Houston, TX - Comcast / DBS - Page 286

Originally Posted by hdguru

Sorry friends for no recent posts. I've been having some PC issues wherein it is not keeping new cookies or history. Several fix attempts have not solved the issue, and it may be time to ditch the old PC. A new laptop with a quadcore processor should be here within a week or so.

Meanwhile, having had about enough of Comcast, and not wanting to give them the full bundle (phone, Internet, TV), I had U-verse installed about a month ago. My assessment is that if you're in a new neighborhood, with fiber to the house, I think it's OK. However, we are experiencing some issues caused by the network node being several blocks away, causing us to get our signal through 40 yr old copper. If they can solve these, I think we'll be OK; however, if they can't, I may well return to Comcast for TV only. (Even to save $45/mo, it's not worth it to give Comcast my Internet and landlines.)

1. Never a "dull moment"

2. The grass ain't necessarily greener with an alternate supplier.

Regards to all!

Originally Posted by jb4647

That's just madness!

Originally Posted by jruhnke

Why? The only reason there's an issue is because there's ambiguity in how a program is determined to be "NEW". That has more to do with network policies re: whether a program is first-run in different markets at different times, and whether it is re-run in close proximity to the first run. The guide software is not magic or omniscient...if there's no foolproof way for it to determine a program is first-run, then there are going to be problems.

If that problem could be solved, the two options would be quite reasonable there are times I would use either one over the other.

The simple solution (in my mind) is to add the comparison logic of the "New and Repeats" option to the "Only New" option, so that it accounts for the possibility that a program could be mistakenly identified as first-run multiple times, and skip the repeats.

Originally Posted by jb4647

The average person out there is going to have the same issue I did and not have access to an inside-baseball forum such as this one.

Originally Posted by RussB

There is a link to where you can download a user manual and other useful information for the new guide in the post at the following link:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post20198806

Originally Posted by hdguru

Sorry friends for no recent posts.

I have a few questions, How do I record one show Monday through Friday and how to record all episodes of one show at any time, any day? I sure hope those features aren't gone with the new format.
I agree with everyone else, it looks AWFUL! I miss the tv station icons on the guide, sometimes I have no idea what the station letters mean without seeing their logo. And the ad at the bottom of the page is so very annoying, there is one that is bright orange that hurts your eyes when it pops up. I wish we had a choice between the old guide and the new, I would choose the old one is a heartbeat.

Karen | March 24, 2011 1:05 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37829

Hello Karen and thanks for your feedback and questions.

You are able to manage your series priority list (Menu, DVR, Series Priority) to insure that the prime time programs/recordings are of a higher priority. The airings of the lower priority shows should still record in the off-prime time slots. We do have something very similar to the "record this time, this day, this channel" for DVRs included in a future guide release coming later this year.

Besides setting a series recording, one option is to set a manual DVR recording: To set up a recurring manual recording - Press the My DVR button on your Comcast remote control, select Set a Recording, then Set a Manual recording, enter in your start and end times and start date. Choose the channel and then view recording settings - the settings can be modified to record once, every day, once a week, or weekdays. To clarify on the DVR series recording settings - there are three options: Only new episodes, New and repeats, All with duplicates. New and repeats would record new and repeat episodes but is designed to only record each episode one time. All with duplicates would not be discretionary and would record the episode numerous times.

Another option: Change the DVR recording options to "Save only one episode". The default is "All Episodes". You can change that to save only 1 episode (this would save only the most recent episode). The other options allow you to save 2 episodes up to 7 episodes. From the grid, select a series to record. Press OK/Select and then arrow over to the red dot on the info screen (set or cancel a recording) Press OK/Select. Choose "Set Up a series recording". Then select "View all settings". Arrow down to "Save:"

Something that you may have already discovered (and a tip I will share for others) is that you are able to skip over the ads in the guide (as in not land on them) by using the Page Up or Page Down key on your remote control while browsing the TV listings grid.

This new guide is just one step of a multi-step process of improvements, enhancements and new features for our customers in our SA areas.

