# My 622 thinks it's smarter than me



## Richard Winfeld (Aug 22, 2006)

Being new to Dish and the ViP622, I guess I need to learn some of its quirks.

HBO was airing the 2-part "Elizabeth I" movie in late-night slots Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so I set the receiver to record both parts. The 622 "helpfully" declined to record part 2, claiming that the program already existed on the hard drive. So now I guess I have to watch part 1 so I can erase it and check the HBO web site to see if/when part 2 will be rebroadcast in HD.

Another quirk I have noticed is... whenever I record programs off the OTA antenna, the next day the generic "Digital Service" title of the recording has been replaced by "Recovered", with the message "This DVR event has experienced data corruption and has been recovered". The programs always play fine, with perfect HD quality and no problems, so I haven't worried too much about it. I tried protecting the recordings, entering new titles, etc., but the "Recovered" message always appears the next day. This has never happened with satellite programs. I guess this isn't really a problem, since (so far) the "recovered" programs are always still there the next day, but I wonder what's going on.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Most recording errors such as the Elizabeth I error can be traced back to errors in the EPG. Apparently E* had both shows listed with the exact same EPG information so it saw a duplicate. You can avoid such errors by looking ahead in your schedule ... things that will be skipped are marked skipped and a reason is given. Select the item and "restore" it and you'll get the recording.

The OTA quirk was recently introduced and I'll be glad when it goes away. It is another EPG thing - you recorded the program from a channel without proper EPG - but for some reason instead of leaving the EPG alone the receiver has learned the new trick of "recovering" OTA w/o EPG and changing the title. Something E* needs to fix.


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## Richard Winfeld (Aug 22, 2006)

Thanks for the info!
So the "Restore" button is the way to say, "Yes, I really mean it!", huh?

Still, I don't like machines "correcting" my non-mistakes without informing me. If the DVR saw a conflict when I programmed the 2nd event it should have asked me, "Are you sure?" instead of simply cancelling the recording. I don't see why I should have to go back and check to make sure it will do what I told it to do.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

the next showing of Elizabeth I in HD is 10/24/06. I use TitanTV.com for my area to check for show like this. It give 2 weeks out, not just 9 days.


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## CricTic (Mar 17, 2006)

Richard Winfeld said:


> Still, I don't like machines "correcting" my non-mistakes without informing me. If the DVR saw a conflict when I programmed the 2nd event it should have asked me, "Are you sure?" instead of simply cancelling the recording. I don't see why I should have to go back and check to make sure it will do what I told it to do.


When you set up the recording, you probably asked it to record "new episodes". This tells the 622 that you want it to be smart about not recording duplicates and reruns if it thinks it can avoid it. It then most likely saw two identical episodes in its guide data for your show, and elected to record just one of them to save you space.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be annoyed, I would be too. Just blame the guide data from Dish/HBO, not the machine ;-) The 'new episodes' feature is actually really useful for avoiding reruns and rebroadcasts for most other programs, and the DVR would be far less convenient to use without it. The feature relies on guide data accuracy though, and I agree there is still room for improvement there.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

In this case, an "All Episodes" recording would not have caught the second part of the show unless the user noticed the skipped program and manually restored the recording. The check for duplicates apparently overrides all other logic.

It does come back to the EPG error --- not showing in the EPG that this show cut in half was not the same show aired twice but a part 1 and part 2. EPG will always be the downfall of a name based system.


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## Jolard (Feb 14, 2006)

Personally, I don't want this feature to change. I would hate if my DVR prompted me for verification every time it skipped a show. While I have had a similar experience as you once or twice, the vast majority of the time it would be a major pain. 

Looking at my timers list, by far the majority of the timers are skipped. Many of the shows I watch repeat numerous times, and I would end up constantly approving skips, at sometimes 7 or 8 skips for each show that actually records. Talk about a nightmare!


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## Richard Winfeld (Aug 22, 2006)

To be clear, I programmed each part... I highlighted part 1 in the guide and pressed the record button, then created a "once" timer, then pressed the skip forward button to move to the next night and did exactly the same for part 2. There was no way to tell that the EPG for the 2 halves was identical, or that there would be a problem recording both parts. If the receiver had put up a message that said, "This program looks like the same one to me, are you sure?" I would have said "yes". But it didn't. There was nothing to indicate it would just skip recording the second half. I assumed the DVR would do what I told it to do.

Of course, I would agree that when you program the DVR to record only "new episodes" the auto skip feature is welcome. However, I think, as a default, the DVR should not automatically skip any event that has been programmed using "once". That should be a clue that you want it to record that show at that time. Otherwise, there should be a way to mark a timer "do not skip" when you create the program - because I would use that feature quite often.

