# Vip722K - pauses



## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I've noticed over the last week or so, that I'm getting video/audio pauses on many channels, both live and recorded.

At first, I only noticed it on TNT, but since then I've seen it on one channel or another almost every night.

I tried resetting the unit, no joy. Then I tried to rewind a bit see if that cleared it up. That got a mixed bag, sometimes it does, sometimes not.

Any ideas, clues or helps for this? Or is it time to think bad box?

thanks


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

lparsons21 said:


> I've noticed over the last week or so, that I'm getting video/audio pauses on many channels, both live and recorded.
> 
> At first, I only noticed it on TNT, but since then I've seen it on one channel or another almost every night.
> 
> ...


Well, if it's a sign of a bad box both my 722 and 612 need to be replaced. It's rather irritating....


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I'm sorry to hear that! 

I really was hoping my box was bad.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Add this to our knowledge of these pauses. It is a complete pause by the 722k. Today I was scrolling through the guide when a pause in the channel occurred, at the same time, the guide stopped.

When the guide moved again, so did the video.

Interesting.


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## palerider (Mar 20, 2007)

I have the same issue with my 722 so it's not limited to the 722K. It occurs every night (and rather frequently) on all the SD and HD channels I've watched over the last week, maybe 10 days. Sometimes it's just a quick pause, maybe a second or less. At other times it can last 2-4 seconds. The longer pauses are also accompanied by random pixelization across the screen. It's very, very annoying and I'm getting really, really tired of it! IMHO, it's not a box issue.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

These are not normal issues. Palerider I am in North OC and I am not seeing these issues. Have I ever seen a pause? Yes.. but if you are seeing these nightly and at a good frequency see if you can narrow them down to a channel or show. If you are getting them, go to point Dish and see what your signal is doing. 

The other thing to look at is the number of timers. Is your box being over worked? In some cases when this is reported, people had like 40 Dish Passes configured. There has also been cases where they were at 500+ timer events. 

Definitely look into those things because a box running with a good signal and around 30 to 50 timers with around 300 timer events and a minimum set of Dish Passes 10 should not be doing this. 

Are most of these occurrences on locals? I watch a lot of SoCal DIsh locals and have not seen this before so if you are seeing it... Somethings above might help troubleshoot and if all seems good in that area.. Try and see if these experiences are tagged to a channel.

In otherwords... More info on the environment and how you are using to see if there is some commonality.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Ron, I'm the OP and I too see it almost every night on both live and recorded shows.

I've checked the signal strengths and they are as they were when it was installed, and I have about 50 events scheduled overall. The pauses seem to occur randomly, no rhyme or reason. IOW, recording or not recording, SAT or OTA, they happen.

On mine I've only noticed it on the HD channels, but then I only watch a couple of the locals in SD via SAT that I can't get OTA.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Ron Barry said:


> These are not normal issues. Palerider I am in North OC and I am not seeing these issues. Have I ever seen a pause? Yes.. but if you are seeing these nightly and at a good frequency see if you can narrow them down to a channel or show. If you are getting them, go to point Dish and see what your signal is doing.
> 
> The other thing to look at is the number of timers. Is your box being over worked? In some cases when this is reported, people had like 40 Dish Passes configured. There has also been cases where they were at 500+ timer events.
> 
> ...


Ron, I hate to tell you this, but I see them many times a week on my 722 (not k) and/or 612. Because at this point in time I'm watching mostly broadcast stations via satellite, that's where I seem them but it does happen infrequently on cable channels. Since they started with more recent software updates for the 722 and 612 and they are appearing on the 722k, I have to believe they have something to do with the latest stream handling routines which are likely to be much the same on all ViP models.

Also, the Bay Area CBS station KPIX started putting in some "cleverly" designed actively moving info graphics coming from the bottom left that sometimes caused video freezes and always screwed with the audio. That lasted for about a week and a half.

I have basically given up complaining to Dish. I realize this happens every time a local channel or a cable channel does some goofy totally unnecessary and ineffective modification to an ordinary signal that does nothing more than screw up the viewers' enjoyment of content.

