Hopper Frustration/"Known Issues"

[kappy44]

I am starting this to mirror the frustration I've been reading in quite a few threads regarding hopper software updates and other concerns DISH staff calls "known issues".

Some "Known Issues" (very frustrating and most concern both hopper w/sling and w/o):

1. I have a hopper w/o sling and use a sling adapter.....last November I attempted to upgrade to a hopper w/sling which did not recognize my 2 EHD's by telling me "in a hang up issue" that I had 4s remaining on any recording I transferred.....fortunately I held on to the original hopper circa 2012 that never had that problem and sent the hopper w/sling back....DIRT issued a report to its engineering team and it became a known issue...still is with the software updates that kept getting postponed in January. I know this because I asked DISH to send me a replacement hopper w/o sling as I started having problems with ehd recognition and the sling adapter after a January update....unit sent was worse....called and told it was still a known issue....asked to try a hopper w/sling and just sent that back and it still can't work with EHD's.....I have kept my old hopper w/o sling using the sling adapter and at least after rebooting and downloading my old settings it works with ehd's.

2. You cannot access the Dishanywhere feature on a laptop or PC when you are not on the same LAN as the hopper...will only universally work outside the LAN (not home) with the Android or I-phone apps. Same problem on both hopper w/sling and w/o sling regardless of your browser IE, Chrome, or Firefox....on my other account where I have a 922 I can access it remotely from PC, laptop, or phone app. This is so ridiculous that a 922 can perform a major advertised function of slinging programming and the wonderful HOPPER CAN'T!....DISH broadband technical support: Known Issue!

3. Since latest software release try accessing the Weather Channel App on your Hopper w/o sling...probably same with sling.....opens up fine try to move cursor to forecast or other location....app freezes, hopper freezes....only fix is a hard reboot removing the plug and waiting 30s and reinstalling plug....so much for my local weather.....DISH Technical Support: KNOWN ISSUE!

4. Periodic non-recognition of one or both of the ehd's connected to the Hopper...fix: hard reboot with removal of usb's from each ehd and re-connection one at a time after the reboot.....DISH Technical Support: KNOWN ISSUE!

Y'all get my point!....there are more that are not as important to me as these, it seems to me that the Hopper which worked darn good when it came out is being software updated to death!....As an IT Director in my organization this QA/QC situation is a nightmare....DISH needs to step back from adding silly features and needs to re-visit its basic features and insure that they are stable.

In one of Scott's interviews from CES he spoke with a DISH rep who wants to work on improving the remotes for these units, which is a great idea....a backlit unit would be nice, but I could wait for this...IF THEY WOULD GET THE HOPPER AND ITS BASIC FEATURES STABILIZED!......I am a frustrated and loyal 14 year customer.....folks, feel free to weigh in.

 

[Tampa8]

How dare you want a receiver that does what it is supposed to.
There is always some issue as software is updated. Happens with apps, happened with my LG TV - they had go back to an earlier release, happened with my Garmin. But at some reasonable point the issue(s) got fixed. To me from reading posts it seems it takes so long for DISH to fix the problems from software updates or from first release.

 

[VegasVoomer]

Its strange because my HWS doesnt have any of those problems. What I can never understanx is how some have issues and some dont with the same software version. Almot leads me to believe its a problem with wiring or the dish.

 

[Scherrman]

Does your Sling work from a device like a smart phone or tablet? The reason I ask is because I have the Hopper with Sling and the Sling feature works great, but we usually only use it on a phone or tablet.

 

[kappy44]

It works on the android or I-phone tablets and phones, not Microsoft tablets unless you are slinging from a 922. Issue is through the standard web browser portal accessed from a PC or laptop with Windows 7 OS.

Does your Sling work from a device like a smart phone or tablet? The reason I ask is because I have the Hopper with Sling and the Sling feature works great, but we usually only use it on a phone or tablet.

 

[kappy44]

How dare you want a receiver that does what it is supposed to.
There is always some issue as software is updated. Happens with apps, happened with my LG TV - they had go back to an earlier release, happened with my Garmin. But at some reasonable point the issue(s) got fixed. To me from reading posts it seems it takes so long for DISH to fix the problems from software updates or from first release.

Yup....add to the mix co-habituating with internet functionality and various OS's and browsers leads to a much greater need for QA/QC before one releases "new features"...historically when DISH does this old and basic features go on the blink with the newer software.

