Has anybody experienced a strange issue where the volume will turn up automatically? I was watching a show this morning and my volume shot from about 10% to over 20%!

I am also getting quite a few recording problems where I record certain shows and during playback it will stop and tell me the show has ended with 0 minutes left.

No volume issues, but I'm constantly getting cut short recordings and not by a minute or two either.

The subscriber has the option to turn the settings on and off, if TWC chooses to activate them. It is up to each individual division to choose whether to activate some settings. For instance, Auto HD was a setting turned on in some markets, beginning in Navigator 4.1, which would allow the STB to automatically tune to the HD channel if one was available. My source told me that in testing, Auto HD bricked several 100,000 boxes because so many people were tuning to HD channels at the same time, that it strangled the bandwidth. The reason was that the nodes were old and had not been updated to handle massive HD requests at once.

So TWC can't add Auto HD to the boxes until the nodes and head-ends can handle the changeover where everyone can tune to an HD channel at once without the boxes freezing. It is sort of like why Weather Channel HD, can't do local "On The 8th Forecasts" in HD, until the nodes for the local division can make the local forecasts, HD.

Jack
Tuning a normal HD channel shouldn't have any impact on a node, the channel is already coming down the wire to the cable box, it would be a simple matter of the box changing to a different frequency. It would have to be a SDV channel to have have any impact.

"bricked" seems to be a over statement. " bricked" usually means the device is beyond repair or at minimal a return to a repair center. In this case the cable box most likely just locked up or rebooted, hard to believe it could have screwed up the firmware. A simple power cycle most likely would correct the problem, maybe just waiting a little longer and the box would have came back to life.

Satellite boxs can do it because all the channels are there just like non SDV cable and can just change to the different frequency.

Cisco 8742 here... Still wondering if anyone knows how to get into an advanced menu? Like the multi page info ones with build #s and such? Thanks.

Sup Big Brain?

Try holding down the SEL button until the Mail icon flashes and press the down arrow. That's at least how it works for other ODN boxes. You should be on a blank screen if your division has it so that the menu is easier to read. I do have to caution that TWC/BHN does not like people knowing how to get to this menu. I also know of two people who pushed the wrong buttons on that diagnostic screen and it messed up there boxes.

Some divisions also have a DIAGS channel. If you go to your Favorite channels and punch in a high number, you might be able to use the Page+/- button to see it. Data takes about 30 seconds to load if it is there. Going to this channel has no chance of hurting your box by pressing the wrong button. But some divisions hide this information.

Is there a specific signal, stack version, or software build that you are looking for? Note that Syracuse, New York recently got Navigator ODN 5.1.

Jack

The subscriber has the option to turn the settings on and off, if TWC chooses to activate them. It is up to each individual division to choose whether to activate some settings. For instance, Auto HD was a setting turned on in some markets, beginning in Navigator 4.1, which would allow the STB to automatically tune to the HD channel if one was available. My source told me that in testing, Auto HD bricked several 100,000 boxes because so many people were tuning to HD channels at the same time, that it strangled the bandwidth. The reason was that the nodes were old and had not been updated to handle massive HD requests at once.

So TWC can't add Auto HD to the boxes until the nodes and head-ends can handle the changeover where everyone can tune to an HD channel at once without the boxes freezing. It is sort of like why Weather Channel HD, can't do local "On The 8th Forecasts" in HD, until the nodes for the local division can make the local forecasts, HD.

Jack

Starting to get why it might be hard for any customer service reps to handle customer questions - lots of variables between different boxes, different software, versions of software, different settings and to throw another variable in there what divisions have activated on the boxes. Oy.

In our quest to continue to understand Navigator's development, we have always heard over the years about feature sets that Dish, U-Verse, and computer systems have. However, that is often very generalized. What we often don't talk enough about, is how does Navigator stack up to the guides used by other cable companies? Pros and cons? Has anyone done a comparison and contrast with what Comcast, and Cablevision use? What about Cox?

These assessments may help users look at specifics, in terms of cable company vs. other cable companies. And how good (or bad) is Cox and Cablevision at doing updates for their guides? Do they have different models of software like Navigator does for ODN/MDN?

To try to stay on topic, attempt to take a feature set from another cable companies program guide and relate this back to TWC Navigator.

Jack

In our quest to continue to understand Navigator's development, we have always heard over the years about feature sets that Dish, U-Verse, and computer systems have. However, that is often very generalized. What we often don't talk enough about, is how does Navigator stack up to the guides used by other cable companies? Pros and cons? Has anyone done a comparison and contrast with what Comcast, and Cablevision use? What about Cox?

These assessments may help users look at specifics, in terms of cable company vs. other cable companies. And how good (or bad) is Cox and Cablevision at doing updates for their guides? Do they have different models of software like Navigator does for ODN/MDN?

To try to stay on topic, attempt to take a feature set from another cable companies program guide and relate this back to TWC Navigator.

Jack

We usually vacation on the Outer Banks of NC. Can't remember what cable company is there but the guide is terrible. Not because it is different, I can adapt to it in a few days. There is very little info on a shows content, sometimes none other than the title. No video window showing current show. Worst of all is the ever changing ad banner for some local business taking up the lower part of the screen. Terrible graphics. Navigator's is beautiful compared to it.

I often say folks are guilty of "the pasture is always greener..." but not in this case.

Edit: fairly sure it's Charter

In our quest to continue to understand Navigator's development, we have always heard over the years about feature sets that Dish, U-Verse, and computer systems have. However, that is often very generalized. What we often don't talk enough about, is how does Navigator stack up to the guides used by other cable companies? Pros and cons? Has anyone done a comparison and contrast with what Comcast, and Cablevision use? What about Cox?

These assessments may help users look at specifics, in terms of cable company vs. other cable companies. And how good (or bad) is Cox and Cablevision at doing updates for their guides? Do they have different models of software like Navigator does for ODN/MDN?

To try to stay on topic, attempt to take a feature set from another cable companies program guide and relate this back to TWC Navigator.

JackHouston was a Time Warner Cable market that used the SARA Guide on SA/Cisco set-top boxes. In 2006, Comcast took over and continued using the SARA Guide. In March 2011, Comcast deployed the S25 Guide in Houston. Houston never used Navigator so I cam't compare Comcast's S25 Guide to Navigator. Comcast's S25 Guide for its SA/Cisco set-top markets is not a standard upgrade. Comcast replaced the SARA guide with the S25 Guide which was based on the Motorola A25 guide. The Motorola A25 guide does not have the SARA features such as Picture-in-Picture, Passthrough, DVR standby mode, more recording options, support for external hard drives, et cetera. This decision by Comcast has created a lot of unhappy customers. I think "unofficial" support for external hard drives was the only major function from SARA that was added to the S25 Guide. Adding all the other missing features would have delayed the new guide even more. This is an explanation of what Comcast did and why it did it, not an endorsement of it. There are still a few areas that haven't gotten the S25 guide and are still using SARA. Those areas are scheduled to get the S25 guide in 2012. The following link is to a post about the Advantages and Disadvantages of Comcast's S25 Guide for the SA/Cisco Set-Top Box and Hardware

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19551799#post19551799

Click the "GUIDE TIPS" link in my signature to go to a post about Comcast's S25 Guide for its SA/Cisco set-top markets. Comcast is in the process of deploying a patch to change three issues:
1) Trucated Recordings - The patch has corrected this issue.
2) Implement Pass Through - The patch allows Pass Through to work with component cables but not a HDMI cable
3) Unauthorized Channel Messages - The patch reduces the occurrence of this message but it is still a problem.

Click the "GUIDE SCHEDULE" link in my signature for Comcast's proposed schedule for updating the S25 Guide to the Motorola A28 Guide equivalent in the merged Phase 2/Phase 3 release and the follow up On-Screen Guide 2.0 (formerly Phase 4).

Cisco 8742 here... Still wondering if anyone knows how to get into an advanced menu? Like the multi page info ones with build #s and such? Thanks.

Hey bigbrain - how big is the drive in that box?

xnappo

Cisco 8742 here... Still wondering if anyone knows how to get into an advanced menu? Like the multi page info ones with build #s and such? Thanks.

ODN;Press and hold [Select] until the indicator starts flashing on the front of the box, then release and press [Down].
HOST;Press and hold [Power] until the power indicator starts flashing, then release and press [Power] again.

I got mine today, seems to be very nice. It's the first of the new models made necessary due to the new energy regs requiring all stb to be energy star rated. All the Samsungs and other Ciscos are pretty much discontinued(new models to follow). The 8742 is the smallest,has a coax out for SD to a second room and a inaudible fan built in along with an external transformer to keep it running cooler. Seems to be faster than the Samsung and picture quality is comparable to what I had on Dish(using 50" THX cert. plasma). It's only been a few hours,but so far I like it.

Hey bigbrain - how big is the drive in that box?

xnappo

500gb.

ODN;Press and hold [Select] until the indicator starts flashing on the front of the box, then release and press [Down].
HOST;Press and hold [Power] until the power indicator starts flashing, then release and press [Power] again.

I got mine today, seems to be very nice. It's the first of the new models made necessary due to the new energy regs requiring all stb to be energy star rated. All the Samsungs and other Ciscos are pretty much discontinued(new models to follow). The 8742 is the smallest,has a coax out for SD to a second room and a inaudible fan built in along with an external transformer to keep it running cooler. Seems to be faster than the Samsung and picture quality is comparable to what I had on Dish(using 50" THX cert. plasma). It's only been a few hours,but so far I like it.

Yeah, thanks - this was answered earlier on, I just hadn't reported back. Looks like I have ODN 4.1.0_6 (2011/04/07)
AVFS Size 461.75GB (what passes for 500gb...)
None of the 20pgs states anything about USB/SATA/Firewire ports activity, so I have to assume is a total NO at this point...

ODN v5.1.0_3 could mean more cloud features like a new VOD app with movie posters.

ODN v5.1.0_3 could mean more cloud features like a new VOD app with movie posters.What do you mean "cloud features"? The use of the term "cloud" is more marketing BS than substance!:rolleyes:

What do you mean "cloud features"? The use of the term "cloud" is more marketing BS than substance!:rolleyes:

Server Side features - when most of us refer to "cloud" based option we are referencing features that reside at the headend which the set top calls up. IE: The new Advanced Search System is completely server side, not client. The data is pulled from the headend.

Server Side features - when most of us refer to "cloud" based option we are referencing features that reside at the headend which the set top calls up. IE: The new Advanced Search System is completely server side, not client. The data is pulled from the headend.Right: The term "Cloud" is totally marketing BS. There really is nothing basically new here from the headend based features that we have had all along.

ODN v5.1.0_3 could mean more cloud features like a new VOD app with movie posters.

Doesn't ODN 5.0 with Advanced Search have little poster art now?

I think ODN 5.1.03 is just bug fixes from 5.0.06.

Jack

Doesn't ODN 5.0 with Advanced Search have little poster art now?

I think ODN 5.1.03 is just bug fixes from 5.0.06.

Jack

I have the most current version of ODN and I have noticed absolutely no changes from the prior version it replaced. I was really hoping we'd see at minimum a Guide Filter. I mean, I understand they had issues with widespread deployment of AutoHD, but I feel like us Sig Home Subs should get all those "extra" perks. It would be a nice little bonus and should prevent the significant load widespread rollout causes of any given feature. We should get it at least until it's ready for system wide rollout.

I posted about this problem a few weeks ago and thought there would be a flood of responses. Nothing yet in this forum, so thought I'd try again...

About 3 weeks ago they pushed out an update to MDN here in the Charlotte, NC market. A few cosmetic changes, no big deal, but a couple of REAL BIG deals in terms of reducing functionality. Wonder if anyone else has noticed them? I'm running a legacy SA8300HD box w/ expansion drive.

1) The size of the two buffers (for each tuner) has been cut in half, from 1 hour to 30 minutes. That's a major reduction in functionality. Anyone else notice this? Has it happened with ODN as well?

2) The box is now not recording scheduled shows if the box is in the "off" state (but still plugged in and powered). This came as a big shock as well. Used to be it didn't matter if the box was "on" or "off", as that only affected the output, not the scheduled recordings. Anybody else notice this?

3) Can anyone please post how to get to the diagnostic screens in MDN? Apparently there are two sets, requiring two different procedures to get to them.

Thanks to any and all who might take the time to reply... these reductions in functionality have me plenty steamed. It seems like every time they push an update out, nothing really new gets added but something important gets taken away.

My 8300HDC buffers are still 1 hour and still record when off.

I posted about this problem a few weeks ago and thought there would be a flood of responses. Nothing yet in this forum, so thought I'd try again...

About 3 weeks ago they pushed out an update to MDN here in the Charlotte, NC market. A few cosmetic changes, no big deal, but a couple of REAL BIG deals in terms of reducing functionality. Wonder if anyone else has noticed them? I'm running a legacy SA8300HD box w/ expansion drive.

1) The size of the two buffers (for each tuner) has been cut in half, from 1 hour to 30 minutes. That's a major reduction in functionality. Anyone else notice this? Has it happened with ODN as well?

2) The box is now not recording scheduled shows if the box is in the "off" state (but still plugged in and powered). This came as a big shock as well. Used to be it didn't matter if the box was "on" or "off", as that only affected the output, not the scheduled recordings. Anybody else notice this?

3) Can anyone please post how to get to the diagnostic screens in MDN? Apparently there are two sets, requiring two different procedures to get to them.

Thanks to any and all who might take the time to reply... these reductions in functionality have me plenty steamed. It seems like every time they push an update out, nothing really new gets added but something important gets taken away.

Can't comment on MDN Navigator as I have two ODN loaded boxes. I will try and check the buffers though. We have had a rash of recent updates that added nothing as far as face value features, so this could be something they toyed with.

UPDATE: It appears in the latest ODN update I have that TWC in there infinite wisdom has completely disable the dual live buffers. Noticed tonight when the channel was accidentally switched and I did a last channel recall. Used to be able to monitor two channels as long as you didn't deviate from one and change the active tuners. I still have to see the buffer length of a current channel, but when I recalled the prior channel there was NOTHING buffered. Once again TWC apparently applies an update that makes Navigator WORSE! I will experiment a bit more in case this was just a typical Navigator glitch.

UPDATE 2: Ok, played with it more. The dual live buffers basically work when they want to. I had them working on one set of channels, but not another. Also, when going back to a buffered channel and trying to rewind (if it loses the buffer), it hangs with the banner stuck on screen.

I just had my wonderful 8300HD box replaced by an 8300HDC, and I'm having all the problems noted earlier in this thread. Has anyone in Manhattan successfully swapped out this piece of junk for a better model? I'd be very happy with another 8300HD, or really any box that doesn't have painfully slow scrolling in the guide or a mandatory jump-back when fast-forwarding. I'd rather not haul this thing 10 blocks and endure the wretched misery of a TWC location if I'm unlikely to meet with success.

Thanks!

My 8300HDC buffers are still 1 hour and still record when off.

You didn't mention if your box is running ODN or MDN. I'm guessing ODN....

Still would love to hear from an MDN person on the buffer length reduction. Really, I didn't think this would be such a difficult thing to discover in the Navigator forum. Are there really that few MDN customers left?

You didn't mention if your box is running ODN or MDN. I'm guessing ODN....

Still would love to hear from an MDN person on the buffer length reduction. Really, I didn't think this would be such a difficult thing to discover in the Navigator forum. Are there really that few MDN customers left?

I heard that the last upgrade to ODN (5.1) created INTERMITTENT buffering. Meaning that sometimes the buffers will hold for 30 minutes and sometimes not. ODN 3.0 did reduce the buffering, but I am not sure on the time intervals. Still on ODN 4.1.06 here.

It has been two years or so since my last MDN box. I think the buffering on that was 30 mins or 60 minutes.

Best thing to do is to expand the thread with this question:

TWC Navigator subscribers, what is your known buffer time and Navigator version associated with it? Can you successfully swap buffering with both tuners if one is busy? I recall that was an issue for some customers.

List your division too in answer to this question. If you have an ODN box (C Model or Samsung) you have the latest version of Navigator. If you have an MDN box (no C, not a Samsung.) You have the legacy version, which is FASTER, but less likely to be updated as those boxes are getting phased out.

In answer to the above question, yes the MDN boxes are getting rarer. Several TWC divisions coming from a SARA to Navigator transition may still have some MDN boxes left. The MDN's are refurbished, but they seem to be more responsive than ODN. Get yourself an MDN box, and if you do a lot of recording, a Western Digital Expander Drive and you will have a speedy box with excellent storage capacity.

I have always said, until ODN really hits it big with some quality reliable new features where the bugs are out of them, I would take an MDN box over an ODN box any day. I don't even do a lot of recording, but if I did, I would have better acceptance of an MDN box with an expanded hard drive than an ODN box. The little features and updates that ODN HAS gotten are OK. However, IMO, they are not worth the speed sacrifice associated with the newer boxes.

My friend thinks that that TWC may be experimenting with the live buffers with Navigator to increase speed and reduce guide lag. It seems that some behind the scenes stuff is going on. 2012 begins the server-based new features for the ODN boxes in quarterly roll-outs. So this experimenting may have something to do with that. A new search system is coming to ODN boxes.

Jack

I just had my wonderful 8300HD box replaced by an 8300HDC, and I'm having all the problems noted earlier in this thread. Has anyone in Manhattan successfully swapped out this piece of junk for a better model? I'd be very happy with another 8300HD, or really any box that doesn't have painfully slow scrolling in the guide or a mandatory jump-back when fast-forwarding. I'd rather not haul this thing 10 blocks and endure the wretched misery of a TWC location if I'm unlikely to meet with success.

Thanks!

Might be worth a shot,

Call TWC and ask to be transferred to the Customer Retentions Department. Mention the problems you are having with this box, and that you DON'T want another SA-8300HDC in exchange. When you get a hold of this department, ask him/her if there would be some way they could reserve a box for you? Just say, "This is the fourth time I have had to take my SA-8300 HDC box to a service outlet, and they keep giving me the same HDC box in exchange."

You might even say, "This has been such a nightmare for me, that I am considering changing providers if I can't get a faster box." Try to get a Samsung DVR. Note that sometimes, the Samsung DVR's can be problematic with HDMI cables, but you can switch to Component Cables to resolve HDMI issues. The Samsungs are faster than the SA/Cicso HDC's."

Jack

I posted about this problem a few weeks ago and thought there would be a flood of responses. Nothing yet in this forum, so thought I'd try again...

About 3 weeks ago they pushed out an update to MDN here in the Charlotte, NC market. A few cosmetic changes, no big deal, but a couple of REAL BIG deals in terms of reducing functionality. Wonder if anyone else has noticed them? I'm running a legacy SA8300HD box w/ expansion drive.

1) The size of the two buffers (for each tuner) has been cut in half, from 1 hour to 30 minutes. That's a major reduction in functionality. Anyone else notice this? Has it happened with ODN as well?

2) The box is now not recording scheduled shows if the box is in the "off" state (but still plugged in and powered). This came as a big shock as well. Used to be it didn't matter if the box was "on" or "off", as that only affected the output, not the scheduled recordings. Anybody else notice this?

3) Can anyone please post how to get to the diagnostic screens in MDN? Apparently there are two sets, requiring two different procedures to get to them.

Thanks to any and all who might take the time to reply... these reductions in functionality have me plenty steamed. It seems like every time they push an update out, nothing really new gets added but something important gets taken away.

I have an SA8300HD in TWC NYC

Buffers have dropped to maybe 20 minutes and sometimes do not work at all.

PIP only seems to work if you first play a recording and then quit to live TV- then the PIP works for that session

Turning the box off- you have to go thru that again to get the PIP working

I have an SA8300HD in TWC NYC

Buffers have dropped to maybe 20 minutes and sometimes do not work at all.

PIP only seems to work if you first play a recording and then quit to live TV- then the PIP works for that session

Turning the box off- you have to go thru that again to get the PIP working
I am running the same SA8300HD boxes in my house in western NY. I have exactly the same problems as you are mentioning, in particular the buffering works when it feels like it. It seems to me it is tied somehow to the hard drive being powered down. I also have external drives on all my boxes. I say that because I notice if there is no buffering, I push record, and then I have buffering even on a station I am not recording. Seems the hard drive may be going to sleep and if I push record, it wakes it up. There is something in the last software update that is doing this. Functionally this box is beginning to suck. This was never an issue in the past and all my dvrs are acting the same
Bernie

Folks with buffering problems: when you say no buffering, do you mean that you can't rewind at all or are you saying that if you press info the display shows no buffer?

Originally Posted by beinstein
I have an SA8300HD in TWC NYC

Buffers have dropped to maybe 20 minutes and sometimes do not work at all.

PIP only seems to work if you first play a recording and then quit to live TV- then the PIP works for that session

Turning the box off- you have to go thru that again to get the PIP working

I am running the same SA8300HD boxes in my house in western NY. I have exactly the same problems as you are mentioning, in particular the buffering works when it feels like it. It seems to me it is tied somehow to the hard drive being powered down. I also have external drives on all my boxes. I say that because I notice if there is no buffering, I push record, and then I have buffering even on a station I am not recording. Seems the hard drive may be going to sleep and if I push record, it wakes it up. There is something in the last software update that is doing this. Functionally this box is beginning to suck. This was never an issue in the past and all my dvrs are acting the same
BernieI too have a SA8300HD with an external drive in Rochester - but have none of the issues that you guys are talking about: My buffer has always been 30 min and PIP works fine (used it a lot last night watching the Times Square new years festivities on ABC & CNN).

The only issue that I have is that after powering up the TV that the resolution (via HDMI) drops to the lowest enabled resolution. I found that tuning to a different station restores the broadcast resolution, and it keeps that till either the set is powered off or I change the input on the set and then return to cable. A minor pain, but I've learned to live with it.

Had some time to just let the buffer run and I my current version of ODN, it is a 1 hour buffer. The dual live buffers are still spotty at best.

I have about six channels that pixiate and go off the air on alternate days or so between 12am-5am. Approximately. Rebooting the box, just brings the problem back again 24-72 hours later. We recently had a new line drop installed that solved some issues we were having with other channels. Signal levels are good. Actually, we had this problem with the same group of channels a few years ago. What is strange, is that they come back around 7am or so like nothing happened. It always seems to happen in the late night early morning hours about every other, to every third day.

Question is, can SDV cause this?

