# Hopper2 S328 is out



## kstevens (Mar 26, 2003)

Screen says improvements in Search, help.


Ken


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## some guy (Oct 27, 2012)

_First Pay-TV provider to enable HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) technology_
_On Demand User interface update delivers faster, easier browsing_
_Second-screen app, DISH Explorer, now controls all TVs in Hopper ecosystem_

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DISH is rolling out the latest software for its Hopper® Whole-Home HD DVR, making DISH the first pay-TV provider to implement HDMI-CEC technology to control users' televisions. The software update, code named "Denver," is the fifth in a line of Hopper updates this year.

"The 'Denver' release for Hopper is all about continuing to improve the TV viewing experience for our customers"

In addition to the upgraded Hopper and television integration, DISH has made updates to the box's navigation and search interfaces. These enhancements, including On Demand shelf organization and control of Joey boxes with the DISH Explorer app, will improve user experiences on Hopper with Sling and Hopper set-top boxes.

HDMI-CEC Technology

With a new HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) function, the moment a user turns on the Hopper, the television will automatically adjust to the proper viewing input. For example, customers who last watched a Blu-Ray no longer have to manually switch back to their TV's satellite input to view their DISH channels.

"The 'Denver' release for Hopper is all about continuing to improve the TV viewing experience for our customers," said Vivek Khemka, senior vice president of product management at DISH. "With so many devices connected to the TV, we find confusion arises when consumers switch between inputs. Our Hopper's HDMI-CEC feature helps eliminate that confusion."

Additional Updates

In addition to the HDMI-CEC, "Denver" improves the Hopper experience with the various enhancements detailed below.

On Demand Shelves: Hopper's On Demand section now displays rows, or shelves, organized with movie and show tiles displayed horizontally across the screen. This makes it easier for users to scroll through their options and select from the more than 20,000 titles available in DISH's On Demand collection. As part of this new design, DISH includes a "Free for Kids" shelf that features On Demand content filtered by content ratings appropriate for children.

DISH Explorer: To create a seamless browsing and content discovery experience, the DISH Explorer app can now control all televisions in a Hopper ecosystem. To further enhance the program discovery capability within DISH Explorer, the app now includes a new "See Also" recommendation feature. This allows users to easily find similar programming options. DISH Explorer is a highly-rated, second-screen iPad app that easily finds programming, engages on social media and serves as a remote control.

Search: Hopper's search function now produces results from all possible sources, including the programming guide, recorded content and On Demand. Results. This is also presented in the shelf-based format, making it easy to view and select from the displayed options.

Programming guide: When users visit HBO, Starz, Encore, Epix and History in the programming guide, an option to select that channel's On Demand page will appear with additional content options.

Help app: A new "Help" app provides customers with information to better maximize Hopper features and settings. The app is accessible from the "Menu" or by pressing the blue button on the DISH remote.


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## SDWC (Dec 14, 2005)

Search: Hopper’s search function now produces results from all possible sources, including the programming guide, recorded content and On Demand. Results. This is also presented in the shelf-based format, making it easy to view and select from the displayed options.


Does searching also include recorded content on an EHD?


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## some guy (Oct 27, 2012)

SDWC said:


> Search: Hopper's search function now produces results from all possible sources, including the programming guide, recorded content and On Demand. Results. This is also presented in the shelf-based format, making it easy to view and select from the displayed options.
> 
> Does searching also include recorded content on an EHD?


]
No


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

Will this also include the "rumored upgrade" to the visual aspects of the EPG to make is easier to read? These new kitschy industry features are great, but the "house" needs other fixin' first.


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## SDWC (Dec 14, 2005)

I have noticed since this upgrade that whenever I use the recall button to go from a non-local channel to a local channel it is taking between 5-10 seconds for the local channel to appear on the screen. This isn't happening (at least I haven't found a scenario yet) anywhere else. This is on the TV directly connected to the Hopper2, I haven't tried it on a Joey yet.

Anybody else seeing this or have a suggestion?