 

[kappy44]

Its strange because my HWS doesnt have any of those problems. What I can never understanx is how some have issues and some dont with the same software version. Almot leads me to believe its a problem with wiring or the dish.

A lot has to do with the internet based device the Hopper is communicating with via the Dishanywhere portal....unfortunately, they don't check before release on the universality/compatibility with OS's and browsers...typically they later release additional software to resolve this, but skip over checking the continued functionality of other basic advertised features.

 

[Charise]

I have two Hoppers (w/o Sling) and one Sling adaptor. I don't know what this all means, but I haven't had problems with transferring shows to my EHDs (once there I don't transfer them back to the Hoppers); no problems viewing Dish Anywhere away from home network on PCs or android phone (used it most recently during Australian Open tennis); never use Weather Channel anymore--I stopped after the weather on the 8s and 9s--so can't comment about your issue; and, although it takes longer for the EHDs to be recognized by the Hoppers, all have been after some minutes. I've exchanged EHDs from one Hopper to the other with no problems. I also unplug all EHDs from electricity every evening but not from a USB hub connecting all to the Hopper.

I know others with HWS have had issues for quite a while about not being able to transfer recordings to EHD, but I thought I'd read that was fixed with the most recent update.

Though my signal strengths don't seem all that high to me (can't check them now), maybe it makes some difference that I have an old superdish for 110/119 and an old dish 500 for 129. Perhaps with better aim for 129 and faster Charter internet (and work is T1) so Dish Anywhere works better?

There are so many variables! I hope you are able to find what your problems are, but they aren't universal--unless I'm lucky (and if I am, it's the first time at anything ).

Good luck!!

 

[kappy44]

I have two Hoppers (w/o Sling) and one Sling adaptor. I don't know what this all means, but I haven't had problems with transferring shows to my EHDs (once there I don't transfer them back to the Hoppers); no problems viewing Dish Anywhere away from home network on PCs or android phone (used it most recently during Australian Open tennis); never use Weather Channel anymore--I stopped after the weather on the 8s and 9s--so can't comment about your issue; and, although it takes longer for the EHDs to be recognized by the Hoppers, all have been after some minutes. I've exchanged EHDs from one Hopper to the other with no problems. I also unplug all EHDs from electricity every evening but not from a USB hub connecting all to the Hopper.

I know others with HWS have had issues for quite a while about not being able to transfer recordings to EHD, but I thought I'd read that was fixed with the most recent update.

Though my signal strengths don't seem all that high to me (can't check them now), maybe it makes some difference that I have an old superdish for 110/119 and an old dish 500 for 129. Perhaps with better aim for 129 and faster Charter internet (and work is T1) so Dish Anywhere works better?

There are so many variables! I hope you are able to find what your problems are, but they aren't universal--unless I'm lucky (and if I am, it's the first time at anything ).

Good luck!!

As I mentioned earlier a lot has to do with OS's, browsers, and even ISP's for internet problems along with DISH's constant tweeking of the Dishanywhere portal.....Original Hoppers w/o sling worked very well recognizing ehd's even when sling adapters were added....they began to fail with several software updates.....hence remanufactured hoppers were sent out to customers....QA/QC was so bad on some of these that when activated the previous customer's TV and Bluray player codes were still in them that should have been cleared out....DISH technical support confirmed this in one of many conversations I had with them....so the mess gets worse....software issues that DISH engineers are trying to solve with replacement equipment that is defective out of the box....poor DISH CSR's can't figure where to begin in solving an issue. I repeat what I said earlier in one of my posts....management needs to step back and regroup as this is getting to be a quite expensive tail chasing fiasco!

 

[Tron2012]

Its strange because my HWS doesnt have any of those problems. What I can never understanx is how some have issues and some dont with the same software version. Almot leads me to believe its a problem with wiring or the dish.

Consider yourself lucky my friend!! After reading and posting a lot about problems, I highly doubt most of these issues are wiring or connection types of problems. Unless the problem is signal dropouts or obvious connection error messages.

I do feel for Dish as there are a ton of variables to look at. Like if someone has a certain setting(s) on the Hopper in conjunction with maybe a certIn number of timers and if some are for a specific channel and so on. There are thousands of possible combinations. Personally, I think they would benefit greatly if they arranged to take in a few of the more problematic Hoppers to test on that device instead of trying to replicate on a development platform.

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[lucky86]

I bet they do capture some of these receivers with problems directly from customers and test them out when they are unable to duplicate the issue.

