QUESTION - What Bugs or Usability Issues do you have with your Hopper?

[compurocker]

I have 1 hopper/1 joey. I was the only one in the house last night and decided to check out some PTAT shows that I had never watched before, and I was watching from the Hopper itself. This was during PTAT recording, but both shows I watched had been recorded on a prior night.

I watched one show all the way through. The next show I went to watch, it blanked the screen for a moment, then dumped me to live TV on local channel 11 (PBS, this may or may not have been the last channel that was used on the TV, I am not sure, and it is not a PTAT channel). I tried again and the same happened.

I hit the red button and all 3 tuners showed available, despite that this was during PTAT, and the red REC light was lit on the front of the box. I clicked OK on each of the tuners, and all three took me to local channel 32 (Fox) which should have been one of the ones recording for PTAT (also one I have a timer for so it would save it for me), so I was hoping that it was recording. I couldn't figure out any other way to tell if it was actually recording. I went back to my PTAT recordings list and was then able to watch the show I had tried to watch before.

Later that night, while watching the show that was recorded on PTAT (32, Fox) that night, it ended somewhere in the middle of the show. Haven't checked any other PTAT shows from that night, but I suspect they all died in the middle like that one had. So whatever glitch I ran into when attempting to watch a previously recorded PTAT show seems to have caused my PTAT to stop recording, and even after the system had recovered from the glitch and allowed me to start watching the old PTAT show, the current PTAT did not pick up recording where it had left off.

I'm hoping it doesn't happen again, but if it does I'm also hoping there's a way to get it to start recording again. I'd rather miss a few minutes of a program in the middle, than to miss the whole last half of it.

 

[Backup Brain]

Usability issue or bug (not sure which): Program records on PTAT. In PTAT folder, I choose to Save it to the user space. Program appears in user space folder (My Recordings). So far, so good. If I then attempt to move the saved PTAT program to my EHD, the program does not appear in the screen showing programs that can be moved. Worse, this behavior appears to be inconsistent. Are some networks applying a flag that prevents copying to EHD?

 

[rglore]

The 1/2 hour PTAT programs I saved were 3 hours long. Maybe that's why Dish doesn't want you to move them.

 

[blackjackmark]

Usability issue or bug (not sure which): Program records on PTAT. In PTAT folder, I choose to Save it to the user space. Program appears in user space folder (My Recordings). So far, so good. If I then attempt to move the saved PTAT program to my EHD, the program does not appear in the screen showing programs that can be moved. Worse, this behavior appears to be inconsistent. Are some networks applying a flag that prevents copying to EHD?

Definitley a bug IMO. Someone suggested that we may have to wait until PTAT 8 day window is over to move that program.

 

[m9house]

2 Hoppers 2 joey here. One big issue so far. When I went to use the app's it would not leave the app's screen. It would change channels in the back ground but the app's screen stayed on top. Had to reboot then it worked. Second Hopper does this too. Sorry if this has been addresed.

 

[CubsWin]

Joeys do not properly display RSN subchannels in the guide when using a favorites list.

I built the same favorites list on all my receivers, including both the SD and HD subchannels of 412-19 (CSNCH). My 2 Hoppers display both channels in the guide, but the Joey will only display the HD channel. I can see both channels if I switch to "My Channels", but I still cannot get the SD channel to display in the guide when using my favorites list.

 

[oldengineer]

Usability issue or bug (not sure which): Program records on PTAT. In PTAT folder, I choose to Save it to the user space. Program appears in user space folder (My Recordings). So far, so good. If I then attempt to move the saved PTAT program to my EHD, the program does not appear in the screen showing programs that can be moved. Worse, this behavior appears to be inconsistent. Are some networks applying a flag that prevents copying to EHD?

I just tried this. When I save a PTAT program it "transfers" to the user drive immediately, so it looks like its only a pointer to the PTAT program on the PTAT side. I verified this by ffwd thru part of the program on the user side and then looking at the program on the PTAT side. It offered the option to resume. I think the poster who suggested waiting for the 8 day time to expire is right. The physical file will probably transfer over then and it will probably be transferable to the EHD.

 

[hdaddikt]

That's great info. I know before I ordered the H/J I assumed I would make the decision down the line as when to transfer the PTAT recordings to the hard drive. But rather than set up timer based recordings on the some of the same PTAT channels before hand (which I did) just transfer the PTAT recordings I want to keep every day or two. I will still have remaining PTAT recordings to consider if they are not the usual programs I watch. Makes more sense to save timer initiated recordings for only channels not on PTAT. Now I feel kind of foolish, because this seems so obvious.

 

[mdavej]

Bug S204:
- Popup keyboard on Timers page for creating a folder doesn't have Shift key like it does on Recordings Edit All page.

Bug DishOnline:
- Default recording settings Stop recording Options do not match Hopper or iOS app, i.e., there is no 3 minutes late option, only 1 or 2 minutes.

 

[tb69396]

I came over from DirecTV to try out the Hopper. I have 1 Hopper/2 Joeys. Three tuners for three tv's is not sufficient. PTAT is absolutely worthless when people are trying to watch stuff on all three. I will be getting another Hopper and moving between rooms again just to view what I want recorded. Definitely not what I wanted out of this.

Is there a way to pause live tv and switch between tuners to flip between programs? I can't seem to figure it out and it jumps to Live TV every time. I want to pause and change tuner, pause that and change back to the other paused tuner.

Skipping commercials was a nightmare last night. I was watching a recorded show and I would fast forward through commercials and every time I hit play it would skip ahead about 10 or 20 minutes. I would hit rewind and it would skip back about 10 or 20 minutes, skipping large portions of the show. I finally had to use the skip forward and skip back buttons to finally make it past the commercials. That is a set skip time though so I would have to sit through the commercials some.

