Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 423

That's great Abyss!!!!!

Hope your Gators are all happy and healthy! Do you notice any one box to be particularly faster or slower than the others? Some people report that the legacy non-C boxes are faster than their HDC counterparts. The fastest boxes are the new Samsung 3000 series. (I think the 3270 is the latest model) and Cisco 8600 DVR's, but because they are so new, many divisions do not have them.

Jack

I don't know how ODN does it, but for MDN, when you press LIST you can sort shows by DATE or by TITLE, just horizontal scroll to what you want in the Show List.

TIPS:

If your shows were recorded WITHIN THE CURRENT WEEK TO 7-DAYS BACK, the day of the week indicates this.

If your shows were recorded PRIOR TO THE CURRENT WEEK, it gives the month and date the show was recorded.

Jack

Yeah... that's exactly how ODN works... but Ben said he had no recording dates in the show list:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenJF3

5) The DVR Show List... doesn't tell me the date the show was recorded anymore. I used to sort by name with SARA (and SARA displayed the whole name of the show). SARA would then sort by name with the date recorded next to it so I could easily watch shows in order.

ODN shows the recording date just as you described whether you sort by date or title... is MDN the same? ODN also shows the full episode information of the highlighted show (anything that was included in the original guide description - synopsis, actors, director, original air date, etc) to the right of the list, under the live video window.

Each buffer is 60 minutes on my box and starts when you turn the box on or starts when you tune to a currently unbuffered channel. /Dan

My current guide data for MDN in the DVR show list is truncated. Sometimes horribly. This remains an issue with MDN guide data. Many times, throughout the guide, information will be very inconsistent. Sometimes complete, other times not. Very often if a show presents more than one page of information, the second page of information is cut off. ODN does a much better job of maintaining and preserving guide data.

I have yet to hear confirmed reports of the type of detailed guide data being rolled out to ODN, on an MDN box. Passport's guide data was ALWAYS beautiful and complete, even eight years ago.

Jack

I didn't say TWC was ethical or righteous. I said it was unethical to damage a TWC box and expect them to fix or replace it as if the defect was their fault.

Their bad behavior doesn't make it ethical to get revenge by deceiving them. But if "an eye for an eye" is the best morality we have to offer, then what is that saying about us?

I am ready to throw my 8240HDC out the window! Navigator was installed late last night and already I can't stand it.



Navigator is awful! The menus are nicer looking sure, but at the expensive of content real estate. You can only see 4-5 letters of the show instead of the whole title like before.

When using the program guide I no longer have the ability to select which day I want to browse by using the "B" button. I now have to calculate in my head how many days away a certain day is and press that number on the remote followed by an arrow key. Seriously? How is this easier?

Also, when I fast forward or rewind it never plays from the scene on screen. Say when you fast forward through commercials and hit play when you see your show on screen. Navigator starts playing about 10 seconds before that so you still get half the commercial! Navigator is also slower than the old SARA software. I am seeing 1-2 second delays between input and action on screen.

Was this garbage even tested outside the company?

The newer remotes have dedicated day buttons.

If you can get a 8640HDC do so. It is arround 5 times faster than the 8240HDC and runs Navigator like a dream. I had SARA for years and nothing could get me to go back to it from Navigator, WOODY

Agreed. I'm glad to be rid of SARA as well. Sure, I have a few gripes about Navigator. However, overall I like it. I just hope we get timely updates.

I don't think you'll get too many arguments here that there is some wasted real estate in the screen layout... that said, I have heard many times from friends and neighbors that they like the "clean, uncluttered" layout. Those folks are all decidedly casual users, have no clue that this forum exists, and probably represent the vast majority of TWC customers better than any of us here do.

As others have already pointed out, there are dedicated [] buttons on the newer TW issued remote controls, which don't require any mental calculations. Personally, I used them until I learned of the [# of Days] [Left/Right] trick here on this forum, which I found to be a much faster way of moving around in the guide (especially if you have one of the slower boxes). It also allowed me to remove two unnecessary buttons from my Harmony remote layout, helping to streamline that. I suggest that you request a newer (Synergy 5 or equiv) remote from TW, or if you have a programmable remote just add the Day buttons (they are in the standard Harmony database for the SA DVRs.)

The 4250/8240/8300HDC series of boxes are the oldest OCAP boxes in the inventory... they were rushed out when the FCC mandated separable security several years ago. The newest production runs of them seem to do better, speed-wise, than earlier production dates... but the latest OCAP models (46/86xxxHDC or Samsung 3xxxx) have no problem running ODN. Also, the even older 8300HD (no "C") boxes run a different (non-Java based) version of Navigator (MDN) and have no speed issues, either. Most Navigator systems have 8640HDC or Samsung 3090/3270 DVRs available... if your system doesn't have them already, it is likely they will have at least one of those models available soon. A major advantage to most of the newer models is that they have 320GB drives (3090s exist with both 160 and 320GB drives... all 8640 and 3270 seem to have 320GB drives).

