# New DVR 522 - Should it be this buggy?



## ecoleman (Feb 24, 2005)

I've been lurking here for a while in great anticipation of getting our Dish Network service with the DVR 522, which finally arrived the weekend before last. In fact these forums helped me fix some trouble with the guide not downloading. The wife (and kids) have nearly filled up the drive already, but I'm noticing some odd buggy behavior, and I'm wondering if this is normal or at least experienced by others (software rev. shows L23.33):

1) One of the wife's shows recorded off Food Network was a 30-minute show, but during playback, when you paused/rewound the progress bar showed the show had 942,628 hours and 27 minutes left and accordingly the progress meter was effectively stuck to the left side. At the end of the show (after 30 minutes) the recording ended as you would expect, just the time counter was "corrupted".

2) She set up a "Dish Pass" to record all episodes of an upcoming series "Dr. 90210" that was to debut on Saturday. However, after the timer was set all subsequent shows recorded to the DVR to this point all have the same show name "Dr. 90210" and description and have time lengths that don't even match the show. For example:

Dr. 90210 7:32 _(actually 30-Minute Meals, 30 minutes)_
Dr. 90210 3:01 _(actually Saturday Night Live, 90 minutes)_
Dr. 90210 1:02 _(actually Blues Clues, 30 minutes)_

3) If I look at the DVR schedule, some earlier Dish Pass timers are no longer finding the shows in the guide, even though I can navigate right to the show in the guide. There's no "skip" icon either as if there was a conflict. It's just plain not scheduled. As I review the schedule, I see that by next Monday I'm down to having only show scheduled, when there's probably been an average of 18 shows recorded per day. Do these timers have an expiration date or something? Is the fact that the drive is nearly full causing the timers to not be scheduled? (I thought it is supposed to just overwrite old shows.)

Even if I delete the timer, click on the show in the guide, and do "All Episodes" or "Dish pass", it shows 0 matches. Doing the power-button-reset trick doesn't seem to help.

4) I had one instance where I was navigating the guide, and all of the sudden I got a dialog box saying to the effect: _"the Hard Drive was being checked, this could take 45 minutes. Pressing cancel will reset the receiver."_ What happened there?

So are these glitches fairly commonplace? Or should I consider asking for a replacement DVR?

Thanks!

--
Erik Coleman
Champaign, Illinois


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

ecoleman said:


> I've been lurking here for a while in great anticipation of getting our Dish Network service with the DVR 522, which finally arrived the weekend before last. In fact these forums helped me fix some trouble with the guide not downloading. The wife (and kids) have nearly filled up the drive already, but I'm noticing some odd buggy behavior, and I'm wondering if this is normal or at least experienced by others (software rev. shows L23.33):
> 
> 1) One of the wife's shows recorded off Food Network was a 30-minute show, but during playback, when you paused/rewound the progress bar showed the show had 942,628 hours and 27 minutes left and accordingly the progress meter was effectively stuck to the left side. At the end of the show (after 30 minutes) the recording ended as you would expect, just the time counter was "corrupted".


I have a 721 receiver and I have also noticed what you mention in #1. I know of no fix for it on either receiver.

One thing I can say to you, however, is Welcome To Dish Network, Erik! You have basically signed on to be a paying beta tester for Dish. ALL of their products have bugs, some more and some less. I have been with them for about 2.5 years and have gone through four 721 receivers, so far. There are bugs in my unit that have been there for over 2 years and have never been addressed. Don't get me totally wrong here... I prefer Dish over DirecTV, but you just have to learn to complain to Dish and hopefully all your bugs will be fixed over time.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

ecoleman said:


> *New DVR 522 - Should it be this buggy?*
> Thanks!
> 
> --
> ...


No. It shouldn't. But, it is.

Your 522 is no different than anybody else's. It almost doesn't matter which model you have. None will work correctly or as advertised when released, and will generally not be at an acceptable level for about 18 months. It will never work 100% correctly.

The truly ironic thing, is once they get a model to work fairly well, they discontinue it, and release another bug-ridden product to replace it, starting the cycle over again.

Kinda funny, actually.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

GaryPen said:


> ... Kinda funny, actually.


Pathetic, careless, disgusting, incompetent - yeah. Funny, no.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

If you have no viable alternative to Dish, then I guess it's not that funny after all.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Gary agreed with me. 

Just had to do that - what with your sig and all.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

It's Dish Network. With their history what do you expect?


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

I expect more people will switch to Directv where most products work as they are supposed to. I just can't believe how consistently DISH has followed there pattern and how many readers still continue to buy DISH products and continue to complain instead of doing something.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

..or continue to _defend _ Dish's behavior, sometimes with great emotion and zeal. That's the true mystery.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

I see this is Eric's first post so I'll assume that he didn't check here and the other guys site before taking the leap. What I can't understand are the folks that ask for the opinion on how such and such E* STB works, is pointed to all the posts about bugs and such, purchases one and then is unhappy when it doesn't work. Sometimes you'd just like to get out a baseball bat and knock them on the side of their heads to get their attention so maybe they'll listen.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

RAD said:


> Sometimes you'd just like to get out a baseball bat and knock them on the side of their heads to get their attention so maybe they'll listen.


It's not the Dish _customers_ that need it.


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## robbe (Jan 18, 2005)

We had Dish for a year, it was pretty good (DishPro 500/301), but when the wife wanted to do DVR, we switched over to DirecTV, because TiVO works. It works really well. We've had zero problems with it. We would have stayed with Dish if they had a DVR that worked. I've read alot of stuff about the Dish DVR problems, that is sucky, hopefully they will accelerate getting their act together on this.


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## scottchez (Feb 4, 2003)

I am switching back from Direct TVs Tivo, cant stand it and the Guide is the slowest I have ever seen in a box, other menu items take several minutes. The new 6.2 did not help much. It is so slow. It also misses shows sometimes. That has to do with who is entering the guide data at the office.

It is not always better at the other place. I know. . . 

"I expect more people will switch to Directv where most products work as they are supposed to. I just can't believe how consistently DISH has followed there pattern and how many readers still continue to buy DISH products and continue to complain instead of doing something."


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

scottchez said:


> I am switching back from Direct TVs Tivo, cant stand it and the Guide is the slowest I have ever seen in a box, other menu items take several minutes. The new 6.2 did not help much. It is so slow. It also misses shows sometimes. That has to do with who is entering the guide data at the office.
> 
> It is not always better at the other place. I know. . .
> 
> "I expect more people will switch to Directv where most products work as they are supposed to. I just can't believe how consistently DISH has followed there pattern and how many readers still continue to buy DISH products and continue to complain instead of doing something."


Sorry you are unhappy with the guide speed of DirecTiVo but that is the way it was designed and it does work correctly. The slow guide speed is one of the admitted faults of the TiVo but it still works as it is supposed too, besides "HASTE MAKES WASTE". I would rather see the product work correctly than being the fastest but more problematic, especially seeing I use the "wishlist" rather than the guide.


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## scottchez (Feb 4, 2003)

That is a Plus point for Direct TV, never once crashed 100% update as it is on a UPS. Always worked. 

Still Im selling it on Ebay for $40. Just cant find anything on the guide, its not in order like on dish. Guess Im too used to it.

Personal preference.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Scott. Weren't you using a Tivo logo as your avatar for quite a while? Odd for someone who doesn't like Tivo. Or, am I mistaken?


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