DISH Remote Access being replaced by DISH Online?

3HaloODST

SatelliteGuys Master
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Jul 2, 2010
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So I logged into DRA a few minutes ago, and it notified me that they will be replacing DRA with DISH Online.

DISH Remote Access will soon be replaced with a new web site - DISH Online. DISH Online includes all of your favorite features such as DVR scheduling, and watching live and recorded TV. Plus, it offers the ability to watch thousands of free On Demand TV shows and movies! Try it now at dishonline.com!
Well personally I've always preferred DRA over Online for managing my DVRs as it has a lot more relevant information. For example, DRA actually states the time remaining on the DVR, vs Online just saying "xx% Full." On DRA, it was easy to manage timer conflicts. On DISH Online, it just lists a big list of all of the conflicts which you have to scroll and through... DRA had the ability to manage Scheduled AND Timers can be sorted by priority. DISH Online only has the ability to manage what is scheduled and I can't see any way to organize anything...

PLEASE tell me that they plan on porting DRA directly to DISH Online? Otherwise, the current implementation of DISH Online is a major step back from what DRA can do.
 
Agreed. Also, I don't see a way to "resume" from where you left off with a DVR event. When you start playing it, it only starts from the beginning.

The Sling plugin is also flakier with DO than DRA (at least on a Mac). More often than not I got a black screen while what I wanted to have playing on DO is playing on TV 1 on the television. That's why I stopped using DO for Sling viewing and stuck with DRA. I also much prefer the DRA interface.

At this point if they shut down DRA and force everyone to DISH Online it would be a major step backward, at least from my point of view.
 
@$#@()& DISH ONLINE @$#@)(*&U !!!!!

I'm with the lot of you so far.. DRA has its problems.. but DishOnline is even worse... and its designed more for "Online" content like a Hulu view portal (gee funny that's where they get some of that content) than it is for people with Sling Adapters.

  • Deleting a scheduled event ... two different types of timers appear to have two different ways to delete them. I randomly chose to record an infomercial ... and when trying to delete the timer.. I go to the "Scheduled" list ... I could cancel the timer I have set for family guy, right there in the list.. but for this infomercial? I have to open the infomercial timer up first, and THEN I'm given a delete? WHY?
    .
  • When setting up an event to record, why are there no "Options" buttons there? Why do I have to go to the scheduled list.. scroll to find *this* timer, and only then do I get a chance to set Early/Late timer options?
    .
  • Why in the "Guide" for the drop down on day .. do you list "Today" "Tomorrow" and then start naming days? Why not jsut leave it as "Today" and then List the other days by name.. *not* by reference to "today" ... since today is subjective to people.. In Example.. its 12:15am .. but am I thinking today is "sunday"? or by chance thinking today is "Saturday" or even having to guess when they show "today / tomorrow" ... "tomorrow" has a name.. and that's what should be used
    .
  • While watching Live TV, I have no guide AT ALL! unless I close the Live-TV Window so that I can go back to the guide. If I even click on guide link .. it immediately shuts down the view window rather than warning me that it will stop the playback or rather than offer an option to open in new window or as an overlay, or place it under the current view window...
    .
  • The Guide .. There's absolutely no search option? The box up there is channel name or number only?
    .
  • The Guide .. why are SOME HD/SD channels listed with the HD of a pair listed *above* the SD version of the channel, and then OTHER times its the SD channel listed first? (see USA -- 105 SD is before 105 HD but then BBCA -- 135 HD is before 135 SD!)
    .
  • The Guide .. and its possible either the account problem continues, OR the guide is showing incomplete data ... because I see 129 Bravo HD ... but no SD version of Bravo (maybe others do see it, if they do, then its a per user issue again just like with DRA
    .
  • Hiding server connection information -- With Dish Remote Access ... a user authenticates, and is connected to a server with a url of the form dishXX.sling.com, where the XX will be replaced with a specific server the user is connected to, however with dishonline.com ... a user is only shown "beta.dishonline.com" and if the server they are connected to is having issues, there's no easy way to directly track this .. If it were not for the Dish IRT's involvment several users wouldn't have had some DRA problems resolved because the problem is linked to the server that is servicing the user's account, once their account is cleared from that server, they are assigned a different served and the user's problem ends up being resolved ... without easily seeing the server connected to change, the user will not have any key way to see the problem should be cleared/fixed.
    .
  • View DVR ... Like with DRA the events are grouped by default and no way to sort?
    • The groups appear to go by name, HOWEVER, if a user renames any event (easily seen if working with one episode in a series) any renamed events are still grouped under the *original* name! On a REAL DVR unit, if you grouped by name, it would use the edited names if they exist.
    • Again no differentiation between recordings on External Storage, and recordinds on the local drive. This can be highly important when you issue "space" warnings
      .
  • Because there is no "Play" button to play any "single" item entry ("Show All 1 Recordings") users have to click to open the event, and THEN you get a play option, on DRA you hover over the "play" button and get options for play on tv and play on web, as well as "Resume" options if the device had been played at some recognizable time.
    .
  • As others report, no option to "resume" playback ... At all??
    .
  • plays incorrectly (May 22, 2011 1pm) just attempted to play an item, go back to dvr (which stopped playback) and then attempted to play that same item again, and on my computer I have *LIVE* tv now showing, and on my TV1 which I was watching a movie (live not recorded) I suddenly get switched to my recording! I AGAIN click on View DVR ... scroll down to the SAME event ... open it, an click on play.. and on TV1 ... it starts the same show OVER again! Did this again, FOUR TIMES and still it would not play on the PC, but continually restart on TV1. I then tried choosing a DIFFERENT dvr'd event.. and IT started on TV1 rather than TV2!