Overall I think the hopper needs about two more tuners in it, or needs to be able to integrate fully with additional Hoppers. It also needs a much more user friendly interface. Daily schedules, timers, blah blah blah, it is a confusing interface.

I am very computer savvy and haven't had time to spend going through everything yet but my family is frustrated because it is so complicated compared to what we had.

I hope it gets better from here.

 

[mdavej]

The Input button or PIP Swap works for me. I can pause either or both and switch between them.

 

[DustoMan]

Skipping commercials was a nightmare last night. I was watching a recorded show and I would fast forward through commercials and every time I hit play it would skip ahead about 10 or 20 minutes. I would hit rewind and it would skip back about 10 or 20 minutes, skipping large portions of the show. I finally had to use the skip forward and skip back buttons to finally make it past the commercials. That is a set skip time though so I would have to sit through the commercials some.

I think this might be just a difference between how Dish and DirecTV DVRs work because I seem to remember in the past someone else coming from DirecTV and saying the same thing. Use the skips. The Skip Ahead is 30 seconds. The Skip Back is either 7 or 10. Most commercials are in 30 second increments so if you start going forward when the commercial first comes on, you will match right up with when the program resumes or you might end up a bit forward and then just use the skip back to go to the right spot. The fast forward and rewinds are for when you want go to a specific place in time. You'll get the hang of it and it will become second nature.

 

[Hall]

I would think it was sorta obvious why Dish remotes have (2) "fast-forward" buttons. As you say, commercials are 99% of the time 30-second increments and if your timing is right, you can learn to hit that 30-sec skip button at the right moment, then do it "x" add'l times depending on if it's a 1-min, 2-min, etc commercial and you usually end up close enough. Worst case, you 10-sec back and have to watch a few seconds of commercials.

 

[dare2be]

Skipping commercials was a nightmare last night. I was watching a recorded show and I would fast forward through commercials and every time I hit play it would skip ahead about 10 or 20 minutes. I would hit rewind and it would skip back about 10 or 20 minutes, skipping large portions of the show. I finally had to use the skip forward and skip back buttons to finally make it past the commercials. That is a set skip time though so I would have to sit through the commercials some.

Seems that this is confirmation that the ViP skip back/rewind problems haven't been fixed in the Hopper.

Here's a tip...when FF through commercials, when you see the point where you want to resume, instead of hitting "play", hit the skip back button. That should prevent you from landing too far forward.

 

[blackjackmark]

I came over from DirecTV to try out the Hopper. I have 1 Hopper/2 Joeys. Three tuners for three tv's is not sufficient. PTAT is absolutely worthless when people are trying to watch stuff on all three. I will be getting another Hopper and moving between rooms again just to view what I want recorded. Definitely not what I wanted out of this.

Is there a way to pause live tv and switch between tuners to flip between programs? I can't seem to figure it out and it jumps to Live TV every time. I want to pause and change tuner, pause that and change back to the other paused tuner.

Skipping commercials was a nightmare last night. I was watching a recorded show and I would fast forward through commercials and every time I hit play it would skip ahead about 10 or 20 minutes. I would hit rewind and it would skip back about 10 or 20 minutes, skipping large portions of the show. I finally had to use the skip forward and skip back buttons to finally make it past the commercials. That is a set skip time though so I would have to sit through the commercials some

IMO, the beauty of Dish is the 30 second "Skip Forward"/10 second "Skip Back" buttons. Once you start using them, I believe you will wonder how you ever lived without them!

Overall I think the hopper needs about two more tuners in it, or needs to be able to integrate fully with additional Hoppers. It also needs a much more user friendly interface. Daily schedules, timers, blah blah blah, it is a confusing interface.

Full integration with two Hoppers is what they are frantically working on now.

RE: the interface, granted, I've had Dish for 15+ years, but I don't find the interface confusing at all. One of the things I like is the way the DVR button cycles through your recordings, then PTAT (if used), then your scheduled programs, then a view of your daily timers, then your hierarchical timer list, then rentals, then back to your recordings by simply pressing the DVR button to move through those options. If you haven't already tried that, give it a go and see if it is any more intuitive for you. The things I use most (my recordings, and my timers) are just a push or two away.

 

[sethwell]

I was watching "Touch" tonight from my PTAT folder and right as another timer fired at 7:59 pm to record "Gold Rush" the audio started to jitter, I guess you call it that. This happened a couple nights ago too but we were having storms so I thought it might have been signal issues. Can't remember if it was a Fox show the other night to narrow it down to a station problem either. Just wondering if others had this happen as well.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[compurocker]

I agree about the Dish skip forward/skip back buttons for commercials. Love the way it works. I never use traditional fast forward for commercials.

Tonight I was watching a recording that I had transferred from my old 612 to an external hard drive, then to my Hopper's drive. Playback paused midway through and the system wouldn't respond to any button presses, so I rebooted it. Unlike my problem the other night, it does seem like PTAT resumed recording after the system came back up. I attempted to start recording a program on one of the PTAT channels and it said it was already recording. Then I looked at my tuners and one was taken for PTAT.

 

[Clint3200]

Didn't read this whole thread but, according to Dishnetwork CSR, my some external hard drives (must be mine), will not work with the Hopper until a future software update.
I must say that is a smelly pile of doo.

Next, my Hopper has already froze up at least 4 times and I've only had 5 hrs. Not off to a good start.

 

[mdavej]

These things do not run well for the first 24 hrs or so. However your drive should work fine. I had a similar problem, and a DIRT member was kind enough to send a hit to my receiver and update my home key, which fixed my EHD immediately.

 

[Clint3200]

I just sent a PM to a DIRT member. Thanks