Dear DStv - technical faults thread

How do you rate the DStv service *technically* ?

  • 10 (Best)

    Votes: 4 1.6%

  • 9

    Votes: 6 2.4%

  • 8

    Votes: 6 2.4%

  • 7

    Votes: 8 3.2%

  • 6

    Votes: 10 4.0%

  • 5

    Votes: 15 6.0%

  • 4

    Votes: 18 7.2%

  • 3

    Votes: 32 12.9%

  • 2

    Votes: 17 6.8%

  • 1 (Worst)

    Votes: 133 53.4%
  • Total voters
    249
My decoders are the 4-tuner Pace models. There has been no official sw update for more than a year, but countless hidden sw changes implemented.
The EPGs on older decoders are incredibly poorly maintained. Many of the fiddles MC implemented to deal with the introduction of channels on hi-band transponders actually do require a proper sw change, but that was never done.
 
Brian_G said:
@Geoff.D , ch.111 now physically removed - usual disruption here.
Click to expand...
Will check and see. Yes, removing a transponder so close to the top of the list triggers a ripple effect on all the other channels, which can't be fixed by playing lip service to EPG maintenance.
 
What can MC do MOST to sort themselves out - IMO, just do proper QA, everywhere... and of course follow up on its results.


This morning's gripe - Explora's 1's online connection icon.
This is visible near the top, left corner in some sections.
It likes to signal the connection going off and back on regularly, which can block certain access, this despite there being no tech fault, and sometimes seen is that with an actual use underway that use is clearly uninterrupted.
(And the connectivity tester confirms all is fine.)

For example - this morning I'm downloading something from CU+ which continues to progress regardless, and the "interruption" is preventing me accessing the Showmax (SM) catalogue.

Possibly related - while in the SM catalogue, it will sometimes halt access even though the connected-indicator remains on in this instance.


You do it to yourselves, MC.
 
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17 times during the F1 race today, I was insulted with this screen via the DSTVnow app.
The stream would just disconnect.
I took up to 4 tries to reconnect every time.
Missed a total of 7laps.

What a disgrace of a "premium" service offering.
b2a12ffbbbc46100d7219b628a679eac.jpg
 
Furthermore, the DSTVnow app was "updated" not 4 days prior.

Most channels now will not "connect".
Just the little blue circle of death twirling in the bottom left corner of the TV.
Casting is has become a chore as the casting connection now is also a hit-and-miss.
Catch-Up quality has become an absolute horror, as the steam appears not able to keep up. It shudders and freezes - totally unwatchable.

None of these issues with the Showmax app.

Admittedly, these issues have plagued DSTVnow ever since I started using it, 3years ago, but since the last downgrade, it is impossible justify the monthly cost.
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Brian_G said:
Take this morning for instance - on my Explora model 1, I had a recording set for a movie called Dark Web on Sunday night on ch. 106 - just vanished, EPG reveals they altered the name a bit but somehow they haven't learnt how not to lose things then.......
Click to expand...

An interesting follow-up re my earlier random example :-/

Re-selected movie then recorded fine last night, but today the software has scheduled a "replacement" recording of the original setting in a week's time... they never altered the name on future broadcasts of the movie !!

No attention to detail.
For now done with posting small issues, but this one's enough to downgrade my vote in this poll.
 
Another older decoders reboot last night, sometime around 20:00.

But failed recordings have come right at this stage for us, been about a week.
 
New week new problems...on the Android and Android TV app my recently watched channels disappeared and reappeared with 6/7 channels missing, this after my continue watching titles completely dissapeard for the whole week and still going, not coming back even after watching a new episode of the show.

My list item seems to stick though. That used to disappear and reappear constantly as well. They just can't get it right...never happens on Netflix, Prime or Apple TV apps. And they are international so no excuses. Hell, doesn't even happen on Showmax.

What do they actually do in any of the monthly updates? Never notice any differences except that they are breaking things that weren't broken before - also noticed the auto stop on Android app where you set the time to cut stream is unresponsive since latest update.
 
Current situation with DSTV Now on both PC (Chrome) and on my eMatic Android Box... everything was OK last night when I watched the 2 episodes of Air Crash Investigation on NatGeo (181) - and when I went to watch Coyote on CatchUp this morning, this is what I get...

1623386015104.png

1623385846406.png

:mad:
 
Tector said:
New week new problems...on the Android and Android TV app my recently watched channels disappeared and reappeared with 6/7 channels missing, this after my continue watching titles completely dissapeard for the whole week and still going, not coming back even after watching a new episode of the show.

My list item seems to stick though. That used to disappear and reappear constantly as well. They just can't get it right...never happens on Netflix, Prime or Apple TV apps. And they are international so no excuses. Hell, doesn't even happen on Showmax.
Click to expand...
*koff* Actually...

If you have an Explora (1) there's parallel behaviour on Showmax - Recently watched items don't stick, unless you re-stream just a few seconds of something you're still busy with, and if you use SD or HD also affects that behaviour.
 
Ivan Leon said:
... everything was OK last night when I watched the 2 episodes of Air Crash Investigation on NatGeo (181)...
Click to expand...
While on the subject, don't you love the way they have messed up the WHOLE of new season 20 with forced English subtitling :sick:

No doubt a source issue, but still no-one at MC checks or gives a damn !
 
Brian_G said:
While on the subject, don't you love the way they have messed up the WHOLE of new season 20 with forced English subtitling :sick:

No doubt a source issue, but still no-one at MC checks or gives a damn !
Click to expand...

Yup - those intrusive sub-titles are highly irritating in the extreme... :mad:

BTW - the reason I couldn't connect earlier this morning has been solved - My brother forgot to pay his DSTV Premium subs for this month - he usually does it via EFT - and Monochoice pulled the plug on him, so as our family all share his DSTV Now mobile app / PC browser user accounts - we all got cut off.

He paid them just now, so connectivity has already been restored once again! ;)

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I see the CatchUp menu is missing at the top once again though....
 
More chaos this week. Don't know if it related to this stupid move to make CU available to all packages announced with so much fanfare.
The problem now is as an Easyview subscriber you no longer get the global notice that CU is only available to Premium, but now you have to go down the list of content only to find that none of it is available anyway.
One giant step backwards as usual.
Then, linear TV in the buffers on PVRs gets fouled up 4 times a day now.
 
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Ten minutes into watching NCIS (Ch.117) on DSTV Now - and it pops up a "Whoops - Looks like something went wrong. Please try again. Error Code: PER 1" message on my eMatic Android box - not even going right out of DSTV Now & trying again (as directed) fixes it - it's still on a blank screen - selecting RETRY just goes back to the same looping error again.

Trying it on the PC via Chrome brings up this screen...

1623781031023.png

Looks like I will have to watch one of the repeats of tonight's episode of NCIS later in the week...
 
DSTV Now has been terrible since Monday night - all sorts of errors. Watching a show and then all of a sudden it stops and displays a message ..... DSTV Now does not have the rights for this programme. Unplug power from tv box - plug back in and it plays fine - for a while. Also got the Error Code: Per 1

I have cleared the cache for the DSTV Now app on the tv box - make no difference. What now?
 
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