    Had to unplug receiver to **try** to get it working again but it failed.. so now something's wrong with DishOnline (see longer note below)
    .
  • Event Data Wrong -- recorded from Epix "Craig Ferguson: Does this need to be said" on DVR it shows 1:08 (1 hour 8 minutes) but via DishOnline it shows as 31 minutes until you pause the playback, where it finally shows the correct amount of time.
    .
  • Would like some way to turn off the "hulu" experience, or have it *NOT* combined with DVR items. Some users may like a "seamless" experience, I **want** the defined line between content and their sources.

    example, I recorded 2 minutes of Jimmy Kimel Live, Renamed it "Jimmy k- app" (its Jimmy's ad for his itunes app) yet on DishOnline it still calls it Jimmy Kimmel Live ... and when I click the event, rather than clicking the "Show All 1 recordings" I get treated to tons of hulu crap for Jimmy Kimmel's show .. and if I press play in the center of the screen I'm presented with.. I get one of Jimmy's hour long shows, *NOT* the item from my DVR!

    Its this mixture of features I don't want *directly* in front of me.. I would rather the other *NON-DVR* content be kept on a tab or user selectable to be tabbed, mixed, or not at all with DVR items.
    .
  • This afternoon DishOnline.com is causing content I attempt to play via web browser in either IE or FF to immediately start playing on TV1's output. And now its also displaying on computer at the same time (with a 20 second or so delay as it took that long to start playing on the web.. while it was already playing on the TV... and this is DOCUMENTED with a video on my camera!

    With no way to manually change settings ... no option in the DishOnline.Com web pages to alter how D.O. is controlling my Sling Adapter, I'm stuck until the problem corrects itself.. again.. I did already reboot (power unplug) my receiver.

    At least this time it was confirmed by chat, as happening to the Dish Chat rep (Jeremy ID: ZA6) when they tested it with *their* Sling Adapter.
:mad:
 
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[/LIST]


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[*]As others report, no option to "resume" playback ... At all??
.
[*]plays incorrectly (May 22, 2011 1pm) just attempted to play an item, go back to dvr (which stopped playback) and then attempted to play that same item again, and on my computer I have *LIVE* tv now showing, and on my TV1 which I was watching a movie (live not recorded) I suddenly get switched to my recording! I AGAIN click on View DVR ... scroll down to the SAME event ... open it, an click on play.. and on TV1 ... it starts the same show OVER again! Did this again, FOUR TIMES and still it would not play on the PC, but continually restart on TV1. I then tried choosing a DIFFERENT dvr'd event.. and IT started on TV1 rather than TV2!


