# Power-On Default Channel 104



## DavidPJ

Our Hopper always powers up to channel 104. This is an annoying infomercial channel which I would really like to change but I can't find a way of changing it. I called tech support but the rep couldn't help. Is this normal operation? I tried deleting it from my custom favorites list but it didn't help. The Joeys power up to the last channel viewed. Thanks.


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## [email protected] Network

It is a new feature where the receivers are supposed to tune to the most watched channel, however right now there is a known issue with it not doing that correctly. Our operations team is requesting feedback on the issue which you already provided in your post. Can you send me a PM with the account or phone # so I can send that along?

The feedback is just what channel it tunes to and if you regularly watch it or not.


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## TheGrove

PM Sent.

I'm seeing it where the Hopper goes to sleep on Weather Nation (215) but wakes up on Weather Channel (214). I have an auto tune setup for Weather Nation at 2:45 each morning so I view this channel a lot.


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## DavidPJ

[email protected] Network said:


> It is a new feature where the receivers are supposed to tune to the most watched channel, however right now there is a known issue with it not doing that correctly. Our operations team is requesting feedback on the issue which you already provided in your post. Can you send me a PM with the account or phone # so I can send that along?
> 
> The feedback is just what channel it tunes to and if you regularly watch it or not.


Thanks TommyF, your explanation helped a little but sometimes the Hopper still comes out of standby or power-off with channel 103 or 104 tuned. This is after watching other channels for a few hours. I don't watch channels 103 or 104. I sent you a PM with the info you requested.


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## harsh

[email protected] Network said:


> It is a new feature where the receivers are supposed to tune to the most watched channel, however right now there is a known issue with it not doing that correctly.


Please convey to the powers that be that this is an undesirable feature -- even if it was working correctly.


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## BillJ

I agree this is not a desirable feature. Always had my receivers wake on the last channel watched and I like it that way.


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## Blowgun

Whether this "feature" is working properly or not, this is not desirable at all. Instead of adding useless features, why not fix the many Hopper firmware limitations and bugs.


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## DN2014

Blowgun said:


> Whether this "feature" is working properly or not, this is not desirable at all. Instead of adding useless features, why not fix the many Hopper firmware limitations and bugs.


AMEN !


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## Stewart Vernon

In theory... if this feature truly worked, you wouldn't notice it as much... because it would be tuning to your most-frequently-watched channel.

To be honest, this seems like a non-feature BUT also a non-problem. The receiver doesn't buffer anything in standby anyway... so all you have to do is set an AutoTune timer to wake up to your favorite morning channel OR just tune there when you first turn it on for the day.


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## harsh

Stewart Vernon said:


> To be honest, this seems like a non-feature BUT also a non-problem.


Undesirable features that don't work right are a huge problem in modern consumer electronics.


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## Stewart Vernon

harsh said:


> Undesirable features that don't work right are a huge problem in modern consumer electronics.


Sometimes, yes... but this particular one has two very simple workarounds... As I said, define an AutoTune timer to change to the channel you want automatically in the morning OR just quickly change there manually when you first wake the receiver. As far as unintended bugs go, this one is very minor.


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## harsh

Stewart Vernon said:


> Sometimes, yes... but this particular one has two very simple workarounds... As I said, define an AutoTune timer to change to the channel you want automatically in the morning OR just quickly change there manually when you first wake the receiver. As far as unintended bugs go, this one is very minor.


The idea is to avoid Creeping Feature-itis and not add garbage like this in the first place. That the introduction to the feature is a result of it failing is not an auspicious start.

Many people like to watch news in the morning and late at night. That means I don't want to be presented with something from the Disney Channel or H2 because that's what everyone is watching most of the time. I want the TV to remain tuned to the channel I left it on. If I specifically want to turn to a particular station, I'll set up an Autotune. My provider doesn't get to drive my preferences.

I would prefer that upgrade efforts be put towards features that actually mean something or fixing good ideas that weren't executed very well.


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## James Long

The idea of this feature is to tune to the channel YOU watch the most ... not the general population. The favorite channel of those using that particular receiver.

BTW: Either the feature doesn't work for me or it works perfectly. I usually find the receiver (Hopper) set to the same channel I was last watching ... but I tend to watch that channel several hours a day - more than any other channel.


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## harsh

James Long said:


> The idea of this feature is to tune to the channel YOU watch the most ... not the general population. The favorite channel of those using that particular receiver.


Your argument assumes a 1:1 viewer to receiver arrangement. That's not a good assumption. Even if it were, viewing patterns for many are based on time of day, not minutes spent watching.


