# 508 Skip Problem



## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

When I pause TV, then resume watching, my 508 will skip ahead 2 or three seconds at a time every 3-5 minutes. It was extremely frustrating last night while watching basketball. Anybody else experiencing this..and more importantly, ideas on how to resolve the problem? My recordings, BTW, are not having this problem. Only watching stuff in the buffer.


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## styxfix (Aug 7, 2002)

Did you try rebooting the PVR? It usually fixes all of my problems.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

I have needed to reboot twice since it's been on line. The problem continues...but thanks.


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## mike1002 (Oct 11, 2002)

I have a similar problem but not exactly the same thing. My 508 started this behavior about a month ago. It only seems to exhibit this while playing back. It will freeze and jerk a few frames and then freeze again. Sometimes it continues playing the video and only the audio drops out. I called my local installer and he says he's never heard of this behavior before (uh-huh). It never seems to have a problem playing 'live'. Its only on playback from the PVR. He thinks it may be the drive. I understand that the 508 when it is displaying in 'live' mode is actually recording to the hard drive and playing back from it. Why wouldn't the behavior show up then? Its almost like someone is hitting the pause button. Anyway, I'm scheduled for an appointment to have a tech come take a look at it. I'm afraid I'm headed down the same path many others have been with the 50x devices. They'll probably RA it and I'll get some rebuilt device (maybe even a 501) and it will have some other problem and the long nightmare will drag on until I get so frustrated with dealing with them that I cancel after my year is up and go to DirecTV. *sigh*

Mike


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2003)

I'm having the exact same problem. This has been happening for some time. However on my 508 this only occurs on my NBA league pass channels including NBA TV (560-571). Everything is fine when watching "live" but playback skips ahead exactly as you describe above along with the occasional audio dropout and pixelation. What channels is it happening to you on?


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## speedy882001 (Dec 17, 2002)

I had this problem with my Dish 508(freezing up on all chanels during play-back from the PVR). I also lost about 10 hours of recording time on my hard drive. I called Dish Network and they sent me a replacement refurb. unit. Have had it for about 1 1/2 months with no problems but still keeping my fingers crossed.


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## mike1002 (Oct 11, 2002)

The tech came to checkout my system today and after describing all of what I'm seeing he thinks its the receiver. He checked signal strength and saw that 119/110 were not equal in signal strength. He says it needs to be replaced. I guess he's right, that WILL fix the problem but not because there is a problem with the receiver. As I said above when watching live it is fine. It only happens when watching recorded programs. Anyway, my new unit is supposed to be on its way and then I ship my old one back. I happened to look at what I had recorded and in the info screen on one of my programs it says the pgm could not be saved to the HDD because of a file system problem. When I tried to delete it it says I'm trying to delete the program that it is currently recording. It is recording on channel0 and it starts at 1200am and ends at 12am. I think this is the problem. My question would be how do we reformat the drive to reset the file system? Also, why does it only affect recorded pgms and not the live pgms? I was told the PVR plays everything including live shows from the hard drive. Why doesn't this file system error mess up live programming? Anyway, I'll let you all know what happens when I get the new unit. Sure hope its not a 501. I really like the 80GB drive.

Mike


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## lonnman (Nov 16, 2002)

mike, 

I think that the 110 is normally the weaker of the two signals, and I think that the majority of boxes has a different signal strength on 110 and 119. I have not noticed any of your problems on my 501, and all I do is watch recorded shows on my 501.

Hypothisis: Maybe they designate a section of the HD for the buffer, but recorded shows get assigned elsewhere on the HD where you could have multiple bad sectors. Thus they do not have to worry about the HD being filled up, etc...

Good luck,

Jeff


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## Turbohawk (Jan 5, 2003)

Signal strengths will always differ between 119 and 110, so this is not your problem...

However, you very well could have a HD with bad sectors, AND/OR power fluctuations if you are not using a line conditioner/UPS device. I had the same 'freezes', 'skips', etc. that all here have mentioned UNTIL I plugged the power cord into my computer's UPS device (my priorities have changed).

As anyone that knows about AC power, there are always fluctuations. When your neighbor kicks on his 1 million watt gizmo your going to have a fluctuation. Most modern electronic devices are designed to work within a range of voltage, and seem to resist fluctuation problems pretty well...all except these PVR's it seems.

Pick up a cheap (under $100) UPS unit and give it a try. If it doesn't solve your probs, take it back, then get your reciever replaced.


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## mike1002 (Oct 11, 2002)

OK, I just read Pat A's procedure for dumping memory and resetting. Check in the thread on hard drive maintenance. I follwed the procedure and found that I had corrupted NVM memory. The procedure resets it and it works fine now. One warning though, it does reset your timers and favorites and if you changed your remote's address it goes back to default and you will need to set it up again. I just wish the tech had done this. But I guess they just train them to hit and run and collect the $55 service call fee and RA for a new unit.

Mike


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## mike1002 (Oct 11, 2002)

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. After battling some other issues with the unit it appears it only went into temporary remission. So, it looks like when the new unit gets here I'll swap it out and hope it doesn't come with its own set of problems. Thanks for the suggestion Pat A.

Mike


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

As I watch the Warriors game from the buffer, the problems continue. Please let me know if the next reciever gives you the same problems.

Thanks.


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## mike1002 (Oct 11, 2002)

OK, will do. I just got the new one today and got it installed and authorized. Just got all my timers reprogrammed in. It seems to be working fine from the receiver side but that worked on the old one too. My first timer should have fired about 30 min ago. I'll go take a look and see how it goes.
Mike


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2003)

I have a PVR 508 and I subscribe to NBA League Pass. When I playback a recorded game or resume a game that has been paused, the playback is marred with extensive recurring video pixelation, and it randomly skips ahead a couple of seconds at a time. The symptoms are displayed at least once every couple of minutes. This happens only when I playback a recorded game on the NBA League Pass channels (402, 560-571) , it does not occur on other channels or when I watch a NBA League Pass game live.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

cowboy fan..my symptons exactly! anybody else??


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## nicepants (Apr 12, 2002)

I am having this problem too and am convinced that it's the hard drive. Here's why.

I have about 80 shows on my hard drive and I erase them as I copy them off. Well I had one show on my hard drive that was full of these skips. Every other recording was fine...this one show was just full of the skips. Well when I deleted that show, the PVR must have re-used that area of the disk because the skipping problem came back on one of the new shows I just recorded.

I've called DN on this before and they told me to reset the unit after deleting everything from the HD. This time i'm just going to copy everything off and tell them they need to send me a replacement.


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