Right now the audio is working its way back to be as unreliable on Bay Area Fox and ABC satellite feeds as it was when we had the problem in mid-2008. I've just given up complaining to Dish Quality in advance of the problem becoming intolerable to a large number of customers.:nono:


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## palerider (Mar 20, 2007)

Ron,

I have the same issues that lpasrons21 described above in post #7. The pauses are totally random across all channels -- locals, SD and HD, premiums, etc. -- and not specific to any one channel. Nor are they more frequent on one channel versus another. Just totally random. I would also add that the I have experienced multiple pauses (2 or 3) during the same program. I don't have an OTA so I can't compare results there. I checked the things you suggested and here are the results:

- Signal strength: 110 - low of 55, high of 77, most transponders in the 64-72 range; 119 - nearly the same as 110, most are in the mid to high 60's, two at 33 and 35; 129 - mid 30's to high 50's, with most around 44-48.

- Timers and timer events: way below the numbers you listed.

- Signal losses: None.

- Operating temp's: Low of 101, high 118, average 106.

- Azimuth 160, Elevation 50, Skew 85.

- 722 is set to Single Mode, software L6.22, checked all cable connections. All ok.

- Picture Quality: No issues.

- No obstructions to the dish.

I've done several reboots but that doesn't fix the problem. The good news is that the audio/video freezes and pixelization occur for just a second or two and then the program continues normally. The 722 never locks to the extent that I have to reboot the box.

FYI: I'm in Rancho Cucamonga, not far from you.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Add me to the growing list of "pauses". The video and audio will just completely pause, just like I hit the pause button. When it picks back up, it doesn't resume where it left off, I lose 4-5 seconds of the show. I've noticed it with mostly DVR'd events and we do record a lot of stuff on locals. I'm in Torrance, CA


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## inazsully (Oct 3, 2006)

Same here in Phoenix. Worst offender seems to be CBS.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmm well the last couple of posts are in the same area as me which I find interesting. Does this happen once and then not happen for a while or does it happen a few times over a short period of time. Reason I am asking is if it over a period of time, next time it happens immediately go to Point Dish Screen and watch it for about 5 minutes. See if there is any fluctuation. My guess this has nothing to do with it but might as well rule that out. If anything it might provide some clue if it appears to be tied to a particular Sat (If you go to point Dish it will be on the Sat and Transponder of the show you are watching)

EHD connected?


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I had the sat and tv on all day yesterday and made some observations from the viewing I did.

1. When the pauses happen, it is the entire SAT DVR. ie; nothing works it all freezes. So you can't go to anything at that time.

2. The pauses are generally 3-5 seconds in duration

3. Mostly on HD, although I saw it once on a SD channel

4. I thought maybe the external HD was causing it somehow, so I disconnected it. Nope, no change.

5. Rewinding doesn't help. Everytime I tried to rewind, it would come to the same spot and pause. The difference here is during the replay from rewind, the whole DVR didn't pause, indicating that the pause is in fact, a pause of operation of the whole DVR.

There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason. Oft times it comes in small clusters, but generally it seems totally random.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Hmm well the last couple of posts are in the same area as me which I find interesting. Does this happen once and then not happen for a while or does it happen a few times over a short period of time. Reason I am asking is if it over a period of time, next time it happens immediately go to Point Dish Screen and watch it for about 5 minutes. See if there is any fluctuation. My guess this has nothing to do with it but might as well rule that out. If anything it might provide some clue if it appears to be tied to a particular Sat (If you go to point Dish it will be on the Sat and Transponder of the show you are watching)EHD connected?


This won't work for some of us here on the left coast. If I am watching any local HD show (from Dish) and go to the point dish screen, I get the correct satellite and transponder but no signal strength at all. This is San Francisco locals on Sat 119 tr 7.

When I go back to watch the channel it takes 10 to 20 seconds to again get a picture.

This lack of signal strength (0 on the scale) is all the time, not just when a channel is pausing on its own.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Generally , it will only happen once during playback of a DVR event, and as was stated you can't do anything while it is frozen, the whole DVR locks up.


