Dish 942 L280 Software Bug Reports

SteveinDanville said:
With all due respect, and Mark Lamutt is saying the same thing as you if I read his words correctly, the 942's you guys have aren't the same ones us poor schlubs out here have.
Mark received his 942 directly from Dish Network about a month before the 942 was released. I on the other hand purchased mine from DishStore.NET. So that would make my unit the same one you "poor schulbs" have. ;)

Marks on the other hand is probably a special unit.

I should note that when I was a beta tester for the 721 Dish sent me a special 721 which had the beta software on it. I am assuming this unit was tested by Dish before sending it out (They wouldnt let me use the 721 I owned) what I found strange about this, in beta testing the 721 I did not have most of the problems end users had with the 721 software when it was released.

Why did they need to send me a new 721 to beta test? I will never know, however if I had to guess I would say the unit they sent me had perfect specifications.

Could this be why Mark did not see any of these bugs? I don't know and I am sure he is not going to say one way or another, that's just the way he operates.
 
Also having the same audio problems listed above, and no EPG data for 2 local OTAs 13.1 and 6.1 in the Sacramento Market (this problem was there before, no beneficial response from Dish ever)
 
I had the same audio problems that everyone is reporting. The audio problem (at least on my box) seems to be linked to the PIP/SWAP button and local OTA. Everytime I tried to swap to the other tuner on OTA channel, I would lose the audio completely. This audio problem was either on LIVE event or recorded event. I could not get the audio back by getting rid of the PIP window or putting the receiver in standby. I had to soft-reboot the DVR to get the audio back. For the rest of the afternoon I did not touch either the PIP/Swap button and the audio was very stable.

Consider that viewing habits maybe different than everyone but I do not watch any LIVE event. I usually record on both tuners and watch a pre-recorded event. Since not using the PIP/Swap button, I haven't had any audio problems.
 
Just received word from Erik Carlson that 129 bird missing from point dish screen should be fixed tonight. Don't know about any of the other problems but I bet engineering is working like a one armed paper hanger.
 
We've not noticed any problems though we have not tried to reproduce any found here on the forum.

1) Caller ID works now for the first time (Sweet!)
2) Tearing has not gotten any better with this release (Ughh!)

I'll update this post with anything else we find.
 
Call to E*

I spoke with E* support about my problems with the 942. I described the following.....

1) audio stutter or complete loss of DD5.1 signal during recording playback.

2) unexpected audio swap while watching recorded material. Audio would swap from recorded signal to currently tuned input signal.

3) Increase about of visual artifacts and video jitter.

4) picture freeze when watching recorded material and stepping forward with right arrow button.

They didn't seem to be concerned and I was told that they had "only one or two calls" about this.

Scott, any idea when they will be releasing a L282 to fix these issues?
 
This post explains in detail the EXACT same problems I'm experiencing (audio), and the method of FIX (soft boot). I called Dish and explained this to them, and they said they have gotten "alot" of calls regarding this problem, and said the problem is related to the use of PIP SWAP. The person I spoke to in Tech Support said the programmers were working on a FIX.

Sean Mota said:
I had the same audio problems that everyone is reporting. The audio problem (at least on my box) seems to be linked to the PIP/SWAP button and local OTA. Everytime I tried to swap to the other tuner on OTA channel, I would lose the audio completely. This audio problem was either on LIVE event or recorded event. I could not get the audio back by getting rid of the PIP window or putting the receiver in standby. I had to soft-reboot the DVR to get the audio back. For the rest of the afternoon I did not touch either the PIP/Swap button and the audio was very stable.

Consider that viewing habits maybe different than everyone but I do not watch any LIVE event. I usually record on both tuners and watch a pre-recorded event. Since not using the PIP/Swap button, I haven't had any audio problems.
 
L281 has spooled this morning but only fixed the 129 satellite issue in the point dish screen.