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## Stewart Vernon

Like I said, though... I get this is a feature that has a glitch and isn't even one that anyone appears to have demanded... but the workaround for it is so insanely simple that I would be complaining harder about other glitches and basically ignoring this one.


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## harsh

Wasting resources implementing undesirable features is surely taking away resources that might otherwise be used to refine the necessary and desirable ones.

You may consider thwarting the designers poorly conceived concepts challenging or entertaining, but it is just a waste of everyone's time if it can be stopped before it gets any worse.

Features like this should be opt-in, not find your way around.


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## Stewart Vernon

I don't disagree with you... but the time to stop such features is before they take the time to implement them... at this point that ship has sailed, and I would spend more time complaining to them about the other problems that I wanted fixed instead.

I wouldn't care for this feature either... but in the scheme of things, it's easy enough to work around.


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## patmurphey

DavidPJ said:


> Thanks TommyF, your explanation helped a little but sometimes the Hopper still comes out of standby or power-off with channel 103 or 104 tuned. This is after watching other channels for a few hours. I don't watch channels 103 or 104. I sent you a PM with the info you requested.


One question, why do you ever "power off"? If you do it often, maybe you are triggering those channels as most watched.


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## TheGrove

patmurphey said:


> One question, why do you ever "power off"? If you do it often, maybe you are triggering those channels as most watched.


Unless changed the system will automatically power off after a period of time. It also "powers off" when it does its nightly reboot.


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## harsh

TheGrove said:


> Unless changed the system will automatically power off after a period of time. It also "powers off" when it does its nightly reboot.


With the Hopper, I recall that you can extend that period up to eight hours. That's surely enough to make a channel "most watched".


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## patmurphey

It does not power off, it goes into standby_._ You have to pull the plug for "power off", hence my question.


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## James Long

Many people refer to standby as power off. I believe the person you asked your question of was using the terms interchangeably.

(The receiver has an on/standby button ... but not on is typically considered off.)


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## DavidPJ

James Long said:


> Many people refer to standby as power off. I believe the person you asked your question of was using the terms interchangeably.
> 
> (The receiver has an on/standby button ... but not on is typically considered off.)


That's correct. I was referring to the Hopper going into standby mode, not actually physically removing power.

Now that we've used the Hopper more, the power-up auto tune feature is working a little better, but still sometimes will turn on with channel 104 which we never watch, I would like to see the Hopper either power up with the last channel viewed or give an option to set the power on channel. Either way is good for me and much preferred over the current method which has been totally unpredictable.


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## patmurphey

DavidPJ said:


> ...Hopper still comes out of standby or power-off ....


Only responded to this...


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## SeaBeagle

My Hopper starts up with the last channel viewed. I never look at any of the shopping channels that is why I never see that channel when the Hopper Is first on.


Sent from my iPad 4 128GB using DBSTalk mobile app


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## Lucyr2

I concur. During hockey season, I was on 159 all the time. Now NASCAR is on, and I don't want to watch that channel at ALL! Not a feature at all.


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## Stewart Vernon

I suspect, and I have no inside info to guide me, this is an attempt to rectify one of the unintended consequences of some overnight timers or channels.

IF you leave your receiver on a sports channel that has a blacked out event playing the next day... you wake to an error message OR tuned to channel 101. IF you set timers to record (or were watching) a PPV channel OR one of those Dish-pushed timers fires, you could also wake up to channel 101.

Customers complain to waking up to channel 101... but the last-tuned channel is already lost anyway... so this feature is likely meant to be a "fix" of sorts for those scenarios... to try and tune to a most-watched channel for you instead of leaving on an unintended home channel after other stuff over night.


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## harsh

Stewart Vernon said:


> Customers complain to waking up to channel 101... but the last-tuned channel is already lost anyway... so this feature is likely meant to be a "fix" of sorts for those scenarios... to try and tune to a most-watched channel for you instead of leaving on an unintended home channel after other stuff over night.


The Hopper typically remembers the four most recent channels so that argument is surely stillborn.

Firing a recording timer should _always_ change the channel back after it is done. OTOH, an Autotune timer should not. How it should work is pretty straightforward.


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## SeaBeagle

What software version is this happening on? Since my Hopper is starting after being turned off on the last channel I looked at and boots up to that channel when turned on again maybe I have an older software version.


Sent from my iPad 4 128GB using DBSTalk mobile app


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## BillJ

This is getting really annoying. Every day it's a different channel when I wake up my Hoppers. Sometimes it isn't even a channel I watched the day before. I want the last channel I viewed usually. Dish should undo this non-improvement.


