DP322 blanks out every night

[clmay]

My DP322 is doing something strange. Some time late at night, it goes to a kind of screensaver, I guess, and you have to press the Select key to get a picture and sound the next morning. There is just a stupid Dish Network slide on screen and a text saying to press Select to watch.

I guess this is not a big deal, but with cable I got used to using my TV as an alarm clock, to wake up to my favorite news show. Since there is no sound, grrrrr!

I don't see how turning the TV off can affect the receiver, because if I turn the TV on right away, it's OK.

Is this normal behavior, or is there something I can do just make the darned thing keep playing when the TV is off, so it will be there in the morning when the TV wakes up?

 

[volkodav]

I'm not sure on 322 but try finding stand by mode and change it to more then 4 hours set dish. i know you can do that on DVR receivers

 

[nsafreak]

That's the inactivity timer for you. Not sure if the posted solution will work or not but Dish did that to try and save themselves from anybody complaining about burn in.

 

[DishSubLA]

The 322 (and all DishPro boxes, I believe) have a nightyly "Updates" feature. The default is set for 3AM So, if your box is on, at about 3AM, a prompt appears asking if you want the box to enter the updates mode. If you do not respond within a minute, it will automatically go into the updates mode for about 3 minutes, then display the Dish Logo with the "Press Select to Continue" message. There are 2 things you can do about this to wake up to sound:

1. Set an auto tune timer (using the guide for a specific show or mannually program a timer) for the box to turn on with video and sound at your desired time. My mom does this because she likes the box turning off when she is asleep.

2. Modify or Disable the "Updates" feature using the menus. You can select another time for the box to enter updates mode, or completely shut off this mode.

HOWEVER, if you disable the updates mode, please be certain to power off (put in to standby) your box when you don't need it on, as that will be the only time it can receive the software updates.

 

[clmay]

Thanks for the tip. I think I'll try turning the updates off since I generally pick the show I want to wake up to. Why does it need updates anyway, and what will happen if I forget to shut it off?

 

[bill93civic]

program guide update for the most part, with the occasional software/firmware upgrade for the receiver.

 

[clmay]

It worked fine this morning with updates turned off. Thanks for the help, you guys.

I'll remember to power down when I see guide info is out of date. Mostly I'm a creature of habit, so I don't use the guide.

 

[aegrotatio]

Even with nightly updates turned off the receiver will still pick a random day and do an update--whether it goes to the "screen saver" is dependent on what receiver you have. The 322 that I have on an uninterruptible power supply and generator still turns itself off a few times per month.

In addition, the guide is always up-to-date because it actually really does comes from the satellite and not the phone line--same with firmware updates. The phone connection is used for PPV and for verifying that a Digital Home Advantage subscription with dual tuners is really a single box in one home. The DISH Network literature is mildly misleading in that respect.

 

[DishSubLA]

I should add that from my experience, the 322 will download the guide if the other tuner is in standby while you watch un-interrupted TV on the active tuner. If you don't want to wait that long, you can always manually download it.

Also, even with updates off, if you leave a tuner on long enough, (I have found it to be many hours) the 322 will still go into a kind of stand by mode with the screen saver displayed and the light indicator on. A timer set to fire will reset this.

Nothing terrible will happen if you forget to put the box in standby, and eventually, as said in another post, if the box has not been accessed for several hours, it will download software, if necessary.

The updates clean-up bugs (or creates them, ha ha) adds new features, and several other things that you won't be aware of, but your system may need (like supporting new satellite positions). Updates usually occur every few months or so. Check out the threads about software updates to learn more.