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## DishTim (Feb 6, 2006)

My VIP722 Freezes every night at 6:03 pm for about 5 seconds. This has been going on for about 2 months. I've called tech support and they can't figure it out. This happens on all channels.


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## BarryG (Jun 25, 2006)

Pausing issue seemed to suddenly get much worse this past weekend on my 722K (OTA NFL games).


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Okay, so this pausing issue is really starting to piss me off. Happens almost every show we watch, I know calling Dish will be pointless and they will just probably send me a refurbished box which will do the same thing. How's yours been lately??


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

You have two choices, endure the receiver as it is or get it replaced.


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

lparsons21 said:


> I've noticed over the last week or so, that I'm getting video/audio pauses on many channels, both live and recorded. ...


I'm not seeing this on my 722k.


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

Yep, I'm getting these at lease once a day also on my 622 and 722.
VERY annoying


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

I have NOT been experiencing this on my 722 on more than an occassional basis and receive the same locals as Phrelin who indicated he is having this problem. I hope it doesn't increase anytime soon for me.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

finniganps said:


> I have NOT been experiencing this on my 722 on more than an occassional basis and receive the same locals as Phrelin who indicated he is having this problem. I hope it doesn't increase anytime soon for me.


Ugg...started watching some recorded programming on Fox last night and got the pause/noise several times during a one hour show....I now know what you folks are talking about unfortunately.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I'm the OP and oddly enough, for the last 5 days I've had no pauses. Go figger!


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## dgilley (Jun 12, 2006)

I have been suffering from the random pauses problem for around a month. Its extremely annoying. Like others have said, it seems to happen on any channel and there is no obvious pattern. Its relatively infrequent usually, maybe once or twice during a 1 hour show. Every once in awhile there seems to be a burst of them but maybe its just coincidence. During the pause event the 722 is totally non-responsive, ignoring all remote commands. When it restarts 2-5 seconds later you miss everything that happened during the pause. Rewinds just cause the pause to be repeated. It seems like the data stored during the pause is somehow corrupted as the DVR doesn't like to FF, RW, and skip through it quite normally.

I have two 722 boxes at two different addresses with two different dishes and they both have this identical problem. I never had this problem before about a month from now. Probably showed up with 6.22 or another recent firmware. Given that it has appeared on two totally different setups at around the same time, I think its fair to say this is not a problem with these specific hardware units, or with my dish pointing.

And I don't have many timers. One of the boxes has only three.

Even worse than disrupting my live programming, these glitches disrupt my recorded events. So any movies I tape are polluted by these dropouts and hence not of archival quality. I like to save HD ad-free movies to my external HD for long-term use. But I can't do so anymore because they all end up missing 5 seconds pieces. So in my nit-picky AV geek world they are worthless garbage.

ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
This makes me angry.

p.s. - Both the addresses in question are in northern California, about 300 miles apart.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

You will notice that it will happen at 3 minutes after the hour every evening. In eastern time zone it will be at 7:03, in central 6:03, etc. If you happen to be watching at that time (or recording) it is very irritating, but consistant and predictable. It has been reported to Dish and they are aware of the problem.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Oh thank god...now that I think about it, mine are happening about 8:03, last two nights on FOX. Wife was watching the Carrie Underwood show, happened near the beginning and we watched So You Think You Can Dance, and it happened near the beginning as well. Both shows had started at 8. Very weird.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I'll supplement what Richard said with my own experiences. I don't know how I missed this thread (possibly because I have a 722 and not a 722K).

For a while now I've seen the regular freezes. There is one that seems to happen roughly every 4 hours (since the time change that is 3, 7, 11 pm EST). Basically it "happens" roughly 15 seconds before the change from x:02 to x:03 time.

Sometimes it will happen at other odd times too, but those are like clockwork regularly occurring.

I'm not 100% sure what the exact problem is, but Richard is right that Dish is aware of the problem and working on a fix. It seems to only be effecting 722 and 722K receivers at the moment.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

As long as they are working on a fix, I'm totally fine with that. Thank you for the update Stewart!


