Time Warner Cable Navigator

[jacksonian]

From what I understand, this is going to replace SARA and Passport on the TWC boxes over the next 8 months. I do not have a confirmation on timetables or whether this will be a definite for everyone or dependent on individual franchise adoption.

You can go to the TWC Nebraska site and see it here:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/nebra...n/mdn_dvr.html

click on the "Answers On Demand" for a more detailed description of features. It looks like they basically address most all of the common TiVo functions that they had been missing [better guide, title search, recording history log, conflict management, Show list (like Now Showing?), series recording options (more developed than the single option SARA) like padding, etc...]

Wow, I'm impressed. My guess is that it won't be as slick and as quick as TiVo, but it addresses most all of the major functionality advantages that TiVo had over SARA.

If anyone has any updates on features or timetables, please post them here and I'll try to update this post.

[jacksonian]

Features:
New Recording Conflict Resolution
When a show doesn’t broadcast as planned, a red conflict icon will appear next to the program in the upcoming show list. If the program is in conflict with other recordings you’ve scheduled, a series of options will appear on-screen to help easily resolve the problem.

Record Log
Press the button on your remote. The Recording Log tells you why a show didn’t record or was deleted so you can manage your recording needs.

The Find Shows menu

* Press the button at access Find Shows
* Arrow left/right to highlight either TITLE, CATEGORY or RATING
* Arrow up/down to highlight your programming choice and press “Select”
* A new menu may appear with other options displayed horizontally across the bottom and a list displayed vertically
* Press “Select” on the desired programming

How to search for a program
* Already know the name of the show you want to watch? Just press twice to bring up the keyboard and spell the show name using the left, right, up and down arrows on your remote.
* Press “Select” to choose a highlighted letter.
* When title appears in the left column, use the left arrow key to switch from the keyboard to the title list, use up/down arrows to highlight your program. Press "Select” to either view, record, record series or set reminder.

Access Menu
Think of the newly designed Access Menu as your gateway to all that Digital Cable has to offer. Want to find what you want, when you want, with the least effort? The Access Menu is the first place to visit.

From this one handy menu you can access everything you need:
* Find Shows.
* Favorite Channels.
* DVR Show List.
* Answers On Demand.
* Program Guide.

With the Access Menu, you'll also be able to see exactly what’s on now in your favorite categories.

Free On Demand
Free On Demand categories all in one list. (Kids, Sports, Music, News, What’s New, Variety, Learning, Home & Leisure, Cutting Edge and Local).

Premium On Demand
A list of all Premium On Demand channels in one place.

Movies On Demand
A complete list of the latest movies you can order 24/7.

News & Weather Now
Currently airing News & Weather programs you can be taken directly to with the touch of a button.

Sports Now
Sports programs available to watch now.

Kids Now
One list of all currently airing Kids programs.

HDTV Now
A list of currently airing HDTV programs.

[RussB]

Click here to go to a post that compares Navigator to SARA. There are other posts there that are about Navigator, most are before the post I link to.

I am glad that a new thread was created. Thanks, jacksonian for creating the new thread.

[jacksonian]

Thanks Russ, I know I wasn't the first messenger on this, but it seemed like it had gotten swept under the rug and forgotten about. I'm hoping TWC really rolls with this and it's a hot topic.

[Crazywoody]

According to my local TWC office plans are for all TWC regions to have Navigator by the second or not later than third quarter of next year.They are it seems trying to roll out Navigator at the same time Comcast is rolling out Tivo.Let the Navigator vs Tivo debate start.Seems both have a lot of simular features and a lot od different ones also.(Depends on what Tivo features Comcast loads in it's boxes)

[telemike]

I tried emailing my TWC Customer Service and recieved no answer. TWC, greensboro.

[jacksonian]

Mike, I have emailed Jack Stanley, the President of TWC Greensboro, and he actually emailed me back and asked about my dissatisfaction with the SARA SA8300. I'm waiting for his reply. One of their supervisors also called me and left a message to see if they could help. I'll post what I hear back.

[Crazywoody]

Was able to get in the pdf on TWC Nebraska.Some more sweet navigator features told about.In addition to 3 fast forward speeds you can flash forward in fifteen minutes increments.A new way of putting favorite channels first so you do not have to scroll thru a bunch of channels you do not care aboutAlso a new slow motion button with new features that was not revealed in the PDF.A lot more was spoken about but pdf so grainy on my webtv was hard to read.Cannot wait for navigator was very impressed.

