Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 485

Well none of the systems I mentioned have Guide Filtering and I personally don't give a crap for Keyword Search. But that is just MY preferences (I also don't care if the guide is 16:9 or what it looks like - though the MDN guide is much more readable than the FiOS one).

My pet peeve is the Guide Stretch Bug introduced in 4.0 where the guide can't decide whether or not to stay in 4:3 or stretch to fill 16:9. I could live without Keyword Search, but a Guide Filter is needed badly. Now, Guide Filter really depends on if your division has a common sense channel alignment. If it does, this isn't an issue. If you have the abysmal channel alignment we have with duplicate and triplicate channels spread all over the place, SD and HD channel numbers that aren't even close, then you might see it more my way. Keyword Search would be a nice extra though.

Oh, I did agree with you on Guide Filtering - I just said that the other systems didn't have it either.

BTW: Our TW system has all the HD channels grouped together (1004 through 1199), as does the FiOS (500-699) and Comcrap (200-399) systems that I am familiar with. I also thought that TW in Syracuse had them grouped together too as does Buffalo. Those within the HD grouping might not be logical, but at least they are in one group. My question is, where is Guide Filtering implemented, and where it is implemented will it let you customize the order that the channels appear?

Our Division has HD channels in the 700,800,900 and 1000 Tiers. Now, they are the same numbers across divisions (IE: Utica, Rome Syracuse) but they are in no logical grouping. The are scattered all over the place.

The same level of confusion reins true here in the Southern Tier (Bignhamton Region). HD scattered all over the place. VOD all over. 3 or 4 networks repeated throughtout the guide - DIY network located in the 70's, 120's, 800's and 1200's. Why ? Very cluttered. And why can't I remove the porn channels from the guide so my kids when channel surfing don't have to read the descriptive details of the MILF next door doing the 15 year old son ?????

One thing about Navigator that I heard is decent, even though I don't use it because we don't have kids is Parental Control functions. You can block by Time, Rating, Channel, or Title: Here is the description on how to use it from my TWC webpage:

Question:

What can I do to control what my child watches?

Answer:

There are many ways you can control or influence what your children watch. For example, you can teach them to find quality programming, and/or you can use digital technology to block out programs you don't want them to watch.

For Navigator On-Screen Guide

To Setup Locks and Parental Controls:

In Settings, use the Right Arrow key on your remote to highlight Parental Control

Highlight the blocking parameter you want and press Select on your remote

Press the C button on your remote control to save your settings

Use the Up Arrow key on your remote to highlight Turn On, then press the Select key on your remote followed by your four digit code to activate Parental Control

You will see a lock icon on channels that are locked.

My understanding is that if you do a Rating Block for example, let's say you block all R-Rated content. (You will need to enter your pin number to view it) In this example, you would also block all ratings about "R" (i.e X, NC-17, Adult.)

This page goes into greater detail on how to use TWC Navigator parental controls: Hint-Parental Controls require setting a Pin Number, and Parental Controls must be turned on before they will work:

https://www.timewarnercable.com/wisc.../settings.html

Parental Control is an area where TWC is really helpful. If you have trouble setting up your filters for the programs you want to block after seeing the steps above and at the link, call TWC, they are really good with helping people block shows that are not appropriate for all family members.

Jack

http://www.oceanic.com/products/tele...navigatorguide

On the Oceanic TWC website they have announced that over the next few weeks and by the second week of may they will be rolling out navigator to STBs and they list that you will lose DVR expander and that they will temporarily discontinue the interactive channels and mosaic channels on boxes that have been upgraded to Navigator until the week of 5/16.

http://www.oceanic.com/products/tele.../not-available

So it looks like Navigator will support:

Mosaics
HSN Shop by remote
Ordering pizza hut by remote
TV Home Page
Billing

Thanks for the heads-up Kevin!

