# 721 Implosion!



## bfennema (Jul 21, 2002)

So my 721 seriously wacked itself out tonight (leading to me missing 1/2 of survivor).

I had timers set to record friends and survivor. Things kicked in at 8 like they should, but looking at the PVR menu only showed survivor with a 0 second recording, and no friends (even though I could switch back and forth between friends and survivor and both showed they were recording). Oh, and I magically had 1200 hours left on my PVR =)

So I first watched friends, and caught up with live. After it ended, I switched over to the start of survivor. at 8:33, the red light turned off but the survivor buffer was still there, so I continued to watch. Of course, at 9:03, even though survivor wasn't actually recording, I was kicked to live and the 30 minutes or so left of suvivor went into the great void. I deceided it was probably a good idea to reboot my receiver, so I did. When it came back up, the hours left was fixed, and there was a 64 minute block of survivor. Which, when watched was all black. And pausing durring it proceeded to effectively hang the receiver (or at least grind it to a litteral halt). And there was no friends to be found.

*grumble grumble grumble*

Ben


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## Mike123abc (Jul 19, 2002)

I hope that once they fix the bugs in it they use the same code for other recievers. I hate to see them reinventing the wheel, complete with new and exciting bugs, over and over.


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## DmitriA (Aug 6, 2002)

They can't reuse the code since it's a completely different device with totally different hardware and platform


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## Scott Greczkowski (Mar 21, 2002)

The kick to live bug will be fixed in the next software version.


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## Mike123abc (Jul 19, 2002)

Well I actually meant use the same code for the 921 and other future recievers. Allow the bugs to be worked out then use the code for newer boxes.


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## TerryC (Jul 18, 2002)

Rebooting was a good idea, and about all we can do, at this point, until Dish gets around to delivering a software revision. 

And you didn't miss much from Survivor. Ghandia's still a bee-yotch, Robb's still an a-hole and Jed the slacker was kicked off. At least you're caught up...


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## Karl Foster (Mar 23, 2002)

That's a great recap, Terry, and exactly what I saw as I watched it recorded on my UTV. 

My wife would have thrown the 721 out the window if it had not recorded both Survivor and Friends. I hope they get this fixed soon for you guys. You should be able to depend on the 721, as you waited so long and paid so much. I feel your frustration (I mean that sincerely).


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## bfennema (Jul 21, 2002)

It did it again!!!!!! This time I immediately rebooted my 721, but it still ended up not recording friends (it did record Survivor, sans the first couple minutes it took to reboot the system). Upon reboot, it still showed 1400 hours avaliable. At some point, it dropped to 1200. When I finally stopped recording things for the night, I tried rebooting, etc and it still showed 1200 hours. Finally after deleting some stuff did it go back to a sane number (about 4).

It must be something to do with the timers set. I think I'll try deleting the timers and re-creating them and see if I can get it to record correctly next week. 

My friends are about ready to kill me. Does Dish Network's warranty cover me if my friends beat me up for loosing friends and survivor? =) (or throw my 721 out the window)


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Ours spazed last night also. Showed 7th heaven recording when it wasnt on at all. Recorded family affair as scheduled. Guide was falkey.

I say DIVERSIFY DIVERSIFY DIVERSIFY!

Tape on multiple differing receivers. DP 721 etc. For cant miss shows. Sad its necessary...


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

If you only have about 4 hours left, that may be a clue (a clue, you see a clue? Where?). When I first got my 501, it would lose recordings (totally) and screw with the timers when I was down to around 3 hours free on it. I would call Dish and get an exchange.


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## Curtis0620 (Apr 22, 2002)

Boy am I glad the merger failed.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

bfennema - are you saying you're crazy enough to use over 90% of the diskspace on a 721 ???

Let's put it bluntly - LINUX (upon which the 721 kernal is built) DOES NOT like this !!!


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## Curtis0620 (Apr 22, 2002)

Isn't TiVo LINUX based?


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## bfennema (Jul 21, 2002)

My Linux partitions regularly run at 95+% full. Thats the whole point of reserved space (the space thats only writable by root). The 721 definitely reserves space for itself. Anyways, It's not like streaming video to disk involves a whole lot of random seeks. Data is getting written sequentially for the duration of the program.

The behavior I'm seeing involves 1 program showing up in the PVR menu as a 0 second recording, with the other not showing up at all (using PIP and switching back and forth between the recordings, they both claim to be recording - till the recording ends and the data goes POOF)

Considering the behavior was identical to what happened a week before (and obviously the free disk space was different a week before) and I've already run it totally out of space where it deleted old programs, I doubt the disk space is the issue. (FYI, 90 hours isn't enough =))


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Mine spazed again friday night. Fortunately were back up recording with DPs. I hd planned on reducing the number of receivers but I guess thats idea is a looser.

It depresses me the 721 snt mre stable given its longgggg delayed introduction.

Missed several records


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## DmitriA (Aug 6, 2002)

I find it helpful to reboot my 721 every 2 weeks. Thus, I have yet to lose a recording or skip a timer (*knocks on wood*) and I record a *LOT* of stuff weekly (most using both tuners simultaneously)


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Bob Haller _
> *Fortunately were back up recording with DPs. I hd planned on reducing the number of receivers but I guess thats idea is a looser.*


There's something you just don't hear every day. Leave it to E* to provide the motiviation to keep the Dishplayer alive (besides their policy on hard drive upgrades).


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## SParker (Apr 27, 2002)

Every 2 weeks??? I reboot mine everyday to be safe!! 



> _Originally posted by DmitriA _
> *I find it helpful to reboot my 721 every 2 weeks. Thus, I have yet to lose a recording or skip a timer (*knocks on wood*) and I record a LOT of stuff weekly (most using both tuners simultaneously) *


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## bfennema (Jul 21, 2002)

Well, this last time it screwwed up, I rebooted it earlier that day, so it doesn't ALWAYS help =)


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## bfennema (Jul 21, 2002)

Well, after working fine last Thursday, this Thursday made my previous Thursdays bugs seem like features (with no change to my timers, and a reboot this morning)

Every program that was not protected was deleted tonight, leaving me with roughly 81 hours (and it didn't even record friends or ER, though thankfully both were reruns)

Well, I guess thats one way to suddenly be caught up on TV


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