vip 612 ,is it usable?

[Hemi 6.1]

Hey folks. I am a Dish Tech (FSS 4) and have extensive experience dealing with receivers. The 612 is an excellent receiver and have seen very few problems with them. I swap more 622's and 722's (K and VIP) then I do with the 612's. By far the 622 has the most problems of any receiver I deal with. !

Yea ,Well there are Far more 622's out there then 612's. Thats one reason.
Another reason , might be the $17 fees that come with Duo receivers, Many are switching to single room models on their addtional rooms saving $7 per month.
I've had the same Refurbished 622 since July 4 2007 Hooked HDMI and NEVER had 1 issue.
I went through 3 Vip 612's in less then 1 year. From channel changing issues,Playback issues ,reboot issues.
It has since been replaced with a 722.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I swap more 622's and 722's (K and VIP) then I do with the 612's.!

By the way 1 post wonder, They are all VIP's
But I wouldn't expect a Dish Technition to know that.

 

[Jonhern]

By the way 1 post wonder, They are all VIP's
But I wouldn't expect a Dish Technition to know that.

lol, its funny whenever I called to complain about the 612 the tech or CSR said they had a 612 at their house with no problems.
That guys post reminded me of that.

 

[mstregamer]

Going nuts!

Ours went nuts yesterday. It froze a couple of times. It wouldn't respond to the remote and it rebooted itself about 10 times. Today it was absolutely fine. Go figure. The only difference between today and yesterday is the weather. It was windy, rainy and we had electrical dips. Maybe the thing is really sensitive to crappy power. Does anyone have theirs on a line conditioner or a UPS?

Even when it does work, the skip back X seconds is quirky. It seem so go back about 7 seconds on the first press and then jumps 30 on the next.

WOW that is EXACTLY what mine is doing now!

 

[fz5j2r]

612 & 722k Problems Also

My experience is pretty much the same. Now that I've had the 612 for about a month, it's the quirkiest of all Dish receivers I've owned. I don't like it. It's sluggish sometimes when changing channels. It locks up. It does not respond to the remote sometimes. It skips sometimes when it's been rewound. I don't know if it's hardware or software. I'm stuck with this receiver for two years unless I can convince Dish to swap it with something else. I need two tuners but I don't need to drive two TVs. I think I could swap the 612 out for a 722 and still have that as my primary which shouldn't cost anything.



When the wife notices problems, it's SERIOUS!!

I recently swapped out my 622's and a 722 for three 612's and a 722k. Since then I have had nothing but problems with all four units. One 612 has already been replaced because it froze up to 10 times each day. I have had similar issues with the other 612's although not as severe. The 722k is also requiring frequently resets, programs do not record, remote does not work. I am keeping a detailed log for Dish technical service through CEO's office.

One would think that someone at Dish could come up with a more reliable design for these receivers. It is ridiculous what we as consumers must go through with lost timers, recordings and so forth.

If I did not have the significant investment in equipment I would be going to DirecTv. It would cost nearly $1,000 to switch.

 

[fz5j2r]

Hey folks. I am a Dish Tech (FSS 4) and have extensive experience dealing with receivers. The 612 is an excellent receiver and have seen very few problems with them. I swap more 622's and 722's (K and VIP) then I do with the 612's. By far the 622 has the most problems of any receiver I deal with. Personally, I own a 612 for the last year and have never had any problems with it. The only down fall on the 612 is no PIP, where as the 722/622 have PIP capabilty only when using the receiver in single mode. Hope this helps!

Six weeks ago I swapped out all my 622's for three 612's and a 722k. Since then, two of the 612's have had to be replaced. The other three 612's are also very quirky. The 722k is reasonably stable and according to a second level tech in VA the most stable receiver they have. I just cannot afford an additional $21 per month to get receivers that don't crash nearly daily. The 612's are the worst receivers I have ever had. I thought replacing two 622's each year was bad.

There are no options except to replace the 612's until I get ones that work on a regular basis. The only thing making this bearable is that Charlie assigned a very nice lady from his office to help and a top flite advanced tech person who calls me on a regular basis.

It is too bad their receivers are so bad that you must contact the CEO to get their attention. Things have really happened since I contacted Charlie. I have gotten exceptional customer service.

Now if only they could give me three 612's that actually work!

 

[Charade]

I logged a chat session with Dish support about a month or so ago complaining about these problems. I chatted with them the other night complaining about the same problems (reboots, no sound, remote doesn't work...). I wanted them to replace the unit with either another 612 or upgrade it to a 722. They wouldn't because the unit was working at the time of the chat. They told me to contact them again while it's messing up. This is nuts. The 612 I have is a POS. :rant:

 

[Tyralak]

That it takes 2 visits from 2 different technitions to do a proper satellite install!
Have some pride already, Just be glad you have a job. MANY DON'T!

Have some common sense. It isn't the tech's fault that 612s are crap. It's really a load of fun getting a repeat TC on a 612 that keeps going out and having the customer look at you like you did something wrong. :rant: We put in the equipment the W/O calls for. We didn't design the damn things.

 

[Tyralak]

By the way 1 post wonder, They are all VIP's
But I wouldn't expect a Dish Technition to know that.

DIAF. Some of us are very good at what we do, and have been doing it for a long time. Oh, and "Technition"? Get a spell check plugin.

 

[fz5j2r]

I logged a chat session with Dish support about a month or so ago complaining about these problems. I chatted with them the other night complaining about the same problems (reboots, no sound, remote doesn't work...). I wanted them to replace the unit with either another 612 or upgrade it to a 722. They wouldn't because the unit was working at the time of the chat. They told me to contact them again while it's messing up. This is nuts. The 612 I have is a POS. :rant:

Send an email to charlie.ergen@echostar.com. Tell them your problems with the 612. Be polite and give them the facts. You will get help. It is too bad you have to contact the CEO of a company but that is what is required at DISH to get things done.

