This is the specific, exact issue we're talking about in post 308 of this thread http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...11-dvr-function-activated-16.html#post1638974. The CSR's do not see the 2nd drop-down option unless they click on the 1st drop down.
My 211 DVR function is activated
- Thread starter chikagobnd
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Well I just tried to call to activate and like normal was on hold, so hung up and went to the old reliable Dish Chat on the website. Was up and running in about 10 minutes. No being on hold or trouble understanding what the CSR is trying to say. I have used the Dish Chat many many times now since it became available and won't even bother with phone reps anymore.
Also 211 as dvr rocks! I've been holding back upgrading my 3 sd receivers not wanting more dvr fees and such, but I think it might be time to switch them to 211's with hard drives. Might even replace my 722, if I can force myself to give up the dual tuners. (Not Likely)
Also 211 as dvr rocks! I've been holding back upgrading my 3 sd receivers not wanting more dvr fees and such, but I think it might be time to switch them to 211's with hard drives. Might even replace my 722, if I can force myself to give up the dual tuners. (Not Likely)
I guess my choice of hadware for EHD for the 211 has a problem. If I pause a program and resume playback sometime later (say 20 minutes), at some point while watching, the playback will freeze for about a minute. During this time, the receiver is locked up: I cannot jump ahead or change channels; it's like the 211 has lost it's mind for this period of time. This has happened to me during watching a scheduled event that is still recording, too.
That was a Samsung-500GB right? If we're going to have a list of ones that work we prolly ought to have a list of ones that don't...
A Samsung 500 GB drive in a LaCie Porsche Design enclosure. I never had any problems with it when it was connected to my 622, but it's pretty obvious that the 211 DVR is a more demanding application.That was a Samsung-500GB right? If we're going to have a list of ones that work we prolly ought to have a list of ones that don't...
I've had this happen once in the two weeks since I set my WD Elements 750gb drive up. It happened while I was chase playing the Eagles-Vikings game (I was about a quarter behind). The pic froze, the screen then went gray, I turned the receiver off and back on and broughtup the DVR screens and the "RESUME" button for the game.
I lost a play or two at the end of the third quarter, which must have been when the glitch occurred.
I just got my 411hd EHD working through a manual activation with a western digital 750 gig and it works well.
How? What is manual activation? I went round and round with two CSR's to activate my external with an external. Show stoppers both times.
I may have missed this link in all the pages of this thread, but I was just looking on the Dish website and came across this .pdf for the Vip211 DVR conversion.
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/user_guides_and_manuals/vip211_dish411/DVR Conversion.pdf
It looks like a good reference resource .... especially since I'm just getting ready to do the conversion on my unit.
Tom
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/user_guides_and_manuals/vip211_dish411/DVR Conversion.pdf
It looks like a good reference resource .... especially since I'm just getting ready to do the conversion on my unit.
Tom
I had the same thing happen. I called and got someone who sent another activation to no avail. She had to go to a "mentor" who had to send another type of hit to make it work. So call and tell whoever you talk to you need one of higher ups to help get them send the correct hit to your 211. After you get the correct hit, the error about activating goes away and a message will ask you about formatting and tells you that you will lose everything on the drive. That's how you know its got the proper authorization. Only think I don't like is that you don't have search on the guide. You only have the scroll by catagory.
I am using an older model Lacie Porche 500GB without a problem.
I have a bad 622 that does some crazy things. It won't respond to the remote for a full minute when its been on for a couple of hours. Sometimes when its on standby, the lights on the front are on showing is not on standby. And, sometimes during replay on the external HD it does the same thing, freezes and the whole unit won't do anything. I attributed it to being a bad unit, but after reading this, it may be software bug. It doesnt always happen, and usually doesn't. Once when it did I turned the 622 off using the button on the front and then I unplugged the HD and waited 10 seconds before replugging in and that seemed to stop it. The only reason I haven't swapped it is because of all the great content on the HD I don't want to lose.
Does the info pop up on random too? I have the no remote response for several minutes problem as well on my 622.
FWIW: I took a look at the 640GB WD MyBook that I hooked up to my recently activated 211. The third partition, which stores the saved programs, is too large and actually extends past the end of the physical drive by a few hundred blocks. I am 99.9% sure this is a bug and not intentional (as some form of copy protection for example). It would appear to be a bug in the program that generates partition tables for the 211. I do not yet know whether mke2fs or whatever program was used to create the file system is smart enough to know the partition is too big and create a smaller file system that only extends to the actual end of the disk. I plan to connect a few other drives, let the 211 format them, and examine them on my Linux box during the next few days. I will try to delete the third partition and create it slightly smaller, and see if the 211 will leave it as-is, or if it tries to reformat the drive.
Unlike the 622, the 211 does not create separate directories for each saved program. They are all sitting there in the top-level directory. The first partition is 2GB ext2 for storing the program guide and related data, the second is 256MB, presumably for swap, and the third partition, which should only extend to the end of the drive, but in my case was too big, contains saved programming as well as the currently buffered program.
