# What number receiver are you on?



## Chris Blount

Dish DVR's tend to have a high failure rate. Many need to return and exchange their receiver with Dish multiple times because of hard drive problems or other crazy abnormalities. 

Please let us know which number receiver you are on. For instance, if you had to return your 501 one time, you are on receiver number 2. If you had to return it twice, you are on receiver number 3. If you never have had to return your receiver, you are on receiver 1. 

If it's more than three then pick the last option.

If you own more than one model, pick the one with the highest return rate (if any).


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## makman

What if you have more than one receiver? I have a 508 and 721.


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## BobFly

2-508
1-721
3-301

and whenever the 522 comes out i will replace 301's


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## Mark Lamutt

508 - 1
508 - 1

(Old 501 that I no longer have) - 1

I've never had to return any of my Dish PVR receivers.


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## BobMurdoch

I answered 721 - 1 on the poll but am also:

7200 - 2 (My first one was DOA out of the box.... couldn't see even transponders. Mark @ Dish Depot sent me another one, no problems since)

7200 - 1 (Another DP I bought when they officially discontinued it. This one has been the flakiest of the two with EPG issues, but has worked fine the last 12 months)


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## Scott Greczkowski

Man I saw the title of this thread and I thought for sure it was a thread started by Bob Haller. :lol:

I have had 3 7200's and 2 721's


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## HTguy

I had to replace my PVR501 after about 16 months due to tuner failure. I never had a problem with the hard drive or the PVR functions.

I am over 18 months on the replacement and it has been working virtually flawlessly. I have had to reboot it 2 or 3 times...that's it.


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## MrAkai

I went from 2xDP to 2x501's and since going to the 501's I've not missed a timer or had my shows deleted.


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## the_beaver

i am on my third 721...
this may, indeed, jinx me BUT
i will say it anyways---i live in 
a 3 story condo and was told 
the reason my first 2 receivers 
kept dying of harddrive failure 
was because my dish was 
improperly grounded (apparently, 
the drives are extremely sensitive 
to static charges)...

Dish sent out their own installers
free-gratis and they grounded
my rooftop dish---since then
(5mos ago) my 721 has been
performing almost flawlessly
with only two reboots...


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## Nick

Well WTF, I'm still on my two original Dishplayers. What _am_ I doing wrong?

Gay 2800 in the closet. 

____________
They take a kicking and just keep on ticking! :lol:
.


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## AkShark

I know its not is the list but thought it would be interesting to see if anyone has had problems with their 6000. I have been a Dish customer for about 18 months and have had 4 6000's.


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## Bob Haller

Scott Greczkowski said:


> Man I saw the title of this thread and I thought for sure it was a thread started by Bob Haller. :lol:
> 
> I have had 3 7200's and 2 721's


I thought the SAME THING When did I post this

Its a sad fact of life E PVRs DVRs should be renamed Bug DVRs


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## Bob Haller

Nick said:


> Well WTF, I'm still on my two original Dishplayers. What _am_ I doing wrong?
> 
> Gay 2800 in the closet.
> 
> ____________
> They take a kicking and just keep on ticking! :lol:
> .


The much maligned dishplayers had tONS of software issues but the hardware was pretty stable and the hard drives replaceable.

I finallyt sold my 2 dishplayers but they never once had a hardware failure other than drives going out.


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## jayn_j

Bob Haller said:


> I thought the SAME THING When did I post this
> 
> Its a sad fact of life E PVRs DVRs should be renamed Bug DVRs


Still, nearly 2/3 of the responses say they are still on their first unit. Not acceptable in my business, but better than the PC rate.


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## Nick

I've run through two ex-wives. Does that count??? 

Now I get my _'entertainment'_ "FTA" and the picture is so much clearer. :smoking:


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## Bob Haller

Hey I think I will start another poll.

How many have had E 501s, 508s and 721s let them down?

Things like wiping out all recorded programs, failing to record a show scheduled, and a entire range of is it stable?

