# VIP 211 Bug



## riche119 (Jan 11, 2006)

Well, I guess its impossible to release a new product without a bug of some sort. I've had my 211 operating for five days now and have lost audio from OTA digital stations twice (analog OTA stations are OK). I called the tech line and was told that a system reset should take care of it, which it does-at least until the next time audio drops out. At least, bug wise, this is only moderately annoying and easy to correct. Other wise the unit is A-1.


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## jKp (Jan 13, 2006)

riche119 said:


> Well, I guess its impossible to release a new product without a bug of some sort. I've had my 211 operating for five days now and have lost audio from OTA digital stations twice (analog OTA stations are OK). I called the tech line and was told that a system reset should take care of it, which it does-at least until the next time audio drops out. At least, bug wise, this is only moderately annoying and easy to correct. Other wise the unit is A-1.


I have not had that problem with mine yet. The caller ID does not work though, does yours?


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## skassan (Jan 10, 2004)

riche119 said:


> ... At least, bug wise, this is only moderately annoying and easy to correct. Other wise the unit is A-1.


That depends. My 921 takes about seven minutes to reboot. A major PITA. How long does the 211 take to reboot?


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## jKp (Jan 13, 2006)

skassan said:


> That depends. My 921 takes about seven minutes to reboot. A major PITA. How long does the 211 take to reboot?


My 211 takes about 3 min.


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## jerryez (Nov 15, 2002)

The inactivity switch does not work on my 211. It goes into inactiviity with the switch set to disable. At least once a day the screen blacks out and it takes a reboot to restart this bastard. It is no better than the 811. Here we go again.


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## citico (May 18, 2004)

jerryez said:


> The inactivity switch does not work on my 211. It goes into inactiviity with the switch set to disable. At least once a day the screen blacks out and it takes a reboot to restart this bastard. It is no better than the 811. Here we go again.


I got the 811 box Nov. 2003. This 211 box is light years ahead of the 811. My
box has not misfired one single time and I think you will find this to be true after
all HD subscribers who decide on the 211 report in. Not saying there won't be
issues but it sure as hell won't be like the problems we had with the 811. I
have not tried my 211 with MPEG4 yet - waiting on the 1000 dish installation. Hope you get your problem resolved.


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## cuquiandgus17 (Jan 15, 2006)

jKp said:


> I have not had that problem with mine yet. The caller ID does not work though, does yours?


make sure its hooked up to a phoneline


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

riche119 said:


> Well, I guess its impossible to release a new product without a bug of some sort. I've had my 211 operating for five days now and have lost audio from OTA digital stations twice (analog OTA stations are OK). I called the tech line and was told that a system reset should take care of it, which it does-at least until the next time audio drops out. At least, bug wise, this is only moderately annoying and easy to correct. Other wise the unit is A-1.


211 doesn't have analog OTA, unless you're saying you've compared it with your analog tuner and the sound is there on analog but not digital.

Have you checked avsforums.com to see if other people in your area are having the same problem with the same stations?

If not, are you using RCA, optical, hdmi?


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## mruk69 (Jul 26, 2003)

You guys think you have it bad. I not only suffered the no audio problem, but also the black screen, and the graphics getting messed in the guide, the menu and the info screen.
I daren't pull the plug as when I do, it always comes up with the boot recovery and never completes. The only remedy is to leave it unplugged for at least an hour and then try.
Yesterday after doing that, the moment the downloading channel guide came up, you could see that a line black line was going through the middle of the banner (downloading Channel guide). As soon as I got picture all the graphics were messed up meaning all the text in the info screen, menu and guide were too dark to read and could not even highlight anything. Hell unplugged the damn thing waited an hour started the process again this time no line through downloading channel guide, but when going into the menu, guide and info screens all text dark and unreadable just like above.

Most mornings i wake up and find the receiver in Boot recovery, this happens after it switches off at 3AM.
This receiver is a pain in the butt and yes I am Pi$$ed of with it. I am ready to shove it up Charlies you know what.
Oh and if didn't mention it above my receiver is a VIP 211.

Another major flaw, the only way to know that you are in boot recovery is to have a second connection to your TV for an example if you are connected used HDMI you will also have to have a component or S-video connection to your TV, as it will not show up in HDMI as it is not broadcasting in Digital to you TV.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

mruk69 said:


> ...and the graphics getting messed in the guide, the menu and the info screen....always comes up with the boot recovery and never completes...


