# Leave it to E* to FU the last ep of 24.



## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

When I got home last night all 3 DISH PVR's had the clock set ahead one hour. My recording of the last and never-to-be-repeated "24" finale was...you guessed it...actually "American Idol". Grrrrrrrrr. Tech support sent a bullet to fix this, but since their computers had been down for a day and a half, it might take a day to fix it, meaning that the bullet will probably arrive right in the middle of the "ST:Enterprise" finale ep, which will of course shut off the PVR. Nice going, numbnuts  .


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

I'm surprised nobody has replied yet, implying that it was somehow _your_ fault. I'm sure they will, as soon as they get back from their sacrificing of animals to a large golden statue of Charlie.


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## Inaba (Jun 20, 2003)

My final episode of Enterpise better not be screwed up.

I haven't seen it yet, but if it is, I'm going to disconnect Dish. No, I'm not kidding. I'm tired of the 721 and not recording the shows that I want because their EPG/NBR is nonexistant/screwed up.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

Inaba said:


> I'm tired of the 721 and not recording the shows that I want because their EPG/NBR is nonexistant/screwed up.


I just bought a 721 - not hooked up yet. In all seriousness, how often do you folks have a problem with it NOT recording shows you set up? I've never had that happen on the 508 if I set the timer up properly.


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## mainedish (Mar 25, 2003)

My Directivo never has this problem. I used to have this problem but that was because I had a Dish System. I was willing to put up with some of the crashes but my wife was not. I now have a happy wife.


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## Randy_B (Apr 23, 2002)

finniganps said:


> I just bought a 721 - not hooked up yet. In all seriousness, how often do you folks have a problem with it NOT recording shows you set up? I've never had that happen on the 508 if I set the timer up properly.


Our 721 fired the timer for 24 as scheduled. I can't remember the last timer that misfired or failed on it. Our 721, 510 and 501 are working GREAT. Anxiously looking forward to the upgrade this summer.


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## junki (Feb 19, 2004)

TomCat said:


> When I got home last night all 3 DISH PVR's had the clock set ahead one hour. My recording of the last and never-to-be-repeated "24" finale was...you guessed it...actually "American Idol". Grrrrrrrrr. Tech support sent a bullet to fix this, but since their computers had been down for a day and a half, it might take a day to fix it, meaning that the bullet will probably arrive right in the middle of the "ST:Enterprise" finale ep, which will of course shut off the PVR. Nice going, numbnuts  .


Well????? I personally keep up with my timers because of live,weather breaks and time changes by networks. Sorry for your loss, you could buy the DVD when it comes out this summer.


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## Inaba (Jun 20, 2003)

I have at least 1 per week that doesn't record properly.

That does NOT include the extra stuff that gets recorded because I have timers set that I can't find without an exhaustive comparison of what I actually want to record, versus what's showing at that time.

So now, I've resigned myself to just delete the programs that the 721 records that I dont' want.

The 721 is really the crappiest DVR I've ever used... I can't stand using it. There's nothing about it that I like that other DVRs don't already do, and do just as well, if not better.

There's no overly redeeming quality of the 721 when compared a Tivo, Replay or Ultimate TV.


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## Karl Foster (Mar 23, 2002)

TomCat said:


> When I got home last night all 3 DISH PVR's had the clock set ahead one hour. My recording of the last and never-to-be-repeated "24" finale was...you guessed it...actually "American Idol". Grrrrrrrrr. Tech support sent a bullet to fix this, but since their computers had been down for a day and a half, it might take a day to fix it, meaning that the bullet will probably arrive right in the middle of the "ST:Enterprise" finale ep, which will of course shut off the PVR. Nice going, numbnuts  .


I have it on my UTV. I'll be glad to to put it on a tape for you. Send me an e-mail at [email protected] and give me your address.


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## dbronstein (Oct 21, 2002)

finniganps said:


> I just bought a 721 - not hooked up yet. In all seriousness, how often do you folks have a problem with it NOT recording shows you set up? I've never had that happen on the 508 if I set the timer up properly.


Never. I've had a 721 for a year and a half and I've never missed a recording. I got the 24 finale just fine (although after watching it I could've done without it, but that's another rant).


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## goughl (Jul 18, 2003)

I have had the 721 for 11 months now and have never missed a timer. Works great for me.
I think a lot of problems are operator error


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## Inaba (Jun 20, 2003)

> I have had the 721 for 11 months now and have never missed a timer. Works great for me.
> I think a lot of problems are operator error


Ok... let's say you're 100% correct in this assertation.