The FF/REW offset is a "feature"... some love it, some don't. It's purpose is to compensate for reaction times. Problem is that different folks have different reaction speeds, so its a compromise. If you happen to be someone with extremely quick response times, maybe the backroll is too much. Again, its probably just about right for most folks. The latest issue of the MDN version of Navigator has user accessible settings to adjust or defeat this. Also, if your HDC box is running ODN 3.1.x, there is a little quirk to it... the box responds to the RELEASE of the Play button, not the press of it. In addition to normal reaction times, this adds the time of the actual press/release action to the equation (some people try to press harder/longer to compensate, which only makes it worse). The workaround is to press and hold the Play button as you approach the end of the commercial (you can hold it for the entire commercial if you wish), then release the Play button at the appropriate time. ODN 3.2 changes this to a more conventional behavior (responds to the Press action).

Objectively, I can't think of a good reason to defend the way ODN 3.1 worked in this regard, but I can tell you that all I've ever had is ODN boxes and was very used to working it with the reversed Play button behavior. Subjectively, I HATED it when when the behavior was "corrected"... it took me at least several weeks to unlearn it when ODN 3.2 was pushed to my boxes. Some things are not necessarily better or worse... just different. We are all creatures of habit that take a while to adapt to new things, whether they are objectively better or not.

I finally had enough with my crappy SA 8300HDC box that has gotten progressively worse over the last year. Most HD channels wouldn't even come in on it anymore, and I couldn't even watch regular non-HD channels without pixelation & sound cutting out. I tried multiple times to call the customer support number to only find it busy. So I unplugged the box & drove to a local TWC office (2505 Atlantic ave) to trade it in on a new one.

I'd read your post the other day so I was expecting them to just give me another 8300HDC. I was surprised when the lady handed me a brand new Samsung SMT-H3270 and said "here's one of our new models". I guess they're used to 8300hdc issues.

I'm hoping that all my issues will be gone when I get home & plug it in tonight.

This is mostly an FYI that Raleigh now has these boxes. It has a Samsung Pipeline HD.2 320GB HD in it.

- Anthony

MDN the same... except vastly inferior data to what you guys get in NC!

Did I catch something about the "select same shows" feature that impacted it's usefulness? Been fighting some serious fever last few days so am off my game!

The way I look at it s that justice is a scale, and doing that just barely budges the fact the balance is so way out of whack in their favor. Seems to me that an eye for an eye can be justified in specific cases... besides, how can one be immoral to a totally immoral outfit?

Hope you're on the mend!

Yes... the usefulness of the "All Showings" feature (recently added with ODN 3.2) is severely limited because the feature is not available for any currently in-progress show. This eliminates the possibility of using it to find the next showing of an in-progress show you might have surfed across and wanted the opportunity to immediately and easily schedule it for recording in its entirety.

Pressing [Select] on any show that is currently in-progress does not bring up the menu that contains the All-Showings option... it just directly tunes that channel and closes the guide (or just closes the guide if it's the currently viewed program). If there is a way to access the recording menu for in-progress shows, I have not found it... the only option for recording an in-progress show is to hit the [Record] button, which may or may not record the entire show depending on the buffer status.

The feature works just fine if you try to access it for a future show, but since it's already a future showing you really don't need to know when additional showings are scheduled because you can schedule THAT showing to record without needing/using the All Showings feature.

I'm sure that someone can find a circumstance when it still would be helpful, but there should be no argument that its greatest value would only be realized if it was available for in-progress shows.

You may be disappointed. Far as I can tell, throughout my whole city, the TWC Glitch-a-thon reigns supreme no matter what box you have (and we're talking something like 6 head ends).

Thanks for the info. That office I went to was the Chapel Hill location. It wouldn't suprise me if Chapel Hill office was the "dumping ground" for the Raleigh division. They had something like thirty 8300HDCs stacked up.

Anthony, If you don't mind, what is the version of ODN that you have?

I had a truck roll one time and the guy offered to up grade my box. I didn't even bother asking what model it was because I didn't want lose my eSATA setup with my 8300HD. But I am confident that it was a Samsung as well.

Anyone every heard of the new Cisco 86XXs showing up in the Raleigh area?

For both equipment and personnel.

The customer service there is worse than any other office I've ever been to.

I disagree. I find the new all showings feature very useful. I use it all the time. Makes searching easier and faster. WOODY

As I mentioned in my last line... I'm sure that somebody might have a scenario for which they find it useful... but it is still a major oversight that the feature is not available for an in-progress show.

