# 501/508/510 - P3.00 Software Release Notes and Discussion



## Mark Lamutt

Here they are, straight from my contacts at Dish:

Improved disk drive management for spin down control. 
Improvements to operation of guide scrolling, ensuring a live pause buffer and ensuring functioning of all event timers. 
Reducing the occurrences of black screens with no video or audio. 
Updated an informational pop up message to alert customers to when the hard drive temperature is high. This condition can occur when the air ventilation is blocked by the customer.


----------



## MrAkai

Doesn't sound like a justified jump to version 3 (from version 2.xx) unless there's a lot changed under the hood as well. Then again dish software number never followed the norm.


----------



## Jon Spackman

Mark,

Do you have a 5XX rec.?

Did they fix the bug where if you were watching a dvr show and did a search after about 2 minutes it would kick you out of your search/dvr setup and return you to the show?

Otherwise (and the above is not a big deal) my box is very, very reliable and i trust it 10x times more then my 921. I hope this didn't kill the reliability with this seemily unimportant update.....

Jon


----------



## P Smith

MrAkai said:


> Doesn't sound like a justified jump to version 3 (from version 2.xx) unless there's a lot changed under the hood as well. Then again dish software number never followed the norm.


If you will see how Dishnetwork numbering the versions , you'll not see any jumps there.
The version numbers are _unique_ thru ALL models, ie P224-P299 taken for other receivers or PVRs.


----------



## Ron Barry

So P. Smith. What you are saying is that Dish does not allow duplicate version numbers to release. They must have a rule that it is unique across all receivers? WOW. that is interesting to say the list and if true the "Tip of the Day!"


----------



## JohnGfun

Mine just downloaded it today.


----------



## Mark Lamutt

Yes I have 2 508s, but neither have taken the download yet. And I've never tried to run a seatch while watching a DVR event with them.


----------



## AllieVi

Mine is 3.00 as of mid-afternoon 2005-03-09 (Pacific time). My receiver was turned "off" since last evening.


----------



## P Smith

My source reported two ranges: 30,945,274...33,490,273; 53,090,274...53,535,273.
Wow ! That's around 2.5 millions of receivers !
Now, Darkman, tell me about first 'test' group, hehe .


----------



## Jacob S

So I assume that the 522 also warns you in a pop up banner if the temperature is too high in the receiver. Hope they do this in the 721 and 921 as well.


----------



## Geeke19

turned my 510 off going to wait until 610 to turn it back on it see if it took the update.


----------



## Darkman

Geeke19,
Don't think it's going "widespread" yet to all the receivers out there (as of 12:20 PM March 10, 2005 - Dish's link doesn't show so anyhow)...

Some more on this here:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=39543&page=2

P.Smith... huh?  -----> all i know is that according to Dish's page - it's not widespread yet .. (or course "reported sources" might be fresher then some page)


----------



## Darkman

the version P3.00 S/W is "widespread" now as of March 15th (according to Dishnet's s/w page) - it's now available to all the 501/508/510s out there


----------



## Horsepower

Mine updated sometime in the last week. Would be nice if it fixed the hang on spin-up problem.


----------



## Mark Lamutt

What problem is that, Horsepower? Hard drives do take a little bit of time to physically spin up when they've been shut down. The only way to get rid of the delay would be to leave them spinning all the time.


----------



## Pils

Anyone have any problems with this update? I have ask for permission to download and it keeps asking me. I am just hesitant due to having the software downloaded not be reversible. They have a history of messing something up, but at least the 5xx series have been solid now so shouldn't be a problem. Just curious what others think. Because I have ask to download set, my box misses timers if I have it turned off because when it powers, it ask to update and won't record til I answer it.


----------



## bnewt

Turned on my 508 this a.m. to check to see if it had this update & noticed that the time was incorrect. Pulling the smart card did not correct, then ran check switch & it seemed to correct. Why would the update cause a time malfunciton?


----------



## Pils

Well, I am not happy at all with this. I was satisfied with the old software, my 510 has worked flawless for the most part over the last 6 months. I have had to reset it a couple times over that period, no big deal. So I kept avoiding the software update because it being undoable if somethine goes wrong. It basically makes you take the upgrade though if you want your timers to fire because I turn my box off when in use. Needless to say, this new upgrade 3.00 made my box junk. Add another box of mine to that list. In only 2 days, I have had to reboot it and I have missed 3 of 5 timers. I never missed a timer with this box in the past. I turn my box off when not in use. I came home at 11 last night and saw it recording SNL, good thing. I turned the tv on and saw it recording correctly. I never touched the receiver or the boxes controller so the after recording it could turn off automatically. When I woke up, the box was still on, so I knew something was wrong. But the box acted normal, not locked up. I went to the pvr screen and SNL was not in there, but I saw it recording last night. It is in my room so I know I was the only one who touched this box. This company is really testing me. Hopefully others are fine, but my box is now crap. Forgot to mention, also had a ZSR event.


----------



## kstuart

Pils said:


> In only 2 days, I have had to reboot it and I have missed 3 of 5 timers. I never missed a timer with this box in the past.


On Saturday, my 501 which had never missed any timers with previous software, failed to do any of its timers that day, until I rebooted it. This despite the fact that I reboot all receivers every night before bed.

Do two data points mean a problem ? Hmmm...


----------



## Pils

Sorry man, the history of dishnetwork says 99% of the people have to report the problem before there is a problem. Even if 99% have the problem, it is not a problem unless dishnetwork hears from a 99%. Sorry to hear, guess there are others out there with the 3.00 problem. They should create a way to revert to old software for the messups.


----------



## peano

Looks like Dish has sent a similar version to BEV's E545 software which turned everyone's PVR's (including mine) into boat anchors. BEV tried to fix it with E546 and improved it somewhat but it is still full of bugs. It took BEV two months to go from E545 to E546. I hope Dish can do better for you folks.


----------



## Jacob S

So Dish Network sends the software to our receivers in the U.S. before they do to those in Canada's receivers? Perhaps they should send it there first to see if there are any signifigant bugs seeing how their subscriber numbers are a lot less than ours but then again we would have to wait longer for some of the real good software released if that was done.


----------



## peano

Not sure its the same as P300, but we got E545 in early December 2004. Zero minute recordings were abundant. Here's a link to the problems:

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18571


----------