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## dfhbac0

I have exactly the same problem. I curse every time I turn the Hopper. An awful user experience. They should provide choices such as:

Last Channel
Most frequent channel
Specific channel number


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## SeaBeagle

Mine boots up to The Weather Channel. This is fine because that is the first channel I switch to anyway.


Sent from my iPad 4 128GB using DBSTalk mobile application.


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## Blowgun

Mine mostly defaults to CBS even though the most watched channel is from an OTA station. I guess it doesn't understand OTA and defaults there instead. Sometimes I can use the RECALL button to switch back, while other times the last channel used doesn't show up in one of the four slots. As mentioned in the beginning of this thread, DISH admits the feature is broken.

Supposedly the feedback that DISH was seeking was to determine whether the receiver was properly changing to a regularly watch channel, not whether the feature was useful. I find no redeeming value for this feature and the time spent creating it could have been used more wisely fixing something important, like not crashing when you set the timer priority to fast, or remembering that a folder was set to a timer, or fixing something simple like removing the overlapping line from the program description after pressing Page Down in EPG Info screen. Or, anything that needs fixing.


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## phrelin

Here's what happens to me because of this "feature."

During the day we listen to music, either Dish CD or SiriusXM, but usually turn it off by 2 pm. But we have a problem in that when late afternoon gusty winds come up, we sometimes intermittently lose 119°. What the "feature" means is that the default channel when I turn it on for evening watching frequently gives me an signal loss error message.

Much like the complaints about Windows 10, the more the company controls with no way to turn off the default, the more problems and complaints will result. Yes, I can work around it but it's just another one of those ideas that probably came from some meeting and while it's not a problem for 70% of the customers, it will always be a problem for 30%.

But this is the 21st Century and "the customer is always right" was so 19th Century.


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## Blowgun

All gimmicky "features" should have an option in setting so they can be completely disabled. Having options are a good thing for the customer, and a bad thing for the company. That's another 21th century thing.


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## James Long

phrelin said:


> But we have a problem in that when late afternoon gusty winds come up, we sometimes intermittently lose 119°.


It would be a good idea to fix that problem.


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## phrelin

James Long said:


> It would be a good idea to fix that problem.


Our redwood trees have grown into a problem since this picture was taken:










I can't get the field techs to do what's necessary and I'm just too old to be crawling around on a roof up three stories. When we got our Hopper setup I tried to get a third dish but nobody would even talk about it.

The installer did what he could with the two dishes, but at times wind gusts cover either 119° or 129° or both. I have switches galore and all, but can't seem to get someone to bring a third dish and install it. I figure by the time my 24 month commitment expires I'll just stream everything. Or ...GASP... add Comcast Xfinity TV to our internet service.


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## mrbi11

First, the response to this has been unanimous, as has been the desired behavior, which is "dont change the channel"

Second, the worakarounds are NOT trrivial nor workable. I dont want my tv to turn on on some timer, and if I did, I would not want it turning on to some specific channel, rather I'd like it to remain on the channel i last set.

Nor is it trivial to re-find the last channel with 1000 channels. When I'm watching a show, I dont memorize the channel. If I turn it off to answer the phone, then turn it back on, by the time I searched a thousand channels to find the one i was watching the show could be over.

There is actual science to human interfaces, and when you leave programming to teenagers who always have a great idea starting with "wouldnt it be cool if...." NO, it would not be cool if.... People ALWAYS want to be in control of their devices, whether its a microwave or a TV. The most universally requested feature ever, and studies show it is actually the most universally accepted feature, is that every device remember the last thing you set it to do.

So instead, dish spent thousands of programmer hours and customer service hours annoying its customers, instead of simply leaving the channel the way the user set it. Not good business.

If I were Dish, and a distant third in customer satisfaction, I would not be posting "yes its a bad feature nobody ever wanted but its not that hard to get around". I'd be posting "Thanks for bringing this to our attention, it only takes 5 minutes for our admittedly challenged programmers to delete it and leave the channel set the way it was and we will get that done TODAY."

But then I dont like being a distant third at anything.


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## mrbi11

Just an fyi to everyone who likes a chuckle.

I tried doing a parental block on the channel it keeps starting with.

Nope, it bypasses parental controls and tunes the channel.

Well done!


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## James Long

mrbi11 said:


> When I'm watching a show, I dont memorize the channel. If I turn it off to answer the phone, then turn it back on, by the time I searched a thousand channels to find the one i was watching the show could be over.


I don't turn of the receiver. I let the receiver turn itself off at approximately 1:25am-1:35am (which is another annoying "feature" that DISH has that cannot be adjusted).

When the phone rings (or I am otherwise interrupted) I press pause, take care of the interruption, then press the pause button again. No memorization or loss of show required (and if I expect the interruption to take a while I can press the record button and record the show in progress until its conclusion).

