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cjdish said:

I have the new Hopper 3. I can PAUSE and RESUME fine on a program that has finished recording. However, on a program that is being recorded, I can go to the "start" of the program, but I can't pause it at a certain point; continue to record the program;' and go back to the same point in the future where I "paused". I discussed with Dish Tech Support and they verified that I couldn't do this. Anyone have any ideas??

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DISH is the only DVRs that has that resume issue and they won't fix it for some reason. Been that way forever.

charlesrshell said:

For my Hoppers these instructions work great for a recorded program unless the the program was paused while still recording.

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Yeah, I'm with you. I just was trying to point out that Dish hasn't been clear on the steps to take when initiating playback, so I can understand why many people never even thought to press "play" instead of "select."

ncted said:

Yeah, I'm with you. I just was trying to point out that Dish hasn't been clear on the steps to take when initiating playback, so I can understand why many people never even thought to press "play" instead of "select."

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Understand, thanks.

charlesrshell said:

Understand, thanks.

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Well... I thought that I had proven to myself how my system works, but I have new thoughts now. This afternoon I switched back to a program that was BEING RECORDED and hit the SELECT button rather than the PLAY , and I HAD THE OPTION TO "RESUME" showing. I did this a couple of time and the RESUME option was still there (just like for a completed recorded program). After about 20 minutes I went back and this time the RESUME option wasn't there (just LIVE/STOP/START OVER/MORE INFO). So ...I backed up and hit the PLAY button and the program "resumed" where I had left off. I switched off the program after a few minutes and then went back to it...now the RESUME option was back again. Bottom line , I don't understand what is happening!! Since all this is a bit confusing I took pictures of the screen so I could really remember what had happened. At this point it looks like the RESUME option stayed there for a certain period of time and then went away. Then it came back again when I looked at the program for a certain period of time. I guess that I'll try to repeat all of this to see if I really see a pattern. ( or maybe I'll just have another beer!!!)

cjdish said:

Well... I thought that I had proven to myself how my system works, but I have new thoughts now. This afternoon I switched back to a program that was BEING RECORDED and hit the SELECT button rather than the PLAY , and I HAD THE OPTION TO "RESUME" showing. I did this a couple of time and the RESUME option was still there (just like for a completed recorded program). After about 20 minutes I went back and this time the RESUME option wasn't there (just LIVE/STOP/START OVER/MORE INFO). So ...I backed up and hit the PLAY button and the program "resumed" where I had left off. I switched off the program after a few minutes and then went back to it...now the RESUME option was back again. Bottom line , I don't understand what is happening!! Since all this is a bit confusing I took pictures of the screen so I could really remember what had happened. At this point it looks like the RESUME option stayed there for a certain period of time and then went away. Then it came back again when I looked at the program for a certain period of time. I guess that I'll try to repeat all of this to see if I really see a pattern. ( or maybe I'll just have another beer!!!)

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Yep, I have seen that too, hit or miss sometimes. What about when the recording completed recording after it had been paused while recording? I have yet to get that to work once the recording completed.

charlesrshell said:

Yep, I have seen that too, hit or miss sometimes. What about when the recording completed recording after it had been paused while recording? I have yet to get that to work once the recording completed.

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Once the recording was complete, this program and every completed program I have has worked the same, ie.. I can SELECT the program and I get the option to RESUME the program. The only time I use the PLAY button now is when I select a program "being recorded" and I don't see the RESUME option. I simply back-off and hit PLAY in those cases to get the program to "RESUME". For me, I have never NOT seen the RESUME option on COMPLETED recordings. I don't understand why my experience is different from yours unless some combination of equipment; system configuration or system update is not the same. There has to be a logical explanation!

cjdish said:

Once the recording was complete, this program and every completed program I have has worked the same, ie.. I can SELECT the program and I get the option to RESUME the program. The only time I use the PLAY button now is when I select a program "being recorded" and I don't see the RESUME option. I simply back-off and hit PLAY in those cases to get the program to "RESUME". For me, I have never NOT seen the RESUME option on COMPLETED recordings. I don't understand why my experience is different from yours unless some combination of equipment; system configuration or system update is not the same. There has to be a logical explanation!