I suspect the true problem rate is pretty high


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## Mark Holtz

I'm on my second 501 receiver. The only reason why that swap was performed was that, after a second dish was installed, Univision 19 was coming in pixelated on the receiver, but Internation Promos was fine. This was ONLY occurring on the 501... the 301's were fine. They swapped the receiver, and the pixelation improved. When a tech actually came out, the problem corrected itself (!). 

Also, one of the 301s had a "malfunction" that corrected itself a few months later. It was able to tune in the HBO channels even though I wasn't a subscriber. 

Oh well.


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## Jacob S

I am on my second 721 and had been on my third 501 before although I never opened it up and sold the third 501 for cheap. All have been tuner failures except a hard drive failure in the 501, that was the second failure. I have had a total of three failures. I voted for second 721 though.


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## ericha

If this poll even vaguely resembles the actual failure rate, it is incredibly high. I work in the electronic instrumentation industry, and our goal for products far more complicated than a PVR is under 10% failure rate per year. "Far more complicated" means probably 10x the number of parts, which is a rough predictor of how often something should fail. We have one product that has about 15000 parts in it that has a failure rate averaging about 5%. The survey shows a failure rate of about 50%, for products that have maybe 1000 parts (including chip capacitors, etc.). This indicates to me a serious design flaw, such as inadequate cooling, poor vendor selection, lack of monitoring failures, or no stress testing. Somebody in E* management needs to understand how bad this is, and do something about it!


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## pjmrt

Hmmmm.... I'm on my second 721, second 301 and second DP 7200. The original DP dates back a couple years or so, but the 721 and 301 were new this year. Still interesting that ~1/3 of the 721s fail (and I don't think they have been out for much more than a year) I wonder how many TVs, DVD players, ... even cable boxes, have that kind of failure rate.


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## Bob Haller

I think the horrid quality led to the fee. In fact it was mentioned DVR subs need a lot of support.

I guess thats true when you sell bug ridden beta test units to the public. 

E management has maybe cnvinced themselves the subs are the problem but its really the poor design.

Whats the failure rate for D TIVOs?


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## Jacob S

Had to have a 301 replaced a few days ago in which was first due to pixellation (same problem my 501's and 721's had went through) then it would not power up. Each time you unplugged it and plugged it back in, the green light would come on for a few seconds then go back off without being able to turn back on again. I have rarely had a problem with the 301's though compared to the Dish PVR products.


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## Nick

ericha said:


> If this poll even vaguely resembles the actual failure rate, it is incredibly high. I work in the electronic instrumentation industry, and our goal for products far more complicated than a PVR is under 10% failure rate per year. "Far more complicated" means probably 10x the number of parts, which is a rough predictor of how often something should fail. We have one product that has about 15000 parts in it that has a failure rate averaging about 5%. The survey shows a failure rate of about 50%, for products that have maybe 1000 parts (including chip capacitors, etc.). This indicates to me a serious design flaw, such as inadequate cooling, poor vendor selection, lack of monitoring failures, or no stress testing. Somebody in E* management needs to understand how bad this is, and do something about it!


Good post and good points, but do not take the issues reported on boards as representative of the whole. If I had read DBS-related forums before subscribing to Dish three years ago, I never would have bought the two Dishplayers which I have had from the beginning. But the few issues I actually had with the DP were software-related. The boxes have be /ON 24/7 since July 2003, and s/w issues aside, they have performed as designed.

Consumers who have problems with product performance tend to seek solutions and many of those migrate to the internet to find answers, or to seek like-minded sufferers under the _"Misery loves company"_ principal.

The overwhelming majority of people who buy products and never have a problem just go merrily along enjoying the product and never show up on internet boards to complain. Out of 20 million DBS subs, forum posters are but a minuscule, virtually insignificant minority. Some here are of the opinion that we who post on these boards are 'the voice of the people', but we are not.