Jack

I have about six channels that pixiate and go off the air on alternate days or so between 12am-5am. Approximately. Rebooting the box, just brings the problem back again 24-72 hours later. We recently had a new line drop installed that solved some issues we were having with other channels. Signal levels are good. Actually, we had this problem with the same group of channels a few years ago. What is strange, is that they come back around 7am or so like nothing happened. It always seems to happen in the late night early morning hours about every other, to every third day.

Question is, can SDV cause this?

Jack

I think it is possible you are getting fits from SDV channels.

I know that there seems to be a breaking point with SDV where you can only switch so many SDV channels to x amount of SDV QAMs so maybe you area is needing more SDV QAMs? My area added 8 more SDV QAMs to the 16 we already had in october before they brought us up 133 HD channels when they added 20 HD channels last month here in North Texas. When we had the 8 new SDV QAMs added 148 SD channels went SDV first time an existing non SDV SD channel was switched to SDV. I think the key to SDV is X number of switched channels at any given time has to be < the Y number of possible SDV QAM carrier slots.

I think it is possible you are getting fits from SDV channels.

I know that there seems to be a breaking point with SDV where you can only switch so many SDV channels to x amount of SDV QAMs so maybe you area is needing more SDV QAMs? My area added 8 more SDV QAMs to the 16 we already had in october before they brought us up 133 HD channels when they added 20 HD channels last month here in North Texas. When we had the 8 new SDV QAMs added 148 SD channels went SDV first time an existing non SDV SD channel was switched to SDV. I think the key to SDV is X number of switched channels at any given time has to be < the Y number of possible SDV QAM carrier slots.

I got a local forum where customers post and so do techs anonymously. I just wish they would kill of Standard Service, channels 2-99 in my area, EXCEPT for the required Government Access crap that they have to carry. Crunching bandwidth is what is causing these issues. Our subdivision's old too. TWC Wireless Roadrunner works great! Especially since I saved $10 a month with my own router and adapter. Digital Phone is awesome too! The cable TV part always seems to be the weakest link in TWC.

Jack

Somewhat off-topic for this thread so I will try to keep it brief and relative to Navigator...

With some time off over the holidays to "play", I picked up a SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime network tuner along with a Cablecard and SDV Tuning Adaptor from TWC. So far, it works like a charm. I loaded the same series schedule I have in my 8640 into WMC7 and will be checking it's reliability over the next few weeks. Unlike some of you, Navigator has been very reliable for me and I would not like to give up any of that reliability. If things work out, I would consider downgrading the 8640 DVR to an STB only (I use VOD channels too much to rely on WMC as the main STB in the family room, but I am hoping it can be a viable DVR replacement.)

An added bonus is that we can use any of our Win7 notebook computers to watch any TWC channel (except VOD)... I was working in the garage this weekend watching Velocity streaming wirelessly to my notebook, and I'm currently using the same notebook as an STB, connected to a 37" HDTV in my office. Previously, I was unwilling to lease a fifth STB from TWC for this TV and was limited to the few clear QAMs and available analog channels.

I have about six channels that pixiate and go off the air on alternate days or so between 12am-5am. Approximately. Rebooting the box, just brings the problem back again 24-72 hours later. We recently had a new line drop installed that solved some issues we were having with other channels. Signal levels are good. Actually, we had this problem with the same group of channels a few years ago. What is strange, is that they come back around 7am or so like nothing happened. It always seems to happen in the late night early morning hours about every other, to every third day.

Question is, can SDV cause this?

Jack

No, it is not SDV but more along the lines of the AGC circuits in the amps feeding your home are ramping up the levels too much. They work along the lines of temperature swings and raise/lower levels with a pilot carrier in an analog channel.

No, it is not SDV but more along the lines of the AGC circuits in the amps feeding your home are ramping up the levels too much. They work along the lines of temperature swings and raise/lower levels with a pilot carrier in an analog channel.

So basically you are blaming it in the weather :D

So basically you are blaming it in the weather :D

Well, it's true. I always see signal swings between the winter and summer months as the temps here change drastically. I believe it has to do with the expansion and contraction of the main runs along the poles. It you pay attention to them they will change in "sag" from season to season depending where you live. Atmospheric and weather conditions can and do effect signal.

Back to jcalabria and reliability of Navigator: I'm still getting most recordings cut short and today one of my boxes completely locked up requiring a hard reboot. I'm like you though as we use the VOD channels alot. I seriously looked into building an HTPC to run WMC7 as my DVR, but still want VOD access. I'm getting sick and tired of Navigator's constant glitches and lack of timely updates. I would jump at the opportunity to dump TWC's horrid guide and move to a third party option if it were available with VOD. Once spring comes I'm going to have to make a decision of staying with this or moving to a sat provider or other cable option.

The other thing Navigator is doing now is lagging significantly more than before. For example, I'll be scrolling the guide (with the expected lag I've become used to) when it will freeze as if it stopped receiving a signal then suddenly it will input the prior button presses skipping multiple pages.

To reiterate, I have no real gripe about Navigator's look (although a 16:9 GUI would be nice) It blows away SARA in that area. However, it extremely frustrating to use. Simple tasks are literally frustrating. Hell, at this point the only reason I'm still a Sig Home customer is for the wideband speed. Here's hoping TWC gets their act together in 2012.

So basically you are blaming it in the weather :D

It happens... No, really, it DOES happen!!!:p

Coax cable loss varies with temperature... as temperature goes down, cable loss also goes down so, if left uncompensated, signal levels will go up. Generally, signal levels tend to rise in cold weather and drop in hot weather.

The AGC ybsane was referring to is one of two methods utilized to compensate for these thermal variations... the AGC circuits read actual signal levels near the top and bottom of the spectrum and actively adjust gain and tilt to compensate, keeping a stable output at that amplifier. The other method uses passive devices called thermal equalizers... the characteristics of the thermal equalizer are the opposite of the cable's characteristics and they tend to cancel each other out.

Most systems use a combination of the two methods, and both have their strengths and weaknesses. Active AGC requires proper setup and, being an active device, can fail. The passive thermal equalizers can often end up in places where they don't belong: underground cable plant with amplifiers placed above ground. In that case the passive eq's feel ambient above-ground temperature changes while the cable is underground in a more stable environment... resulting in over-compensation. In my experience, this can happen when a tech changes out a failed amplifier in an underground area with a spare module set up for aerial plant. Shouldn't happen, but it does.

From Satch's description of the issue and the time frame of its occurrence, ybsane's diagnosis does represent the most likely cause. Satch should check his signal levels via the box's diagnostics at several different times/temperatures and note if the levels are changing... I'd bet that they are.

No, it is not SDV but more along the lines of the AGC circuits in the amps feeding your home are ramping up the levels too much. They work along the lines of temperature swings and raise/lower levels with a pilot carrier in an analog channel.

Thanks Rob!

So weather is the culprit? What does TWC need to do to eliminate this issue?

Jack

No, it is not SDV but more along the lines of the AGC circuits in the amps feeding your home are ramping up the levels too much. They work along the lines of temperature swings and raise/lower levels with a pilot carrier in an analog channel.

A couple of HD stations are affected by this as well, and follow the same pattern.

Jack

PS. I want to post the above explanations to my local forum. Thanks!

So if we could get the temperature down to absolute zero, we wouldn't need amplifiers, no resistance

Say I'm watching something that I recorded earlier and two shows are set to being recording at the same time.

My 8640HDC will...

Sometimes act normal and begin recording.

Sometimes ask me if I want to record the shows(I must press A to confirm).

And sometimes it will just switch over instantly to one of the two shows that is recording, taking me away from the show I was watching during playback.

Thanks Rob!

So weather is the culprit? What does TWC need to do to eliminate this issue?

Jack

Proper system design and maintenance... but even with that there will always be some level variations with temperature swings because all of the plant cable downstream of the last active device as well as your drop cable are thermally uncompensated. A swing of a few dB is normal and to be expected. People can have issues even in a properly operating system when their in-house wiring/splits (quite often done outside of the cable company's purview) put their signal levels right at the edge of working/not working.

All of this is one of the reasons that, even though the spec sheet for most of these STB/DVRs lists -10 dBmV as their minimum signal level for QAM channels, TWC internal spec (AFAIK) is -8 dBmV, and -6 dBmV is an even better target... to allow more headroom for these unavoidable level variations.

In your case, Jack, my best guess would be that your troublesome channels are sitting somewhere between -8 and -10 dBmV when they are working and dropping below that when they are not. Also, since the normal tendency would be for the signal levels to rise during those overnight hours, I would suspect that there is something amiss in the setup of the amplifiers feeding your home and not just normal signal level fluctuations.

Proper system design and maintenance... but even with that there will always be some level variations with temperature swings because all of the plant cable downstream of the last active device as well as your drop cable are thermally uncompensated. A swing of a few dB is normal and to be expected. People can have issues even in a properly operating system when their in-house wiring/splits (quite often done outside of the cable company's purview) put their signal levels right at the edge of working/not working.

All of this is one of the reasons that, even though the spec sheet for most of these STB/DVRs lists -10 dBmV as their minimum signal level for QAM channels, TWC internal spec (AFAIK) is -8 dBmV, and -6 dBmV is an even better target... to allow more headroom for these unavoidable level variations.

In your case, Jack, my best guess would be that your troublesome channels are sitting somewhere between -8 and -10 dBmV when they are working and dropping below that when they are not. Also, since the normal tendency would be for the signal levels to rise during those overnight hours, I would suspect that there is something amiss in the setup of the amplifiers feeding your home and not just normal signal level fluctuations.

Thanks!

Jack

Folks with buffering problems: when you say no buffering, do you mean that you can't rewind at all or are you saying that if you press info the display shows no buffer?
You used to be able to switch tuners using the "swap" button and the other tuner would be buffering like the first
Now, more often than not, the buffer is gone for both tuners
Also- you used to be able to "rewind" up to an hour- now it is sometimes only 15-20 minutes assuming the buffer is there at all

My buffers seem to be working just fine.

Any other Navigator updates from anyone? Still on ODN 4.1.06 here in Wisconsin. I am expecting a version of ODN 5 to hit very soon.

Satch

Proper system design and maintenance... but even with that there will always be some level variations with temperature swings because all of the plant cable downstream of the last active device as well as your drop cable are thermally uncompensated. A swing of a few dB is normal and to be expected. People can have issues even in a properly operating system when their in-house wiring/splits (quite often done outside of the cable company's purview) put their signal levels right at the edge of working/not working.

All of this is one of the reasons that, even though the spec sheet for most of these STB/DVRs lists -10 dBmV as their minimum signal level for QAM channels, TWC internal spec (AFAIK) is -8 dBmV, and -6 dBmV is an even better target... to allow more headroom for these unavoidable level variations.

In your case, Jack, my best guess would be that your troublesome channels are sitting somewhere between -8 and -10 dBmV when they are working and dropping below that when they are not. Also, since the normal tendency would be for the signal levels to rise during those overnight hours, I would suspect that there is something amiss in the setup of the amplifiers feeding your home and not just normal signal level fluctuations.

I sent a letter to our area Tech Operations Supervisor, with regards to the loss and return and loss and return of these channels for at least the past 6-12 months. We got a new drop line installed, which solved the problem for about a month and a half. Field tech was good. He thinks it's an issue further in the node.

We are in a subdivision that has phone wiring from the 70's. No Joke! When I had DSL Internet, I was getting disconnects all the time. About ten years ago, we had I think AT&T and the guy came out and he basically said, "Your phone lines suck." And it was about that time that TWC, I go WAY BACK with them, they had to replace a line in our node that was like, dead. And when that didn't work, they had to go out and actually put in a new pole/grounding circuits. They linesmen told us, "Your lines are so old in this neighborhood, I wouldn't even use them to tie up my tomato plants!" LOL!

I should have actually gone into the age of our wiring in my letter to the supervisor. But they seem to be doing something. I had a 10 minute loss of Internet and Phone, yesterday, and last night, as well as tonight, two very systematic type reboots of the box, and that has never happened before. A few channels are back, some are still out. Actually, on my MDN box, I had a week of reboots before the box would not boot up at all.

The Internet loss was in the afternoon. The reboot of the boxes was around 3-4am I would say both times. In my letter, I requested 60-90 days of monitoring of those channels in my node.

My question is? What sorts of signal/line related things will the supervisor be testing that a regular field tech could not? I recall a TWC tech told me once that my city has about 36 nodes. Approximately how many cable lines could be in one mode? Would they have to test each line/trap in my node?

Jack

The reboot of the boxes was around 3-4am I would say both times.

My box was rebooted a few days ago around the same time, I have no idea why.

Prior to SDV up to 400 homes per node. With SDV 200. I was told this by a TWC field supervisor

Prior to SDV up to 400 homes per node. With SDV 200. I was told this by a TWC field supervisor

WOW!

So whatever the supervisor and crew are doing, sounds like this may take a while! I did not know that number was so high! A plus for time reduction is that there aren't 400 homes in my neighborhood. This just shows so many Murphy's Laws with cable.

Jack

WOW!

So whatever the supervisor and crew are doing, sounds like this may take a while! I did not know that number was so high! A plus for time reduction is that there aren't 400 homes in my neighborhood. This just shows so many Murphy's Laws with cable.

Jack

Keep in mind that is up to 200 homes per node, some are less and some are more. The basis is tuner count and Modem/MTA count per node. A DVR counts as 2-tuners also.

WOW!

So whatever the supervisor and crew are doing, sounds like this may take a while! I did not know that number was so high! A plus for time reduction is that there aren't 400 homes in my neighborhood. This just shows so many Murphy's Laws with cable.

Jack

That was 3 years ago, he said they had just completed installing all the new nodes to get the count down to 200. My area had a almost tornado and this was in response to my kidding him that his guys were liking the overtime pay to get service back up in my area. His reply was that they had all they wanted in the previous 12 months.

WOW!

So whatever the supervisor and crew are doing, sounds like this may take a while! I did not know that number was so high! A plus for time reduction is that there aren't 400 homes in my neighborhood. This just shows so many Murphy's Laws with cable.

Jack

Just got a nice call from a Technical Operations Coordinator, who mentioned that they received my letter. Maintenance was done yesterday for a few hours. It was as if TWC had totally replaced something, because all the channels went blank and a cold reboot, brought them back. After 24 hours, no problems to report.

I informed TWC that signal monitoring be set up for my account for at least 60 days. Another tech is supposed to call back, because I was insistent, I want the channels in question to stay high quality for extended periods of time. Therefore, my box signals are going to be set up to be monitored.

Jack

Just got a nice call from a Technical Operations Coordinator, who mentioned that they received my letter. Maintenance was done yesterday for a few hours. It was as if TWC had totally replaced something, because all the channels went blank and a cold reboot, brought them back. After 24 hours, no problems to report.

I informed TWC that signal monitoring be set up for my account for at least 60 days. Another tech is supposed to call back, because I was insistent, I want the channels in question to stay high quality for extended periods of time. Therefore, my box signals are going to be set up to be monitored.

Jack

Issues still going on with the stations above.

Jack

Issues still going on with the stations above.

Jack

I would ask them to come out and run a 5-10 minute MER/BER test on the QAM's in question. Remote monitoring on Unified will net poor results IMO compared to actually being there and running actual test.

I would ask them to come out and run a 5-10 minute MER/BER test on the QAM's in question. Remote monitoring on Unified will net poor results IMO compared to actually being there and running actual test.

I'll keep this in mind. What happens if I do this and the channels are perfect when they are here? Does something have to be amiss at the time of their readings and analysis for this to work?

Jack

Tech Coordinator called today,

They got someone assigned to our node. Checking out signals/boxes (etc.)

Jack

I solved my DVR problem. Recently all my series stopped recording on both my DVRs. Manual recording would work fine and all other DVR functions worked but the DVR would not auto record any of the shows in my series manager.

Reboots did nothing.

Deleting ALL of my series in the series manager and then creating a new list of shows in my series manager seems to have corrected the problem.

I love TWC because the on-demand is great but compared to DirecTV their set top boxes and DVRs are horrible.

Seriously the folks at TWC should be embarrassed by the quality of their hardware.

I solved my DVR problem. Recently all my series stopped recording on both my DVRs. Manual recording would work fine and all other DVR functions worked but the DVR would not auto record any of the shows in my series manager.

Reboots did nothing.

Deleting ALL of my series in the series manager and then creating a new list of shows in my series manager seems to have corrected the problem.

I love TWC because the on-demand is great but compared to DirecTV their set top boxes and DVRs are horrible.

Seriously the folks at TWC should be embarrassed by the quality of their hardware.

Yes!

The general consensus is the following:

TWC: Better deals and channel selection. Better HD selection. Customer Service quality varies from division to division. Crappy DVR's, not enough bandwidth in older systems for new technology. Analog channels 2-99 crushing bandwidth and compromising PQ.

Competition: (U-Verse/Dish Network/Direct TV): Better quality equipment, especially DVR's. More modern and fully functional IPG, not some barely functional Navigator software.

TWC cares little about improving Navigator. Either they don't care, or they don't know how. It could be both.

Jack

As I've stated in earlier posts, I often adjust recording overlaps to get around the ridiculous "2 back-to-back recordings on the same channel ties up 2 tuners" "feature".

A couple of times recently (when I knew I would be home and wouldn't need to record certain shows), while readjusting, I've forgotten my exact sequence of changes and tried to lengthen the "third" recording's end-time. I get the usual conflict pop-up: Select to cancel Pgm 1, A to cancel Pgm 2, or C to cancel end-time adjustment. No problem, I reason, I'll just press C and better think things through. BUT...the moment I press C, the program I had been adjusting is CANCELED! It seems that C now parallels the "cancel the program" behavior of Select and A. The only way I can figure to defeat this is to Exit.

I don't know if this misbehavior cropped up spontaneously, or if I just hadn't tried that particular sequence of adjustments with this version. Has anyone else encountered this, or is it just my overwrought manipulation of the software?

I think that some of the canceled recordings could be caused by a glitch in guide data flags. I recently had a recording canceled on iGuide by the system for no reason and it had similar behavior to how Navigator will sometimes truncate recordings randomly. I was mad it was the brand new episode of beavis and butthead on thursday night luckily the other DCX3400 in the other room recorded it with no problems.

OK, now in addition I've been having "random" recording cancellations. They usually crop up when there HAD BEEN a conflict. The "winner" of the conflict will appear in the schedule, but then will not record, and the useless conflict entry will appear in the log. If I happen to be around to catch it and manually fix it, I'm told that the desired program is in conflict with the earlier "loser".

Also, I've had a bad run of truly new programs not being tagged as such (TV Guide's issue??) And BBC America programs listed as reruns with their original British air dates.

As I've said before, barring management pressure or inflexible software, in my previous life I would have resigned in humiliation had I coded this crap!

Just wanted to report more buffering failures. The fact they are making Navigator worse with each subsequent update is mind boggling. The good news, DirecTV just deployed the new HD Guide to our region! I have a friend I did an install for and I'm going to check out their DirecTV so I can get a solid comparison.

This thread is helpful when somebody needs advice, but boy is there a lot of complaining and venting here about TWC. Clearly the complainers aren't alone, but do any of you actually expect TWC to read this thread and get different hardware or software for us? OK, Navigator may suck, but do you think these posts will lead to any improvements?

This thread is helpful when somebody needs advice, but boy is there a lot of complaining and venting here about TWC. Clearly the complainers aren't alone, but do any of you actually expect TWC to read this thread and get different hardware or software for us? OK, Navigator may suck, but do you think these posts will lead to any improvements?

Many of us write and fill out the Navigator Feedback Form (See My Link) so that Time Warner is made aware of issues. They always say they are listening, but we never see the improvement. The biggest thing they did (almost right) was the Advanced Search. I will give credit where it's due to TWC, but even my non tech savvy customers are getting fed up with TWC. I hear complaints all the time about missed recordings, slow response time and bad equipment.

My solution was simple, the monopoly on company owned set tops needs to be broken. We need to be allowed to use/build our own gear that gives us FULL access to what we pay for. The only thing holding me back from using a Tivo or Moxi is loss of VOD. This is also one of the things keeping me tolerant of TWC's bad service as my wife uses the VOD often.

Many of us simply feel that after 7 years, having a barely functional GUI/DVR is unacceptable.

Many of but even my non tech savvy customers are getting fed up with TWC. I hear complaints all the time about missed recordings, slow response time and bad equipment.

My solution was simple, the monopoly on company owned set tops needs to be broken. We need to be allowed to use/build our own gear that gives us FULL access to what we pay for. The only thing holding me back from using a Tivo or Moxi is loss of VOD. This is also one of the things keeping me tolerant of TWC's bad service as my wife uses the VOD often.

Many of us simply feel that after 7 years, having a barely functional GUI/DVR is unacceptable.

I don't disagree that TWC is usually nonresponsive. I just don't see how complaining here on AVS serves any purpose, yet 90% of the posts are simple complaints.

Many of us write and fill out the Navigator Feedback Form (See My Link) so that Time Warner is made aware of issues. They always say they are listening, but we never see the improvement. The biggest thing they did (almost right) was the Advanced Search. I will give credit where it's due to TWC, but even my non tech savvy customers are getting fed up with TWC. I hear complaints all the time about missed recordings, slow response time and bad equipment.

My solution was simple, the monopoly on company owned set tops needs to be broken. We need to be allowed to use/build our own gear that gives us FULL access to what we pay for. The only thing holding me back from using a Tivo or Moxi is loss of VOD. This is also one of the things keeping me tolerant of TWC's bad service as my wife uses the VOD often.

Many of us simply feel that after 7 years, having a barely functional GUI/DVR is unacceptable.

All of which supports my point that complaints on AVS about TWC are a waste of time. Vote with your feet...

OK, now in addition I've been having "random" recording cancellations. They usually crop up when there HAD BEEN a conflict. The "winner" of the conflict will appear in the schedule, but then will not record, and the useless conflict entry will appear in the log. If I happen to be around to catch it and manually fix it, I'm told that the desired program is in conflict with the earlier "loser".

Also, I've had a bad run of truly new programs not being tagged as such (TV Guide's issue??) And BBC America programs listed as reruns with their original British air dates.

As I've said before, barring management pressure or inflexible software, in my previous life I would have resigned in humiliation had I coded this crap!

For the BBC issue set it to record all New and Repeat Episodes and All Showings. It took me a while to figure it out but it works and usually only records the first time a repeat is on schedule. When they have a marathon day it recoeds all of them but I usually cancel the recording before the air date.

For the BBC issue set it to record all New and Repeat Episodes and All Showings. It took me a while to figure it out but it works and usually only records the first time a repeat is on schedule. When they have a marathon day it recoeds all of them but I usually cancel the recording before the air date.

