DishTV S7090PVR

Admin Comment: Dish TV has released a new firmware update to address most of the issues reported in this post 1/9/2014

I bought a DishTV S7090PVR in February. Avoid this product. It is a putrid pile of poo! I had to return it 3 times for a replacement before I got one that would even turn on. Then I almost wish it didn't. It is riddled with annoying bugs and quirks that will have you throwing the remote at it within a week. Here are just some of the things that I have discovered with it.

If you view the booking list While you're recording a program it sometimes crashes! Other times it won't show you all the booked items. If you edit a program to take out the ads, it sometimes chops the last half hour off your program and you can't get it back. If it's in standby, and there's a power cut, it doesn't go back into standby. If you record a program, and stop it and delete it before the end, it doesn't go to standby properly after the next morning's 4am update. It is painfully slow to copy programs to the USB. When you're copying to the USB, it sometimes tells you that the hard disk drive is full when it isn't. It doesn't remember the order you like the library sorted. It doesn't record the end of a program if it's also recording another channel. Even if you select programs in the guide which don't overlap, it sometimes will tell you that they do. To bookmark a point in a program is so involved a process when it could just be a hotkey. The guide takes ages to display. Sometimes you have to press the key 3 or 4 times. Pressing the STOP button while watching a recorded program sometimes doesn't! The SKIP keys often don't! There is more, but you get my point.

And Dish TV's support is woeful. I wrote to them in early March, detailing the exact steps to take to recreate one of the faults I listed above, and they promised to remedy it. Now, 4 months and 3 software versions later the bug still isn't fixed. Whether they were lying to me when they said they'd fix it, or are simply incompetent and don't know how to, I will not presume to judge. The latest version of the software, actually broke something that used to work OK! And the online manual for the 7090PVR on their website is out of date and doesn't match with what you actually see on the screen.

As soon as a reputable company such as Sony or Panasonic make a satellite PVR, I will buy it regardless of cost, and take a sledgehammer and reduce this near useless pile of junk to bits.

Did this help? Click to mark!

0 members promoted this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by forumuser on July 8, 2014 at 11:36

Hey Phil

Thanks for sharing us your experiences with the DishTV S7090PVR and the troubles this has given you, I would be interested to see if anyone else has related issues with this device,

I have owned this product since 2012 and although the firmware was buggy at first Dish TV rolled out updates to improve its speed, I have never had a problem with it apart from the limited support of its features i.e. USB Transfer, eNet etc.. But I have never had any defects or any mechanical issues with the unit, although the UI and the remote features to smoothly operate could be worked on as a future release.

Josh

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Biggles on July 8, 2014 at 12:06

Panasonic do make very nice recorders and although they only have UHF tuners you can easily record from Satellite using a satellite STB. Just won't be in HD, will need to be timer record and only one channel at a time. My Panasonic records just fine off my basic Sky box.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Phil Gibbs on July 8, 2014 at 12:26

Hi Josh. You've never had any problems? Try this:

Make sure there are some events in the library, and that there is nothing in the booking list.
Set it to record two programs that do not overlap, e.g. 1300-1400 and 1600-1700. Record them as one-offs, not series, then wait until the first program has started recording.
Press [LIB] to access the Library, then [BLUE] and go to the "Booking List" option. Press [OK]. You get a message "No events booked for recording" When the prompt clears, and you are looking at the library again, press either [UP ARROW] or [DOWN ARROW]. The unit will reboot.
After it has rebooted, go the the Library again, and the program that was partially recorded will be present with a note at the bottom of the screen "Due to some power interruption, program not fully recorded". The actual message should be "Due to inadequate software testing, program not fully recorded".

Cheers, Phil

Joshua Hill said:

Hey Phil

Thanks for sharing us your experiences with the DishTV S7090PVR and the troubles this has given you, I would be interested to see if anyone else has related issues with this device,

I have owned this product since 2012 and although the firmware was buggy at first Dish TV rolled out updates to improve its speed, I have never had a problem with it apart from the limited support of its features i.e. USB Transfer, eNet etc.. But I have never had any defects or any mechanical issues with the unit, although the UI and the remote features to smoothly operate could be worked on as a future release.

Josh

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Phil Gibbs on July 8, 2014 at 12:33

I have, as I said, been trying to get DishTV to fix a bug for the last four months. I have been polite, helpful and patient for four months but this morning, frustrated by this delay, I sent the following email to Dish TV's support.

Good morning

In February and March this year I detailed to you a bug whereby your pos 7090pvr would produce a rogue "Series ended now" entry in the booking list and thenceforth not go back to LPM after the 4am update.