The voice of the people is the _satisfied and silent majority_; the 99.9% of those whose stuff works as advertised and never have the _need_ to complain.

In reality, the 'tail' _does not_ wag the dog.
.
.


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## gcutler

2x4000s (1 Dead, 1 Sold)
2x301s (1 Dead, 1 in Closet)
1x4900 (Active, with SA TiVo)
1x508 (Active)


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## gcutler

Jacob S said:


> I have rarely had a problem with the 301's though compared to the Dish PVR products.


And that is the way it should be, since the 301 is the simplest reciever in production with less to break (no DD 5.1, no Hard Drive, No UHF Remote, only 1 set of Outputs). When the 111 comes out (whatever they are going to call the baseline reciever) that will probably be the most trouble free as it will have the least features to break down.


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## Unthinkable

Bob Haller said:


> Hey I think I will start another poll.
> 
> How many have had E 501s, 508s and 721s let them down?
> 
> Things like wiping out all recorded programs, failing to record a show scheduled, and a entire range of is it stable?
> 
> I suspect the true problem rate is pretty high


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## Bob Haller

I didnt know we could post pictures here. Time to get some of me burning my E pom poms.


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## cicijay

Not only am I on my 3rd. My 3rd has sounded like an airplane and I have to keep it inside my entertainemt center to avoid the high pitched sound. But at least it works. My second lasted less than a week. It's my own fault for not having the extended warranty now.


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## Jacob S

The 111 is going to be pretty appealing in that it will be the cheapest receiver (cheaper than the current 301 - future 311), be a smaller receiver, simpler than the future 311 that is replacing the 301, in which I agree would make it a more reliable receiver, unless Dish chooses to have cheaper parts for this receiver making it less reliable but I would think Dish would use many of the same components in the future 111 as they would in the future 311.


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## bearklaw

Lets see, I had two 4900s that both lasted 3 years, and I know have two 508, (1 year old and 6 months old) neither of which have given me any problems. For receivers, no problems.

-Bear


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## Bob Haller

bearklaw said:


> Lets see, I had two 4900s that both lasted 3 years, and I know have two 508, (1 year old and 6 months old) neither of which have given me any problems. For receivers, no problems.
> 
> -Bear


BUY THE SYSTEM WARRANTY NOW!


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## YuriLuzr

I got a 501 when they were doing the $9 promotion deal, don't remember if that was 2 or 3 years ago. I've had a few issues, but they all seemed to be SW releated, cause it was either fixed by a reboot or unplug the receiver from the wall for a bit and plug it back in. And only lost all our recordings once after an upgrade of SW. Been pretty happy with it, hate watching live TV now, love that 30 second skip! Holding out for the 921, I sure hope it delivers.


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## normang

I haven't had any problems, this seems like the same guy that asked the similiar questions only a few months ago.. I really get bored of trying to highlight problems, there are enough of issues without trying to create non-scientific data that proves nothing.


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## Jacob S

Wow, looks pretty bad according to the polls above. I wonder why Dish had not found a solution to the problems yet? I figure it would cost them more to replace the receivers over and over and over rather than finding a permanent fix for the problem instead of a temporary one. 1 in 2 replacing the 501 and 721, 1 in 3 replacing the 508. 1 in 3 replacing the 501 3 times, but a lot better on the 508 and 721. I knew I was not alone when it came to having problems with these units. When Dish told me they never heard of any problems like I had I told them to come to this site. It seems that it is more well known that they have a problem after a while.


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## boma

I started out with a 1000 (I think), one of the first recievers . 1- 2700, 1- 4000, 1- 5000, 1- JVC-dvhs, 1- 2700 (w/80gig HD), 1 6000. Still have 2700 & 6000 & have never had one die or need replaced. From what I'm seeing, I feel VERY lucky.


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## Bob Haller

Well make thatr receiver number 8 for me. My 721 lost tuner 2 again.


