# FROM DISH: Early/Missed Timer Data Collection.



## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

1) Make a note of the day of the week and the time of day that they CREATED the timer (not the day and time it was supposed to fire)

and 

2) If there was a problem with the first time the timer was scheduled to occur, did it work ok the 2nd time? 
 e.g the following week if it was created as a Weekly timer, or the next day if it was a Daily or Mon-Fri timer.


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## AnubisPrime (Mar 13, 2005)

Timer created Thursday Nov 3rd. Supernanny 8pm Fri weekly DVR
--Fired fine Fri Nov 4th
--Fired Thurday Nov 10th 8pm. (one day early) Stopped 7 minutes into recording. Red dot gone from Friday guide selection for this show when I checked tomorrow's listing. Reset this timer as a DVR One-Time only.

Timer created Monday Oct 31st. House 9pm Tues weekly DVR
--Did not fire at all Nov 1st
--Fired one day early the following week Nov 7th instead of Nov 8th

Timer created Monday Oct 31st South Park 10pm Weds weekly DVR
--Fired appropriately Nov 2nd
--Did not fire at all Nov 9th--though guide showed a "red dot" like it was supposed to fire. No other programs recording at that time.

Hope this helps squash the bug(s) 

(All timers are Dish broadcasts--no OTA recordings/timers)


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## Skyburn (Nov 30, 2004)

Back in September, the problem started cropping up for me; I read a few posts here and followed Mark's instructions about doing the database-rebuild whereby I deleted all timers, hard reboot, then recreated all timers. I don't remember when I did this exactly, but it was mid-September. I set all these timers up at the same time one night. At that time, the problem was fairly intermittent...one or two timers would fire a day early. The rebuild seemed to do the trick, as I haven't had this problem until just this past week.

This past week, ALL my timers fired a day early and unfortunately for me I didn't realize it until Friday morning. Sometimes I'll check the night before a timer is supposed to fire and make sure it didn't fire early.

Timers set on my 921:
Wednesday (weekly) Channel 8200 (KMGH ABC Denver local, satellite) "Lost" set for 7:55PM - 9:05PM should have recorded on Wednesday, 11/9, but instead recorded 7:55PM-9:05PM on Tuesday 11/8

Thursday (weekly) Channel 002-01 (OTA WB2 channel out of Denver) "Smallville" set for 6:55PM - 8:05PM should have recorded on Thursday, 11/10, but insted recorded 6:55PM-8:05PM on Wednesday 11/9

Thursday (weekly) Channel 4 (KCNC CBS Denver local, satellite) "Survivor" set for 6:55PM - 8:05PM should have recorded on Thursday, 11/10, but instead recorded 6:55PM-8:05PM on Wednesday 11/9

Thursday (weekly) Channel 9484 (CBSHD out of LA, satellite) "CSI" set for 9:55PM - 12:05AM to record both CSI and Without a Trace; should have recorded on Thursday, 11/10, but instead recorded 9:55PM-12:05AM on Wednesday 11/9

Friday (weekly) Channel 031-01 (OTA Fox KDVR channel out of Denver) "Malcolm in the Middle" set for 7:25PM - 8:05PM, should have recorded on Friday, 11/11, but instead recorded 7:25PM - 8:05PM on Thursday 11/10

In all cases, the recorded shows in the DVR list show the correct program information -- for instance with CSI, it shows that the episode recorded is "A Bullet Runs Through It", but it shows the date it recorded is 11/9 at 9:55PM-12:05AM, not 11/10. All of them show the date recorded as the actual date it took a recording, not the date it SHOULD have recorded. In all cases, the content of the recording is that of whatever was on on the day before it should have recorded. The one exception to this part is that for Malcolm in the Middle, the DVR item that got recorded is "The O.C." on Thursday (part of it ... from 7:25-8:05), and in the DVR recorded programs list, that's what's in the list "11/10 - The O.C."

If you go to watch the recorded program, while it's playing if you hit "Info", the guide data is that of what's playing -- not that of what I wanted to record.

I have read a few posts indicating it's important to let the receiver do a nightly reboot, and I'm not sure if it's doing so. I nearly NEVER hit the power button for the receiver on the remote, i.e., the green and blue lights are always on on my receiver. If the nightly reboots require that the receiver is off/in-stand-by then maybe I should try that...

On Friday morning, I did a power-button reset/reboot and the Friday Malcolm in the Middle didn't record at all -- I guess the receiver figured it was done recording that already since it had done so on Thursday night.

I'll pay attention to this all next week and see if the timers fire properly.

Sorry I don't have exact information regarding when I setup the timers..it was just too long ago.

