Dish Wally DVR issue

[JWood422]

I have a Dish Wally with King Tailgater and a harddrive for the DVR. I have everything working great but I'm having an odd issue when watching the DVR. When watching recorded programs I get an error message popup saying acquiring signal error code 1585. The program still plays properly but the popup covers up what we're watching until the message goes away. This happens more when we first start watching but will happen at any time. This issue is more of an annoyance than a real problem.

I called Dish and the 2nd tier tech support lady told me this is perfectly normal because the Wally is trying to acquire a signal from the Tailgater. I told her we don't get that message while watching live TV and she told me that everything is working normally. It was obvious she and I were not going to agree so I thanked her for her time. So far Dish tech support has been spot on with their help. But dang this doesn't sound right.

Do any of y'all ever experience this?

[bikendan]

Moved thread from the General Community Discussion section to the Appliances and Electronics sub-forum since the OP's questions are related to Electronics.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

[rdailey]

The DVR is external to the Wally I assume so I'd think about checking that connection or replacing that cable. I do not know if the Wally has any "settings" you can play with for the USB ports but there might be a compatibility or configuration issue there.

I do have a Wally and roof mounted Tailgater but no DVR connected.

[cboss]

Originally Posted by JWood422

Do any of y'all ever experience this?

We have a Wally (and external Hard drive) with a Pathfinder X2 dish. We used a tailgater for years and I do remember this error message, I use to cuss it also!
I'm not 100% sure, but don't remember seeing it since we got the new X2 dish. DW agrees also, that probably makes it 100%
If I see the error again I'll revise this post.
BTW: The X2 is an awesome dish. Gets east or west arc sats, is a bigger dish (diameter) than the tailgater, so it can handle a little more cover (tress, clouds, etc.) than the tailgater. We feel it was worth the $$, but we are on the road for 7 mos a year.
Hope this helps.

[JWood422]

Thanks, Craig. That sorta confirms what the Dish lady was trying to tell me. I don’t understand why the Wally needs to acquire a signal while playing something from the DVR but so be it.
We use the system for our home television. There are other options that work better than what we have but I’d have to throw lots of dollas at them. I’ve learned a LOT about television options in the last year.

[camper_Lucy]

Sounds like you turn the Wally off? Don't just turn off the TV.
The Wally needs to have a schedule loaded even to use the DVR, when the schedule is empty it tries to reload itself but needs connections to do this. Every time you power on the Wally it updates the schedule, if it has no signal it keeps retrying. To prevent this leave the Wally on and it will play the DVR without trying to update the schedule, it does not know it is an old schedule since it can not connect.

The X2 does not show this error since it has 2 channels and is smart enough to run the DVR on one channel and the signal messages on the other channel.

[cboss]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

The X2 does not show this error since it has 2 channels and is smart enough to run the DVR on one channel and the signal messages on the other channel.

I kinda figured it was a software thing, but the X2 will only record one show at a time (just like the tailgater). In other words you can not watch one channel while recording another.

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

Sounds like you turn the Wally off? Don't just turn off the TV.
The Wally needs to have a schedule loaded even to use the DVR, when the schedule is empty it tries to reload itself but needs connections to do this. Every time you power on the Wally it updates the schedule, if it has no signal it keeps retrying. To prevent this leave the Wally on and it will play the DVR without trying to update the schedule, it does not know it is an old schedule since it can not connect.

The X2 does not show this error since it has 2 channels and is smart enough to run the DVR on one channel and the signal messages on the other channel.

When I turn things on and off, I use the power button at the top left of the remote. As far as I can tell it turns the tv on and off and wakes up the Wally. I think inactivity is what puts the Wally to sleep.
I’ve never used the power button on the Wally for anything. The schedule is always available. I suppose it updates overnight like the book says it will.

[cboss]

Originally Posted by JWood422

I’ve never used the power button on the Wally for anything.

X2. Exactly. Except to RESET it once in awhile, but when we move the Wally is as good as turned off (reset),(no power).

