Keeping Dish receiver on in commercial setting

[cypherstream]

We have a location that has a business Dish account and the problem they are having is that the location manager is having to go into the IT server room and turn on the Dish Network box every morning. There for a number of years they didn't have to do this (they did when the building first opened but I found a menu option to opt out of that).

It's a vip 211z reciever and what I did so far was to find the menu option for updates which is currently set to 3:00 AM but auto power off is still set to disable (like it was a few years ago when I changed it the first time). So I thought maybe its a glitch so I changed the field from disable to 4 hours, saved and then went back into the screen and changed it back to disable again.

I also found the timers option and set it to auto tune disney east, channel 4xxx something (forget the confusing channel numbers) at 8:25 am daily. This way its on by their 8:30 arrival and 9 am building opening. But again today the manager told me when they turned on the lobby TV, it was not on so she had to go back into the IT room again and turn it on with the remote in there.

I have an extra VIP 211k from that site that was used for Dish CD music for the building. However we just switch to sourcing the music from the HQ using Barix devices over the WAN and so I was going to send this VIP 211k back to Dish to save a few $ on the monthly bill. HOWEVER if you think the VIP 211k is better than the VIP 211z I will swap them and send back the z in its place. I do see an RF out on the k so I could also eliminate an RF Modulator in that setup.

Bottom line is, we NEVER want the receiver to turn off ever. Or we want the broken timer option fixed. Is there a solution here? Would rather not have them go into the IT room every day. The remote is IR not RF so they have to go in there to point it at the receiver.

 

[ErikaP@DISH]

You'll need to contact our Commercial Department at 1-866- 959-5337 to further assist with any issues you're having with the equipment.

 

[Bobby]

Your 211z will turn itself off, nightly, to update the program guide. A way to fix your issue is to set up a daily timer to turn on a channel some time after the nightly reboot. this is called an Autotune...

 

[cypherstream]

Bobby, I am pretty sure the autotune is set for 8:25 AM but it is not working.

Would the 211k be a better receiver in its place?

 

[navychop]

He says he tried that:
"I also found the timers option and set it to auto tune disney east, channel 4xxx something (forget the confusing channel numbers) at 8:25 am daily."

 

[Bobby]

Ah, I see that now. I missed it in the middle of the post.

 

[cypherstream]

Maybe something with the 211z is corrupt. I'll try putting the 211k in it's place tomorrow morning when I'm back out at that office. Regardless, we have one extra receiver since we are sourcing the music from mood music now using a Barix device. So it doesn't matter which one I send back, as long as we keep the better of the two.

I've been googling this and apparently there was a way to disable updates and maybe that's why it worked for so long, but then Dish Network removed that feature. I found a Sage TV forum where I guess they pipe the video output to Sage TV on a PC and for that to record they also want their receivers on all the time.

The last option is to see if I can get an RF remote for them, so they don't have to go in the IT room every morning to power the receiver on. The receiver is centralized with all of the IT gear (an HP Proliant server, some Cisco switches, router, and wan hand-off) in a climate controlled room. It's just a small office but the feed drives a custom cabinet out in the lobby showing programming for kids in a play area. This custom cabinet is shaped like a crayon and is not indicative of sourcing the receiver inside of it (would still need RF remote and no easy way to power cycle or access the receiver once buttoned up).

 

[Bobby]

The 211s are IR only so you would need to add a IR to RF device as well.

 

[NoReDist]

I can confirm that I have a bunch of 211k that run 24/7 without requiring a visit. I'd swap, return the z and recoup the modulator.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I had the same issue with a 211k. Just set an auto tune timer about 5 minutes after the receiver went into standby.

I think it worked, the customer has not bothered me since I set it for them.

I would call them and check, but then they are just going to ask us to do something else for them.

Switching to Directv is an option also. I don't have the standby issue with their equipment

 

[navychop]

I'd keep the K and return the Z.

 

[cypherstream]

I had the same issue with a 211k. Just set an auto tune timer about 5 minutes after the receiver went into standby.

I think it worked, the customer has not bothered me since I set it for them.

I would call them and check, but then they are just going to ask us to do something else for them.

Switching to Directv is an option also. I don't have the standby issue with their equipment

Ok should these settings work?

 

[Bobby]

It looks right to me...