Unlike the 622, the 211 does not create separate directories for each saved program. They are all sitting there in the top-level directory. The first partition is 2GB ext2 for storing the program guide and related data, the second is 256MB, presumably for swap, and the third partition, which should only extend to the end of the drive, but in my case was too big, contains saved programming as well as the currently buffered program.
It's hard to agree/disagree with you - if you will post 'passport' info of your HDD and printout partition tables from Linux, then we could start discuss it.
BTW, format and content of the disk (for a few different sizes) been posted here a few months ago.
BTW, format and content of the disk (for a few different sizes) been posted here a few months ago.
Confirmed bad partitions on 640GB drive w/211
Upon further investigation, I can see that the third partition was created exactly one sector too large:
From the kernel syslog:
SCSI device sdg: 1250263728 512-byte hdwr sectors (640135 MB)
sdg: sdg1 sdg2 sdg3
sdg: p3 exceeds device capacity
attempt to access beyond end of device
sdg: rw=0, want=1250263729, limit=1250263728
Buffer I/O error on device sdg3, logical block 622922706
So you can see the drive has 1250263728 sectors, and the kernel has already noticed that partition 3 is too big, and there has been an access to one sector beyond the end of the drive while mounting the partition (which is successful).
Some checking with partition tools:
linux:/ # sfdisk -uS -V -l /dev/sdg
Disk /dev/sdg: 77825 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
for C/H/S=*/1/0 (instead of 77825/255/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0
Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sdg1 63 3906313 3906251 83 Linux
/dev/sdg2 3906315 4418314 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sdg3 4418315 1250263728 1245845414 83 Linux
/dev/sdg4 0 - 0 0 Empty
Warning: partition 3 extends past end of disk
You can see that 1) the last sector of /dev/sdg3 is one beyond the end of the drive (sectors are numbered 0 thru 1250263727, for a total of 1250263728 sectors), and 2) adding the size of partition 3 to its beginning (4418315 + 1245845414 = 1250263729) confirms the one sector beyond the end of the drive.
So someone at Echostar screwed up in their code that generates partition tables for external hard drives.
Upon further investigation, I can see that the third partition was created exactly one sector too large:
From the kernel syslog:
SCSI device sdg: 1250263728 512-byte hdwr sectors (640135 MB)
sdg: sdg1 sdg2 sdg3
sdg: p3 exceeds device capacity
attempt to access beyond end of device
sdg: rw=0, want=1250263729, limit=1250263728
Buffer I/O error on device sdg3, logical block 622922706
So you can see the drive has 1250263728 sectors, and the kernel has already noticed that partition 3 is too big, and there has been an access to one sector beyond the end of the drive while mounting the partition (which is successful).
Some checking with partition tools:
linux:/ # sfdisk -uS -V -l /dev/sdg
Disk /dev/sdg: 77825 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
for C/H/S=*/1/0 (instead of 77825/255/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0
Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sdg1 63 3906313 3906251 83 Linux
/dev/sdg2 3906315 4418314 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sdg3 4418315 1250263728 1245845414 83 Linux
/dev/sdg4 0 - 0 0 Empty
Warning: partition 3 extends past end of disk
You can see that 1) the last sector of /dev/sdg3 is one beyond the end of the drive (sectors are numbered 0 thru 1250263727, for a total of 1250263728 sectors), and 2) adding the size of partition 3 to its beginning (4418315 + 1245845414 = 1250263729) confirms the one sector beyond the end of the drive.
So someone at Echostar screwed up in their code that generates partition tables for external hard drives.
Looks like partitioning error occurs on all drives
Just examined a 500GB drive that was formatted on my 211 and it's showing the same problem (partition extends one sector beyond end of disk):
and
My gut feel is that it's pretty low risk to run with the too-large partition. I can't believe they didn't catch this in testing though.
Just examined a 500GB drive that was formatted on my 211 and it's showing the same problem (partition extends one sector beyond end of disk):
Code:
SCSI device sdg: 976773168 512-byte hdwr sectors (500108 MB)
sdg: sdg1 sdg2 sdg3
sdg: p3 exceeds device capacityand
Code:
linux:/ # sfdisk -uS -V -l /dev/sdg
Disk /dev/sdg: 60801 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
for C/H/S=*/1/0 (instead of 60801/255/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0
Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sdg1 63 3906313 3906251 83 Linux
/dev/sdg2 3906315 4418314 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sdg3 4418315 976773168 972354854 83 Linux
/dev/sdg4 0 - 0 0 Empty
Warning: partition 3 extends past end of diskMy gut feel is that it's pretty low risk to run with the too-large partition. I can't believe they didn't catch this in testing though.
I can already tell your 1TB drive has the same partitioning error. Your drive has 1953525168 512-byte sectors. Yet your third partition starts at sector 4418315 and is of size 1949106854 sectors. That would mean the last sector of the partition is 1953525168 (starting at 0, the last sector of the drive is 1953525167), which puts it one beyond the end of the last sector of the drive.