Thanks in advance.


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## rjruby (Dec 29, 2002)

OK, this problem is weird.

My two HWS's have been updated with S328.

Since the update, both of them have exhibited a problem transferring OTA recordings from the Hoppers to the EHDs. The transfer on both stalls with about 1 minute remaining and hangs. The Hoppers don't respond to the STOP command on the "USB Device Transfer Progress 848" display.

I can transfer satellite recordings from the Hoppers to the EHDs without a problem. The Hoppers playback previously transferred OTA and satellite programs from the EHDs without a problem.

I've removed/restored power and replaced the EHDs on both Hoppers with the same result.

Anyone else have this problem?


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

I have S328 and boy did they screw two things up big time.

I often wonder if they actually do any testing before releasing these updates. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that they keep working on software updates to "improve" things, but do they have any "real users" in the field that test this before releasing to the masses? If not, I'd like to sign up and provide immediate feedback.

Issue 1: They revamped the icons in the DVR section with new eye-candy folders and show icons, but they REMOVED the progress bar that showed what percentage you had watched of any given show. I used this info all the time and now it's gone. If you don't remember what show you were previously watching, which was easily known via the progress bar, too bad just guess and maybe you'll happen to run across it eventually.

Issue 2: Go and try to do a search in the newly revamped Search area and then look at your search History! Wow, here's what it does:

1) If you Search for a show that is currently playing on any given channel by hitting the Search button, everything is fine, same for Searching by using the guide entry. These titles will be entered into the search history on a single line.

2) But, try typing a search string into the new interface and then look at your search History... it's a complete mess. For example, type this as a Search:

Tales of the riverbank

Now look at the Search History and you will see these entries in your History (each consuming one of the limited spots in the History list and each of these entries shoving other entries off of the list as needed to make room):

Tales of the riverbank
Tales of the riverban
Tales of the riverba
Tales of the riverb
Tales of the river
Tales of the rive
Tales of the riv
Tales of the ri
Tales of the r
Tales of the (this is here due to the space between "the" and the next word)
Tales of the
Tales of th
Tales of t
Tales of (this is here due to the space between "of" and the next word)
Tales of
Tales o
Tales (this is here due to the space between "Tales" and the next word)
Tales
Tale
Tal
Ta
T

That's 22 entries for this one search out of a total of 50 slots in the History list.

They removed the "More" button on the main Search entry screen that would add or move your current search string to the top of the list.

Now, there's no way to keep your valid searches on the list at all, or at the top of the list so they don't get shoved off by the new and improved method in S328. under S316 if you went to your History and selected one of your predefined searches, it would be moved to the top of the list.

I regularly keep about 15-20 searches in my list to perform on a weekly basis. They have effectively killed any functional use of the search histoy in this latest release.

There's still no way to delete a previous search from the list to make room for more searches, you just have to let things drop off the bottom of the list and keep moving predefined searches to the top of the list to prevent them from being dropped off the bottom, but you can't even do that anymore.

This needs to be fixed ASAP!

P.S. No, I don't want to use Search & Record because some of the shows I search for would result in a bunch of garbage being recorded that I don't want. I want to see the search results and then decide if I want to record or not.

Rhetorical Question: Why does Dish keep changing things? If you have a great search method then why insist on "fixing" it all the time? On the 721 you could use a USB keyboard to enter searches instead of the tedious method used now via the remote. You could also delete searches from the list that you no longer needed, thus freeing up space without having to worry about often used searches being dropped off of the list due to space constrainsts.


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## gilroykilroy (Oct 3, 2008)

The only thing I see "fixed" is they have a Resume now on the popup menu on items in your own folders you are in the middle of watching.

Still broken is the folders menu under Edit (second item is blank) and turning off closed captioning still not on "off" when you enter screen.

Newly broken is the removal of % watched (how are you suppose to know what you are in the middle of watching?).

