Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 572

I agree,

 

But how does that justify crappy service for which subs are paying $200 a month (or more?)  Ben's had issues with TWC ever since Navigator came to his region and has had issues that were never resolved ranging from freezing, box rebootings, recordings not being recorded, updates that fix minor things and break other things.  He has followed all the steps, worked with Supervisors, is a TWC Signature Home Sub, that is supposed to have better techs, and nothing has stayed "fixed."  I feel so bad for Ben, because he doesn't deserve this crap just to watch TV.

 

It reminds me of another customer who lived in a dwelling that had really old wiring and it extended out to a main node.  They couldn't get Food Network to come in, and after many, many, many tech visits, the problem was traced to old street wiring.  The person in the living complex told the manager, or maybe it was a TWC higher up who spoke to building management.  The cable guy who was a level 3 tech, recommended a complete rewire of the dwelling all the way out from the pole drop to the main circuit box on the street.  Management refused to do the rewire, saying that we can't disconnected and do a re-wire just cuz of one channel.

 

Ten years ago I had a cable issue where channels would not come in, but others where OK.  Replaced the drop line, problem came back days later.  I had two supervisor techs out and they traced the problem out to a bad junction box in the street about two blocks over.  They replaced the circuit box, but said. "You know your lines are so old! Actually when we had AT&T I think a phone guy said the same thing.  He added, I wouldn't use them to tie up tomato plants."     They actually had to come out and completely rewire the street to fix the problem.  It took about a week to find and fix the problem.  However, I think Ben's and his subs issues go beyond the box, beyond inside wiring, beyond the line drop to relate to an issue in the streets, maybe several streets with outdated wiring and TWC Syracuse either does not know how, or is too lazy to fix the issue.

 

Jack

Yes, as butt ugly as SARA was, it was rock solid stable. No issues with use and never really needed to reboot or anything. I may set up at least a service call here to have it checked, but my guess is they will want to swap the box. I'm not in any shape to be crawling around under the house right now either even though I'd like to redo my entire setup.

Sounds a SOP to me.
Corporate America at it's norm.

Hi all,

 

I'm getting slowdown.  Started last night with the search screens.  "Please Wait."  Doesn't seem to be too bad yet.  I can always do a cold reboot if it gets to that.  I echo most of what Ben said about Navigator, and agree with the tremendous diversion from state to state, city to city, and often node to node.  I do slightly disagree with Ben, and think that TWC will improve Navigator, or The Guide, or whatever you want to call it.  However, I think the improvements will remain very gradual and not at all the kind of big upgrades that experienced users may want.  I agree with Ben that they will only add one or two features at most each update, and are totally unconcerned with what the competition is doing in the STB market, despite what the TWC VIP's have said.  If they can do just enough to keep the guide above water and nothing more, I think TWC believes they have done their part.

 

I think TWC makes so much money off their High Speed Internet, Digital Phone, and Mobile Devices, that they don't have much of an incentive to improve the guide, and this is wrong, but there's not much us subs can do about it other than:

 

Ride it out

Complain

Switch Providers

Go to OTA for TV.

 

Jack

Cold Reboot to fix the slowness on the SA-8300HDC.

 

Everything back to normal.  It seems that ODN 5.2.09 may start to stack commands resulting in a gradual slowdown after about three weeks to a month.  Data buffers should be made to be in place for "Please Wait" "Loading Data" screens.  Is TWC loading the search data from the head-ends after EVERY search command from the boxes?  If so, this needs improvement for the next release.  Having search data in the buffer will improve search speeds for all the boxes.

 

Jack

I agree there may be small incremental fixes, but I doubt they are going to implement any of the basic usability features I mentioned in my "Top 10" list. I think they will attempt to address issues, but it's never going to be a user friendly GUI. Each "standard" feature they've tried to implement has been a failure. The Guide Filter is essentially useless how it's done. Auto HD should have been the fix for that and instead we get a lousy 12 channels. Just the layout is bad. It is especially painful in this division with duplicate locals and an abysmal channel alignment. If they ever rollout the national line up, it would help. However, TWC has a time frame of 3-4 YEARS before completing their digital transition. Both satellite providers are 10 years ahead of them on the technology edge. I just believe TWC will try to keep it just good enough to hold the line. Believe me, I'd like to see TWC succeed and offer up their services with minimal issues, but I just don't see it happening. I hear the same complaint from people paying $175-$200 a month - "for that kind of money you shouldn't be putting up with this bullsh*t". People will pay if it works.

i wish they would do away with all their old model boxes though.

Why? Their best performing box is STILL the SA8300HD!