The on-screen guide that was previously in your area had not added any new features or functionality in many years. The path for future features and quick innovation is through this new guide - features that a majority of our customers have been asking for and features that are already available in the majority of Comcast areas. The main reason why we are implementing this on-screen guide change is to be able to deliver additional features and services to all of our customers a lot quicker. Some examples of these future features include Caller ID to the TV, myDVR Manager (scheduling your DVR via your phone or from the internet) and AnyRoom DVR. These are features that cannot quickly be delivered via the current software that you have on your cable box today. The Caller ID to the TV feature is a great value added benefit for our Comcast Digital Voice customers.

There are many benefits of the new guide that I think you will discover over time and additional use. For example, we have heard directly from many customers that they now appreciate the new search feature - plus the layout, speed and responsiveness of the new On Demand menu. There are many other improvements included in this guide, including multiple favorites list, additional channel grids, parental lock by title, local weather and much more.

Thanks again for your feedback and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Karen | March 25, 2011 1:51 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37851

Ted,

In Houston we received the new guide on our standard def 8300 DVRs and our HD RNG200 DVRs this month.

While it looks pretty and gives us interesting new features like search, frankly this new guide is no good. I'm not one of those folks opposed to change for change sake. I'm an IT Project Manager by trade so I understand how to roll out new systems and that folks don't always like the new thing.

Having said that, one important thing to remember is when you roll out a new system, at the very least it must continue to have the same critical functionality as the old system. This new guide is deficient in several respects:

I like to record several cable shows that also have repeats during the week such as "Pierce Morgan", "The Daily Show", etc.... When I set my DVR to record "Only New Episodes" I expect it to record only the first live airing and no others. This is a basic functionally of the old guide. If I wanted 5 copies of the same Jon Stewart show I'd set it for "New and repeats." I can see how this will fill up my DVR when I'm on vacation.

Another key miss is for no rhyme or reason, the new guide on my RNG200 decides to record a scheduled show on the SD channel rather than the HD one.

I've got Letterman set to record all new episodes on 611 in HD. Last night it recorded the SD channel 11 version. I checked the future recordings and they are also set to record SD channel 11.

I further checked and my scheduled recordings of "NBC Nightly News" is all set to record on SD 12 rather than HD 612. Both programs were set to record by going to their listing on the actual HD channel, selecting them and then setting the series recording.

I have an HD TV to watch HD programming, not SD programming.

I see no way to alter this.

As I've said Ted, change is not bad. But change that takes away core functionally of the product is bad no matter what new features are offered.

At a very minimum, most people expect their DVR to record the programs they want on the channel they choose and at the time it aired. Anything that alters this basic mission statement is just bad design.

Thank you.

Josh Burdick | March 24, 2011 8:42 AM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37820

Hello Mr. Burdick and thanks for your feedback and questions.

This new guide is just one step of a multi-step process of improvements, enhancements and new features for our customers in our SA areas.

The on-screen guide that was previously in your area had not added any new features or functionality in many years. The path for future features and quick innovation is through this new guide - features that a majority of our customers have been asking for and features that are already available in the majority of Comcast areas. The main reason why we are implementing this on-screen guide change is to be able to deliver additional features and services to all of our customers a lot quicker. Some examples of these future features include Caller ID to the TV, myDVR Manager (scheduling your DVR via your phone or from the internet) and AnyRoom DVR. These are features that cannot quickly be delivered via the current software that you have on your cable box today. The Caller ID to the TV feature is a great value added benefit for our Comcast Digital Voice customers.

There are many benefits of the new guide that I think you will discover over time and additional use. For example, we have heard directly from many customers that they now appreciate the new search feature (sounds like you found that to be an improvement) - plus the layout, speed and responsiveness of the new On Demand menu. There are many other improvements included in this guide, including multiple favorites list, additional channel grids, parental lock by title, local weather and much more.

Our team looked into the recording issues you mentioned and are taking steps to get these corrected. There were national data issues from Comedy Central that recently impacted The Daily Show. That is more of an explanation than an excuse but we have raised that concern with this cable network and with our guide listings date supplier.

