"Press Select to Continue" on ViP 211 Dish receiver

You are referring to the screen saver mode the receiver goes into when it turns off. I'm very satisfied with the work around I'm using. I posted this before:


I set up a manually scheduled time of 4:58 am to have the receiver turn on, instead of tuning to a show, in preparation for the day's programs I will record via Replay. Users of Dish may also want to disable the inactivity standby to avoid having the screen saver activate if you don't change the channel within 4 hours. You can do this by pressing the remote's menu/preferences/inactivity standby and set it disable. Then you can set the timer by clicking menu/timers/create timer. In the VCR column make any selection choice (I chose 9901-D1000). In the Timer Type column select Auto Tune. In the Timer Frequency column, select Daily. Then click the on-screen selection for Edit Time and set the time you desire. I decided to set my timer to start 2 minutes before the hour to avoid any potential timer conflicts between Replay and the receiver. You will notice on this setup screen the timer properties below indicate a duration set at just 1 minute. Don't worry about this. You can't change it anyway, and it won't shut the receiver down after the minute.

This is a good set-it and forget-it method. My Dish tuner is always ready to rock when my Replay tells it to. The only downside is that I leave the tuner turned on most of the day, but a small price for me to pay.

No, I leave the Dish's Update feature (Menu/Preferences/Update) on it's default setting which is enabled to activate at 3:00 am. This turns the receiver off so that program guide information can download. This will leave the unit off until you turn it back on. So, this is why I create a timer (menu/timers/create timer) to have the unit turn on at 4:58 am, however, you can set this timer to whatever you want. This gives me the freedom of knowing that basically from 5 am to 3 am my replay will be able to successfully record any program without accidentally encountering the screen saver, and yet, the receiver can still perform it's daily program guide updates.

BTW, in the steps to setting up the timer to turn the receiver back on, I mentioned I choose the setting 9901-D1000. This turns the unit on to channel 9901. This channel is just a screen that says, "Congratulations, you have a Dish 1000 System". It doesn't matter because the Replay's IR Blaster will now be able to change the channel to whatever I've asked it to record. I hope this helps clarify.

Every Dish receiver I've had had a setup menu choice to turn off the "inactivity" function. Only problem is that it always defaults to ON whenever the software is updated. Other than that, it's been a non-issue.

Dish says that the receiver needs to update once a day for the program guide information. That's why I let it turn off at 3 am and program it to turn back on automatically afterward. I wouldn't want to risk having the receiver update software and then default back to the activity's "ON" position. I prefer to set it and forget it.

I understand Cutrock, but guide updates are not software updates and, since I use the dish receiver strictly as a signal source for a Replay, updating the guide is not at all necessary. Once every few months I turn it off for a possible software update, and immediately afterwards disable the inactivity detector.

Junocat5: I've only had Dish since the end of January. So, I can't confirm that the Inactivity timer will reset during a software update regardless of my preference settings. Also, I'm not sure how/when we would know when a software update occurs.

BaysideBas: That's a good approach you use! I hadn't thought of that. Still, believe it or not, I do like to switch to true HD via my HDMI connection to watch live programming once in a while. So, I may want to surf Dish's program guide. Sure, I hate the commercials and replay functionality, but still occasionally want to get the maximum enjoyment out of my Plasma tv by watching true HD once in a while...

I called Dish and they didn't have an answer to why the system was powered off every day even though I disabled the Inactivity Timer. Thanks for making that clear with the Guide Update.

I have set up a manual timer as suggested and hope that makes a difference.