Fox News doesn't work properly on Hopper DVR

[Jay50]

Today is 10/24/2023. Since 1 week ago, which was before the latest software version upgrade, the Hopper DVR has been acting strangely when playing back timer recordings of the Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier and some, but not all, other news programs on that Dish channel 205, HD, whether using the Hopper itself or any of our 3 Joeys. It has not happened with CNN, for example. What happens is that it takes 2 minutes for the screen to display anything when playing back the recording. Then it plays normally but if you attempt to skip forward (30 seconds) or skip back (10 seconds), it takes 2 minutes for either to occur, the picture freezing there while you wait. Sometimes, you can fast forward (slowest speed 156x) or fast backward, but occasionally, that will also freeze for 2 minutes. During the 2 minute freezes, your only option to get out of this is to change to a different channel. You can restart the playback from where you left off, but that will take another 2 minutes. I recorded a Weekend Edition program for 2 hours and then then delay was 3 minutes:20 seconds. This is super annoying. I called tech support but it goes to some foreign country and the techs there only know how to use the remotes. They don't even know that satellite 129 is no longer being used by Dish (check switch will show no 129 - it's not an error)! They said there was something wrong with the DVR and sent a technician to our home who agreed with that diagnosis. A so-called new DVR (they're all refurbished, I was told), did the same thing as the first DVR. I called back tech support over the phone and they hung up on me twice and only stayed online with me on the 3rd attempt when I threatened to cancel my Dish subscription. We've been with Dish for about 18 years! Tech support sent a different tech to our home. He found nothing wrong. There were no diagnostic errors in either Hopper. One Hopper is currently copying the saved recordings to the other. Recorded movies play back without any problems. I asked the technician if there was a supervisor to speak with since this is apparently a software issue with the Hoppers. He called his boss who suggested that I try a different power plug in our living room (really). There seemed to be no one that could address this issue. Then, I went on the chat line on Dish. I was told that this was a known technical issue, #1039165 and that their software engineers were working on it. Knowing that was not particularly reassuring because many technical glitches take years to be corrected, if ever (for example, if you are traveling in an RV and use your 211 receiver in a time zone that is not your home's time zone, you can't save a daily timer more than 1 day - it's never been fixed). The next several days were unchanged. I got on the Dish chat again and asked the agent to look up issue 1039165. She didn't know what I was talking about. I asked if there was something in the Fox News satellite signal that was causing the DVR recording playback to malfunction and she didn't know. I told her that customers would be complaining about this and the technicians would be replacing perfectly good DVRs until everyone was aware of this. I told her that the foreign tech support people knew very little about Dish network and that there was no way to contact anyone else to complain. I do not know if other satellite/cable services with their DVRs were having the same problems.

 

[tjboston5676]

There's multiple threads about these issues already. They are working to fix it asap in new software update.

 

[smoke]

Today is 10/24/2023. Since 1 week ago, which was before the latest software version upgrade, the Hopper DVR has been acting strangely when playing back timer recordings of the Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier and some, but not all, other news programs on that Dish channel 205, HD, whether using the Hopper itself or any of our 3 Joeys. It has not happened with CNN, for example. What happens is that it takes 2 minutes for the screen to display anything when playing back the recording. Then it plays normally but if you attempt to skip forward (30 seconds) or skip back (10 seconds), it takes 2 minutes for either to occur, the picture freezing there while you wait. Sometimes, you can fast forward (slowest speed 156x) or fast backward, but occasionally, that will also freeze for 2 minutes. During the 2 minute freezes, your only option to get out of this is to change to a different channel. You can restart the playback from where you left off, but that will take another 2 minutes. I recorded a Weekend Edition program for 2 hours and then then delay was 3 minutes:20 seconds. This is super annoying. I called tech support but it goes to some foreign country and the techs there only know how to use the remotes. They don't even know that satellite 129 is no longer being used by Dish (check switch will show no 129 - it's not an error)! They said there was something wrong with the DVR and sent a technician to our home who agreed with that diagnosis. A so-called new DVR (they're all refurbished, I was told), did the same thing as the first DVR. I called back tech support over the phone and they hung up on me twice and only stayed online with me on the 3rd attempt when I threatened to cancel my Dish subscription. We've been with Dish for about 18 years! Tech support sent a different tech to our home. He found nothing wrong. There were no diagnostic errors in either Hopper. One Hopper is currently copying the saved recordings to the other. Recorded movies play back without any problems. I asked the technician if there was a supervisor to speak with since this is apparently a software issue with the Hoppers. He called his boss who suggested that I try a different power plug in our living room (really). There seemed to be no one that could address this issue. Then, I went on the chat line on Dish. I was told that this was a known technical issue, #1039165 and that their software engineers were working on it. Knowing that was not particularly reassuring because many technical glitches take years to be corrected, if ever (for example, if you are traveling in an RV and use your 211 receiver in a time zone that is not your home's time zone, you can't save a daily timer more than 1 day - it's never been fixed). The next several days were unchanged. I got on the Dish chat again and asked the agent to look up issue 1039165. She didn't know what I was talking about. I asked if there was something in the Fox News satellite signal that was causing the DVR recording playback to malfunction and she didn't know. I told her that customers would be complaining about this and the technicians would be replacing perfectly good DVRs until everyone was aware of this. I told her that the foreign tech support people knew very little about Dish network and that there was no way to contact anyone else to complain. I do not know if other satellite/cable services with their DVRs were having the same problems.