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## generj

I am on my fourth 721. It will not lock on all three satellites (110,119,61.5) and the switches don't match. Plugged a 301 into the same coax and it came back with all three sats and matching switches.

Service call #4 is this Tuesday.


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## Jacob S

I started out with a 3000 then got a 4900 then followed with a 7100. None of those failed. I also have had a 3900, 301's, a 501 replaced 3 times, and now on my second 721. I am looking forward to the 111, 311, 322, and 522 coming out. I dont know if I am ready to take the plunge in spending $1,000 for a 921 receiver plus the cost of an HD receiver until more HD content is available. The 301 has been more reliable receiver than the 2700/2800/3700/3900 2nd generation of receivers. I hope the 322 nonDVR receiver does not show the same signs of problems with second tuner issues as the 721 has but seeing how the 501 has had that problem as well it may be PVR related.


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## jerryyyyy

I just replaced my 721 after a slow death with increasing pixilation. I have gotten the extended warranty. This was very frustrating as it was not clear what was wrong at the start.


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## James_F

My parents have had much luck with their 508 and none with there 501. They must have replaced it 3 or 4 times.


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## Bob Haller

I encourage ANYONE who has repetive failures to INSIST on a brand new receiver! Now just what they dowhen they run out of existing boxes I dont know but Iwill NEVER accept anotrher refurb.


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## Jacob S

They will not give you a new receiver for nothing in most cases unless you had repeated failures. You will have no chance of getting a new one in the future since they are no longer in production, they will all be refurbished, unless you want the new 510 receiver where you have to pay the $5 a month fee. With the 721 receiver it would have to be replaced with refurbished ones without the option of a receiver that is even close to it unless they choose to come out with a 722 in the future but it seems that the 522 will be its replacement instead and some may not want the 522 as a replacement for the 721 if it did come down to that. I figure it would just be a matter of time before all of the refurbished receivers will be gone as well.


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## BobMurdoch

jerryyyyy said:


> I just replaced my 721 after a slow death with increasing pixilation. I have gotten the extended warranty. This was very frustrating as it was not clear what was wrong at the start.


What are the symptoms of the 721 pixellation problem and how does it manifest itself? I've had a few minor picture breakups this week and I don't know if this is the beginning of something (I'd rather change it out now while the unit is fairly empty of programs rather than wait until the season starts).


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## Jacob S

The pixellation problem is on tuner 2 in most cases while tuner 1 has no pixellation problem. The problem starts out as a break up here and there and it gradually gets worse to the point to where you cannot view the program without it constantly breaking up the picture in and out or a constant signal loss on the tuner altogether. You would notice it on recorded programs if it records on tuner 2. It will record on tuner 2 when you have the receiver on viewing a program on tuner 1, leave the receiver on, or has two programs recording at the same time. If it is a constant problem on tuner 2 only this would explain why you would see some prerecorded events have the problem and not others. 

If you start seeing all the episodes of a particular show (event) pixellating while other ones are not then this would be a sign of the tuner 2 pixellation problem. You should search to see if there is another event that is coming on at the same time of the pixellated event.

I have seen people post problems with tuner 1 doing this instead of tuner 2.


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## BobMurdoch

Just to be safe, I called and arranged for a replacement to be sent. We swapped cables and the problem didn't change and I had PIP enabled with the same channel so I knew it wasn't a satellite problem. At this point it is only sporadic on Tuner 1 about once every 15 minutes it hiccups, but I decided to swap it while I don't have anything really recorded yet due to summer reruns. Replacement should be here 4-5 days.

The good news is that I am still officially on the Digital Dynamite plan and my in house service plan is in effect so ALL of my receivers are included (not just the leased ones) as per the CSR. She wasn't an advanced tech, but she was capable and didn't make any "stupid" comments (I've never heard of this before, etc.) She had me reverse the cables, check the status screen, and check the point dish and switch screens. She gave me an RA number and got my shipping address.