Does anyone know what box(es) they are using in Hawaii? (MDN-No C/Not a Samsung) or ODN (C Boxes/Samsungs) or something different? I am pretty sure this is the last of the Navigator TWC transitions.

Jack

TIME WARNER CABLE CAROLINAS OFFERS THE TV JAPAN CHANNEL TO DIGITAL TV CUSTOMERS


In response to the earthquake in Japan, Time Warner Cable is offering a free preview of TV Japan to its Digital TV customers in the Carolinas. Digital customers will have access to TV Japan's earthquake coverage at no additional cost now through March 31, 2011 on channel 880. TV Japan is a 24/7 Japanese broadcasting channel that is providing first hand coverage of the earthquake and resulting tsunami.

Time Warner Cable announced late last week that all calls placed by its Digital Home Phone customers to Japan will be free through April 15, 2011. The program is retroactive for all calls placed on March 11, 2011.

Hawaii is SARA, and they use nothing but SA boxes. No sign of Samsung or Cisco boxes in Hawaii, though maybe they are testing them.

???? But SA=Cisco (Cisco purchased SA several years ago). Perhaps you meant something else.

They likely have both "C" and "non-C" boxes, as they are subject to the same FCC rules as the mainland (so they could acquire only "C" boxes after July 2007).

Hawaii is not the last Navigator Transition motorola areas are and then only those with OCAP/tru2way motorola DCH/DCX Boxes will get ODN 4.0 or higher.

What divisions have the Motorola STB that will support ODN-Navigator in the future? I think some areas of Los Angeles are a part of this.

Jack

That's interesting because Oceanic has typically been technologically ahead of other TWC systems, offering features that never appear anywhere else. Do Oceanic still have PhotoShow or Games on Demand?

This could mean Oceanic will permanently lose features like those above as Navigator-areas did with the loss of Passport, cease to receive any cool new features like those above or is being used as a way to test those features that may finally find their way to other systems.

We have Photo Show with Navigator in Wisconsin. There was talk of Navigator incorporating it's own video games channel when it first came out in the Fall-Spring of 2006/2007. But the disasters that followed with the guide's piss poor performance and non-existent reliability seemed to trash that idea.

If they could get their act together across divisions and not have these inconsistencies where JC's division is great, my division is above average, and Ben's division with Navigator has been a POS, since the launch of ODN 4.0, maybe we could see the development of some other applets.

But the overall attitude about Navigator at the corporate level seems to be lukewarm at best, because they don't see the guide as a money maker for them. Once again, TWC just sort of cares that if people can find there shows and series, and DVR users can record and manager them, and general populations get a picture and sound on the screen and on their TV and audio systems, it's off and running to spend almost all of their resources on Road Runner, Digital Phone, and Mobile Technology.

Ben says it best, Navigator was designed to be nothing more than a spring board mechanism for TWC to launch other services that the company could call their own. (i.e Start Over, Look Back, Caller ID on TV.) Or those applets that incorporate mobile technology, represented in Remote DVR Manager and now the Mobile I-Pod devices for watching TV on the go.

The one incentive that might make TWC care about Navigator remains that they stand the potential to not acquire enough Signature Home Customers, if they can't get the guide up to quality speed and reliability. Signature Home is a big deal to TWC, and they see it as a money maker. However, if enough customers drop Signature Home because Navigator is not good enough in their division, I think this may make TWC take notice.

Jack

Any TWC motorola division that has stuck with the motorola boxes instead of swapping them for cisco.

Anything before the cable card mandate is not getting Navigator and will slowly be phased out at least in North Texas.

The boxes that are likely to get Navigator:
DCH6200
DCH3200
DCH6416
DCH3416
DCX3200
DCX3432

I know for a fact that these system have Navigator Capable motorola boxes:
Ashland Ky/Ironton OH
Western Kentucky
Central Kentucky
North County San Diego
Southern California
North Texas
Mid Ohio
Parts of Maine

And possibly Wichita Falls as they are motorola and announced ESPN3D which means they have to have the DCX series boxes to see the channel as it is MPEG4.

