On Demand Buffering

[lgb0250]

I see a thread on this from Aug 2019 but nothing since.

I updated to U549 on 4/21/20 and ever since we’ve had problems watching anything On Demand. I will go in and download maybe 10 shows at a time to watch later. When I pick one to watch later it will start and then after maybe a minute or two will start buffering repeatedly making it impossible to watch a show.

Prior to U549 we had no problems. Now On Demand is useless.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a known issue? Internet connection is not a problem and we are watching on a wireless Joey via our H3. Nothing has changed or moved with the setup other than the new software!

 

[HipKat]

Does it do the same thing if you try to watch it on the Hopper itself?

 

[lgb0250]

Does it do the same thing if you try to watch it on the Hopper itself?

Appears to be much better n the H3 directly. Nothing has changed in my setup or location of equipment. Could my Joey be going? Thanks

 

[wormil]

Bugs me too. I choose watch later and it waits to download it when I watch later. Dumb. Thankfully I have fast wifi.

 

[HipKat]

Appears to be much better n the H3 directly. Nothing has changed in my setup or location of equipment. Could my Joey be going? Thanks

No, it's the Hopper, the Moca connection with the Joey or something in the network not playing nice with the Hopper, not to mention hordes of people complaining about Hopper 3's dropping internet connections since the last few updates

 

[DISH Support]

I see a thread on this from Aug 2019 but nothing since.

I updated to U549 on 4/21/20 and ever since we’ve had problems watching anything On Demand. I will go in and download maybe 10 shows at a time to watch later. When I pick one to watch later it will start and then after maybe a minute or two will start buffering repeatedly making it impossible to watch a show.

Prior to U549 we had no problems. Now On Demand is useless.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a known issue? Internet connection is not a problem and we are watching on a wireless Joey via our H3. Nothing has changed or moved with the setup other than the new software!

Hello, lgb0250. If you are getting at least the minimum download speed of 5 Mbps for Internet connection at both the Hopper and the Joey, we definitely would want to look into the MoCA network to see what could be causing this issue with the On Demand on your Joey. We are unable to access accounts through Satellite Guys at this time, but you can reach out to our Chat teams by clicking this link so we can review any possible error messages that may have been sent by the Hopper.

 

[azbruno]

I have a Hopper with Sling and am now experiencing the same thing. I can't recall the software version, but it is dated 05/22/2020.

After spending about 45 minutes on the phone with Dish support, the conclusion was that the "Watch Later" function for On Demand is not working, it is a software problem, and a report was put in. I can't believe there aren't more complaining about this issue.

 

[judyintexas]

Yesterday (6/25/20) we asked to download an episode. Once before when we did that it offered "watch later", and I expected to select that again. Last night "watch later" was not offered. We went ahead and watched it last night. I wondered what happened to watch later...

 

[Bobby]

Yesterday (6/25/20) we asked to download an episode. Once before when we did that it offered "watch later", and I expected to select that again. Last night "watch later" was not offered. We went ahead and watched it last night. I wondered what happened to watch later...

It was already downloaded. You can watch it whenever you want. The watch now/ watch later is only available while it is still downloading.

 

[HipKat]

There is an issue with the Watch Later function

 

[dweber]

I downloaded “Charlie’s Angels” from STARZ - On Demand. I selected Watch Later since I was busy. It downloaded and now I am watching the movie on my Living Room Hopper3.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[azbruno]

I downloaded “Charlie’s Angels” from STARZ - On Demand. I selected Watch Later since I was busy. It downloaded and now I am watching the movie on my Living Room Hopper3.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

How do you know it was recorded as opposed to just sitting in the On Demand folder?

On my Hopper with Sling, it used to be that when I selected Watch Later, it would show me the downloading speed. If I then chose another show, it would show that it was queued. When I went to watch a show, it was listed as Recorded and played just fine.

Now, I select Watch Later (and I only have a few seconds to do so before it automatically starts watching) but there is no indication of it recording at all. I just get an entry in the On Demand folder. When I go to watch it later, even days later, I get a buffering message before it starts. And to make matters worse, the forward and rewind buttons are very slow to respond so I can't even tell where it is. One time, when the movie ended it was so messed up I had a blank screen during which I could select channels but never actually see the channel. I literally had to reset the Hopper to get out of that state.

 

[dweber]

How do you know it was recorded as opposed to just sitting in the On.

To verify that it was downloaded on my Hopper3 hard drive and not just streaming I fast forwarded ahead to the middle and it immediately played. I then went back to the beginning so I could watch the movie.
I also have downloaded Dora and the Lost City of Gold from EPIX. Again it was downloaded and not streamed. Again I verified this by being able to fast forward and play at any location of the 1 hour 42 minute movie.
It appears that many of the STARZ, Encore, and EPIX movies are actually downloaded completely to the hard drive while some On Demand past episodes of network shows are just streamed but not downloaded completely.
The downloaded movies are able to be stacked in a queue for later watching while the streaming shows only allow one event at a time. For downloaded movies you can bring up the title in the On Demand screen and watch the download speed. My download speed varies from 88 to 101 Mbps and it takes about 10 minutes to download a movie.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[azbruno]

Is there some kind of distinction where some On Demand things can be saved to DVR while others cannot? Is this by design or by error. If by design, it shouldn't be.

 

[TheKrell]

I also have downloaded Dora and the Lost City of Gold from EPIX.

Is that one of those VOD titles that force you to watch commercials? Hate that! Spoils the whole reason to use my H3 in the first place.

 

[dweber]

Is that one of those VOD titles that force you to watch commercials? Hate that! Spoils the whole reason to use my H3 in the first place.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is 1 hour 42 minutes with no commercials. In fact Movies from STARZ, EPIX, Sony, PIXL, and other premium channels are commercial free.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[olds403]

The only on-demand content that I have seen the forced commercials with are network tv shows (Discovery, Travel, TLC, History, etc...), I have not seen that behavior on movies at all.

 

[TheKrell]

The only on-demand content that I have seen the forced commercials with are network tv shows (Discovery, Travel, TLC, History, etc...), I have not seen that behavior on movies at all.

Well, I have! Of course I can't remember which ones those were, but I was steamed enough to stop and delete them and watch it on some other platform. I'll rent a DVD from Netflix (and wait) if necessary.

 

[olds403]

Well, I have! Of course I can't remember which ones those were, but I was steamed enough to stop and delete them and watch it on some other platform. I'll rent a DVD from Netflix (and wait) if necessary.

I guess it depends on where the movie originated. I rarely view movies on demand. I have the movie pack and usually just DVR anything I might be interested in watching. I have viewed movies from Epix on demand and have not seen commercials there.