Receiver Info:
921 - L272HEED-N
Boot: 150B / Flash: F054


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## klaatu (Dec 7, 2004)

Here's a strange observation. I was consistently getting 24 hour early timers on M-F timers. Then it went away for a couple weeks in early September. It came back with a vengeance in Late Sep/Oct/Nov. The only difference was the number of timers in the timer table. I have an idea that if I have more than 30-40 timers set, this occurs. If anyone else has the same observation, post your details.

BTW: The timers that fire 24 hours early, are all M-F and do not fire on Friday, so they become Sun-Thurs on my 921.


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## AnubisPrime (Mar 13, 2005)

I noticed in addition to what I listed above that ALL of my weekly timers have fired one day early since the L272 update.

Individual-one time only- timers do not appear to be affected.

I did a hard reset...and I guess I'll abstain from weekly timers for now. I called Dish a while ago and the CSR said that the timer issue has been a known issue for a long while. He almost couldn't believe it himself.


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

Weekly timers for Wednesday fired Tuesday (last night). Sorry, been too long to remember when I created them.

One thing that I did different last night was add a timer for House and have it skip one occurance of my 'Amazing Race' timer since it was CMA on CBS last night.


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## GFloyd (Jun 3, 2003)

1. Don't recall when the original timer was created, but it was deleted on 11/15 at 9:05pm

2. Substitute timer for above did not fire on 11/16 since the 921 fired the timer for 11/17, which was created on or around 11/1 at 9:00pm.

If Dish cares to know, I'll be looking at Direct TV because I'm paying a DVR fee for a product that does not work.


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## Jim Parker (Aug 12, 2003)

Some months ago when this problem first started, 2 of my M-F timers fired on S-T. I had 3 other M-F timers that worked correctly. I deleted all timers about 2-3 months ago, power cord rebooted and recreated the timers. It worked correctly for a couple of weeks then the same 2 timers went to S-T, one timer on one week, the other the next week. The other 3 were ok. (After that happened, I set the 2 problem timers to every day to get the Friday show)

I never had a problem with the once a week timers until last Saturday (12th). The only Saturday timer fired a day early, both of my 2 Sunday and both of my 2 Monday timers fired a day early. I deleted all timers, power cord rebooeted and recreated Tuesday morning.

I have never had a problem with a one-time-only timer.

Skyburn accurately describes what the DVR list shows for me.


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## Skyburn (Nov 30, 2004)

As a followup -- this week, all my timers fired properly on the correct day at the correct time....I guess I'll see what happens next week!


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

First time I experienced one of these.
1) set last Sunday
2) scheduled to record an ota program (NBC) 8-11pm for today Sunday
3) fired on Saturday
4) a one time recording so no repeats
5) I spotted the undesired timer running just after 8Pm when I wanted to tune to another program and found no tuners available (another timer I did set for Saturday, set earlier on Saturday was also running. I decided to power button reboot immediately as there was a program at 9PM that I definitely wanted to record.
6) ended up firing so that three timers would have tried to fire at 9PM. And turns out now the same is true for Sunday. Added the third timer for Saturday on Saturday. The timers for Sunday are a long standing daily timer at 9pm and a weekly a 9pm.


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## tech_biz (Nov 22, 2005)

1. Timer has been set for a while.
2. Fired Saturday at 9:00 for Desperate Housewives.
3. Missed Sunday night 9:00.

Exactly 24 hours early.
921 = piece of crap.

Anybody want to help with a class action suit against Dish for a defective product?
1. Expensive product
2. Never fully functional
3. Lots of known issues with buggy software.
4. Remote problem that will never allow unit to work as promised.


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## klaatu (Dec 7, 2004)

Take a poll on the CAS. I'd vote yes.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

First time this happened to me. I count myself lucky. Timer set on October 27th. Timers to fire Mon-Fri at 11pm. Has done that up until today. No timer fired today.
All others did though.


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## Jim Parker (Aug 12, 2003)

I had a variation of this bug, but this time the timer fired 24 hours early and on the correct day. 

I deleted all timers, rebooted and recreated on Tuesday Nov 17. I set a weekly time for Nova on Tueday 7pm (channel 7, PBS Dish LIL). 

On Monday the timer fired, but recorded Antiques Roadshow. The DVR list shows it as Nova. The timer fired on Tuesday and recorded Nova, which is listed in the DVR list correctly.

This is the first time the 921 fired 24 hours early and still recorded the program on time.


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## johnrboren (Oct 31, 2004)

I tell you, this has to be the most frustrating release. I will take some lock-ups or HD freezes over missing entire recordings because the timers fired the wrong day.

We're not all part of the programming staff that keeps these releases coming, but, like in our business, you get the product to be STABLE. Then, add new features. 