 

[Pepper]

To test, just set one identical to that for a few minutes from now, then turn the receiver off and wait.

 

[cypherstream]

The manager at the location e-mailed me this morning and said that she is sorry to report that the TV still did not go on without her entering the IT room and pressing enter on the remote.

Short of canceling Dish and going with Comcast or DirectTV, or looking into ways to encode our feed at HQ and decode it at the remote office via their 20 meg metro-e WAN, I'm at a loss as to what the heck to do here. Same vip211k receiver had no issue with autotune to channel 950 (shine music?) when it was used for office music. I deleted that auto tune and created the new one above.

I'm asking them what kind of message is on the TV. Screen saver? Black screen? Maybe that will clue into what is going on. EDIT: I pulled up footage from their security camera DVR system. The TV in question is hard to see from the camera I'm looking at, but it looks like a bouncing message around the screen.

This never happens at our HQ so I took a look and here we have a VIP 222k. HDMI feeding news and TV2 output feeding another kids area (Nick feed).

 

[Tampa8]

Four suggestions. Set the duration to 0:0 and if there is anything else in the list make this the top priority. Try using HGTV (if they don't have it some other non offensive channel) instead of Disney just to make sure something isn't amiss with that channel.
If you have not done a hard reset to that, it is different than the nightly update turning off the receiver. (unplug it wait about 15 seconds and plug it back in) You might have delete the auto tune timer and put in again after the reset)

 

[trojan67]

The manager at the location e-mailed me this morning and said that she is sorry to report that the TV still did not go on without her entering the IT room and pressing enter on the remote.

Short of canceling Dish and going with Comcast or DirectTV, or looking into ways to encode our feed at HQ and decode it at the remote office via their 20 meg metro-e WAN, I'm at a loss as to what the heck to do here. Same vip211k receiver had no issue with autotune to channel 950 (shine music?) when it was used for office music. I deleted that auto tune and created the new one above.

I'm asking them what kind of message is on the TV. Screen saver? Black screen? Maybe that will clue into what is going on. EDIT: I pulled up footage from their security camera DVR system. The TV in question is hard to see from the camera I'm looking at, but it looks like a bouncing message around the screen.

This never happens at our HQ so I took a look and here we have a VIP 222k. HDMI feeding news and TV2 output feeding another kids area (Nick feed).

Is this a residential account in a commercial environment? If so you might have a problem, looks like Dish is forcing the receivers to go sleep on some channels, even though autotune is set correctly, commercial account don't have that problem

 

[cypherstream]

Its commercial, hence the 4 digit 4xxx channel numbers (disney on 4637 as opposed to 172 on residential).

The receiver was unplugged for 24 hours as I took the 211k but brought it back the next day and replaced the 211z that was there.

I could try another channel, the 211k was previously programmed to auto tune in the morning to a music channel 950. The site no longer sources Dish CD for music as we centralized that with mood music and delivery over Ethernet. Hence I had an extra receiver before calling in for a return kit. I still have the 211z in my possession, but a return kit is on the way for it.

 

[trojan67]

Its commercial, hence the 4 digit 4xxx channel numbers (disney on 4637 as opposed to 172 on residential).

The receiver was unplugged for 24 hours as I took the 211k but brought it back the next day and replaced the 211z that was there.

I could try another channel, the 211k was previously programmed to auto tune in the morning to a music channel 950. The site no longer sources Dish CD for music as we centralized that with mood music and delivery over Ethernet. Hence I had an extra receiver before calling in for a return kit. I still have the 211z in my possession, but a return kit is on the way for it.

Remove the autotune, leave it on a channel and see if it goes to sleep, it if doesn't go to sleep, you will know that the autotune is forcing the receiver to sleep, as stated commercial receivers don't go to sleep

 

[pattykay]

I could try another channel, the 211k was previously programmed to auto tune in the morning to a music channel 950.

I thought I should point out that when you leave a Dish receiver on a music (audio-only) channel, the inactivity shutdown will not occur for the rest of the day, even if inactivity shutdown is enabled. (The receiver will still do the scheduled nightly reboot.) This applies to residential accounts, not just commercial ones. I assume this feature works this way for the same reason: people like to leave their receiver on a channel for background music, and don't want it shutting down.