You virtually always want to leave it set to "All Showings" for all series... the only time a specific showing time should be specified would be to prevent multiple recordings of a non-episodic program such as NFL32 or some other news / current events program that carries generic program descriptions. Setting specific time slots unnecessarily creates havoc for the conflict resolution logic, and there is absolutely no need to use it for most series... if you are trying to move a series program to a secondary showing to resolve a conflict with another series, all you need to do is lower the priority setting of the show you want moved. In fact, all series conflicts should be resolved only by manipulation of the priorities of the shows.

Once a program is recorded, it will not record the same episode again (has nothing to do with the "New" flag) as long as the repeat showing does not fall outside the duration of the recording log (which is either 10 or 14 days, IIRC).

Many of us write and fill out the Navigator Feedback Form (See My Link) so that Time Warner is made aware of issues. They always say they are listening, but we never see the improvement. The biggest thing they did (almost right) was the Advanced Search. I will give credit where it's due to TWC, but even my non tech savvy customers are getting fed up with TWC. I hear complaints all the time about missed recordings, slow response time and bad equipment.

My solution was simple, the monopoly on company owned set tops needs to be broken. We need to be allowed to use/build our own gear that gives us FULL access to what we pay for. The only thing holding me back from using a Tivo or Moxi is loss of VOD. This is also one of the things keeping me tolerant of TWC's bad service as my wife uses the VOD often.

Many of us simply feel that after 7 years, having a barely functional GUI/DVR is unacceptable.

Ben,

Do you think Tivo HD (or Premier - whatever their multi tuner HD box is) with their $30/month subscription beats the current TW rental fee for an SA 8300HD? We never use VOD, so that's not an issue, but I still need cable service to feed the Tivo, so I'm not seeing where there's any savings.

Update! Cable Guy Was Here!

Cable guy was here!

Source of the problem he thinks was a corroded cable connector, that had been in back of the TV for years. This was a call in response to this morning and the cable DVR got stuck, the TV went off by itself. That connector he thinks was the problem. Good tech! He also gave us his personal cell phone number if any issues come up.

Jack

Just wanted to report more buffering failures. The fact they are making Navigator worse with each subsequent update is mind boggling. The good news, DirecTV just deployed the new HD Guide to our region! I have a friend I did an install for and I'm going to check out their DirecTV so I can get a solid comparison.

You didn't mention that this new guide is only available on certain models. If you have an older model and want a newer one, you pay dearly for it, same as a move from SD to HD.

"the pasture is always greener..."

I am no longer able to enter the diag screens -- neither the short version (Select/down arrow) nor the long (vol+/info). It's been this way for several weeks now. Tried rebooting today -- no change.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I am no longer able to enter the diag screens -- neither the short version (Select/down arrow) nor the long (vol+/info). It's been this way for several weeks now. Tried rebooting today -- no change.

Anyone else experiencing this?

No problem here (also in Columbus). SA8340hdc with Nav 4.1.0_7.

Update! Cable Guy Was Here!

Cable guy was here!

Source of the problem he thinks was a corroded cable connector, that had been in back of the TV for years. This was a call in response to this morning and the cable DVR got stuck, the TV went off by itself. That connector he thinks was the problem. Good tech! He also gave us his personal cell phone number if any issues come up.

Jack

Interesting that they didn't check all that before. When I had a service visit because of various anomolies, the first thing the tech found was my original installation wasn't properly grounded at the house, then ended up running a whole new line from the pole (underground this time - no ugly overhead cable line - yes!). Then he went into the house and changed out every old RG-59 run and cable I had left with RG-6...tested each existing RG-6 and ended up cutting off a few connectors and recrimping new ones on. This was on my RR internet line, and to 6 different TV runs scattered throughout my 2 story house. Took the two of us most of an afternoon to check/replace lines, but everything (signalwise) is totally up to snuff (inside the house anyway).

Interesting that they didn't check all that before. When I had a service visit because of various anomolies, the first thing the tech found was my original installation wasn't properly grounded at the house, then ended up running a whole new line from the pole (underground this time - no ugly overhead cable line - yes!). Then he went into the house and changed out every old RG-59 run and cable I had left with RG-6...tested each existing RG-6 and ended up cutting off a few connectors and recrimping new ones on. This was on my RR internet line, and to 6 different TV runs scattered throughout my 2 story house. Took the two of us most of an afternoon to check/replace lines, but everything (signalwise) is totally up to snuff (inside the house anyway).

Here in NC TWC follows the power lines, underground power= underground cable, overhead=overhead. Always terminates near power meter so that it grounds to the power company ground spike.

Gator was strange last night,

I was watching a playback show using PIP, which I have never ever used and all of a sudden the box is about 30 seconds to 2 minutes behind on commands, than locks up. I waited and waited for the automatic reboot which never came after about 10 minutes. This was about 3am.

Than I held the power button in for about 10 seconds and the box did a warm reboot, but it did it like it was installing a new update, with a longer boot time and the added numbers on the display. Don't know if this is because:

1.) My box may still be in moderating mode because of the past channel problems I had.
2.) Navigator does not like PIP being used during playback.
3.) TWC is doing updates in my division for a new release of the guide.

Jack

Gator was strange last night,

I was watching a playback show using PIP, which I have never ever used and all of a sudden the box is about 30 seconds to 2 minutes behind on commands, than locks up. I waited and waited for the automatic reboot which never came after about 10 minutes. This was about 3am.

Than I held the power button in for about 10 seconds and the box did a warm reboot, but it did it like it was installing a new update, with a longer boot time and the added numbers on the display. Don't know if this is because:

1.) My box may still be in moderating mode because of the past channel problems I had.
2.) Navigator does not like PIP being used during playback.
3.) TWC is doing updates in my division for a new release of the guide.

JackYou left out:

4.) all of the above
5.) none of the above
:D:D

You left out:

4.) all of the above
5.) none of the above
:D:D

LMFAO!!!!! Classic!!!!

Jack

TWC Releases App to Stream Live TV on iPhone (http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/twc-tv-for-iphone/)

This should be a massive WIN for them, but it won't work on my phone because I maintain a Jailbreak for the springboard and docking options! It should be of NO CONCERN OF TWC how I operate my device if I am paying them for the service. I'll have to look to the jailbreak community and see if there is a solution. Keep in mind that jailbreaking has been deemed legal.

Still a you problem. You soup up your car you can no longer use regular gas.

Still a you problem. You soup up your car you can no longer use regular gas.

Completely wrong. This is corporate control telling you what you can and cannot use for fuel by dictating how they want you to use the device.

You can not reasonably expect anyone to provide for every variation/hack of an operating system. I least I hope not because I don't want my rates raised to pay for that effort.

You can not reasonably expect anyone to provide for every variation/hack of an operating system. I least I hope not because I don't want my rates raised to pay for that effort.

The phone still runs iOS4.3.3 - it's just open. It probably actually cost TWC more to code for the variation to block it!

The phone still runs iOS4.3.3 - it's just open. It probably actually cost TWC more to code for the variation to block it!

Which iPhone do you have? I have a Verizon iPhone 4, which runs iOS 5.01 and plays the TWC TV app just fine (downloaded it today).

The phone still runs iOS4.3.3 - it's just open. It probably actually cost TWC more to code for the variation to block it!

Spoken like someone who has never laid down a line of code in his life. :eek:

spoken like someone who has never laid down a line of code in his life. :eek:

+1

Spoken like someone who has never laid down a line of code in his life. :eek:

I never claimed to be a code expert, but common sense rules here. So, your telling me that ALL the other apps I'm running are coded for any variation of jailbreak. That is in essence what you are saying. Everything else runs fine - the TWC programmers likely had to specifically add code to detect and disable the app. I'm running all kinds of standard apps from the app store without out issue. This is a play by TWC to control content as most of the big media companies do/want to do. So be it, I can accept that they want to do it - I still think it's lame. It's not really Navigator related (although it does provide remote programming options), so I'll let it die here as to not hijack the thread.

Or maybe Apple had a say- no desire to look into it. Bottom line is the only legitimate complaint you would have with TWC is if the app did not work with an un-tampered with phone.

Or maybe Apple had a say- no desire to look into it. Bottom line is the only legitimate complaint you would have with TWC is if the app did not work with an un-tampered with phone.

No, I get it and Apple may have pressured them. You are right that they basically only have to offer it on Apple's Release Software. I'd be interested to know if the DirecTV and Dish apps work on jailbroken devices. I'll take that conversation over to DBSTalk though.

It just seems stupid if TWC is doing this on their own. Once I upgrade my phone, I may have no choice. The untethered jailbreak for iOS5 on the 4S is proving difficult from the pros and it's really sad because they're are a ton of useful and great apps out there that Apple won't let into the App Store.

Can someone please remind me where the MDN version is listed in the diag menu? I haven't been in this thread in a while and TWC's recent downgrade got me reading again.

I get the same 33 page menu if I use SELECT and the DOWN ARROW or if I use SELECT and then INFO. On page 13 "Software Versions" the lines Res: and DAM: both have the following: 3.0.2-1-ptv (Red Cloud) May 10, 2011 and then a time that is slightly different for each one. Is that it?

TIA

I'm upgrading to WH-DVR on Tuesday. Currently have a single 8640HDC and really have no complaints with it, but it's obviously being swapped out. New setip will be 1 DVR and 2 receivers. As I recall, WH-DVR options are Cisco and Samsung? Is there another brand? Is there any reason I may want to see if the technician can give me one brand over the other?

TWC Charlotte subscriber here. In December, I (finally :rolleyes:) swapped my ancient SciAtl Explorer 8300HD box for a new Cisco 8742HDC unit. I have skimmed this thread and I don't think I've seen any other mentions of the 8742HDC box. Anybody else scoop one of these up lately??

It is extremely fast & responsive, and the (video) output seems to be of significantly higher quality than the old box. Mind you, the 8300 was six years old, but still...BIG improvements with the 8742. :)

TWC Charlotte subscriber here. In December, I (finally :rolleyes:) swapped my ancient SciAtl Explorer 8300HD box for a new Cisco 8742HDC unit. I have skimmed this thread and I don't think I've seen any other mentions of the 8742HDC box. Anybody else scoop one of these up lately??

It is extremely fast & responsive, and the (video) output seems to be of significantly higher quality than the old box. Mind you, the 8300 was six years old, but still...BIG improvements with the 8742. :)

Nope, but if it runs Navigator better I'll start asking. A speed increase would be nice!

Nope, but if it runs Navigator better I'll start asking. A speed increase would be nice!

My local TWC service center told me that the 8642 was strictly for their "whole house" subscribers (I see by your sig that you are one of these), and they offered the 8742 and the samsung boxes for non whole house people like me. So, not sure if they'll work for you.
Thanks for the reply, though! :)

My local TWC service center told me that the 8642 was strictly for their "whole house" subscribers (I see by your sig that you are one of these), and they offered the 8742 and the samsung boxes for non whole house people like me. So, not sure if they'll work for you.
Thanks for the reply, though! :)

My local TWC division (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is only giving out the Samsungs 3272/Cisco 8642 for Multi-Room (a.k.a Whole House DVR and/or Signature Home only.) The Cisco 8742, when in my area will probably be handled the same way. Note if you get one, and are not a Whole House/Signature Home sub, TWC will have the MR function turned off by default, but consider yourself lucky to have 500GB's of storage with these models!

It seems that most people get the older, but most-given out SA-8300HDC, than on a case-by-case basis, if you are having problems with it, you can request a newer model box. (In my division.) My SA-8300HDC, although not as fast as my SA-8300HD is no where near as slow or unreliable as people have claimed it to be. Oh and that issue that I had for about 12 months with those 17 channels not coming in from time to time when a reboot just brought the problem back hours to days later was a faulty and corroded cable connector in the back of the box. Everything works fine since it has been replaced.

It took A YEAR to find out from TWC that this was a cable connection issue and not a cable box or node issue on the channels in question. I take the advice of two good techs from years ago. If your box is working well, keep it, because you don't know what you are going to get in an exchange, and a problem related to cable, may not be box related at all. (As in my case.)

The only reason for a newer model box IMO if your existing box is working good, would be if you do a lot of recording a need a bigger hard drive. (I don't.) The fastest box I had with Navigator was still the SA-8300 HD (no C) MDN model. ODN's new features have not been all that great to justify the speed sacrifice. But MDN is being phased-out.

For me at least, my SA-8300HDC is a bit slower, but not the S-L-O-W hardware that others have reported. That Cisco 8742 was first reported in Florida with Brighthouse Networks. Tech said it is a very rare box. Does the Cisco 8700 have Guide Lag? (Where when you scroll in the Time Grid-the program description in the left side of the window does not change until you release the button?) I have seen Guide Lag on ODN all the time. MDN, when it was faster, never did that.

Jack

Does the Cisco 8700 have Guide Lag? (Where when you scroll in the Time Grid-the program description in the left side of the window does not change until you release the button?) I have seen Guide Lag on ODN all the time. MDN, when it was faster, never did that.

Jack

Nope, not a whisper of lag in any functions. The box is synaptic-fast. It even has a "fourth gear" in the fast-forward and fast-reverse functions, whereas my old 8300 had only 3 speeds.
Again, ALL of the functions are noticeably faster and smoother: setting program and series recordings, guide navigation, forward/reverse, and even resuming from pause.
It's a terrific little unit. Emphasis on little - it is only 12" w x 9" d x 2.75" h. ;)

Nope, not a whisper of lag in any functions. The box is synaptic-fast. It even has a "fourth gear" in the fast-forward and fast-reverse functions, whereas my old 8300 had only 3 speeds.
Again, ALL of the functions are noticeably faster and smoother: setting program and series recordings, guide navigation, forward/reverse, and even resuming from pause.
It's a terrific little unit. Emphasis on little - it is only 12" w x 9" d x 2.75" h. ;)

Nice!

We got the 4x FF a while back. Wow! If it is as fast (or even faster) as the old non-C SA-8300, which I thought just SMOKED, that is going to be great!

Hopefully, reliability will continue to match the performance and speed of this model when released to more divisions.

The issue though is that TWC locals may only rent this box out to Multi-Room/Signature Home Subs.

Jack

I was told by the Brighthouse tech that the 8742HDC is the first new DVR that meets the new energy regs and that all the other Samsungs and Ciscos will be gradually phased out and replaced. Not only is it smaller,it has a fan that draws the air down through it. The good news is that the top is now warm instead of hot,the bad news is that the bottom is now hot instead of warm! I would not stack it on another component.:( It still requires the same ventilation space. I've had mine for a month now,works fine-no issues at all. Another question entirely;do you folks get rear channels on Spike(channel 1285 here)? My pre/pro displays Dolby Digital 2.1 only on that channel.:confused:


Hey Satch Man;I lived in Milwaukee (if I can still remember those days) 1969-1979. Went to UWM,lived on the east side and went to the first Summerfest and Brady st. festival! I managed all the Pacific Stereos before they folded! Good times,great town,just too damn cold for me!

I was told by the Brighthouse tech that the 8742HDC is the first new DVR that meets the new energy regs and that all the other Samsungs and Ciscos will be gradually phased out and replaced. Not only is it smaller,it has a fan that draws the air down through it. The good news is that the top is now warm instead of hot,the bad news is that the bottom is now hot instead of warm! I would not stack it on another component.:( It still requires the same ventilation space. I've had mine for a month now,works fine-no issues at all. Another question entirely;do you folks get rear channels on Spike(channel 1285 here)? My pre/pro displays Dolby Digital 2.1 only on that channel.:confused:


Hey Satch Man;I lived in Milwaukee (if I can still remember those days) 1969-1979. Went to UWM,lived on the east side and went to the first Summerfest and Brady st. festival! I managed all the Pacific Stereos before they folded! Good times,great town,just too damn cold for me!

LOL!!! Good memories for me Sofast as well!

Hope you are enjoying your new box! Sounds like you are! Cool!

Jack

Hey guys...just wanted to say - do continue to post your ideas here (and continue to make direct contact with TWC as well). As a TWC insider (not giving any more details about my position), I can tell you that posts here and elsewhere on the internet do have an impact and are read by people with very close ties to Navigator development.

Also, to give you an idea about the general attitude within TWC...

I can understand the frustration with ODN usability and features. I can also tell you that the "direction" of the company has shifted significantly starting around version 5.0 development. Flaws within ODN have been acknowledged, and the development has shifted to be more "customer-focused." You may think this should have been obvious, but it wasn't. It now is. There has very recently been an awakening to be "more like Apple" in terms of usability, features, and service.

Look for significant changes and feature improvements within ODN starting this year, 2012. As an insider, I am personally excited about the shift in direction.

Hey guys...just wanted to say - do continue to post your ideas here (and continue to make direct contact with TWC as well). As a TWC insider (not giving any more details about my position), I can tell you that posts here and elsewhere on the internet do have an impact and are read by people with very close ties to Navigator development.

Also, to give you an idea about the general attitude within TWC...

I can understand the frustration with ODN usability and features. I can also tell you that the "direction" of the company has shifted significantly starting around version 5.0 development. Flaws within ODN have been acknowledged, and the development has shifted to be more "customer-focused." You may think this should have been obvious, but it wasn't. It now is. There has very recently been an awakening to be "more like Apple" in terms of usability, features, and service.

Look for significant changes and feature improvements within ODN starting this year, 2012. As an insider, I am personally excited about the shift in direction.

Well, I'll take this with a grain of salt - However, if this is the case can any info be given on what we might actually see? Guide Filter? Better Whole Home DVR? HD GUI? Any of the things we've been discussing for the past year? I'm on the brink of scrapping TWC and would reconsider if we get a decent Guide without all the glitches.

Update: Have the workaround to use TWC TV app on jailbroken iPhones. I'm finding the app to be useful. I really like how I can see a continuous DVR list of what each room has simply by scrolling. It is proving useful in eliminating duplicate series setups. The live tv is nice and would really kick but if it could be used off the home network. Overall a solid app!

Well, I'll take this with a grain of salt - However, if this is the case can any info be given on what we might actually see? Guide Filter? Better Whole Home DVR? HD GUI? Any of the things we've been discussing for the past year? I'm on the brink of scrapping TWC and would reconsider if we get a decent Guide without all the glitches.

Update: Have the workaround to use TWC TV app on jailbroken iPhones. I'm finding the app to be useful. I really like how I can see a continuous DVR list of what each room has simply by scrolling. It is proving useful in eliminating duplicate series setups. The live tv is nice and would really kick but if it could be used off the home network. Overall a solid app!

The IPad version is even better:D

I was visiting a friend the other day who has Verizon FiOS. They recently got a new program guide, which is drop dead GORGEOUS. Full screen, HD graphics. It makes Navigator look like the complete and utter crap it is. :(

I was visiting a friend the other day who has Verizon FiOS. They recently got a new program guide, which is drop dead GORGEOUS. Full screen, HD graphics. It makes Navigator look like the complete and utter crap it is. :(

Direct TV has a new guide as well:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/technology/hd_guide

TWC really needs to step up to the plate and modernize Navigator to get with the times. How the company can think Navigator is a modern guide, really is an insult to our intelligence.

Jack

Direct TV has a new guide as well:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/technology/hd_guide

TWC really needs to step up to the plate and modernize Navigator to get with the times. How the company can think Navigator is a modern guide, really is an insult to our intelligence.

Jack

Just to add,

I know and understand that the older boxes may not be able to "sing and dance like i-Pads," as Mr. Britt once said. I am not expecting them to do that. I am expecting Navigator to at least re-add the features that we had eight years ago from Passport that TWC choose to remove:

Give TWC subs back:

Keyword Search
Manual Recording

Than add a PERMANENT guide filter setting:

and you will have a decent guide. I don't know how the other community members feel. However, give us those features and the subtleties can come later.

Navigator lacks user friendliness because of these missing features.

Jack

Just to add,

I know and understand that the older boxes may not be able to "sing and dance like i-Pads," as Mr. Britt once said. I am not expecting them to do that. I am expecting Navigator to at least re-add the features that we had eight years ago from Passport that TWC choose to remove:

Give TWC subs back:

Keyword Search
Manual Recording

Than add a PERMANENT guide filter setting:

and you will have a decent guide. I don't know how the other community members feel. However, give us those features and the subtleties can come later.

Navigator lacks user friendliness because of these missing features.

Jack

Keyword search is useless as long as you have enter the text with the remote, up, up, right, right... Gets old very quickly. Need an IOS/android remote control to go with it. Oops there already is one ;)

another thing desperately needed is the ability to backup recording schedules (not the shows them selves, just your programed recordings) to either 'cloud' or a thumbdrive using the usb port on the front, that way when you have to swap out your box (as we often have to do) its not an interminable nightmare trying to reprogram all the recordings that are still active, and try to remember to set the recordings for shows on hiatus just before they come back...

<snip>

I can understand the frustration with ODN usability and features. I can also tell you that the "direction" of the company has shifted significantly starting around version 5.0 development. Flaws within ODN have been acknowledged, and the development has shifted to be more "customer-focused." You may think this should have been obvious, but it wasn't. It now is. There has very recently been an awakening to be "more like Apple" in terms of usability, features, and service.

Look for significant changes and feature improvements within ODN starting this year, 2012. As an insider, I am personally excited about the shift in direction.

Yes, I do think it should have been obvious, but I know how those things can go.

Performance is one of the big ones on my list. I suppose that falls under "usability" in your list.

another thing desperately needed is the ability to backup recording schedules (not the shows them selves, just your programed recordings) to either 'cloud' or a thumbdrive using the usb port on the front, that way when you have to swap out your box (as we often have to do) its not an interminable nightmare trying to reprogram all the recordings that are still active, and try to remember to set the recordings for shows on hiatus just before they come back...

+1

Jack

I noticed something this weekend that I hadn't noticed earlier and haven't seen anybody else mention about ODN 5... the trick of pressing a number between 1 and 6 and then either the left or right direction button to move that number of days in the guide no longer works. I liked that feature a lot... much easier to use and saved me from cluttering up the Harmony remote with the Day+ and Day- commands.

It would appear that you are right, at first glance. But after you do what you thought would bring your guide to the correct day, just scroll quickly to the right and the guide will immediately switch to the day you want. At least it should work if you want to advance 7 days (I haven't tried to advance fewer days).

I seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle, I'll try again...

Can someone please remind me where the MDN version is listed in the diag menu? I haven't been in this thread in a while and TWC's recent downgrade got me reading again. I get the same 33 page menu if I use SELECT and the DOWN ARROW or if I use SELECT and then INFO. On page 13 "Software Versions" the lines Res: and DAM: both have the following: 3.0.2-1-ptv (Red Cloud) May 10, 2011 and then a time that is slightly different for each one. Is that it?

