What dish receiver to use

[dasams]

Originally Posted by dalecamp`

I'm glad it worked for you.

I'm not sure how I was able to access the stored movies but I can't replicate my success. When I power up the DISH receiver, it goes through the start-up sequence and then directly to 'check switch status progress'. We hit the Home and DVR buttons the whole time but neither did anything.

Then the 'Acquiring signal' screen came on and the Home button worked. Then we clicked on the DVR button and got the message 'unable to access feature: unable to access... data not available'. So we are sitting dead in the water.

Any help appreciated. Thanks, Dave

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by dasams

I'm not sure how I was able to access the stored movies but I can't replicate my success. When I power up the DISH receiver, it goes through the start-up sequence and then directly to 'check switch status progress'. We hit the Home and DVR buttons the whole time but neither did anything.



Then the 'Acquiring signal' screen came on and the Home button worked. Then we clicked on the DVR button and got the message 'unable to access feature: unable to access... data not available'. So we are sitting dead in the water.



Any help appreciated. Thanks, Dave

Following. What receiver are you using?

[dasams]

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Following. What receiver are you using?

The receiver is a Wally.

[The Colonel]

Is the remote an IR or RF? If I locate the receiver in the cabinet overhead where BD is located, close door can the IR remote work if you're seated looking at tv. Hard to ask what I mean but if you point remote at tv as you would normally do will receiver get signal or do you have to leave cabinet door open and point remote backwards at receiver for it to work? Thx

[dasams]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Is the remote an IR or RF? If I locate the receiver in the cabinet overhead where BD is located, close door can the IR remote work if you're seated looking at tv. Hard to ask what I mean but if you point remote at tv as you would normally do will receiver get signal or do you have to leave cabinet door open and point remote backwards at receiver for it to work? Thx

The Wally remote is RF and works well no matter whether the cabinet door is open or closed or if pointed toward receiver. Dave

[dasams]

We are in Canada on our way to Alaska and we can no longer access the Dish satellite service with our Tailgater. That I get. What I don't get is why we are not (always) able to access recorded movies on the Wally receiver's pug-in DVR after a reboot. Here's my work around.

1. The Wally default is to go into sleep mode after 4 hrs of inactivity. I've shortened the period to the 2 hr min in the settings menu.

2. When we reach camp and hook-up shore power, the Wally powers up and goes through the boot process and ultimately stalls on the acquiring signal stage. At this point, the DVR is not accessible.

3. We wait >2 hrs making sure not to hit any of the remote buttons otherwise the 2 hr inactivity period resets.

4. After 2 hrs of inactivity, we hit a remote button to wake the Wally receiver and the DVR button works on the remote and our recorded content is accessible.

5. Before I worked this out, I spoke to DISH tech support who told me I had a bad DVR because of the 204 error code.

So if I have this right, the recorded movies are not accessible until the Wally reaches the inactivity period and goes to sleep. When I wake it, the recorded movies are available. Not perfect but we are happy to have our movies back

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by dasams

The Wally remote is RF and works well no matter whether the cabinet door is open or closed or if pointed toward receiver. Dave

Thx, that's good to know

[dalecamp`]

dasams, does the Wally receiver have a DVR built in to it or do you have an external hard drive?
If not your recorded programs are at home and you can't access them.
My receiver has an external hard drive connected and it acts like a DVR so my record programs are with me when I travel.
I can access them whether I'm connected to my satellite dish or not.
Sometime we just watch a recording while on the road.

Hope this helps.

Good luck, I know it can be frustrating.

[dasams]

Originally Posted by dalecamp`

dasams, does the Wally receiver have a DVR built in to it or do you have an external hard drive?
My receiver has an external hard drive connected and it acts like a DVR so my record programs are with me when I travel.
I can access them whether I'm connected to my satellite dish or not.
Sometime we just watch a recording while on the road.

I have the Dish branded external hard drive connected to my Wally. Others have posted that they can access their recordings at any time but I cannot. I do not know why mine acts differently than others. I'm ready to throw the dang thang out the window

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by dalecamp`

dasams, does the Wally receiver have a DVR built in to it or do you have an external hard drive?

If not your recorded programs are at home and you can't access them.

My receiver has an external hard drive connected and it acts like a DVR so my record programs are with me when I travel.

I can access them whether I'm connected to my satellite dish or not.

Sometime we just watch a recording while on the road.



Hope this helps.



Good luck, I know it can be frustrating.

So when you connect an external hard drive to your home receiver I think that's what you are saying do you pay the $40 and then that allows you to unplug and take it with you on the road to plug into your Wally receiver?

[dasams]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

So when you connect an external hard drive to your home receiver I think that's what you are saying do you pay the $40 and then that allows you to unplug and take it with you on the road to plug into your Wally receiver?

Not sure how dalecamp does it but my hard drive stays with the Wally in the Airstream and I paid $40 to have it activated.

[The Colonel]

Let me try again. If you have dish at home with a hopper DVR and an external hard drive can you just unplug the hard drive when you travel and take it with you then plug it in to the wally and watch those recorded shows from home

[dalecamp`]

I have a dish Hopper with Sling in my den connected to my 45 inch tv. It records on 3 channels and has a big internal hard drive for storing all the programing my wife and I record. It stays in the den and is only usable there or from the Joey in our bedroom. Both the Hopper and Joey stay where they are mounted. They do not go to our trailer or communicate with another Dish receiver I keep on my sunporch and take to my trailer when we travel.

The Dish receiver on the sunporch is a VIP211Z I purchased on Ebay along with a Western Digital My Passport Ultra external hard drive that stays with the VIP211Z. I have paid Dish to activate the VIP211Z and external hard drive a onetime fee of $40. This enables the receiver to act as a DVR receiver with only one channel. It is connected directly to my external dish antenna on the roof of my house. I originally tried to connect it to a splitter in the attic, but that did not work and had to have it connected to the Dish satellite dish on the roof.
The Dish VIP211Z stays on the sunporch while we are home. We set it independently to record programs that we want to watch later while on the road.

When we travel we take the Dish VIP211Z with the external hard drive from the sunporch to the trailer and set it up there connected to the tv, but not to a satellite dish, we have a Wingard Carryout portable satellite antenna set for Dish Network.

While we are traveling I can watch recorded programing by turning on the tv, turning on the Dish VIP211Z and while it is trying to boot up and find a signal I push menu on the remote. It aborts the startup process for the receiver and allows me to watch prerecorded programing on the external hard drive. I push the DVR button on the Dish remote to access the prerecorded programs.
The Dish VIP211z with external hard drive has nothing to do with the Hopper receiver in my den and acts independently from that receiver. The VIP211Z has NO access to the hopper recordings.

Hope this is helpful, I have nothing else to offer on this subject. Best of luck and enjoy your travels. Be safe.