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Any new info. on this Stewart?? Still happening. :03 every hour in the evening. The other night we had one last no joke 15 seconds...really annoying.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I saw some folks reporting that they had L623 on their receivers (can't remember if it was 622 or 722) and was wondering if that might include a fix for this pause problem.

Unfortunately last I checked I'm still at L622... so I don't know if this is a mass rollout or just a few random people... so no way yet to tell if the fix is in or not.

Fingers crossed though!


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

In my mind I had sort of tied the freezes on my recorded CBS programs to opening credits or graphics or something as it seemed like some kind of video switching set it off. On "NCIS" tonight it happened about 2-3 minutes into the show. Did they fire someone who planted an irritation bug? That's just weird.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

It looks like the 6.23 is only for 622's and 722's...the 722k's have 6.55, so it doesn't look like that update is for the 722k's. I could be wrong though.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I have a 722 and a 612. Like the 722k, the 612 has a different "L" software series than the 622/722. What usually happens is that if a release as a fix actually works on the 622/722 without side horrendous side effects, I see that fix incorporated in the next release for the 612 if its needed on that machine. Sometimes that takes awhile.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

phrelin said:


> ... a fix actually works on the 622/722 without side horrendous side effects ...


Nothing like keeping the bar low.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I just received an email from Quality Assurance which I've posted as a new thread because of it's broader subject matter. See A Thoughtful Response from Quality Assurance .


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

That email didn't talk at all about the pauses we are having on ALL of my local channels at 3 minutes after the hour.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

slickshoes said:


> That email didn't talk at all about the pauses we are having on ALL of my local channels at 3 minutes after the hour.


No but they did say:


> The EchoStar Quality Assurance team has been reading the forums and would like to clarify a few things....
> 
> ... Unfortunately with new technology we don't always realize how it will fully affect others until it is released. Then each team has to work together to make everyone's equipment happy and that is what we are doing but it can take time.
> 
> EchoStar and Dish Network would like to thank the customers and retailers for their understanding and patience. We may be asking for observation for those in the spot beam. Customer's statements can be very valuable and we appreciate the time some of you have taken on the forums to help us out.


I take them at their word that they do read the forums and are trying to deal all the multiple problems. And Richard said above:


Richard King said:


> You will notice that it will happen at 3 minutes after the hour every evening. In eastern time zone it will be at 7:03, in central 6:03, etc. If you happen to be watching at that time (or recording) it is very irritating, but consistant and predictable. It has been reported to Dish and they are aware of the problem.


I have the :03 problem too. I've been giving them more grief over the Bay Area specific audio problems which is what the email mostly responded to.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Makes sense that the 722K has its own release set... I still don't have L623, though, on my non-K... (I don't have a K, so both mine are non-K).

Could be they are going to see if it is fixed before rolling it into the K-series... but then until I see if it comes to my receiver and fixes, I couldn't say.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Ok guys, I called Dish yesterday and talked with Tech support. I'm still considered a new customer so I got routed to Virginia. The Tech I spoke with was not aware of this problem and he spend a good few minutes looking it up. I detailed the problem to a T and he said he would forward it to the Engineering team and he said I should hear something within 48-72 hours. I even referenced this thread to let him know there were quite a few people with the same issue. 

No sooner than 10 minutes later, I got a call from the engineering team. James Ellison is his name and he was very concerned with this issue. He asked me to email him the link to this thread which I did, very good guy who asked me a lot of questions, so let's see what happens.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I hate to say it... but lots of companies give that kind of runaround... where they'll ask you all kinds of questions and ultimately conclude "you're the only one having this problem" or "no one else has called"... until they ultimately fix the problem.

I've lost count of the number of times I've had a problem with my ISP, SAT, or cable... and been told it must be me... only to have a major outage follow that and the problem get fixed.

It gets really old really fast when all people in a company aren't in the loop on known issues AND/OR customers are misled.

