Timers not working properly - Start Early/End Late not functioning

yaz96

Baby, It's Cold Outside
Original poster
Dec 22, 2005
12,829
1
Front Range, Colorado
Starting the past week or so, my timers have not been working properly.

The Start Early is set to the default of 1 minute and the End Late is set to the default of 3 minutes.

The recordings are still only recording exactly 1 hour or 30 minutes.

Previously my programs would be 63 minutes, now they're only 60 minutes long.

Anyone else having this problem? Or know how to fix it?
 
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but if you have 2 shows on the same channel that are recording back to back, then the receivers ignore the early/late settings. For example if you have 3 shows on the same channel, one at 8, one at 8:30, and one at 9, then the one at 8 will start one minute early but will end at 8:30. the one at 8:30 will start at 8:30 and end at 9, and the one at 9 will start at 9 and end at 9:33. Could this be what you are seeing?
 
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but if you have 2 shows on the same channel that are recording back to back, then the receivers ignore the early/late settings. For example if you have 3 shows on the same channel, one at 8, one at 8:30, and one at 9, then the one at 8 will start one minute early but will end at 8:30. the one at 8:30 will start at 8:30 and end at 9, and the one at 9 will start at 9 and end at 9:33. Could this be what you are seeing?

Yeah they added this "feature" in an update maybe a year ago. It's pretty annoying. If I want my damn show to start early or end late you do it, that's why the receiver has two tuners! It ends up missing a few seconds in between the two shows. I wish they would get rid of this. The fix is to make it at least 5 minutes either way and then it doesn't change it to 0.
 
This is how I see it.If you try to set your timers to start early or end later then it throws off which tuner to record on,for those who want to be watching a program and don't want to be interrupted by a recording.
There are those programs who intentionally go over to keep another program from being recorded correctly,and I know who they are.
The ability to use the OTA tuner(s) for viewing does help the problem some what.What I have found is to set your recordings to Start Early-0/End Late-0.
Make sure your local channel programs are to be recorded with your local OTA tuner(s) in your DVR receiver.
If for any reason you suspect a program will run late,record the program that follows it.
Always double check your set to record recording setup every once in a while to be sure they are correct.

My solution is not fail safe,but it does help to keep the interruptions to the program you choose to view at a minimum.;)
 
Yeah they added this "feature" in an update maybe a year ago. It's pretty annoying. If I want my damn show to start early or end late you do it, that's why the receiver has two tuners! It ends up missing a few seconds in between the two shows. I wish they would get rid of this. The fix is to make it at least 5 minutes either way and then it doesn't change it to 0.

The one minute early "ignore" if a show is set to air and record on the same channel right after has been the case for SEVERAL YEARS going back to the SD 522/625 (the old 721 was pretty much the same, if I remember) and the ViP's are no different as I have had to work around for about 8 years and since day one of the 722.

What has probably happened is the the DVR is now recording a show on the same channel immediately after or a different channel with both tuners in use when the following program records where it hadn't been an issue before (or your timer is the PRIORITY) and that is why you think it is some new kink, but it's not. This has been how Dish dual tuner DVR's have worked since day one many years ago. I've had to deal with this for MTV in particular. There is a workaround:

If you set the Start Early to a minimum of 2 Minutes and End Late to a minimum of 3 Minutes, then the tuner will record the ENTIRE 1:05 NO MATTER WHAT. You must to do this especially if a recording is scheduled for the same channel immediately after on the same or other channel. I have been doing this for MTV for ages.

Be aware that the tuners for BOTH will automatically be recording at the same time (for the same channel, a 2 minute overlap of the same 2 minutes) and you will lose the ability of watching one channel while recording a different if you are tuned to different channel channel than either of the 2 set for recording during the 2 minute "overlap," if one of your tuners does not have another recording set to fire. This set-up can be problematic in most cases and should only be used in situations where you are certain you need this guaranteed extra block of recording time and is probably why Dish timers do NOT and will NEVER be set by Engineering to default to this type of setting. If you do this for recordings that don't need the guarantee, your DVR is going to drop your live show (painful if you are watching delayed and don't save it) and change channels on your and both tuners will be in use and you can't watch a 2nd or 3rd channel unless you cease one of the recordings. Remember you can set the custom details of a timer to be the DEFAULT for your DVR by selecting that option at the bottom of the Timer Set page. That is how you can make it your default.

If you can, as suggested in another post, it is worth the small effort to use your OTA tuner (or buy the MT2 module for the 722K for $30 and get an OTA antenna, then you can record OTA's separate and in addition to your sat channels if your conflicts involve Locals.

In the case of conflicting SAT channel, if you have a timer that is supposed to record, but you end up overiding it using 2 Min Early and 3 Min late, then, the DVR will NOT record that showing (depending upon your PRIORITY TIMER LIST), but WILL record the next airing (often 3 hours later), unless it is a Local that often airs a show only ONCE and repeats it only months later. If you use DishPass for certain shows, networks like NBC will air the same premier episode on one of its owned "cable" channels.

Finally, be certain that the timer are in the correct PRIORITY, or this workaround won't work as your intended timers are too low in PRIORITY and will be skipped and one becoming frustrated.
 