The fact that I've never had a problem with Tivo or UTV would indicate to me that the 721 is, in fact, faulty as far as the UI goes then, if not as far as the actual features.

Either way, the 721 sucks when compared to a real PVR. The 721 is a glorified VCR, nothing more.


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

garypen said:


> I'm surprised nobody has replied yet, implying that it was somehow _your_ fault. I'm sure they will, as soon as they get back from their sacrificing of animals to a large golden statue of Charlie.


Oh yes. Did you seen my huge shrine of Charlie in my closet where I pray 5 times a day to the lord of the dish?

Come on. Give me a break. The 721 screwed up. That really sucks. But don't post bullsh*t.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

I never mentioned you, did I? Why so defensive? Lighten up. Me thinks thou doth protest too much. 

BTW, I was absolutely right that it wouldn't take long for someone to blame Tomcat for his 721's failure. Did you happen to read goughl's post?


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

garypen said:


> I never mentioned you, did I? Why so defensive? Lighten up. Me thinks thou doth protest too much.
> 
> BTW, I was absolutely right that it wouldn't take long for someone to blame Tomcat for his 721's failure. Did you happen to read goughl's post?


You are almost always slamming DISH in some way. It gets old.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

No. I was slamming the knee-jerk Dish-defenders. (in a humorous way, I might add.) You KNOW that if I didn't make that post, there'd be a lot more posts blaming Tomcat for his 721 failure. You might have even done it yourself.


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## retiredTech (Oct 27, 2003)

I have had a 721 for 15 months and NEVER EVER had a missed recording.

My 721 experience has been a good one.

(if only my windows pc worked this well LOL)


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## sifuhall (Oct 30, 2003)

I've never missed a recording on my 721 either.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Overall, it sounds like the 721, with its latest SW, is fairly reliable. I'm contemplating getting one, myself, based on members' experiences, which appear to be mostly positive.
However, others' experiences with the 721 is not the issue in this thread. It is specifically the problem that Tomcat had with his 721. I have no reason to doubt him. And, taking into account Dish's HW history, I'd say it's highly likely the problem happened just as he said it did.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

garypen said:


> I'm surprised nobody has replied yet, implying that it was somehow _your_ fault. I'm sure they will, as soon as they get back from their sacrificing of animals to a large golden statue of Charlie.


No, because a number of us were discussing holding back our responses to TomCat's 9:22 p.m. post to see what idiot would jump in first. You posted 19 minutes after TomCat. You win! Our calculated delay in responding does not imply that the recording anomaly was TomCat's fault. How you arrived at _that_ conclusion is beyond all human understanding.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

junki said:


> Well????? I personally keep up with my timers because of live,weather breaks and time changes by networks. Sorry for your loss, you could buy the DVD when it comes out this summer.


I caught a later feed, but that spoils the rant. I keep up with my timers, too, but who can predict that their PVR's clock will shift an hour when nobody's looking? meaning all scheduled recordings, which fired just fine, fired an hour early.

BTW, 24 hours passed with no fix. Advanced Tech Support was stumped, claiming that she would pass it on to engineering who would have it fixed in 48 hours. Should I hold my breath?


The silver lining is that this produced a really entertaining thread, even if it did go off in all directions and completely glossed over what really happened, which was that DISH screwed the pooch, and their hardware did not.

The most amazing thing is how human communication moved this from a story about how DISH fed me something that screwed up all three of my PVR's to it becoming about a hardware failure that actually never happened. And everyone now has the perception that its a 721 issue.

Well, I never mentioned which PVR, (I have a 721, a 501, and a 508) missed the program. As a matter of fact all 3 missed different programs, because the clocks were off. The hardware fired just fine and did exactly what it was told to do...it was just told the wrong time to do it by DISH.

I had a couple of 14-second records last fall and I missed one recording about 18 months ago, and this one wasn't the 721's (or the 508's) fault. At about 3 recordings a day on the 721, thats 3 misfires in about 22 months, for about a 99.86 % success rate...just shy of "four nines" reliability. Even my PowerBook needs a reboot once a month (if I only let it sleep and never power down). I'm certainly not pisssed about DISH PVR reliability, which is now better than my experiences with Tivo have ever been, but I'm righteously pissed about this data stream f-up.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I am rather baffled my self at the fact that only one report of the clock jumping. This is not normal and I would alsmost wonder if TomCat has a hardware issues. Something is a miss here for sure. Few questions?

