# TV Entertainment button now enabled, with content downloading



## vampirefish (Oct 19, 2004)

I received an email from Dish saything that the Dish on Demand tv entertainment would be enabled starting Sep 23rd. Naturally, I went to this feature but it's not available. I checked my version and see that I do indeed have the L3.63 version... anyone having the same issue? I'd really like to take advantage of this feature. I do power down every night...


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

IT doesn't work yet on ANY dish receiver . The software they downloaded recently didn't do anything but add the button and cause a lot of video/audio problems and reboots. I don't expect it to work till the next time they do another software down load in October.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I could be wrong but my guess is that the button will be enabled once some content arrives on the 622 itself similar to how HD Priority mapping started to work and I don't think it will require another software update. 

One of those chicken and egg things and this time it looks like the egg came first. ;0


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## vampirefish (Oct 19, 2004)

Thanks for the feedback, but did any of you receive this email?

http://sdm3.rm04.net/servlet/MailView?ms=NjIzMDY2S0&r=NDUyOTg1MDQ1OAS2&j=MjE1MDE4MjgS1&mt=1

This is what prompted my question in the first place.... I mean it made me wonder why they would send this out if it wasn't available yet...


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Based on my experience.... My guess there was a disconnect between the marketing department and engineering.....


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Yes the disconnect is why the software was rushed out before it was ready. This is why so many people are having problems with their receivers. The right hand of the Dish company -engineering didn't know what the left hand - marketing was up to. I doubt we will see any content till they get the software bugs out of this update. I suggest that they could just roll it back to what it was and re work this update , since they have already missed the marketing deadline that was posted in the media releases.


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## wje (Mar 8, 2006)

You can actually select it by using its number instead of trying to select it directly. Doesn't do anything particularly useful, other than bring up an empty list with some edit buttons.


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> Yes the disconnect is why the software was rushed out before it was ready. This is why so many people are having problems with their receivers. The right hand of the Dish company -engineering didn't know what the left hand - marketing was up to. I doubt we will see any content till they get the software bugs out of this update. I suggest that they could just roll it back to what it was and re work this update , since they have already missed the marketing deadline that was posted in the media releases.


While its highly possible that this release was premature to try and get these features online and its not working yet, I have not had any significant issues with 3.63 and while some people are having problems, the number of posts I see in comparison to the number of 622's that must be out there by this time, seems to imply that many 622's are working fine.

While it would be great if things always worked perfectly the first time, with complicated technology, it unfortunately takes more than one attempt to get it right.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Is this still not working for you guys? I'm now seeing TV Entertainment enbled on my beta unit when it was grayed out this morning, and the Friday Night Lights pilot epsiode is available to view. Do you guys see this with L363 yet?


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Is this still not working for you guys? I'm now seeing TV Entertainment enbled on my beta unit when it was grayed out this morning, and the Friday Night Lights pilot epsiode is available to view. Do you guys see this with L363 yet?


It apparently is grayed out until a show is recorded. I can select 3 but it shows nothing recorded as of this post.


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## bobr (Mar 23, 2002)

It was active last night for Friday Night Lights pilot.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

bobr said:


> It was active last night for Friday Night Lights pilot.


Are these limited time shows or limited area. I don't see it now, and don't think it was there last night either.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I think the recevier has to be in standby for a significant amount of time for the shows to download.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

I have it as of last night on one of my 622's (at least). I don't put mine in standby ever. Only the 3 hour inactivity standby mode.


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## tomcrown1 (Jan 16, 2006)

I have it watch the show it is a stinker thats all


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

It sux that you can't erase or delete it as well!


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Anything that shows up in the TV Entertainment section is stored on a different partition on your hard drive so it doesn't affect your recording space. (Yes, I wish that space were used for user recordings rather than VOD content too, so don't even go there...) Each event in the TV Entertainment will expire at some point in time (anywhere from 1 day to many weeks, depending on the event) and then get deleted automatically.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> I think the recevier has to be in standby for a significant amount of time for the shows to download.


At any one time at least one of my 622's is inactive. Neither recorded a TV Entermanent show as far as I can tell.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Still have not seen it on my boxes yet.. But looks like we have more than one that has received it.


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## vampirefish (Oct 19, 2004)

I have yet to see my button enabled. Checked it several times last night and this morning. I have L3.63.


