This is going to be a bit of a rant (sorry). I have always had problems with Dish receivers. I believe I'm on my third Hopper. They always send you refurbished units which means they didn't find the reported problem for that box because it only happened every week or two so there was no way to reproduce the problem. The recent box has two main problems, it occasionally just decides to reboot even if there is a program being viewed or recorded. It did that about 3 times earlier this year but hasn't happened since. The problem that happens on a regular basis is the recording schedule suddenly decides a program has been selected to be skipped by user or is a incorrect event. Sometimes if you try to "un-skip" or record the replacement event it refuses to make the change. The only way to fix that is to delete the timer and reinstall the timer. If you don't catch and fix the error then the program isn't recorded.
Two days ago the program guide only went to 1:30 AM the next morning. Support said turn the box off (standby) and it will redownload the guide. Indeed it did but there were many info not available spots. I had to do that 3 times before I finally got a complete program guide.
I check the recording schedule regularly during an evening of watching and recording. Last night was the "straw that may have broken the camel's back". Two correct programs were to record at 10 PM. The box decided they were incorrect events and crossed them out wouldn't let me reinstate them and wouldn't let me record them manually once they had started.. The only "fix" was to reboot. Then they showed in the "completed area" as incorrect programs and had to be started manually after losing the first few minutes of each program.
I'm sure Dish would be glad to replace my receiver yet again but 15 years of experience with replacement receivers is that they have similar or different intermittent problems. The "rebooting your receiver will fix 50% of the problems" chant by support is just stupid. It doesn't fix the problem it simply restarts the computer and the problem will show up again in a few hours/days/weeks.
So I am seriously thinking of leaving Dish for DirecTV. Perhaps it will have a different set of problems, perhaps not but I really can't take another 15 years of Dish problems and useless solutions.
Two days ago the program guide only went to 1:30 AM the next morning. Support said turn the box off (standby) and it will redownload the guide. Indeed it did but there were many info not available spots. I had to do that 3 times before I finally got a complete program guide.
I check the recording schedule regularly during an evening of watching and recording. Last night was the "straw that may have broken the camel's back". Two correct programs were to record at 10 PM. The box decided they were incorrect events and crossed them out wouldn't let me reinstate them and wouldn't let me record them manually once they had started.. The only "fix" was to reboot. Then they showed in the "completed area" as incorrect programs and had to be started manually after losing the first few minutes of each program.
I'm sure Dish would be glad to replace my receiver yet again but 15 years of experience with replacement receivers is that they have similar or different intermittent problems. The "rebooting your receiver will fix 50% of the problems" chant by support is just stupid. It doesn't fix the problem it simply restarts the computer and the problem will show up again in a few hours/days/weeks.
So I am seriously thinking of leaving Dish for DirecTV. Perhaps it will have a different set of problems, perhaps not but I really can't take another 15 years of Dish problems and useless solutions.