You will be contacted by someone Mr Ergen appoints.

They have a major glitch with the 612 and do not have a fix yet. I am not an expert but it appears to be a software issue unlike the problems I had with all my 622's which were all hard drive failures.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

DIAF. Some of us are very good at what we do, and have been doing it for a long time. Oh, and "Technition"? Get a spell check plugin.

Just like a Technitian, Finally responds after a month.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Have some common sense. It isn't the tech's fault that 612s are crap. .

Your right, But they should atleast know something about what they are installing.

 

[aklarvanto]

Hmmm...I think I'm just lucky. Dish replaced my broken 612 with new one almost year ago and no problems since.

 

[Tyralak]

Your right, But they should atleast know something about what they are installing.

We do. It's too bad you constantly rag on technicians without knowing a f****ing thing about our processes or what we actually do in the field and behind the scenes. Which is why we cringe when we see 612 on the work order, but we don't have the power to do a damn thing about it. Sometimes we can call and upgrade the customer to a 722, but many times they want to charge the customer, and they say forget it. So, we have to INSTALL WHAT'S ON THE WORK ORDER. So, when it breaks, we get blamed for it by spanners like you.

 

[Charade]

I finally convinced Dish to send me a replacement 612. I've had a lot of problems with this unit. Sound goes out. Stops responding to the remote. Reboots itself. They tried to tell me that these are not known problems with the model.

They were nice enough to waive the $15 shipping charge (this one time).

 

[fz5j2r]

I finally convinced Dish to send me a replacement 612. I've had a lot of problems with this unit. Sound goes out. Stops responding to the remote. Reboots itself. They tried to tell me that these are not known problems with the model.

They were nice enough to waive the $15 shipping charge (this one time).

I am on my fifth 612 since February. They know they have a problem. I have been working directly with Advanced Technical Support in Virginia. They got involved because I wrote to Charlie.

There is a software update coming out in 2-4 weeks that is supposed to fix many of the problems. We shall see.

 

[Charade]

I am on my fifth 612 since February. They know they have a problem. I have been working directly with Advanced Technical Support in Virginia. They got involved because I wrote to Charlie.

There is a software update coming out in 2-4 weeks that is supposed to fix many of the problems. We shall see.

I asked if I'm still having problems with the replacement unit(s), would they replace it with a different model. They said no because that would be considered an upgrade. Hopefully this replacement will work.

 

[aklarvanto]

There is a software update coming out in 2-4 weeks that is supposed to fix many of the problems. We shall see.

Makes me wonder is it hardware issue or software? Good question because my receiver is working great and yours doesn't. Same model, probably same software version L606. Will upcoming update fix problems in yours and then cause problems in mine?

Does anyone knows if 612 problems are really software based or do they have different hardware configurations in same models or what this mysterious problem is anyway.

 

[RandallA]

I am on my fifth 612 since February. They know they have a problem. I have been working directly with Advanced Technical Support in Virginia. They got involved because I wrote to Charlie.

There is a software update coming out in 2-4 weeks that is supposed to fix many of the problems. We shall see.

Let's hope it fixes the reboots. My receiver has begun rebooting in the middle of watching and that's unacceptable. I've had it for 5 months and while I noticed some minor problems (remote doesn't respond, picture freeze, etc) never had a reboot while watching TV.

 

[rz22g]

Similar issues as others having problems

I am on my second set of VIP 612 receivers (have 2). One was locking up from day one. While scrolling through the guide the system would lock, requiring a hard reset. The second unit never locked. Both would drop audio or have audio stutter along with temporary frozen video of pixelated video.

On the first visit I could not get the 1st unit to lock up. The tech stated it just needed an update which would happen automatically. Weeks later it still locked and the audio / video drops got worse on both. On the second trip from the local tech, he stated it was "Impossible" for both units to be bad. Certainly unlikely but not impossible. He called Dish Network Im guessing and was relaying the signal strength of the SATs to the person on the other end. For 119 it showed a reading that jumped between 44 and 48. He told the person and although I could not hear what person said, the Tech responded "A 48 signal can cause audio and video dropouts?" So its safe to assume the person on the other end stated that the signal strength could be causing the issue. The tech followed up by saying "I don't know where you are getting signal strengths that high but in this area we never achieve higher than 50" So Im guessing the person on the line stated that the signal should be higher.

What ended up happening is they replaced both receivers. After switching out, and before the tech finished loading his truck. The new receiver 1 locked up and rebooted itself. Of course he could not explain why and said it must have been a fluke. Although he never watched any programming long enough to see if the audio/video skipped, he stated that he was reporting to his office and Dish Network that my problem was the HDMI cable I had run from my receiver to my set. I asked if this were the case, explain why the receiver in the other room using the HDMI cable they supplied was doing the same thing. He could not give a legitimate response other than to say "Its not doing it now" . He never watched any one program for more than 15 seconds so he could not back that up.

Within an hour of him being gone, Receiver 1 dropped audio and had stuttering vid. I have not watched the second receiver yet. To eliminate my HDMI cable as the problem, Im moving the receiver close to the set and using the cable they supply. As before I will watch in LIVE mode and then when I catch dropped audio and vid, I simply rewind and record it so I can show them later.


I really do not see this issue being resolved so I'm wondering who I should contact next? I feel that if I use the same route as before I will end up with either replaced receivers again or they will just try to lay blame on the HDMI even if I eliminate it as the problem.