Open Letter to DISH Management Re: Lack of Manual Timer and No-VIP receiver policy on Hopper account

[dontpanic]

I tried a few times creating a manual timer for the Hopper on Dish Online. It says it created it, but it didn't. Also, none of my series timers show up on Dish Online, and only some of the recordings.

The timers also don't show up on Dish Remote Access, but all of the recordings do, including all PTAT recordings. If a recording was saved to My Recordings from PTAT it shows up twice.

I just created a manual timer for the Hopper on Dish Remote Access and it worked. I tried to create a Dish Pass from Dish Remote Access, but even though it said it was successful, it wasn't. However, Dish Passes are now called Seek & Record timers which can be created directly on the Hopper. They currently can't be edited, but Matt G. told me that was coming in the future.

For me the SiriusXM channels show up on the correct channels on Dish Remote Access when setting a manual recording. For example, Bluesville is channel 99-70. I created a one-time manual timer from 2am to 2:30am and it started recording immediately (it was about 2:10am when I created the timer). I waited about 5 or 6 minutes then started playing the recording, choosing Start Over from the menu. The music played fine, but the only thing on the screen was the blue gradient square that normally has the channel logo (the logo was missing) and the horizontal line with the grey gradient above it. There was no text and the SiriusXM logo was missing. Skipping forward and backward, fast forward, and rewind all worked.

 

[smooth28la]

I've tried using the Dishonline to set 2 manual timers to my 722 last night. The two events never appeared. I do have 4 VIP receivers.. even though the correct receiver was chosen, perhaps the system is still confused.

Perhaps I *should* switch over to Hopper/Joey because since there's a manual recording work around for Sirius channels that SOMETIMES work ?

I did order a Tivo Premier to take care of my OTA needs in the meantime. That's the money that I really don't have to spend but have to.

 

[sparc]

I tried a few times creating a manual timer for the Hopper on Dish Online. It says it created it, but it didn't. Also, none of my series timers show up on Dish Online, and only some of the recordings.

Are you guys reporting all these to a DIRT member?

seems like that's the best way to get it to be reliable. There should be a good 10+ people who could report all these issues.

 

[Jim Koenig]

The lack of a manual timer for those of us who use our TVs as alarm clocks is a real problem. If I want to get up at 7:15 or a time that is not compatible with the start of the shows I want to watch that start at the top of the hour, I can't do it. If we could get the option to start a program xx minutes early or nn minutes late, then I could use autotune to wake up when I need to and not before. Can DIRT get this request on the future enhancements list?
JK

 

[smooth28la]

Not funny at all!

I'm having severe internal struggle on whether to bite the bullet and do the upgrade now.. knowing I'll lose the OTA and the manual timer capability.

As a videophile, it's kinda keeping me awake at night!

p.s. I did purchase a Tivo Premier DVR to fill the OTA void for now.

 

[dontpanic]

.. knowing I'll lose the OTA and the manual timer capability.

As I noted above, I am able to create manual timers from Dish Remote Access (but not from Dish Online).

 

[smooth28la]

What's the difference between Dish remote Access and Dish Online?

I thought they're both the same?

I can't find the manual recording option on my Android phone.

 

[navychop]

Dish Online has succeeded Dish Remote.

OP- If you ever send the letter, it might help to spell "tuner" correctly.

It would be quite easy for Dish to block manual timed recordings for any block of channels, Sirius/XM or otherwise, if they were to add the ability to set a manual timer from the remote. I'm just not sure I can move to H/J without the manual timers being set from the remote- or at the very least, reliably from Dish Online. Doesn't seem to be a priority at Dish, though. I can't understand why- they'd mostly be reusing code they've already written. Granted, very few customers will find this feature useful. Of course, I'll be waiting until the OTA module is out before giving serious consideration to a move to H/J. Unless one of my ViP722s dies and forces my hand.

 

[dontpanic]

What's the difference between Dish remote Access and Dish Online?

I thought they're both the same?

I can't find the manual recording option on my Android phone.

Dish Remote Access is the original website for managing your DVR(s) and streaming content from them. Dish Online is the new site. In my opinion, for managing your DVR, Dish Remote Access is vastly superior (prior to the Hopper). For managing your DVR, Dish Online is an abysmal piece of crap.

Dish Remote Access can be found here. Use your Dish account user ID and password. When it first loads it will pop up a box telling you it has been replaced by Dish Online. Just click the X in the upper right corner of that box to ignore it.