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## debpasc (Oct 20, 2005)

Mine is active and so far the only thing listed is Friday Night Lights. Probably won't watch that but may take a look at the prior season's recap of Greys Anatomy if it shows up in the list. I don't know when mine was activated, I hadn't checked on it until last evening.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The Desparate Housewives recap show is now listed in my TV Entertainment, along with the Friday Night Lights pilot. I bet the Grey's Anatomy shows up tonight or tomorrow.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

What's the TV Entertainment button and what is it used for?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

DVR-3, used for TV VOD as opposed to DVR-2 which takes you to Movies VOD.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Mark are you absolutely sure that the forced program recordings does not rob my recording space? 

Yesterday, I had 2 hours:30 minutes remaining. No programs were added by me during today and tonight I have 46 minutes left. Made me a bit suspicious but I cannot confirm this at this time.

If you know for sure that this reduction was not caused by the TV Entertainment forced recordings, then how much capacity is reserved for these unrequested programs in this other dedicated partition?


Non-technical questions-
Does anyone know why this is being forced on us? Why do these programs get recorded and not something I would like to watch? Is this something Charlie wants me to watch?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I will give my 2 cents on your last question Don

Well based on the type of content listed in the press release, my guess is that it is seen as a feature. Providing unique content that is not delivered through the normal channels. Kinda of like how web sites like survivor are offering additional content. Is it for everyone? No, but for me I am actually looking forward to seeing what additional Lost material will be available. 

If you go back and watch the press conference that was provided a while back. Charile elaborates a bit on what Video on Demand is about in reference to Dish. I believe TV entertainment is part of what he talked about. 

I personally would not be happy if it this type of content competed with what was advertised as my storage, but from my understanding it is off the VOD area and I personally see it as another feature just like Dish Home.


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## psumattDE (Mar 29, 2006)

I went to watch the Friday Night Lights episode last night - and it WAS the Grey's Anatomy recap.

Totally screwed up.


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## cyclone27 (Feb 1, 2006)

Still nothing under the TV Entertainment button for me.
I turn my 622 off every night.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

DonLandis said:


> Mark are you absolutely sure that the forced program recordings does not rob my recording space?
> 
> Yesterday, I had 2 hours:30 minutes remaining. No programs were added by me during today and tonight I have 46 minutes left. Made me a bit suspicious but I cannot confirm this at this time.
> 
> ...


Don, I can't say absolutely say 100% for sure that all VOD content is stored on a separate partition on the drive because I haven't personally connected the 622 drive to a computer running linux to look, but I have been told that VOD content is stored on a separate partition. I don't know how big that partition is, but my guess is that it's probably between 30 and 40 GB, to allow for about 30 SD hours of movie and TV VOD space.

And, a drop of recording time from 2 hours 30 minutes to 0 hours 46 minutes equates to somewhere between 10 and 14 hours of SD recordings, and it's certain that there isn't that much TV VOD available yet, much less downloaded to the 622s.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Mark- Thanks. I was wondering is originally before the TV Entertainment addon that the original partition size was bigger for programming and a major software update did one of those "Partition Magic" redo jobs. Just a speculation.

Anyway, I saw very late last night that my TV Entertainment button went Gray again and surprise, I has 5'30" remaining. This seems most inconsistent. I'll keep an eye on it. It's not a big deal, especially if they will be only using a small part of the drive and they have the outboard drives available soon. Last evening I actually was going to examine that TV Entertainment and it was gone. Oh well. It can stay gone as far as I'm concerned!


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## langlin (Apr 8, 2005)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Is this still not working for you guys? I'm now seeing TV Entertainment enbled on my beta unit when it was grayed out this morning, and the Friday Night Lights pilot epsiode is available to view. Do you guys see this with L363 yet?


Mark, I have 363 and all four previews downloaded last night and all work as advertised, the button is now not "gray" and all previews work.

-Leon


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

The button is now available and has 4 events when I go into it. 3 arefrom ABC 1 from NBC.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well it looks like the chicken has arrived and it did not require a software update to bring it alive..  Lets hope that with this feature comes some unique compelling content.


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

Mark Lamutt said:


> The Desparate Housewives recap show is now listed in my TV Entertainment, along with the Friday Night Lights pilot. I bet the Grey's Anatomy shows up tonight or tomorrow.


I'm seeing this also.


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## langlin (Apr 8, 2005)

Ron Barry said:


> Well it looks like the chicken has arrived and it did not require a software update to bring it alive..  Lets hope that with this feature comes some unique compelling content.


Ron, I watched the "Lost" entry and it was less than compelling.


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## ebaltz (Nov 23, 2004)

langlin said:


> Ron, I watched the "Lost" entry and it was less than compelling.