Really dumb that the iphone app doesn't allow DVR programming unless on the home network. Would be handy to be able to set recordings when I'm not home.

Really dumb that the iphone app doesn't allow DVR programming unless on the home network. Would be handy to be able to set recordings when I'm not home.

Hmmm... the Android version does (no viewing, though). Also, the DVR Manager website has been available for quite some time - both mobile and desktop versions - that should work for remote programming with most platforms.

Speaking of the Android app... I had some "bored sitting in the hotel" fun last week... while away on biz trip one night I started remotely and randomly changing channels on my daughter at home... after about a half-hour of that I get the phone call - "Daaaaad... this TV is possessed!!!":D

It would appear that you are right, at first glance. But after you do what you thought would bring your guide to the correct day, just scroll quickly to the right and the guide will immediately switch to the day you want. At least it should work if you want to advance 7 days (I haven't tried to advance fewer days).

That's the way it used to work... but now it just scrolls hour by hour from the current location, ignoring the numeric entry completely. And I have never been able to advance the guide seven days... six is the max (the seventh day is the current day).

Also, if you program something on the sixth day out, it will accept and schedule the programming but the guide will typically not indicate the pending recording until it slips down into the five-day window. Just another one of those silly Navigator quirks that are not such a big deal if you know that it works that way, but maddening if you don't.

I noticed something this weekend that I hadn't noticed earlier and haven't seen anybody else mention about ODN 5... the trick of pressing a number between 1 and 6 and then either the left or right direction button to move that number of days in the guide no longer works. I liked that feature a lot... much easier to use and saved me from cluttering up the Harmony remote with the Day+ and Day- commands.

Uggggh!!! I like that feature JC! (Still on ODN 4.1.06 with no problems here in Wisconsin..) In ODN 5.0, can you still scroll out by pressing the guide and the Days button on the remote?

I wonder what ODN 4.1.07 fixed? I heard that it took out the Diags channel in some divisions.

Is ODN 5.0 any faster?

Jack

Uggggh!!! I like that feature JC! (Still on ODN 4.1.06 with no problems here in Wisconsin..) In ODN 5.0, can you still scroll out by pressing the guide and the Days button on the remote?

I wonder what ODN 4.1.07 fixed? I heard that it took out the Diags channel in some divisions.

Is ODN 5.0 any faster?

Jack

I'll have to dig out the TWC remote (or add the Day +/- commands to one of the Harmony remotes) to test that they still work.

We had 4.1.0_7 for a brief period here before 5.0 - the diag menus and everything else all worked here - I don't know about the diag "channel" as I never look at that. We never had 4.1.0_6 here, so I cannot compare with 4.1.0_7.

Speed for 5.0 has been consistent with other recent releases here...


8640HDC DVR - Channel changes, guide and menu navigation are all quite good. Still slow on processing series manipulations, as I have complained about since intro of 8640.
3260 STBs - Very fast guide and menu ops, despite single tuner
4250HDC STB - Slow as crap, just as you might expect from a single tuner version of the 8300HDC, which is what it is.

My son (TWC Raleigh) finally got fed up with his 8300HDC... went to TW office to swap and he lucked out and got a semi-rare 3090 - he can't believe how fast it is and is extremely happy with it. I told him I was jealous - the 3090 was my absolute favorite of all boxes I've had.

It would appear that you are right, at first glance. But after you do what you thought would bring your guide to the correct day, just scroll quickly to the right and the guide will immediately switch to the day you want. At least it should work if you want to advance 7 days (I haven't tried to advance fewer days).

I'm fairly sure it goes to the right day, it just doesn't update the date until you scroll

Upgraded to WH-DVR today. Was given a SMT-H3272 and 2x4742HDC's. I asked for an 8742HDC but the guy only had 3 Samsungs on the truck. I seem to be about 2 weeks later on getting one of those, as I've seen quite a few BHN Orlando folks who get them about two weeks back. I would really like the fan cooled and smaller box, plus having the newest stuff to make the guide/interface snappier.

The new setup replaced an 8640HDC. How do I get into the status screens on these Samsung boxes?

I don't remember how I had my 8640HDC setup in regard to resolution, but I set the H3272 for 720p and 1080i and it is painfully slow to HDMI sync when resolution switches, so I had to set it for 1080i only. I am running through a Pioneer VSX-1121-K receiver. Wish I paid attention as to if I had my Cisco setup the same way or just left it at 1080i.

Tech made some "interesting" comments about the 8742HDC, including that it had a 1TB hard drive and BHN was in testing mode for enabling it to record SIX channels at once. I just says "Yea, OK".

My Motorola NIM100 MoCA devices seem to break the MoCA used by WH-DVR. I have to test one more variation of connecting the coax through the devices, but it's not looking positive, which kind of stinks. I'll have to shell out around $150 to get 3 Powerline devices I will need.

Upgraded to WH-DVR today. Was given a SMT-H3272 and 2x4742HDC's. I asked for an 8742HDC but the guy only had 3 Samsungs on the truck. I seem to be about 2 weeks later on getting one of those, as I've seen quite a few BHN Orlando folks who get them about two weeks back. I would really like the fan cooled and smaller box, plus having the newest stuff to make the guide/interface snappier.

The new setup replaced an 8640HDC. How do I get into the status screens on these Samsung boxes?

I don't remember how I had my 8640HDC setup in regard to resolution, but I set the H3272 for 720p and 1080i and it is painfully slow to HDMI sync when resolution switches, so I had to set it for 1080i only. I am running through a Pioneer VSX-1121-K receiver. Wish I paid attention as to if I had my Cisco setup the same way or just left it at 1080i.

Tech made some "interesting" comments about the 8742HDC, including that it had a 1TB hard drive and BHN was in testing mode for enabling it to record SIX channels at once. I just says "Yea, OK".

My Motorola NIM100 MoCA devices seem to break the MoCA used by WH-DVR. I have to test one more variation of connecting the coax through the devices, but it's not looking positive, which kind of stinks. I'll have to shell out around $150 to get 3 Powerline devices I will need.

The typical routine for accessing diagnostics on the Sammies is:


Press and hold the [Enter/OK] for about 7 seconds, then release and...
Press [Down] for ODN diagnostics

or...


Press and hold the [Enter/OK] for about 7 seconds, then release and...
Press [Up] for Samsung host diagnostics

I'm betting you also had the 8640 set to a single resolution output... my setup (8640 > Onkyo 876 > Panny plasma) is horribly slow resyncing when configured for multiple resolution outputs... but no different than the Samsungs I have had. I put up with it for the better PQ it affords, but others may not be as patient as I am.

I'm fairly sure it goes to the right day, it just doesn't update the date until you scroll

+1

The grid data changes, but the day/date indicator doesn't change initially.

A bug in my opinion. I have ODN 5.0.0_6 on my 8640HDC.

I seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle, I'll try again...

Can someone please remind me where the MDN version is listed in the diag menu? I haven't been in this thread in a while and TWC's recent downgrade got me reading again. I get the same 33 page menu if I use SELECT and the DOWN ARROW or if I use SELECT and then INFO. On page 13 "Software Versions" the lines Res: and DAM: both have the following: 3.0.2-1-ptv (Red Cloud) May 10, 2011 and then a time that is slightly different for each one. Is that it?

yes that is it i believe

been away for awhile to . had to change my version in the sig. looking at a few others sigs with mdn that is it

Ever since the small update they did a few weeks ago my 8640 has been acting very strange.


If I record a program over 2 hours in length I have trouble getting FF and RR to work. It will go to X1 speed and then start playing again within a few seconds. I have to keep hitting the button 20-30 times per commercial break. VERY annoying and tedious.

My second issue is with the box seeming to forget its storage capacity. Every few days it will not remember to adjust the percentage of available space after programs are deleted, thus causing the auto-delete function to kick in and wipe out shows that I had planned on watching. The only solution is to manually reboot.


And I'm still getting the weird remote control issue. The box seems to be sending multiple signals to the remote or vice versa because there are times when I cannot adjust the volume, etc. until it finishes communicating.

I am having these same 2 issues with my 8640HDC in Raleigh, NC. Currently at ODN 5.0.0_6. I have to reboot my box every week or so to make it recognize the proper amount of free space on the drive based on my deletions.

Regarding the fast-forward, this always rears its head for me when I'm trying to record/watch a basketball game. This puzzled me, as I didn't realize the 2-hour threshold. Since I extend the game recording beyond the typical 2 hours to account for any overtime, that must trigger it. Really aggravating...

I seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle, I'll try again...

Can someone please remind me where the MDN version is listed in the diag menu? I haven't been in this thread in a while and TWC's recent downgrade got me reading again. I get the same 33 page menu if I use SELECT and the DOWN ARROW or if I use SELECT and then INFO. On page 13 "Software Versions" the lines Res: and DAM: both have the following: 3.0.2-1-ptv (Red Cloud) May 10, 2011 and then a time that is slightly different for each one. Is that it?

Yes,

Your software version is MDN 3.0. MDN 3.1 has been released and fixes (hopefully) some bugs related to the screen resolution not holding. At least that is what a source of mine said. Other bugs since the 3.0 release build, should be squashed with the update to MDN 3.1.

Jack

PS. It's been so long since I have had an MDN box. If your division has a Diags channel, go to Favorite Channels in Settings and punch in the highest channel number that is listed. Scroll with the Page+/- buttons, and if a Diags channel shows up, exit out and enter the Diags channel number. Wait 30 seconds for the data to load. From what I remember, software versions are on either page 6, or page 10. For ODN 4.1.06, in my division, it is on page 10.

I am having these same 2 issues with my 8640HDC in Raleigh, NC. Currently at ODN 5.0.0_6. I have to reboot my box every week or so to make it recognize the proper amount of free space on the drive based on my deletions.

Regarding the fast-forward, this always rears its head for me when I'm trying to record/watch a basketball game. This puzzled me, as I didn't realize the 2-hour threshold. Since I extend the game recording beyond the typical 2 hours to account for any overtime, that must trigger it. Really aggravating...

The DVR space available not calculating properly does sound like a bug in ODN 5.0. ODN 5.1 is the latest build, hopefully it fixes this.

Jack

Came across another Navigator glitch/bug. While watching a recorded show tonight, the DVR began recording two scheduled shows thus making both tuners busy. When this occurred, the DVR kicked to live. I had to go back into the list and resume the recorded show which went back to the beginning. I then had to search through it to pick up where it was. Not a major issue, but annoying none the less.

Yes,

Your software version is MDN 3.0. MDN 3.1 has been released and fixes (hopefully) some bugs related to the screen resolution not holding. At least that is what a source of mine said. Other bugs since the 3.0 release build, should be squashed with the update to MDN 3.1.

Jack

PS. It's been so long since I have had an MDN box. If your division has a Diags channel, go to Favorite Channels in Settings and punch in the highest channel number that is listed. Scroll with the Page+/- buttons, and if a Diags channel shows up, exit out and enter the Diags channel number. Wait 30 seconds for the data to load. From what I remember, software versions are on either page 6, or page 10. For ODN 4.1.06, in my division, it is on page 10.

So why have I only recently had problems with resolution not holding if the MDN on my box was last updated in May of last year?

About two weeks ago we noticed some type of upgrade or change because the style of some of the menus was changed. At that same time, I noticed that the resolution was not holding. After reading through some back postings on this thread, it seems that others had the same issue. Since then it appears that the resolution issue has been fixed. BUT, why aren't those changes indicated by the software date which is May 10, 2011?

What are Res and DAM anyway?

I don't seem to have a Diag Channel anymore. At one point it was 999 but that seems to have gone away.

I don't seem to have a Diag Channel anymore. At one point it was 999 but that seems to have gone away.

I don't know if MDN boxes are different, but the diag channel on my ODN boxes was moved to 1999 when TWC/NC instituted the new statewide channel lineup a while ago. I never bother with it, though, because it takes forever to load the app (it's not really a "channel") and provides very limited info compared to accessing the full diagnostics menus on the box (which are very quick to load compared to the diagnostics channel app).

So why have I only recently had problems with resolution not holding if the MDN on my box was last updated in May of last year?

About two weeks ago we noticed some type of upgrade or change because the style of some of the menus was changed. At that same time, I noticed that the resolution was not holding. After reading through some back postings on this thread, it seems that others had the same issue. Since then it appears that the resolution issue has been fixed. BUT, why aren't those changes indicated by the software date which is May 10, 2011?

What are Res and DAM anyway?

I don't seem to have a Diag Channel anymore. At one point it was 999 but that seems to have gone away.

Best guess is that small patches can sometimes be pushed out without a change in the date version, or version itself. I have seen this a few times. Often the companies won't do a version change unless it's a "big deal" with new features. I head that TWC hid the Diags channel in some divisions, because they don't want customers to see box code. I think that is moronic. But TWC likes to keep everything and anything associated with Navigator updates under lock and key, so I would not expect this attitude to change from them.

Jack

Hey guys. After pressing the Guide button I pressed B to search and the search screen looked completely different. There were shows with cover art like on TiVo.

Is this the new cloud based search functionality? I searched this thread to see if it had been rolled out anywhere else, but didn't see any posts.

Hey guys. After pressing the Guide button I pressed B to search and the search screen looked completely different. There were shows with cover art like on TiVo.

Is this the new cloud based search functionality? I searched this thread to see if it had been rolled out anywhere else, but didn't see any posts.

Yes, that is the new cloud search feature that TWC will be rolling out to ODN boxes, starting with Signature Home Users, to Regular Whole House DVR's and than, hopefully, all other ODN boxes. They plan to update all the ODN boxes to the new search platform, provided that they can work around the memory limitations of the older boxes. Only ODN versions of Navigator, (C-boxes, Samsungs, and the new Moterolla's will be updated to version 5.0, which is a pre-requisite for the new search system.)

Another update is that the servers and nodes must be configured to handle the new feature sets. The new search system is server-dependent, (not box dependent.) It sort of works like VOD. The updates will be released quarterly throughout the year.

There are no plans to update the MDN boxes to the new search system, because of memory limitations. Smaller updates may happen, but only on an "as-needed" basis because MDN lacks the memory to handle new features and the hardware is being phased out.

Jack

Hey guys. After pressing the Guide button I pressed B to search and the search screen looked completely different. There were shows with cover art like on TiVo.

Is this the new cloud based search functionality? I searched this thread to see if it had been rolled out anywhere else, but didn't see any posts.

Yes. You have Advanced Search. I broke this news a while back as our division was the first reported to get it and only Sig Home subs got it at that time. You probably have to go back many pages to find that post. It is one of the bright spots among Navigator's plethora of flaws.

So does anyone have a clue why TWC is continuing to mess with upgrading MDN? It seems like most TWC customers are using ODN boxes now. I think in my area, they aren't even giving out MDN boxes anymore.
I am desperately hanging on to my 8300HD because I have an outboard drive with over 100 hrs on it and don't want to pay $200 a month for sig service just to get a reasonable amount of drive space. But I realize that sooner or later I am going to have to switch. If that is what they are wanting everyone to eventually do, why bother upgrading MDN at all?

So does anyone have a clue why TWC is continuing to mess with upgrading MDN? It seems like most TWC customers are using ODN boxes now. I think in my area, they aren't even giving out MDN boxes anymore.
I am desperately hanging on to my 8300HD because I have an outboard drive with over 100 hrs on it and don't want to pay $200 a month for sig service just to get a reasonable amount of drive space. But I realize that sooner or later I am going to have to switch. If that is what they are wanting everyone to eventually do, why bother upgrading MDN at all?

This is a great question! The only information that I have on MDN was that the boxes would be updated "as needed." 3.1 was an important fix with the guide resolution bug not holding. However, it still does not address the question of "Why does TWC care about MDN if the boxes are being phased out?"

I mean, if they do care-great! There are still millions of the MDN boxes out there. I got a report that last year, maybe a little more than that, one of our service centers gave a customer a PIONEER box in a swap! OH MAN! I did hear that our Milwaukee division has the latest boxes now, but can not verify if that is true or not.

If it wasn't for MDN's small drive space. If MDN had the equivalent of the larger storage capacity in the newer ODN boxes, IMO, it would be a great box! ODN's cloud-based search is much too early in it's distribution stages and universal reliability testing across boxes and divisions to do the switch, just for that.

UNCHeel, are you the customer who's TWC division is only giving out SA-8300HDC's unless you go to Whole House or Signature Home? Are they giving out SA-8300HDC's exclusively in your division? (for non-Signature Home and non-Whole House Customers?)

Jack

I am having issues with my 8300HD on Time Warner. It started happening after an update in January I think.

- On Monday of every week, my scheduled program recording from 10:00AM to 11:01AM cuts off about 8 minutes before 11:00AM. If I leave the box on during this time, it records the whole program. This doesn't happen the rest of the week recording this same show. I tried deleteing and re-adding the scheduled recording several times but it doesn't help.

- When this program records correctly, I frequently get choppy & freezing playback near the end of the program. This doesn't happen with another show I am recording at different time slot on this same channel.

- Frequently, I am finding that some of my programs are not recorded. Sometimes I see the red light on showing that it is recording but the program will not be in the list afterward. The recording logs will say "The set-top was unable to record this program".

Is there anything I can do short of exchanging the box? I really hate to lose the programs I have on there and I don't want to re-program another one. I did a hard reset but it didn't appear to do anything different than just pulling the power. Is there a scan disk that might fix this?

Think of your 8300 as a PC, a Dell or an HP that you bought say in 2004. Now think of how painfully slow it would be, the software that was on it when you got it is still there. Eventually they stop writing stuff for older models or the newer software requires a lot more memory to run or the hard drive can't support all the programs being written now in 2012. That's pretty much why your 8300 doesn't work. It's to old . Time Warner needs to junk all the boxes and they won't because of cost. They rely on people giving up. I returned 4 boxes in a 3 month period this past fall. I have a Samsung 3272 now. It's ok. It works but what I had to do to get equipment that works is bull crap.

I am having issues with my 8300HD on Time Warner. It started happening after an update in January I think.

- On Monday of every week, my scheduled program recording from 10:00AM to 11:01AM cuts off about 8 minutes before 11:00AM. If I leave the box on during this time, it records the whole program. This doesn't happen the rest of the week recording this same show. I tried deleting and re-adding the scheduled recording several times but it doesn't help.

- When this program records correctly, I frequently get choppy & freezing playback near the end of the program. This doesn't happen with another show I am recording at different time slot on this same channel.

- Frequently, I am finding that some of my programs are not recorded. Sometimes I see the red light on showing that it is recording but the program will not be in the list afterward. The recording logs will say "The set-top was unable to record this program".

Is there anything I can do short of exchanging the box? I really hate to lose the programs I have on there and I don't want to re-program another one. I did a hard reset but it didn't appear to do anything different than just pulling the power. Is there a scan disk that might fix this?

Greetings,

What is the show and channel that it is on? What state/city are you in? I am assuming you have the SA-8300 (NO C) box, correct?

I would also register and open up a support ticket at the TWC Direct to Tech Forums, located here:

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/timewarnerdirect

This is a secure forum, where you can enter your account information and I would give the exact same information you gave above in your message. Make sure you emphasize that the problem is only happening on Monday night with the show in question.

My guess is that there is something in your node causing the channel drop off on those Monday nights. Replacing the box, WILL NOT fix a bad signal. For about a year, I had issues with channels not coming in and a hard reboot would only bring back the problem a few hours to days later. After having a new drop line installed, the problem came back a few months later. The culprit was a corroded cable connector on the back of the TV going into the box.

If TWC's Direct to Tech forum recommends a service call, please request that you want a drop-line check and an examination of all cable wiring going to your box/TV. A bad signal or connection could be your issue.

You can also request at the direct to tech forum, signal monitoring for your box and hopefully they will be able to look at the channel and time when you are losing the end of your shows. Good luck with this!

Jack

UNCHeel, are you the customer who's TWC division is only giving out SA-8300HDC's unless you go to Whole House or Signature Home? Are they giving out SA-8300HDC's exclusively in your division? (for non-Signature Home and non-Whole House Customers?)

Jack

It seems to depend on what office you go to or if you get a service call. My "local" office is not in my town but in Chapel Hill, about 20 miles away. They seem to have mostly 8300HDCs with a few newer boxes thrown in. Awhile back they would still have the occasional 8300HD but I haven't seen them in about a year or so. Not sure what they are giving in out in the offices in Wake County, where Raleigh, Cary, Apex, the main population center for this division is located.

About a year and a half or so ago, I was having some problems and they sent out a tech. It turns out it was a line issue which he resolved. But he had a new type of box on his truck, so I had him give me one and kept the 8300HD. I forget exactly what the model number was, pretty sure it was some type of Samsung. My plan was to start using the Samsung to record new stuff and watch down what I had on the 8300HD and its outboard drive and then turn it in. HOWEVER, that ODN box was absolute garbage. It was slow to the point of being unusable. It would stack commands 7 or 8 deep and then execute them all at once. After two days it became clear that TWC could not fix the ODN problems so it went back. I haven't made changes since

Came across another Navigator glitch/bug. While watching a recorded show tonight, the DVR began recording two scheduled shows thus making both tuners busy. When this occurred, the DVR kicked to live. I had to go back into the list and resume the recorded show which went back to the beginning. I then had to search through it to pick up where it was. Not a major issue, but annoying none the less.

Seen it a couple of times

Seen it a couple of times

Funny thing is, I sent in a feedback form (see my sig) detailing the bug and got a call back saying I need a service call to fix it. They claim they ran remote tests on my box and it failed. I'm willing to swap out all my hardware with newer models if they have them. Early reports say the 8700 Series boxes are more responsive with no guide lag. I'd also like one home gateway instead of two separate modems. Problem is that no one can confirm what current equipment even is. CSR'S are I oblivious to anything beyond their scripts.

I did finish doing some research on moving to DirecTV, but lack of HD is probably going to keep with with TW for now. Also, the last shareholders meeting said TW may be looking to offer more technical services to subs who want it. 2012 should be an interesting year for TW. I'm really hopeful they get some major advancements into Navigator. That's really the stumbling block at this point. Our division has the content I want, I just wish TW would offer some breakthrough DVR like a Dish 922 or Direct HR-34 5 tuner model. I'd like to see a cable box with OTA. In short, I'd love a cable box with satellite feature set.

I tried to record the Super Bowl while I was at work with 65% of my hard drive occupied, but it didn't record. Recording Log stated my hard drive was full.

