FYI - DishNetwork phasing out the "Disable System Updates" option on ALL STB's

[sic0048]

I have a Dish VIP-211k and had it set up with the "inactivity" setting at "Never" (ie it should never sleep) and the Automatic Updates set to disabled. This prevented me from getting the dreaded screen saver everyday.

Well I recently had a power outage and when the system came back on line, I guess my box automatically updated itself. I started getting the dreaded sleep screen and missed a bunch of recordings before I noticed it.

I could not find the disable updates option in the menus anymore, so I sent this e-mail to Dish support.

Originally Posted by email to dish support

I have a Dish VIP-211k box and I would like to disable the automatic updates. I thought this use to be possible, but I do not see it in the menus anymore. I know I can customize the time that the update occurs, but there does not appear to be a way to turn the update off. Was there a recent firmware that changed this? Now my box updates itself everyday and puts itself to sleep. I don't want the box to put itself to sleep, so in the past I have disabled the automatic updates.

This is the reply I got back.

Originally Posted by reply from Dishnetwork support

Thank you for your email. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. The menu option to disable daily Updates has been removed from the models 211 and 211k. Future software releases will remove the option from all receivers that currently have it. If the receiver also turns itself off after a certain period of inactivity, you may disable this by pressing Menu on the Dish Network remote. Then select Preferences, Inactivity Standby, and adjust the settings to your liking.



Your business is greatly appreciated and we thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you. If you have further questions you can respond to this e-mail or access our online technical support at the following link:

http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departme...al/index.shtml

A Technical Service Representative is available via live chat 24 hours a day, 7 days per week regarding your concerns. Please click the following link to use this option.

http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departme...formrf23.shtml

Thank you,

Lucas S.

DISH Network Technical E-care

So it looks like Dish is phasing out the disable updates on ALL their boxes. To work around this issue, I schedule my updates for 3:00am daily. I then set a timer on my box that automatically tunes to a channel at 3:57am everday. I set it up like this because I didn't know how long the update generally lasted, so I wanted to have the timer go off approx 1 hour after the update. A put it at 3:57 to allow a couple of minutes before the next show might record to allow for the chance that the time on my box might not be exactly the same time as my SageTV server.

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future going through this same problem.

[PLUCKYHD]

Care to share how you set a timer on the box itself to get it to come back on and tune to a channel?

[stuckless]

I have the Bell equivalant of the Dish 211k. To get around the "screen saver" issue, I simply configured sage to send a "select" command before each channel change. The select is ignored if it's not needed, but if it's in screen saver mode, then select brings it out and then changes channel. I haven't had it fail yet... cross my fingers

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I have the Bell equivalant of the Dish 211k. To get around the "screen saver" issue, I simply configured sage to send a "select" command before each channel change. The select is ignored if it's not needed, but if it's in screen saver mode, then select brings it out and then changes channel. I haven't had it fail yet... cross my fingers

That is good to know. I was just worried that the box would take time to process the select command and miss the channel change. But if people have success with sending the select command as the start of the channel change command, then the timing must work. I'll certainly try that because it would prevent any recording loss due to the screen saver.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Care to share how you set a timer on the box itself to get it to come back on and tune to a channel?

To create a timer - I'm going off memory here, so I'll give basic instructions only - the specifics might be a little different.

There is a menu item named "Timers." It might be under the system setup menu - I don't remember. The timer is made up of three changable parts. You can specify the frequency of the time (daily for this usage), the time of the event (some time shortly after the daily update scheduled time) and the type of event. We want to choose the automatically tune to a specific channel option. Then you also have to pick the channel number you want to choose from. I randomly picked Discovery Network - only because a lot of my recordings are on that channel. Once you set the timer up, it will run daily until you delete it.

It should be noted that you also need to have the "sleep" setting set so that the box should never go to sleep after a period of inactivity. The update process makes the box go to sleep, the timer will bring it out of sleep status, but that doesn't do any good if the box will go back to sleep after an inactive period of time.

Hopefully that helps. I can get more specific information later and post it.

[Ralphjb]

Now I understand some of the issues I have been having. Question, when using the "select" option, what are you setting the "delay between codes"? I too seem to be having a problem with channel tuning.

[tedson]

Can you post your ir files here. That would make it easy to get this working right.

[Ralphjb]

I actually just use the ir file supplied from SageTV for use with the USB-UIRT.

http://www.sagetv.com/2_papers/EXETunerPlugin.zip

[SHS]

stuckless how did manage that as far I know of it can't be done

[chrisc16]

I too was hit with the same problem - the last update forced both of my 211s to go into "standby" after the 3:00 am update. I was able to fix one by having Sage prefix every channel change by an Enter command - this receiver is controlled by a USB-UIRT. The other box is R5000-modded though, and the channel changing is done via the R5000 application. For this box I used the STBKeepAlive utility by shadeblue.com. It transmits an Enter command every three hours. Not the most elegant solution, but it seems to be working, for now.