I tried to get her not to send me a refurbished unit but she said that ALL receivers sent out are refurbished and tested (yeah, right). Oh well, once the 921 comes out I'm giving this unit to my father (who also has an in house service plan) so he will be covered if the replacement unit has problems.

BTW, it was Tuner 1 not Tuner 2, but exhibited the same symptons for those keeping score.


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## Bob Haller

Tuner 2 failure for me was followed by tuner one flaking and finally quiting altogether. It came back a bit after sitting all nite unplugged. Anyone else notice the box runs hotter after tuner 2 failure?

Does the power supply overheat taking out tuner 2 or does tuner 2 somehow cause the temperature increase?

BOB LEADING THE WAY IN BUG REPORTS


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## jrbdmb

I have two 508s in my house, 1 for family room and 1 for bedroom.

508 #1 - RMAed today (after 13 months) due to tuner problem (losing lock intermittantly, 301 hooked up to the same line is OK).
508 #2 - replacement for #1, on its way from E*.
508 #3 - DOA out of the box, returned to retailer.
508 #3 - OK after 1 month.
Thank goodness for the extended warranty.

Can't say I'm too impressed with reliability so far ...


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## BobMurdoch

As long as the replacements are free they can send me as many as they want. Eventually they will figure out to make them better the first time out of the box....

OK, stop laughing now.....

A little optimism before tonight's chat is in order (which will be anticlimactic after Friday's press release I know, but it will be nice to get some details hopefully)


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## Jacob S

Thats how I look at it, they can send me all the replacements they want and they will hopefully get it right eventually. After a while though I thought of it differently in that it makes me mad that I have to miss all the recordings from when it starts until I receive the replacement after its called in. They try to put the S&H charge on you each time and that is what ticks me off. Their fault, their problem, their cost is how it should be. If you are on credit card autopay or pay a year of programming in advance then they seem to waive the fee.


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## BobMurdoch

I'm on Credit Card Auto Pay plus I have AEP so hopefully that will shield me from the nickle and dime fees.


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## Bob Haller

Ahh I am SICK of it. My replacement 721 died yesterday after 2 days, lost tuner 2 no audio general flakiness. I called yet again and told them simply new box or I cancel. Unable to supply new receiver for 7 year sub we shopped and found a working direct tivo at circuit city with a pretty good salesman. I will likely do a self install and run both systems side by side for a week or two, then cancel E.

I am sad E used to be so good, things have really gone downhill....


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## normang

Bob, based on past reading, anything you have Sat related dies, so your tivo should last about a month... -


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## Unthinkable

Bob Haller said:


> Ahh I am SICK of it. My replacement 721 died yesterday after 2 days, lost tuner 2 no audio general flakiness. I called yet again and told them simply new box or I cancel. Unable to supply new receiver for 7 year sub we shopped and found a working direct tivo at circuit city with a pretty good salesman. I will likely do a self install and run both systems side by side for a week or two, then cancel E.
> 
> I am sad E used to be so good, things have really gone downhill....


Wish you the best of luck with DirecTV.


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## Mark Lamutt

Well, a first for me here. I suspect that I'm about to move onto a 2nd 508 (if there are any still left)...I was watching a PVRed show on the 508 that I won from the Tech chat a couple of months ago tonight, and every few minutes it would stutter, skipping ahead a second or 2, pixellate and then come back. Grrrr...


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## Bob Haller

Mark if a reboot doesnt fix it, then your hard drive is failing. Its sad we cant just swap the drive in such situations.


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## dmodemd

My 501 was running great for about a year but a nearby lightning strike blew the tuner. However my 6000 was fine, so that says something about the resilience of the 501 relative to the 6000.

The biggest problem was the replacement they sent ALSO had a bad tuner! Nope, wasn't my switches or cable... went all through the swaps with my 6000. The 3rd one was fine, however it WHINES nastily... not from the hard drive but from the tuner! Whenever the cable is plugged in it whines... unplug the sat input and its fine... this blew the resale value I was hoping to preserve a bit.