How long do we have to keep playing this game? Over a year of owning this 921, it has been one problem after the other. Can the programming guys just get it stable and STOP MAKING CHANGES! LEAVE IT ALONE!

Add all the new enhancements to the 942 folks or the new MPEG4 product.

Does TIVO on DirectTV go through these problems?


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## NukeBug (Nov 26, 2004)

It happened back in October (about the 20th) on weekly set timers, called dish (like it matters) and front switch rebooted..... ran fine until this week.

I was out of town (of course) and starting Tuesday Nov 22 thru today Nov 26, all timers mis-fired a day early. they were all weekly timers or set by Nov 18.
I have done a front switch soft reboot and I am hoping that all the timers will pick up. none today for tomorrow, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

BTW count me in for the suit.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

I have the same problem exactly.


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## johnrboren (Oct 31, 2004)

Mark,

Last night, I went to record "Las Vegas" and saw that it was not marked to record - even though I have this setup for a weekly timer. So, it wasn't marked in the guide. I created an event - it showed a conflict with the timer that is setup. I deleted both and re-created the timer as a weekly timer again.

It did not record the show. I will check again tonight, this time perhaps just setting it up for a one-time recording instead of a weekly recording.

Has anyone heard if a new release is coming soon, or should I just decide to watch all these shows live?

J


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## Skyburn (Nov 30, 2004)

Ok, so a couple of weeks down the road, and here's what I have to report. Last week, all timers fired as expected on the right day at the right time.

Tonight, I caught the 921 in the act -- recording whatever was on at 7:55PM on ABC (Denver KMGH from Dish) as "Lost" -- what should have recorded tomorrow night at 7:55PM. I just did a powerbutton reboot and when it rebooted, it no longer was recording anything (which is correct -- I have no timers firing tonight at all). The timer list still lists Lost to be recorded on 11/30 at 7:55, so hopefully tomorrow it'll fire at the right time.

I did notice (suggestion per a post of Allen's in another thread) that I don't have the Inactivity shutdown thing enabled -- it's set to inactive or disabled or whatever. I'm thinking I might enable that, or just get into the habit of rebooting the 921 once a week whether it needs it or not (I've been avoiding doing this since it's absolutely rediculous to expect people to have to do this very thing!!)

- Joe


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## GFloyd (Jun 3, 2003)

Happened again, and I don't give a flip about providing E* with any details to assist them ... Read below for my one and only experience with E* customer no-service ...

[email protected]

Please read the following for a narrative on your company's poor customer service.

The issue relates to your customer service department. Tonight, 12/7, I phoned your customer support number to note a problem with a 921 receiver. Certainly you are well aware of the buggy nature of this receiver. After suffering through months of stuck aspect ratio bugs and timers misfiring on the wrong day, I reached my wits end tonight. The 921 again misfired, and I've had it with this inferior piece of equipment.

A thought occcured to me. I am paying for a DVR function, and this receiver is no where near acting like a DVR, which leads me to question, what am I paying for?

As such, I called your customer support number. I explained the problem to the rep, who informed that this is not a known issue with the 921. Either she was misinformed or not completely truthful. Either way, I requested to be transferred to customer retention. After being told to contact the dealer to resolve your software problems, I told the rep that I was not going to do that and I expected to be compensated for the lack of service received or the next call I made to Dish would be to cancel my service. She apparently hung up on me. I request that you please listen to the recording of our call, if you are able to do so. The call happened around 10:30pm EST on 12/7. I never raised my voice, cursed or made any unruly comments towards your rep, but she certainly terminated the call.

As such, you can be assured that I will be terminating my relationship with your company. Also rest assured that I will gladly inform any and all that Dish network releases inferior products to market and could care less about long time high dollar customers such as myself. In other words, buyer beware.

*signed*


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## Rogueone (Jan 29, 2004)

I've had a few mishaps with my 921 since the end of daylight savings time. I record at 830-10 pm on Fox on Monday nights from OTA, then Tuesday 8-9 CBS OTA and 8-9 Fox sat and 9-10 Fox OTA. What i noticed was the Tuesday night timers firing on Monday night about a week ago. And the Monday after Daylight ended, it did this and tried to start the recordings at 7pm instead of 8pm. I've missed a recordings or two cause of this, and even a power button or card reboot didn't completely fix it. I noticed when the tuesday timer started on monday, and I did a reboot, it didn't fire on tuesday like it was suppose to. I'll try to get better details if it happens again.


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## Witsend5255 (Dec 8, 2005)

My timers on my 921 have been recording 1 day early for quite some time and I'm not going to keep DISH very much longer. I'm sure DirecTV is having a field day with this knowing that DISH is going downhill.


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

Closing, starting new thread for L2.73.


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