.
[*]This afternoon DishOnline.com is causing content I attempt to play via web browser in either IE or FF to immediately start playing on TV1's output. And now its also displaying on computer at the same time (with a 20 second or so delay as it took that long to start playing on the web.. while it was already playing on the TV... and this is DOCUMENTED with a video on my camera!


[/LIST]
:mad:

Glad to see I'm not the only one having these problems with Sling viewing on DISH Online. DRA is far from perfect, but going strictly to DO would make an already flaky experience even flakier.
 
And in case anyone hasn't seen the prompt yet.. this is what it looks like..
DRA-2-DishOnline.jpg

Like the sheepdog prodding the herd toward the open fields.... mush people... onward to the crap that is "Dish Online"
 
If they go forward with this, it would essentially make Sling viewing on a computer useless and force me to view on my mobile device only.
 
What the heck is Dish thinking about? Dish Online is not designed for those of us who use DRA to review and search for movies, sports, etc. for purposes of setting a timer to record them. A switch to Dish Online without the features of DRA is a step backwards. Sheesh.
 
Dishonline is still in beta. It has a place to send them suggestions. Those of you that have them should forward these concerns to Dish. I don't use either service extensively, so I haven't really formed an opinion one way or the other.
 
Dishonline is still in beta. It has a place to send them suggestions. Those of you that have them should forward these concerns to Dish. I don't use either service extensively, so I haven't really formed an opinion one way or the other.
I'm sorry.. but just because the URL has the word "beta" in it.. doesn't mean you treat the service as if it should be working perfectly fine.. when you go into Dish Remote Access ... that pop up doesn't say "dish online is still in beta but we want you to use it anyway" ... Dish doesn't even solicit users to try to find problems and report them.. only by a user seeing "feedback" at the bottom does the average user have any clue ...

As soon as dish opened the floodgates to the community with that pop-up they were endorsing DishOnline as completed.. again.. regardless of what the URL line displays.
 
They make it pretty apparent that it is in beta. I'm not trying to be a Dish apologist, but it is what it is. I'm sure it will improve.

oBshA.jpg
 
Regardless of whether or not it is a beta, if DISH thinks that it is a viable replacement for DRA in it's current state, all I have to say is what the heck are they smoking?
 
They make it pretty apparent that it is in beta. I'm not trying to be a Dish apologist, but it is what it is. I'm sure it will improve.
Yeah.. now the "is in public beta" is showing.. before it wasn't.. and if you logged in long ago and saved credentials... you never see anything else except the "URL" and the "Feedback" which says in beta ... which.. again once they started redirecting people to use it ... it shouldn't be in beta ... OR the redirection from DRA should give options to "not show again until XX days before shutdown" or some such option..

the average person seeing that message on DRA and not knowing.. is going to go to DishOnline .. they probably won't understand that they are entering a still as yet beta site.. and suffer at Dish's poor excuse for "we told you".

So we'll lay to rest the beta/not beta .. and focus on issues.. One of which ... **wasn't** an issue until this past sunday.. so what ever dish did sunday.. the f**ked it up royal for some of us.. how wide spread the problem.. no one can really know because of dish's OTHER failing.. in that they don't have a public BugTrack site, nor do they allow users to see aggrigate data on complaints, problems, etc.. until Scott setup DishSupport.com for them.. Dish didn't even have that.. and people would go to 3rd party sites (SatGuys) I mean seriously.. is All of DISH in beta? O:)
 
You all may not like it, may not understand it, but beta is beta. What difference does it make weather it did or did not say public? It was online, with anyone able to use it, what else would it be but public? When they take away Dish Remote access, then I would expect this to be out of beta and working correctly. So, of course things may work at one time, and not another.
Wouldn't the best thing (and I am not trying to be a smart a** lol) be to not use it if bothers you? Wait till it no longer says beta. I don't mind playing with it, but others may not, that is fair.
 