Why can't the box simply record as much of the program as possible until the box becomes full? Why cancel the entire recording? Didn't Passport allow for partial show recordings?

Anyone else every had this problem?

I have been having problems playing some recorded shows. The recording appears to proceed correctly, but when played back it will freeze at some point. None of the functions like rewind or fast forward will work. Sometimes if I hold down the FF button to do a 15 minute jump, that will work and I can rewind back to a point that it will not rewind any fruther. Usually there is a gap of several minutes or more between the "freeze" point and when it will play again. The progress bar indicates a full recording.

Any clue what is causing this? This does not happen all the time, maybe 1 in 10 shows. I have never had a live show freeze while I am watching it, so I am guessing that it is a recording issue or a playback issue. Is there anyway to tell if it is my 8300HD or the outboard drive? I hate to give up this 8300HD if it's not the problem.

Anyone else every had this problem?

I have been having problems playing some recorded shows. The recording appears to proceed correctly, but when played back it will freeze at some point. None of the functions like rewind or fast forward will work. Sometimes if I hold down the FF button to do a 15 minute jump, that will work and I can rewind back to a point that it will not rewind any further. Usually there is a gap of several minutes or more between the "freeze" point and when it will play again. The progress bar indicates a full recording.

Any clue what is causing this? This does not happen all the time, maybe 1 in 10 shows. I have never had a live show freeze while I am watching it, so I am guessing that it is a recording issue or a playback issue. Is there anyway to tell if it is my 8300HD or the outboard drive? I hate to give up this 8300HD if it's not the problem.

My recommendation would be process of elimination tests. Go through the following steps:

1.) Watch as much as you can off of the external drive.

2.) When finished, consider saving the shows to a back-up medium of your choice if you can.

3.) Set up a week of testing and recording shows with the external drive completely disconnected. This is an important test. It will determine whether or not the issue is the drive or the box.

4.) If you week of testing shows no issues, you have most likely a bad external drive. Replace it with the same company name, especially since you have had such success with it. (btw, is it a Western Digital? Those work great with MDN boxes!)

5.) If the drive is replaced through these steps and no problems you can keep your MDN box. However note the following:

If in the process of doing these steps and you get to #4 and you still have issues, you have two choices:

1.) Registering at the TWC Direct to Tech forum is better than calling customer service. Mention that you would like them to check out the following:

drop line
all cable connections going to TV
Any tests on stations causing the problems.

Specifically say in the work order at the Direct to Tech forum, that you DO NOT WANT an SA-8300HDC but either an SA-8300 (MDN) No-C box. Or a Cisco or a Samsung if the box needs to be replaced.

2.) You may not be able to use your External drive with the new Cisco or Samsung, BUT you will get more drive storage. 320GB instead of 160GB.

3.) Ask if you can maybe get a Whole House DVR (The Cisco 8742, 8642, or the Samsung 3272.) They have 500 GB's of storage. It is doubtful that they will do that, but if you get a Cisco or Samsung, you will at least have more recording space.

Here is the Direct to Tech Forum:

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/timewarnerdirect

Good luck!

Jack

My recommendation would be process of elimination tests. Go through the following steps:

2.) When finished, consider saving the shows to a back-up medium of your choice if you can.

Jack

Do you know how to make that backup? I do not know of any way to do this. The file format and the disk format of the HD seems to be unique to the DVR. In fact the drive cannot be connected to another 8300HD without reformating it and losing the recorded material.

More Info: I am using a Western Digital 1TB Green drive. I chose this one because it runs at a lower speed and doesn't need any cooling fans. So it is really quiet. I have it in a case that is designed to dump off the heat but it still runs hot, esp. with it sitting on top of the 8300HD.

The problem with the recordings does not seem to be station dependent.

I am in the process of trying to "watch down" as much stuff as possible. But I have around 85-90 hours left to go. I have though about just sucking it up and paying for an ODN box to record stuff on while I get this figured out.

I have tried to use the WD with an ODN, (Samsung) box and it just doesn't work. 8300HDC are known to not work either.

If i just turn the WD drive off shouldn't it record to the onboard drive so I can test it? And then I can turn the drive back on to access the saved shows?

What does whole house cost? If I could get 500GB, I could probably make a go of it. I normally only have about 50% full or less on that 1TB drive. When I look at TWC offerings for my area, I don't even see whole house as an option. They really push the sig. serv. around here but that is $200 a month and I only have one TV. (no chillins)

Thanks Jack.

Do you know how to make that backup? I do not know of any way to do this. The file format and the disk format of the HD seems to be unique to the DVR. In fact the drive cannot be connected to another 8300HD without reformatting it and losing the recorded material.

More Info: I am using a Western Digital 1TB Green drive. I chose this one because it runs at a lower speed and doesn't need any cooling fans. So it is really quiet. I have it in a case that is designed to dump off the heat but it still runs hot, esp. with it sitting on top of the 8300HD.

The problem with the recordings does not seem to be station dependent.

I am in the process of trying to "watch down" as much stuff as possible. But I have around 85-90 hours left to go. I have though about just sucking it up and paying for an ODN box to record stuff on while I get this figured out.

I have tried to use the WD with an ODN, (Samsung) box and it just doesn't work. 8300HDC are known to not work either.

If i just turn the WD drive off shouldn't it record to the onboard drive so I can test it? And then I can turn the drive back on to access the saved shows?

What does whole house cost? If I could get 500GB, I could probably make a go of it. I normally only have about 50% full or less on that 1TB drive. When I look at TWC offerings for my area, I don't even see whole house as an option. They really push the sig. serv. around here but that is $200 a month and I only have one TV. (no chillins)

Thanks Jack.

If possible, someone might be able to help with back-up options if they are applicable for you. I am not an expert on that.

I would assume yes, that you could just turn the ESATA drive off in testing.

You are correct that ODN boxes. (C-models, Samsungs, and new Motorola's) are hit and miss, (mostly miss) with drive expanders.

I believe Whole House DVR is $19.95/mo, but don't quote me on that. If you are looking for deals as you go through testing and options, call TWC, and ASK TO BE TRANSFERED TO CUSTOMER RETENTIONS. See if they can get you a deal on Whole House DVR. Than, when your discount plan expires, just call Customer Retentions back and work to negotiate something else.

What is your current service level now? Do you have Triple Play? Cable, Phone, Roadrunner?

Assuming you have Triple Play now. What do you pay? Signature Home is $200 a month with Cable, Wideband Internet, and All Phone features included. or $230 with all premium movie channels included. I heard you can take one year with no commitment. (probably best choice-if you go that route,) or two years (with contract commitment.) Would not recommend the two year plan. You always want to have an option to leave services, especially if it is a new thing.

Say that you have Triple Play now, and you pay $190 for it. The $20 you will probably play for just Whole House DVR will put you over $200 before franchise fees and taxes. And the thing is, a lot of TWC divisions will ONLY give out the 500GB DVR's (their best boxes) to Signature Home customers, and considering your situation, you NEED a lot of storage. That's just something to keep in mind.

You could have them hunt and poke for a refurbished dated SA-8300 (No C) box, which has worked for you until the last software update. But who knows how long that old box will last? If the last MDN update messed things up, you are almost better off getting a new Samsung or Cisco, or if you are up at the $200 level for what you are playing now, maybe Signature Home might save you money in the long run over Whole House DVR.

It should be noted that Signature Home has had some issues. Ben (BenJF3) had tons of trouble with his Internet dropping and not holding the connection, until he put his network in bridge mode. There is all kinds of information about Signature Home and Ben's feedback can be found here: (AVS's exclusive thread for TWC Signature Home!)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20490674#post20490674


Jack

well my usual colbert report problems have escalated...
previously when ever the show was on a break and there were no 'new' episodes for some reason it would record every episode showing

well the report is on break this week, and not only is it recording every episode of that, but every episode of the daily show now, which i dont record at all...

Anyone else every had this problem?

I have been having problems playing some recorded shows. The recording appears to proceed correctly, but when played back it will freeze at some point. None of the functions like rewind or fast forward will work. Sometimes if I hold down the FF button to do a 15 minute jump, that will work and I can rewind back to a point that it will not rewind any fruther. Usually there is a gap of several minutes or more between the "freeze" point and when it will play again. The progress bar indicates a full recording.

Any clue what is causing this? This does not happen all the time, maybe 1 in 10 shows. I have never had a live show freeze while I am watching it, so I am guessing that it is a recording issue or a playback issue. Is there anyway to tell if it is my 8300HD or the outboard drive? I hate to give up this 8300HD if it's not the problem.I haven't used Navigator. Try rebooting the 8300HD when this happens and then watch that part of the recorded show again and see if the issues still happen. Rebooting fixes a lot of strange issues that I have had using TWC's SARA and Comcast's S25 Guide.

well my usual colbert report problems have escalated...
previously when ever the show was on a break and there were no 'new' episodes for some reason it would record every episode showing

well the report is on break this week, and not only is it recording every episode of that, but every episode of the daily show now, which i dont record at all...

I recall this issue with Colbert Report in the past. Question, do new episodes show up in the guide as "New?" (With the word "New" on the left side of the Time Grid?) If they do not, Navigator will record all instances of an episode AFAIK.

For the workaround, go in and reprogram the series, BUT this time restrict the series to a specific time. For example if the show is on at 7:30PM and 1 am, don't do "All Showings." Select the 7:30PM show only, or the time you want for the series and that SHOULD stop the repeats. (Knock on wood.)

Series Manager should only pick up the later 1am show in this example, if another show is being recorded at the 7:30 time.

From what I remember, Navigator must call an episode "New" in the show information listing, for 'New" recordings to be recorded. Otherwise it will just pick up all instances of the show, unless you do a Time Restriction.

That should take care of this issue.

Jack

I recall this issue with Colbert Report in the past. Question, do new episodes show up in the guide as "New?" (With the word "New" on the left side of the Time Grid?) If they do not, Navigator will record all instances of an episode AFAIK.

For the workaround, go in and reprogram the series, BUT this time restrict the series to a specific time. For example if the show is on at 7:30PM and 1 am, don't do "All Showings." Select the 7:30PM show only, or the time you want for the series and that SHOULD stop the repeats. (Knock on wood.)

Series Manager should only pick up the later 1am show in this example, if another show is being recorded at the 7:30 time.

From what I remember, Navigator must call an episode "New" in the show information listing, for 'New" recordings to be recorded. Otherwise it will just pick up all instances of the show, unless you do a Time Restriction.

That should take care of this issue.

Jack

yeah the new shows are labeled as new and the repeats aren't
the guide displays properly

i had a trouble ticket associated with this but then it stopped doing it as much/often, i'll call them later to update it, supposedly they had no idea why it was doing that
the problem with setting the specific time is that then it misses episodes occasionally because for some reason sometimes the show is shifted a minute in the guide...

well my usual colbert report problems have escalated...
previously when ever the show was on a break and there were no 'new' episodes for some reason it would record every episode showing

well the report is on break this week, and not only is it recording every episode of that, but every episode of the daily show now, which i dont record at all...

There have always been issues with shows that I call "non-episodic" - shows for which every showing has the exact same generic description. News and sports shows are the most common examples, but there can be others.

The issue lies not directly with Navigator but with the guide info (both what we see and cannot see). When every showing has the exact same guide info, Navigator really has no choice but to record them all. There really is no way for Navigator to distinguish any showing from any other showing.

This also happened recently with American Chopper... the guide info recently changed to a very generic description with no episode information and my box started recording all of them. Previously the listings carried episode information even for the older shows and Navigator was able to keep track of it all.

For some non-episodic shows that generally have one new showing a day and then repeat that show a few times (my example of that is NFL Live), using the specific showing settings in Navigator will work. It doesn't work in cases like my American Chopper issue... every episode is different and old and I don't really want any of them.

Complaints for this can and should be lodged against TWC... but about the changes in the guide info, not Navigator itself (for a change).

As far as your unwanted recording of the Daily Show... I have also recently had some similar issues where a show was on a break but the box recorded the show that was filling in that time slot even when the guide correctly listed the new. Just last night, it wanted to record The Voice, which I have never scheduled... but it was in the time slot previously occupied by The Firm. When I went to cancel the recording of The Voice, it even asked me if i was sure I wanted to cancel The Firm. The box also gave me an out of disk space error last night, showed 85% full even when the actual recordings stored should have totaled only about 5% of capacity. I checked the diagnostics to see when the last reboot had been to see if maybe an unnoticed update had occurred and introduced the issues. What I saw was a little surprising... the last reboot date was back in October. I manually rebooted the box and everything other than the American Chopper guide issue returned to normal.

I believe Whole House DVR is $19.95/mo, but don't quote me on that. If you are looking for deals as you go through testing and options, call TWC, and ASK TO BE TRANSFERED TO CUSTOMER RETENTIONS. See if they can get you a deal on Whole House DVR. Than, when your discount plan expires, just call Customer Retentions back and work to negotiate something else.

What is your current service level now? Do you have Triple Play? Cable, Phone, Roadrunner?

Assuming you have Triple Play now. What do you pay? Signature Home is $200 a month with Cable, Wideband Internet, and All Phone features included. or $230 with all premium movie channels included.


I am paying around $130 with taxes a month for standard Road Runner and HD digital cable with the Sports Pass package added. Six months ago that same package was costing me around $110. So I got a nice $20 increase ($240 a year) for the exact same service. I locked in for 2 years so I have 18 months before another increase. My local phone is costing me around $35 a month. That's $165. If I dropped my phone and went with Sig Serv. that would be $200 plus the $6-8 for the Sports Pass, plus taxes. Lets say $215, thats $50 more than I am paying now. I will get 4 tuners, which I don't really need. Faster RR, which I don't really need, and more storage which I really, really need. I can't justify $600 a year for that.

And I actually like having my phone with the local phone company. I live in a rural area and we do have the occasional power outage along with crappy cell phone service. Right now when the power goes out my phone still works.



And the thing is, a lot of TWC divisions will ONLY give out the 500GB DVR's (their best boxes) to Signature Home customers, and considering your situation, you NEED a lot of storage. That's just something to keep in mind.

My issue it that due to work, I have months at a time when I don't watch a lot of TV. Then later, I catch up. It's silly that there is not a way to off load material onto a thumb drive or something. Or that the ODN boxes would work with a SATA drive, even if it wasn't offically supported.
Well, if it comes to it, I will just have to pay for the whole house to get the 500GB. I can manage with that, if it will only cost me another $240 a year.



It should be noted that Signature Home has had some issues. Ben (BenJF3) had tons of trouble with his Internet dropping and not holding the connection, until he put his network in bridge mode. There is all kinds of information about Signature Home and Ben's feedback can be found here: (AVS's exclusive thread for TWC Signature Home!)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20490674#post20490674


Jack

I will read up on that but unless I get a big raise I just can't afford it. I am going to the local office to see what type of ODN boxes they have. I may just pay for an extra box for a few months so I can watch down and test the 8300HD. Plus I get to see what ODN is like now. Last time I tried it was a disaster.

the guide info changes for every episode of colbert report showing the 'guest' and the original airdate (rarely there are repeat episodes that show a generic filler, but most of the shows new and reruns show approriate information)
its not recording daily show in place of colbert, its recording both, they're shown back to back (daily show first, then colbert report) on comedy central, thats the extra baffling part that its decided to make it a separate recording in the list, but it doesn't show in the schedule or report, just in the existing recordings :confused:

There have always been issues with shows that I call "non-episodic" - shows for which every showing has the exact same generic description. News and sports shows are the most common examples, but there can be others.

The issue lies not directly with Navigator but with the guide info (both what we see and cannot see). When every showing has the exact same guide info, Navigator really has no choice but to record them all. There really is no way for Navigator to distinguish any showing from any other showing.

This also happened recently with American Chopper... the guide info recently changed to a very generic description with no episode information and my box started recording all of them. Previously the listings carried episode information even for the older shows and Navigator was able to keep track of it all.

For some non-episodic shows that generally have one new showing a day and then repeat that show a few times (my example of that is NFL Live), using the specific showing settings in Navigator will work. It doesn't work in cases like my American Chopper issue... every episode is different and old and I don't really want any of them.

Complaints for this can and should be lodged against TWC... but about the changes in the guide info, not Navigator itself (for a change).

As far as your unwanted recording of the Daily Show... I have also recently had some similar issues where a show was on a break but the box recorded the show that was filling in that time slot even when the guide correctly listed the new. Just last night, it wanted to record The Voice, which I have never scheduled... but it was in the time slot previously occupied by The Firm. When I went to cancel the recording of The Voice, it even asked me if i was sure I wanted to cancel The Firm. The box also gave me an out of disk space error last night, showed 85% full even when the actual recordings stored should have totaled only about 5% of capacity. I checked the diagnostics to see when the last reboot had been to see if maybe an unnoticed update had occurred and introduced the issues. What I saw was a little surprising... the last reboot date was back in October. I manually rebooted the box and everything other than the American Chopper guide issue returned to normal.

Anyone here use the TWC Web app to program their DVR a lot? I do and have run into a bug - not sure if it ever worked really.

Sometimes, two tuners isn't enough and I've got 2 programs set to record and need to record a third in the same time slot. Some networks replay the episode of that "third program" at midnight. No matter what I do, when I go to the TV listing of the web app, I select the midnight showing, then try to record it, the box never comes back saying the recording has been scheduled....it'll just sit there forever (or until I click the "X" to dismiss it....same thing if I do a "Search" on the title and try to record from the list that's presented. The only way I can set the show to record is physically from using the guide on the box. What is it with the midnight time slot? Anyone seen this or care to try to test it?

Anyone here use the TWC Web app to program their DVR a lot? I do and have run into a bug - not sure if it ever worked really.

Sometimes, two tuners isn't enough and I've got 2 programs set to record and need to record a third in the same time slot. Some networks replay the episode of that "third program" at midnight. No matter what I do, when I go to the TV listing of the web app, I select the midnight showing, then try to record it, the box never comes back saying the recording has been scheduled....it'll just sit there forever (or until I click the "X" to dismiss it....same thing if I do a "Search" on the title and try to record from the list that's presented. The only way I can set the show to record is physically from using the guide on the box. What is it with the midnight time slot? Anyone seen this or care to try to test it?

You really shouldn't ever use time slots to settle series conflicts... the system is designed to settle them automatically based on the relative priorities of the shows. Unfortunately, remote DVR programming does not allow any control of series priorities, which is a major deficiency when the system depends on priorities for conflict resolution. It also sets the default priority of a newly added series differently than the box does... adding a series at the box always defaults the new series to #1 priority. Adding it remotely always defaults the newly added series to the lowest possible priority with no means of changing it remotely.

Also know that any single show scheduled (not a series) always takes highest priority over any series, regardless of where you program it from.

3.) Ask if you can maybe get a Whole House DVR (The Cisco 8742, 8642, or the Samsung 3272.) They have 500 GB's of storage. It is doubtful that they will do that, but if you get a Cisco or Samsung, you will at least have more recording space.

Jack

Are there different versions of the Samsung? I went by the local office today to pick up a new box while I figure out what's going on with the 8300HD. The charge for a second DVR is $25 a month. Sheesh. They gave me a Samsung SMT-H3272. (I think thats right.) But the guy at the office said it has a 320GB drive not a 500GB. I asked him what they gave to folks who have had Signature Home, and he said two of the those, meaning the 3272, with a small box to connect them together. IF that is what they are doing in this division, it's pretty crappy to pay $200 a month and get 640GB instead of 1TB.
IF my 8300HD is shot, I am in trouble. I can't see paying another $25 a month to have two 320GB boxes that I will have to manage the recording on seperately.

Are there different versions of the Samsung? I went by the local office today to pick up a new box while I figure out what's going on with the 8300HD. The charge for a second DVR is $25 a month. Sheesh. They gave me a Samsung SMT-H3272. (I think thats right.) But the guy at the office said it has a 320GB drive not a 500GB. I asked him what they gave to folks who have had Signature Home, and he said two of the those, meaning the 3272, with a small box to connect them together. IF that is what they are doing in this division, it's pretty crappy to pay $200 a month and get 640GB instead of 1TB.
IF my 8300HD is shot, I am in trouble. I can't see paying another $25 a month to have two 320GB boxes that I will have to manage the recording on separately.

I am "almost positive" that the counter guy gave you wrong info and that the Samsung 3272 is 500GB. There IS a rarer version of the Samsung, the 3090, and I believe that is 320GB. I heard reports of a very very small percent of Samsung 3090's have the 160GB hard drive.

The Samsung 3272, Cisco 8642, and the newest Cisco 8742 are Multi-room boxes. I believe they all come with a 500GB hard drive.

I think someone said on the Samsungs, you can see the amount of drive storage by looking through the vent cracks at the drive and it is on there.

Jack

You really shouldn't ever use time slots to settle series conflicts... the system is designed to settle them automatically based on the relative priorities of the shows. Unfortunately, remote DVR programming does not allow any control of series priorities, which is a major deficiency when the system depends on priorities for conflict resolution. It also sets the default priority of a newly added series differently than the box does... adding a series at the box always defaults the new series to #1 priority. Adding it remotely always defaults the newly added series to the lowest possible priority with no means of changing it remotely.

Also know that any single show scheduled (not a series) always takes highest priority over any series, regardless of where you program it from.

A lot of good info, but doesn't answer my question to why I can't manually select and record a show that starts at midnight from the web application....and is it a bug for everyone or not? If it doesn't work for anyone, I can feel better reporting it as a bug to TWC.

I am "almost positive" that the counter guy gave you wrong info and that the Samsung 3272 is 500GB.

Imagine that!:rolleyes:


I think someone said on the Samsungs, you can see the amount of drive storage by looking through the vent cracks at the drive and it is on there.

Jack

You are correct. I peeked and it is a 500GB. I know the last ODN box I had was a 320GB. Which begs the question. If they are handing out 500GB boxes to everyone as the base level HD DVR, what are you getting if you pay extra for Multi Room service? As you mentioned, Multi Room service gets you the same box.
If I turned in my 8300 they would take off the extra DVR charge and I would be back to paying the same amount as before. But now I would have a 500GB drive in and ODN box instead of a 160GB in a MDN box.

Imagine that!:rolleyes:



You are correct. I peeked and it is a 500GB. I know the last ODN box I had was a 320GB. Which begs the question. If they are handing out 500GB boxes to everyone as the base level HD DVR, what are you getting if you pay extra for Multi Room service? As you mentioned, Multi Room service gets you the same box.
If I turned in my 8300 they would take off the extra DVR charge and I would be back to paying the same amount as before. But now I would have a 500GB drive in and ODN box instead of a 160GB in a MDN box.

