622 "boot up" time MUCH shorter now?

Phils

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jul 28, 2006
115
0
Paradise, CA
I live off-grid, therefore all electrical loads get turned off when not in use. I began with Dish when they first started because they told me "no problem" cutting power every night. Primestar, on the other hand, told me if they "interrogated" their receiver three times with no answer, I'd be shut off for "suspected tampering".

So this method has worked great for over a decade. There's a wall switch that cuts power to the entertainment center. I've had 301's, 501's, and now have a 622.

EVERY receiver has ALWAYS taken a considerable time to step through the 5 steps to "acquire satellite", at least 5 minutes, sometimes longer.

Ever since the latest software update (that allows me to "group" my recordings) the 622 acquires sats and has a station in less than a minute. Lightening fast!!

Anybody else notice? (probably not, since the rest of you leave that power hog on all the time :D )

I assume this was intentional but hadn't seen any other comments about it. Of course, that may mean the comments are here and I didn't notice, as has happened before.

I vote it the best software upgrade yet!

Phil
 
Download

I live off-grid, therefore all electrical loads get turned off when not in use. I began with Dish when they first started because they told me "no problem" cutting power every night. Primestar, on the other hand, told me if they "interrogated" their receiver three times with no answer, I'd be shut off for "suspected tampering".

So this method has worked great for over a decade. There's a wall switch that cuts power to the entertainment center. I've had 301's, 501's, and now have a 622.

EVERY receiver has ALWAYS taken a considerable time to step through the 5 steps to "acquire satellite", at least 5 minutes, sometimes longer.

Ever since the latest software update (that allows me to "group" my recordings) the 622 acquires sats and has a station in less than a minute. Lightening fast!!

Anybody else notice? (probably not, since the rest of you leave that power hog on all the time :D )

I assume this was intentional but hadn't seen any other comments about it. Of course, that may mean the comments are here and I didn't notice, as has happened before.

I vote it the best software upgrade yet!

Phil

No comment on it booting faster but when do you have your download from E* set? That is usually done overnight.
 
No comment on it booting faster but when do you have your download from E* set? That is usually done overnight.

I have it set for 6:40am. I'm usually up and the unit is on by then. If there's something I'm watching, I just tell it "no" and keep watching.

Sometimes it is weeks between updates but that's never seemed to matter much. I've seen posts here complaining about certain software revs, and I just don't let it update until things get straightened out.

Phil
 
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You get the update the next time the receiver is shut off, unless you have it one 24/7 it does not take weeks. If you did do it for several weeks, you would not have any guide data. Have you been living without that for long periods of time?
 
I've noticed after the latest SW upgrade that my 622 and 722k will fly through 1&2 sit for about 60 sec on 3 and then fly through 4&5. So I think you are correct.

Just for grins, I plugged in my old 510 (because I own it and have most of all the Battlestar series and other Sci Fi on it, so it's just a big old storage device now) and it took almost 4 minutes (multiple times) to acquire.
 
I don't know if the reboot times have changed because I don't usually watch it reboot :)

But since the latest update, I saw it do something that never happened before, and shouldn't have happened at all: it rebooted due to signal loss. Come on, Dish! I have free programs on my computer that will play a truncated or damaged or in fact completely fragmentary MPEG file without complaining, let alone crashing. So why can't your overpriced, proprietary system?
 
Ever since the latest software update (that allows me to "group" my recordings) the 622 acquires sats and has a station in less than a minute. Lightening fast!!

I vote it the best software upgrade yet!

Phil

I did read something earlier this year about "quick" boot software coming out sometime this year. I guess I will have to give it a try one day.
 
You get the update the next time the receiver is shut off, unless you have it one 24/7 it does not take weeks. If you did do it for several weeks, you would not have any guide data. Have you been living without that for long periods of time?

It actually only updates at the selected time --- "overnight" (which can be any time you select). I've selected 6:40am. And with the receiver shut "off", it still uses the same amount of electricity (~90W) whether it's on or off. Mine has no power when it's off, therefore zero watts. It's an "off-grid" thing.

However the guide data will prompt me to update if 1) it hasn't been updated for a few days and I wanna look at the guide past that or 2) it hasn't been updated for a week and then it still offers the option to update or not. If I select "no", I'll only have guide data for the immediate times following whatever I'm watching.

Contrary to the "boot up" time, downloading the guide data takes at least twice as long as it used to. It says "about five minutes" on the screen but takes between 10 and 15 in actuality.

I've been living like this since I began with Dish, which was when they first started, which was months after Primestar started, which was after years of reading in Popular Science about how DBS would be so great. Well, it is [great]. We got a few snowy stations off antenna and now we get hundreds in std & HD.

Few complaints from me, TV is better than it's ever been.

Phil
 
I'm sure the only reason for the "fast boot" is so the CSRs won't have to spend a half hour on the phone waiting while going through multiple reboot troubleshooting procedures.
 
I'm sure the only reason for the "fast boot" is so the CSRs won't have to spend a half hour on the phone waiting while going through multiple reboot troubleshooting procedures.

rglore I had wondered why resources would be spent on reducing the boot-up time when it affected so few subscribers.

YOU answered that question very well!

Phil
 
The 722k took less than 3 minutes to reboot and be up on live tv after pushing the new red reboot button. THis is faster than before on the 722 which took 5 minutes or longer to reboot.
 
I tested the reboot time on my 622 after reading this thread. It clearly is faster with a total time of just under three minutes while it used to be five minutes. Further analysis shows that it took two minutes and fifteen seconds from the start of the reboot to get to the acquiring signal screen. From this point it only took another thirty seconds to display a picture. The improvement in time appears to be mostly, if not entirely, due to a much shorter time now being taken to acquire the signal which used to take around two minutes. This assumes that the start of the acquiring the signal process coincides with the onscreen message saying the receiver is acquiring signal.
 

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