There keeping the games channels TAG and TAG2 they will be temporarily unavailable on boxes running Navigator during the transition and will regain them during the week of may 16th.

I don't dispute most of what you have said, but the specific examples you point out (Start Over, Look Back, Caller ID on TV) had nothing to do with Navigator - they all existed in SARA systems (at least they did here in Rochester).

But OCAP does have the capability for new, and valuable, features such as targeted advertising.

Yes, but Navigator was implemented to make these features more widespread and expanded. SARA was not going to be able to handle Remote DVR, Whole Home DVR or some other features and options Time Warner wanted to do.

Now, I would like to try and get some discussion going on where and what Navigator can improve on. I know I'm critical of it, but let's face it - we are stuck with it and should want it to evolve to be the GUI it can be. This is mainly to discuss ODN, since MDN hardware is basically updated to the point it will be going forward.

If they can get the speed up to par on the guide it would help. Even speed comparable to MDN. MDN has no guide lag. Other than that and any forthcoming features - I'd like to see some usability tweaks.

I'd really like them to fix the "dump to live" when watching a recorded program.

I'd like to see it behave more like SARA and default back to the list. I'd also like to see the option of fixing the list display to one setting. It always defaults to date. I'd like to be able to set it alphabetic like SARA.

Also, they really need to fix the Priority Scheduling. Make it so you can adjust each episode from the central list. It's a royal pain the way it is now and generally gets ignored until it misses a show and pisses me off. It's way to tedious to have to select each and every show, one at a time from the Series Manager and then place it's Priority.

These small tweaks would make the guide much more intuitive.

As I said, these particular features (Start Over, Look Back, Caller ID on TV) had nothing to do with Navigator, and (in fact) Navigator ODN has somewhat crippled these features by slowing response times.
Actually, Multi-Room DVR did exist in SARA. TW never widely deployed it. And there was no apparent reason that Remote DVR could not have been implemented in SARA either.

Multi-Room was crippled under the SARA system which was a reason why it wasn't deployed. Time Warner did internal testing and scrapped it. They wanted a simpler way to do installs and MoCa allowed the current incarnation. The main reason was as mentioned. Navigator allows for easier integration of features by Time Warner. It's there code so they can manipulate it any way they want. They don't have to wait on outside programmers to integrate the middleware.

This allows them to add Start Over/Look Back and any other features more readily to more available channels. Sure, it can be done without Navigator - but it's far more cost effective and timely for them to do it in house.

All that said, we must keep in mind the number one reason Time Warner went in house: Money. This ties in with the above mentioned sub-contracting out programming services, but also the licensing fees. Money and complete control are why we have Navigator.

Now, if the Navigator Development Team is listening and it seems like they are with what is rumored to be forthcoming then Navigator will keep making great stride to be the great guide it can be. The few things I mentioned above would be a great start. Hopefully, they don't get a "this is good enough" mentality.

BS in regards to Start Over/Lock Back. Those "features" as well as SDV and On Demand are all functions of the network infrastructure and have little to do with the box software. We had all of those features before Navigator. All that Navigator did was make them harder to access due to the sluggishness of Navigator.

The delay in MR was due more to waiting for the development of the MoCA standard than to the "need" to have their own software (keep in mind that SARA came from the developer of the hardware - CISCO).

Sorry, without software support none of the features will work. My point stands and I'm not disagreeing with the fact that it could be added to SARA via the middleware - it was. The point I made was that Time Warner wanted full control over the programming of said features and Navigator gives them that while at the same time eliminating any licensing fees. So, while Cisco supplies the hardware to TWC (as does Samsung and in some cases Motorola) they still need software to interpret the data/commands. I agree the Navigator mucked up some things as I'm currently plagued by slow boxes, but that's due to TWC inexperienced programmers. In time, it should improve (hopefully!)