I believe it was something that was already aired on the network a few weeks ago.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yes I saw it on the ABC's sub-channel a few weeks back. Not sure if it was on the main OTA ABC channel. 

As for being compelling. I am not that quick to pass judgement as to what is compelling and what might be compelling to me will not necessarly be what is compelling to the next person. Time will tell if the feature delievers enough compelling content for me to wonder in from time to time. Being I Lost fan, I hope there the answer will be yes.


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## SonicBee777 (Aug 2, 2006)

Our "TV Entertainment" button was finally enabled this morning. There were four items in there, haven't had time yet to look at them. They appear to be nothing more than promos/teasers/trailers (i.e., advertising). 

Checked my available HD/SD DVR time and it looked the same as last I checked.

Our 622 delivers the DVR disk space for recording that Dish promised before we leased it. If Dish delivers additional space via external USB drives, that's like icing on the cake. :facelick:


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

SonicBee777 said:


> Our "TV Entertainment" button was finally enabled this morning. There were four items in there, haven't had time yet to look at them. They appear to be nothing more than promos/teasers/trailers (i.e., advertising).


22 to 59 minutes long ... the Friday Night Lights entry looks like the first episode, commercial free, before it can be seen on the network next Tuesday at 8pm.

_*Future Use ...*_
It would be nice to see NBCs "two minute replays" that they are making available on their website placed in this area. It might help people who missed the first couple of weeks of the new shows catch up and get involved (especially with _Studio 60_, _Heroes_ and _Kidnapped_ ... shows where people are going to be lost if they don't tune in soon).


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## ebaltz (Nov 23, 2004)

James Long said:


> _*Future Use ...*_
> It would be nice to see NBCs "two minute replays" that they are making available on their website placed in this area. It might help people who missed the first couple of weeks of the new shows catch up and get involved (especially with _Studio 60_, _Heroes_ and _Kidnapped_ ... shows where people are going to be lost if they don't tune in soon).


Yeah I like that idea. That would be a perfect use for this, or the extra scenes from CSI or the extra webisodes of some shows.


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## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

I just noticed (not sure when it happened) that this content is no longer available on my 622. In fact, the TV Entertainment option (I think it's #3) is greyed out again. Is this normal?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Mine went empty a couple of days ago but came back with two previews yesterday:
An Office preview and a Friday Night Lights behind the scenes review.


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## RWATTS (Sep 27, 2006)

Last night all I had was the Friday Night Lights program. I haven't looked today. I guess they just change this periodically? Earlier this week there were three or four different programs including the Lost recap and Grey's Anatomy.


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## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

Yeah, I got home and I have the two new programs now as well. It looks like they control what's there, how long it's there, and when new stuff shows up.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Like the Twilight Zone ...


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

I think the whole concept is a complete waste of resources, from the development to me wasting time watching it. But, I'm sure if I had nothing to do but look for anything different to watch, I could get quite excited about it. :nono2:


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

James Long said:


> Like the Twilight Zone ...


Maybe even more like "The Outer Limits..." :lol:


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

I have two 622s. On my Rev-E unit the entertainment list shows:
The Office Special
Fri. Night Lights…

On my Rev-D unit the list shows:
Fri. Night Lights…
Off Air

The “Off Air” event on the Rev-D unit contains the same recording as the “The Office Special” event on the Rev-E receiver. All info for the “Off Air” entry is missing except for duration, channel source, and date, which match on both units. Everything about the entry on the Rev-E receiver appears to be correct.

All info for the “Fri Night Lights…” entries match and appears to be correct on both units.

James, You're right! -- I think I can hear the Twilight Zone music playing in the background… :lol:


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## kbdrand (Apr 16, 2006)

Is anyone's TV entertainment working? Mine keeps greying out and coming back and most of the time I can view it it only has 'OffAir' in the list. When I try to view it It's usually National Geographic content (Dog Whisperer, Dracula special, etc).

Less than useless to me.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

kbdrand said:


> Is anyone's TV entertainment working? Mine keeps greying out and coming back and most of the time I can view it it only has 'OffAir' in the list. When I try to view it It's usually National Geographic content (Dog Whisperer, Dracula special, etc).
> 
> Less than useless to me.


It's grayed out again rite now. YMMV. Personal taste guy I watched both Vampire special was amusing to me. It wasn't anything to go outta the way for but fun. The rest of the stuff in the past was worthless to me but again personal taste.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yep.. I started to watch the vampire stuff and the pink finale. Definitely need some way of showing when a program will go away or a way to mark it for non-deletion so it does not get hanked out from under you.


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