Guess they are net minus with the EHD issue mentioned too.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Bogey62 said:


> I have S328 and boy did they screw two things up big time.
> 
> I often wonder if they actually do any testing before releasing these updates. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that they keep working on software updates to "improve" things, but do they have any "real users" in the field that test this before releasing to the masses? If not, I'd like to sign up and provide immediate feedback.
> 
> ...


Search for "ADESSO" keyword here - I did test it [2.4 GHz KB] with ViP and XiP devices...


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

There's a good breakout on the bad of S328 over at SatGuys:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/324855-Why-Update-S329-is-Needed-NOWIn


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## fwampler (Dec 2, 2005)

The new Search function has caused my Hopper to lock twice. Had to "red button" it both times.


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## orenr (Jun 10, 2004)

I use an IR remote for my Hopper, and since the update I noticed that sometimes it does things as if I pressed the remote button TWICE (e.g. instead skipping to the next day in the program guide, it skips two days).
Another problem happened when I watched a VOD movie I had previously downloaded. When I press the info button, the overlay has three buttons at the bottom: start from the beginning, stop playing, and close (i.e. exit). For some reason, the default is "start from the beginning" instead of close, so if you expect sanity and don't pay attention, you end up restarting the movie. If you haven't guessed, the first time I wasn't paying attention.
And yesterday I had a lot of trouble with Blockbuster movies. It kept saying that it couldn't contact the server. The network test was OK, so maybe there really was a problem with the server and it had nothing to do with the new software version. I haven't tried it today.


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## SDWC (Dec 14, 2005)

Still having trouble since the upgrade with changing channels. It takes around 10 seconds for some channels to appear, and twice now I've had to do a reboot (once red button reset and once full plug pull), when changing to a channel that never appears. I just see a blank screen that never goes away. If I hit select I see the banner appear but nothing else. Once I reset the box the channel I was trying to access now appears.

This went from a functional, reliable product to a frustration with this software upgrade. Anybody else see anything like this type of behavior?

Thanks in advance.


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## Transplanted Yankee (Oct 18, 2010)

SDWC said:


> Still having trouble since the upgrade with changing channels. It takes around 10 seconds for some channels to appear, and twice now I've had to do a reboot (once red button reset and once full plug pull), when changing to a channel that never appears. I just see a blank screen that never goes away. If I hit select I see the banner appear but nothing else. Once I reset the box the channel I was trying to access now appears.
> 
> This went from a functional, reliable product to a frustration with this software upgrade. Anybody else see anything like this type of behavior?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


Yep, I have the same issues when changing channels, screen goes blank for about 10 seconds, then show appears.
Also, one thing I've noticed is I now have a "Resume" option for a show i partially watched.


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## darla0002 (Aug 16, 2007)

Hello,

I work for EchoStar software engineering. I have sent some of you a pm requesting your receiver ID so we can follow up on your issues with the recently released software. Any one experiencing issues with the new software version that would like to send me the information in a pm including your receiver ID we will try to look into it. Please provide as much detail as possible (date and time).

Most of the DBS administrators can verify who I am.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Darlene


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

Is anyone else having problems getting the PT Anytime folder to display any shows? I now have to enter the folder two or three times in order to get it to display any icons at all. I never had this issue previous to this software release.

Try entering one of your other folders first and then backing out one level and entering PT Anytime from there. Also, try just entering PT Anytime directly after you press the DVR button.


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## some guy (Oct 27, 2012)

Works fine for me both ways, 100% of the time.


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## gilroykilroy (Oct 3, 2008)

I have the changing channel problem as well. Definitely happens on my local channels (numbers < 100).


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

FYI: We have confirmed the identity of Darla0002 (Darlene). If you have received a PM feel free to respond.



darla0002 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I work for EchoStar software engineering. I have sent some of you a pm requesting your receiver ID so we can follow up on your issues with the recently released software. Any one experiencing issues with the new software version that would like to send me the information in a pm including your receiver ID we will try to look into it. Please provide as much detail as possible (date and time).
> 
> ...


