Hopper With Sling Software Version S338

[foghorn2]

I just noticed that today. I kinda like it, makes it more simple.

 

[carpexnoctem]

No one has noticed the obnoxiously huge banner that comes up when you hit the format(*) button yet. Seems like the old view was more elegant and a lot less noticeable.

Someone already mentioned it in the 6th reply as "eye candy". I noticed but I've just been mainly reporting the changes which have been causing issues. I feel it was unnecessary and the old view wasn't really a view at all but just a cycling of the different formats by repeatedly pressing the button. I was okay with that. If it needs to be changed, the bar and buttons should be smaller like the PIP one. It doesn't need to be huge, but neither did the Tuners listed in TV Activity.

 

[carpexnoctem]

Also regarding how recordings behave now, earlier this evening I had to resolve a conflict. The only thing is there really wasn't a conflict since it wasn't a show I wanted to record and I had already cancelled the timer event beforehand from the Daily Schedule so it shouldn't have even been a factor. The resolution screen showed it had a red dot as if it was recording so I cancelled it again. It did record the show I wanted and it showed as recording from the TV Activity and My Recordings. However, the entire time the Daily Schedule showed it as struck out with a red line as "Skipped: Due to Conflict" and it was also x'ed out in the Guide.

Last night I also discovered more problems from having a show stuck as "...is about to begin recording" while attempting to record Archer followed by Chozen on FX. What led to the problem is Archer was running late, so I opted to cancel my timer and instant record it. As you can imagine that didn't go over well and the tuner got stuck. The other Hopper recorded it but I wanted to see if I could work things out on mine. After Archer was over, the "Archer is about to begin recording" was still there taking up the tuner. I had the other two tuners taken up by recordings which I had checked on and left FX, so when i tried to go back to FX instead I was bounced to the TV Activity despite the tuner stuck being on the channel I was trying to go to. I finally got it to FX using the Guide and then tried to record Chozen since it was running late and the Archer timer had ran but was interrupted with "Recording in progress" at the bottom of the picture. So I had to pass on Chozen as well.

I've already beginning to conclude the stuck tuner issue seems more likely to happen when trying to record two shows back-to-back on the same channel. I had the same scenario with Bates Motel followed by Those Who Kill, but the stuck tuner didn't happen. I do know already that you can have more than one tuner become stuck "...is about to begin recording". The difference is I didn't stop either of those timers and just let them record. Perhaps I am too picky and hands-on with some of my recordings. It seems as if the Hopper becomes confused once a timer event is cancelled only to be resumed a few minutes later. This should be something it should know to deal with though considering how shows run late and not everything is going to be on time and there are those of us that don't like extra clutter ahead of our shows. I never had this issue before S338 though.

 

[carpexnoctem]

Well, I just had the update message pop up and since I wasn't recording I told it 'Yes' and it reset the Hopper and it started up which is what it used to do. This leads me to again wonder how it's doing any update if you tell it 'Yes' while you're recording. It's supposedly still updating in the background, yet underneath an annoying screensaver preventing you from watching anything unless you dismiss it. When in standby mode, I have no clue when to return to the picture since it doesn't do it on its own. I don't have a countdown from 0-100% like with how it updates the program guide. At least this disruption lets me know it has done its thing and returns me back to my picture. I am confused regarding how updating is intended to work now.

 

[carpexnoctem]

If I start to record something, but then change my mind and stop it, although it's no longer recording it still shows red dots in both the Guide and Daily Schedule. I thought this was just an appearance bug since it's no longer recording, but I was wrong. I reset the Hopper to see if it would remove the dots. Immediately after restart it reactivated the recording and I had to stop it again. To get rid of this, I have to wait until the time has elapsed so it is gone from the active Daily Schedule and Guide or delete the timer event.

 

[dwarren2]

I had a strange one last night on 1 of my HWS;s. I was watching a recording of the CBS evening news. Hit the Skip forward button and the screen went black. Took multiple red button resets and plug resets and removing all usb devices before it rebooted properly.

 

[carpexnoctem]

If I start to record something, but then change my mind and stop it, although it's no longer recording it still shows red dots in both the Guide and Daily Schedule. I thought this was just an appearance bug since I'm not recording anything so I reset the Hopper to see if it would remove the dots. Immediately after restart it resumed recording. I had to stop the unwanted recording again! To get rid of this, I have to wait until the show's time has elapsed and it is gone from the Daily Schedule and Guide or delete the timer event.

It's just pathetic that even with three tuners I still have to miss shows which I'm capable of recording. I was trying to catch all of the Ink Master Season One marathon today and already into the second episode, the Hopper goes out for a second splitting the episode into two recordings, which is typical of the aftermath of an STB Reboot. Until today I hadn't experienced any instability with S338. However, the Daily Schedule doesn't give the reason as an STB Reboot. In fact, there's no record of it at all.