It is easy to find recently viewed content. Just press the RECALL button and the last four channels appear. If you were watching a DVR program and tuned away that program will appear in the RECALL list.

That being said, my Hopper has been acting up lately - the power on channel the last couple of days is one I normally do not watch. I do not know why my receiver is "recommending" it, unless DISH is getting paid to recommend the channel. 

I have tuned to that channel within the past month ... but it is not one of my "most watched" channels.

One final note ... I do not believe DISH technicians have been spending thousands of hours on this feature. If they did, it should work a lot better than it does.


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## Jim5506

My pet peeve is the thing went to sleep after the nightly reboot.

I keep my Hopper up and running as much as possible with an auto tune timer to favorite channel an hour after the nightly brain scramble.

I turn on the TV and surround sound and it always comes up to my auto tune channel.

Two Hoppers with Sling been running that way for several years now - no complaints.


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## echowarrior109

Stewart Vernon said:


> In theory... if this feature truly worked, you wouldn't notice it as much... because it would be tuning to your most-frequently-watched channel.
> 
> To be honest, this seems like a non-feature BUT also a non-problem. The receiver doesn't buffer anything in standby anyway... so all you have to do is set an AutoTune timer to wake up to your favorite morning channel OR just tune there when you first turn it on for the day.


the fact that feature exists interferes with my ability to have my tv turn on to the channel I want, it is a huge issue to be honest, I should not have to implement a work around for a feature that I did not want to begin with, furthermore I hate QVC and never watch it ever but that is the channel it tunes to, even if the hopper is power cycled, so if I want to wake to different channels in the morning, which I do many times, I don't want to have it tune to a channel of the hoppers choosing, that is up to me, I want it to tune to the channel I turned it off at, I have done it that way for years and this is a huge problem of epic proportions! huge enough to make me reconsider where my money goes! all they need do is put it in as an option!


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## Grandude

I wonder if this 'minor' annoyance will continue on in the Hopper 3?
I don't want the hopper to turn on to the last viewed channel from the night before, so I simply programmed it to switch to the channel I want on in the morning. I did this long before the Dish folk thought it would be nice to switch my receiver to one of my most popular choices.


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## Stewart Vernon

The feature, as I've said, is a non-feature in my opinion... but it is WAY down the list of things worth complaining about. It's so easy to circumvent by setting an Autotune timer OR simply changing the channel when you first turn on the TV... that I wouldn't waste time complaining about it.


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## Azzizzi

Stewart Vernon said:


> The feature, as I've said, is a non-feature in my opinion... but it is WAY down the list of things worth complaining about. It's so easy to circumvent by setting an Autotune timer OR simply changing the channel when you first turn on the TV... that I wouldn't waste time complaining about it.


To me, it's not a non-issue. It's a bit of an annoyance. Every time I power on the TV, I'm "treated" with either Charlie Sheen or RuPaul and his (her?) entourage of cross-dressers, none of which are what I want to see and it's a channel I don't even watch.


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## Stewart Vernon

And you could set an Auto-tune timer if you find it such an annoyance. Like I said, it's a feature I can't defend on any level really... but it's far from a major issue and there's an easy one-time workaround.


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## n0qcu

The good news is the new Carbon UI does not (currently) have this unwanted feature and I hope it stays that way.


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## Blowgun

That may be, but it's the carbon UI. I'd rather have the randomville auto-tune.


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## alexcomp

Surprised there in no answer to this annoying feature. Here's a possibility:

My hopper consistently comes up on "Acoustic Crossroads". I set a major block of this to record once in order to strip out new and interesting songs. Since then it has been the default. Could be that default gets set by channel that was recorded most?


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## nmetro

I think it is most watched. I watch a lot of TCM, and most times that is what comes up. Followed by KUSA 9 (Denver local NBC, because I watch the news on it most of the time). The third most, seems to be one of the Movie pack channels, SONY, FXM. Encore, EPIX).

This is with Hooper w/Swing, with Carbon UI.



alexcomp said:


> Surprised there in no answer to this annoying feature. Here's a possibility:
> 
> My hopper consistently comes up on "Acoustic Crossroads". I set a major block of this to record once in order to strip out new and interesting songs. Since then it has been the default. Could be that default gets set by channel that was recorded most?


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## [email protected] Network

To provide an update on this: The feature is available on the Carbon UI, however that UI it also provides the ability to change what the feature does. To do so just access the Menu, go to Settings > Power then where is says 'Power On' you can change the setting from 'Tune to Smart Channel' to either have it tune to the 'Home Screen' or the last channel that was being viewed when it was turned off.


