Audio/Freeze problems...

joehandy

Member
Original poster
May 21, 2004
10
0
I'm sorry if this has been covered already but I'm SO p.o.'d i could SCREAM! i just got off the phone with sbc/dish network "support", to make a long story short, I've had synch/freeze problems for, like, well...since I've had this damn box (522) and today i make my third all to cs, the guy was rude (acted as if I'd disturbed his Sunday afternoon), told me to turn off my receiver, unplug it for thirty seconds, THEN told me to delete EVERY PROGRAM!!! told me that somehow I had corrupted one of programs and that was the only thing he could do...i do not want to do this...I've got stuff that i want to keep...i guess my question is this...will this fix my box? or was he just blowing smoke up my a**?!?! help me...please...
~joey~
 
He was blowing smoke - he is utterly clueless, incompetent, and should be reported if you can figure out enough ID info to nail him.
 
thank you Simon!
I'm SO glad i read your post before i deleted all of my recordings...
so, do you have any ideas what might be wrong with my box? hard drive going bad? any help will be GREATLY appreciated...
i cannot for the life of me remember his name, so, is there a way to find out who it was besides just calling over and over again till i get the same guy? he was a gigantic jerk...
thanks again!
 
Unfortunetly, there is probably nothing wrong with your box in particular. The sync and freeze problems seem to have risen dramatically for me with the 2.02/2.01 software. I do understand the driving you crazy part :). This has been by far the worst software release I have seen yet on the 522s, IMHO. I would guess the single mode feature was not really ready to roll and the software team got pushed by the higher ups to just get it out, even if it was wrong. Sorry I couldn't help more...
 
What imstriker said.

Search the threads and you'll see that it's a generic software issue - like almost every other DVR problem E* has.
 
i appreciate the info guys!
I'm just glad i came here before following the sbc/dish sh*t for brains cs advice! you guys have a great board here...hell, from now on, I'll just come here before I'll even THINK about calling cs...
have a great week!
~joey~
 
Welcome aboard Joey!

And yes, you'll do much better here - and with your own thought processes than with anything E* CSRs will give you. If in doubt, simply do the OPPOSITE of whatever they say and you'll probably be close to correct.
 
I can't believe how bad this is. It almost makes recorded programs unwatchable. The dropouts are happening no my recorded programs every 10 seconds or so.
 
typerk said:
I can't believe how bad this is. It almost makes recorded programs unwatchable. The dropouts are happening no my recorded programs every 10 seconds or so.

i am in the same boat...got home from work, the screen savers had already started recording, i start watching from the beginning, i just turned it off not even five minutes to the program, pauses/freezes...constantly...TOTALLY unwatchable recording...i am SO freaking sick of this! is there anything we can do? is there a software fix on the way? i may try calling support again tomorrow during the day instead of the evening, maybe get a hold of someone who knows what's going on? thanks for listening to my ranting...
bye!
~joey~!
 
RBBrittain said:
Are you using the optical output for audio? That seems to have more audio problems than the RCA or RF outputs.

i use rca...always have...I've never cared for dolby digital myself...
another thing I've noticed is that i rarely have problems in live mode lately...
 
i know

This audio freeze problem is driving me crazy. I picked dish cause it really looked good. I fell in love with the 522 as soon as I got it, I mean, you duno how happy I was. I even put up with minor problems here and there, i mean loss in audio once in a blue moon is ok. Some pixelation every other day isnt a problem.

But since this last update, every show pixelates, stops, pauses, screws up, audio is lost every 5 minutes.

If I am watching an hour long show, about 45 minutes into it, its just unwatchable. I have to stop it, turn off the receiver, turn it back on and then hit resume, and even then its hit and miss.

DISH FIX IT OR IM MOVING TO DTV NEXT MONTH!!!!!
 
I have not noticed any pixelation at all.. No audio sync problems, but a few times, I've noticed a quick audio loss, yet nothing very severe.

My only problem with my two day old 522 is the fact that the program guide doesn't seem to update properly. I mean, on Monday 8/2, I was able to scroll to Wednesday 8/11 12:00 p.m. Today's Wednesday, and I still can only scroll to Wednesday 8/11 @ 12:00 p.m. What's gonna happen if this doesn't fix by Wednesday 8/11 @ 12:00 p.m.??

Oh...and for some reason, my 522 only recorded 13 minutes of Futurama @ 1:30 a.m. this morning...hmm... I have no clue as to WHY it failed to record the other 17 minutes, but I have ideas (disk maintenance, anyone?). It's never interupted my viewing to do it, but I wouldn't be surprised based on posts on this forum that the 522 WOULD interupt a recording to do it...
 
syphix said:
...the program guide doesn't seem to update properly. I mean, on Monday 8/2, I was able to scroll to Wednesday 8/11 12:00 p.m. Today's Wednesday, and I still can only scroll to Wednesday 8/11 @ 12:00 p.m. What's gonna happen if this doesn't fix by Wednesday 8/11 @ 12:00 p.m.??

syphix, do you have the updates enabled in the menu (Menu - 8 - 5)? And if so, is it possible that you (or someone in the house) was watching TV at the update time and cancelled the update? Try this: do a manual reboot (hold down the power button on the front of the receiver for about 5 seconds until the 522 reboots, and then release the button). If there's a guide update "pending," it should occur after the reboot takes place. When you do this, make sure you tell anyone with access to TV2 to not cancel the update when prompted with the option of doing so. And then maybe tell them to not cancel it at any other time either. I believe if someone cancels a guide update, or opts "No" right before update time, that the 522 will remember that it needs an update and just do it later when the tuners aren't in use. Maybe that mechanism isn't working properly.

syphix said:
...I have no clue as to WHY it failed to record the other 17 minutes, but I have ideas (disk maintenance, anyone?). It's never interupted my viewing to do it, but I wouldn't be surprised based on posts on this forum that the 522 WOULD interupt a recording to do it...(Emphasis added)

I can't say if that's what happened with your Futurama episode, but yes, the 522 will absolutely interrupt a program to go through its stupid disk diagnostics routine. As you can see from the third paragraph and pictures here, this does happen. :rolleyes:
 
Good News and Bad News

The Good News:
I set a timer to record a program that started at 3:00 AM (with the standard 1 min. early buffer). I was wondering if the update process (set to run at 3:00 AM) would cause problems. To my surprise it recorded fine, imagine that.

The Bad News:
I am noticing more and more audio dropouts. It is happening enough to piss me off now. :mad: I'm also seeing a gradual increase in tiling too. I'm sure the solution I'll get from customer support will be to re-boot.
 
that's what they told me in reponse to my email on the topic. They also said if that doesn't solve the problem to note the program and time that it occured because sometimes there's a problem with the uplink from the channels. Yeah, that's the ticket. So ALL of them have a problem ALL the time.

At some point Dish needs to be held in breach of contract and needs to issue refunds as I'm not getting the service that I paid for. I've ignored all the other bugs because they were just annoyances but this is unacceptable.
 
RBBrittain said:
Are you using the optical output for audio? That seems to have more audio problems than the RCA or RF outputs.
no it doesnt seem to matter every thing that records has audio dropouts
 
Watching the news tonight, I had audio dropouts about twice a minute; sometimes no more than a couple of seconds apart. Every 2nd or 3rd droput was accompanied by major pixelation of the picture.

These guys don't really do much testing, do they?
 
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