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I wish I knew why I can't get the resume to work. I hit the Play button and it always goes back to the beginning. I must be doing something wrong. You could be right on the theory of the combination of equipment. I will try again tomorrow, run some more test. Thanks for your post.

charlesrshell said:

I wish I knew why I can't get the resume to work. I hit the Play button and it always goes back to the beginning. I must be doing something wrong. You could be right on the theory of the combination of equipment. I will try again tomorrow, run some more test. Thanks for your post.

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It has been my experience that pressing play will always resume for a program that is still recording as long as the program is still recording (with a few seconds afterwards as someone here has mentioned. The solution is to press the play button and then skip back button).

For programs that you start watching while they are still recording and want to finish watching later after the recording is completed it has been my experience that sometimes the resume button is there and sometimes it isn't. No rhyme or reason I can find on why. But the workaround is on programs you start watching while they are still recording but want to finish after the recording is completed if there is no resume button it will still list time remaining under the green progress bar. So in those cases while pressing play or watch will start from the beginning again you can use fast forward to get to the same time remaining that shows before you start watching again. For example you start watching a football game at 10 pm that started recording at 9 and you watch part of it and then go to bed and want to finish the game the next day. Even if there is no resume option before you start watching again pay attention to where it says time remaining before you start watching again. And if it says 1 hr 30 remaining simply fast forward until it says 1 hr 30 remaining and you will be back to where left off watching the night before. The combination of the play button while a program is still recording and the workaround I just described after the recording is completed if there is no resume option has been a lifesaver for a big sports fan like me. Especially during the March Madness college basketball tournament.

vlogical1 said:

It has been my experience that pressing play will always resume for a program that is still recording as long as the program is still recording (with a few seconds afterwards as someone here has mentioned. The solution is to press the play button and then skip back button).

For programs that you start watching while they are still recording and want to finish watching later after the recording is completed it has been my experience that sometimes the resume button is there and sometimes it isn't. No rhyme or reason I can find on why. But the workaround is on programs you start watching while they are still recording but want to finish after the recording is completed if there is no resume button it will still list time remaining under the green progress bar. So in those cases while pressing play or watch will start from the beginning again you can use fast forward to get to the same time remaining that shows before you start watching again. For example you start watching a football game at 10 pm that started recording at 9 and you watch part of it and then go to bed and want to finish the game the next day. Even if there is no resume option before you start watching again pay attention to where it says time remaining before you start watching again. And if it says 1 hr 30 remaining simply fast forward until it says 1 hr 30 remaining and you will be back to where left off watching the night before. The combination of the play button while a program is still recording and the workaround I just described after the recording is completed if there is no resume option has been a lifesaver for a big sports fan like me. Especially during the March Madness college basketball tournament.

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Thanks vlogical1. Was watching the Indy race and paused it while it was recording. Went back to it after the recording was complete. Did not have Resume option so I remembered the time remaining and pressed the Play button. Recording started at the beginning so I fast forward to the time remaining and finished watching the race. I had never noticed that the time remaining was there before. I ususally remembered what lap the race was on and then forgot the next day. Time remaining will be much better than trying to remember where you left off. Good tip, thanks again.

charlesrshell said:

Thanks vlogical1. Was watching the Indy race and paused it while it was recording. Went back to it after the recording was complete. Did not have Resume option so I remembered the time remaining and pressed the Play button. Recording started at the beginning so I fast forward to the time remaining and finished watching the race. I had never noticed that the time remaining was there before. I ususally remembered what lap the race was on and then forgot the next day. Time remaining will be much better than trying to remember where you left off. Good tip, thanks again.

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Not to beat a dead horse, but this whole issue still baffles me. It's hard to believe that its simply a programming issue since I've had a hard time repeating stuff 100 % of the time. One of the programs I started to watch ; paused and then went back to after recording had finished did NOT at first have the RESUME option. But then when I went back to it later it DID have the RESUME option. I guess I don't know enough of the technical background to understand how this is possible; and I find it hard to believe that somehow this happens randomly! I suppose I'll just have to live with my ignorance, since I suspect I'll never get an answer from Dish. But, all in all I'm happy with the H3 and the different workarounds do give me options. PS... I really don't like the new 52 Remote, and when I called Dish they at least offered me one old 40 remote for free. Since the installer left one old 40 remote anyway, that made me a satisfied customer.

