Hopper With Sling Software Version S338

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And also see the thread about corrupted OTA recordings with the new software...

It would be great to have a link to the thread. I attempted a search but I can't find anything relevant and current for that issue. Right now I have all of the unplayable recordings sitting in Deleted Recordings but I haven't emptied it. It would be great to know before they auto-delete. Is there a chance these recordings can be recovered (perhaps with a future update they would start working again) or have they been permanently destroyed? It's very upsetting throwing them away. Eventually most of the movies on Syfy and Chiller will come back into rotation but I'm uncertain whether some series (which I had full seasons of and are not available on DVD) will ever air again, if ever.
 
Try playing a "corrupted" one. Then "rewind" it a bit and see if that helps.

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If the Hopper is now "updating" in the background & using a free tuner why do we need to have the message on screen at all? I reported it to DIRT (Ray) & nothing was said about it being a "new feature" - with all the people complaining about the update time wouldn't someone have told us if there was a change?

Let it update & not disturb my tv watching, especially since it really isn't "updating software". My Hopper updated to 338 at 11:45 pm; I thought something was wrong because I had just turned it on.


Are we ever going to get a list of what's included in the updates, that would at least help.

Yeah, I agree it doesn't make any sense to still have a pop-up with the 'yes' or 'no' response if the update supposedly now takes place behind the scenes. I was skeptical but I allowed it to update at 1:30 a.m. while my recording was finishing (while simultaneously recording the exact same show on the living room Hopper as a backup) and it didn't reset the Hopper and interrupt it. It just went to standby with the screensaver as if I had pressed the Power button and the recording continued to completion. What I don't understand now is how long the screensaver needs to linger around because from my experience all that eventually does is update the program guide from 0% to 100% as needed which can be done at any time of the day. Most of us can't afford to have to periodically check on the Hopper from 1:30 a.m. until 6 a.m. during the update time frame if we have several recordings active for fear that it will ruin them.
 
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Try playing a "corrupted" one. Then "rewind" it a bit and see if that helps.

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I've already tried that. It's not that these events are showing as 100% watched and therefore at the end of playback, although they behave as fully watched events. Despite having a time length the bar won't scroll back. It's stuck at the end and there doesn't seem to be any content. I have gotten some other events to the end at 100% watched so I'm aware what should be able to be done. I should be able to press Play to start it over. Once you exit out, the shows do display as 100% watched with the green bar full (again behaving the same as if you watched the program to the end). Now that I given it more thought, perhaps a better term would be "compromised" since "corrupted" seems to apply more to recordings that return a pop-up message and error code in red lettering which doesn't apply here.

I also find it bizarre that it targeted all of my Syfy and Chiller recordings. What also happens is a generic abstract artwork image shows in place of the channel logo (which I've only seen happen if you no longer subscribe) and in the left corner it displays the movie or show which was on ahead of what was recorded. I suspect S338 is responsible since it happened on the Hopper which had the update first a few days earlier and then this morning it affected the living room one which had just gotten the update today.
 
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It would be great to have a link to the thread. I attempted a search but I can't find anything relevant and current for that issue. Right now I have all of the unplayable recordings sitting in Deleted Recordings but I haven't emptied it. It would be great to know before they auto-delete. Is there a chance these recordings can be recovered (perhaps with a future update they would start working again) or have they been permanently destroyed? It's very upsetting throwing them away. Eventually most of the movies on Syfy and Chiller will come back into rotation but I'm uncertain whether some series (which I had full seasons of and are not available on DVD) will ever air again, if ever.

Here's your link.
 
I actually did see that thread before but if that's what you were talking about I don't follow how it relates. Thanks for attempting though. Unless there's an unrelated side commentary hidden in the discussion about what I'm experiencing, the basis of that is about recordings which are glitchy with pixelation and sound breakup but they're still able to be viewed. I can't watch any part of my recordings affected by this.
 
And also see the thread about corrupted OTA recordings with the new software...

I noticed a lot of artifacts on ota recordings I made today on only one of my HWS's. Sane recording on the other was fine. Tightened all the cabling connections and recorded ota off of the same ota channel; this evening on the HWS where I was getting artifacts. Working fine now. Wonder if people having problems should check to make sure all connections are tight
 
I was looking for older recordings and found a bunch of Castles with no play times (0 size) and unplayable.
Some I deleted from a near complete set--had just started with 100 on EHD.

Finally I decided to do a soft reboot.
Despite having gone thru overnight reboots galore, it then had old recordings, (possibly for a different show.)
Moral, don't delete until you at least have tried a soft (button-push) reboot, and possibly a hard (cord-pull) reboot.

-Ken
 
glad i went with directv. i have no problems with ota, not losing end of shows, no yellow screens on directv locals and the hr44 is faster than the HWS got slowed down with software mess and no pixilation ever
 
I noticed a lot of artifacts on ota recordings I made today on only one of my HWS's. Sane recording on the other was fine. Tightened all the cabling connections and recorded ota off of the same ota channel; this evening on the HWS where I was getting artifacts. Working fine now. Wonder if people having problems should check to make sure all connections are tight

Check the thread. Considering a couple of us tried troubleshooting locally already before we realized it was the update eliminates the possibility that all of our cabling suddenly came loose. Just ask KAB. :)
 
I have encountered another quirk where it appeared to no longer be allowing instant recording for certain channels, but I also figured out a workaround and what was actually going on. What happened was I have a timer event set for FOX's Animation Domination High-Def but I don't always just let it record the entire full hour. The timer is there as a place saver to prevent timer conflicts with other shows which might claim its tuner. If you're not familiar with ADHD, it's similar to Adult Swim in that it's a block of programming of several 12-minute length shows. I like to individually record the shows so they are separate which calls for on the spot instant recording. To my frustration earlier this evening I was unable to instant record FOX. It seemed to be isolated to only FOX since I went to other channels and was able to instant record just fine, but what I soon understood was the timer event was to blame.