The other items are going to take some work, I would not be surprised if it's a few weeks.
 
robert393 said:
I called Dish and explained this to them, and they said they have gotten "alot" of calls regarding this problem, and said the problem is related to the use of PIP SWAP. The person I spoke to in Tech Support said the programmers were working on a FIX.
I haven't used the PIP Swap button at all except to FIX the audio. I only use the SAT stations, as I have no OTA available where I live. Therefore, these two possible causes definitely aren't the reasons why I have such bad audio problems and worse artifacting than with L229. Watched "Rome" recorded Sunday off of HBOHD and the typical right-side artifacts/pixelization are now spread across the middle of the screen. Thanks again, Dish, for the service improvement.
 
Yeah my locals are all screwed up. But here's the progression of the problem:

My antenna rotator in the attic seized at 0-degrees North, but not before I realized it and suspected my cheap Radio Shack pre-amp had burned out. I bought a new Channel Master 7777 pre-amp that boasts a +26 dB gain (!). While up in the attic installing it I noticed the rotator was stuck at 0-degrees.

So I suspected first that the control unit was having an issue, such as one of the wires pulled out or something. I went back downstairs and measured the voltages but there weren't any problems. So I just ignored it for a while because I could pick up all of the near local channels in digital now with the new powerful pre-amp. The only channel I couldn't pick up was UPN/WB 53 which is broadcast from a neighboring city to the SSE. (Most of the other channels were ESE, so it's just showing how awesome this pre-amp is that it could pick them all up while the antenna is facing N.)

So tonight I went back up to the attic to repair the rotator. I was able to get the motor to unseize twice by banging on it with a hammer, but nevertheless I gave up repairing it permanently because up there in the dark, sitting precariously on the rafters, I couldn't get the locking washer undone in order to access the gearing and apply grease. So I just disassembled it, roughly aimed the antenna SE and just left it sitting on the rafters, and brought the rotator downstairs to attempt a later repair.

Much to my surprise I can now pick up all of the local channels at 100% signal and can even pick up that UPN/WB 53 channel at 75%. Fantastic! So screw the rotator. However, now began my realization of the newly introduced receiver bugs.

First I noticed some unusually frequent video artifacts present while watching a recorded program. The audio was fine, but there were many video artifacts quickly appearing and disappearing from time-to-time along the right side of the picture.

Then while poking around the menus I noticed the USB multimedia additions.

And finally while proceeding to the local channel setup menu I noticed it now had the analog capability. Cool, but not really any point for me since I've been watching OTA ATSC for years now, beginning first with my AccessDTV PCI DVR card in my computer attached to the HDTV.

But anyway, I did a full rescan for both digital and analog and was surprised to see it found all the channels. So I added them. Unfortunately it didn't really do anything... at least I couldn't find UPN/WB 53 in the EPG, but I could tune it manually by entering 53 on the remote.

Finally I gave up and went back to the local channel setup menu, deleted all the channels, and then manually entered the digital channels. No difference; all of the channels show up in the EPG except 53.

Another problem I noticed this morning is that I couldn't watch local channels on the second TV all of a sudden. (I operate my 942 in dual-user mode so I can watch TV upstairs without a second receiver.)

Also for quite some time now (before the L280 update) all of my local channels except one channel (51, which I never watch) have been missing from the 72xx range where the satellite-rebroadcast of the locals should be.

So I wrote an e-mail to Dish Support today... I don't expect much of a resolution, but here's what I sent:

--

Using 942 receiver. Three issues:

1. I add local channel 53 (ATSC 46) to the locals list and can tune the channel by entering 53 manually on the remote, but the channel doesn't show up in the EPG.

2. Despite having satellite locals turned on in the settings menu, only channel 51 shows up in the 72xx range.

3. Why am I paying extra for local channels when I'm tuning them in over-the-air and the rebroadcast channels don't even appear in the 72xx range?
 
yottabit said:
Why am I paying extra for local channels when I'm tuning them in over-the-air and the rebroadcast channels don't even appear in the 72xx range?
Good post. Just to answer this one questions, you are having to pay for your locals because E* says so:

1. In my case, I am required to pay for locals during my 12 month contract...even though I have two OTA antennas and receive programming from 4 DMAs. :no

2. Currently, the 942 requires subscribing to your local channels in order to receive PG data. They simply use PSIP channel identification information and discard the rest of the datastream. :mad:
 
riffjim4069 said:
<snip>.......Currently, the 942 requires subscribing to your local channels in order to receive PG data. They simply use PSIP channel identification information and discard the rest of the datastream. :mad:

I believe the FCC can and would do something about this if enough people complained.