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## nmetro

Confirmed, that this feature exists in Hopper w/Sling Carbon UI. The default is "Set to Smart Channel", The first option "Set to Home Screen", the third option is "Set to Last Channel" (I selected that, as I suspect that means display last channel viewed on power on or coming out of hibernation mode).



[email protected] Network said:


> To provide an update on this: The feature is available on the Carbon UI, however that UI it also provides the ability to change what the feature does. To do so just access the Menu, go to Settings > Power then where is says 'Power On' you can change the setting from 'Tune to Smart Channel' to either have it tune to the 'Home Screen' or the last channel that was being viewed when it was turned off.


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## Blowgun

[email protected] Network said:


> To provide an update on this: The feature is available on the Carbon UI, however that UI it also provides the ability to change what the feature does.


Why isn't there an option to disable that annoying "feature" on the, IMO, better Hopper with Sling UI, where it was first introduced as a buggy feature?

And, will there be an option to change the time the HwS receiver reboots in the early morning?

The 1 AM reboot is stupid. You can't even finish watching late night network TV without the receiver coughing up a hairball that it's going to reboot unless you stop it.


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## James Long

The "Hopper with Sling" will also be getting the "Carbon" UI ... so a solution is coming (with other changes that I am sure people will gripe about). I believe the new UI also solves the "1am" reboot nag screen problem.


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## [email protected] Network

Blowgun said:


> Why isn't there an option to disable that annoying "feature" on the, IMO, better Hopper with Sling UI, where it was first introduced as a buggy feature?
> 
> And, will there be an option to change the time the HwS receiver reboots in the early morning?
> 
> The 1 AM reboot is stupid. You can't even finish watching late night network TV without the receiver coughing up a hairball that it's going to reboot unless you stop it.


I couldn't say why the option to disable the Smart Tune isn't available. That information isn't made available to us.

I am unable to speculate on future changes, but I don't think there will be a specific option to disable the nightly updates on this receiver line. These are primarily to ensure AutoHop is enabled, and the guide and software is current. The Hopper 3, and possibly Carbon UI as a whole as James mentioned, should not update until you put it into standby mode.


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## backdot

I'm on day-3 of my DISH experience, and so far all I can think is that I made a huge mistake switching from DTV. Every morning I turn my receiver (Wally) on, and it goes to the Baby channel (for a single man that never had kids and never watch that channel, it is extremely annoying). I keep seeing replies that I just have to set the auto tune, and will ultimately have to do that for the next couple of years since I'm now stuck with a 2 year commitment. A simple fix to maintain last channel watch is all I really want. I don't care for several "Features" such as no saved searches etc. 

You can continue to reply that this is not an issue, but from reading 3 pages of people griping about it, I'd say it is a bigger issue than than being acknowledged. Keep this in mind, I was with DTV for 10 years, stuck with DISH for 2, then I'll switch back to DTV. Perhaps if you want better retention of customers, DISH should listen to their customers and fix what they are complaining about instead of blowing them off like yesterdays news. When it comes down to it, it's all about the money, and if you don't take care of your customers, you'll always be struggling to keep up with the competition...


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## RBA

backdot said:


> I'm on day-3 of my DISH experience, and so far all I can think is that I made a huge mistake switching from DTV. Every morning I turn my receiver (Wally) on, and it goes to the Baby channel (for a single man that never had kids and never watch that channel, it is extremely annoying). I keep seeing replies that I just have to set the auto tune, and will ultimately have to do that for the next couple of years since I'm now stuck with a 2 year commitment. A simple fix to maintain last channel watch is all I really want. I don't care for several "Features" such as no saved searches etc.
> 
> You can continue to reply that this is not an issue, but from reading 3 pages of people griping about it, I'd say it is a bigger issue than than being acknowledged. Keep this in mind, I was with DTV for 10 years, stuck with DISH for 2, then I'll switch back to DTV. Perhaps if you want better retention of customers, DISH should listen to their customers and fix what they are complaining about instead of blowing them off like yesterdays news. When it comes down to it, it's all about the money, and if you don't take care of your customers, you'll always be struggling to keep up with the competition...


In 2 years you will LOVE DISH besides by then AT&T may have destroyed the Directv you were used to.


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## backdot

You have a point there! At least I'm saving money. And I must confess, while laying in bed last night and playing with the settings, I found that the new Wally does have a setting for "Power on to last channel" and now I"m a bit happier. Gotta find a way to save searches so I don't have to retype them every time (DTV holds 15 recent searches). I could however, use a deactivated DTV receiver and still search that way, though that defeats the purpose of changing providers...


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