I don't have multi-room, so if someone knows exactly what you get, that would be a big help. You were lucky to get a 500GB box!!!! Very lucky, as most divisions do not give them out as single DVR's.

Jack

I don't have multi-room, so if someone knows exactly what you get, that would be a big help. You were lucky to get a 500GB box!!!! Very lucky, as most divisions do not give them out as single DVR's.
Jack

Interesting, the local office said there was a Cisco box and a Samsung box that they were giving out. Which would seem to mean that the 3272 is the only Samsung they are handing out around here. Of course since he thought it was a 320GB and not a 500GB he might be wrong about what types of boxes they have as well. I will have to check when I go back.

So its running 5.0.0_6 ODN. None of the lag that I had with the ODN box I tried about a year and a half ago. Stretched out menus are kind of stupid, instead of actually giving you more real estate to see more. Search is kind of cool compared to MDN. I will have to see if I can get by on 500GB. Otherwise..........maybe a heart transplant is in order.

Does anyone know where the IR "eye" is on the front of this thing. (Samsung 3272) Since I have two boxes in the same room the remote commands are activating both of them. I want to tape over it while I use the 8300.

The SMT-H3272 is indeed a WH-DVR box, which is why it has a 500GB HD. I believe there is an H3270 which is the same box that is not designed for WH-DVR, and has a 320GB HD and no MoCA.

If you are not paying for WH-DVR, then I think you really just got lucky, because they probably shouldn't have given you that box.

Interesting, the local office said there was a Cisco box and a Samsung box that they were giving out. Which would seem to mean that the 3272 is the only Samsung they are handing out around here. Of course since he thought it was a 320GB and not a 500GB he might be wrong about what types of boxes they have as well. I will have to check when I go back.

So its running 5.0.0_6 ODN. None of the lag that I had with the ODN box I tried about a year and a half ago. Stretched out menus are kind of stupid, instead of actually giving you more real estate to see more. Search is kind of cool compared to MDN. I will have to see if I can get by on 500GB. Otherwise..........maybe a heart transplant is in order.

Does anyone know where the IR "eye" is on the front of this thing. (Samsung 3272) Since I have two boxes in the same room the remote commands are activating both of them. I want to tape over it while I use the 8300.

You could take like three weeks to finish watching your recorded stuff on the MDN SA-8300, than just return it so they will take the charge off. I would DEFINITELY TAKE THE MDN BOX BACK NOW, (when caught up on your shows.) because you have the very best with a Whole House 500GB DVR! You will be first, (or among the first) to get new features and updates. That box is so rare to get for a single DVR user.

You could TRY to hook up your E-SATA drive to the Samsung 3272 just to see if it works. You must archive a lot of TV if you still need more than 500GB!

How is the speed of the new Samsung 3272 box compared to your MDN SA-8300? It's awesome that you got a 500GB whole house box as just a single DVR subscriber!!!!!!

Jack

I don't have multi-room, so if someone knows exactly what you get, that would be a big help. You were lucky to get a 500GB box!!!! Very lucky, as most divisions do not give them out as single DVR's.

Jack

I live near St. Pete,Fl.(Bright House) I got a Cisco 8742(which is very good!) and my friend got a Samsung 3272. Neither of us has whole-house. All the dvrs except the 8742 have been discontinued because of the new energy regs,but I'm sure TWC/Bright House will keep recycling the old ones as long as they can...they're not paying your electric bill.:(

BTW,your dvr uses more electricity than a energy star rated 21 cu. ft. refrigerator! http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20071139-260/study-dvr-set-top-box-use-most-energy-at-home/

You could take like three weeks to finish watching your recorded stuff on the MDN SA-8300, than just return it so they will take the charge off.

Yeah, I don't think I am going to have a choice. THe 8300HD is starting to exhibit signs of dying. In addition to the recording playback issues, now I have some occasional reception problems on a few channels that are not occurring on the 3272. So the original problem is probably with the 8300HD and not with the outboard drive. In fact I am hoping that I can get through everything before it dies. I started watching all the stuff I can't get anywhere else, like through Netflix.


You could TRY to hook up your E-SATA drive to the Samsung 3272 just to see if it works. You must archive a lot of TV if you still need more than 500GB!

Jack

My issue is that there are times of the year when I am away, (Summer and Fall) and don't do a lot of watching. So I get way behind. I end up with entire seasons of a show to watch. Right now I am catching up on House and starting on Homeland. What is a real PITA is when you get halfway through a season and have a screwed up recording and there is no way to get a copy because it isn't out on DVD yet and the network only has the last 5 shows available on its site. I had that 1TB drive at about 50% to 60% full. So I am going to have to be careful with that 500GB. Its probably a long shot but maybe that outboard SATA drive will work with the 3272.

You guys have got me curious about how many 3272s the local office has on hand. What is really odd is that this office used to be the dumping ground for the older outdated boxes, which is how I got the 8300HD.

I have an idea. If the local office has a bunch of 3272s on hand, you guys can go to your office and get a 8300HDC and mail it to me. I will turn it in and swap it for a 3272 and mail that back to you.:D

I live near St. Pete,Fl.(Bright House) I got a Cisco 8742(which is very good!) and my friend got a Samsung 3272. Neither of us has whole-house. All the dvrs except the 8742 have been discontinued because of the new energy regs,but I'm sure TWC/Bright House will keep recycling the old ones as long as they can...they're not paying your electric bill.:(

BTW,your dvr uses more electricity than a energy star rated 21 cu. ft. refrigerator! http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20071139-260/study-dvr-set-top-box-use-most-energy-at-home/

Is Samsung going to release an energy efficient DVR too? Like with the Cisco 8742? It's really a double-edged sword. If the ONLY energy reducing DVR according to sources is the 8742, but BHN/TWC does not want to give that out to single DVR users, expect the refurbs to go on for a long, long, LONG, time. Unless the companies make a regular energy efficient DVR for single-room subs.

I actually thought the the Samsung 3272 and the Cisco 8642, both whole house units, were also energy reducing models? But as stated, the cable company is not paying the electric bill, so they probably don't even care that much.

I mean, we have a TWC counter rep saying that the Cisco 3272, a whole house unit was only 320GB, when it is 500GB. All Whole House DVR's are 500GB, and probably the next models will be 1TB.

However, as we know, the agents often times don't know the differences between ODN and MDN software versions of TWC/BHN Navigator, and just assume that they are the same. As there are TWC/BHN reps working in offices, WHO DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT NAVIGATOR IS, I could see them pushing out older boxes till they die a natural death. And if the local division office managers don't know about the boxes and features, the counter reps and CSR's aren't going to know either.

Jack

Is Samsung going to release an energy efficient DVR too? Like with the Cisco 8742? It's really a double-edged sword. If the ONLY energy reducing DVR according to sources is the 8742, but BHN/TWC does not want to give that out to single DVR users, expect the refurbs to go on for a long, long, LONG, time. Unless the companies make a regular energy efficient DVR for single-room subs.

I actually thought the the Samsung 3272 and the Cisco 8642, both whole house units, were also energy reducing models? But as stated, the cable company is not paying the electric bill, so they probably don't even care that much.

I mean, we have a TWC counter rep saying that the Cisco 3272, a whole house unit was only 320GB, when it is 500GB. All Whole House DVR's are 500GB, and probably the next models will be 1TB.

However, as we know, the agents often times don't know the differences between ODN and MDN software versions of TWC/BHN Navigator, and just assume that they are the same. As there are TWC/BHN reps working in offices, WHO DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT NAVIGATOR IS, I could see them pushing out older boxes till they die a natural death. And if the local division office managers don't know about the boxes and features, the counter reps and CSR's aren't going to know either.

Jack

I don't think the Samsung is energy star rated,but I imagine any new models now will(have to) be. Keep in mind that all energy star stb/dvrs are all not the same. Energy star has a minimum requirement,which some boxes barely meet and some surpass by a lot. I'm sure that TWC/BH makes their choices based on their cost,not ours(to operate). All the info is available on the web. Down here the Bright House reps are fountains of misinformation who couldn't care less.:( Some of the techs are very good though.:)

I am scheduled for an upgrade to Signature in a few weeks. Have any of you used HD boxes with non-HD TVs using the coax output? I want to be able to access programming recorded in HD on a non-HD TV and I think that is the only way to do it.
For me, with what I'm paying now, it'll cost me <5$ a month more to upgrade from a single SA HD DVR with 120gb, one HD and one regular box to two 500gb DVR's, another two HD boxes and much faster internet.
I know there was someone on here who had problems with his network, but mine is much simpler. My router is about to die anyway, so I'll try theirs and just use it in bridge mode and buy an airport extreme or timecapsule if it's problematic.

I have an idea. If the local office has a bunch of 3272s on hand, you guys can go to your office and get a 8300HDC and mail it to me. I will turn it in and swap it for a 3272 and mail that back to you.:D As I recall, these STBs have embedded serial numbers which are read back when the box is first booted. If that serial number does not match what the local TW database has in it's database, then it won't work.

Is Samsung going to release an energy efficient DVR too? Like with the Cisco 8742? It's really a double-edged sword. If the ONLY energy reducing DVR according to sources is the 8742, but BHN/TWC does not want to give that out to single DVR users, expect the refurbs to go on for a long, long, LONG, time. Unless the companies make a regular energy efficient DVR for single-room subs.

I actually thought the the Samsung 3272 and the Cisco 8642, both whole house units, were also energy reducing models? But as stated, the cable company is not paying the electric bill, so they probably don't even care that much.

I mean, we have a TWC counter rep saying that the Cisco 3272, a whole house unit was only 320GB, when it is 500GB. All Whole House DVR's are 500GB, and probably the next models will be 1TB.

However, as we know, the agents often times don't know the differences between ODN and MDN software versions of TWC/BHN Navigator, and just assume that they are the same. As there are TWC/BHN reps working in offices, WHO DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT NAVIGATOR IS, I could see them pushing out older boxes till they die a natural death. And if the local division office managers don't know about the boxes and features, the counter reps and CSR's aren't going to know either.

Jack

8642 and 8742 both carry Energy Star rating, although the 8742 is somewhat lower in power consumption.

Energy Star STB List (http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/prod_lists/set_top_boxes_prod_list.pdf)

I'm going to need to replace my unit. Which is the best one to get these days?

Piss poor DVR Management once again results in a duplicate recording and missed recording. I really hope TWC is working on making Whole Home DVR more functional because this is happening WAY too much with multiple people scheduling recordings across two DVR's that can't see each others Series Lists. I can't even blame my wife because Navigator is so bug ridden, she just thinks it's not scheduling.

I record Holmes Inspection and she records Walking Dead Both at 9:00. Well, tonight I find no Holmes Inspection, but two instances of Walking Dead! She scheduled it on both DVR's. I can sometimes catch these using the new TWC TV app because this list shows all DVR's and if I see multiple listings, I'll delete them, but I am so sick of having to babysit the machine. Even the online DVR manager is crap for this because you can only see one DVR at a time. I should have virtually NO conflicts with 4 available tuners. Navigator is too stupid to see the same show recording on both to cancel one and allow the other by itself. I'm still finding SD material as well when an HD channel is available. I was putting off DirecTV because the lack of HD that TWC has, but I may have to take a harder look at it again. I could use a central 5 tuner unit and they offer one. Thing is, many of the issues I'm reporting to Time Warner get answered with a call back telling me I need a service call because the box didn't "pass tests". Really? They are chalking up obvious Navigator flaws to signal level snapshots. The weather has been damp and cold, so I haven't been under the crawl space to install my distribution panel and eliminate the mess TWC left so I could have fluctuations with signal. However, they are not the cause of these issues.

So, it remains that Navigator is TWC's Achilles Heel for me (and most others). I just really wish there was a way to contact the dev team when I report issues. The feedback form is obviously being read because I get and email or a callback, but it's by a person that doesn't understand the issues. It would be nice to have clear lines of communication to explain. I still can't believe we don't have a Guide Filter. This is such a simple thing as Parental Controls already exist.

Kind of stuck just tolerating it because no third party option has VOD or PPV access. Just hoping TWC gets a good release of Navigator out with a decent feature set. I am trying to get requests in for the 8742 as I hear it's much speedier with no Guide Lag.

Piss poor DVR Management once again results in a duplicate recording and missed recording. I really hope TWC is working on making Whole Home DVR more functional because this is happening WAY too much with multiple people scheduling recordings across two DVR's that can't see each others Series Lists. I can't even blame my wife because Navigator is so bug ridden, she just thinks it's not scheduling.

I record Holmes Inspection and she records Walking Dead Both at 9:00. Well, tonight I find no Holmes Inspection, but two instances of Walking Dead! She scheduled it on both DVR's. I can sometimes catch these using the new TWC TV app because this list shows all DVR's and if I see multiple listings, I'll delete them, but I am so sick of having to babysit the machine. Even the online DVR manager is crap for this because you can only see one DVR at a time. I should have virtually NO conflicts with 4 available tuners. Navigator is too stupid to see the same show recording on both to cancel one and allow the other by itself. I'm still finding SD material as well when an HD channel is available. I was putting off DirecTV because the lack of HD that TWC has, but I may have to take a harder look at it again. I could use a central 5 tuner unit and they offer one. Thing is, many of the issues I'm reporting to Time Warner get answered with a call back telling me I need a service call because the box didn't "pass tests". Really? They are chalking up obvious Navigator flaws to signal level snapshots. The weather has been damp and cold, so I haven't been under the crawl space to install my distribution panel and eliminate the mess TWC left so I could have fluctuations with signal. However, they are not the cause of these issues.

So, it remains that Navigator is TWC's Achilles Heel for me (and most others). I just really wish there was a way to contact the dev team when I report issues. The feedback form is obviously being read because I get and email or a callback, but it's by a person that doesn't understand the issues. It would be nice to have clear lines of communication to explain. I still can't believe we don't have a Guide Filter. This is such a simple thing as Parental Controls already exist.

Kind of stuck just tolerating it because no third party option has VOD or PPV access. Just hoping TWC gets a good release of Navigator out with a decent feature set. I am trying to get requests in for the 8742 as I hear it's much speedier with no Guide Lag.

Yes,

To echo what Ben said above, TWC REALLY NEEDS a better conflict resolution tool that could be recognized across applications/devices! Meaning, that whether you are scheduling a show through Navigator, I-Phone, I-Pad, Remote DVR Manager, the system could somehow KNOW that a duplicate program or time slot was about to be entered and than say:

"You have already scheduled a recording of (show name) at (show time) Do you want to:

Keep the original show as scheduled?

Replace the original show with the new show?

The Recording Log as it is now is STUPID because it only tells you about conflicts and issues after they have happened and you can't do anything about them. Additionally, the generic information does not give specific reason for the conflict. The current message:

"The set top was unable to record the program" or "The channel is not currently available" does not give a WHY reason for the problem or issue. If recording set-up allowed for proper REAL-TIME CONFLICT RESOLUTION, customers would not be having these conflicts, or at least much fewer of them. DVR's and their software, especially in this day and age should NOT have to be babysat for conflict resolution!

I also heard that Remote DVR Manager and Navigator Series Manager have different ways of dealing with recording conflicts? Is this true, and if so, what is the priority sequence for each device?

Jack

I'm going to need to replace my unit. Which is the best one to get these days?

For DVR's.

The newest whole house models are the Cisco 8742 (really new and hard to get) and the Cisco 3272. The Cisco 8642 is a good box for Whole Home. But there are reports that the Samsung 3272 is faster. The new Cisco 8742 is REPORTED to be very fast with no guide lag.

These models are harder to get for single DVR subs, because many divisions give them out to Whole House and Signature Home subs only. Whole House DVR's all have 500GB's.

For non-whole huse DVR subs, the Samsung 3270 is good. There are some reports of conflict with HDMI sometimes with the box. But the Samsungs are faster than the Cisco's. You will generally get 320GB's with the newer boxees. I found out that the Samsung 3090 was a very good box, BUT Samsung discontinued it in favor of the 3270 series.

It should be noted that the Samsung 3270 and 3272 do not have PIP. This feature was removed by Samsung.

Cisco has a the Cisco 8642, which is faster than the widly distrubuted single-room SA-8300HDC. It has a bigger 320GB hard drive.

Have not had a non-DVR box for years, so can't comment too much on them. If you are a non-DVR subscriber, I would just get a Samsung over a Cisco box. They are faster.

Jack

I'm in Charlotte NC & had to get my remote replaced so I decided to swap out my old SA-8300HD DVR at the same time. I have had my 8300HD for years and never had a problem until this last software upgrade we got in January. Since then it has been buggy as heck and missing recordings so I assume it was finally time to swap it out. My local TWC office gave me a Cisco 8742HDC. I don’t have the signature service / whole house DVR service, just this one DVR. Besides being about a 1/3 the size of my old SA DVR box it seems to be pretty snappy in its performance. Of course I haven’t really used it much yet so I will have to see how it handles my scheduled recordings.

My local TWC office gave me a Cisco 8742HD.

Where in Charlotte are you? Which TWC office did you go to to get the 8742? I'm trying to hunt one down. Does anyone have any info about its non-DVR sibling, the 4742? I want to get one of those as well for my Signature Home setup.

I am "almost positive" that the counter guy gave you wrong info and that the Samsung 3272 is 500GB. There IS a rarer version of the Samsung, the 3090, and I believe that is 320GB. I heard reports of a very very small percent of Samsung 3090's have the 160GB hard drive.

The Samsung 3272, Cisco 8642, and the newest Cisco 8742 are Multi-room boxes. I believe they all come with a 500GB hard drive.

I think someone said on the Samsungs, you can see the amount of drive storage by looking through the vent cracks at the drive and it is on there.

Jack
The Samsung 3270 is 320GB. /Dan

Where in Charlotte are you? Which TWC office did you go to to get the 8742? I'm trying to hunt one down. Does anyone have any info about its non-DVR sibling, the 4742? I want to get one of those as well for my Signature Home setup.

I’m up in the University area. I went to the office in Huntersville. Market Square Shopping Center 14219 Reese Blvd. Huntersville, NC 28078. It’s exit 23 off of 77.

There is an office off the John Street exit off 485 in Mathews also.

For DVR's.

The newest whole house models are the Cisco 8742 (really new and hard to get) and the Cisco 3272. The Cisco 8642 is a good box for Whole Home. But there are reports that the Samsung 3272 is faster. The new Cisco 8742 is REPORTED to be very fast with no guide lag.

These models are harder to get for single DVR subs, because many divisions give them out to Whole House and Signature Home subs only. Whole House DVR's all have 500GB's.

For non-whole huse DVR subs, the Samsung 3270 is good. There are some reports of conflict with HDMI sometimes with the box. But the Samsungs are faster than the Cisco's. You will generally get 320GB's with the newer boxees. I found out that the Samsung 3090 was a very good box, BUT Samsung discontinued it in favor of the 3270 series.

It should be noted that the Samsung 3270 and 3272 do not have PIP. This feature was removed by Samsung.

Cisco has a the Cisco 8642, which is faster than the widly distrubuted single-room SA-8300HDC. It has a bigger 320GB hard drive.

Have not had a non-DVR box for years, so can't comment too much on them. If you are a non-DVR subscriber, I would just get a Samsung over a Cisco box. They are faster.

Jack

The 8642 has a 500GB drive

Has anyone else just "lost" an upgraded version of the program search?

Last week I picked up a 3272 to replace my dying 8300HD. I haven't tried ODN in a while, was pleased to see it operate much faster than before. The other interesting thing was what I presumed was an upgraded search menu for ODN. It was a full screen black background, with catagories listed down the left hand side. Once you drilled down to a show, you got an entire screen with a show description, an "album cover" picture of the show, and the menu for selecting recording options including a list of all channels that ran the show. I have been using the 8300 for the most part as I am trying to watch all my recorded shows before I return it. I used the 3272 today for the first time in a day or so and that search menu was gone, replaced by the old standard looking menu. WTF?:mad:

Has anyone else just "lost" an upgraded version of the program search?

Last week I picked up a 3272 to replace my dying 8300HD. I haven't tried ODN in a while, was pleased to see it operate much faster than before. The other interesting thing was what I presumed was an upgraded search menu for ODN. It was a full screen black background, with categories listed down the left hand side. Once you drilled down to a show, you got an entire screen with a show description, an "album cover" picture of the show, and the menu for selecting recording options including a list of all channels that ran the show. I have been using the 8300 for the most part as I am trying to watch all my recorded shows before I return it. I used the 3272 today for the first time in a day or so and that search menu was gone, replaced by the old standard looking menu. WTF?:mad:

UGHHHHH!!!!

That new search system is sever-based, not boxed based. Although it is exclusively for ODN, I heard TWC will be starting with Signature Home subs and than working their way down through each model box. Pending they can work around the older ODN memory restrictions, TWC wants to get the new search system to all ODN boxes rolled out in quarterly installments to all areas.

One of these things I presume happened:

1.) The advanced search was "down" when you tried it, and TWC has the regular search in place as a back up. OR.

2.) They are getting some bugs out of Advanced Search, or maybe working on some more features for it, and need to take it down to do that.

3.) You'll get it indefinitely, eventually. When Ben got his, there were a couple of times when it said "Not available." Note that he is a Signature Home sub, and was one of the first to get advanced search. According to TWC, the first areas to get advanced search were:

Parts of New York
Parts of LA
Parts of Texas.

4.) Another thing. TWC rolled out a Beta today for Remote TV on PC for all versions of ODN/MDN Navigator. (Some restrictions for I-Guide at this time.) You can read about it here:

http://www.twcableuntangled.com/

In so doing, they may have needed to turn off the advanced search temporarily to get this new feature working on all the boxes. If Advanced Search is not back within say 24 on your box. (If you had it before) call and ask what's going on with it.

Jack

For DVR's.

The newest whole house models are the Cisco 8742 (really new and hard to get) and the Cisco 3272. The Cisco 8642 is a good box for Whole Home. But there are reports that the Samsung 3272 is faster. The new Cisco 8742 is REPORTED to be very fast with no guide lag.

These models are harder to get for single DVR subs, because many divisions give them out to Whole House and Signature Home subs only. Whole House DVR's all have 500GB's.

For non-whole huse DVR subs, the Samsung 3270 is good. There are some reports of conflict with HDMI sometimes with the box. But the Samsungs are faster than the Cisco's. You will generally get 320GB's with the newer boxees. I found out that the Samsung 3090 was a very good box, BUT Samsung discontinued it in favor of the 3270 series.

