Combining Live TV and streaming apps, the Digital Video Recorder – or DVR system, Dish launched its pioneer service in the U.S. market in an attempt to overthrow a long dominion established by DirecTV.
Winning the J.D. Power Service Award four times in a row is a strong signal that the Californian company came not only to stay, but also to lead this sector of the American market.
With starting packages from about US$70 up to a complete set of services costing around US$105, Dish delivers the combo of Live TV, streaming apps and On-Demand content – all in one device. Just connect it to your Smart TV and have almost three hundred channels in the palm of your hand.
Apart from the outstanding variety, Dish promises to keep content always accessible for users with its recording feature, which allows customers to save their favourite shows and watch them anytime they want.
Nevertheless, even with all the quality and stability the company promises, some users have been reporting some issues, mainly regarding the recording features. Amongst the most reported is the issue that hinders users from watching the shows they record.
As you can imagine it must be quite frustrating to record a show or that football match you’ve been waiting all week for, and when you sit to finally watch it, the recording simply will not play.
Although this issue has been reported a number of times in online Q&A communities and forums, there are simple fixes that any user can perform to escape such a fate.
So, if you want to get rid of the recording not playing on Dish DVR and enjoy your sessions with all it has to offer, just follow the easy troubleshooting steps in this article.
Troubleshooting Dish DVR Not Playing Recorded Shows
- Give The DVR Device A Restart
Let’s start with the simplest and most practical fix for the issue that is stopping you from watching the shows you record on your Dish DVR. Sometimes a simple restart of the system may do the trick, and you will be able to play the recordings afterwards as if nothing ever happened.
Like pretty much any electronic device nowadays, Dish has a cache, which consists of a storage unit that saves temporary files that help the system run faster or enhance the compatibility with several apps.
As the caches are not infinite in storage space, they tend to eventually get full and, instead of aiding the system in the performance of its various tasks, it actually slows it down or stops it.
With that said, the issue that is hindering you from enjoying your recordings on Dish DVR may be an out-of-storage-space cache. Luckily, a simple restart of the device should be enough for the system to clean the cache and have all the features on your Dish DVR properly running.
To perform a restart of the device, simply turn it off and on again using your remote control.
- Give The DVR Device A Reset
There is a chance the issue will not simply vanish after performing a restart of the device, which brings us to the second easy fix. If the restart did not work, try resetting the device to its factory settings.
That should do more than just clean the cache, but also repair some minor issues that may be going on unnoticed. Apart from that, a factory reset may help the system run smoother as it returns to a point where all connections to it were not made yet.
In order to perform a factory reset on your Dish DVR, simply locate the power cord and disconnect it from the device. The power cord is usually marked in red so it shouldn´t be hard to identify it. Just remove the power source from your Dish DVR and wait a minute or two before you plug the power cord back in.
After you plug the power cable back into the device, the system will perform all the necessary changes to return to a factory state. So, this allows you to just kick back and wait. The whole process should take something like five to ten minutes, so be patient while the system recovers itself.
Once the process is completed, the device will start automatically. You should now be able to find your recordings and play them without any further issues.
- Check That The Hard Drives Are Working Properly
Should you attempt the restart with the remote control and also the factory reset procedure and the issue is still there, there is a third easy fix you can try. If all else fails, it probably means there is a problem with either the external hard drive you may be using to store the recordings, or even with the device’s one.
For external hard drives, the issue may be caused simply because the cable you are using to connect the drive to the device might be malfunctioning. Should you have a second cable, give it a try.
Connect the external hard drive and your Dish DVR with the new cable and attempt to play the shows you recorded. If the matter is with the cable, that should be enough to solve the issue.
But if that doesn’t solve it, you should check if the drive itself is working as it should be. Just connect the external hard drive to any computer to check if it is properly working.
Alternatively, should the issue be caused by a malfunctioning of the device’s hard drive, we strongly recommend you do not attempt to fix it yourself. Just give the company’s customer service a call and schedule a technical visit.
Their team of professionals will know exactly how to perform any fixes your device may need as they will probably be more acquainted with all sorts of problems your Dish DVR can be experiencing.
Recordings on the hopper are not as easy to get to and play as Directv is! Not user friendly! Hate the tiles! Love a list. Much easier to go through many recordings!
dvr stopped working did everthing dish said to do contacted dish said hard drive fried will send replacement hopper 5 work days, of course it’s friday NO mention of compensation DVR and other functions not working and was told by e-mail cost of not returning equipment in their time frame. Dish went out even if it only looked like rain think twice future customers !!!!!
The dvr performance is most disconcerting! Please fix it soon.
I have 3 shows set to record every night. They report they are actively recording but they do not show up in recordings. Other shows scheduled to record do I have done all the trouble shooting. The missing shows are on all Fox News. There is no “conflict “ I have deleted record options and re-set them. DVR is 2% full. Where are my shows?
My hopper tells me my DVR recordings have expired!! How can my recordings be controlled as if I was trying to watch as an on demand show. In fact it shows some of my recordings are from on demand. This is so bad. I’m going to get an independent dvr I can rely on and not an arbitrarily controlled by Dish.