cjdish said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but this whole issue still baffles me. It's hard to believe that its simply a programming issue since I've had a hard time repeating stuff 100 % of the time. One of the programs I started to watch ; paused and then went back to after recording had finished did NOT at first have the RESUME option. But then when I went back to it later it DID have the RESUME option. I guess I don't know enough of the technical background to understand how this is possible; and I find it hard to believe that somehow this happens randomly! I suppose I'll just have to live with my ignorance, since I suspect I'll never get an answer from Dish. But, all in all I'm happy with the H3 and the different workarounds do give me options. PS... I really don't like the new 52 Remote, and when I called Dish they at least offered me one old 40 remote for free. Since the installer left one old 40 remote anyway, that made me a satisfied customer.

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Yep, I hear ya about the Resume showing up sometimes. My wife says it has worked sometimes for her, but I have yet to see it. DISH DVRs are the only DVRs that I know of that has this resume issue while recording. I read a post years ago that the resume issue might be because the Tivo law suit was going on. Well, that is over now and it still has not been fixed.

cjdish said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but this whole issue still baffles me. It's hard to believe that its simply a programming issue since I've had a hard time repeating stuff 100 % of the time. One of the programs I started to watch ; paused and then went back to after recording had finished did NOT at first have the RESUME option. But then when I went back to it later it DID have the RESUME option. I guess I don't know enough of the technical background to understand how this is possible; and I find it hard to believe that somehow this happens randomly! I suppose I'll just have to live with my ignorance, since I suspect I'll never get an answer from Dish. But, all in all I'm happy with the H3 and the different workarounds do give me options. PS... I really don't like the new 52 Remote, and when I called Dish they at least offered me one old 40 remote for free. Since the installer left one old 40 remote anyway, that made me a satisfied customer.

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TL;DR: Good software is hard to make.

I don't know what language(s) Dish uses on their STBs, which is why it is hard to say. Based on what I've seen, it probably isn't Java, unless they just have really good Java programmers. I say this because I don't recall seeing the usual slowness in areas which would be attributable to garbage collection like I have seen on many other Java-based systems. It also probably isn't Flash or Flex. I've looked at a bunch of open jobs at Dish and Echostar, but they seem to all be back-end stuff, not STB platform developers. Whatever it is, it is probably object oriented, which means heavy code reuse. This also likely means old bugs can come back to reappear when someone uses an old version of a library to do what they need the software to do.

Anyway, depending on what they are using to code, it might make it easier or harder to end up with a bug which results in inconsistent behavior like you describe. The biggest common flaw that gives you inconsistent results from software engineers failing to implement input validation. Essentially, is the input the software is receiving something acceptable or expected? Software engineers make assumptions all the time about how users will interact with their software. Unfortunately, people are very unpredictable, so often they provide unexpected inputs, and the code is not designed to deal with it, and it causes an exception. If there is no validation that the input is within the range of acceptable values, then unpredictable things can happen.

I am not saying this is the problem with Dish's code, but that is just the most common mistake I've seen over the years. My guess is there is come code to handle the RESUME function which relies on the condition of the recording (some kind of metadata) being an acceptable value for RESUME to be an option presented at the time of the button-press on the remote. That condition probably gets set by some other code which obviously isn't always running when it should, or it isn't setting the correct value, or something else. If we could actually talk to the Dish engineers, we could obviously get a clearer answer.

Dish claims to use Agile development methodology, which is supposed to involve direct interaction with the customers, but few places actually implement that part of it. In Agile, we, as consumers of the software product, should be able to submit bugs, which then are investigated, prioritized, and fixed (or not, depending on acceptance criteria). That is the theory anyway.

charlesrshell said:

DISH is the only DVRs that has that resume issue and they won't fix it for some reason. Been that way forever.

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tells me they don't know how or don't want to invest in the solution.

charlesrshell said:

Thanks vlogical1. Was watching the Indy race and paused it while it was recording. Went back to it after the recording was complete. Did not have Resume option so I remembered the time remaining and pressed the Play button. Recording started at the beginning so I fast forward to the time remaining and finished watching the race. I had never noticed that the time remaining was there before. I ususally remembered what lap the race was on and then forgot the next day. Time remaining will be much better than trying to remember where you left off. Good tip, thanks again.

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Yes, it works on the Wally too. Good find by vlogical1.