For Letterman on CBS, there may have been an issue when the data settings and scheduled recordings transferred from the old guide to the new guide. Apologies for this problem. My suggestion would be to delete this scheduled series recording and then reset the recording on the HD channel and then check your scheduled recordings after that. There is also an option to record on 'This channel only' which will further ensure that the recording will occur on the HD channel.

To delete the scheduled recording > Press the myDVR button on the Comcast silver remote control, then go to Scheduled Recordings, select the program, then arrow over to the red dot (Set or cancel a recording) then Press Ok/Select and then select Don't Record.

You are also able to set a recording for "This Channel Only". From the Program Info screen, select the red dot (set or cancel a recording), then choose "Set up a series recording" then select "View all settings" and arrow down to "Record programs on:" The available options are "This channel only" (the default) or "All Channels". The concern about a setting of "only this channel, only this time" as a default setting would be when a cable or broadcast channel moved your program; it would not record the new time slot.

You are also able to set up a single or recurring manual recording on any channel for any duration. Push the MyDVR button on your Comcast remote control, select "Set a recording", then 'Set a manual recording'. There you can set the start and end time and select the channel to record. Next, select "View Recording Settings" and make a selection, the options are "Once", "Everyday", "Once a Week", or "Mon-Fri". I hope that helps.

There is a DVR overview booklet and user guide you can download available here: http://www.comcast.net/meetyourguide/#downloads

Thanks again for your feedback and comments and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Josh Burdick | March 25, 2011 2:12 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37852

Originally Posted by RobertWy

Yep. Been there, done that. Didn't have any pretty pictures of this issue. I tried last night to change to the "new and repeat" option, but I'm having second thoughts today. Maybe I should just choose the "record this channel, this day, this time" and live with recording and deleting repeats. I also noticed last night that I was over 90% on space used. With the old guide, I was down to 30%. I really got tired of screwing with this last night. It's really frustrating, learning a new interface and not having docs for every screen. I have been a computer programmer for 40 years, so I don't have a lot of patience with this.

Originally Posted by RussB

The following posts are from Comcast's Ted Hodgins, Sr. Director, Video Product Development - Navigation, in Media & Entertainment, "New Guide for Scientific Atlanta Cable Boxes" blog:

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...ble-boxes.html

Recording issues with "The Daily Show", "Letterman" and recording the SD channel instead of the HD channel, see underlined section.

Originally Posted by jruhnke

Ted Hodgin's Comcast blog is about the only direct feedback path I'm aware of for expressing displeasure with the new guide. Posting here might be cathartic, but no one from Comcast is paying attention here.

SCHEDULE UPDATE

NEW MEXICO: The remaining cable box models in the Comcast areas of New Mexico are scheduled to get the new on-screen program guide this week. Impacted customers received notification and materials in the mail recently with additional details on this guide update.

TEXAS: Houston and Galveston customers with the SA 8300 HD cable box models are scheduled to get the new on-screen program guide this week. Impacted customers received notification and materials in the mail recently with additional details on this guide update. Due to the large size of the Comcast area in Texas, we need to roll out the guide on a rolling schedule by box type. Box types are currently scheduled weekly through April.

TENNESSEE, ARKANSAS AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI: The remaining cable box models in the Memphis area are scheduled to get the new on-screen guide next week. Impacted customers should have received notification and materials in the mail recently with additional details on this guide update.