I had a "situation" yesterday where DO was working, while DRA was not (variety of connecting errors). I'm happy that we have both for now. But what would really rule is a standalone player for the Sling feature. Then both websites could crump and we'd still be in business.
 
I'm pretty sure Scott had a thread about when Dishonline.com was up and running and was in public beta.

So are you saying that you can not use DRA at all anymore and have to use Dishonline or are they transitioning over to Dishonline. I'm thinking they are transitioning it over. I think the new website is pretty awesome. Obviously it's not running perfectly because it's in beta. No reason to get upset, if you see problems let Dish know so they can fix them and improve the site.
 
I have been talking to the platform manager for DISH Online, and all things Sling, directly about some of your issues and forwarding some requests for "upgrading" the site to encompass more. Anything that I can explain to him during those talks would be an asset to him and his charge. Thanks so much for the feedback so far, and keep it coming. He will appreciate any and all feedback regarding the site, what things need "fixed", and anything that might better serve you with change. The site is intended to be easy to use for those who would actually use it, while still providing capability for those with the need for it to be more.

I will forward the link to this thread to see if he wants to monitor it directly, or if he just wants me to pick up on the issues like the situation has been. Thanks again for your patience while DISH Online goes through its Beta phase, and we hope it will be everything you want when its finished.
 
You all may not like it, may not understand it, but beta is beta. What difference does it make weather it did or did not say public? It was online, with anyone able to use it, what else would it be but public?

Wouldn't the best thing (and I am not trying to be a smart a** lol) be to not use it if bothers you? Wait till it no longer says beta. I don't mind playing with it, but others may not, that is fair.

The first issue ... public isn't necessarily the case ... look at our recent HBO GO / Cinmax Go sites ... everyone could go there.. but no one could get in without using the specially crafted URL that enabled Dish users ... before having the special url ... you'd go there, and dish would not be listed as a carrier ... you'd be told "adding carriers all the time.. if not listed now.. etc"

At issue .. is that it doesn't tell you in the initial notice, which they force upon a user *everytime* they try to go to DRA .. that the DO site is beta .. you'd have to get DO in front of you and *not* already logged in, to be told its still in beta and that at this time its pubilc beta.

Any average user going to DRA .. gets that popup .. without being told there its beta... doesn't know till they get to DO .. and at that point.. if they don't want to use a beta site they've got to go back to Dish, reselect DRA, re-sign in ... just to get the same prompt again and this time choose DRA. If they included beta warning there.. I'd naturally *not* choose it when I want DRA. *and would prefer they put a "don't show me again for a week" or something so that I could disable that message for a week or more.. or until DO is out of beta!

I had a "situation" yesterday where DO was working, while DRA was not (variety of connecting errors). I'm happy that we have both for now. But what would really rule is a standalone player for the Sling feature. Then both websites could crump and we'd still be in business.

Unfortunately.. I don't see DISH ever going back to allow you access to your content your way without having the access rights verified by them. (part of the purpose of requiring internet connectivity DRM)

I'm pretty sure Scott had a thread about when Dishonline.com was up and running and was in public beta.

So are you saying that you can not use DRA at all anymore and have to use Dishonline or are they transitioning over to Dishonline. I'm thinking they are transitioning it over. I think the new website is pretty awesome. Obviously it's not running perfectly because it's in beta. No reason to get upset, if you see problems let Dish know so they can fix them and improve the site.

Of issues .. 1) Scott shouldn't have to issue statements for Dish .. dish should be doing it for themselves.. 2) people also shouldn't have need to go outside dish's group of websites/web presence to get support for "Dish" products.. until last week, dish didn't even officially take over DishSupport.com ... nor did dish really have a presense except on non-dish owned intelectual property.. (twitter is not being included in "presense" for the case of support)

Please (all) understand Dish IRT is cool.. a great bunch of folks, doing their best.. but why did they have to exist outside dish?

