OTA playback hopes crushed again.

[navychop]

I suspect they are intensively involved in thumb twiddling contests.

 

[HipKat]

So what exactly are they doing in the Dish engineering department? The Hopper system is far too mature to have as many bugs as it does. Issues rarely get fixed, and even when they do, new issues spring up. Is it incompetence, lack of information, lack of funding, or some combination of the three?

That is the $64,000 question. The tech portal is littered posts from techs complaining about being frustrated, embarrassed in front of customers, taking a lot longer to do installs, asking when there will be fixes, etc. The biggest issues are getting the most recent Joey Software to d/l and Joeys going black screen - which I blame on either the program guide not d/l'ing correctly or tuners not being freed up for a few hours. But it seems like all these things correct themselves overnight

 

[az99]

So what exactly are they doing in the Dish engineering department?

Same thing they have done for years. Make a software change to fix a bug they created last update and screw up 3 things that worked before the update.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I think that DISH has always been cheap in regards to software. As a DISH sub for the last 21 years I can tell you that they write software and spool it to subs and then have to write new software to fix what ever doesn't work or has been broken or they add a new feature that breaks something else critical to the user. The user has to learn work arounds and or change their expectations if they want to continue as a sub. It is a vicious cycle and the only time it stops is when the receiver is mature and then retired, because they write no more new software. IF they could of spent the money on perfecting their software so that it works reliably they might of distinguished themselves as not only as cutting edge tech ,but cutting edge tech that works reliably at all times. This could of created more subs because positive word of mouth can build a company . Might of even justified the fees if the receivers worked reliably. Negative word of mouth can destroy a company. This is one reason why DISH loses subs. There are others of course, but a lot of subs, who can't deal with their receivers having to be rebooted a couple times a day and setting timers to auto tune so their ota recordings record right, will churn as soon as their contracts are finished.

 

[Tony S]

I have to agree. Of all the electronics that I have at my house, my HWS and Dish Anywhere have the buggiest software (by far)!

 

[Jon J]

...they write software and spool it to subs and then have to write new software to fix what ever doesn't work or has been broken or they add a new feature that breaks something else critical to the user. The user has to learn work arounds and or change their expectations if they want to continue as a sub. It is a vicious cycle and the only time it stops is when the receiver is mature and then retired, because they write no more new software.

Couldn't have summarized it better.