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I have a Vip722K with software L682. I've had the problem of timers not starting as scheduled for the last couple of days & it seems quite sporadic. The problem is not a matter of overlapping timers since the 722K has 4 turners & affects both satellite & OTA timers. Yesterday "Grey's Anatomy" started as the timer was set - start 1 minute early, 8:59 pm. But "The Mentalist" didn't start until a minute late, at 10:01 pm. Both are OTA timers. Earlier in the evening, "House Hunters" started 1 minute late, but the following show started 1 minute early just as it should.

I should not have to adjust any of my timers that have been functioning properly for months.
 
I have a Vip722K with software L682. I've had the problem of timers not starting as scheduled for the last couple of days & it seems quite sporadic. The problem is not a matter of overlapping timers since the 722K has 4 turners & affects both satellite & OTA timers. Yesterday "Grey's Anatomy" started as the timer was set - start 1 minute early, 8:59 pm. But "The Mentalist" didn't start until a minute late, at 10:01 pm. Both are OTA timers. Earlier in the evening, "House Hunters" started 1 minute late, but the following show started 1 minute early just as it should.

I should not have to adjust any of my timers that have been functioning properly for months.

It happened on both Greys Anatomy and The Mentalist for me as well. They were both supposed to be 1 minute before and 3 after (the default) and they both recorded exactly 1 hour. No programs directly before or after these.
 
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but if you have 2 shows on the same channel that are recording back to back, then the receivers ignore the early/late settings. For example if you have 3 shows on the same channel, one at 8, one at 8:30, and one at 9, then the one at 8 will start one minute early but will end at 8:30. the one at 8:30 will start at 8:30 and end at 9, and the one at 9 will start at 9 and end at 9:33. Could this be what you are seeing?
REALLY! I have yet to see that behavior on my 722 with L674. What I am seeing is that it tries alternate tuners. When it can't I get the "set priority/resolve automatically" screen. If I go in and manually 0 out the late/early then it works. But it still tried to do Tuner 1, then 2 . . .
 
REALLY! I have yet to see that behavior on my 722 with L674. What I am seeing is that it tries alternate tuners. When it can't I get the "set priority/resolve automatically" screen. If I go in and manually 0 out the late/early then it works. But it still tried to do Tuner 1, then 2 . . .

The "set priority/resolve automatically" screen is not displayed when early/late is set to the default 1 early 3 late and it can record the shows one after another on the same channel. In the example that you quoted, the "set priority/resolve automatically" screen would not be displayed unless there was some other conflict. (At least that is how my 722 has been working.
 
ple at DISH and no one had an answer, knew of it, or if they did know, could only hope that this would/could be resolved. Guess not.
The "set priority/resolve automatically" screen is not displayed when early/late is set to the default 1 early 3 late and it can record the shows one after another on the same channel. In the example that you quoted, the "set priority/resolve automatically" screen would not be displayed unless there was some other conflict. (At least that is how my 722 has been working.
I had to change the default 1/3 to 1/0, sometimes I can get away with 2/0, because every timer that was close to another would conflict, even if they were on different channels and tuners, :confused: , and the only way to resolve it to the way it should be, was to change it. I have not seen any of this "intelligent" operation that one would think by this time in technology would be there. But I was also told that they could not go too far on this level or risk "infringement" accusations. But the only major issues happen with the major networks when they started the "start early" BS. Cable channels purposely avoided this because they knew this pissed people off and did more damage than good. Thank you guys! Now if they would only take all their screen crap off or move it way down out of my real estate.

One would have thought that the software would be updated to allow for this. But wasn't. Here is where the "fear" of "infringement" would apply if at all. I had long since discussed this with many and varied people at DISH over the years. One light in the sky was "name based recording" that was touted to fix all this. It didn't due to the crappy guide. But of those that did comment, they either did not realize a problem, did not care, or knew of it and knew that a fix was not going to happen. I have fought with this since the big 3 started the "start early" and have resigned myself to the fact that is was going to be a pain and that it might not always work and would need to be baby sat. I spend more time dinking with and monitoring timers, than watching the programming that they are recording. This is the same for my 625.

DISH has a long way to go on the GUI in many respects.
 
OK, to all those stating they still have a problem. The 1 minute early and 3 late is NOT going to guarantee the entire 4 minutes is going to record. It must be an extra 5 Minutes to force the DVR to drop any other recordings scheduled at that time if it creates a conflict, and it will record the entire extra 5 minutes, guaranteed. For me, I always use a 2 Min before and 3 after for MTV because that is usually how they mess things up, but a 1 Min before and 4 after or any other combination of 5 minutes will work to prevent the DVR from dropping the recording.

If you are certain of no conflicts (and what you've described I've only seen with timer conflicts), and are certain that the DVR should be recording as you expect, try the above 5 minute solution and see if it works. I know you shouldn't have to change your timers, but at this point is it about recording all of your show and not anyone's pride.
 
I had a program that was by itself, no other programs on either side, and the 1/3 minute default timer did not work.

I set a test timer up tonight and sure enough, it was only going to record from 8:00-9:00. I set the timer to 2/2 and it changed to 7:58-9:02. Something happened to stop the default timer 1/3 from working.
 

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