Impacted areas for the Memphis area include:

TN: Arlington, Bartlett, Brighton, Burlison, Colliersville, Cordova, Covington, Eads, Gallaway, Germantown, Grand Junction, LaGrange, Mason, Memphis, Middleton, Moscow, Oakland, Pocahontas, Rossville, Saulsbury, Somerville, Stanton, Whiteville, Williston

MS: Byhalia, Booneville, Coldwater, Como, Crenshaw, Hernando, Holly Springs, Horn Lake, Lake Cormorant, Mount Pleasant, Nesbit, Olive Branch, Red Banks, Robinsonville, Sardis, Senatobia, Sledge, Southaven, Tiplersville, Tunica, Walls, Walnut

AR: Earle, Marion, Parkin, West Memphis

Schedules are subject to change. There are many more details on the new on-screen guide are available here: http://www.comcast.net/meetyourguide/

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Ted Hodgins | March 28, 2011 3:14 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37946

Frankly, the new guide is horrible. I don't care how many features or enhancements there are or there will be, it is just plain awful. I have put up with service interruptions, most recently last night, and incorrect billing. The reason I switched from direct TV was due to the guide and now that the new guide is much the same, I guess I will be switching back. Being in the customer service/sales industry for many years, it seems that Comcast would have asked for feedback or tested the new format before rolling it out to customers. Say what you will, but I have not found a single person who has had good things to say.

Dru | March 25, 2011 3:28 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37867

Hello Dru and thanks for your feedback.

I can see that you are not entirely satisfied with the new guide. Using the new on-screen guide may be a challenge initially for some customers, especially after using the same on-screen guide interface for many years. I can certainly understand and appreciate that.

You should have also received information about the new guide in the mail. Apologies if you did not receive that information.

I would encourage you to take a look at the online information provided in the links below

http://www.comcast.net/meetyourguide
http://www.comcast.net/meetyourguide/#downloads


There is also a pretty good DVR overview available here (it should have also been mailed to your home) http://por-img.cimcontent.net/ui/pdf...5_DVR_0111.pdf

This new guide is just one step of a multi-step process of improvements, enhancements and new features for our customers in our SA areas. The on-screen guide that was previously in your area had not added any new features or functionality in many years. The path for future features and quick innovation is through this new guide - features that a majority of our customers have been asking for and features that are already available in the majority of Comcast areas. The main reason why we are implementing this on-screen guide change is to be able to deliver additional features and services to all of our customers a lot quicker. Some examples of these future features include Caller ID to the TV, myDVR Manager (scheduling your DVR via your phone or from the internet) and AnyRoom DVR. These are features that cannot quickly be delivered via the current software that you have on your cable box today. The Caller ID to the TV feature is a great value added benefit for our Comcast Digital Voice customers. There are many benefits of the new guide that I think you will discover over time and additional use. For example, we have heard directly from many customers that they now appreciate the new search feature - plus the layout, speed and responsiveness of the new On Demand menu. There are many other improvements included in this guide, including multiple favorites list, additional channel grids, parental lock by title, local weather and much more.

As with all of our new products, we have extensively tested the new guide with an independent research firm with real customers in Scientific Atlanta areas and also received much direct feedback on usability.

We also now have this guide (or a very similar version of this guide) now in over 26 million Comcast cable boxes across the country. Many other cable companies use this same guide. There actually has been some positive feedback from Comcast customers in this very blog.
Competition and choice is good for everyone. It forces companies to innovate, develop and implement better products and allows consumers to have choices. Of course, I hope that you choose to keep Comcast as your video service provider, but it is great to have options.
Please let me know if you have any specific questions not answered by the above links that I may be able to assist with. Thanks again for your feedback and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Dru | March 27, 2011 10:24 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37908

Thanks for your help and I have solved a few problems now but one that is totally perplexing me....Most of my shows I can record a series and I can see the red O))) on the listing in the guide but some shows, no matter what I do I can only get it to record one single episode. I have my settings set to "new and repeats" and "all episodes" and it will only record one episode and sometimes, I can't get it to record at all. I have tried the manual settings with the same results.
I understand that this is suppose to be new and improved but to me, it is not. You say that the old guide hadn't been updated in ages but yet the new guide is missing so many easy to use features like the "record all episodes, any time any day on this channel" Sometimes, channels run marathons of my favorite shows and it is annoying to have to record each time slot.
I wonder if there was a poll, how many people would want the old guide back. I have a feeling no one is as excited as you are about the new guide ;-)

Karen | March 25, 2011 6:56 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37872

Hello Karen, glad some of my comments were helpful. A quick way to record a series through the guide listings grid is to press the record button twice on the silver Comcast remote control.

