Open Letter to DISH Management Re: Lack of Manual Timer and No-VIP receiver policy on Hopper account

[MikeD-C05]

I had the same problem,but after reading a post about contacting dishquality@echostar.com and emailing the station in question my problem has been corrected, as one morning I woke up turned on my DISH 922/wMT2 and the programming information for MeTV was being supplied to my OTA guide.

So I highly recommend if you still are having a problem with MeTV's programming information you might try what I did.Good Luck!

Is your Metv station an ota only channel? In my area of southeast Texas 12.4 - Metv & 12.3 - Mytx are both ota only channels run by our local 12.1- ABC/12.2- Nbc affiliate. DISH claims that they won't carry guide data for these two channels because they are ota only channels and are not carried by DISH on the satellite.

 

[smooth28la]

Either in this thread or the other manual timers thread, Scott indicated that adding manual timers wasn't currently in the plans (something to that effect).

Edit: it's this thread, post #2.

Yes I've heard from an internal source that it's not on the list of priorities for the Hopper programmers.

So it's really up to us to pressure to management to let them know the need for Manual Timer and they can add that to the list of things the Echostar programmers have to do.

 

[Jhon69]

Is your Metv station an ota only channel? In my area of southeast Texas 12.4 - Metv & 12.3 - Mytx are both ota only channels run by our local 12.1- ABC/12.2- Nbc affiliate. DISH claims that they won't carry guide data for these two channels because they are ota only channels and are not carried by DISH on the satellite.

As far as I know yes.MeTV guide information was not available all the time it started broadcasting over the air in my area,but the guide information has been available at TitanTV,but I don't know for how long.DISH was very polite with their response to my email when I sent it to dishquality@echostar.com .I think that's the difference don't question DISH question Echostar as they replied they would send it to the best department and if I don't hear from them in 10 days to reemail them again which I did.But it was my idea to email the station about the availability of their guide information to DISH.

I also believe if you receive a email saying it's not their responsibility,I would forward that email to the ceo address of both companies see what the executive office thinks of that reply you received(remember every one has a boss over them unless your Charlie Ergen).Good Luck!

Also don't expect results overnight as it did take a long while before I saw the guide information in my guide,in fact it was unexpected surprise because it had been awhile since my conversations with them.

 

[GaryPen]

Either in this thread or the other manual timers thread, Scott indicated that adding manual timers wasn't currently in the plans (something to that effect).

Edit: it's this thread, post #2.

We'll see.

 

[GaryPen]

Yes I've heard from an internal source that it's not on the list of priorities for the Hopper programmers.

So it's really up to us to pressure to management to let them know the need for Manual Timer and they can add that to the list of things the Echostar programmers have to do.

It's such an integral part of OTA reception that I can't imagine they would continue to leave it out once the OTA module is released.

 

[DWS44]

Is your Metv station an ota only channel? In my area of southeast Texas 12.4 - Metv & 12.3 - Mytx are both ota only channels run by our local 12.1- ABC/12.2- Nbc affiliate. DISH claims that they won't carry guide data for these two channels because they are ota only channels and are not carried by DISH on the satellite.

At least here in the Charlotte area, I have guide data for most all of my OTA-only subchannels...and none of them are carried by Dish....so that would appear to be a false statement by whomever told you that.

 

[dangue]

It's such an integral part of OTA reception that I can't imagine they would continue to leave it out once the OTA module is released.

The 922 has OTA and has never supported manual timers, so I don't think they necessarily see it as some of us do.

 

[navychop]

At least here in the Charlotte area, I have guide data for most all of my OTA-only subchannels...and none of them are carried by Dish....so that would appear to be a false statement by whomever told you that.

This is unusual.

 

[navychop]

The 922 has OTA and has never supported manual timers, so I don't think they necessarily see it as some of us do.

Sad, but so obviously true.

 

[TheKrell]

This is unusual.

Say what? I get guide data for all my OTA subchannels with the exception of the 2 Ion subchannels and 8 of the 10 Megahertz subchannels. All the rest are there. Don't you get the same channels as I?

 

[navychop]

I am grandfathered with no locals provided by Dish. Saves me $5 or $6 a month.