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## SDWC (Dec 14, 2005)

Thank you very much James.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I can second James' confirmation of Darlene. I have exchanged communications with her several times in the past when she was collecting customer info to help track down problems.


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

gilroykilroy said:


> I have the changing channel problem as well. Definitely happens on my local channels (numbers < 100).


I just tested several channels on my Hopper and it switches channels in about 2.5 seconds after I press the up/down arrow. I tried channels >100 and <100 (including all locals here in Buffalo). No issues.


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

Here's my updated list of issues that still remain from S315, S316 and continuing under S328 or are new under S328 (as noted):

(all Hopper issues unless otherwise noted):

* I set a timer for Jeopardy! Or some other show that immediately precedes the PT Anytime timer. When I play back the show, it will not only show the episode of Jeopardy! but within that recording it will continue to show every PT Anytime show one after the other up until 11 PM. I can literally fast forward through every PT show that is on the same channel as Jeopardy! The single Jeopardy! episode shows a show length of only 30 minutes, as it should. (existed since S315)

This can also happen when I tell a show that is within the PT Anytime schedule to "save" or "save series".

* My Save Series option with PT Anytime doesn't seem to do anything at times. Sometimes a show is saved into the No Folder folder each week, yet other shows don't save at all and I have to manually save them each week from the PT Anytime folder. I don't trust the system to save shows I set as Save or Save Series from within the PT Anytime lineup. (existed since S315)

* Search only holds 50 items, drops oldest searches off the list as limit is reached, *can't erase single searches or entire list* -- just the other day I had to soft reboot the Hopper and it erased the entire Search list for no apparent reason!

* Joey loses sync when ff/rew SD programming -- it will randomly jump to whatever spot in the recorded program that it wants to! Never happens with HD programming during playback. If I use skip ahead/back then I can avoid the issue with SD programming on the Joey. (existed since S315)

* Progress bar is not real time on Hopper or Joey. When I pause a show then the progress bar will jump to the correct position -- possible relationship to sync issue with Joey on SD recordings? (existed since S315)

* Folder count in the My Recordings section is ridiculously inaccurate. They seem to count DELETED shows too!

I can have a folder that says there are 5 recordings in it, but when I enter the folder there is nothing in there because I had deleted them at an earlier time or there are 3 recordings still there, etc. (existed since S315)

* Moving a show from one folder to another will show the list of folders, but the second name in the list is shifted to the first slot and there is a blank space in the second slot. If I select the top slot it will go to my wife's folder (not listed but still exists as it is overwritten by the second name in the list), as it should, but if I select the blank second slot then it will go to my folder, as it should (second slot should show my name, but my name has been shifted to the first slot in the list). (existed since S315)

* Can't set update time, always kicks in at 1 am and I have to answer NO, then it will kick in a half hour to an hour later, etc. (Joey)

* Allow collapsing of multiple episodes into a single icon (Folders) in all user-defined folders (just like PT Anytime can do)! If I have 10 episodes of a show I have to scroll past all 10 individual icons in order to see the next recording, etc. Just collapse them down into a single icon that shows me how many episodes are there and then let me expand that folder if I want to watch that particular show -- much less clutter involved in My Recordings that way. Just give me Folders like PT Anytime has.

* The timer priority editing has finally been fixed, sort of. When I look at my active timers I see 30 of them. When I select Edit Action/Priority and start moving them around I only see 29 of the 30 timers. The scroll bar won't go all the way to the bottom and I can't see the last timer. The only way to see the last timer is to move another timer to the bottom of the list. OK, now I can see the previously hidden timer, but now the new one at the bottom is invisible! Still 29 out of 30 timers showing.

Also, please Dish just allow me to select a timer to move in the Priority list and then use the remote's up/down arrows to move the timer within the list to the desired location. It's cumbersome to have to go to the right and select Move Up/Move Down, etc. in that list over and over again. Just let me smoothly scroll the timer up and down the list as described in the previous sentence.

