811 is driving me nuts!

dish96

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 19, 2007
34
0
PA
I'm having some serious problems with my 811 receiver. It goes blank, shuts off and even says something about my smart card. When I shut down to re-boot it ometimes doesnt help. Any ideas?\
 
Were can I just buy a 211? I have a SuperDish. Does that matter? This 811 is garbage...I called about the "FREE" HD/DVR upgrade and they wanted a $149 fee upfront?? Plus a lease fee, DVR fee and more for the additonal HD programming. I nearly cancelled!
 
A new dish? Why? I thought the "SuperDish" was needed to get HD. That's what I was told.
 
Yeah folks should make the move from the old MPEG2 receivers over to one of the new MPEG4 receivers. 211 or 622,722 is the way to go.
 
No. I think my locals - Youngstown, OH required it. So if I upgrade to one of the new MPEG4 boxes I need a new dish?
 
super dish also was for local channels in some arias. if thats the case you might need 1000+ re-point kit with DPP 44 switch
 
I still have an 811, had a 211, but traded it in on a 722. The 811 is needed to drive my TiVo. The 211 does not work with the TiVo because of the floating logo screen saver. 811 works fine. If you trade your 811, go with the 722 and the DVR advantage package. Best deal.
 
Volkodav:
Why does my 811 "freeze" so much and why does it say the note about "smart card not authorized"? Is there a bug I can fix?
 
I'm surprised folks still want to hold on to their MPEG-2 receivers. All new HD programming is being added in MPEG-4, no? The only advantages the 811 had were their analog OTA tuners (in addition to digital, if you needed analog for some reason) and the UHF remote; that helped me as I had sets in 3 rooms all connected to the 811. But ever since I upgraded the 811 first to a 622 and then finally to an additional 211, I haven't looked back. At the point of the first upgrade I was already missing 5 M-4 channels; at this point it's more like 15 and increasing as more are (slowly!) added. My 811 was also quirky, but I don't remember that specific smart card error. A simple soft boot always reset mine.

To the OP, you can DIY if you feel comfortable changing dishes and LNBs. This time it might pay to let E* do it as part of an upgrade. Even if you own your receiver (I own my 622 and lease the others) you have to pay the monthly access fee in place of a lease fee. There's no economic advantage to owning one that I could ever determine. I upgraded my 811 to the 211 in Aug. when there was a deal to do it. (The $99 upgrade fee was offset by a $10/mo-10-mo. programming credit and in theory there was no commitment.) You might see if E* would be willing to still offer a similar deal, especially as a "customer retention" incentive...
 
An OTA station (KOVR 13 Sacramento) continuously caused my 811 to freeze and reboot. I had to remove that digital channel from my receiver, I added it back later and the freezing started again, so I removed it again. Things seem to be fine.
I would like to replace it with a 211 but do not want to commit to another 18 months if I upgrade it. I already have a 211 on my main tv.
 
It sounds like your 811 is about to die! I used to have an 811, traded it for a VIP211. Have had better reception and seems to be alot more stable, with the VIP211 over the 811. I did this over a year ago. Call DISH and see what kind of deal they may give you for this type of trade. I got a good deal and as someone has already said, the new HD channels are comming out in MPEG4.

Good luck.:up
 
Volkodav:
Why does my 811 "freeze" so much and why does it say the note about "smart card not authorized"? Is there a bug I can fix?


like a lots of people saying, 811 is one of the worst receivers. they have way to many bugs. if you don't want to upgrade to 211, then call dish have them send you a new one
 
Do you use OTA? If you leave the 811 tuned to an OTA channel too long it loses authorization, I'd just leave the smart card error message up for a couple minutes and it would always come back for me.
 
get rid of the 811 and get a 622

you wont think twice about paying the $149 upfront once you have it, plus they make up for that cost with a $100 rebate and $120 in programming credits (in other words you make $71 by switching to a new receiver)
 
Volkodav:
Why does my 811 "freeze" so much and why does it say the note about "smart card not authorized"? Is there a bug I can fix?

On my 811 this happened if I watched OTA for very long. An hour or so of OTA and no problems, but if I left it on OTA overnight then a reboot or possibly a complete repower of the box would be required to fix it.

I paid $199 up front to upgrade to the 722 then got the $100 rebate applied directly to my bill and Dish HD for 6mo free.

I can't imagine not having the DVR now, and you'll love the 9day guide instead of just 2days. I prefer to watch nothing live as the DVR eliminates the commercials. For Football games I couldn't watch live I used to use my DVD recorder (no HD), now I can watch them in HD whenever I want. I like to starts them about 1.5hrs late and skip all the commercials!

The only noticable bug I have on the 722, is sometimes there are lipsync problems on some HD programs. These are sometimes at the source and not a Dish problem.
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)