Cleveland, OH - TWC - Page 776

The guide presented in my area is 4:3 , most screens today are HDTV .
My boxes are set up to deliver HDTV , the Guide should be presented to use the extra real estate.
The new guide is slow to the point of unusable.
If it is not displaying "please wait" then it is the painful scrolling which takes forever to move even a few channels up or down.

I gave up on the guide, I use an ipad to find my shows .

I do not use a TWC DVR.

If everyone had a HD television then you'd be absolutely correct. But don't forget not only do people still not have HD television, some still use analog television and TWC provides coverage for those people.

Now it seems to me to look at the larger display all you would need to do is stretch your screen and you'd have the guide in a larger display. While my TiVo doesn't show the guide in HD it does stretch it (automatically) to fit your screen.

Using an iPad is a great idea as well. Isn't it great we have these options that we didn't have 3 years ago?


Here's another option that works great as well you can access on your iPhone or Android phone. www.zap2it.com. Essentially this is the same guide used by TiVo provided by Tribune Media Services. You'd have to punch in the buttons on your remote of course but you would get better guide information. TiVo owners can also program their DVR's from this site.

Extra edit: Any smart phone. I forget about Blackberry and Windows. Funny considering how big Blackberry was at one time.
Edited by hookbill - 8/28/12 at 5:35am

This fills the screen, but it distorts the picture. It also does not benefit from the additional screen real estate you get with HD resolutions.

If someone were to ask me the #1 thing I want from Time Warner Cable in terms of a cable box feature, I would undoubtedly say a 720p/1080p guide that fills a 16:9 screen and is capable of showing 7 or 8 channels and 3 hours worth of listings. The reason the current guide feels cramped is because it is. You can see 5 channels, and 1½ hours of listings. All of the other providers I've used (at friends' and family's houses) have HD 16:9 guides. I really don't understand why it's taking TWC so long to implement this. I once posed the question to their social media team, and they implied that it is because of a limitation of the box software.
Edited by MaximusMMIV - 8/30/12 at 12:47pm

On the TiVo Guide we do see 3 hours of programming and if you want to go further you simply arrow right. Matter of fact if you push the >| key you go 24 hours ahead of time.

But it's like they say, software limitations. Since I have an older TiVo I don't know if the Premier has improved the UI at all. I will say this about the new DVR's and their software: They have taken it much further then I could of imagined five years ago.

So I'm assuming we are stuck with the black on white guide with no option to reverse it or use something else color-wise like on this forum? It's pretty tough to look at this way. To me, anyway.

If you stay with their DVR you are only going to get what they give you. You do have options. Get your own DVR. Get rid of cable and use an antenna (if you can, I can't), Direct TV, Dish, watch television via Roku, or Apple TV. Outside of Dish and Direct TV all those other options have limitations. I don't know of any other DVR's that are out there other then TiVo but I seem to remember there were some coming up. Haven't kept up with it. And if you do that you lose your On Demand options. Then there are DVR service fees. I think TiVo wants 19.95 a month or some ridiculous thing like that. I have lifetime subscriptions on my TiVos so I paid like $350.00 one time. Still expensive.

TiVo does have two guide options for viewing upcoming programming, and their various search features as well.

Moxi was showing a lot of promise, but cable companies dragged their feet just long enough on tru2way to kill them off.

Moxi, yeah I remember that name now. Did it fold or something? Is there nothing else but TiVo for cable?

They were bought out by a company that makes equipment for operators. The technology was absorbed into their existing products, and the Moxi devices were discontinued.

Well, that's a lose lose thing for the consumer. IMHO TiVo should have some competition, then again some might say they are surprised to still see them in business. I remember people predicting their demise around 2004. Funny how things work. In the 1990's many were talking about Apple's demise. I'm not comparing TiVo to Apple, just saying it's amazing how business works.