* Slider is not proportionate in the DVR listing of programs or the Timers areas. The bar does not reach the bottom of the screen even though the shows are at the bottom and there are no more to display. Reminds me of Windows and how it used to have non-proportionate scroll bars. This was fixed under S316, but it seems to be back again under S328.

* New to S328 the Search function is completely useless if you want to use your Search History.

Check it out:

1) If you Search for a show that is currently playing on any given channel by hitting the Search button, everything is fine, same for Searching by using the guide entry. These titles will be entered into the search history on a single line.

2) But, try typing a search string into the new interface and then look at your search History... it's a complete mess. For example, type this as a Search:

Tales of the riverbank

Now look at the Search History and you will see these entries in your History (each consuming one of the limited spots in the History list and each of these entries shoving other entries off of the list as needed to make room):

Tales of the riverbank
Tales of the riverban
Tales of the riverba
Tales of the riverb
Tales of the river
Tales of the rive
Tales of the riv
Tales of the ri
Tales of the r
Tales of the (this is here due to the space between "the" and the next word)
Tales of the
Tales of th
Tales of t
Tales of (this is here due to the space between "of" and the next word)
Tales of
Tales o
Tales (this is here due to the space between "Tales" and the next word)
Tales
Tale
Tal
Ta
T

That's 22 entries for this one search out of a total of 50 slots in the History list.

Tales of the riverbank should take exactly ONE line of the 50 available, not 22 lines.

* They removed the "More" button on the main Search entry screen that would add or move your current search string to the top of the list.

Now, there's no way to keep your valid searches on the list at all, or at the top of the list so they don't get shoved off. Under S316 if you went to your History and selected one of your predefined searches, it would be moved to the top of the list.

I regularly keep about 15-20 searches in my list to perform on a weekly basis. They have effectively killed any functional use of the search histoy in this latest release.

* There's still no way to delete a previous search from the list to make room for more searches, you just have to let things drop off the bottom of the list and keep moving predefined searches to the top of the list to prevent them from being dropped off the bottom, but you can't even do that anymore since the More option has been removed from the Search screen.

This needs to be fixed ASAP!

* They revamped the icons in the DVR section with new eye-candy folders and show icons, but they REMOVED the progress bar that showed what percentage you had watched of any given show.

I used this info all the time and now it's gone. If you don't remember what show you were previously watching, which was easily known via the progress bar, too bad just guess and maybe you'll happen to run across it eventually.

The only way I found the new progress bar's location is by selecting Info on each of your recordings. That way you can see where you left off, but come on, I have to do this every time I want to resume a show and there's maybe 60 shows to watch, potentially. I would have to Info every recording until I found one that I had partially watched previously and then Resume that show. Very, very tedious now with the lack of a Progress Bar on the recording's icon as it was under S316.

* Under S328, Sometimes when I enter the PT ANytime folder it just sits there with a blank screen. It doesn't say that there are no recordings to display nor does it show the actual recordings that are in that folder. If I re-enter the folder another 1-3 times, then it shows the contents of the folder correctly.


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## Wire Nut (Apr 6, 2012)

Downloaded S328 two days ago, was out of town during the update launch. Immediately after, hard drive failure (311). I have a 2TB WD external HDD, and sling adapter on a Hopper 2000. Probably unrelated, but just thought I'd see if anyone else had a 311 error immediately following the update.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I generally don't keep an eye over here, but was alerted to this from an email blast and I have some Friends with Dish. I noticed that the title said Hopper2, do the two Hoppers follow the same feature set? I wasn't sure if someone with an original Hopper would get the update, or one like it with these updates.


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## mbolack (Apr 6, 2012)

My Joeys now have a program guide anomaly, too. On my Hopper, when I'm set to My Channels, I see one of each channel. If there is HD, then that is the one I see... if not, I see the non-HD choice. But on the Joeys now, even though they are also set to My Channels, I see both versions of each channel. It makes it take a lot more time to go up through the channels looking for something if I have to scroll past both TNT and TNT HD, for instance, on every channel that has a HD option. Am I making sense?
Also, I notice that I have no way to close up the CD and music options that show between channel 073 and 097. I *can* close the SXM ones directly above those.


