811 program guide trouble

[randyk]

The program guide in my 811 has become unusable. Everytime I press program guide it tries to download the program guide and no infor appears in all the boxes. I called dish and the representative sent me a new 811 receiver. It does the same thing. I called again and after 3 hours (no kidding) on the phone (I completely killed the battery on one phone and had to switch to another), I was told that it was a programming problem and Dish didn't know when the problem might be fixed. Then, they hustled me for a new mpeg4 receiver. They wanted me to pay an extra $100 and obligate myself for an additional 18 months. I said no thanks. If they can't make my 811 work, there isn't any guarantee that they could make a different receiver work. They didn't appreciate that logic.

Is this just a scam to make us old 811 owners pony up for new mpeg4 receivers?

Can anyone tell me how to make the program guide on my 811 work?

 

[VegasVoomer]

Before I traded my 811 for another 622 last week I had trouble with the EPG. Not always but now and then I press guide and there was no info and the downloading PG box was on screen but making no progress. I hit cancel and the searching for sat box came up. I hit channel up or down on that and got video back. Hit the guide button again and then the EPG would download. The problem got progressively worse and I'm not sorry to get rid of that 811 at all. I think in August it will be pretty much out of the loop anyway. You really should upgrade to a 622. You would love it.

 

[randyk]

I'm thinking about upgrading to Direct. I don't trust a company that won't make good on its products. If the 811 cannot be made to work correctly, then Dish should provide me with a unit that does. This does sound like a scam to get customers to pay for their switch to mpeg4.

 

[Jim5506]

You mean downgrading to Direct.

 

[randyk]

In any other transaction that I have been involved, equipment that doesn't work is considered a flaw. I pay Dish $6.00 per month to repair my equipment and they are now telling me that my equipment is not repairable and that they will not replace it. If that is a downgrade to you, so be it. I'm thinking about downgrading to equipment that works.

 

[Carl B]

I had the same problem with the EPG starting a few weeks ago. I finally checked my System Information and it listed the software as p389. Well, that was a revision from the software that had been running well for months, p388. After exhausting soft reboots, hard reboots, returning to Defaults, and running with the Auto Shutoff enabled and disabled, I gave up and was about to call Dish and complain (for what good it does).

Then I notice that the EPG seems to be behaving. I check System Information and note that the software is back to p388. My wife later commented that she had turned on the TV late the other night and noticed a download in progress. I have yet to find any discussion of this Dish software screw-up in these forums.

BTW, the EPG issue has put my wife firmly against paying any more for Dish services, so when they force the 811 out of the HD loop, we'll probably be heading for a new customer deal with DirectTV or Comcast. Both are about the same or lower final regular monthly cost and would give us 3 to 12 months of special discounts, so we'd save a little for while.