Consumers Reports mentioned that Vizio just introduced a new model LCD TV 21 x 9 for the movie purist. I believe it is 55 inches. Well Iguess I throw away my other TV's now and spend $2,500.00 for a new one.
JJK

FYI on most of these boxes it is not a software limitation to showing a 16:9 guide but a hardware one. Basically comes down to while the video feed can be decoded and displayed in up to full 16:9 1080i/p, there is a separate set of hardware in the box which specifically renders on screen displays and the large majority of boxes in use today can only render 4:3 480p graphics (which then get upscaled as necessary for the output resolution you are displaying). From what I can recall the newer Samsungs in TWC territories have the hardware to do 16:9 (not sure about HD, might still be SD) graphics but it is much less painful to keep one singular version of the guide across the board so the common denominator is the older incapable boxes so everyone gets the crappy 4:3 guide.

Semi-related note in regards to the few posts about third party DVR's: Whether or not you are aware, an HTPC with Windows Media Center is also a very viable option. Yeah, it is not for everyone and I certainly wouldn't suggest it to anyone but those who actually know the ins and outs of Windows. But if you fit that bill, check it out! Up front costs are a tad steep, but no subscription fees and a feature packed system outweigh that by far IMHO.

My new Del PC is a Media computer and I have recorded HD channels but without a box or a card you are limited to what you can do with it. Unless you know what you are doing, and obviously I don't.

I tried to record Hell's Kitchen off of it for my wife but I was unsuccessful about how to take the file that was recorded and load it into Drop Box. Right now I have a splitter doming from just before my modem/router so I can get all basic TWC, but no digital shows. You and I have talked about this probably 2 years ago, you were the first to get on the PC bandwagon. Well, I'm trying to figure some stuff out but so far not so good. And Just like TiVo, no transfer of digital programming, not that I get any of ther then local HD channels. Suggestions?

They did it. They finally did it.

They got off their lazy ***** and updated the legal notices, albeit it's dated for August 24th but they actually changed it.

Sorry for the late reply. As for moving recordings over, that should be as simple as opening an explorer window (any location. Can use computer, Music, Documents, etc from the start menu) and on the left panel at the very top hit 'Recorded TV'. But please do check the file size first. Most likely the capture card in your machine is saving as MPEG2 (I have not seen a capture device designed to work with WMC that does MPEG4 yet. The Hauppage HD-PVR does but it is more or less a dedicated capture device and has to be hacked to work as a tuner with WMC at last check) and produces huge filesizes especially with HD material. IIRC last time I had my OTA tuner hooked up an SD subchannel netted me around 600MB per hour of recordings. If this is an analog channel it could be higher depending on recording settings. HD I do not recall but is pretty huge. Likely in the 5-8GB area per hour. If she is destined to put these on Dropbox you're going to need to find a tool to convert them to H264 and downsize them. I had one in particular I used when I did more OTA recordings on my PC which basically watched for new recordings, went in and automatically cut commercials and converted to a smaller H264 file. Though was a bit buggy and does require a bit of setting up outright. If you are wanting to check that out it is called MCEBuddy: http://mcebuddy.com/ Past that I'm not fully aware of what is out there that would be a simple endeavor to go through.

Capturing details regarding TWC: A standard ClearQAM card which you likely have will, at best and highly likely on TWC, get you just your basic analog channels and your local HD's and MAYBE a few lesser channels they don't care about leaving open in digital. Years ago I checked on my TV up in that area and I believe the 'extras' I got was WKYC (mind you in my area that is not our DMA. WFMJ was our equivalent NBC channel) plus the weather subchannel and also seemed to get subchannels of a few other OTA stations which are not in TWC's official channel listing. In addition seemed to be stuff like the PPV preview channel, a shopping channel here or there, and that was it. If all you get is the analogs with no sign of digital channels you either don't have a QAM tuner (check and see. If it says ATSC that is a good sign) or you have too many splitters ahead of it reducing the signal beyond usability. In my personal experience PC based tuners seem to be a hair more sensitive than your average set-top or TV tuner.