 

[Shooter33]

Even thou' my 2 HWS / 2 Joey setup is in it's infancy . I had my doubt's for the first month, if everything would settle down. I feel that it has.

1. I have a hopper w/o sling and use a sling adapter

I have the HWS, so I didn't have the hang up issue.

2. You cannot access the Dishanywhere feature on a laptop or PC when you are not on the same LAN as the hopper

I hadn't intended to use this "feature" at first , but I wanted to try it . Last week I went to Dish Anywhere site downloaded the plug-in to work with firefox, in about 5 minutes I was watching live/dvr'd programs on my desktop. Looked stupid thou, since the desktop is only 15 feet away from the TV . Then I wanted to try the app on my Android phone, while I was at work I fired it up and to my amazement it also worked, I was able to watch live and dvr'd content , picture was better then expected. While I still don't plan on using it, I thought I would still give it a try. I don't have any special equipment Dual-Core desktop G - Wireless Network, Single-core 1.4gz phone, crappy wifi network access at work.

3. Since latest software release try accessing the Weather Channel App on your Hopper w/o sling...probably same with sling

My one HWS has had zero issues, the other HWS was nothing but trouble until about 10 days ago before the 330/335 updates, All the apps still work after those updates on both HWS.

4. Periodic non-recognition of one or both of the ehd's connected to the Hopper

I had moved programs off my 722k before it died to a 1tb EHD, the first day or so the new HWS was the only days of having issues. Since then none, I didn't try moving anything to the HWS till after the recent updates due to advice given here, Tried it Sunday February the 2nd , moved about 6 programs without a hitch 2:. I hope they make both Hoppers see the EHD content someday, after fixing current issues !!!! I don't plan on using EHD for any long term storage, due to the volatile nature of hard drives (Just had a data HD on Desktop die.. 23gb music / 9gb pictures !! was able to transfer before death), I usually watch and delete. Now if I lost the current 88 programs I haven't watch yet on the Internal HD...watch out .

I hope something gets figured out for you !
Steve

 

[kappy44]

Even thou' my 2 HWS / 2 Joey setup is in it's infancy . I had my doubt's for the first month, if everything would settle down. I feel that it has.

I have the HWS, so I didn't have the hang up issue.
I hadn't intended to use this "feature" at first , but I wanted to try it . Last week I went to Dish Anywhere site downloaded the plug-in to work with firefox, in about 5 minutes I was watching live/dvr'd programs on my desktop. Looked stupid thou, since the desktop is only 15 feet away from the TV . Then I wanted to try the app on my Android phone, while I was at work I fired it up and to my amazement it also worked, I was able to watch live and dvr'd content , picture was better then expected. While I still don't plan on using it, I thought I would still give it a try. I don't have any special equipment Dual-Core desktop G - Wireless Network, Single-core 1.4gz phone, crappy wifi network access at work.

My one HWS has had zero issues, the other HWS was nothing but trouble until about 10 days ago before the 330/335 updates, All the apps still work after those updates on both HWS.

I had moved programs off my 722k before it died to a 1tb EHD, the first day or so the new HWS was the only days of having issues. Since then none, I didn't try moving anything to the HWS till after the recent updates due to advice given here, Tried it Sunday February the 2nd , moved about 6 programs without a hitch 2:. I hope they make both Hoppers see the EHD content someday, after fixing current issues !!!! I don't plan on using EHD for any long term storage, due to the volatile nature of hard drives (Just had a data HD on Desktop die.. 23gb music / 9gb pictures !! was able to transfer before death), I usually watch and delete. Now if I lost the current 88 programs I haven't watch yet on the Internal HD...watch out .

I hope something gets figured out for you !
Steve

You have to access the dishanywhere outside of your LAN, say when you are out of town or at least off your LAN and at some other location where you live and access with a PC or laptop into the standard portal...android or iphone app will work, but pc or laptop won't....spent hours yesterday through numerous PM's with 2 DIRT reps and they took my username and pw and confirmed they duplicated my same problem....they then forwarded same to engineering.

