Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 525

Yes if limited resources are factor I'll take the apps over the Guide, etc. I use it like a very portable TV around the house.

This will piss you off Ben, in my area the HD channels are 1000 above the SD channels. IE CBS is 105 and HD CBS is 1105. So it is relatively easy to go back and forth.

Of course the stupid thing about this is that a lot of SD channels are duplicated so that luddites that don't want a set top box can tune with their old tvs. Basic cable is channels 1 -99. Then the SD channels start at 100 and repeat all the channels in 1- 99 and include other SD channels not available to basic customers.

This type of situation where there is different versions of software, different channels available, different arrangements of channels, etc, etc. from division to division makes no sense to me at all. To me it indicates a lack of basic management from TWC.

Ben HAS been PO'd for some time now knowing other systems (such as all of the NC systems) had implemented new "themed" lineups that (more or less) addressed his issues. He was told by TW-CNY management that they had no such plans.

Even here there are still inconsistencies and issues that mess up what could have been a much better implementation of our state-wide channel lineup:

• When they had a clean slate to work with, why did they give OTA channels completely arbitrary and random assignments that relate neither to their OTA channel nor their historic cable assignments. For example, our CBS affiliate in Charlotte is channel 3 OTA and was historically channel 2 on basic cable, but it ended up as 105/1105 in the new lineup. Similarly, our NBC affiliate is 36 OTA and 6 on basic cable, yet it ended up as 120/1120 in the new lineup. Most of the others are similarly illogical and random.
• If they have designated the 1000-1099 range as the VOD range, why do VOD channels appear scattered around the lineup, some duplicated in the VOD range, some not.
• If the 400/1400 range is designated for News, why the hell did they add NY1 News to the broadcast range 100/1100 range? At least our local version, News14 Carolina, is duplicated at both 114/1114 and 414/1414, even though it doesn't belong in the 114/1114 slot.
• How the hell did the Oprah Winfrey Network get recently added in the middle of the Science and Nature 250/1250 range?

So in the end, your assessment of poor management does hold true. Even where they spent a considerable effort creating a new statewide themed lineup, they are again working hard to screw it up all over again.

jcalabria: To reinforce what you said about lineups:

• The lineup has NOTHING TO DO WITH NAVIGATOR (while guide filtering, etc. might mitigate a bad line-up).
• For digital cable - the line-up has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical channels used. So, changing to a lineup that makes more sense does not involve any infrastructure (physical network) work at all! It is only a matter of downloading a new table into the subscriber's box
• BUT thee biggest problem TW would have in changing the line-up would be getting existing customers used to dealing with the new lineup.
• For customers with direct hook-up to cable, the digital channels placement is determined solely by the PSIP code - so for local HD channels the placement will be determined solely by the PSIP code (13-1), not the actual physical QAM channel.

Yes, the line-up situation at TW is DUMB - but, from what I have seen, is not much different than other cable systems (Comcrap in Minnesota, Verizon FiOS in the D.C. area).

Our line-up in Wisconsin is Theme Based and the HD channels are all in the 1000's. You just add a 1 to the SD channel for its HD equivalent. However, that applies to the Digital, HD Tiers. and PPV/VOD. It does not apply to the Broadcast Standard levels of channels 2-99. Our line up also has the optional Family Choice Package I think in the early 800's, and Broadcast Digital Basic starting at something like 975. (Our Music Channels are 900-946.) Channel 1 is Movie and VOD Previews. Channels in the 400's are Free VOD, and in the 1400's, are Free HD-On Demand.

The point is that with those added tiers there are occasional instances of THREE TO FOUR duplicate stations! For example, Food Network is on 67 for Standard Cable, 151 in Digital SD, 1151 in Digital HD, and it is also part of Family Choice on, I think on 889 in SD!

Why does TWC need four separate feeds of the same channel?

Jack

There are actually only THREE separate feeds:

• SD Analog (apparently channel 67)
• SD Digital (probably also channel 67)
• HD (channel 1151)

Due to the channel mapping table, when you tune to channel 67 or channel 889, the box actually tunes whatever QAM channel that the SD Digital is on. When TW goes all digital (they have announced that they are going this way and will be all digital in a year or so) then there will be only two channels (SD & HD).

Thanks Dave,

So if my Food Network analog went bye-bye. (Channel 67), approximately how much more bandwidth would that open on my system? We have SDV. If and when TWC goes to true all digital, SDV will be dead, right? What I heard was, for every space/channel that is analog on a given cable system, in it's place would be enough for 3 HD channels!

Jack

The way they have things over-packed right now, each analog channel typically equates to 3 HDs or 10-12 SD channels.

It's not likely that SDV would go away if analogs were dropped... best we could hope for is that at least some of the reclaimed bandwidth would be used to lower the compression levels before they took the rest for whatever new incremental-revenue services they are dreaming up. I wouldn't expect any massive additions of new channels to existing basic / expanded basic service levels, either.

Is this related to Navigator or not?