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by cboss

X2. Exactly. Except to RESET it once in awhile, but when we move the Wally is as good as turned off (reset),(no power).

I unplug from the wall to reset. The instructions say either will work.

[cboss]

Originally Posted by JWood422

I unplug from the wall to reset. The instructions say either will work.

Agree. If we are in one place for a long time we do the "unplug from wall" thing when necessary.

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

Sounds like you turn the Wally off? Don't just turn off the TV.
The Wally needs to have a schedule loaded even to use the DVR, when the schedule is empty it tries to reload itself but needs connections to do this. Every time you power on the Wally it updates the schedule, if it has no signal it keeps retrying. To prevent this leave the Wally on and it will play the DVR without trying to update the schedule, it does not know it is an old schedule since it can not connect.

The X2 does not show this error since it has 2 channels and is smart enough to run the DVR on one channel and the signal messages on the other channel.

I just manually updated the channel guide. At first, watching “Misery” was much less miserable. In fact, not miserable at all. To the point that I was about to call it a success. Alas, it was not to be. After about 5 minutes I got the same message twice. It seems to be happening not as often, though. Now that Kathy Bates’ most horrific film is over and deleted I’m going to manually update the channel guide again and see if it’s better tomorrow.

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

Sounds like you turn the Wally off? Don't just turn off the TV.
The Wally needs to have a schedule loaded even to use the DVR, when the schedule is empty it tries to reload itself but needs connections to do this. Every time you power on the Wally it updates the schedule, if it has no signal it keeps retrying. To prevent this leave the Wally on and it will play the DVR without trying to update the schedule, it does not know it is an old schedule since it can not connect.

I manually updated the channel guide before going to bed. The Wally seemed to go into sleep mode immediately. I used the power button on the TV’s remote to power it off without affecting the Wally. I watched a recorded show this morning and after about 10 minutes I got the same message but it was brief.

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

Sounds like you turn the Wally off? Don't just turn off the TV.
The Wally needs to have a schedule loaded even to use the DVR, when the schedule is empty it tries to reload itself but needs connections to do this. Every time you power on the Wally it updates the schedule, if it has no signal it keeps retrying. To prevent this leave the Wally on and it will play the DVR without trying to update the schedule, it does not know it is an old schedule since it can not connect.

The X2 does not show this error since it has 2 channels and is smart enough to run the DVR on one channel and the signal messages on the other channel.

I *think* I have the final answer. As long as the dish is pointing at satellite 119 I don’t get the Acquiring Signal message. So as long as I tune to a station on satellite 119 immediately before watching the DVR I don’t get the message. I have confirmed this by watching stations on different satellites. 119 gives me no errors. 61.5 does.

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by JWood422

I *think* I have the final answer. As long as the dish is pointing at satellite 119 I don’t get the Acquiring Signal message. So as long as I tune to a station on satellite 119 immediately before watching the DVR I don’t get the message. I have confirmed this by watching stations on different satellites. 119 gives me no errors. 61.5 does.

Holy crap!!! The very instant I posted my final answer I got the message. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

[JWood422]

In case anyone is interested I have a little more info on what’s happening when I play the DVR. I noticed today that the dish actually changes satellites from time-to-time during DVR playback. (It never changes satellites while watching a live show.) The system does need a few seconds to acquire the signal after it rotates. What I don’t understand is why the dish feels it needs to rotate.

[Dale1]

so did you ever figure out how to fix it? im tired of having the same issue

[JWood422]

Originally Posted by Dale1

so did you ever figure out how to fix it? im tired of having the same issue

It’s good to know I’m not the only one. But no, I haven’t fixed it completely. What seems to minimize the problem is to tune to channel 105 before watching a recorded DVR program. It still happens but not as often. I use the hybrid satellite setup which is 61.5, 110 & 119. Channel 105 uses satellite 119.

[JWood422]

One more update. It happens when watching television programming On Demand. Makes Yellowstone season 5 even more exciting!