# Volunteers for Dish?



## welchwarlock (Jan 5, 2005)

I am so frustrated with the lack of support on the 921 that I would be willing to sign an NDA, and volunteer my time to Dish to review 921 source code, and look for bugs. I really would like to see the bugs get out of the receiver, and It is obvious that Dish does not have the proper talent or budget on board to do so. My biggest fear is that it is poorly architected, and would require a significant architectural change to fix it.

I would bet there are others in the community that would give up some time.

Regards,

Robert Cook

Real Time Embedded Software Engineer since 1982


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Glad to see some other embedded engineers on the board . I moved this thread out of the support forum. It violates the support forums bash rule.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I seriously doubt they will let anyone help like that, too many concerns iover system security.

They wouldnt even share all the old dishplayer code with microsoft, microsoft went on to produce a great second generation box with direct.

part of the trouble is too few know how it all works.... intentially. to discourage piracy.

at least thats my belief, and it fits what we know.


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## Scott Greczkowski (Mar 21, 2002)

Yup not in the support forums we would not want to scare the Eldon guys away. 

Ok now seriously. I have been thinking about this this afternoon of why do some people have no problems with the 921 software while others (myself included) having issues? And why haven't beta testers such as Mark and Al seen these bugs themselves?

One of the things I thought about is back when I was a 721 tester I already had a 721, however when I became a beta tester they had to send me a new unit. Did this new unit have better hardware then the one I had? Did they run tests on it to see if it was more stable? What was the need for a new receiver? In testing while I saw issues I did not see the majority of issues people had when the beta software went public.

I would suspect the other testers here may have also got cream of the crop units and it could be why they are not seeing many of the issues reported. 

But there are so many things which can trigger issues, power, poor signal, weather conditions and so on, so who knows.


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## amit5roy5 (Mar 4, 2004)

They should make the code open source (like mozilla firefox), so everyone can look at it and help debug it.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

To be on topic for once, Scott - I believe it's because there is different hardware being used in 921s today that is still "in spec" but wasn't used in the original ones (where mine came from). I think that's the root cause of a number of the current 921 bugs, and why they are having such a hard time squashing them.


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

Scott Greczkowski said:


> Yup not in the support forums we would not want to scare the Eldon guys away.
> 
> Ok now seriously. I have been thinking about this this afternoon of why do some people have no problems with the 921 software while others (myself included) having issues? And why haven't beta testers such as Mark and Al seen these bugs themselves?
> 
> ...


I'm beta testing on the unit I purchased from Dishstore.net in February 2004. There is a very good reason why Mark and I didn't catch the current OTA guide data problem. I don't have the specific dish configuration required to duplicated it. Eitherway, that problem will be fixed very soon.

I never noticed the Overscan problem because I never watch SD from the composit/S-video output. The bigger problem with the composit/s-video isn't the overscan but the color quality of the output.

And the Stuck aspect ratio problem, well, I haven't seen that one since 2 betas before L215. I thought they had fixed the problem, but for some it seems worse now. I would love for my aspect ratio to get stuck, but no matter what I do it won't happen.


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## lapplegate (Jan 17, 2003)

Allen Noland said:


> I would love for my aspect ratio to get stuck, but no matter what I do it won't happen.


Allen,
Can you keep it to an "R" rating? There may be kids reading.


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

Allen Noland said:


> I'm beta testing on the unit I purchased from Dishstore.net in February 2004. There is a very good reason why Mark and I didn't catch the current OTA guide data problem. I don't have the specific dish configuration required to duplicated it. Eitherway, that problem will be fixed very soon.
> 
> I never noticed the Overscan problem because I never watch SD from the composit/S-video output. The bigger problem with the composit/s-video isn't the overscan but the color quality of the output.
> 
> And the Stuck aspect ratio problem, well, I haven't seen that one since 2 betas before L215. I thought they had fixed the problem, but for some it seems worse now. I would love for my aspect ratio to get stuck, but no matter what I do it won't happen.


Allen, I had it happen again Friday night (stuck in Zoom). I have not tried to duplicate it but here is what was going on.

Weekly timers (default pad) fired to record TNT HD Into the West (7pm CST) , SciFi Stargate SG1 (7pm), Stargate Atlantis (8pm), and Battlestar Galactica (9pm).

