# ASK [DBSTalk]: CBS Programs don't get recorded?



## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

My wife set the new DVR (ViP 722k) to record Survivor last night, and it didn't record. Again. This has also happened with our older unit, a ViP 622. She normally does a single-event timer, and always checks it before turning off the TV.

This has happened to her on quite a few occasions. I've seen internet postings about a lot of issues with DVRs of various make not recording Survivor. Has this ever been identified that CBS (or other networks) are doing this intentionally?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

tcj103 said:


> My wife set the new DVR (ViP 722k) to record Survivor last night, and it didn't record. Again. This has also happened with our older unit, a ViP 622. She normally does a single-event timer, and always checks it before turning off the TV.
> 
> This has happened to her on quite a few occasions. I've seen internet postings about a lot of issues with DVRs of various make not recording Survivor. Has this ever been identified that CBS (or other networks) are doing this intentionally?


Except for a few years ago when NBC inadvertently put some digital rights protection coding in their system, this has not been reported as a problem.

Sometimes the system doesn't work right, but on my 722 and 612 most errors are made by me. If you are using dual mode (with a TV1 and a TV2) the operation is touchy. I only use single mode, but if you are in dual mode, someone else may be able to comment on that.


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## thomasjk (Jan 10, 2006)

We recorded Survivor last year and now this year. We've never had a problem. We run in Dual mode and only record new episodes.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

OK, so now last night, my wife tried recording two prime-time network shows on the 722k, and neither seemed to record.

After all the yelling, she called Dish tech support. They think maybe my remote (IR, for the 622) possibly interfered with the 722k, causing it to drop it's timer info.

While they are in the same stack, the 722k doesn't receive the IR signal, since it sits in a cabinet. I use an IR repeater on the 622, which doesn't seem to reach the 722k.

The IR functions work with the 722 remote, when the doors are opened. But I've never tried the 622 controller on the 722 with the doors opened. I don't recall if the installers set them up for different remote channels.

But this wouldn't explain the problems we've had when we had one unit...


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## thomasjk (Jan 10, 2006)

Have you looked at the timer priorities to see if there are other conflicts that prevent your wife's timers for CBS from recording? If you have shows recording on both TV1 and TV2 at the same time as the events your wife is trying to record then her event will be the lowest priority and probably not record. Perhaps someone who is more knowledgeable than I can comment.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

tcj103 said:


> ...
> 
> After all the yelling, she called Dish tech support. ...


:lol:


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## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

Press the "DVR" button three times to see what will be recorded and why some programs won't be--duplicate event, not a new episode, recording/ed at a different time/date. You can go forward to Thursday to see if _Survivor_ is scheduled to record this week, and you may even be able to see Thursday of next week. That should give you a better idea of what's coming and some time to set it correctly if need be.

Is it currently showing that it's set to record??

Are you setting your timers from the guide or from Dish Pass?? It does make a difference.

My 622 and 722 have always recorded CBS programs with no problems. Good luck!


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

Are you located in the Pittsburgh DMA by any chance? If you are, and you also have a Dish 1000+, you must disconnect the 118 dish, which today serves no purpose unless you also subscribe to International programming. Do a Check Switch after removing the 118 bird and the issue will never happen again. This is a known issue that has somehow never filtered down to the support level. 

This can only occur in a handful of Markets that at one time needed the 118 satellite for local HD channels. This included Pitts, St. Louis, Detroit and a few other markets.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

We're in the Philly market, other end of the state.

There were no other timers set during that time. When you go into the history of recorded events, there is nothing there, like it never was even set. Nothing is getting out-prioritized, since it doesn't even exist.

I won't be watching that unit all this week, so we'll see how this week's recording goes.

I wish there was some way to record data on what's going on when this happens. In fact, I may try setting up my security DVR with an extra camera on the DVR. The lights come on when it's recording, don't they? I may point it on a TV and leave it on as well.

Is there an easter egg that lets you look at deleted shows on the hard drive, or look at any other history other than the main menus?


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

Update: She tried setting a timer to record all _new_ episodes. at 6:45 PM, she went in and looked at the schedule, and it was there, as it was for next Thursday. I looked a couple minutes before 8:00 PM, and there was no timer event on the schedule! There was still one for next week however.

So I just went to the channel and hit record to get the show.

What I'm wondering now, is if they update the episode description prior to airing, could that knock the schedule off? There was nothing scheduled for last night, i.e. it wasn't being skipped; it was like the next time a new Survivor was on, would be next week.

We're going to try some more things, like a manual timer (so as not to rely on program info), and I was thinking trying it on both DVRs at the same time.