Or from the guide grid select a program, then press Info on the silver Comcast remote control (below the down arrow). Then select the red dot (set or cancel a recording), then select "Set up a series recording". Select your recording settings and then select "Record series with these Settings".

As with all of our new products, we have extensively tested the new guide with an independent research firm with real customers in Scientific Atlanta areas and also received much direct and positive feedback on usability.

There actually has been some positive customer feedback in this very blog.

Thanks again for your feedback and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Karen | March 27, 2011 10:49 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37911

It seems that the software upgrade installed at least partially on my external eSATA hard drive and wiped several of my most recent recordings. When I turned off or unplugged the ext. drive, the cable box would crash to a black screen. I have now done a hard reboot of all 4 DVRs with the ext. drives disconnected. The software seems to have redownloaded and correctly reinstalled completely on the cable box drives, and now my eSATA drives are recognized when I plug them back in.The recordings are still gone. I guess the Cisco RNG200 box treated the download like a recording- a little to each hard drive as it downloaded. But I am glad to know the eSATA ports still are active. Who wouldn't spend $100 for another 1 TB of DVR storage?

Jerry Gibson replied to comment from Ted Hodgins | March 25, 2011 9:58 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37876

Hello Mr. Gibson and thanks for your feedback. Apologies for the issues you experienced with your external hard drive and the new guide.

For our DVR customers in Scientific Atlanta areas who may be using a separate external hard drive (connected via e-SATA) for additional DVR storage, that functionality is expected to continue and the existing DVR recordings should have been preserved. While not an officially supported Comcast configuration, we have extensively tested the new guide with external hard drives and the e-SATA port in our labs and in the field. Any existing external hard drives will be able to be used with the new guide for future recordings similar to how it is used today. We have had several customers also report in this blog that their existing recordings were preserved on their external hard drive.

Thanks again for your feedback and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Jerry Gibson | March 27, 2011 11:01 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37913

Ted, you have mentioned many times that the elimination of PIP concerns the goals and timing of future releases. What does that actually mean? Any SA/Cisco box with a DVR definitely has two tuners and therefore should be capable of PIP. What goals and timing require that this feature be eliminated? Please explain what those goals actually are. Logically, instead of taking PIP away from Cisco/SA users, the i-guide software should be written in a manner that retains PIP for SA/Cisco users and brings it to Motorola users too. Yet that's not the case for some reason. I agree that the outgoing SARA guide is terribly dated, but how does something that hasn't been updated since 1998 have a cool function than a guide meant for 2011 doesn't?

Why is the new guide stretching a 4:3 aspect ratio SD guide into a 16:9 aspect ratio? An SD image that is stretched to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio will experience pixelation and distortion. Why force this upon users instead of at least giving them a chance to choose whether to see the guide in its native aspect ratio or stretch it voluntarily instead of on a mandatory basis?

Will a market scheduled to get phase 1 of the new guide in April or May have an honest chance of seeing phase 4, and the return of pass through, in calendar year 2011? Phase 1 is a delayed and dated Beta that was meant to have been released many years ago and seems buggy based on user comments. Phase 4 and beyond is what this is really building to. Any wait time for it that goes into 2012 is too long.

Max | March 25, 2011 11:34 PM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37879

Hello Max. Many thanks for your comments and questions.

Picture-in-Picture (PIP) functionality was a feature that was available with the previous guide on our Scientific Atlanta (SA) DVR cable boxes. I completely understand that this was a valuable core feature for some of our customers. I was disappointed that we were not able to retain PIP in this guide. Unfortunately, this unique feature could not be supported by the new guide given the goals and timing of this and future releases. Some televisions have a PIP feature built in. The new guide does not impact your television set's PIP functionality (if it has one). This link may help: http://www.comcast.com/MediaLibrary/...nts/pip_tv.pdf

You would need to also use the TV remote control to use and control the PIP display.