1) There is no way to adjust the clock on the 721 is there? 
2) How does the clock know what time it is? Is there a zip code you enter? I know it gets time from the Sat but he needs to know how to offset it. where does that come from?

Has this happend before? this is the first account I have seen outside of Daylight savings issues. hmmm rather odd indeed.

oops.. misssed the last post. it was three PVR in one house which tells me that time adjustment comes from the bullet sent down and that someone gave the wrong time zone from the Dish end most likely. 

Wonder why that happend and why they have not been able to fix it. hmmm STill baffled.


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## Randy_B (Apr 23, 2002)

TomCat said:


> BTW, 24 hours passed with no fix. Advanced Tech Support was stumped, claiming that she would pass it on to engineering who would have it fixed in 48 hours. Should I hold my breath? ...that DISH screwed the pooch, and their hardware did not.


This is pretty mystifying. I understand why the tech support was stumped. The receivers ONLY get their time synch from the satellite. IF the bird bumped TomCat's time up by an hour EVERY receiver in that timezone would have had the same issue. I would suspect in that scenario we would have seen a large grouping of threads asking WTFO! There are more than a couple members in that time zone. If it was only 1 DVR that TomCat had had this problem on, I would venture that it was a hw issue, however with 3 DVRs -- that is a stumper. Did you have a power outage, any blinking clocks anywhere? Is the time correct on all 3 now?

Glad you were able to catch a later showing (I agree with dbronstein about whether it woudl have been better to have not seen it after all. I Guess closure counts for soemthing.)

I would keep a close eye on your DVRs. May not be the end of the issue.

I think this thread detoured because in spite of the knowledge of the equipment here, NO ONE can readily explain this strange event.

PS Garypen, if you really THINK you comment was funny, you need to change your avatar because you have no idea what humor actually means and you insult a truly GREAT comic actor and comedian. Your comment was snide and you know it. Stand by your words and be man enuff to admit it.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Stand by my words? Which words. I thought it was those words that offended you. :scratch: When did I not admit the comment was snide. It was MEANT to be snide.

BTW, Groucho was perhaps the snidest, most sarcastic, and most cynical of all movie comedians. Apparently, you've never actually watched a Marx Bros movie, seen him speak, or read his writings. Either that, or you just didn't get it.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

Randy_B said:


> ... -- that is a stumper. Did you have a power outage, any blinking clocks anywhere? Is the time correct on all 3 now?..


Still no change. I am in kind of a remote area, in a state that doesn't observe DST, but for 7 years this has not been an issue. My 508 was actually recording at the time...I think. I got a half hour exactly of a 60 minute show, and the second half in another recording with the wrong title (the PVR knew that it had a recording scheduled for that timeslot, so started recording again, yet the title changed because the guide was now 1 hour off). If there had been a power outage or reboot one of those recordings would have been shorter. Thank God the TV season just ended.

BTW, best avatar ever. Groucho was the man. Courage, Gary...don't bend to their will. If you can't be snide and have "tone" on the internet, then where can you?


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Merci beaucoup, mi amigo.

Back on topic: I'm unclear on whether this happened to all of your DVR's or just one. If it was all, did it include standard receivers, as well?

If it was all of them, could it be that Dish Command and Control somehow reinstated DST in your zip?


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## retiredTech (Oct 27, 2003)

TomCat said:


> Still no change. I am in kind of a remote area, in a state that doesn't observe DST, but for 7 years this has not been an issue.


This info (and the you said all your receivers were off by one hour)

would indicate, that E* made a change to the clock software that put your units on DST.

Fairly obvious deduction, E* has listed your area incorrectly somehow in their software.


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## awax (May 9, 2003)

garypen said:


> I'm surprised nobody has replied yet, implying that it was somehow _your_ fault. I'm sure they will, as soon as they get back from their sacrificing of animals to a large golden statue of Charlie.


Thats a good point and pretty damn funny too.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

retiredTech said:


> This info (and the you said all your receivers were off by one hour)
> 
> would indicate, that E* made a change to the clock software that put your units on DST.
> 
> Fairly obvious deduction, E* has listed your area incorrectly somehow in their software.


That would be MY first guess. Somehow, I'm not sure E* even understands the concept.

Still no relief.


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