What's up with my ol' reliable 722? Problems, problems...

[noremac]

My 722 has been virtually flawless until about two weeks ago. Is the latest software upgrade to blame?? Of course, I done all the usual rebooting, check switches, etc. I have firmware L674.

The most significant problem is that many recordings exhibit playback errors consisting of broken-up video, broken-up audio, and random response to trick controls. The problems seem to be most severe when recording OTA programs, and when watching live programs on a delay.

In addition, the DVR button response is awful. Sometimes it will only respond to the first press, then apparently lock up (while the picture in the upper right continues OK). But then, it eventually responds to all those frustrated button presses.

What the heck is going on with this workhorse receiver? If these are common problems, then Dish is going to get lots of bad customer feedback.

 

[whatchel1]

Hard drive is dying in it.

 

[MattG@DISH]

I agree, it sounds like the hard drive is going bad. Try deleting some recordings you no longer need, and hard reset if you haven't.

 

[fkasten]

I've started having the exact same problems on my 722, especially the terrible playback errors when recording OTA programs. I have no problems with satellite programs. I have an external hard drive and keep very little on my 722's drive. The problem is not the hard drive dying but something else.

 

[noremac]

I've started having the exact same problems on my 722, especially the terrible playback errors when recording OTA programs...

Yes, that's a strong distinction. If only OTA recordings are experiencing problems, then how does the harddrive get blamed?

 

[TheKrell]

Yes, that's a strong distinction. If only OTA recordings are experiencing problems, then how does the harddrive get blamed?

By virtue of the fact that the digital stream is recorded as-is, and HD OTA programs could be consuming 2-3 times the bandwidth of Dish mpeg-4 HD channels. The disk might not be able to take the beating.

 

[primestar31]

By virtue of the fact that the digital stream is recorded as-is, and HD OTA programs could be consuming 2-3 times the bandwidth of Dish mpeg-4 HD channels. The disk might not be able to take the beating.

Take heed to these guys saying it's probably your internal harddrive. I just had one go bad in my VIP622, which started errors in September 2010, and finally took it's final dump about 2 weeks ago. I replaced the drive, and I haven't had a single error since. Mine was hesitating, bringing up "total signal loss" screen, and then rebooting, various recordings were messed up, etc. If you own the receiver, you can buy a replacement 500GB drive. My posting is here, and gives you the model number of a specific drive that will work. You can NOT install just any drive, there are only certain specific ones that will work with Dish's firmware, and they can be hard to find. The one in my post will work for sure, and is readily available. It's fairly easy to replace. http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...622-might-have-bought-farm-2.html#post2438467

If you LEASE the receiver, get the $6 a month service plan, then call in the receiver as defective the next day. In fact, you could do that either way, I just prefer to fix my owned receiver, but even though I own it, they'd still swap it out under their service plan.

 

[JAF]

I'm seeing the same errors! Anything to do with an OTA channel has been a problem. Watching the channel is fine, but forget about rewinding, it just skips all around breaks up and goes back to Live TV. I've also noticed that having just one of the tuners on a OTA channel messes everything up. Example: I'm watching ESPN for example, if the other tuner is on a OTA channel than if I try and go backwards on the ESPN channel it skips around and messes up. But if I have both tuners on Sat. channels, it seems to be a lot better. I've read in other posts that Dish receivers are really sensitive with multi-path and that could be the cause. You might want to try disconnecting your OTA antenna and see if you are still having issues.

 

[fkasten]

I've talked to L2 tech support and gotten no help. The tech I talked to wrote everything down for a report to "engineering". I asked when I'd hear back and was told he didn't know. If you guys who are having similar OTA recording issues report them, maybe it'll help to get some kind of resolution. BTW I still have firmware L672.

 

[JAF]

Just as an update, I posted earlier that I was seeing the same problems. I called Dish and they sent a replacement 722. It works perfect. Both were running the same software build so this must be a hardware issue. All of the issues I was having went away.

 

[fkasten]

I too received a placement 722 that works fine. In spite of a 30 minute deep dive into CSR Hell to activate it, I'm happy.