The problem with TWC enhancing Navigator is that 99+% of their customers are more than content with the product as is. I have talked to several people who have had a DVR for several years and still didn't know that there was a search function.

They should offer a Navigator+ for an extra $1.00 a month for us folks that want extra functions

Agreed and that's because the bulk of the subs are ignorant technophobes (for lack of a better phrase), thus TWC pushes out a "just good enough" piece of software.

I think TWC also believes that no matter what they distribute, there will be individuals who will never be happy.

Agree,

There's far too many people out there who are ignorant of the technology, don't have time, don't watch much TV, don't care, or any of the combinations of the above.

Now, when Navigator first came out with Lincoln Nebraska as a test market, TWC foolishly pushed ALL of the upgrade on every box in each division all at once. Nothing worked, or it worked so poorly, that there was a call for action where the cable subs of Lincoln tried to get TWC's license with the city revoked. In fact, if you look back in this thread, around late 2006, Lincoln Nebraska subs' complaints were the pioneers of our AVS Navigator forum!

But where are they now? That's the issue here. Over the years, TWC improved Navigator to be "good enough" that to the majority of most subs, they have either been satisfied with the service, moved on to other providers, just have OTA, or just don't care because they may not be strong TV viewers.

The goals that Ben and I have and want to share with the forum are what many of our users here have. We want to watch Navigator develop into a great guide and NOT have TWC contend with just being "good enough." I submit that Road Runner is better than "Good Enough." In fact, it is awesome! I also believe that TWC Digital Phone is MUCH better than "Good Enough." (Although battery back-up routers would be nice in the event of commercial power failure. Digital Phone's only flaw.) It is almost like Digital Phone and Road Runner are put out by two areas of TWC that is absolutely committed to quality and going for the gold in the marathon. But than, in another land of TWC, there's a development team working on Navigator. The Navigator team looks at the runners in the race and says. "Well, we aren't concerned about winning any gold for our guide. As long as we finish this race, that's all that counts. Who cares about winning medals? Just being in the race is good enough."

There is not enough competitive determination by TWC to improve Navigator to put it at the head of the class where Road Runner and Digital Phone currently are. TWC needs more general population subscribers to see this, and still needs more experienced program developers to get Navigator to "Gold Standards."

People like Ben and I call Navigator "The Unfinished." There are future enhancements planned for it based on rumors that we have heard. And I echo what Ben has said. I am not going to complain about the software as much anymore, (unless I have an overt cable service problem related to Navigator where complaining is warranted!) LOL! My interest is more in discussing constructive ideas that can be used to make Navigator great.

And when that greatness is achieved, I will do whatever I can to praise TWC for it.

Jack

This is a valid statement. Sure, anyone can always find a place to improve the guide. However, as it stands in our division, it is still unacceptable. I had a poll conducted in our division and among 500 respondents the results were as followed:

78% voted "Hate It"

16% voted "It's OK"

6% voted "Love It"

That's a pretty strong showing for not liking it. Now, Time Warner also knows (as Jack pointed out) that a certain segment already switched providers or left over it. They figure the rest just tolerate it.

Personally, I had been on the fence for awhile and continually comparing competitors. That said, what I hear is forthcoming gives me hope. As I previously mentioned, I'm glad to hear Time Warner continues to work on and advance Navigator. Thus the shift in my attitude and the post above looking for constructive criticism on what users would like to see fixed, tweaked, or otherwise modified.

So why did you question my original reply to SatchMan? These features (Start Over, Look Back, Caller ID on TV) were already there - Navigator was not needed to implement them!

Absolutely true! But you did not make that point when you replied to my reply to Satchman.

I would hope that you would have realized that the slow boxes are not due to "inexperienced programmers" (BTW, I would challenge you to prove that statement) but rather to the fact that it (the ODN version) complies with OCAP and it is Java based. The current boxes just are not powerful enough to deal with Java effectively.

And they are right!