It sounds like you might need a new 211. This is the first report I've heard of the corrupt graphics and boot recovery screen. Have you tried getting a replacement box from Dish?



mruk69 said:


> Another major flaw, the only way to know that you are in boot recovery is to have a second connection to your TV for an example if you are connected used HDMI you will also have to have a component or S-video connection to your TV, as it will not show up in HDMI as it is not broadcasting in Digital to you TV.


Do you mean the boot recovery screen does not display on the HDMI output or do you mean thet broadcaster (i.e. TV Station) is not broadcasting in High Def? As for the boot recovery screen it doesn't sound like this is something that you should be normally seeing and you should probably try to replace your 211. I would also have a hard time saying this is a "major flaw" since the "boot recovery" screen is likely something that would only need to be accessed when there is a major problem or you need to diagnose the receiver. Not to say I don't believe what you are seeing, but in normal operation, as I have experienced the 211, I have yet to see or read any other reports about the boot recovery screen.

Now I wish this thread had a more meaningful title, since you could write just about anything you want under the guise of "211 bug report", as we have already seen. Aren't the mods around here?


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

citico said:


> ...This 211 box is light years ahead of the 811. Mybox has not misfired one single time and I think you will find this to be true after all HD subscribers who decide on the 211 report in...


I would have to agree with you wholeheartedly and my experience has been the same thus far. The 211 is perhaps the best cable or satellite receiver I have used ever. I am still amazed by the PQ and speed of the interface. People are going to have to live with the fact that since this is a new product and Dish probably had to ramp up production quickly, there are going to be a few bad boxes out there and the software will not be perfect, but as far as I can tell so far there are no major showstoppers with the exception of the "no video with audio and EPG" bug.


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## mruk69 (Jul 26, 2003)

The Boot recovery can not be seen in HDMI (digigital-in) only Video 1, video 2 etc.
So when people say Black screen of death (no picture no sound) this is probably what is happening. I bought the receiver it is not leased. I called Dish 3 times and every time I called I got someone who didn't know what to do. heck, on of them said we don't have a Vip 211 receiver. I hung up immediataly before I did something I may regret. All i want is for the problem to be fixed. I must say that the quality of my Local Digitals is brilliant, when the damn receiver works.

Hopefully, the software update that is suppose to be out today will resolve all my issues and will upgrade my receiver to a 622 all with a single upgrade.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

mruk69 said:


> ...(no picture no sound)...


I have yet to see any full reboot BSOD's on my 211... are they happening regularly? Can you identify some sort of trigger to make them happen? Do you have adequate ventilation for the 211? Or perhaps you have come across a faulty unit. You should be able to get a replacement unit since it is still so new. I might start with that if 2.63 doesn't help at all.

I HAVE seen the "no picture with working sound and working EPG" bug. If THIS is what you are talking about I have read that Dish is aware of this problem and they are working on it.



mruk69 said:


> I called Dish 3 times and every time I called I got someone who didn't know what to do. heck, on of them said we don't have a Vip 211 receiver. I hung up immediataly before I did something I may regret.


I have had the same experience and frustrations with their customer service. :grin: I think the trick is for the 211 that you go into the menu option for HD receivers. Even then, all bets are off with the "first level tech support". YOu have to play CSR roulette.  Otherwise they aren't going to know what you're talking about. On a positive note, there are E* engineers that monitor these forums as well as others and I am sure they are aware of the issues out there... perhaps L2.63 which has just been released today will address some of our concerns.


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## mruk69 (Jul 26, 2003)

I can't explain it I had to work the night shift Wednesday (11p to 7am) When i got home in the morning turned on the TV and it black in Digital-in so i changed inputs with the remote to Video 1 and guess what "Boot Recovery". Every frigging day this is happening and the damn thing always shuts down at 3am and for some reason goes into Boot recovery. It takes about 10 minutes to complete all the dots and restarts and then once again boots into recovery. However, this time it highlights the first box and then unlights it and repeats this process over and over. Eventually requiring another unplug/replug. None of the buttons are active when it is doing this.
Last night (Thursday) I plugged it in at about 9:15pm after leaving it un-plugged since 12:45 pm in the afternoon. It started in boot recovery again and so I let it do its thing for 15 minutes and got the same thing as above so unplugged it for 10 minutes and re-tried still same. repeated the process for a few times and then left it unplugged as I had to be at work at 11pm.

The PQ is good, the features are much better than the 301 I replaced,now only if the damn thing would work.


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