As with any business, difficult decisions are often made. PIP was only available in our SA/Cisco DVRs. The PIP feature impacted a small percentage of our SA customers and an even smaller percentage of our overall customers - most of which have never had the PIP feature through their cable box.

We did not make the decision to not retain the PIP feature lightly. The ability to keep this feature and incorporate it into phase one of the new guide would have significantly delayed this project and subsequent downstream projects even more - like the guide that we really want to get out in front of our customers later this year (and the guide that you personally want). PIP is not currently on our feature roadmap.

We also conducted extensive research around the importance of the PIP feature in the current guide and as a potential future feature in upcoming guides.

In our on-going customer research, PIP continues to drop in ranking of importance of features that the majority of our current customers (and potential customers) use or want. PIP was only ever available with DVRs in our SA areas (a very small percentage). I certainly understand that there is a passionate customer base for PIP. We also realize that there are some customers who will not be happy about this decision and even some customers who may choose another video service provider that offers the PIP feature.

A new feature that is available with the new guide is the Pause, Swap, Pause functionality, which allows a customer to pause a current program that they are watching (i.e. football game on one channel), swap tuners to another channel and watch the programming on that channel for five minutes, pause that channel and then swap back to the original channel (football game), which is still paused. Not meant to be a replacement for PIP, but a low tech full-screen alternative that may suffice in many cases.

The next versions of the guide with Interactive TV applications - Caller ID to the TV, HSN Shop By remote and other applications that our Motorola based customers already have (phases 2 and 3) are expected to start customer deployments over the summer.

We expect to begin broad deployment of the referenced phase 4 guide (On Screen Guide 2.0 with AnyRoom DVR) on our RNG devices later this year, first to our SA/Cisco markets.

Thanks again for your comments and thanks for being a Comcast customer.

Ted Hodgins replied to comment from Max | March 28, 2011 11:47 AM

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/05/new-...#comment-37924

Originally Posted by jb4647

...but he really didn't answer them. Don't quite understand what the new features that are being introduced have to do with the critical features of DVR recording. Why does adding these new features take away the important ones?

Originally Posted by jb4647

I've went in and checked and the new episodes are labeled "new" and the repeats are labeled "repeat."

Don't know where the problem is but someone has to fix something.

But did you notice the new guide was BLUE??

Originally Posted by Ted Hodgins

With this new on-screen guide we also have a new guide data listings provider. This is the same data listings provider that is used in our Motorola markets and most all cable systems .

How the DVR interprets the guide listings data is by looking at the New and Repeat "flag" in the data. The DVR doesn't determine if an episode is new by reading a value of "New," instead it determines if an episode is new by not seeing a value of "Repeat." And repeat is determined by mostly comparing the Original Air Date (OAD) to the scheduled air date. Currently, our data partner works on a three day rule. If a show is marked as 'New' and is scheduled to record new episodes only, the DVR could certainly also record the same show if those shows are within three days of the Original Air Date. It would still be considered 'new' and could re-record within three days.

Anticipating your next question, the concern with making the 3-day rule a 1-day rule is that the OAD value is the premiere date of a program in the U.S., however, it may not premiere on the same date in every market. This is definitely true with some of the syndicated talk shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil, which some markets may air the episodes on a one-day or two-day delay from when most markets premiere new episodes. It can also happen on the smaller networks like CW, or even FOX at times. It happens quite a bit when a local CW or FOX affiliate also has broadcast rights to local sports events. For example, when the Phillies season starts (GO PHILS), a CW episode of Gossip Girl or One Tree Hill may not air at its regularly scheduled day/time because of a Phillies game, and will likely air at an off-hour time. However, the OAD for that episode would be the regularly scheduled day/time, because that's when it premiered in some (most) markets. The fear in this case is that the DVR would not record these new episodes when they should be recorded. The theory here is that it is better to over-record than to under-record.

Originally Posted by RussB

If the listings are flagged correctly, then the listings provider is not the problem with those shows. The problem would be the way the guide determines if a show is "New" as explained by Ted.