I don't think it's our setup; I confirmed there is no remote control interference between the two; the only remote control related possibility is if someone nearby has a UHF remote, but my closest neighbor doesn't have Dish, and the others are pretty far away (several hundred feet, after going through the house)

I'll be contacting Dish with this new info as well.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

This is the same problem described by moman19 above and has been going on for some time. It seems limited to specific markets and configurations. What satelites do you pick up?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

tcj103 said:


> Update: She tried setting a timer to record all _new_ episodes. at 6:45 PM, she went in and looked at the schedule, and it was there, as it was for next Thursday. I looked a couple minutes before 8:00 PM, and there was no timer event on the schedule! There was still one for next week however.
> 
> So I just went to the channel and hit record to get the show.
> 
> ...


I'm commenting from memory as I'm not at my TV, but you should be able to go to the list of upcoming timers, press "show skip" and the timer for the episode should be there somewhere even if it going to be skipped and if you highlight that episode a brief line should indicate why it is being skipped. If the episode isn't there, that's one issue. If it's being skipped for some reason, that's another issue.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

phrelin said:


> I'm commenting from memory as I'm not at my TV, but you should be able to go to the list of upcoming timers, press "show skip" and the timer for the episode should be there somewhere even if it going to be skipped and if you highlight that episode a brief line should indicate why it is being skipped. If the episode isn't there, that's one issue. If it's being skipped for some reason, that's another issue.


At 6:45 PM, the timer was there, and there was no indication that it was going to be skipped.

At 7:55, when I checked, there was no timer event shown for last night, and as of 08:01 PM, nothing was recording. The schedule only showed next week's episode event. It was like the former timer never existed.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

moman19 said:


> Are you located in the Pittsburgh DMA by any chance? If you are, and you also have a Dish 1000+, you must disconnect the 118 dish, which today serves no purpose unless you also subscribe to International programming. Do a Check Switch after removing the 118 bird and the issue will never happen again. This is a known issue that has somehow never filtered down to the support level.
> 
> This can only occur in a handful of Markets that at one time needed the 118 satellite for local HD channels. This included Pitts, St. Louis, Detroit and a few other markets.


I'm pretty sure we have a Dish Pro; about two years ago, when we got the 622 DVR, the installer updated the LNBs. We have two dishes; a 61.5, and the one that looks at two satellites.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

Update 2:

I might be closing in on at least part of the problem. Last night, it did it again; no timer event shown, which had previously been there, AND on the EPG, it showed "no info available" for certain network shows at 8:00 PM, which included CBS.

Called Dish Tech support; did the check switch / program update dance. After that (and by then it was after 8:00 PM) the timers had recovered and all was OK, but obviously I missed the timer for 8:00 PM.

The one other thing he recommended was to move the program update time to 2:00 AM, when before I had it at 3:00 AM. The older unit (622) is set to update at 2:00 AM as well, I figured they shouldn't update at the same time, but he said it was OK. That box has been doing OK throughout the last month.

What's odd is that on Tuesday evening, there was "no info available" on the EPG for last night, and I updated the guide then. So over a period of 48 hours, the 9 day guide dropped data that was two days out? What is going on with this guide data?


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

Found out from Tech support; the entire 9 day guide is downloaded each night, to account for short notice events, such as presidential news conferences. Also, it appears that the satellite that provides the channel also provides the EPG data. So in some cases, a weak signal on a particular satellite could result in a corrupted EPG. What still isn't clear is why/how EPG data seems to disappear during the evening.

One thing we tried was to swap the antenna connections between the two boxes. Since then, no issues. Not sure what all that means, but it seems to have been resolved, at least for now.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

tcj103 said:


> to account for short notice events, such as presidential news conferences. Also, it appears that the satellite that provides the channel also provides the EPG data.


The "present/next" EPG which contains just the present and next show on every channel on the system is transmitted on every active satellite transponder. This overrides whatever was downloaded in the longer overnight downloads. You don't have to be on the transponder or satellite that actually carries the channel you want to watch to get an update.

Are you seeing any other signs of corruption? Weird characters in show titles or descriptions? Does the show description actually change? Are you trying to record the mapped down channel numbers (over the air numbering such as 016-00) or the higher channel numbers (5000-9000 range)?


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

James Long said:


> The "present/next" EPG which contains just the present and next show on every channel on the system is transmitted on every active satellite transponder. This overrides whatever was downloaded in the longer overnight downloads. You don't have to be on the transponder or satellite that actually carries the channel you want to watch to get an update.
> 
> Are you seeing any other signs of corruption? Weird characters in show titles or descriptions? Does the show description actually change? Are you trying to record the mapped down channel numbers (over the air numbering such as 016-00) or the higher channel numbers (5000-9000 range)?


No weird characters, the only thing we would see was "info not available" for certain channels. The show description wouldn't change before and after the "info not available" thing.

She does use the mapped down channel numbers, for what it's worth.

Interestingly, since I swapped the antenna wiring, both boxes have been recording OK.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Wild guess ... but the older unit may not have been providing enough power to the switch/LNB. Glad to see that it is working. If it returns I suggest using the higher channel numbers for setting recordings and see if it makes a difference.


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## tcj103 (Feb 19, 2010)

OK, we'll keep an eye on it, and try the higher channel numbers. But for now, it's all working. Thanks for the input.


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