It should be noted that the Samsung 3270 and 3272 do not have PIP. This feature was removed by Samsung.

Cisco has a the Cisco 8642, which is faster than the widly distrubuted single-room SA-8300HDC. It has a bigger 320GB hard drive.

Have not had a non-DVR box for years, so can't comment too much on them. If you are a non-DVR subscriber, I would just get a Samsung over a Cisco box. They are faster.

Jack

Do the Cisco boxes have the same power cord as the 8300HD?

Do the Cisco boxes have the same power cord as the 8300HD?

Yes. Corrected below as I am refering to only the 8600 and 4600 Series. Thanks for the clarification on the newer models. I'm still hunting for documentation on them.

Do the Cisco boxes have the same power cord as the 8300HD?

THe 8742HDC DVR does not. It has an external power brick, with plugs into the unit using a traditional round power plug.

The 4742HDC non-DVR unit uses the same cord as all the other models.

Last night I set to record "Person of Interest". I record it every week but last night it stopped after 30 minutes. The record set up is for an hour. My question is where can I find that episode? It is not on In Demand -- none of the PI shows are there. I can't find it anywhere on the net. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks IHTWC!!!!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

Last night I set to record "Person of Interest" but it stopped after 30 minutes. My question is where can I find that episode?

We started watching that episode about 10 minutes in and then deleted it, or I would burn you a DVD of it. Full episodes are on the CBS PoI site, but they are delayed a couple of weeks - I think the one up now is from 2 weeks ago. I know that doesn't help you much, but at least you can get to it later.

Last night I set to record "Person of Interest". I record it every week but last night it stopped after 30 minutes. The record set up is for an hour. My question is where can I find that episode? It is not on In Demand -- none of the PI shows are there. I can't find it anywhere on the net. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks IHTWC!!!!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

I hesitate to offer this, since you're asking you may not be familiar with it... If not, download uTorrent client here:
http://www.utorrent.com/downloads

Then choose either a HD torrent of the show:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7039178/Person.of.Interest.S01E15.%5BX264%5D.720p-DIMENSION-%5BSpastikusTV%5D

Of a (smaller) Low Res version:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7037998/Person_of_Interest_S01E15_HDTV_XviD-LOL_%5Beztv%5D

And finally, if you don't have a robust enough player (MKV files can be tricky for some), get the VLC media player here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

You may need to add codec packs as well, a best bet is:
http://www.codecpackguide.com/klmcodec.htm

If this is all new, it may seem daunting, but knowing this will relieve a lot of frustration, as almost any TV shows you may miss are available within a day or so for watching. I would however avoid downloading obviously pirated material - While TV may very qualify, it doesn't seem to me to be much different than 'taping' a show and watching it later. You do pay for your cable service, so I would think you have the paid for right to view this show.

Thanks that should work. I have some of that already loaded.

I would think you have the paid for right to view this show.

You would think so but does the copyright owner?

You would think so but does the copyright owner?

I would think the moderators would agree 'that' discussion belongs elsewhere, besides, I have to assume we differ on opinion.

Obviously you have not hung out in any of the media player threads here.

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???

I've kept the boxes because I use external drives with them, and I do record a lot of shows. Has anyone been able to solve this problem? What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???

I've kept the boxes because I use external drives with them, and I do record a lot of shows. Has anyone been able to solve this problem? What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?

There really is no good solution. They have to either ditch Navigator (not gonna happen) or work on tweaking (or re-code) the programming for better stability and conflict resolution. I have no issues with the channel selection as they crush the other provides for my viewing purposes, but Navigator remains the issue. I just wish TWC would allow a third party manufacturer to produce a box for them that featured VOD and full compatibility. I'd pay extra for it or better yet, make that part of the Signature Home package since we already pay a premium.

I just remain at a point of tolerating it while looking at potential other solutions.

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???

I've kept the boxes because I use external drives with them, and I do record a lot of shows. Has anyone been able to solve this problem? What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?

If you have the SA-8300 (non-C) box, it is old and you may need to swap it out. You can have a secure chat at the TWC Direct to Tech forum, it is located at the URL below:

It is a secure forum. Describe how long you have had the missed recordings issues. There was a software update to MDN (non-C, no Samsung) boxes recently from MDN 2.5 to MDN 3.0. Additionally, software updates, for MDN boxes, due to their age, is causing strain on the old hardware.

Say at the Direct to Tech forum that you would like a new Cisco or a Samsung box because you need a bigger hard drive, and the widely distributed boxes, the SA-8300 HDC's have the new version of the software called ODN, but only a 160gb hard drive.

The Cisco 8640 and the Samsung 3270 have 320GB hard drives. They generally will not work with drive expanders, but it is likely that if you are getting a lot of missed recordings because your box is dying out.

Signals could be an issue as well. I would request that Direct to Tech set up a truck role to check lines and signal strength, and ask for probably a Samsung 3270 to be requested in the work order as first choice, with the Cisco 8640 as second choice. Say that you do not want an SA-8300HDC because of its smaller hard drive. The Samsungs are faster than the Cisco's or SA boxes anyway.

Here is the TWC Direct to Tech forum:

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/timewarnerdirect

It is secure. No one else can read it except you and the tech. Good luck!

Jack

PS. The Cisco 8642 and 8742 are 500GB models, however, most divisions only give them out to Whole House and Signature Home Subs. The same is true with the Samsung 3272.

You need to get a new box. The SA 8300 series is a useless piece of junk not able to run the new software. Don't get the Samsung 3090 either. A new Cisco or the Samsung 3270 or above series. I have a Samsung 3272 and it works fine. Think of a PC that is 10 years old, how it would work now, that's pretty much the problem. It took me 5 tries to get a working box. It shouldn't be this way but it is. Time Warner doesn't really care about their customers. Typical American corporation. Only concerned with their profits and not where they come from.(us) Think of the cost of replacing all those 8300's. What are they going to tell their shareholders? A responsible company would update their equipment but they knowingly let us have junk, let them eat cake. Be persistent.

How are the remotes for the Cisco and Samsung 500GB models? Is one brand better than the other, as far as setting them up to work with DVD players, VCR's, etc.?

You need to get a new box. The SA 8300 series is a useless piece of junk not able to run the new software. Don't get the Samsung 3090 either. A new Cisco or the Samsung 3270 or above series. I have a Samsung 3272 and it works fine. Think of a PC that is 10 years old, how it would work now, that's pretty much the problem. It took me 5 tries to get a working box. It shouldn't be this way but it is. Time Warner doesn't really care about their customers. Typical American corporation. Only concerned with their profits and not where they come from.(us) Think of the cost of replacing all those 8300's. What are they going to tell their shareholders? A responsible company would update their equipment but they knowingly let us have junk, let them eat cake. Be persistent.

This is the truth, but also keep in mind that they know many customers are oblivious to technology and that the garbage that is Navigator works fine to them because they don't know any better. Our division still has 2000 Series boxes in circulation. I'd dying to get my hands on an 8742 which should be simple as a Sig Home customer, right?

I have the same remote as I've always had.... It's their universal I suspect. I don't mind it so much. I have it programmed it work on all my devices. On the bottom under their logo it says: UR5U-8780L-TWY

How are the remotes for the Cisco and Samsung 500GB models? Is one brand better than the other, as far as setting them up to work with DVD players, VCR's, etc.?

The TWC remotes work with each box accordingly:

All standalone STB=Standalone Remotes

All DVR's=All DVR Remotes.

I have had my original TWC remote for DVR service since we got DVR services in 2007. It works great.

Jack

PS. Having said that, I have not programed external devices to work with it. I have an older Sony DVD Player/VCR combo, for which there was no code in the documentation.

The SA 8300 series is a useless piece of junk not able to run the new software.
Wow, do I disagree with that statement. As "new" software, ODN is nothing more than OCAP compliant MDN. (And from a technical stand point a 8300HDC does run the new software.) When I first tried ODN two years ago it was a Java lagged, steaming pile of monkey dung. Even now, with ODN and MDN boxes running side by side, I can detect the lag and glitches in ODN. As far as the 8300 HD is concerned, its only flaw was a 160GB drive on a DVR destined to be used recording HDTV. A flaw that was easily overcome with the feature, unsupported mind you, of being able to add up to a 1TB drive. A feature which seems to be intentionally defeated in any ODN box.

From an end user, sit down and watch TV standpoint, there is now very little difference in ODN and MDN. I can't think of a single feature that ODN has that MDN doesn't. Both have VOD and PPV. The menus are virtually identical, except of course that ODN is s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to fit a 16x9 screen which I find to be hard on the eyes. I guess it was too much to ask that they actually use the additional space to give us more info.

Typical American corporation.
More like a typical American quasi-monoply operating in an artifical government designed and regulated market.

I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???
What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?

scnrfrq, I am i the same boat you are. I have a single 8300HD with a 1TB drive that is starting to have glitches. I never have the "couldn't record message" but I get recordings that hang up or are blank. This was inevitable as the 8300s age and fail. You and I and the rest like us are going to have to learn to live with less drive space or pay more to have enough boxes to store what we want. My immediate recommendation is to do what I am doing right now, watch up everything you have recorded that you can't get on demand or through some other source such as Netflix, Hulu, or whatever else you use. There is no way to transfer the recorded material.

$220 a month and you don't even have Sig Home! You must have every last package and upgrade that TWC offers.
The short answer that has already been provided is that the largest drives on the new ODN boxes are 500GB. Cisco 8742 and 8642, Samsung 3272. However, the 3272 does not have PIP if you use that function.
In order to get a TB of storage you are going to need two of these boxes. Getting Sig Home will get you that. However, if you can just get TWC to give you two of them without Sig Home, that might be cheaper since in theory you would pay the same as you are now. As BenJF3 has pointed out, with Sig Home the two boxes don't really act as one. You pretty much have to manage the recordings on each one seperately anyway.
If you could get either Cisco and the Samsung 3272, it might be interesting to compare them side by side. I know the folks who keep up with this thread would appreciate a report.


How are the remotes for the Cisco and Samsung 500GB models? Is one brand better than the other, as far as setting them up to work with DVD players, VCR's, etc.?
In my division they now give out the UR5U-8780L for everything, Cisco or Samsung. It is pretty much the same as the UR5U-8400 that came with my 8300 HD.

Originally Posted by rit56
The SA 8300 series is a useless piece of junk not able to run the new software.Wow, do I diagree with that statement. As "new" software, ODN is nothing more than OCAP compliant MDN. (And from a technical stand point a 8300HDC does run the new software.) When I first tried ODN two years ago it was a Java lagged, steaming pile of monkey dung. Even now, with ODN and MDN boxes running side by side, I can detect the lag and glitches in ODN. As far as the 8300 HD is concerned, its only flaw was a 160GB drive on a DVR destined to be used recording HDTV. A flaw that was easily overcome with the feature, unsupported mind you, of being able to add up to a 1TB drive. A feature which seems to be intentionally defeated in any ODN box.1++

Boy, do I agree with you on that!! I've had the same 8300HD since they were first available. In 2007 I added an external drive (500MB in my case) and both have been running almost flawlessly since. The only issues that I ever had (besides when they switched from SARA to MDN) was when TW did some sort of bone headed "upgrade" that introduced more problems than it solved (example: with the 3.0 "upgrade" the output resolution drops to the lowest enabled resolution when first powered on. The TWC CSR tells me it is a bad box - which it isn't.) The day TW prys that box from my hands will be the day that I switch to satellite!!

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???

I've kept the boxes because I use external drives with them, and I do record a lot of shows. Has anyone been able to solve this problem? What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?


i know it can b frustrating..i went thru a period where practically none of my cbs or fox shows would record. but knock on wood i havent had any issues in a long time.. in comparison my girlfriend has comcast. she is constanly missing recordings and often only gets partial recordings. the dvr will lock up when rew or ff on demand programs..the guide is prety good (shows several weeks out. but has advertisment boxes on it). but the rest of whatever program they are using totally sux. its clunky and slow and requires way to many button presses to navigate. and it has no skip forward/back function when rew or ff. (u miss that when its not there). yeah navigator has its problems i wish they would fix. but if i had her service id take a sledge hammer to that DVr.

1++

Boy, do I agree with you on that!! I've had the same 8300HD since they were first available. In 2007 I added an external drive (500MB in my case) and both have been running almost flawlessly since. The only issues that I ever had (besides when they switched from SARA to MDN) was when TW did some sort of bone headed "upgrade" that introduced more problems than it solved (example: with the 3.0 "upgrade" the output resolution drops to the lowest enabled resolution when first powered on. The TWC CSR tells me it is a bad box - which it isn't.) The day TW prys that box from my hands will be the day that I switch to satellite!!

I actually like MDN better for its speed and at least up to and including MDN 2.5. liked the box better than ODN. MDN's biggest issue was the small hard drive. My cousin had an MDN box for six years with a Western Digital Drive expander and it works great. Actually, I don't know if he still has it, but MDN's only flaw IMO is the small hard drive.

However, some divisions are having problems with the software update to MDN 3.0. Missed recordings from time to time, and the output resolution not holding. TWC has released MDN 3.1, which is supposed to correct these issues. Feature sets are close between MDN/ODN. MDN has the return of expanded Favorite Channel Selection and sort options. (Press "Guide" twice.) I heard that you can also go through your Favorite Channels one at a time, OR have a little pop-up window to browse through them. This was added in MDN 3.0, which all versions of ODN still lack.

Jack

PS. Dave, do you have MDN 3.1 yet?

However, some divisions are having problems with the software update to MDN 3.0. Missed recordings from time to time, and the output resolution not holding. TWC has released MDN 3.1, which is supposed to correct these issues.

Jack

PS. Dave, do you have MDN 3.1 yet?

Yes, I do have 3.1.0-15 and it doesn't fix the resolution problem!

I have learned to live with the resolution problem: I have just 720p & 1080i enabled and when I encounter the problem (most often when powering up the TV or switching the TV's inputs) the 8300 ALWAYS goes to 720p on any 1080i program (live or recorded). The fix is easy: switch to a 720p channel and then back: the box will then "respect" the actual programming resolution.

I had this problem with 3.0 and still have it with 3.1. So anyone who claims that 3.1 fixes the resolution problem is smoking something. The problem is if TW goes to fix this problem they will likely screw up something else. :eek: The only real cure would be to go back to SARA or Passport. :rolleyes:

I should also add: I record something like 55 programs a week and have rarely had a problem with a missed recording.

And here is exactly the problem with Time Warner Cable.. you say so yourself.

"I have learned to live with the resolution problem: I have just 720p & 1080i enabled and when I encounter the problem (most often when powering up the TV or switching the TV's inputs) the 8300 ALWAYS goes to 720p on any 1080i program (live or recorded). The fix is easy: switch to a 720p channel and then back: the box will then "respect" the actual programming resolution."

You learn to accept bad equipment because they treat you so bad that you have no choice except cancel your service. For what you pay a month you should not have to get used to crap equipment.

And here is exactly the problem with Time Warner Cable.. you say so yourself.

"I have learned to live with the resolution problem: I have just 720p & 1080i enabled and when I encounter the problem (most often when powering up the TV or switching the TV's inputs) the 8300 ALWAYS goes to 720p on any 1080i program (live or recorded). The fix is easy: switch to a 720p channel and then back: the box will then "respect" the actual programming resolution."

You learn to accept bad equipment because they treat you so bad that you have no choice except cancel your service. For what you pay a month you should not have to get used to crap equipment.READ MY POST CAREFULLY: It is not "bad equipment" it is BAD CODE - there is a difference!! (SARA was perfectly fine)

And yes, TW can get away with poor SW QA (and that is EXACTLY what the problem is) because I accept keeping my MDN box rather than my other choices:

Get an ODN box - not acceptable due to slowness & inability to add external drives.
Drop TWC and go with Dish or DirecTV - disadvantage of feeding multiple TVs + limited OnDemand capability. Not nice, but perhaps an acceptable alternative.
Move somewhere else where there are multiple companies (like Comcrap & FiOS) servicing the public. But there are obvious problems with that too.

READ MY POST CAREFULLY: It is not "bad equipment" it is BAD CODE - there is a difference!! (SARA was perfectly fine)



+1000! Hit the nail on the head. I would bet that had Aptiv been contracted by TW to write the software it would perform FAR better. The current crop of ODN boxes are more than technically capable to handle a good DVR/GUI. The biggest issue is that Navigator has been evoling for 6+ years and while it is improving, it is still buggy and lacking basic functionality/reliability.

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???

I've kept the boxes because I use external drives with them, and I do record a lot of shows. Has anyone been able to solve this problem? What other TW DVR's do you recommend, that also have large hard drives?

Update - went to my local TW office today and got a replacement 8300HD. Asked about the Samsung and Cisco boxes - they said they never stock them, and the only way to get one is to sign up for Signature Home, or whole house DVR. I'm testing the new DVR now - we'll see......

I got a replacement 8300HD today, and there is no Caller ID listed in Settings, like my other 2 boxes. How do I get it to appear on this box?

I'm sick and tired of both of my TW 8300HD boxes missing recordings every day. I keep getting "Set-top was unable to record this program." I can't depend on them ever to record all my shows for sure. $220/month for this???


The only time I've noticed my 8300HD missing a recording and giving me that message is when I've got something set to record in the middle of the night (early morning). I think they may remotely shut down the box for some kind of maintenance operation at that time, as it will be in the OFF state the next day even though I never turn it off.

One of the "upgrades" introduced in that MDN update back in early December is that now the box will not record scheduled programs when the box is turned OFF. That and the buffer reduction from one hour to 30 minutes means they took away a lot of functionality and gave us nothing in return, that I can see, except slightly better graphics for some of the banners.

Can anyone running MDN confirm these observations?

Can anyone tell me how to get into both the diagnostic areas? (I believe there are two in MDN, no?) Be nice if we could make those instructions a sticky, or at least stuck to the beginning of this thread.

the caller ID takes about a day to kick in, maybe two. I've had the same issue. This always happens when you swap a box.

I got a replacement 8300HD today, and there is no Caller ID listed in Settings, like my other 2 boxes. How do I get it to appear on this box?

Caller ID can take a day or so to kick in. It will often be up within six hours of a swapped out box This is also true with VOD and Remote DVR Manager. Did you get an SA-8300HD or an SA-8300HDC?

Good luck!

Jack

One of the "upgrades" introduced in that MDN update back in early December is that now the box will not record scheduled programs when the box is turned OFF.

That is a terrible bug and oversight. Has it been resolved? If not, I would either go to the TWC Direct to Tech forum or fill out an e-mail form and ask that the issue be sent to the TWC Engineering Department at your local TWC website.

Jack

That is a terrible bug and oversight. Has it been resolved? If not, I would either go to the TWC Direct to Tech forum or fill out an e-mail form and ask that the issue be sent to the TWC Engineering Department at your local TWC website.

Jack

I haven't found that to be the case with my 8300's. The boxes will record whether on or off.

Caller ID can take a day or so to kick in. It will often be up within six hours of a swapped out box This is also true with VOD and Remote DVR Manager. Did you get an SA-8300HD or an SA-8300HDC?

Good luck!

Jack

It's an 8300HD, so I can use my external drive.

It's an 8300HD, so I can use my external drive.External drives work fine with 8300HDC.

Has anybody heard anything new about AutoHD? I get that they had issues with its deployment but considering that Cablevision has been able to do this for years now it just seems like it's a low priority for them, much like a guide that looks professional. They'd rather have gimmicks to advertise like Look Back.

Has anybody heard anything new about AutoHD? I get that they had issues with its deployment but considering that Cablevision has been able to do this for years now it just seems like it's a low priority for them, much like a guide that looks professional. They'd rather have gimmicks to advertise like Look Back.

No, but I've been waiting for ANY type of Guide Filter since I've had Time Warner! I'm a Sig Home sub and the only thing we have over anyone else here is the Advanced Search. However, for me a robust Guide Filter is my number one priority. With 4 other women in the house scheduling DVR recordings that and a cohesive Whole Home List would alleviate many of the nuisance issues I have like duplicate recordings & SD recordings because they can't or don't find the HD version. Our pathetic channel alignment doesn't help matters. Nothing is grouped logically and the HD channel numbers are completely different than the SD counterpart. I wrote to TWC via Facebook and they gave me a more specific email address to write to concerning Navigator. I'm working on a detailed email with bugs, glitches, and suggestions. I'll post any feedback here.

Has anybody heard anything new about AutoHD? I get that they had issues with its deployment but considering that Cablevision has been able to do this for years now it just seems like it's a low priority for them, much like a guide that looks professional. They'd rather have gimmicks to advertise like Look Back.

Agree 100% Mike! Navigator remains the lowest point on the TWC totem pole. Sad when their Digital Phone, and Road Runner Internet are awesome!

I really hope that this is the year we start to see improvements in functionality and features for the Navigator Guide. While it is certainly better than it was six years ago in terms of reliability, TWC does not care enough about the quality of the Navigator Guide in contrast to their efforts with Digital Phone, Road Runner, and i-Pad technologies.

Navigator is not valued by TWC anywhere near as much as their Phone, Internet, and i-Pad services. This is sad and needs to change! For the last six years, TWC Navigator's just a spring board mechanism that the company designed to launch gimmicky applets like Start Over and Look Back. Don't get me wrong, Start Over and Look Back are nice to have, and I really enjoy Caller ID on TV. However, the guide is just so average. It has a very home grown year 2001 technology that would be acceptable at that time, but not for 2012.

Any or all of the following conditions may be true:

1.) TWC does not care enough to make Navigator better.

2.) TWC does not have the programmers with the experience to make Navigator better.

3.) TWC views Navigator as "just OK" , because it is not a money-making incentive for them, or drawing new customers to the cable TV part of their service. (If #3 really is their attitude, it SUCKS!)

4.) General population people don't care about the guide, so TWC sees Navigator as keeping it just good enough to prevent people from switching.

Jack

4.) General population people don't care about the guide

There you go. About 1-2 minutes/week for me.

Any or all of the following conditions may be true:

1.) TWC does not care enough to make Navigator better.

2.) TWC does not have the programmers with the experience to make Navigator better.

3.) TWC views Navigator as "just OK" , because it is not a money-making incentive for them, or drawing new customers to the cable TV part of their service. (If #3 really is their attitude, it SUCKS!)

4.) General population people don't care about the guide, so TWC sees Navigator as keeping it just good enough to prevent people from switching.