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## mbolack (Apr 6, 2012)

I also have to ask... doesn't it seem weird that after all the time we have spent asking for a choice as to what time our Hoppers do their update that once again they skipped this in favor of features that very few people give a hoot about? Does anyone listen?


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## gilroykilroy (Oct 3, 2008)

Bogey62 said:


> I just tested several channels on my Hopper and it switches channels in about 2.5 seconds after I press the up/down arrow. I tried channels >100 and <100 (including all locals here in Buffalo). No issues.


Try Recall between two local HD channels.


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## Tron2012 (Dec 4, 2013)

Glad I found this forum and topic. Been a long time Dish customer and hung out on the SatelliteGuys site to read/post issues and concerns. Especially with the new software releases. Nice to see that I'm NOT losing my mind with timers on the Hopper not saving recordings to the folder I specify in the timer. I've only seen this on our regular Hopper which has PTAT enabled (not our Hopper w/Sling) and it was happening prior to the new S418 release. I even deleted the timer and recreated with no luck. And since Dish decided to remove the nice "S" icon from the PTAT icons indicating a recordinfg was saved it's even more frustrating going back and forth between screens to be sure that nothing was dropped.


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

gilroykilroy said:


> Try Recall between two local HD channels.


I just used Recall between several different local HDs and everytime it switches in about 2 or 2.5 seconds, just like when I use the up/down channel buttons.

It's weired how some people see certain issues and others don't when using the same software version. I have reported issues that others say they don't see.


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

Has anyone else noticed that when your EHD is on and you go to the DVR section with the system defaulted to My Folders and then you look at the contents of the EHD and return back to the main DVR screen it has switched to Folders by Title when it should return to the way you had it originally set (My Folders)? Yes, I know that was a long sentence.


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## Bogey62 (Dec 1, 2002)

I was playing around with the EHD today and I noticed that when I go to transfer recordings from the Hopper to the EHD, not all of my shows appear in the list to be transferred!

If I set it to A-Z or DVR Date I get different results in what it displays for possible transfer. Neither of which displays all of the available content from my user-defined folders.


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## JimD (Apr 8, 2005)

Since the update, my HWS would not complete the startup. It said it was performing a test on the external hard drive - which never ended. After several hours of not being able to watch TV, I disconnected the EHD and restarted the HWS. Now it seems fine - but when I plug in the EHD it says it needs to format it and all content will be lost.

Wonderful. There was a boatload of stuff on that EHD. Now it's all lost?

Plus there was no warning or "heads-up" given that there was this new "HDMI-CEC" feature being implemented. My procedure for turning off all my equipment includes pressing the SAT button last and then pressing the power button to turn off the HWS. This was turning the TV back on. I thought my TV was possessed. 

I've disabled HDMI-CEC, it serves no useful purpose for me as they've implemented it. It would be nice if we could control what buttons do what when this feature is active.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

Dish had a press release on this.

http://www.multichannel.com/distribution/dish-releases-software-upgrades-hopper-dvr/146863


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## landis (Oct 30, 2008)

I got The newest Hopper with sling update S328 and am no longer to transfer recordings to my 1 Terrabyte EHD. I have a 500 Gig EHD which accepts transfers with no problem. On the larger EHD it stalls either part way through or at the end with 10 secs left. I've tried a number of times to no avail. Hope Dish is aware of this problem and does a fix soon. I have seen that others are having a similar problem


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## kstevens (Mar 26, 2003)

I have this same problem. I had to restart the Hopper to get it to work. So far it hasn't failed again.

Ken


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## Transplanted Yankee (Oct 18, 2010)

Bogey62 said:


> Here's my updated list of issues that still remain from S315, S316 and continuing under S328 or are new under S328 (as noted):
> 
> (all Hopper issues unless otherwise noted):
> 
> ...


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