[RussB]

Originally Posted by Crazywoody

Was able to get in the pdf on TWC Nebraska.Some more sweet navigator features told about.In addition to 3 fast forward speeds you can flash forward in fifteen minutes increments.A new way of putting favorite channels first so you do not have to scroll thru a bunch of channels you do not care aboutAlso a new slow motion button with new features that was not revealed in the PDF.A lot more was spoken about but pdf so grainy on my webtv was hard to read.Cannot wait for navigator was very impressed.

Here is a link to the pdf:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Media...sion_guide.pdf

It is grainy but I was able to zoom in to read it.

[michaeltscott]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

I'm hoping TWC really rolls with this and it's a hot topic.

TWC more or less has to roll this out next year. Their new Navigator is written to run on OCAP and goes hand-and-hand with the FCC's requirement that they stop buying new boxes with built-in conditional access methods and start buying ones with CableCARD slots. This requirement was scheduled to come into force on 1 July 2005, but the MSOs lobbied for and were granted an extension to 1 July 2007, in order to let them properly complete the OCAP and Multi-Stream Bidrectional CableCARD (M-CARD) specs. (The emergent CableCARD-less Downloadable Conditional Access system would also work with OCAP). Using Single-Stream Unidirectional CableCARDs (S-CARDs), they'd lose the interactive guide and STB functions which require communication with the system; most importantly, Video On Demand, Impulse Pay-Per-View and the new Switched Digital Video scheme). There's also the huge advantage that people with new OCAP/M-CARD-or-DCAS equipment will be able to run their guide and use VOD, IPPV and SDV channels without an STB.

I suppose that it would be possible to run an M-CARD cognizant version of Passport or SARA on the new boxes as well, but use of the new Navigator also give them absolute feature control.

Originally Posted by Crazywoody

Was able to get in the pdf on TWC Nebraska.Some more sweet navigator features told about.In addition to 3 fast forward speeds you can flash forward in fifteen minutes increments.A new way of putting favorite channels first so you do not have to scroll thru a bunch of channels you do not care aboutAlso a new slow motion button with new features that was not revealed in the PDF.A lot more was spoken about but pdf so grainy on my webtv was hard to read.Cannot wait for navigator was very impressed.

Many of the things that are highlighted in that guide as "new" features are already features of Passport Echo: to-the-next/previous-15-minute-mark skip and slow-motion to name a couple. In fact, the guide is extremely-Passport-esque (which was obviously modeled on the structure of TiVo's menus).

The features that are new to Passport include that list-favorite-channels first option, the "Enhanced TV Menu", on-screen Caller-ID and Caller-ID Log for cable digital phone users and the Recording Log (a TiVo-like feature to tell you why recordings weren't made or have been deleted that I have sorely missed).

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by michaeltscott

Many of the things that are highlighted in that guide as "new" features are already features of Passport Echo

I know, it's killing me. The 2 other big markets in my state use Passport and I'm stuck with SARA. I could probably live with Passport. Here's hoping Navigator comes soon (or even better--CC2.0 and a TiVo Series 4!)

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by RussB

Here is a link to the pdf:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Media...sion_guide.pdf

It is grainy but I was able to zoom in to read it.

Looks really clean and clear to me!

[michaeltscott]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

Looks really clean and clear to me!

I think that he was talking about what happens when you zoom into the tiny little screenshots to see the details.

[jacksonian]

D'oh! My bad. That's funny. Yes, the screen shots are grainy

[szurlo]

Found an article from June 16 on the multichannel website.

A few excerpts of interest:

"Through a deal with OpenTV Corp., Time Warner customers could wind up pulling up the names and numbers of telephone callers or a news clip while in the midst of watching a regular television show. The one-touch access to TV services will be made possible by OpenTV software that will be placed in 4 million Motorola Inc. digital set-top boxes in Time Warner households."

"OpenTV’s software will allow the cable operator to deploy its new Digital Navigator interactive program guide on the Motorola boxes. Time Warner will use the guide as a gateway to offer interactive content and services."


Now here's the really good part....(for those of us with SA boxes)

"Chief technology officer Mike LaJoie said Time Warner will also deploy Digital Navigator to set-tops from Scientific Atlanta Inc. — which are deployed in New York and on other major systems — later this year. "

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Steve

[michaeltscott]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

D'oh! My bad. That's funny. Yes, the screen shots are grainy

Also, the first guy who complained about graininess was trying to read it on his WebTV, with a probably maximum resolution of 640x480--the pictures are probably a hopeless blur on that.

[m_jonis]

Wonder if it has the "biggest" Tivo feature I miss:

SEASON passes that don't record repeats

Of course, my TW office has the crappy SARA software that can't even handle daylight savings time. (the last two time changes, they've told us that the boxes/software can't handle it and we have to delete ALL our scheduled recordings and set them up again to work correctly).