Apparently, if you create a timer event for a show and then cancel it (either once it begins recording or before-hand from either the Guide by x'ing it out or manually stopping the recording via remote) you will find that you now cannot instant record your show later. The record dot will appear on screen for a second but you will not be presented with Recording in Progress, so you instinctively press record again with the same results. If you hit View Live TV and check in My Recordings it will confirm it's not recording. What you can do instead of missing out on recording the show is to go to Timers, locate the Timer Event, and delete it. It will allow you to instant record the show with the remote now.

Also there's a weird glitch where if you start recordings and then stop them, the red dots will still show in the Guide and in the Daily Schedule as if they are active recordings. The recording status will eventually disappear from the Daily Schedule but will remain lit up in the Guide until you do a reboot.Fortunately, it's not taking up a tuner though. There is yet another glitch where you can actually be recording something but if you check the Guide it will show the recording is x'ed out (which indicates that it's not recording) but the TV Activity will have the tuner active and it will be in My Recordings with the red dot. It will not appear as recording in the Daily Schedule and you may or may not have a red light on the front of the receiver.

I've also had it get stuck several times in the TV Activity with the message "....is about to begin recording" but the status never changes to actually record the event. Instead it ties up the tuner for the duration of time for what should be recording. I don't have a workaround for this other than recording the same shows on the other Hopper at the same time for backup. I had this happen three times this morning on both Hoppers and the only thing that saved my sanity was knowing I had it also recording on the other one as well as knowing the episode would repeat at a future time. There shouldn't be a need to keep the same show on both Hoppers for this reason but I'm already accustomed to it after dealing with random STB Reboots breaking shows in half. I haven't had any of those since the S338 update so far.

I have these aforementioned issues on both Hoppers so I assume it is affecting others but maybe it just hasn't been noticed or discovered yet.
 
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The next change I soon discovered was that the number of timers has been increased. The timers could never go over 96 events. Suddenly I found myself able to pile on the timers. I reached 200 before it informed me that I had reached the maximum allowed! I told advanced tech support about this hoping to get a confirmation of the added feature but they insist that the maximum has not changed and is still 96 timers.
This is great news. I was able to reproduce your results by scheduling random movies to record. I got up to 99 timers before I decided that was enough confirmation for now.
 
This is great news. I was able to reproduce your results by scheduling random movies to record. I got up to 99 timers before I decided that was enough confirmation for now.
Yeah, I was excited too because I felt as if they had actually listened to me! It is a suggestion I frequently bring up when speaking to advanced tech support. 200 is a massive amount but in all practicality with more recording options from having more tuners in comparison to the 722 ViP receiver, more timers are needed. I have never dealt with this many timers though but I was always frustrated by having to balance my one-shot movie timers for single events alongside my permanent recurring weekly series timers. I was always hitting limits and having to delete a timer just so I could record. Since no one can seem to confirm that it's an intended feature I don't want to get used to it only to have it be gone after the next update, because that would be just cruel.
 
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As I posted separately, I lost all of my manual timers when I got S338. They were eliminated completely from the recording list. Now I found that a couple of timers for regular shows were also deleted. So far, I've had to replace the one for CBS "60 Minutes" and for Syfy "Cops". I checked my other shows and they all seem to be there. I wonder why it erased the manual times and those two and left everything else? Weird!

So far, all of my shows recorded prior to the update, are playing back okay. I don't think any shows were deleted, like some of you have experienced.

Also, I've found that it won't let me set my priorites in the timer list the way I want them. I usually list them in the order that they're recorded... Daily, Sunday, Monday, etc. It makes it easy to keep track of them that way. Now I have Saturday shows mixed in with Wednesday shows. It won't let me move them any further down the list.

Larry
SF
 
You think with the 2nd generation hopper they would've fixed these issues but seems like some of them are still lingering around . Take for example the original hopper. It was lighting fast when changing channels and with each update it's gotten slower with that. When exiting the guide there's a small lag that never used to happen. Even on hopper with sling the channel changing is slower. I know it's satellite and there's supposed to be a delay but each software update messes up things. I'd rather have issues fixed over adding a reset option you can control by remote.


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The next change I soon discovered was that the number of timers has been increased. The timers could never go over 96 events. Suddenly I found myself able to pile on the timers. I reached 200 before it informed me that I had reached the maximum allowed! I told advanced tech support about this hoping to get a confirmation of the added feature but they insist that the maximum has not changed and is still 96 timers.

About a week ago two of my Hoppers hit the timer limit at 95. Both Hopper's timers would not go to 96 like my 722s use to do. That is good news that the timer limit has been changed to a higher limit. I am getting close on two Hoppers so I hope to see the new higher limit soon. Did you happen to notice if the events number limit is still 576? I hit that limit too about a week ago. I hope it was raised too.
 
I was under the impression that the limit has been the 96 timers or 576 events, whichever one happens first...


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I found the 96 timer limit a long time ago. Then I found the web access (Remote Access ?, gone) allowed more.
The catch was you could not add any more from the normal manual remote until you got below 96.
This even if you wanted to add a single show to your 722--I said a while ago.
The limit I tend to hit now is the number of events--576. Just have to be careful about reruns.
-Ken
 
Before this update when I skipped a recording to resolve a conflict it would record the next airing.

Now when you skip it does not pick up the next recording. What a disappointment.
 

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