Updates every night?

[GaryPen]

I was up last night at 1am, and couldn't help but notice that I didn't get the update warning message. I'm not sure if it is something that should be happening every night, or if it is an occasional thing, as I've only been watching TV at that time on just a few occasions. But, on those occasions, the message would always pop up.

So, are there supposed to be nightly updates of one kind or another (mostly EPG updates, I presume), or are they as needed? This is especially of concern to me, as I am anxiously awaiting S221 to see if it fixes a serious lockup/freezing issue I am having.

 

[garys]

Hopper is set to update around 1 am, unless it is recording. There maybe other factors that could delay it as well. Don't expect it to occur exactly at 1 am everynight.

 

[GaryPen]

Hopper is set to update around 1 am, unless it is recording. There maybe other factors that could delay it as well. Don't expect it to occur exactly at 1 am everynight.

Are you saying not to expect it at 1am or not to expect it every night?

And, I wasn't recording. Simply watching live TV. Not in menu. Not in guide. Not watching a recording. Just live TV. So, do you have any idea what these other factors preventing updates might be?

 

[garys]

Since I don't have access to a Hopper at 1 am, I am not certain. But no receiver I have used that required the nightly download has ever happened at the precise time it was supposed to, in fact many were hours after the slated time. I'm sure someone who has more knowledge than I do would be better prepared to answer as to what would cause delays.

 

[manteca]

every night, exactly at 1:00AM, the hopper will check if there are any software/guide updates available, of course, is there are any recordings that will conflict with that time, it will check later after the recording ended

 

[sparc]

Are you saying not to expect it at 1am or not to expect it every night?

Based on my experience, it checks pretty much every night around 1am. However, it could delayed by hours for various reasons.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Certain updates for the Hopper only happen overnight and require the Hopper to be in standby to download.

They are working on things so it will grab these updates on a free tuner then apply the changes once the Hopper goes in standby on its own.

My understanding that some of these updates contain things like Art Card updates, logos, and AutoHop information.

 

[EasyEEE]

I think they also like the fresh restart daily just to clear any strange issues.

All my recordings for the next day all had conflicts which shouldn't have, the 1am restart cleared it out.

And yes, it checks for updates at that time too... But there aren't always updates.

 

[GaryPen]

Certain updates for the Hopper only happen overnight and require the Hopper to be in standby to download.

They are working on things so it will grab these updates on a free tuner then apply the changes once the Hopper goes in standby on its own.

My understanding that some of these updates contain things like Art Card updates, logos, and AutoHop information.

It's kinda frustrating when almost all, if not all, of that stuff could be downloaded at any time via the network connection, and installed in the background, at the next standby instance, or at manually clicking OK to a pop-up message.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They don't want to use the network connection, unless YOU want to use the network connection. Thats a lot of data and many people have caps.

 

[Poke]

They don't want to use the network connection, unless YOU want to use the network connection. Thats a lot of data and many people have caps.

True! Plus the less things using your network connection the better..

 

[navychop]

I would expect a Hopper update every night, for AUTOHOP if nothing else. No?

 

[jrmy]

I just want to change the time. I do not find 1 AM convenient at all.

 

[GaryPen]

They don't want to use the network connection, unless YOU want to use the network connection.

I do. And, there's no technical reason for them not doing so.

 

[GaryPen]

True! Plus the less things using your network connection the better..

Nonsense.

 

[JM42]

I do. And, there's no technical reason for them not doing so.

They only need to get it working well one way. They can't assume a web connection and have to support getting everything via the sat stream. Anything else will be of such minimal impact it's not worth putting the effort in. The "free tuner" approach is best, but still wish they would aloow us to set the the time.

 

[GaryPen]

They only need to get it working well one way. They can't assume a web connection and have to support getting everything via the sat stream. Anything else will be of such minimal impact it's not worth putting the effort in. The "free tuner" approach is best, but still wish they would aloow us to set the the time.

Wrong.

When a new revision is released, they send a flag to all affected receivers via the ip connection. If the version available is newer than the version installed, it requests the DL. When the DL is finished, if the Hopper and all connected Joeys are standby, and no recordings scheduled for the next 10 minutes, it installs. If the Hopper or Joeys are in use, a message can pop up, asking the user if they want to proceed with the install. Otherwise, it installs at the next standby opportunity.

If the Hopper has no IP connection, then it would simply take the update the old-fashioned way, via sat feed. But, since streaming video is such an integral part of the Hopper, chances are that those without IP connections would be the minority.

Additionally:
-They should do all Hoppers simultaneously, instead of rolling them out at a snails pace, as they do now. (I still don't have S221, even though it was rolled out last Wed evening.)
-They should allow manual re-installation of the update, to ensure a corrupted update hasn't been causing the buggy behavior a user might be experiencing.
-They should allow manual rollbacks, in case a buggy update destabilizes a user's Hopper, to avoid the disruption to the household that causes.

 

[JM42]

Wrong.

When a new revision is released, they send a flag to all affected receivers via the ip connection. If the version available is newer than the version installed, it requests the DL. When the DL is finished, if the Hopper and all connected Joeys are standby, and no recordings scheduled for the next 10 minutes, it installs. If the Hopper or Joeys are in use, a message can pop up, asking the user if they want to proceed with the install. Otherwise, it installs at the next standby opportunity.

If the Hopper has no IP connection, then it would simply take the update the old-fashioned way, via sat feed. But, since streaming video is such an integral part of the Hopper, chances are that those without IP connections would be the minority.

Additionally:
-They should do all Hoppers simultaneously, instead of rolling them out at a snails pace, as they do now. (I still don't have S221, even though it was rolled out last Wed evening.)
-They should allow manual re-installation of the update, to ensure a corrupted update hasn't been causing the buggy behavior a user might be experiencing.
-They should allow manual rollbacks, in case a buggy update destabilizes a user's Hopper, to avoid the disruption to the household that causes.

Other than giving a few tech heads some sense of control, none of that other than possibly roll back is of any benefit to Dish or most of the user base. Minimal impact and not worth the effort.

A D* like CE program would be a better solution for the techies and should ultimately result in better releases.

 

[GaryPen]

Other than giving a few tech heads some sense of control, none of that other than possibly roll back is of any benefit to Dish or most of the user base. Minimal impact and not worth the effort.

A D* like CE program would be a better solution for the techies and should ultimately result in better releases.

Doing things the right way is always worth the effort. And, actually, the rollback would have the least impact of the bunch, and the only one I can see a half-valid argument against.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Gary the night time data stream is a lot larger then you think. I dont think you will see those updates coming off the internet anytime soon.

Once the Hopper datastream is 24/7 and can use an unused tuner then it makes all of this moot anyways.