Jack

In a past interview the CEO essentially said that #3 & 4 were true... that they didn't need to make Navigator "feature rich" because the average customer didn't care (which, unfortunately, is true). He also said that there would be separate "premium" offerings for those that did care. I think many of us here hoped/assumed that meant "Navigator +" with extra features, when in fact it turned out to be iphone/ipad apps and Signature Home, neither of which have yet to address the basic shortcomings (which still include both lack of features and unreliability of its basic functionality) that we are still saddled with.

Besides the above (which is their SOP - proven time and time again that their most important objective is the ability to make at least semi-true proclamations to their stockholders about all the wonderful things they are doing), there is the very real possibility/likelihood that they view Navigator as a dead horse, as they develop new FCC-mandated whole-house gateways with IP distribution within the home. The question there is whether it will become a viable product with useful benefits to the consumer... or if it becomes a nearly useless boondoggle as OCAP/Tru-2-Way has.

it turned out to be iphone/ipad apps and Signature Home

Yes if limited resources are factor I'll take the apps over the Guide, etc. I use it like a very portable TV around the house.

Our pathetic channel alignment doesn't help matters. Nothing is grouped logically and the HD channel numbers are completely different than the SD counterpart.

This will piss you off Ben, in my area the HD channels are 1000 above the SD channels. IE CBS is 105 and HD CBS is 1105. So it is relatively easy to go back and forth.

Of course the stupid thing about this is that a lot of SD channels are duplicated so that luddites that don't want a set top box can tune with their old tvs. Basic cable is channels 1 -99. Then the SD channels start at 100 and repeat all the channels in 1- 99 and include other SD channels not available to basic customers.

This type of situation where there is different versions of software, different channels available, different arrangements of channels, etc, etc. from division to division makes no sense to me at all. To me it indicates a lack of basic management from TWC.

This will piss you off Ben, in my area the HD channels are 1000 above the SD channels. IE CBS is 105 and HD CBS is 1105. So it is relatively easy to go back and forth.

Of course the stupid thing about this is that a lot of SD channels are duplicated so that luddites that don't want a set top box can tune with their old tvs. Basic cable is channels 1 -99. Then the SD channels start at 100 and repeat all the channels in 1- 99 and include other SD channels not available to basic customers.

This type of situation where there is different versions of software, different channels available, different arrangements of channels, etc, etc. from division to division makes no sense to me at all. To me it indicates a lack of basic management from TWC.

Ben HAS been PO'd for some time now knowing other systems (such as all of the NC systems) had implemented new "themed" lineups that (more or less) addressed his issues. He was told by TW-CNY management that they had no such plans.

Even here there are still inconsistencies and issues that mess up what could have been a much better implementation of our state-wide channel lineup:


When they had a clean slate to work with, why did they give OTA channels completely arbitrary and random assignments that relate neither to their OTA channel nor their historic cable assignments. For example, our CBS affiliate in Charlotte is channel 3 OTA and was historically channel 2 on basic cable, but it ended up as 105/1105 in the new lineup. Similarly, our NBC affiliate is 36 OTA and 6 on basic cable, yet it ended up as 120/1120 in the new lineup. Most of the others are similarly illogical and random.
If they have designated the 1000-1099 range as the VOD range, why do VOD channels appear scattered around the lineup, some duplicated in the VOD range, some not.
If the 400/1400 range is designated for News, why the hell did they add NY1 News to the broadcast range 100/1100 range? At least our local version, News14 Carolina, is duplicated at both 114/1114 and 414/1414, even though it doesn't belong in the 114/1114 slot.
How the hell did the Oprah Winfrey Network get recently added in the middle of the Science and Nature 250/1250 range?

So in the end, your assessment of poor management does hold true. Even where they spent a considerable effort creating a new statewide themed lineup, they are again working hard to screw it up all over again.

jcalabria: To reinforce what you said about lineups:

The lineup has NOTHING TO DO WITH NAVIGATOR (while guide filtering, etc. might mitigate a bad line-up).
For digital cable - the line-up has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical channels used. So, changing to a lineup that makes more sense does not involve any infrastructure (physical network) work at all! It is only a matter of downloading a new table into the subscriber's box
BUT thee biggest problem TW would have in changing the line-up would be getting existing customers used to dealing with the new lineup.
For customers with direct hook-up to cable, the digital channels placement is determined solely by the PSIP code - so for local HD channels the placement will be determined solely by the PSIP code (13-1), not the actual physical QAM channel.

Yes, the line-up situation at TW is DUMB - but, from what I have seen, is not much different than other cable systems (Comcrap in Minnesota, Verizon FiOS in the D.C. area).

This will piss you off Ben, in my area the HD channels are 1000 above the SD channels. IE CBS is 105 and HD CBS is 1105. So it is relatively easy to go back and forth.

Of course the stupid thing about this is that a lot of SD channels are duplicated so that luddites that don't want a set top box can tune with their old tvs. Basic cable is channels 1 -99. Then the SD channels start at 100 and repeat all the channels in 1- 99 and include other SD channels not available to basic customers.

This type of situation where there is different versions of software, different channels available, different arrangements of channels, etc, etc. from division to division makes no sense to me at all. To me it indicates a lack of basic management from TWC.

Our line-up in Wisconsin is Theme Based and the HD channels are all in the 1000's. You just add a 1 to the SD channel for its HD equivalent. However, that applies to the Digital, HD Tiers. and PPV/VOD. It does not apply to the Broadcast Standard levels of channels 2-99. Our line up also has the optional Family Choice Package I think in the early 800's, and Broadcast Digital Basic starting at something like 975. (Our Music Channels are 900-946.) Channel 1 is Movie and VOD Previews. Channels in the 400's are Free VOD, and in the 1400's, are Free HD-On Demand.

The point is that with those added tiers there are occasional instances of THREE TO FOUR duplicate stations! For example, Food Network is on 67 for Standard Cable, 151 in Digital SD, 1151 in Digital HD, and it is also part of Family Choice on, I think on 889 in SD!

Why does TWC need four separate feeds of the same channel?

Jack

The point is that with those added tiers there are occasional instances of THREE TO FOUR duplicate stations! For example, Food Network is on 67 for Standard Cable, 151 in Digital SD, 1151 in Digital HD, and it is also part of Family Choice on, I think on 889 in SD!

Why does TWC need four separate feeds of the same channel?

JackThere are actually only THREE separate feeds:

SD Analog (apparently channel 67)
SD Digital (probably also channel 67)
HD (channel 1151)


Due to the channel mapping table, when you tune to channel 67 or channel 889, the box actually tunes whatever QAM channel that the SD Digital is on. When TW goes all digital (they have announced that they are going this way and will be all digital in a year or so) then there will be only two channels (SD & HD).

There are actually only THREE separate feeds:

SD Analog (apparently channel 67)
SD Digital (probably also channel 67)
HD (channel 1151)


Due to the channel mapping table, when you tune to channel 67 or channel 889, the box actually tunes whatever QAM channel that the SD Digital is on. When TW goes all digital (they have announced that they are going this way and will be all digital in a year or so) then there will be only two channels (SD & HD).

Thanks Dave,

So if my Food Network analog went bye-bye. (Channel 67), approximately how much more bandwidth would that open on my system? We have SDV. If and when TWC goes to true all digital, SDV will be dead, right? What I heard was, for every space/channel that is analog on a given cable system, in it's place would be enough for 3 HD channels!

Jack

Thanks Dave,

So if my Food Network analog went bye-bye. (Channel 67), approximately how much more bandwidth would that open on my system? We have SDV. If and when TWC goes to true all digital, SDV will be dead, right? What I heard was, for every space/channel that is analog on a given cable system, in it's place would be enough for 3 HD channels!

Jack

The way they have things over-packed right now, each analog channel typically equates to 3 HDs or 10-12 SD channels.

It's not likely that SDV would go away if analogs were dropped... best we could hope for is that at least some of the reclaimed bandwidth would be used to lower the compression levels before they took the rest for whatever new incremental-revenue services they are dreaming up. I wouldn't expect any massive additions of new channels to existing basic / expanded basic service levels, either.

Is this related to Navigator or not?

Why does Navigator sometimes bunch numbers/letters together in the Find Show Descriptions? I have one channel that is like that, and when you go to "Find Shows" it displays something like:

MGMHD Sunday 2/4 1284 7:30-9:30PM. The "4" in the channel field, bumps into the "7" in the Description with the two characters on top of each other.

Other times, if there is a second showing of the show on MGMHD, it shows properly:

2/4 7:30-9:30PM
2/20 5:00-7:00PM

Is this a Navigator issue, or a Tribune Media Services issue? We had a few channels in the time grid with six characters. TWC reduced them to five and it solved the issue. All except for MGMHD which has one too many characters on the screen when the long description of the show info is used.

i.e MGMHD Sunday 2/4 1284 7:30-9:30PM.

What does TWC need to do to make the data fit? Aside from removing maybe one call letter to show MGMD or just MGM? This would solve the data formatting with this channel on the Metro Wisconsin systems. I inquired about this about six months ago at the Direct to Tech forum, and it has not been fixed.

This appears to be an ODN issue only. Relative has an MDN box, and is not affected by this.

Jack

Does anyone else have a problem with their 8300 where the red recording light goes off and on intermittently? Makes it hard to know whether something is recording or not. This is my 2nd 8300HD and it does the same thing.

One of the "upgrades" introduced in that MDN update back in early December is that now the box will not record scheduled programs when the box is turned OFF. That and the buffer reduction from one hour to 30 minutes means they took away a lot of functionality and gave us nothing in return, that I can see, except slightly better graphics for some of the banners.

Can anyone running MDN confirm these observations?


I have not had the problem with my 8300HD not recording when the box is off. In fact if I am not watching I normally have the box turned off.

I had the resolution issue where it would revert to 480. That seems to have gone away/been corrected, hard to tell with TWC. I did change my set up from auto to just 1080.

I am not sure what you mean by slightly better graphics, but I did get some newly designed menus for things like deleting a recording or stopping a recording in progress. At first, I thought 'big deal' But the new menus removed the use of the A, B, and C buttons. You only have to use the up and down arrows and the SEL button. Now you, (or at least I, using a Harmony One), can navigate the menus without repositioning my hand on the remote.

And of course, I had the loss of 30 minutes of buffer time. This one really jerked my chain. I do occasionally pause for more than 30 minutes or want to go back more than 30 minutes. I can't imagine why they did this. Assuming the buffers were taking up drive space, then they freed up space for a single 1 hour show. Who cares? Does anyone out there have any idea why they did this?

I am also having some other issues. These were not happening prior to the "mini upgrade" in December. However, I have had some issues not being able to play back recordings with my box that precede the upgrade so these may be further indications of box failure not MDN issues.

There will be instances where the buffers stop working. I will change channels to another show and I go back to the first channel the buffer is gone so I can't back up. This is very random in occurance, but enough to be annoying if I go to check another channel during a commercial and don't make it back to the original channel before the commercial break is over.

I have had the progress bar get stuck during FF or REW or sometimes the entire info banner disappear during these functions.

Sometimes I will get a blank channel when I change channels or when I turn the box on. Changing to another channel and then back again will usually solve the problem. I am not sure if this is an issue unto itself or if it is simply good ole SDV rearing its head, and I am getting a blank screen instead of the usual channel not available screen.

You guys will love this.

So I picked up this 3272 a few weeks ago. When I got it home, it had not been wiped. It had a few shows recorded and a few series recording set up. I deleted all of it and set my own stuff. I have not had any apparent recording problems with it. Tonight I notice the record light was on and did not recall anything being scheduled to record. I turned on the box and checked it out. It was recording one of the shows that had a series recording set up for it when I got the box.:eek: I checked the series recording menu and it was not back in there. In theory this should not have been in the recording schedule, since it has been more than seven days since I deleted the series recording. And of course I have not see it in the scheduled recording list because I was in there earlier today deleting some items.

You guys will love this.

So I picked up this 3272 a few weeks ago. When I got it home, it had not been wiped. It had a few shows recorded and a few series recording set up. I deleted all of it and set my own stuff. I have not had any apparent recording problems with it. Tonight I notice the record light was on and did not recall anything being scheduled to record. I turned on the box and checked it out. It was recording one of the shows that had a series recording set up for it when I got the box.:eek: I checked the series recording menu and it was not back in there. In theory this should not have been in the recording schedule, since it has been more than seven days since I deleted the series recording. And of course I have not see it in the scheduled recording list because I was in there earlier today deleting some items.

LOL! Great story!

The best one was still a customer that got a swapped box, and for whatever reason, all the PPV and porn was unlocked for about a week! LOL! Sometimes when you get a box, the Premium Channels are open until the box is synchronized to your account. However, adult PPV, and all VOD is supposed to be closed until activated.

Jack

Has anyone ever had TWC demand that they return a box?

LOL! Great story!

The best one was still a customer that got a swapped box, and for whatever reason, all the PPV and porn was unlocked for about a week! LOL! Sometimes when you get a box, the Premium Channels are open until the box is synchronized to your account. However, adult PPV, and all VOD is supposed to be closed until activated.

Jack

I am starting to wonder if that is what has happened with my Advanced Search and the 3272 I picked up. IE because it was a 3272 they assumed I was a Sig Home customer until it synched up and showed that I wasn't. And then it took away the Advanced Search.

If I call and complain about the loss of Advance Search, will they say, "Hey your not a Sig Home customer, give back the 3272?"

jcalabria: To reinforce what you said about lineups:

The lineup has NOTHING TO DO WITH NAVIGATOR (while guide filtering, etc. might mitigate a bad line-up).
For digital cable - the line-up has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical channels used. So, changing to a lineup that makes more sense does not involve any infrastructure (physical network) work at all! It is only a matter of downloading a new table into the subscriber's box
BUT thee biggest problem TW would have in changing the line-up would be getting existing customers used to dealing with the new lineup.
For customers with direct hook-up to cable, the digital channels placement is determined solely by the PSIP code - so for local HD channels the placement will be determined solely by the PSIP code (13-1), not the actual physical QAM channel.

Yes, the line-up situation at TW is DUMB - but, from what I have seen, is not much different than other cable systems (Comcrap in Minnesota, Verizon FiOS in the D.C. area).

Agree with all you mentioned.

The clear QAM broadcast channel mapping (PSIP) here in Charlotte is truly bizarre. Some are mapped to their broadcast assignments... some are mapped to their analog cable assignments and some are mapped to their old pre-unified lineup digital cable assignments. Pick SOMETHING and at least be consistent. As you noted, it's only a simple code change, which they have shown they are not afraid to change when they see fit to.

The only two possible conclusions I can draw from it all is that either they are totally incompetent or... it's 100% intentional... just to make ClearQAM more inconvenient and discourage its use: "Here stupid, just take one of our lovely Navigator boxes and you won't have to worry about all those different channel numbers."

I have had the progress bar get stuck during FF or REW or sometimes the entire info banner disappear during these functions.


I've seen this one on my SA HD8300 a few times....when it occurs I know I'll be heading towards a "pull the power plug" reboot very soon.

My 8300HD is still chuggin' along. Aside from the resolution glitch when turning it on, it's fast and working as designed. I won't swap it for anything.

Yet.

With all due respect I don't know why people here are hailing the 8300. It's an old piece of technology that should be replaced. Most people who have problems here have 8300's that have trouble running the new software.

With all due respect I don't know why people here are hailing the 8300. It's an old piece of technology that should be replaced. Most people who have problems here have 8300's that have trouble running the new software.

You have no convincing evidence on this point one way or the other. Here on AVS you see the complaints. There is no way to know if these complaints are representative of TWC subscribers in general or are a skewed sample. The percentage of people have no issue with the 8300 is unknown, and so is the percentage of people who do have issues. If somebody works for TWC, they would be in a better position to give meaningful information about how many people have 8300s that aren't doing well with some new software.

There's a point in there somewhere. :)

With all due respect I don't know why people here are hailing the 8300. It's an old piece of technology that should be replaced. Most people who have problems here have 8300's that have trouble running the new software.Well some people find superior performance in older gear: Tube based amplifiers, or CRT based television. What about those modern, crappy MP3s compared to straight, uncompressed CDs? Older ain't necessarily worse - and the 8300HD is an excellent example

First of all, you need to distinguish between the 8300HD and the 8300HDC. Yes the 8300HD is the oldest piece of technology, but BECAUSE it has limited resources TW has it run the much more efficient MDN code. On the other hand: the 8300HDC has somewhat more resources and has it run ODN, which is much less efficient (meaning SLOW). Besides having faster, smoother operation the 8300HDs have always been able to run appropriate external drives (up to 1TB) without a problem. :p

Well some people find superior performance in older gear: Tube based amplifiers, or CRT based television. What about those modern, crappy MP3s compared to straight, uncompressed CDs? Older ain't necessarily worse - and the 8300HD is an excellent example

First of all, you need to distinguish between the 8300HD and the 8300HDC. Yes the 8300HD is the oldest piece of technology, but BECAUSE it has limited resources TW has it run the much more efficient MDN code. On the other hand: the 8300HDC has somewhat more resources and has it run ODN, which is much less efficient (meaning SLOW). Besides having faster, smoother operation the 8300HDs have always been able to run appropriate external drives (up to 1TB) without a problem. :p

Agreed,

And if a lot of divisions are only giving out the newest model boxes to Whole House/Signature Home subs, there is not much you can do. You can request a certain model of ODN/MDN box. However, you will either get what is on the truck or at the office. I did hear that Signature Home subs get new equipment (no refurbs) when they sign up. But a lot of people can't afford that. And if your MDN box has been zipping away fast for 5-6 years and still works, why take a chance on swapping it out for the potential of a box with problems?

That's why you have to look at each customer and divisions issues on a case by case basis. Is it a signal issue? Line issue? Node issue? Box issue? You can't generalize with TWC customers. systems, and boxes. There is way too much company and division variation to even attempt to do that.

Jack

Agreed,

And if a lot of divisions are only giving out the newest model boxes to Whole House/Signature Home subs, there is not much you can do. You can request a certain model of ODN/MDN box. However, you will either get what is on the truck or at the office. I did hear that Signature Home subs get new equipment (no refurbs) when they sign up. But a lot of people can't afford that. And if your MDN box has been zipping away fast for 5-6 years and still works, why take a chance on swapping it out for the potential of a box with problems?

That's why you have to look at each customer and divisions issues on a case by case basis. Is it a signal issue? Line issue? Node issue? Box issue? You can't generalize with TWC customers. systems, and boxes. There is way too much company and division variation to even attempt to do that.

Jack

Well said...:)

Besides having faster, smoother operation the 8300HDs have always been able to run appropriate external drives (up to 1TB) without a problem. :p

Not always. My 8300HD has never recognized my WD DVR Expander external HD. This is the same HD which worked perfectly on my Comcast 8300HD with my previous cable subscription.

Not always. My 8300HD has never recognized my WD DVR Expander external HD. This is the same HD which worked perfectly on my Comcast 8300HD with my previous cable subscription.That might be a different issue: did you totally erase the drive before connecting to the TW box? My understanding is that the initial formatting of the drive is done to match it up to the specific box. Change boxes and all bets are off. I understand that the TW box needs to initially see a totally blank drive.

Question on Cable Boxes and Volume Control,

Report of a customer with HDMI cables who did a box swap, and now has a Cisco 8640 and cannot make the volume on the cable box higher to come close to the output level of the older box. My question is:

When new or refurb boxes are reformatted, does the Volume default to the manufacturer's setting? If not, was this a case of a previous customer who could have had the box volume lower with Component Cable, and because this customer has HDMI, can't do anything about it? Other than switch to Component Cable to increase the volume on the box, and than go back to HDMI when it is at a comfortable listening level?

Jack.

My SA-8300HDC is HDMI with our TV range for cable, comfortable at about 15-20. DVD playing goes up to about 25-45 for the volume. If only they could set the boxes to the max. box volume from the get-go. TV is a 42" HD Samsung.

Posted this in the Charlotte TWC forum, but haven't gotten a reply:

Has anyone in the Charlotte area received one of the Cisco 4742 WH DVR client boxes yet? I'd like to get one, but I don't know if they're available in the area yet.

On a different note, I've had an interesting thing happen with the transparent guide setting. It became available on all of my boxes several weeks ago, and I enabled it on all of them. Since then I have swapped my 8462 boxes for 8742s. They do not have the transparency setting available in the settings menu. What's strange is that I still have my original 4642 client box, and it still has transparency enabled, but it no longer has the setting available in the menu! It's like they enabled it for a bit then removed it. Not a big deal, just thought you guys would like to know FYI.

Posted this in the Charlotte TWC forum, but haven't gotten a reply:

Has anyone in the Charlotte area received one of the Cisco 4742 WH DVR client boxes yet? I'd like to get one, but I don't know if they're available in the area yet.

On a different note, I've had an interesting thing happen with the transparent guide setting. It became available on all of my boxes several weeks ago, and I enabled it on all of them. Since then I have swapped my 8462 boxes for 8742s. They do not have the transparency setting available in the settings menu. What's strange is that I still have my original 4642 client box, and it still has transparency enabled, but it no longer has the setting available in the menu! It's like they enabled it for a bit then removed it. Not a big deal, just thought you guys would like to know FYI.

You mean the Cisco 8742 (not 4742), which is the newest Whole House DVR box. Guide Transparency is a server-based feature released in Navigator 4.0. It is activated at the head-end, and like Caller ID on TV, it might take a day or so to show up on a new or swapped box.

Jack

You mean the Cisco 8742 (not 4742), which is the newest Whole House DVR box. Guide Transparency is a server-based feature released in Navigator 4.0. It is activated at the head-end, and like Caller ID on TV, it might take a day or so to show up on a new or swapped box.

Jack

Hi Jack,

He already has 8742 DVR/Servers... he's interested in finding out if anyone has yet been handed the matching STB/client box, which is the 4742.

Joe

I'm trying to make contact with ANYONE in my division to get myself some 8742 set tops. However, Cisco is now looking at abandoning the set top market which means, who will TWC use for future equipment if they do? Samsung? Would they look at Pace again?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/cisco_thinking_out_of_the_set_top_cjsQHGTCpO3DKevYzs7ysI

Add On:

Dear Time Warner,

Here is your solution:

http://www.arrisi.com/products/premises/index.asp

Ditch Cisco if there are exiting the market and move to Arris. The Moxi isn't even competition anymore because it's no longer a commercial product for consumers. Of all the Time Warner provided equipment I've had, my Arris Gateway has performed the best. The Arris line also appears well integrated, especially for Sig Home customers. IE: One D3 Gateway replaces to modems! It would be great if they offered something like this as a benefit of Sig Home. It would certainly keep me within the package.