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## BobMurdoch

Got my replacement 721 yesterday (My old 721 was starting to flake out on Tuner 1 with the beginnings of the pixellation problem so I called them, we tried to troubleshoot for a bit and then they agreed to send me a new one....)

Hooked it up, did the switch check, called to swap the receivers on my account to authorize the new one, and after 10 minutes every thing was up. Redid my preferences and set my timers and everything is fine. No costs to me of any kind as they shipped to me on their dime and gave me a no cost UPS return sticker so this was a relatively painless swap. They didn't send me a new remote or UHF antenna so I reused the antenna and my remote worked fine.

One GOOD thing,...... The delete button on the timer maintenance screen on my old 721 wasn't working (it wouldn't let me delete a timer. If I wanted to get rid of one I changed the frequency to ONCE and waited for it to disappear. I thought it was an L1.12 bug, but I guess there was a corrupted file on my hard drive) Now the button works fine. If the unit is refurbished, I can't tell, as the peel off plastic on the smoked plastic door that hides the front inputs was still there, and I couldn't find a manufacture date anywhere on the unit (I didn't feel like cracking open the case just to find out the date on the hard drive). The unit seems to be responding fine for now.

Once again, if you have a PVR, get the extended warranty (unless you are on one of the lease plans. If you are you are probably covered by the "in house service plan", even if you bought the PVR and didn't lease it, ALL of your receivers are covered as per the three CSRS I talked to.)


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## rocco

1-508 4-301's 1DP 34 1 3120+BEV dish 2 lnb's and one sw21.


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## rocco

1 newly aquired 508 4 301's


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## suefalco

4!!!!!

I'm sending back number 3 Dishplayer today. It arrived DOA. Well, actually, I was able to get Channel 101. After the s/w download (?) it only wanted to dial webtv for 2 days....


Same old story. I'm trying to arrange for a refurbished anything else if this one goes, but I'm not holding my breath.

Susan


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## Bob Haller

same old dishplayer


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## Jacob S

My 721 was also not letting me delete my timers in the timer maintenance screen just as BobMurdoch mentioned and a reboot fixed the problem for me.


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## BobMurdoch

suefalco said:


> 4!!!!!
> 
> I'm sending back number 3 Dishplayer today. It arrived DOA. Well, actually, I was able to get Channel 101. After the s/w download (?) it only wanted to dial webtv for 2 days....
> 
> Same old story. I'm trying to arrange for a refurbished anything else if this one goes, but I'm not holding my breath.
> 
> Susan


Don't forget that the initial software download of the Dishplayer can only be done with the direct 119 feed (can't be done off a SW64 switch for example)

I was able to dodge this by having my retailer do the initial download for me, but this may have caused your trouble.....


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## Bob Haller

I found a work around for that

Have other receiver conected, tuned to a 119 channel. Disconnect sat feed and connect to DP. Do download, it appeared to work since the SW64 is already set to 119.

It worked for me a few times, and I doubt trying can do any harm.


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## BobMurdoch

Hmmmm. If you got it to work once it should work the other times as well.

Your system beats the hell out of the SW64 bypass I envisioned being required.


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## Bob Haller

It was easier than pulling out and setting up my dish on a tripod


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## jrbdmb

jrbdmb said:


> I have two 508s in my house, 1 for family room and 1 for bedroom.
> 
> 508 #1 - RMAed today (after 13 months) due to tuner problem (losing lock intermittantly, 301 hooked up to the same line is OK).
> 508 #2 - replacement for #1, on its way from E*.
> 508 #3 - DOA out of the box, returned to retailer.
> 508 #4 - OK after 1 month.
> Thank goodness for the extended warranty.
> 
> Can't say I'm too impressed with reliability so far ...


Oops, 508 #2 died after two days in service. 508 #5 is on its way from Dish. Welcome to refurb hell ...


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