If you want more than that such as your paid for premium channels you'll need to pick up a CableCard ready tuner which, thankfully, are abundant these days more than they were a few years ago. All you really need to do is run a quick google search for CableCard tuners and you aren't more than a click away from one. Hauppauge has one, SiliconDust has one, and a company called Ceton has a couple in their arsenal. All comes down to what your PC can use (If it is an All-in-one you can only use ethernet or USB based ones, otherwise Ceton's is internal), how may tuners you want, and your budget.

As far as transferring files it is just about the same as Tivo's (if they haven't changed things) and largely depends on what copy protection TW sends down. If it is set to copy freely, you can copy and move the file around however you wish. If copy once or never, you are SOL and have to watch it on the same machine recorded. Unfortunately as we all know that is standard in the cable industry and not a Windows/WMC thing.

Hope that helps at least a little bit!

Well, I'll certainly look at that when my TiVo's go. I can't say for certain but I'm pretty sure it was an mpeg4 file that was saved. And even if you get cable cards you would still not be able to transfer the file, is that not true? I mean if you are recording something that isn't on a local HD channel.

Right now I take the .tivo file and use a sweet software called Aunusoft to covert it to .mp4. It also allows me to go in there and change the sound mix, since my wife doesn't have a Dolby set up she doesn't need 5.1 so I do it in stereo. This, in about 12 minutes converts the file and reduces the size down to 2.15 GB. I drop it in dropbox.

Now there are other shows that she's really big on on like on SciFi that I'm not too hot about so if there is a way to slide those protected shows over, that would be nice.

All boils down to the copy protection bits TWC has set just like your Tivo. Unfortunately if memory serves, 99.99% of TW's channels outside of locals are set to prohibit copying. No way around that outside of using something like Hauppauge's HD-PVR which is a hacky workaround and requires continuing to rent a cableco STB or running a Tivo behind it.

There WAS an issue way back when ATI's single tuner cablecard device was the only solution in town; Their initial firmware mistakenly set the copy once/never bit on everything regardless of what came from upstream. This was fixed in later firmware versions and is non-existant with tuners from other manufacturers.

Generally speaking if the intent is to view the material outside the house I would sooner recommend something like the HD-PVR which uses component video for input which means no copy protection and it can be used essentially like a VCR. Schedule a recording and have it control the STB to change the channel at the desired time. But if the focus is more inside the home, the WMC route personally takes my vote. And if you don't mind splurging a little extra you can pick up an Xbox 360 or two (even the older gen 1 which you could probably find cheaply) to feed secondary TV's which can view all recordings regardless of copy protection.

I don't want an X Box, because I sincerley believe I have enough crap to keep me busy anyway She cna just watch those shows at home. Som I like ss well like True Blood. Her interest in TV isn't all that great. hell's Kitchen, Amazing Race. Those I can send to her.

And we have NFL Network http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000064647/article/nfl-network-time-warner-cable-reach-multiyear-agreement

The appropriate channels (for Cleveland and the entire Midwest region):

NFL Network: 346-SD, 1346-HD
NFL RedZone: 347-SD, 1347-HD

Hell has frozen over. The end is near. TWC is finally giving us NFL Network.

Should of happened 2 or 3 years ago, whenever it was started.

Actually, it was roughly six years, after TWC took over Adelphia, that NFL Network was taken off the Cleveland-area systems. Also, I should have said that all the Midwest region systems who have the common digital lineup for channels 100 and above (for non-local channels) are getting NFL Network and RedZone, at least. There are still systems in our area that are STILL analog only (no channels 100 and above), and they are: Hopedale, Leesville, Jewett and Scio (in Harrison County, OH), plus Put-in-Bay, OH.

Did anybody else have complete dropouts on the Browns game last night. Channel 3 via Time Warner, Copley area old Adelphia

Browns are great for background noise on a Sunday afternoon, but watch them in the evening?