... Because dish didn't get it then.. and I strongly suspect they still aren't getting.. but that they are throwing stop-gap measures trying to get ahead of problems when they should have solved the problems rather than just covering them here and there. Basically they are trying to appease the ones that could do the most harm.. ie.. the internet people who could vastly change dish's appearance publically.

And lastly.. (primarily for) Scherrman .. you're probably one in that group that likes the mesh (whups almost Freudian slip "mess" for mesh) .... likes the mesh of your content types.. I'm more the separate but equal types..

one of my bigger gripes ... I have a 2 minute snippet of Jimmy Kimmel ... its his announcment for his apple app with some blonde bombshell with an iq of 3 next to him its kinda funny..

anyway.. so I renamed it on my DVR "Jimmy K app ad" Dish Remote Access .. when I access DRA .. there it is.. named as it is on my DVR ... but Dish Online ... nope.. they display only the *ORIGINAL* name for the item .. and whats worse.. when I click on "Jimmy Kimel Live" in the list from "View DVR" which is just my content ... it doesn't take me just to *that* 2 minute video.. no no.. it now puts every hulu-ized item it can in there, grabs info about Jimmy, etc.. and if I were to simply hit the big ass PLAY button in front of me.. what plays? Certainly not *MY* content.. but a Hulu maintained 60 minute episode of J.K.Live!

I followed my content from *my* dvr.. and now I've got Hulu content playing because "they" mixed everything together.. hateful spiteful experience.

I won't deny you your like of having it that way.. I can certainly understand it, and its nice to be able to get easy access to *additional* content ... but I should have the option to not be bombared by everything else but my own content ... seeing as how I started from *my* content.

It would be *very* easy for them to give users the choice to mix or not .. to have this extra content accessed *below* my current DVR item, and on tabs... look at how the tabs work now for Dish Remote Access .. once you have a video playing.. the "Grid" "today" tomorrow" "My DVR" tabs go below the view area of the screen So simple there to add a tab "Related Content" ... or "Online Content" etc..

Much like my food.. I want my mashed taters, corn, applesauce and chicken in seperate spots on my plate.. should *I* decide to mix them... more than happy to accept that ... but when I put my fork down .. and I've got applesauce in my mash when I didn't put it or want it.. I'm pissed, and the experience with the Jimmy Kimmel clip above.. tells me that the months I've spent complaining about how they are grouping and displaying content from My DVR incorrectly, has yet to be addressed ... or its being ignored because they don't care.. and that's even IF the suggestion boxes are monitored.
 
I have been talking to the platform manager for DISH Online, and all things Sling, directly about some of your issues and forwarding some requests for "upgrading" the site to encompass more. Anything that I can explain to him during those talks would be an asset to him and his charge. Thanks so much for the feedback so far, and keep it coming. He will appreciate any and all feedback regarding the site, what things need "fixed", and anything that might better serve you with change. The site is intended to be easy to use for those who would actually use it, while still providing capability for those with the need for it to be more.

I will forward the link to this thread to see if he wants to monitor it directly, or if he just wants me to pick up on the issues like the situation has been. Thanks again for your patience while DISH Online goes through its Beta phase, and we hope it will be everything you want when its finished.

To me, the big 2 issues are:

1) The erratic performance of the Sling plugin on DISH Online as compared to DISH Remote Access, specifically the problem with getting a black screen on the DO video viewer while what you want to watch on DO is actually playing on TV 1 on the television. It has happened very rarely with DRA, but it happens almost every time I try to use DO.

2) There needs to be a choice to "Start Over" or "Resume" when playing back DVR events like with DRA. I'd LIKE to use DO more and "kick the tires" a bit, but I'm discouraged because I know I'll lose my place on all partially watched DVR events as they will all just start from the beginning.

The other issues as enumerated by TG2 and others are usability tweaks, but without the above core functionality DISH Online is useless to me.
 

Thinking about coming back

Installing Dish DIY need some help

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