I say "unusual" based on reports I've read here that indicate most folks do not get guide data for channels Dish does not provide.

I live near Geo Mason U. I suspect we get exactly the same channels OTA, assuming you have a good OTA antenna also.

 

[TheKrell]

I say "unusual" based on reports I've read here that indicate most folks do not get guide data for channels Dish does not provide.

OIC. I assumed <ahem> that you were talking about your own experience. My impression from reports on satelliteguys is exactly the opposite of yours, namely that people did in general get guide data for most channels, regardless of their status on Dish. I also recall a DIRT member suggesting the same as your impression (no guide data on subchannels or main channels that Dish doesn't carry.)

Perhaps it's time for another poll.

 

[Scherrman]

When I had the OTA tuner on my 722k and 922k I had all the guide data for all my sub channels.

 

[GaryPen]

Unfortunately, guide data was missing for the one OTA sub-channel we watched with our 722k.

Perhaps they've added it since we switched to the Hopper in March. People still post in the OTA guide data thread about guide data suddenly showing up after years of nothing.

 

[smooth28la]

There are TONS of OTA-sub-channels in Los Angeles (especially the foreign ones) that don't have program information. That's why the manual recording ability is so important to me.

TitanTV actually has programming info on many of those channels ironically.

 

[3HaloODST]

Maybe or maybe not.Here's my take on this subject:

When I had my 625 I set up my recordings from the guide.

When I had my 622 I set up my recordings from the guide.

When I had my 722k/wMT2 I set up my recordings from the guide.

Now I have my 922/wMT2 I set up my recordings from the guide.

Never used Dish Pass/manual timers.



It may have been an observation by DISH engineers that subscribers were setting up their recordings from the guide all the time so,therefore the elimination of the manual timers became a reality?.Just a guess.

So is this a possibility? you decide.

You must not have ever wanted to record from an OTA subchannel then.

 

[GaryPen]

There are TONS of OTA-sub-channels in Los Angeles (especially the foreign ones) that don't have program information. That's why the manual recording ability is so important to me.

TitanTV actually has programming info on many of those channels ironically.

Dish gets their guide data from Tribune, which owns Zap2It. I don't know where TitanTV gets their data from.

In my case, Tribune/Zap2It had the data. But, Dish didn't add it to the guide. Annoying.

 

[bookworm370]

Heck, I used to stuff 8 discreet flags into a single byte because we has a whopping 1Meg of memory on our mainframe and DOS/VS took up almost 1/2 of that! Old enough? LOL

What?

Management was short on core memory space and Hollerith cards and so decided to make year data two only decimal characters wide and to save 150 lines of code, save 512 bytes and so deleted the manual timer sub-routines?

FYI: You got to be really old to understand this one.

 

[bookworm370]

I can also confirm. In the Columbus Ohio area all the OTA channels including MeTV, MyTV, the WOSU (PBS) sub-channels, and most of all the other major networks OTA listings are displayed in the Guide and are accurate.

As far as I know yes.MeTV guide information was not available all the time it started broadcasting over the air in my area,but the guide information has been available at TitanTV,but I don't know for how long.DISH was very polite with their response to my email when I sent it to dishquality@echostar.com .I think that's the difference don't question DISH question Echostar as they replied they would send it to the best department and if I don't hear from them in 10 days to reemail them again which I did.But it was my idea to email the station about the availability of their guide information to DISH.

I also believe if you receive a email saying it's not their responsibility,I would forward that email to the ceo address of both companies see what the executive office thinks of that reply you received(remember every one has a boss over them unless your Charlie Ergen).Good Luck!

Also don't expect results overnight as it did take a long while before I saw the guide information in my guide,in fact it was unexpected surprise because it had been awhile since my conversations with them.

 

[bookworm370]

The lack of OTA availability is the only reason right now that I cannot upgrade which would be a 2 Hopper / 6 Joey system. I also use manual timers but for specific events and not very often. But the lack of them would be of great concern but not enough to cause me to cancel or not upgrade. But the lack of OTA recording or the loss of the OTA guides is a non-starter for me.