Same problem. Try explaining this problem to Dish. Elderly husband at his wits end.

 

[Jay50]

There's multiple threads about these issues already. They are working to fix it asap in new software update.

I did a search on this subject prior to my long post and wasn't successful in finding anything related and current. I guess that I must have missed entering the correct search terms. It's sort of comforting to know that I'm not the only one to have this problem. The tech support people at Dish don't seem to know anything about it. As an apparent forum expert, tjboston5676, perhaps you might be able to explain why this is happening and perhaps supply some links to some of those multiple threads you mentioned if that will answer all of my questions. Thank you.

 

[smoke]

I did a search on this subject prior to my long post and wasn't successful in finding anything related and current. I guess that I must have missed entering the correct search terms. It's sort of comforting to know that I'm not the only one to have this problem. The tech support people at Dish don't seem to know anything about it. As an apparent forum expert, tjboston5676, perhaps you might be able to explain why this is happening and perhaps supply some links to some of those multiple threads you mentioned if that will answer all of my questions. Thank you.

I couldn't find the referenced previous threads either, hence my comment to you. Deleted our affected Fox DVR programming and re-entered as well as updating software on the Hopper. Will see if any change tomorrow. It would also show crazy times, like an hour show being 3 hours 17 minutes, and on the left side of the screen 192 hours and minutes recording time left when only 14% of DVR being uses. Our problem started about the same time as yours.

 

[tjboston5676]

Here's a couple threads

H364 is here

I wonder do software updates work the same way as people with a newly installed Hopper 3 receiver having to wait a few days before everything works correctly because earlier in the thread, I mentioned transferring to EHDD's were transferring with errors very frequently but it seems for the last...

www.satelliteguys.us

Specifically post #43 then I responded on post #60. Seems to be almost sane issue as you. However the dvr issues seem to be different receiver to receiver with some people having no issues.

Dish hopper 3 resume playback issue while still recording game

Up until yesterday I was able to watch a football game while it was still recording, go to another recording , then come can and resume watching that football game where I left off. Now when I try to resume the game I was watching it goes to the live tv feed. I can go back and watch from the...

www.satelliteguys.us

This one isn't specifically the sane issue, but are related to latest software update. And to why it happens, nobody really knows. Dish really only tests software on a handful of in house receivers before sending it out. As I've mentioned it only affects some people with most having no issues, making it hard to replicate during testing.

 

[Jay50]

The more I think about this, the more I believe that this is not a software error but a feature. Dish can control how our DVRs work without a software upgrade. The problem developed before their last upgrade on my Hopper with Sling. You may recall Fox News suing the DVR suppliers including Dish some years back and Fox News lost in court. But the fat lady did not sing. I suspect that Fox News threatened to remove its programming from Dish if Dish did not comply with impairing the ability to do ad-skipping. Without Fox News, Dish would lose half of its customers, so it was "an offer they couldn't refuse" situation. Tonight, trying to watch the 4-6 PM central time news on Fox News, resulted in a much shorter delay (it used to be 2 minutes) to start playing but attempting a fast forward for 2 seconds and then pressing play resulted in a delay. Since this does not happen with any other channel, it must be programmed for the times and channels at Dish itself. Dish may tinker with their DVR options but if they fail to allow skipping forward and back by any means on Fox News or other channels that may follow, then you will know that it's a feature and not a glitch. I challenge Dish to prove me wrong. The proof will be in the pudding.

 

[Jay50]

The more I think about this, the more I believe that this is not a software error but a feature. Dish can control how our DVRs work without a software upgrade. The problem developed before their last upgrade on my Hopper with Sling. You may recall Fox News suing the DVR suppliers including Dish some years back and Fox News lost in court. But the fat lady did not sing. I suspect that Fox News threatened to remove its programming from Dish if Dish did not comply with impairing the ability to do ad-skipping. Without Fox News, Dish would lose half of its customers, so it was "an offer they couldn't refuse" situation. Tonight, trying to watch the 4-6 PM central time news on Fox News, resulted in a much shorter delay (it used to be 2 minutes) to start playing but attempting a fast forward for 2 seconds and then pressing play resulted in a delay. Since this does not happen with any other channel, it must be programmed for the times and channels at Dish itself. Dish may tinker with their DVR options but if they fail to allow skipping forward and back by any means on Fox News or other channels that may follow, then you will know that it's a feature and not a glitch. I challenge Dish to prove me wrong. The proof will be in the pudding.

This AM I was looking for a video-on-demand of "Back to the Future." I found all 3 available from the USA channel. I downloaded them to the DVR, free. I know that USA-live has ads, but I wasn't sure if they were embedded into the video-on-demand movie. At about the 15 minutes mark of doing fast forward, I hit an ad and the fast forward stopped with the message that fast forward was not available as an option. This is not the result of a "software problem" with the DVR. It is a feature demanded by the USA channel. Likewise, problems viewing Fox News when using fast forward, skip forward, etc. are the result of Dish making it so. The only improvement I have noticed is that the delay to initial play or to recover from an attempted ad-skip has been reduced to 30 seconds from 2 minutes. There is nothing wrong with your DVR. The problem is caused by the source networks and Dish and it makes your DVR much less useful. I expect no real solutions from Dish since they have not even bothered to inform their subscribers.