Scathing Dish PVR Article

[AJF]

I keep putting off getting a Dish PVR because of the problems reported on this and other forums. Here's an interesting article about the topic:


http://www.asktog.com/columns/059QualityAssurance.html

 

[Juan]

only one problem with that article the 721 is on software version 116 not 115

 

[Big Bob]

should retitle it
When Old Article => Bad Information

 

[AppliedAggression]

You know what, and I think most people on here will agree. The reason you hear everyone talking about everything here is because we love this stuff. If you just used your receivers normally, you most likely wouldn't have any problems. Even if you did, all receivers have a 1 year warranty. Don't put off getting satellite, just do it, you'll love it.

 

[AJF]

In my original post I forgot to "PVR" after Dish in my post ( I fixed it). I've had E* for over 4 years but every time I decide to go for their PVR's, something causes me to wait.
I want the 921, but will not go for it until it's more stable (and they're available again).
I was going to get a 721, but now I'm waiting for the 522 to become available to non-DHP customers.
I just felt that the article was interesting because it is from a source other than the forums. Sometimes I think that maybe we are the only one's that are complaining or having these problems because we're the early adopters.

 

[MikeD-C05]

What was said is true of all Dish dvrs and software bugs. Dish should take heed and get an quality assurance department to test the software before it's released to the general public. This cost them more in bad word of mouth from customers and also jammed phone lines to tech department csrs trying to field the questions. If Dish would do this one thing before they released products they would help their image immeasurabley. Treating customers as software testers is not a good way . It seems like they come up with good ideas for receivers and make a rough draft release and then work for up to 2 years or more doing software updates to correct the problems they never fixed to work in the first place. If Dish wants to compete with Directv powered by Rupert Murdoch, then they better heed the author 's advice in this article.

 

[Pepper]

I am going to print off a copy of this article and give to my boss next week, we are a software development company with limited staff and this points out the same shortcomings I see with our products... because of the limited time and resources we have, we're a small company, we usually are developing the product whilst the end user is trying to run their business with it... they do end up with a good product but go thru some unnecessary hassle while it gets finished. I will have to be diplomatic though in the presentment of it...

 

[djlong]

As a long-suffering DishPlayer owner (about 4 years), I can tell you that Dish has lost me as a future customer.

When you compare the bug threads of E* DVRs to anything form the TiVo side - the difference is astounding.

Make no mistake, I love the functionality of my DishPlayer, but having software that gets worse with almost every revision is NOT how you write software - and I do that professionally. I would NOT have 25 years of experience if I wrote and tested software the way that Dish does.

Time and time again they rush their products to market and make the same mistake. It is FAR easier to fix bugs before you release a product because you don't have to worry about upsetting the installed customer base with an upgrade that might, say, erase their recordings. You don't have to put in extra work in MAKING an upgrade - you just rebuild the software and install from scratch (which is a process that always has to be developed).

Dish has shown no hint of learning from those mistakes so when it's time for me to upgrade to HDTV, I'm going with a D* HD TiVo.

 

[ItamaeChef]

Can anyone comment on what the current software release candidate is for the PVR 721 and most importantly a list of bug fixes and features. Thanks.

ItamaeChef

 

[MikeD-C05]

Nothing is fixed except the guide problems which resulted a week or so ago. This is suppossed to fix the 721 so it will keep the 9 day guide . If you remember we lost the 9 day guide a while back for a day or so , this is suppossed to fix it so it doesn't happen again. They also did a software update to the 921 for the same thing.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Just be careful with Tivo also..... "Smart" Money is bailing on Tivo this week from a stock price perspective, so word may have gotten out about D* adopting the E* model and developing their PVRs in house to match Rupert's world model elsewhere. I'm not sure if Tivo will survive in it's current form with the standalone boxes alone.

 

[AJF]

Here's an interesting related article entitled: "TiVo WILL DIE"

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1550780,00.asp