Troubleshooting Tips for DISH's EPG issues

Ziptied

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Apr 16, 2011
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Here's a few tips DISH sent us this afternoon.

As communicated on March 1, 2017, a data update to the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) may cause intermittent issues relative to DVR recordings and timers along with other user interface items. These items include guide information, info screen descriptions, ratings, incorrect or missing images on tile artwork, search, and auto-suggest features. While reports of issues are sporadic, we have a few troubleshooting tips which may prove useful.

RECORDING TIMER CREATION

Subscribers with receivers that utilize the newer DISH User Interface (UI) may experience an error code 1281 when attempting to create a new DVR timer. This could be attributed to the presence of an external hard drive device connected to the receiver. Please advise your technician or Subscriber to unplug the external hard drive and attempt to create the desired DVR timer.

EXPIRED IPVOD EVENTS

Subscribers who wish to order Internet Protocol Video on Demand (IPVOD) programming supplied via the Internet may see outdated or expired programming descriptions when they search for content. To avoid this situation, we suggest users navigate to their receiver menu and order IPVOD content within the Video on Demand portion of the UI.

ERRORS WITH EXISTING RECORDING TIMERS

If you receive reports from a Subscriber that their scheduled recordings no longer seem to be working, please have them clear and reset all preexisting recording events and timers. The issue should be resolved once they attempt to create the new timers for the same programming.
 
Thanks Ziptied for the information.

Oh, my. Not a very good situation. Instead of fixing the 1281 issue they tell us to disconnect the EHD? Clear and reset all preexisting recording timers? And who is going to re-create the timers? With about 90 timers this is not feasible unless recreating means restoring from the remote backup.

Every new release breaks something that used to work in a previous version. To me it's an indication of a need to improve their QA and regression testing.
 
Thanks Ziptied for the information.

Oh, my. Not a very good situation. Instead of fixing the 1281 issue they tell us to disconnect the EHD? Clear and reset all preexisting recording timers? And who is going to re-create the timers? With about 90 timers this is not feasible unless recreating means restoring from the remote backup.

Every new release breaks something that used to work in a previous version. To me it's an indication of a need to improve their QA and regression testing.
At least you "only" have 90 timers! LOL!
 
Our new guide/timer issue is that 'some' of our 100+ timers regular weekly events have guide data with a different 'title' or identifier...

'WWE Smackdown!'
Is now
'WWE Smackdown'
And timer not recognize new title designation.

Some events actual appear to have the same title, but not recognize for timer, 'Grey's Anatomy'.

This only seems to be a few of the 100+ timers so its difficult to identify which ones until an episode is skipped or randomly noticed to not have red timer spot in guide.

Sent from my SM-G930P using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
I had to set a NEW timer for Survivor is now Survivor Game Changers. On Tonight!!

This is a bunch of BS.
 
For me, live sports events are still janked up... One example, I like to record English Premier League Soccer on NBCSN. It used to work great and every live match was recorded under one timer using the Only New option. Currently. I have to manually set a timer for every game. I have deleted and recreated timers... nope, it only records the first event. I tried New & Reruns and it did the same. Daily and M-F are no good because games are typically Sat-Sun-Mon. Weekly, maybe, but I would have to set a timer for each broadcast day and time (up to 6 timers). I complained to Dish yesterday. They said they are aware of it and provided suggestions. I just want the one timer to work like it used to.
 
Good point, Formula 1 is about to start and in the past my "Formula 1" timer has been able to catch the Practice, Qualifying, and Race broadcasts with one Timer entry. Hopefully I don't need to create Timers for each and every Race and Pre-Race!


—Roland
 
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For me, live sports events are still janked up... One example, I like to record English Premier League Soccer on NBCSN. It used to work great and every live match was recorded under one timer using the Only New option. Currently. I have to manually set a timer for every game. I have deleted and recreated timers... nope, it only records the first event. I tried New & Reruns and it did the same. Daily and M-F are no good because games are typically Sat-Sun-Mon. Weekly, maybe, but I would have to set a timer for each broadcast day and time (up to 6 timers). I complained to Dish yesterday. They said they are aware of it and provided suggestions. I just want the one timer to work like it used to.

Yes, this is a huge pain. This goes for not only the Red Devils, but my La Liga teams, Bundesliga, etc. Then you have to also worry about Champions League games being missed, Europa League, etc. Dish can't fix this fast enough for me. I haven't had Dish for very long (and I am in a 2 year contract), but I've really been thinking of paying the early termination penalty and going back to Directv (they have had some good offers that would probably offset the penalty). If I was able to get in on the testing of the HS17, I would be gone. It is one thing to see problems like this when you are performing cutting edge testing. To see it in a production release is a really bad situation.

I understand that there may be some circumstances that we are not aware of that forced the quick switch in guide providers. However, this is an all hands on deck emergency that they really need to address as quickly as they can. I can see many subscribers going elsewhere at their contract termination. As I said, I am very close myself. The 4K Premier League Games are almost enough to get me to switch.

Tim