Changed to Dish

Thanks to all here as I will go to Dish from DTV as soon as I get my Wally and antenna in a week or so. The information on how things work will help me. I was a Primestar customer when DTV bought it a long time ago.

JimR

Dutch_12078 wrote:

jdc1 wrote:
Dish and Directv both suck.

That's not helpful...

I would agree, not helpful.
We have had both in sticks and bricks, only Dish in the RV, we full time and have only had Dish, very happy with the service.

MarkTwain wrote:

Kountryguy wrote:
Finally got fed up with Directv after about 30 years. Got set up with Dish a couple of days ago. I have two big questions. I found out that the receiver must shut down everyday for updates. After this shutdown, I must wait 5-10 minutes for things to reset. After that has been completed, to get the guide to complete loading, must wait another 5-10 minutes. This is very annoying. Does anyone know a way around this? I have a Wally receiver and a Tailgater dish.

Suggest you call Dish Tech support. Your issues do not seem normal or how dish should operate. Dish can run a test on your TV to check every thing is operating normal.

Ours does does its updates, but run about 4:00 am, so I am sleeping.

jdc1 wrote:
Dish and Directv both suck.

That's not helpful...

Dish and Directv both suck.

obgraham wrote:
Been with Dish for 23 years -- never once had it shut itself down to update while I was watching something.

That is because the "updates" are supposed to be scheduled to happen in the middle of the night.

So unless you are a night owl and stay awake from midnight to 6AM you will never know that the system gets updated then reboots..

I have a VIP-722, the original one I started with yrs ago rebooted at 2 AM, had it fail some time ago and the replacement I noticed reboots around 3 AM.. There should be in one of the setup menus a setting that you can change to the time that the unit picks up the update.. When it downloads the update it will then reboot.

Not to mention the receivers do have an "inactivity" timer, this timer monitors the time the unit has been turned "ON" and how much time has elapsed from the last human input has happened.. Human input as is in changing channels, looking at menu, program guide, basically any time you push a button or interact with the unit..

You fail to interact with the unit for too long of a time and it assumes you are not watching and turns off..

That timer sometimes may have enabled by default and you have to set it to "OFF" to disable that feature.

My first VIP-722 had that timer enabled, leaving me scratching my head the first time it happened to me.. The refurb replacement I got the that timer was not enabled.

Both are easy fixes.

Been with Dish for 23 years -- never once had it shut itself down to update while I was watching something.

It is true that once in a great while the whole mess goes bonkers, solved by a complete reset - - i.e., unplug for a minute then wait 5 minutes for a re-acquisition. Perhaps once every 2 years. Never had a weather outage, either, contrary to what the cable companies claim.

Now, whether there is any content worth watching these days..... that is a whole other issue!

Kountryguy wrote:
I guess I will try calling again. When I spoke to them the first time, they said that is how it has to be. Does not seem right to me.
When I go to settings and then power options, it gives a choice of 1 thru 8 hours of inactivity time out. It also offers OFF but not recommended. I chose OFF, but ti still shuts off after 8 hours. It also allows you to pick a daily reset time. Is that what the rest of you have?

You are talking two different issues.

Updates should be happening in the middle of the night, not during the day. Typically updates are defaulted to 2 AM- 3 AM, the receiver will get updates, then it will "reboot" once the updates have completed.. If it is set during the day/evening, you should be able to manually change that to 2 AM-3 AM and that will stop you from losing the receiver during the day/evening for a reboot.

Reboot should also hold off if you are recording something during the update time until the event timer has finished to prevent interruption of the recording.

The "inactivity time out" you are talking about is an "inactivity" timer setting, that is the time the receiver will stay active on from the last "input" you gave like changing channels.. Setting it to "OFF" should allow receiver to stay turned on the entire day up to the point of the nightly updates reboot.

If either fix does not solve your issues, you may need to get further Dish hardware support involved.

I guess I will try calling again. When I spoke to them the first time, they said that is how it has to be. Does not seem right to me.
When I go to settings and then power options, it gives a choice of 1 thru 8 hours of inactivity time out. It also offers OFF but not recommended. I chose OFF, but ti still shuts off after 8 hours. It also allows you to pick a daily reset time. Is that what the rest of you have?

Kountryguy wrote:
Finally got fed up with Directv after about 30 years. Got set up with Dish a couple of days ago. I have two big questions. I found out that the receiver must shut down everyday for updates. After this shutdown, I must wait 5-10 minutes for things to reset. After that has been completed, to get the guide to complete loading, must wait another 5-10 minutes. This is very annoying. Does anyone know a way around this? I have a Wally receiver and a Tailgater dish.

This long time Dish customer never heard of such thing! Shut down every day? Not with my systems.... and first time I've even heard of it. You need to talk to Dish Tech Support!
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