Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 535

14 days? I can only search seven days ahead.

Sup Dave?

We never had SARA in our Wisconsin market. We are Navigator in most of Wisconsin and I-Guide up North (TWC.) Charter's got some areas too. I heard their guide really sucks!

But I remember Ben saying that as "butt-ugly" as SARA was to look at, (Seriously, it looked like an old Apple II series PC! hahaha) However, it was SO reliable!

Jack

I'd love to give Passport a try, but after recent things have come to my attention I'm willing to give Navigator a while longer.

Ben, never trust those people from Milwaukee that always have stories to top yours... Jack, sent you an e-mail and will let you know how the new software is doing.

LOL!!!!

Jack

Funny, because (correct me if I'm wrong) Jack never used SARA and I've never used Passport hence our desires compare them to Navigator.

And yes, check your mail Jack!

Speaking of Navigator, how's things in Lincoln, Nebraska these days? They were the first to get it and things were so bad, the citizens got outraged to the point of suing (or almost suing) Time-Warner Cable.

Yea,

I had TWC Passport from when we got TWC Digital Cable I think around 2002. That was a long time ago, but I recall no problems with Passport.

Jack

I remember that!

They were the first to get TWC's Navigator Guide, code name-"Titanic" because of all the problems with it. Lincoln Nebraska posters were some of the original OP's of this thread! And nobody, NOBODY had anything positive to say about it back than. The proof was that Lincoln rush-released it to ALL THE TWC boxes at once. And than, "Titanic Navigator" hit the icebergs. The citizens of Lincoln Nebraska held a town meeting to try to revoke TWC's cable franchising authority with the city. I remember listening to the meeting on line. The software was among the worst designed badly coded POS systems they had ever seen! And I remember there was a computer programing guy at the TWC meeting who had his own company, and he said, "If I had released a product as bad as TWC did with Navigator, I'd of been fired on the spot." This was in the fall of 2006.

Milwaukee was a test market about four months later and I was like "Oh......."FUDGE" LOL!" because I got one of those form letters telling how great "Crapigator" was, I still remember their selling point, "The New Navigator is a Superior Programing Guide Information System that is bi-directional in searching! You can go, left-right, up, and down. No other program guide works like this."

They pom-pomed the thing, I got a download notice in January, 2007. But thankfully my box did not download Navigator at that time. I found out through the grapevine that TWC Milwaukee management had suspended Navigator downloads for a year, around March or April 2007 because of the nationwide problems with the guide.

They started the roll-outs of Navigator by box-type around January of 2008, I found out the DVR's were last, We got Navigator in Mid May of 2008 and it was OK. But I like everyone else, except for a few fan-boys was disappointed that Passport had features that Navigator did not include and that the guide was slower and less responsive. Gradual improvements happened over the years in my division, bringing Navigator up to a GENEROUS C to C+, where Passport had always been an A. And for the last seven years, I have been waiting for Navigator to bring back what Passport used to have in terms of features, speed, and reliability. It's been that way ever since. A wait game.

Jack

I'll take Navigator over SARA anyday!
- Bookmarking
- Dual live buffers
- Nearest Tune
- Expanded program info
- Accessing On Demand content is much much faster

I've never had any issues whatsoever with missed recordings with either Navigator or SARA. But SARA lacked some key functionality and looked it was written by the same folks who designed Atari games.

I'm not sure if SARA did what I'm about to describe, but I seriously doubt it. I know Navigator does, and this is pretty damn cool. This past fall, on Wednesday nights I had three shows set to record at 10PM. CSI on CBS, American Horror Story on FX and South Park on Comedy Central. CSI and AHS were given a higher priority than South Park (Prioritize and Series Manager, score another plus for Navigator, SARA didn't have that), so since I had a conflict, I wouldn't be able to record all three, right? Wrong! Navigator automatically recorded the encore presentation of South Park at midnight. Along the same line, about a month ago we had a power outage later on a Sunday night, it came back on around 1 in the morning. Thought I'd have no Californication, but Navigator was smart enough to record the encore in the middle of the night.

The only issue I ever had with Navigator was the bug early on that didn't remember your output resolution when using HDMI. I have everything set to 1080i and every other day or so it would revert to native. Only did that on my bedroom box which is feed though an AV receiver, never had the issues with the living room box which is connected directly to the TV. That bug was fixed with the next firmware release.

I get to experience Dish Network's software a few times a week at my Uncles house, I get to experience DirecTV every day on my HR34. I absolutely cannot stand either user interface, especially DirecTVs HD GUI. I will take Navigator a thousand times over what either of the satellite providers offer. Especially DirecTV, as the upgrade' to HD, made a mediocre firmware, worse.

"I get to experience Dish Network’s software a few times a week at my Uncles house, I get to experience DirecTV every day on my HR34. I absolutely cannot stand either user interface, especially DirecTVs HD GUI. I will take Navigator a thousand times over what either of the satellite providers offer. Especially DirecTV, as the ‘upgrade’ to HD, made a mediocre firmware, worse."

The newest Software has DirecTV flavor to it and I am not too sure you will like it than, I myself do like DirecTV's software and hope the little accents added will continue. Most of the Glitches are worked out and it works very well IMO.