I will say this in CAPS: DIRT TEAM MEMBERS HAVE CONFIRMED THE SOFTWARE UPDATES THAT HAVE GONE OUT HAVE NOT SOLVED EHD ISSUES....HERE IS A QUOTE FROM ONE OF THEM: "I understand the frustration with these issues happening. From a programming stand point, fixing something that breaks with an update is more difficult than it seems. This is because when updating code, or fixing it, the change can sometimes break something else. It's fully possible a fix has already been found, but the fix ended up causing problems in another part of the software, so they have to go over it and make sure nothing breaks as a result of the fix. Our last update for the EHD problem was an estimated fix designated for 1/22. It doesn't seem like they have been able to fix the problem though, so they are still working on it."

My point here is that this is a sorry state of affairs and I repeat my earlier point about inadequate QA/QC!

 

[lucky86]

What exact ehd issues are you still experiencing? Most people reporting ehd transfers stalling and ehd not recognized have confirmed it is now working for them. There are still some posting about issues but the wide scale problems that were reported are not being reported as a problem anymore. So it looks like the ehd issues were fixed for most.

 

[kappy44]

What exact ehd issues are you still experiencing? Most people reporting ehd transfers stalling and ehd not recognized have confirmed it is now working for them. There are still some posting about issues but the wide scale problems that were reported are not being reported as a problem anymore. So it looks like the ehd issues were fixed for most.

EHD Issues:
1. When you have two ehd's Hopper loses one of them periodically (does not recognize it)....hard reboot required
2. Transfers between ehd's and various hoppers with and w/o sling are still issues....as I quoted above DIRT recognizes the software update of 1/22 did not work properly and has caused other issues up to and including app issues.
3. New or replacement Hoppers with and w/o sling are not recognizing EHD's at all even with the "wait overnight" suggestion.

I was smart enough to keep an older released version of the Hopper and it is still recognizing and transferring ehd programming, but has now got issues with ehd recognition, app issues, slow response to commands, etc. Best yet is the problem with the Dishanywhere portal when connecting outside of your LAN via PC and/or laptop. As I said I have been working with DIRT and all of these issues are there for many customers and my quotes from them reflect that.

 

[KKlare]

From a suggestion somewhere here, I think my problem with sending to the EHD results when I input from it or possibly from any EHD.
This is a pain because I need to empty a little so I can transfer a little with very full disks, both internal and external.
I see how far this concept gets me.

There was an advantage to 2 722s as I could input on one and output on the other, swap directions and keep going.
Then again before S328 it seemed to work without the problem of having the transfer fail either just short of the end or almost immediately.
The latter is what I am working on now.
-Ken

 

[kappy44]

From a suggestion somewhere here, I think my problem with sending to the EHD results when I input from it or possibly from any EHD.
This is a pain because I need to empty a little so I can transfer a little with very full disks, both internal and external.
I see how far this concept gets me.

There was an advantage to 2 722s as I could input on one and output on the other, swap directions and keep going.
Then again before S328 it seemed to work without the problem of having the transfer fail either just short of the end or almost immediately.
The latter is what I am working on now.
-Ken

Thanks for weighing in....you are one of several members I referred to when talking to DIRT....it really takes quite awhile and lots of PM's with DIRT, I was able to take the time yesterday outside of my employment hours to get these issues conveyed. Here's an example of recognition for the time I spent in this quote from DIRT on the Dishanywhere issue:"Thank you! I am going to send this to my engineers. 'xxxxx' was able to duplicate the issue. I will send them the information that you have provided me and they will look into this and get it resolved. I have seen a few other issues such as this lately as well, so our engineers will be able to get this resolved via a software update."

In my earlier reply to a post I included DIRT comments regarding the EHD issue as well, thanks again.

 

[KKlare]

I managed to get part of of the backlog out to EHD after reboot.
I finally hit the full load limit and was able to switch to inputting a block of shows.
The real test lies ahead when I try to go back to outputting more shows.
I'm dreading doing a reboot because I have so many shows scheduled--it may take a while.

Dish let us reset the USB path without a reboot. (My new war cry.)
-Ken

 

[barryaz1]

I am starting this to mirror the frustration I've been reading in quite a few threads regarding hopper software updates and other concerns DISH staff calls "known issues".

One problem seems to be that our complaining shows up in multiple threads. Mine is called[h=2]After 15+ Years and $17,000, I'm Thinking of Leaving DISH[/h]and I've been PMing with a DIRT member who unfortunately drank the same Kool-Aid of not acknowledging the software problems. I don't think we're ever going to see the real stability that we were once used to.

 

[Barry Erick]

I have hopper w/o sling and you issue with the weather app works fine for me. Once in a while I get can't connect to App, but the selection moves fine, everwhere.