They mandate full PSIP compliance from broadcasters, so I would think they could mandate full usage from receivers.
 
waltinvt said:
I believe the FCC can and would do something about this if enough people complained.

They mandate full PSIP compliance from broadcasters, so I would think they could mandate full usage from receivers.
I would tend to agree, but E* may have some wiggle room with this one...and I'm sure their lawyers are well aware of their legal obligation. First, it would certainly be a reasonable expectation for newer OTA reception devices, be they stand alone ATSC tuners or integrated ATSC HDTVs, to process and display the PSIP datastream via a customer interface (Program Guide). However, E* could reasonably argue they are selling a satellite service and not a free over-the-air reception service. The ATSC tuner is being provided to the customer as an added convenience and, they could argue, it is free and not generally supported by Dish Networks (i.e. it's a freebie and you get what you pay for). Moreover, subscribers, in most cases, can pay for local channels via satellite, which are fully supported and fully integrated into their Program Guide. E* can further argue that, because they are such good Corporate Citizens, they integrate the digital locals into the PG free of charge, just as long as they subscribe to their locals package.

Personally, I think it's a scam...but they may very well be in compliance with the letter of the law. If anyone would like to provide links to the appropriate laws, rules & regulations covering OTA reception devices I would gladly read them.
 
Prior to the latest download, I started getting check switch messages. After the latest download, I installed ota analog stations. Then my unit died. It is in an endless loop---"acquiring satellite signal, download program guide, repairing harddrive." The unit was great until recently. Now Dish is sending me a new unit, but it sounds like that will have problems, too. They need to better test their downloads before releasing them.. The worst thing is that tech support is unaware of all these problems.
 
E called me to confirm my problem is not unique. If I scan in OTA local digital stations, they delete the Satellite locals. If if delete the scanned in locals, the statellite locals come back and stay. I wish we could go back to L227. L229 created a whole new series of problems that didn't exist before and still not corrected. TECH support in their call to me said they hoped to have it fixed soon. Why am I paying for locals on satellite if they are deleted by the scanned in OTA digitals?
 
Called Tech Support at Dish

I just got off the phone with Tech support at Dish about this audio bug
----------------------------------------------------------------
My audio is very unstable now also, audio is lost when rewind back aways
and sometimes the audio doesn't change to the other tuner when you swap.
Second tuner now has DD but looses audio when you try to backup to play
previous buffered video, have to be at LIVE position to restore audio.
I'd rather have back the way it was, at least then the correct audio was on the correct video.
Very frustrating, I was really happy with my 942 till this update.
----------------------------------------------------------------
My 942 was great before this, now it's a boat anchor.
I still have my HDTivo, will be switching back to D* if this is not fixed
in a couple weeks. I'd be happy at this point if they would just reload
the previous software.
 
One other problem I have noticed since 280 is that the Closed Captioning is messed up. It used to run perfectly but now it scrolls too fast, at the wrong time and misses parts of the main dialog.

This is a very important feature to me because I am nearly deaf. I can't understand what they say most of the time, may just as well be in Greek.
 
OK, Dish engineers here are a couple things. I am having audio dropouts on OTA locals usualy happening after watching a channel for a period of time. It starts to cutout then eventually quits completely. Switching the channel to another and back fixes it. If I remember correctly it did this once before the latest updates.

Also, Caller ID, after the latest update it started working without me changing anything. However it takes 4-5 rings for it to show up on screen, usually after we have already answered the call.

Just my .02 for you to work on, thanks.
 
***

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

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)