-Chris

[Ralphjb]

Originally Posted by chrisc16

I too was hit with the same problem - the last update forced both of my 211s to go into "standby" after the 3:00 am update. I was able to fix one by having Sage prefix every channel change by an Enter command - this receiver is controlled by a USB-UIRT. The other box is R5000-modded though, and the channel changing is done via the R5000 application. For this box I used the STBKeepAlive utility by shadeblue.com. It transmits an Enter command every three hours. Not the most elegant solution, but it seems to be working, for now.

-Chris

I appreciate the link to this. I did set the timer on my Dish VIP211's as suggested above. Seems to be working for me. But good to know of an alternative.

[stuckless]

In my case... I'm using the modified LircTuner (I modified it) for linux. I supplied a standard 3100 ir file. It's been running for almost a year. I don't know what my delay values are, but I'll try to remember to check that tonight when I get home.

[Flash69]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I have the Bell equivalant of the Dish 211k. To get around the "screen saver" issue, I simply configured sage to send a "select" command before each channel change. The select is ignored if it's not needed, but if it's in screen saver mode, then select brings it out and then changes channel. I haven't had it fail yet... cross my fingers

Stuckless - can you please explain and give examples of how you did this? I also though Sage could not send the 'select' command.

[SHS]

Flash69 Stuckless is using Linux not Windows and his Bell equivalant is not the same as Dish VIP211.
You can add the 'select' command but the problem is it isn't setup the way we need it as in send 'select' command before the channel number and a Real Dish VIP211 and other Dish Model select command is not ignored it will pop up the channel info menu this not best option for US.
What we need is option to Schedule an IR only send command in Remote Control Option and it dosen't need more then 20/30 min for update to be done on dish box and IR Schedule must work with Sage Main Program Guide.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SHS

Flash69 Stuckless is using Linux not Windows and his Bell equivalant is not the same as Dish VIP211.
You can add the 'select' command but the problem is it isn't setup the way we need it as in send 'select' command before the channel number and a Real Dish VIP211 and other Dish Model select command is not ignored it will pop up the channel info menu this not best option for US.
What we need is option to Schedule an IR only send command in Remote Control Option and it dosen't need more then 20/30 min for update to be done on dish box and IR Schedule must work with Sage Main Program Guide.

I'm using linux and the external command tuner. In the tuner options, I tell sage to send the "select" before a channel change. So far no issues here. even though the bell and dish receivers are the same hardware, they may be running different software. On my receiver, I can use a remote, and hit "select" followed by a channel change, it works fine... select does bring up a mini top info bar, but the channel change still works.

I would first test this on your reciever, by hitting select, followed by a 3 digit channel, if it changes, then it will work under sage. Even though I'm using linux, sage is still ultimately sending the commands.

[Fluffdaddy]

ahhhhh my VIP-211 just took this update last night ...I think.

Come a looking for a thread like this for some helpful tips

[briands]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

ahhhhh my VIP-211 just took this update last night ...I think.

Come a looking for a thread like this for some helpful tips

I guess it was inevitable... but unlike you, I actually forced mine this week. I had a couple bad recordings of Dora (have not had Nick since I went with the all HD pack months ago). Checking the guide, it appears that Zap2it has added Nick HD to the Dish lineup, but it was not showing on my boxes, so I forced the update and ............still no Nick HD... maybe soon though.

I am installing STBKeepAliveutility this morning. Hope it will help.
Any suggestions for the best command to send?
Select seems obvious, that way if it has gone to standby it will come back on, however I have had some recordings of "This channel is available for immediate subscription" as well as "Pay per view" order screens. I would rather not send select on these screens.
Also, during a recording, select will pop up the info bar, clearly not the worst thing, but for an archive movie, I would rather not have this.

I guess if there is a chance that the box has gone to standby, you have to use select.
If you hit it often enough to ensure it stays awake, another key might be better. Any thoughts?

[tedson]

I use VIP 211s. I prefixed my remote codes with SELECT and post fixed them with CANCEL (which gets rid of the info bar.) That works, but to make sure it has time for the screen saver to go away I had to slow delay between button presses down to 220ms. So now my channel changing is even slower.

All sage really needs to allow me to have prefix and suffix (not needed now but who knows later) delays that are longer than the keypress delay and I would be good.

I never got STBKeepalive to work. It seemed to be working but I still had the screen saver showing up at random times. I'm guessing I had something wrong and just couldnt figure out what.

[Ralphjb]

I have my VIP211's programmed to wake up at 4am and tune in Channel 110. Yesterday, my wife asked me why the TV is always on the Food Network first thing in the morning. Only took her several weeks to notice.

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by briands

(have not had Nick since I went with the all HD pack months ago). Checking the guide, it appears that Zap2it has added Nick HD to the Dish lineup, but it was not showing on my boxes, so I forced the update and ............still no Nick HD... maybe soon though.
?

Off Topic: It depends on which all HD package you have. I have the old (hd absolute) and do not get SpeedHD, FX-HD Fox-HD and a few others. All of which I can live without for just 35 bucks a month.

[Chriscic]

The timer solution isn't working for me for some reason.

I have automatic update set for 3A.M., and a timer for auto-tune from 3:25-3:27 A.M. Yet I'm still waking up to the screen-saver. If it matters, my VIP211k (I think it's the k model) is using the broadband connection not phone.

Any suggestion? Thanks,
-Chris