I know this particular problem is one that Dish has been well aware of, so I don't know why someone would tell you any differently. Still, lets hope it gets fixed and the 722/722K folks get a fix for this soon.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Well still getting the pauses and now the plot really thickens. I have it in single mode watching MNF with the Laker game pip. 8:03 rolls around and ESPN freezes for about 5 seconds and the pip kcal 9 stays live, no freeze. So maybe one of my tuners is jacked. Or the others that are having this issue, do you have the OTA tuner in your 722k? Mines in there but not being used, maybe this is causing this? Just a thought...


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## olguy (Jan 9, 2006)

Just read this thread because I am thinking of trading a 622 for a 722K. But something puzzles me. The 622 and 722 use the same software. The 722 has the pauses and the 622 doesn't. The 722 and 722K use different software but both have the pauses. What do the 722 and 722K have in common that the 622 doesn't?


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

olguy said:


> Just read this thread because I am thinking of trading a 622 for a 722K ...


I swapped a 622 for a 722k and see no difference except the ability to simultaneously record two OTA events and the ability to save timers to the remote.

I am not saying there are no pauses at 3 minutes past the hour,but I have not noticed them.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

There are some hardware differences in the 622/722 (mostly the decoding chipset and hard drive)... The chipset difference alone could be the difference in the 722 behavior vs the 622... and that might be a common chipset in the 722K (I don't know much about the 722K).

Another difference, created by the larger hard drive in the 722 vs 622... is the 722 stores more of those On Demand videos (you see more 501 and 1 VOD channels in the EPG)... so it could be those additional channels pushing things just over the limit.

We've seen this with timers... IF there was a maximum number of timers, and you hit that... then deleting 1 timer makes a world of difference. Could be the same thing here... if the receiver is having trouble managing XX channels, then XX+1 could cause a major glitch, while XX-1 might run smoothly.

Just guesswork on my part here.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Pulled out my OTA tuner today and I'm gonna run it for a few days and see what happens.


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## olguy (Jan 9, 2006)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Just guesswork on my part here.


Thanks Stewart. Since I'm old, confuse easily and still don't understand modern marvels like an electric can opener  it sounds good to me.


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## foto_dog57 (Nov 28, 2005)

Ok, so I'm in Mountain time zone and at 9:03 PM daily it does it's 3-4 second freeze.
I have a 722k that replaced a defective 622 , but now I'm wondering if it was a bad idea getting this box. 
Not sure the version, but it's pretty strange, this started about a month ago.
Just thought I'd add to the count.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Getting real sick and tired of this, have had the OTA tuner out for about a week now and I'm still getting the :03 pauses. Gonna give em' a call again today and see what they say.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

The OTA tuner module shouldn't have anything to do with the freezes, since the 722 (non-K) does it too.

It is something common between those two models, rather than something different... and I know Dish is aware of the problem, they just might not have rolled out a fix for it as yet.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Called again late last week, another tech rep. acted like she knew nothing about this issue, she suggested we swap the box first to eliminate that as a possible problem. I'll keep you guys in the loop.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Replaced my box yesterday, with a reman. 722k...I'll keep an eye on it.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Few days in and so far so good, not a single pause. This thread seems to have completely died except for me, lol...how's everyone else doing with this issue?


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

slickshoes said:


> Few days in and so far so good, not a single pause. This thread seems to have completely died except for me, lol...how's everyone else doing with this issue?


Since 6.23 came onboard, no pauses so far (knock on wood)


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## jeremyg (Feb 23, 2006)

I've been getting the pause near the beginning of the Daily Show for about a month now. I have it setup as a manual timer for whatever that's worth. I don't believe it was happening when I first got the receiver...


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

slickshoes said:


> Few days in and so far so good, not a single pause. This thread seems to have completely died except for me, lol...how's everyone else doing with this issue?


Mine's back again after taking a vacation for awhile.


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## slickshoes (Sep 20, 2009)

Well it's been a few weeks now and so far my reman. 722k has been absolutely flawless (knock on wood). I urge everyone having the :03 pauses to give em' a call and have them swap your box.


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