Sorry bassguitarman, I didn't see the game. But I do know how loyal Cleveland fans are to their team and I truly feel for everyone that they can't seem to win no matter what. But hey, you all have to be happy that my Raiders beat the Steelers last weekend in Oakland. I see we have a game on week 13 scheduled with the Browns. Won't be for much I'm sure, but at least my Raiders have won 2 games.

Anyway at least you get extra time to prepare for whomever next is coming in. I really would like the Browns to win, I'd like to be a Browns fan but after living hear for 8 years and seeing the same thing happen again and again. How many quarter backs have they tried. Defense looks better but the offense is horrible. I don't think they have won more then 4 games in a season in the 8 years I've been here.

Raiders haven't been much better but they are still my team. Good luck the rest of the way out and bassguitarman, hope someone gives you an answer and doesn't do what I did. More then likely if you had a lot of freezing and nobody responds it was probably an issue at the node.

30 plus years a Browns fan
glutton for punishment
the glitches were weird dropouts
complete loss of signal including the digital audio dropping coming from the box
had to be upstream somewhere since the box recorded them

The dropouts were caused by the NFL network and not your local TV station They did fix them after the first half.
JJK

Completely unrelated, but I picked up a HDHomerun 3 today. Pretty cool device, have it hooked up to my TWC feed. It only gets the OTA equivalents (I knew this going into it), but it does that job nicely. I've been playing with it in both MythTV and Windows Media Center.

If nothing else, it will definitely help with the upcoming yearly fall problem where my wife and I have "just one too many" primetime shows scheduled to record at the same time. My wife's shows can record on the Tivo as normal - I can have MythTV record my shows from the HDHR, then automagically transcode them to something that can be later downloaded/viewed on the Tivo. (We do have a TWC DVR on the bedroom TV that historically has taken up the overflow, but having to record and watch things there is considered somewhat of a punishment.)

The geek in me is happy.

Anyone want to start a pool for how long it will take to update the Legal Notices page again? We're 1+ months already.

Just wanted to see if anyone was having internet problems this week. I'm in the Akron area and have a Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem from Time Warner so I finally decided to try and watch a film on VUDU since I got the credit for signing my Roku 2XS up but while trying to watch Dark Shadows the signal kept cutting out every 3-5 minutes with the same network problems or unable to stream. Each time it would do this I would check my modem in the other room and just as the signal dropped all the lights on the modem would stop then they would come back on after 30 secs or so. I did the speed test and it was at the top so I assumed my signal was strong enough for 1080p (I am wired and my ethernet run is only about 8 feet from the modem to the display in my living room and was showing 3 bars). Tried watching the same film downstairs on my new OPPO BDP-103 in my HT and it did the same thing, though for some reason I was only getting one bar. That run is also wired but is probably between 30-50 ft. from my modem through the floor and into the basement. So I then tried watching a film on Netflix to see if it might be a cable problem and called up Shooter and it ran for 30 minutes without stopping or rebuffering down from the HD signal. So not sure if this is a total VUDU problem or a Roku problem or still a cable problem. This was around 10pm Friday night but even at close to 2am the signal would still drop out from VUDU. Tried rebooting the Roku and my modem but the problem persisted. So sitting here right now I'm watching the lights on my modem; from top is power, receive, send, online, pc/activity and standby. The first four are all steady green and pc/activity is blinking orange. Standby is off. What happens is that all of a sudden the top four (every now and then it only send and online that go out) will just go out and then one by one will start glowing again untill they are all steady. Not sure what's going on so will probably call the TW to see if I may have a problem. Just now all the lights went out and now are coming back on one by one. Even when that happened Shooter was still playing in HD to my left. Perhaps there's a problem with the modem. Anyway just wanted to post what's been happening here in case anyone else was having a similar problem before calling Time Warner. thanks for any help you can give me.

If all the lights go out that usually would mean a power problem with the modem or failure of the modem itself. The first light on the modem is power.
JJK