Hooked the box up when I got home and it booted in less than 5 minutes. So fast I thought something was wrong (old 8300hdc took 15-20 mins). Plus HDMI worked first try - I seem to remember having to play with some settings to get it to work on the old 8300hdc.

I set it to record some shows, and the guide is way smoother and faster than what I was used to. Jumped to a dozen different HD channels and they all popped up with no issues after a second or two. Pulled up an on-demand episode of Wiggles for my kids and it started up quickly and played with no issues. And it didn't reboot itself once which is another plus (ha). I hope it's a sign of things to come.

Here's what I wrote down from the diag pages:

Software (MW) Version: v4.3.5.3 (V1124)
Build date: Feb 24 2010
Boot ROM: v1.07
Bootstrapper Version: 3.2.0_9 2009/07/13
Network Version: 3.2.0_15 2009/12/07
Monitor & ODN version the same: 3.2.0_15

Any idea what the password is to get into the special Diagnostics menu?

- Anthony

I'm not at home right now to check but I think one work around would be to hit the blue (B) button to bring up the search and since the new firmware load the show you're watching should be displayed first in the list. You could then choose future recordings from that list.

Yes... that does work as a workaround.

Thanks... antibiotics and cold baths knocked the fever right down.

Another shame... I "think" all the times I used that was because I was watching something and some situation arose that I knew demanded more attention than a buffer-full so I wanted to set it to record it later.

Ah, what if you switch to another channel (twice so it isn't being buffered), then go to the guide, select it for a future show list? Should work, no?

Ah, simpler than my work-around.

I was shocked both rooms look like they kept all the recordings during the change over on the 8240 and the 8300 go figure !!! I was a lil worried !!!!

TWC San Diego now has Cisco 8640HDC and 4640HDC boxes at Ware Ct.

Where did you find the build date?
I have the 8640HDC & can not find the build date in the 16 pages available.

It was either from a submenu on one of the 2 diag pages (sel + up or sel + down) or from channel 1999. I forget which. I was happy to see it really was a new box.

Ok, so my local office got in the 8640HDC and I'm now in possession of one. I booted it up and did a quick comparison of ODN vs MDN and what others were saying rings true. ODN has a whole other subset of menu options (very similar to SARA) as well as missing features like Nearest Tune and Sort By Favorites. Speed of ODN appears comparable, but I think MDN on my 8300HD tunes a bit faster and is slightly more fluid. I prefer the way MDN fades in and out of the menus/guide. However, I really like the look of the 8640 over the 8300. The black with blue LED display matches my other components very nicely. Upon more play time, I will concede that MDN is faster. ODN gives me a brief Please Wait message when going into menus and MDN just flows smoother.

On to the meat and potatoes - I promptly opened up the 8640 and is put together with tamper resistant screws. Upon further inspection, I noted that it has a Caviar Blue 8MB Cache 5400RPM SATA drive installed and also has a tamper resistant sticker on it connected to the frame. The sticker is the same as on the CableCard and the one in mine was already unstuck!

So, I swapped out the drive with a 1TB Caviar Black 32MB Cache 7200RPM and it just finished it's download and install. The box is currently booted up and running and I'm recording off both tuners simultaneously and scheduled it to do so for the next few hours. Please note that I did NOT clone the drive. I was going to, but I wanted to see what it would do with a bare drive. Please be advised I am not recommending anyone attempt this unless you are completely comfortable doing so and if you do, you do it at your own risk.

Ok, so everything is up and running. I see that I have ODN 3.1.3.3. Can anyone give me the low down on this version of ODN? Any known glitches or bugs? Right now, I'm only hooked up through composite video on a 13". I have a large order coming in for the recent plasma purchase which I hope to have up on the wall by the end of next week. Schedule is a bit busy due to work and the wifey taking a spill and fracturing her elbow.

Now the benefit of this is twofold - I gain a MASSIVE amount of record space and I no longer need a second outlet tied up with a eSATA enclosure up with my components. That coupled with the fact that should they update the firmware and lose eSATA support on the MDN boxes, I would be unaffected. I should get better performance from the drive as well because Cisco/SA is using very basic drives where as the replacement is a high end faster drive. I will continue to report as time goes, but I think once I catch up on my shows, I'm going to return the 8300HD as long as the 8640 is performing well. Another reason to keep it is that I plan on adding an HD set in the bedroom and will likely have a 4640HDC so the ODN menus will be similar which is helpful for the wife.

UPDATE: Per diagnostic page: ODN recognizes 928.49GB and was showing just over 900GB available with the number decreasing as it recorded. So it appears the drive transplant was a success. I'll store away the 320GB in the event the unit fails and needs to be returned for replacement.