

[BarnRat]

Another favorite . . .

The 2006 movie "Catch a Fire", with Tim Robbins, has this description: Based on a true story. That's it. Nothing more.

Isn't that great? Now they can have only two descriptions for all the movies. The one above and Not based on a true story for all the movies that aren't based on a true story.

 

[twilliam66]

Another favorite . . .

The 2006 movie "Catch a Fire", with Tim Robbins, has this description: Based on a true story. That's it. Nothing more.

Isn't that great? Now they can have only two descriptions for all the movies. The one above and Not based on a true story for all the movies that aren't based on a true story.

You either have a very old receiver or your guide data is seriously corrupted because I just checked that movie on my Hopper 3 and it doesn't even say based on a true story, it has a two sentence description.

 

[BarnRat]

You either have a very old receiver or your guide data is seriously corrupted because I just checked that movie on my Hopper 3 and it doesn't even say based on a true story, it has a two sentence description.

The data isn't corrupted. I do have a legacy receiver, but this is no reason to have these BS descriptions. I'd say 3/4 of the movie descriptions are OK -- not good -- but not terrible. The other 1/4 are crap of the form Based on novel/comic book/graphic novel/article/play/video game/etc. . . . with no other info. No excuse for this. There is plenty of character space in the description field for a decent brief synopsis. Whoever provides the EPG info to Dish doesn't know what the word "synopsis" means.

 

[Lighthope]

I wish they'd bring back the Rotten Tomatoes reviews. They were good, helpful, and sometimes pretty funny!

 

[jpmarto]

Criticize the guide all you want, but I appreciate the time warp capabilities. Hate waiting for new episodes, so this feature is awesome!

 

[Yespage]

Another favorite . . .

The 2006 movie "Catch a Fire", with Tim Robbins, has this description: Based on a true story. That's it. Nothing more.

Isn't that great? Now they can have only two descriptions for all the movies. The one above and Not based on a true story for all the movies that aren't based on a true story.

Star Wars (1977) - Based on a true story in a galaxy far far away.

 

[Jim5506]

How much do you think they are paying some dude in his basement to make up these descriptions?

 

[Yespage]

How much do you think they are paying some dude in his basement to make up these descriptions?

Are you kidding me? Given creative discretion, I'd do it for free!

So many different ways to approach things.

You've got movie backwards synopsis.

Jaws - Shark scares beach locals by throwing up people until they reopen the beaches.

The Fifth Element - Universe's greatest threat is expelled by spreading stones apart and then hero takes a nap.

Saving Private Ryan - Band of soldiers retreat from the beaches of Normandy, but not before leaving a private adrift in some random division.

12 Angry Men - Originally agreeing to not convict the defendant, the jury's discussions head towards conviction as jurors get convinced to convict.

Any James Bond Film - At least one woman is better off and alive instead of being dead.

ET - Alien lands on Earth to meet with government scientists, then runs away from a kid to go back home.

Das Boot - Boat salvager helps salvage a U-Boat, then travels in the U-Boat to help salvage ships in the Atlantic.

Superman Returns - Superman goes away.

Then there are the spoiler alerts.

Sing - Wildly successful Open Call Extravaganza fails to save theater.

LA Confidential - Officer teams up with unlikely ally to take down their boss's secret empire.

Charade - Woman gets rich thanks to stamps on envelope despite best efforts of fraudulent Government worker..

Primal Fear - Teen fakes multiple personality disorder to get away with murder.

Air Force One - Man gets off other man's plane.

Generalized Nonsense

Star Wars - Attack of the Clones - You'll never think about sand the same way ever again.

Neverending Story - Fraud! Movie isn't even 2 hours long!

Das Boot - Dude... get a dictionary next time before going to print!

 

[Peter Parker]

I would be satisfied with a guide that shows information for the correct channel. Given the prevalence of channel sharing I would think they would want to provide guide data that does not show one station's data under another station's listing.

 

[tsunami2311]

Example of guide stupidity

Science channel is airing new episodes of How the universe works at 10pm sundays 1 hour episode, but guide seem them 2 hour eposides that start at 8pm but get to recording it actual record 3 hour. I guess i should be glad it recording it at all. cause it could just as easily just not record anything cause there titles and channels could all be correct, but meta data for is all screw up which would result in nothing record at all, which still happens.

They could easily setup program to pull scheduling, from the channel own web site schedule and use the info, at this point i could careless about info synopsis or even the freaking cast info, i just want guide info to be correct.

I really love when I see guide saying "new" episodes for series that been OFF there air for decades. and timer that dont record anything cause meta data is wrong, yet there timer for recording of same exact name

 

[cosmo_kramer]

How much do you think they are paying some dude in his basement to make up these descriptions?

This comment made me think of this iconic Seinfeld sketch....


View: https://youtu.be/qM79_itR0Nc