Just plug the drive into a Linux box and the system log will complain about the third partition extending past the end of the disk.
I don't know enough about the ext2 file system format to know whether an error like this would always be benign, or if it could eventually result in data loss. My guess is it is likely benign, as the file system structures on disk are likely sized in chunks that are small powers-of-2 sectors (8kb chunk = 16 sectors for example). So that extra odd sector at the end that doesn't exist is probably not utilized by the file system.
Regarding the off-by-one partitioning error: what if Dish did it that way on purpose to make it harder for Linux boxes to be able to view the contents of the external drives? The 211's code would "know" that the drive was really one block smaller than what was entered into the partition table.
This might also explain why the Acronis backup I tried to run on the 211's drive caused my PC to reboot. If the drive's partition table is off, Acronis probably wasn't expecting that.
On a different note, I saw that Staples had the Western Digital 640 GB MyBook external drive for $99 this week. We keep getting these "$25 off on-line orders of $75 or more" coupons at work, so I used one to replace the LaCie 500 GB EHD with which I've been having issues (lock ups and "drops"). I recorded the "Stargate Atlantis" finale and the scene where Ronin is being interrogated pixelates: he's up and what the hell happened? I guess I lost about a minute of the scene. This time it was recording with no other competition and no time-shifting like the other times I've seen this happen. So, I have to conclude that the Samsung drive or the USB<-->IDE board that's in the LaCie enclosure has issues.
Plus, I get even more room! I'll spend time copying the events off of the LaCie over to the new WD drive so I don't lose anything. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow evening...
This might also explain why the Acronis backup I tried to run on the 211's drive caused my PC to reboot. If the drive's partition table is off, Acronis probably wasn't expecting that.
On a different note, I saw that Staples had the Western Digital 640 GB MyBook external drive for $99 this week. We keep getting these "$25 off on-line orders of $75 or more" coupons at work, so I used one to replace the LaCie 500 GB EHD with which I've been having issues (lock ups and "drops"). I recorded the "Stargate Atlantis" finale and the scene where Ronin is being interrogated pixelates: he's up and what the hell happened? I guess I lost about a minute of the scene. This time it was recording with no other competition and no time-shifting like the other times I've seen this happen. So, I have to conclude that the Samsung drive or the USB<-->IDE board that's in the LaCie enclosure has issues.
Plus, I get even more room! I'll spend time copying the events off of the LaCie over to the new WD drive so I don't lose anything. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow evening...
Well, I don't know what to say. My brand new 640 GB My Book Essentials had a freeze up tonight while recording "The Office" from our one LIL HD feed, just like the LaCie drive did. So, it's either a problem with my ViP 211, or it's a problem with the DVR feature in general. Since I've read only two people that have had this issue, I'm leaning towards the former.
I'm copying the events from the LaCie drive over to the My Book right now. I'm curious to see if the directory gets recreated at boot time. Also, like I said, I had recorded some events to the My Book EHD, so I had to rename those Event files so I didn't overwrite them.
For the curious, the third partition is UNIX/Linux EXT3 and contains the recorded events, consisting of three files for each event: esnnnn.bm, esnnnn.tsp, and esnnnn.wtt, where "nnnn" is a sequential number starting with "8000" and incrementing one for each event. The .bm (Bill of Materials?) file contains the Program Information of the event, so you can use a hexdump utility to see the Event name(s) and Description(s) in clear ASCII text (if the event spans multiple programs, you'll see Program Titles and Descriptions for each one). The .tsp file is the largest of the three and contains the encrypted Transport Stream (I assume; it makes no sense to my human eyes). I don't know that the .wtt file is, but it might contain pointers into the .tsp file (WAG) and the longer the event is, the larger this file is.
I'll post later if this simple rename and copy worked out, but for now, the copy of 225,512 MB is crawling along at 19 MB/s. Do the math... G'night!
I'm copying the events from the LaCie drive over to the My Book right now. I'm curious to see if the directory gets recreated at boot time. Also, like I said, I had recorded some events to the My Book EHD, so I had to rename those Event files so I didn't overwrite them.
For the curious, the third partition is UNIX/Linux EXT3 and contains the recorded events, consisting of three files for each event: esnnnn.bm, esnnnn.tsp, and esnnnn.wtt, where "nnnn" is a sequential number starting with "8000" and incrementing one for each event. The .bm (Bill of Materials?) file contains the Program Information of the event, so you can use a hexdump utility to see the Event name(s) and Description(s) in clear ASCII text (if the event spans multiple programs, you'll see Program Titles and Descriptions for each one). The .tsp file is the largest of the three and contains the encrypted Transport Stream (I assume; it makes no sense to my human eyes). I don't know that the .wtt file is, but it might contain pointers into the .tsp file (WAG) and the longer the event is, the larger this file is.
I'll post later if this simple rename and copy worked out, but for now, the copy of 225,512 MB is crawling along at 19 MB/s. Do the math... G'night!