I wonder exactly when the 2nd timer was marked "skipped"? Was it only after the DVR had recorded part 1? Because if so, then there would be no way for me to even use "restore" to force it to record part 2 if, for example, I had been away from home for those days.

My point is, I told it to record a certain program at a certain time and it simply refused. That shouldn't happen, and I shouldn't have to check on it a day later to make sure it hasn't changed my orders. That's why the whole thing seemed a little "HAL9000" to me, a machine correcting the "mistakes" of stupid humans.


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## skyviewmark1 (Sep 28, 2006)

You are correct.. The way you programmed the events should have not caused this problem.. I have seen this little glitch a few times and it is a little more than aggavating. Anytime you force a recording from the guide as a one time record it should take you at your word that you want it.. This being said, That ain't the way this DVR works.. It makes decisions that for the most part are pretty good. But this little glitch could be fixed, but anytime Dish tries to fix one glitch they create 10 more with bad software.. Not sure I want them to try and fix this.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

skyviewmark1 said:


> ... But this little glitch could be fixed, but anytime Dish tries to fix one glitch they create 10 more with bad software.. Not sure I want them to try and fix this.


Ron Barry has removed some of my postings for less critical talk than this, hum...?


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## skyviewmark1 (Sep 28, 2006)

lujan said:


> Ron Barry has removed some of my postings for less critical talk than this, hum...?


On the whole, I am never critical about Dish. I find it probably the best product in the market. But their record on software updates is less than perfect, and pretty much a fact. I was just trying to be truthful.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Richard Winfeld said:


> To be clear, I programmed each part... I highlighted part 1 in the guide and pressed the record button, then created a "once" timer, then pressed the skip forward button to move to the next night and did exactly the same for part 2. There was no way to tell that the EPG for the 2 halves was identical, or that there would be a problem recording both parts. If the receiver had put up a message that said, "This program looks like the same one to me, are you sure?" I would have said "yes". But it didn't. There was nothing to indicate it would just skip recording the second half. I assumed the DVR would do what I told it to do.


Richard - this statement isn't correct. The 622 does in fact inform you that the second timer was going to be skipped when you defined the timer. When you finished defining the timer, the guide reappeared on screen with the hightlighted event that you just set up, except that there was a red X with a circle around it next to the program name. That symbol indicates that the timer is being skipped for some reason. All you have to do then is select that program from the guide again, which will take you to the timer setup screen, where the 622 will tell you why that timer is being skipped.

It may not be as obvious as it needs to be, but the indication is there.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

skyviewmark1 said:


> On the whole, I am never critical about Dish. I find it probably the best product in the market. But their record on software updates is less than perfect, and pretty much a fact. I was just trying to be truthful.


Recently, that is definitely the case. Now let's move on, please, before I have to start deleting.


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## Richard Winfeld (Aug 22, 2006)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Richard - this statement isn't correct. The 622 does in fact inform you that the second timer was going to be skipped when you defined the timer. When you finished defining the timer, the guide reappeared on screen with the hightlighted event that you just set up, except that there was a red X with a circle around it next to the program name.


No, it didn't. I got the little clock symbol with the number "2" in it both times. I would have noticed a red X. That's what made me ask if the program was marked skipped only after it recorded part 1, which is what I think happened.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Ah...I now understand. I should have gone back and re-read your original post before leaving mine. After the first part recorded, the daily update ran which downloads your guide data and rebuilds the timer database. With exactly the same guide and episode data, when the 2nd timer was being rebuilt, the 622 thought that it had already recorded because of the event that recorded the first night, and so it very helpfully skipped the second. Sorry about that.


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## Scotty (Aug 10, 2006)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Recently, that is definitely the case. Now let's move on, please, before I have to start deleting.


Mark,

Perhaps this is the wrong place to say it, but I wanted to pass this comment along to you.

As a general side note (NOT reflecting at all on skyviewmark1 and lujan posts above), I wanted to say overall I appreciate the positive tone mandated in this forum.

I quit reading some other forums due to unprofessional posts and negativism.

Thank you!

Scotty


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

skyviewmark1 said:


> You are correct.. The way you programmed the events should have not caused this problem.. I have seen this little glitch a few times and it is a little more than aggavating. Anytime you force a recording from the guide as a one time record it should take you at your word that you want it.. This being said, That ain't the way this DVR works.. It makes decisions that for the most part are pretty good. But this little glitch could be fixed, but anytime Dish tries to fix one glitch they create 10 more with bad software.. Not sure I want them to try and fix this.


This has happened to me. What happens is the problem of the EPG is incorrectly input w/wrong info. It happened to me when Elisabeth the 1st came on in 2 parts. The 1st part recorded just fine then the 2nd didn't record. It due to the fact that who ever input the info into the EPG just told it that the 2 programs were the same thing instead of that they were 2 different 1's.


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