Why does Navigator sometimes bunch numbers/letters together in the Find Show Descriptions? I have one channel that is like that, and when you go to "Find Shows" it displays something like:

MGMHD Sunday 2/4 1284 7:30-9:30PM. The "4" in the channel field, bumps into the "7" in the Description with the two characters on top of each other.

Other times, if there is a second showing of the show on MGMHD, it shows properly:

2/4 7:30-9:30PM
2/20 5:00-7:00PM

Is this a Navigator issue, or a Tribune Media Services issue? We had a few channels in the time grid with six characters. TWC reduced them to five and it solved the issue. All except for MGMHD which has one too many characters on the screen when the long description of the show info is used.

i.e MGMHD Sunday 2/4 1284 7:30-9:30PM.

What does TWC need to do to make the data fit? Aside from removing maybe one call letter to show MGMD or just MGM? This would solve the data formatting with this channel on the Metro Wisconsin systems. I inquired about this about six months ago at the Direct to Tech forum, and it has not been fixed.

This appears to be an ODN issue only. Relative has an MDN box, and is not affected by this.

Jack

Does anyone else have a problem with their 8300 where the red recording light goes off and on intermittently? Makes it hard to know whether something is recording or not. This is my 2nd 8300HD and it does the same thing.

I have not had the problem with my 8300HD not recording when the box is off. In fact if I am not watching I normally have the box turned off.

I had the resolution issue where it would revert to 480. That seems to have gone away/been corrected, hard to tell with TWC. I did change my set up from auto to just 1080.

I am not sure what you mean by slightly better graphics, but I did get some newly designed menus for things like deleting a recording or stopping a recording in progress. At first, I thought 'big deal' But the new menus removed the use of the A, B, and C buttons. You only have to use the up and down arrows and the SEL button. Now you, (or at least I, using a Harmony One), can navigate the menus without repositioning my hand on the remote.

And of course, I had the loss of 30 minutes of buffer time. This one really jerked my chain. I do occasionally pause for more than 30 minutes or want to go back more than 30 minutes. I can't imagine why they did this. Assuming the buffers were taking up drive space, then they freed up space for a single 1 hour show. Who cares? Does anyone out there have any idea why they did this?

I am also having some other issues. These were not happening prior to the "mini upgrade" in December. However, I have had some issues not being able to play back recordings with my box that precede the upgrade so these may be further indications of box failure not MDN issues.

There will be instances where the buffers stop working. I will change channels to another show and I go back to the first channel the buffer is gone so I can't back up. This is very random in occurance, but enough to be annoying if I go to check another channel during a commercial and don't make it back to the original channel before the commercial break is over.

I have had the progress bar get stuck during FF or REW or sometimes the entire info banner disappear during these functions.

Sometimes I will get a blank channel when I change channels or when I turn the box on. Changing to another channel and then back again will usually solve the problem. I am not sure if this is an issue unto itself or if it is simply good ole SDV rearing its head, and I am getting a blank screen instead of the usual channel not available screen.

You guys will love this.

So I picked up this 3272 a few weeks ago. When I got it home, it had not been wiped. It had a few shows recorded and a few series recording set up. I deleted all of it and set my own stuff. I have not had any apparent recording problems with it. Tonight I notice the record light was on and did not recall anything being scheduled to record. I turned on the box and checked it out. It was recording one of the shows that had a series recording set up for it when I got the box. I checked the series recording menu and it was not back in there. In theory this should not have been in the recording schedule, since it has been more than seven days since I deleted the series recording. And of course I have not see it in the scheduled recording list because I was in there earlier today deleting some items.

LOL! Great story!

The best one was still a customer that got a swapped box, and for whatever reason, all the PPV and porn was unlocked for about a week! LOL! Sometimes when you get a box, the Premium Channels are open until the box is synchronized to your account. However, adult PPV, and all VOD is supposed to be closed until activated.

Jack

Has anyone ever had TWC demand that they return a box?


I am starting to wonder if that is what has happened with my Advanced Search and the 3272 I picked up. IE because it was a 3272 they assumed I was a Sig Home customer until it synched up and showed that I wasn't. And then it took away the Advanced Search.

If I call and complain about the loss of Advance Search, will they say, "Hey your not a Sig Home customer, give back the 3272?"

Agree with all you mentioned.

The clear QAM broadcast channel mapping (PSIP) here in Charlotte is truly bizarre. Some are mapped to their broadcast assignments... some are mapped to their analog cable assignments and some are mapped to their old pre-unified lineup digital cable assignments. Pick SOMETHING and at least be consistent. As you noted, it's only a simple code change, which they have shown they are not afraid to change when they see fit to.

The only two possible conclusions I can draw from it all is that either they are totally incompetent or... it's 100% intentional... just to make ClearQAM more inconvenient and discourage its use: "Here stupid, just take one of our lovely Navigator boxes and you won't have to worry about all those different channel numbers."

I've seen this one on my SA HD8300 a few times....when it occurs I know I'll be heading towards a "pull the power plug" reboot very soon.

