Hopper With Sling Software Version S338

Disturbing new "glitch"

Both of my HWS are recording from 1-3 to avoid the nightly update reminder.

Last night I was watching the LR Hopper from the BR Hopper (BR has 338), & suddenly got a new message (formatted differently, smaller font) wanting to update/reset at 1:30 - even though both hoppers were in the middle of a recording. Not supposed to happen & it would have ruined anything that was recording at the time. Anyone else see this?
 
No one else has had the update message show up at 1am while recording? It doesn't seem to interrupt the recording, just puts a large bogus message in the middle of the screen making it impossible to watch without hitting the button.

(Got 338 on older HWS last night, usually takes a week longer than my first one which is newer)
 
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No advantage to S338 IMO -- none of the bugs I notice are fixed and OTA recordings have even more sound and video glitches on playback (somewhere in the decode process, since rewinding usually corrects the glitch).
 
I noticed the new channel 100 where you can watch 6 channels simultanously with audio coming from the one highlighted.

Is there any way to change the channel selection or is the selection made by the folks at Dish? I couldn't see any way to make changes.

Larry
SF
 
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I got a bogus indication of the same color (blue green purple) in the guide.
I set both FX and TCM and was hoping that both green meant we somehow had a shared transponder.
No such luck as indicated by trying to add 2 more channels and getting the selection list to stop or switch.
Was hoping.
-Ken
 
I got 338 last night. It may be a coincidence, but I did not have all of the apps since my upgrade to HWS about a month ago. They are now working.
 
I noticed the new channel 100 where you can watch 6 channels simultanously with audio coming from the one highlighted.

Is there any way to change the channel selection or is the selection made by the folks at Dish? I could see any way to make changes.

Larry
SF

What you see is what you get. Dish makes the selection.
 
I have a 2 HWS and 2 Joey system. I got the update on all machines yesterday, and my system has gone unstable. The screen goes blank when watching a live or recorded program, and the Joey's have difficulty finding the hoppers. What a mess.
 
I got to see how they are going to send directed commercials to select regions... I was watching the same channel on the Hopper that has S338 and an the other Hopper which has not got S338. Hopper 1 was playing a Dish commercial where Hopper 2 was playing another commercial. When this happened I went to both Hoppers to make sure they were on the same channel.
 
My Joey & the HWS it's linked to are both having trouble deleting timers. Select yes & screen just sits there, finally had to back out, go into timer list again to verify timer had been deleted.

And last night again had the message wanting to update at 1:15am - even though I had a timer recording. Not supposed to do that, timers have priority.

Another update that breaks things that were working, really getting old.
 
I am SO disappointed. Great HW, great system - and they're ruining it.

There were generally repercussions for failure to perform in the military.

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My household has two Hoppers with Sling. My Hopper got S338 on 3/5 at 1:03 a.m. I was watching television when it took place at midnight and the entire process took an hour. For unknown reasons, the living room Hopper missed the update for two days but it finally updated 3/8 at 1:10 a.m.


The first change I noticed immediately (after the promo for channel 100 being added to the screensaver when the unit is powered down) is when you view TV Activity, the text size of Tuner 1, Tuner 2, and Tuner 3 is huge and there is no longer a space dividing the header (Ex: Watch Live - 3 of 3 Tuners in Use) and the Tuner list.


The next change I soon discovered was that the number of timers has been increased. The timers could never go over 96 events. Suddenly I found myself able to pile on the timers. I reached 200 before it informed me that I had reached the maximum allowed! I told advanced tech support about this hoping to get a confirmation of the added feature but they insist that the maximum has not changed and is still 96 timers.


Also I would like to address the issue of the Hopper wanting to update. Without fail the intrusive update pops up at 1:30 a.m. and this concerned me as well since I almost always have a show recording at this time. Obviously, I don't have any desire to have the Hopper disrupt my recording so I tell it 'no'. Then the Hopper will next ask around 2 a.m., if you tell it 'no' again the next time it will prompt you at 2:30, and so on all the way until 5:30 a.m. if you never allow it to update. Of course I was upset thinking any early a.m. recordings could be interrupted while I was away or not paying attention. I was in disbelief since before the Hopper always had the courtesy to wait until there was inactivity before requesting an update. For two days I thought I had to "babysit" my Hopper while I recorded during those key hours when it would want to update, and out of frustration I finally mentioned it to tech support. Most of them agreed with me but one person the other night actually told me that it's a new feature. Unlike with S335, apparently S338 no longer requires a complete shut down and reset to perform an update. He explained that the update can take place if you have at least one free tuner and it will not disrupt your recording. In a way this makes sense because it would explain why the Hopper has suddenly become so persistent to update no matter if I have a recording going or not. I am positive that there are lot of upset people assuming as I did that if I allowed the update it would reset and lose my recording. What it actually does now is just puts up the screensaver as if in standby mode. The recording isn't affected.




I am hoping that the S338 update improved the stability of the Hopper. I was at the point where both my Hoppers were experiencing constant STB Reboots. It was triggered by such basic actions as deleting a timer or creating a timer or even viewing a show's program info. This resulted in anything that was recording being split into three halves. The first half was the bulk of the show, the second half was 0 minutes, and then the third is after it resumes the recording after the reset.


Some recordings still randomly display as 100% watched so that bug hasn't been addressed yet. I have encountered several other detrimental quirks as well in the short time I have had S338 such as a recording taking place but with it x'ed out in the guide as if it has been cancelled and no red receiver light during. I've had several timers get stuck "About to begin recording" in the TV Activity menu but never actually recording. I've also had timer events which were skipped "due to conflict" suddenly come to life in the Daily Schedule and light up as red as if recording, but of course there's nothing being recorded. However, if you reset the receiver, when it comes back the show will now be recording and has to be manually stopped.


Another lovely side effect seems to be corrupted recordings. I define corrupted as when I go to play back the show or movie and it gives me a pop up message as if I have just finished viewing it and have reached the end. The hours are there and the size is there but the recording is lost with no way to actually get it to start. Both Hoppers were affected and it ruined a few Showtime and The Movie Channel movies but specifically targeted and obliterated everything recorded on the networks Syfy and Chiller, it didn't matter whether it had been stored on the Hoppers for months or if it was just recorded over the last few days. Other movies and shows on STARZ, EPiX, IFC, AMC, FX, TNT etc. appear to be fine and safe.
 
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My Joey & the HWS it's linked to are both having trouble deleting timers. Select yes & screen just sits there, finally had to back out, go into timer list again to verify timer had been deleted.

And last night again had the message wanting to update at 1:15am - even though I had a timer recording. Not supposed to do that, timers have priority.

Another update that breaks things that were working, really getting old.

I have the same problem deleting timers with both my S338 HWSs and Joeys.
 
ARRRRGH! I've got it! I've got 338 disease! And it's contagious!

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If the Hopper is now "updating" in the background & using a free tuner why do we need to have the message on screen at all? I reported it to DIRT (Ray) & nothing was said about it being a "new feature" - with all the people complaining about the update time wouldn't someone have told us if there was a change?

Let it update & not disturb my tv watching, especially since it really isn't "updating software". My Hopper updated to 338 at 11:45 pm; I thought something was wrong because I had just turned it on.


Are we ever going to get a list of what's included in the updates, that would at least help.
 
So what you smoking for these dreams? ;)

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