After recording about 15-20 minutes I started SG-1 from the beginning and changed the aspect to Zoom (16:9 DVI). After SG-1, I deleted and got the error message unknown channel.

I put the unit in standby for the rest of the night. Saturday, when I turned it on it was stuck in Zoom. Power button reboot fixed the problem.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

*I have split this thread and placed the discussion on why it was moved to the potporri area because it is getting more personal than it should. Try and keep on topic hear. Just to give you heads up, the one in the potporri area may not live long. *

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=423400#post423400


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I morn the loss of so much that was good here. 

See my signature...


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> * Just to give you heads up, the one in the potporri area may not live long. *
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=423400#post423400


 Holy crap. For once, I gotta agree with Bob. I'll see you over in satguys. It's getting too damn goofy over here.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

The first add is the last you will see of me. Lets all vote with our feet and leave.

A big drop in daily hits will hurt the new owners wallet


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Bob, I'm really starting to wish that we had let Scott ban you way back when, instead of standing up to him for the sake of the rules. 

Best of luck to you at whatever other site you end up at.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

I'm a little confused here - Bob seems to imply that he's been banned from posting on the site...and Mark appears to be confirming this. Did Bob H really get banned? If so, what was the rule violation?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Not directed to you finni... 

So Much for trying to split a thread and move the rathole... Please take the offtopic posts over to where the split was made. Link was provided.. 

To my knowledge Bob H, has not been banned.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

I just looked at the banned users list and Bob is not listed in it.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Nothing's been done to Bob, or his account. If he, or anyone else is saying otherwise, they are lying. Bob said he was leaving, I wished him well. End of story.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Chris posted to the Gold Forum the OTs are a site distraction and most likely leaving, then this post gets split and were told its been moved to potporri but wouldnt be there for long

The implication is the OTs are going away. Frankly for ME they have been very useful.

So we lose OTs and gain irritating adds.

This could of all been prevented by Metros offer of a single banner add like DBSFORUMS that would of paid the server costs. Or someone else to do the same...

Chris refused the offer repeatedly


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> then this post gets split and were told its been moved to potporri but wouldnt be there for long
> 
> The implication is the OTs are going away. Frankly for ME they have been very useful.


No, the "implication" is that the thread wouldn't last long because of all the garbage being posted in it. The "implication" was correct.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Richard King said:


> No, the "implication" is that the thread wouldn't last long because of all the garbage being posted in it. The "implication" was correct.


As I understand it the OT forums includding potporri, computer, laughter, DVD, and even buy and sell are being elminated. At least thats what we were told. Buy and sell for legal reasons......

Do you deny thats what we were told?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Absolutely denied. And, why the hell can't you keep this on topic, Haller? What was said was that those forums going away was under consideration. Not that it would happen absolutely for sure. You read into that yourself. Right now, they are all here, and will continue to be here. At some point down the road, some of them may get rolled into an overall Potpourri forum. Or they may stay separate. It hasn't been decided yet. Why can't you get it through your thick head that your constant complaining is just pushing us towards doing what you so desparately don't want us to do? 

The fact is, if you'd just shut the hell up, most likely things won't change much at all. So, shut the hell up already. The next off-topic post you leave in this thread will get deleted. And the next one after that. And if you continue to do it, you'll get tossed out of here for a few days like a couple of others have been.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

mwgiii said:


> Allen, I had it happen again Friday night (stuck in Zoom). I have not tried to duplicate it but here is what was going on.
> 
> Weekly timers (default pad) fired to record TNT HD Into the West (7pm CST) , SciFi Stargate SG1 (7pm), Stargate Atlantis (8pm), and Battlestar Galactica (9pm).
> 
> ...


I use the S-video output. I get stuck in zoom on a regular basis in every version of S/W that existed since I first got a 921 (November '04 - I believe 213 was the first S/W version I eperienced). It gets stuck weather I'm recording or not, it does not matter. Only happens in OTA because the OTA's are the only HD channels I get. THe SD satellite chanels arenot "zoomable" in the 4 X 3 (2) aspect ratio setting. (BTW: someone else posted, I tend to agree, that the 2 4 X 3 settings were reversed from what they once were (#1 used to be the setting that allowed letterbox, now you have to be in #2 to get letterbox on an analog set.


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