My 8300HD is still chuggin' along. Aside from the resolution glitch when turning it on, it's fast and working as designed. I won't swap it for anything.

Yet.

With all due respect I don't know why people here are hailing the 8300. It's an old piece of technology that should be replaced. Most people who have problems here have 8300's that have trouble running the new software.

You have no convincing evidence on this point one way or the other. Here on AVS you see the complaints. There is no way to know if these complaints are representative of TWC subscribers in general or are a skewed sample. The percentage of people have no issue with the 8300 is unknown, and so is the percentage of people who do have issues. If somebody works for TWC, they would be in a better position to give meaningful information about how many people have 8300s that aren't doing well with some new software.

There's a point in there somewhere.

Well some people find superior performance in older gear: Tube based amplifiers, or CRT based television. What about those modern, crappy MP3s compared to straight, uncompressed CDs? Older ain't necessarily worse - and the 8300HD is an excellent example

First of all, you need to distinguish between the 8300HD and the 8300HDC. Yes the 8300HD is the oldest piece of technology, but BECAUSE it has limited resources TW has it run the much more efficient MDN code. On the other hand: the 8300HDC has somewhat more resources and has it run ODN, which is much less efficient (meaning SLOW). Besides having faster, smoother operation the 8300HDs have always been able to run appropriate external drives (up to 1TB) without a problem.

Agreed,

And if a lot of divisions are only giving out the newest model boxes to Whole House/Signature Home subs, there is not much you can do. You can request a certain model of ODN/MDN box. However, you will either get what is on the truck or at the office. I did hear that Signature Home subs get new equipment (no refurbs) when they sign up. But a lot of people can't afford that. And if your MDN box has been zipping away fast for 5-6 years and still works, why take a chance on swapping it out for the potential of a box with problems?

That's why you have to look at each customer and divisions issues on a case by case basis. Is it a signal issue? Line issue? Node issue? Box issue? You can't generalize with TWC customers. systems, and boxes. There is way too much company and division variation to even attempt to do that.

Jack

Well said...

Not always. My 8300HD has never recognized my WD DVR Expander external HD. This is the same HD which worked perfectly on my Comcast 8300HD with my previous cable subscription.

That might be a different issue: did you totally erase the drive before connecting to the TW box? My understanding is that the initial formatting of the drive is done to match it up to the specific box. Change boxes and all bets are off. I understand that the TW box needs to initially see a totally blank drive.

Question on Cable Boxes and Volume Control,

Report of a customer with HDMI cables who did a box swap, and now has a Cisco 8640 and cannot make the volume on the cable box higher to come close to the output level of the older box. My question is:

When new or refurb boxes are reformatted, does the Volume default to the manufacturer's setting? If not, was this a case of a previous customer who could have had the box volume lower with Component Cable, and because this customer has HDMI, can't do anything about it? Other than switch to Component Cable to increase the volume on the box, and than go back to HDMI when it is at a comfortable listening level?

Jack.

My SA-8300HDC is HDMI with our TV range for cable, comfortable at about 15-20. DVD playing goes up to about 25-45 for the volume. If only they could set the boxes to the max. box volume from the get-go. TV is a 42" HD Samsung.

Posted this in the Charlotte TWC forum, but haven't gotten a reply:

Has anyone in the Charlotte area received one of the Cisco 4742 WH DVR client boxes yet? I'd like to get one, but I don't know if they're available in the area yet.

On a different note, I've had an interesting thing happen with the transparent guide setting. It became available on all of my boxes several weeks ago, and I enabled it on all of them. Since then I have swapped my 8462 boxes for 8742s. They do not have the transparency setting available in the settings menu. What's strange is that I still have my original 4642 client box, and it still has transparency enabled, but it no longer has the setting available in the menu! It's like they enabled it for a bit then removed it. Not a big deal, just thought you guys would like to know FYI.

You mean the Cisco 8742 (not 4742), which is the newest Whole House DVR box. Guide Transparency is a server-based feature released in Navigator 4.0. It is activated at the head-end, and like Caller ID on TV, it might take a day or so to show up on a new or swapped box.

Jack

Hi Jack,

He already has 8742 DVR/Servers... he's interested in finding out if anyone has yet been handed the matching STB/client box, which is the 4742.

Joe

I'm trying to make contact with ANYONE in my division to get myself some 8742 set tops. However, Cisco is now looking at abandoning the set top market which means, who will TWC use for future equipment if they do? Samsung? Would they look at Pace again?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...pO3DKevYzs7ysI

Add On:

Dear Time Warner,

Here is your solution:

http://www.arrisi.com/products/premises/index.asp

Ditch Cisco if there are exiting the market and move to Arris. The Moxi isn't even competition anymore because it's no longer a commercial product for consumers. Of all the Time Warner provided equipment I've had, my Arris Gateway has performed the best. The Arris line also appears well integrated, especially for Sig Home customers. IE: One D3 Gateway replaces to modems! It would be great if they offered something like this as a benefit of Sig Home. It would certainly keep me within the package.