Having said all of that, the Hopper timers don't show up there (sometimes some of them do - it's hit and miss) and it generally doesn't show scheduled recordings, conflicts, or skips. It will show all of your recordings, including PTAT. And you can create manual timers (I couldn't create Dish Pass timers, though). For earlier DVRs, such as the 922, 722, and 622, it works great.

 

[navychop]

I will add that I have a Sony 500 that I can record OTA with, but I understand TVGOS is not long for this world and that option will soon slip from my grasp. My DTVPal DVR I keep at the RV, where I have no LoS for Dish anyway.

 

[smooth28la]

Dish Remote Access is the original website for managing your DVR(s) and streaming content from them. Dish Online is the new site. In my opinion, for managing your DVR, Dish Remote Access is vastly superior (prior to the Hopper). For managing your DVR, Dish Online is an abysmal piece of crap.

Dish Remote Access can be found here. Use your Dish account user ID and password. When it first loads it will pop up a box telling you it has been replaced by Dish Online. Just click the X in the upper right corner of that box to ignore it.

Having said all of that, the Hopper timers don't show up there (sometimes some of them do - it's hit and miss) and it generally doesn't show scheduled recordings, conflicts, or skips. It will show all of your recordings, including PTAT. And you can create manual timers (I couldn't create Dish Pass timers, though). For earlier DVRs, such as the 922, 722, and 622, it works great.

Wow.. thank you for your investigative report! It's so sad that for a simple function like manual recording to work, you cannot use the Hopper remote OR Dishonline but an abandoned website for Dish Remote Access.

It's not exactly a record that DISH should be proud of.

p.s. DISH should hire you as a QA or tech support person!

 

[smooth28la]

yes
Look at the first pic.

There's no 'Add a recording' function on the Android's version of Remote Access. Your picture looks like the iPhone version.

Can someone else confirm?

 

[denisincalif]

Dish Remote Access is the original website for managing your DVR(s) and streaming content from them. Dish Online is the new site. In my opinion, for managing your DVR, Dish Remote Access is vastly superior (prior to the Hopper). For managing your DVR, Dish Online is an abysmal piece of crap.

Dish Remote Access can be found here. Use your Dish account user ID and password. When it first loads it will pop up a box telling you it has been replaced by Dish Online. Just click the X in the upper right corner of that box to ignore it.

Having said all of that, the Hopper timers don't show up there (sometimes some of them do - it's hit and miss) and it generally doesn't show scheduled recordings, conflicts, or skips. It will show all of your recordings, including PTAT. And you can create manual timers (I couldn't create Dish Pass timers, though). For earlier DVRs, such as the 922, 722, and 622, it works great.

I got all excited when I read this post. I thought Dish Remote Access was gone, and Dish Online simply does not work. I can't get it to do anything with my DVR.

So, anyway, I used the link and tried to log on to Dish Remote Access. I got this message: "Account not authorized". Now what am I supposed to do? Right above the login it says "all accounts are now eligible". What gives?

 

[smooth28la]

I didn't work initially for me either. use the reset password option.

 

[denisincalif]

I didn't work initially for me either. use the reset password option.

Nope. I got the message "invalid account". So I went to Dish Online and used exactly the same email address and password and got in with no problem. This stinks.

 

[GaryPen]

Wait. There's no way to manually set a recording timer on the Hopper? WTF? That's ridiculous.
How else is a user supposed to be able to setup timers on OTA channels for which Dish refuses to carry guide info?
If they want to prevent recording of SiriusXM, just block those channels from manual timers in the software. Jeez.

 

[smooth28la]

Ha.. welcome to the 'club'!

I also realized about the missing feature AFTER I placed the order for the 2 hopper/2 Joey upgrades... luckily it was before the install.

I promptly canceled the appointment.

 

[GaryPen]

One thing I've noticed working in the high tech industry is that so many brilliant engineers are absolute f-ing idiots.

 

[smooth28la]

Actually sometimes Echostar engineers are bound by instructions from DISH. It's not necessarily their fault.

The point of this thread is hopefully convince DISH management to restore the badly needed feature on its 'state-of-the-art' Hopper/Joey system.

 

[Jhon69]

One thing I've noticed working in the high tech industry is that so many brilliant engineers are absolute f-ing idiots.

Maybe or maybe not.Here's my take on this subject:

When I had my 625 I set up my recordings from the guide.

When I had my 622 I set up my recordings from the guide.

When I had my 722k/wMT2 I set up my recordings from the guide.

Now I have my 922/wMT2 I set up my recordings from the guide.

Never used Dish Pass/manual timers.



It may have been an observation by DISH engineers that subscribers were setting up their recordings from the guide all the time so,therefore the elimination of the manual timers became a reality?.Just a guess.

So is this a possibility? you decide.