Aka the Black guide! That guide will come out later this year.

What is Bookmarking?

Thanks,
-barry

You're right, Navigator works quite well in this regard, but, it does make you worry! It doesn't give you any indication that it is going to handle the conflict properly. I remember some earlier version of DVR software where it would actually reschedule the recording in the "Scheduled Recordings" list. That was much more comforting.

-barry

While I still had TWC, I had a statement pining for SARA in my sig. In fact, I discovered and joined AVS because of the 'upgrade' I received.

I'm sure I posted a few other frustrations at the time, but the two features you listed above were atop my wish list for crapigator. It was the lack of reliability that caused us to cancel our service after 30 years or so. Satch quoted my complaint a few weeks back - if your DVR won't R, what good is it?

The one thing I REALLY missed from SARA (and still do with D*) was the ability to send something to the VCR (or in my case, DVD recorder) in the background while watching something else.

While I concur that having a way to transfer to VCR or DVD is a great option it was only a matter of time before it was gone. Look at all the BS copy protection layers right now and the HDMI issue alone caused by HDCP. This was an issue pushed more by the content providers than the MSO's. Entities like the RIAA and MPAA are responsible for the like.

Granted this doesn't mean TWC is innocent either as they restrict recordings via other devices (Tivo/HTPC) to copy once also.

I would agree. I haven't checked in a couple of years, but, at the time, Dish still had DVRs with that ability.

I can still burn a DVD of a program but it has to be what I'm 'watching.' I usually start the burn when I go to bed, turn off the TV, and let it do its thing unattended. Post-SARA, that's the best/only option I have without having to babysit the boxes.

You start watching Recorded Event A, stop it before it's over. Watch Recorded Event B and later return back to A and resume where you left off.

I have 3 Time Warner dvrs in my house SA8300s all with external hard drives attached. Every 30 minutes or so I get a video and audio blip that lasts long enough to be annoying.
There is no consistency to it. It looks like the picture shifts over a few inches, the audio drops out and then recovers until is does it again. Any idea what causes this. Does it on all 3 dvrs from time to time. I should also mention there is an amp installed by TW due to a borderline signal issue where some stations would not even come on.

What part of WNY are you in?

Ya, as I was reading the first part, I was was thinking "signal problems".

It should be close to 0 (zero). Is it all RG-6 cable everywhere ?

What should be closed to 0 zero..? analog or 256-QAM..?

That is a small part of it, MER/BER is very important to digital signals.

Uh-oh...I have a problem.

For the first time EVER, my box is suddenly not recording programs while I'm away. For the past week or so, any recording I've scheduled has failed to record, with the Recording Log showing: "The set-top was unable to record this program". My 8300HD is currently at 80% capacity.

I set a random program to record while I was *watching* TV, and it recorded with no problem. But it seems while I'm away (and the cable box is off) it's not recording. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Yes, I ran into this a few months ago on my 8300HD. A reboot (unplug power to DVR for 30 seconds and then plug back in - wait till the time appears on the display) solved the problem.

Quad shield RG6 everywhere after the Time Warner amp. I always felt the repair guy was just being lazy by putting in the amp a while ago. This was done after my initial complaint of certain stations not locking in at all. He probably should have run a new drop to my house from the pole. The signal level from the pole was very borderline as I remember discussing this with him. The cable from the pole is buried and about 110 ft to my house.

What should be close to zero.

Clarence, NY not far from Newstead

I would say 0 to +2 is ideal. Looks like everything, except RDC.

Here are some of my notes:

Current Levels (with TWC supplied powered booster) 2-2010
Main Living Room DVR (original/oldest one)
Name Freq. Level Range Notes
QAM 723.0Mhz +1dBmV -12to+15 256QAM or normal encrypted digital video
FDC 75.00Mhz 0dBmV -15to+15 QPSK Software DL and program guide.
RDC 16.75Mhz +39dBmV +25to+53 QPSK reverse carrier (error checking back-channel upload) [
Notes:
FDC(Forward Data Channel) - RDC(Reverse Data Channel)
FDC: RoadRunner Cable Modem frequency is close to this one.
FDC: If out-of-range, your cable modem is likely also having a hard time holding a connection.
RDC: Verifies data and programming code was uploaded properly (probably by sending checksums back)

Edit: Hmm ... wish there was a mono-spaced font for that "table"

Are your cable services from Time Warner of Buffalo or Time Warner of Rochester? If you are in Clarence it would be Buffalo, if Newstead it would be Rochester, but since you're so close to Newstead you may be on the boundary between the two systems. I'm in Marilla. The towns of Alden, Marilla and Akron/Newstead are fed out of a headend in Alden. There have been some pixilation issues coming out of the Alden headend. If you are on the Rochester system, I'd love to do some comparisons with you.

Thanks! It worked like a charm.

If you had called TW, went through their phone tree, waited in their queue they would have sent a signal to force a reboot.

With lots of electronic equipment, a reboot is the first thing to do. Many have claimed that rebooting on a regular basis (say once a month) keeps their DVR healthy. This was true with SARA & Passport and still is true with Navigator.