I recently received a new version, 1.6B which you said cured this bug, and it hasn't! OFFS! I repeated the steps to reproduce it last night. It is now 4:30am, there is a "series ended now" entry in my booking list and the pos is in active standby.

You haven't even tested that you've fixed it. How can this be? How is it that I document how to reproduce this bug, you tell me that you've fixed it but you haven't? Just how incompetent are you and your software team allowed to be before something changes in that bunch of amateurs you call a business?

Fix this bug. Fix it. And check that you've fixed it before you send me another version.

Their reply is a classic:

Yes i admit i did not test that version for the issue myself before sending it to you and was just going by the fact that i was told it is fixed. I have now learnt my lesson.

I do not however appreciate your attitude and language, We will not continue dealing with customers/businesses who do not treat us nicely.

I will contact you when i have confirmed we have a firmware to solve this issue.

Sorry again for not testing this myself.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by willis on July 9, 2014 at 2:56

is that why the warehouse is selling the 7080 1 tuner sat recorder at $199 or half price?

have a look at the 9200 http://www.ultrapower.co.nz/product_receiver_hd_satellite_pvr_ultra...

they do have some quirks but nothing like your box

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by forumuser on July 9, 2014 at 16:53

That box is not a MyFreeview unit. its a standard Freeview Satellite box but just with a internal hard drive. (There is no Twin Tuner on the S7080)

Cheers!
Joshua

willis said:

is that why the warehouse is selling the 7080 1 tuner sat recorder at $199 or half price?

have a look at the 9200 http://www.ultrapower.co.nz/product_receiver_hd_satellite_pvr_ultra...

they do have some quirks but nothing like your box

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Douglas on August 12, 2014 at 15:44

Hi Phil,

Just saw your post regarding the DishTV S7090.

I have had this unit for a few years and I do agree with you that it is full of bugs, I have only had my unit lock up once (I maybe lucky) but I have heard lots of other stories about it. Some on these Forums!

The firmware updates have fixed a couple of bugs that I have reported but there are still lots of others in the mix. It also really annoys me when error messages are displayed in bad English. If they cannot check their grammar how can they be relied on to fix the serious bugs?

Sadly, this sort of thing is the way of the world now days. Because new firmware can be so easily installed by the end users, vendors can release a product that has not undergone full rigorous (expensive) testing knowing that bugs can be sorted out over the life of the product. (Blu-ray players, TVs etc etc)

But on the plus side, new features can also be added easily.

▶ Reply

Dish TVPermalink Reply by Dish TV Support on August 18, 2014 at 8:34

Hi Guys

Thanks for sharing your experiences on the forum,

We understand the frustration with buggy firmware and our team do work to make stable releases available, user feedback is most welcome when it comes to improving the software for our products.

The DishTV S7080 is classified as a standard satellite receiver but just has the added feature of a built in hard drive for recording. Convenient for those who want an all-in-one.

Dish TV support is now available on the forum and if there are any issues/requests please do not hesitate to post or message us.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Phil Gibbs on September 4, 2014 at 6:33

Wow! The new version of software just released from DishTV is heaps better! They've fixed nearly everything that was wrong. It's gone from a barely one-star product to 4 and a half. Well done! The other half star is because there are just one or two niggles, but nothing serious. Also I want to check that it's as reliable now as it seems at first blush. I take back what I said about not buying the 7090PVR. It is now very good. You can buy it with confidence. Well done Dish TV!

▶ Reply

Dish TVPermalink Reply by Dish TV Support on September 4, 2014 at 9:20

Thanks for letting us know on the latest update.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Annie on December 27, 2015 at 16:55

Hi, hope everyone had a nice X-Mas.

I am happy to read that all the problems Phil had are solved, because we have exactly the same and more problems ( I have to read all the other posts first and will come back to those separately, if I do not find any solution here.)

We have bought the S7090PVR this year (2015), so that the new software which solved Phil's problems in 2014 should be already installed, shouldn't it?

Thanks for your help!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Douglas on December 27, 2015 at 18:57

Annie,

Merry Christmas (Belated) and Happy New Year (To come).

One thing that I have learned in my many years as an IT geek is to never assume the software that you have is the latest version. (Even if you purchased something yesterday!)

You need to check your software version:

Press 'Menu' on the remote. Choose 'System Configuration' and then 'Version'

The last few digits of the 'Software Version' should be: 016F_05

This version was released over a year ago and your S7090 should have it, but it pays to check.

If you have an older version, you can download the latest version from the DishTV web site onto a flash drive and follow their instructions to install it. (It is pretty easy!)

And as there seems to have been no software updates for the S7090 for a year, I am guessing that the DishTV guys think that all the bugs have been fixed.. Well that is a big NO guys!! Sorry to burst your bubble.

Regards

Alien