Of course, this also assumes this fixes the "kick to live" bug in the SARA software as well.

[RussB]

Originally Posted by m_jonis

Wonder if it has the "biggest" Tivo feature I miss:

SEASON passes that don't record repeats

Of course, my TW office has the crappy SARA software that can't even handle daylight savings time. (the last two time changes, they've told us that the boxes/software can't handle it and we have to delete ALL our scheduled recordings and set them up again to work correctly).

Of course, this also assumes this fixes the "kick to live" bug in the SARA software as well.

Digital Navigator has Record "first run" episodes. SARA has that also, if the program guide has the "new" flag set. Some cable systems may have never updated their program guide with the "new" flag information. I expect Digital Navigator would not have the "kick to live" bug. There are still conditions in 1.88.x.x where you can be "kicked to live", but if you use the "Play from Beginning" option on a recording program you won't be "kicked to live."

[gjlp]

The Passport system here in Charlotte, NC already has a Keyword search funtion in addition to a title search function. Keyword search allows you locate all programs that contain a particular keyword in either the title or program description, so for example if you were a wine enthusiast you could list all programs that either have the word, "wine" in the title or in the description. This is clearly a lot more powerful than the title search that only lists programs BEGINNING WITH whatever you type in.

All the information I have seen for the new Mystro Digital Navigator mention the title search but there is nothing about keyword search. If there is no keyword search then this is truly a step back. How do I find all movies starring my favorite actor or all shows about Italy?

TiVo, DirecTV and Dish Network all provide keyword search functionality. Please don't let us down Time Warner!

[Crazywoody]

From whatI understand Navigator lets you search by keyword,title.theme and rateing.It has all the sub options also to let you narrow your search down.For example if you type in movies it will give you sub options of differnt movie types such as comedy,action,kids ect.After you select that it seems you have another sub option to choose movies or shows with the rateing of your choice such as pd,pg-14.ma-14 -r- ect.From what i have seen very deep search options.

[fcsmith]

Any word on external SATA drive support? I just got this working with Passport, and would hate to lose it when they convert to Navigator. I'm already accustomed to the additional space

[DeathRay]

Can we get a 30-second skip forward button please?

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by DeathRay

Can we get a 30-second skip forward button please?

Let's not leap into a wormhole here, this IS Time Warner!

Let's get the basics first!

[michaeltscott]

Originally Posted by DeathRay

Can we get a 30-second skip forward button please?

I'm thinkin' probably not. This isn't TiVo or ReplayTV--you're not buying the unit and they have no motive to give you a tool to help you skip over the local advertisement that they insert. The next/previous-fifteen-minute-mark skip does skip ads, but it also skips all of the content; it's an aid for finding the place where you stopped watching.

TiVo's 30-second-skip was hidden and only accessible to savvy people using a "backdoor" operation to enable it. TiVo been working with the networks and advertiser to create a system for inserting static pop-up banner ads to appear while people are FF'ing or REW'ing through the normal ads.

[jacksonian]

You know, I've had TiVo for like 7 years and I've never used the 30 second skip backdoor. I actually don't mind FF'ing through them, sometimes I see an ad I want to stop and watch.

[Crazywoody]

Wonder if anyone from Nebraska with Digital Navigator would be so kind to post and let the rest of us know your thoughts on Navigator.

[Adelmoxi]

Do you think that TWC will roll out Navigator on Moto boxses and to other markets that use the current iGuide?

[RussB]

Originally Posted by Adelmoxi

Do you think that TWC will roll out Navigator on Moto boxses and to other markets that use the current iGuide?

Yes, TWC will roll out Navigator to Motorola DVRs, see post # 15 earlier in the thread and the article it links to.

[jqmn]

RussB-- given the transition in the Houston market from TWC to Comcast, do you know whether Navigator will come to the Houston marketplace? I have looked at both the Comcast and TWC (Houston) websites and don't see anything.

[RussB]

Originally Posted by jqmn

RussB-- given the transition in the Houston market from TWC to Comcast, do you know whether Navigator will come to the Houston marketplace? I have looked at both the Comcast and TWC (Houston) websites and don't see anything.

I don't know one way or the other. I doubt if TWC would spend the time and money to get Navigator working in Houston only to have to remove it when Comcast takes over. I haven't seen any plans that Comcast has for Houston. I am interested in what DVRs they will offer, and whether they will offer a premium DVR with the TiVo software interface like they will in some of the other Comcast markets.