Cosign!  (Needs a drive expander for serious recording)

 

Jack

I've been doing a hard reboot (unplug/replug of power cord) on my 8300HD every couple of days now and that seems to have rectified the problem of dropped scheduled recordings - for now. It hasn't missed a scheduled recording since I started rebooting it. I have no idea why, or if that's a permanent "fix". It's a pain in the butt to have to keep rebooting it though...

It was notable that if the box dropped a scheduled recording, even if I tuned to that channel during the time it was supposed to be recording, the buffer would still do it's 27 minute thing (used to be an hour) but I would get an "unable to record" message if I hit the record button. So even an attempt to record that show manually "in real time" failed. But as I said, it seems to be working fine now. Tomorrow may be another story.

It must not be happening to many people still running MDN on the 8300HD or we'd read more reports/complaints about it here. That's odd too.
Edited by archiguy - 9/17/12 at 1:02pm

The last time this happened to me, I found it was because I had paused a live show I was watching and had forgotten to catch back up. Once I hit the LIVE button, I was able to record.

Downtown New York.... I have a Samsung 3272. Do any of the TWC people who troll this site offering help know why we in NYC still have this version? 5.2.06. You can't imagine how slow my box is, the delay when hitting buttons, how many times lately it reboots. It's really pathetic for Time Warner and sadly I don't think they care. \ I'm hoping an upgrade, if it ever comes will fix this.

A few years ago when I had an 8300HD with external HD I needed nearly a daily reboot. I ended up hooking it up to a light timer and having the box power turned off and on about 5AM. Just set the timer to the lowest off time you can and make it at a time chances are near zero something will be being recorded. /Dan

Long time 8300HD holder. For 1st time in memory (certainly recent memory) I had a skipped scheduled recording happen (twice now). May try a re-boot if it continues.

For the same issue - dropped scheduled recordings?

I'm not sure it requires a daily reboot to "fix" this problem. I might experiment a little to see how long it takes before it starts dropping recordings again. My wife and I had to go to TWC's VOD to catch a couple of the shows that we missed because of this issue and our friendly neighborhood cable company had disabled the FF button on them, requiring us to sit through a full commercial load, the same number of minutes as in the original broadcast. How very customer friendly of them, especially considering how much TWC pimps the VOD offerings as something satellite can't do. Funny how they never mention the reduced functionality.

Wonder what the underlying cause of this issue is? I know Windows used to have a "bug" (and may still; don't know) that when you closed out of a program it wouldn't release that memory back into the system even though the program was no longer running. After awhile, the computer became starved of RAM and began to slow down and glitch requiring a reboot to restore full functionality. Could this be a similar issue?

Also odd that it basically just started happening about a month ago. Don't know if that corresponds to a periodic software "update" pushed onto the box from the central office. Seems every time they do that we lose some functionality.

 

Actually, the host STATION forces some TWC VOD channels to mandate that viewers sit through commercials.  This is a condition of TWC to be allowed to offer the VOD content.  TWC wanted the user to be able to FF through all the commercials on VOD, but some stations said no and got a court order saying that if TWC wanted the VOD content, they had to take commercials as a part of the deal.

 

Some stations on VOD will allow the commercial skip.  Those that don't, such as FOX, will have a disclaimer at the beginning of the VOD presentation.  Hope this helps!

 

Jack

[Carson] I did not know that! [/Carson]

Thanks.

There have been rumblings that Time Warner is the most receptive of the big cable companies to using Apple's tv product as a replacement set top box. Perhaps Time Warner Cable has realized the errors of their Navigator ways?

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/19/twc-willing-to-give-up-control-of-interface-not-customer-relationship-in-expanding-to-apple-tv/

Oh, and ever since we got the black guide, the picture periodically goes black for a few seconds and tonight there was a 3-4 second delay between pressing a button on the remote and seeing a response on the screen.

 

The black screen response can be stopped by going under Settings and changing your Output Resolution to the maximum that your TV supports. (Deslect all others.)  Agree that TWC's Navigator is the weakest link in TWC's services.  TWC fails to realize that by going "In-House" to save money, the effects of the product suffer.  TWC really needs a competent STB company who can help them to better program and develop the guide.  Six years with Navigators' dismal performance does not reflect well on the cable TV service aspects of this company.  However, note that Digital Phone and High Speed Internet remain outstanding!

 

Jack

I'm starting to believe that the motards who where behind the guide have been moved to the video.timewarnercable.com team.

Recently my TWC HD-DVR model 8642HDC has been having issues with tuning SDV channels.
Its random but I'm getting too many of the "channel not available now" messages on some SDV channels where I never got that before the past week or so.
Its been affecting some DVR recordings on some SDV channels as well now - missing recordings because of that.
The signal levels look good and I tried even bypassing all splitters and just a direct coax cable from the main outside coax feed to the HD-DVR and no improvement.
Rebooting the HD-DVR box did not improve it either.
I also rented a second HD-DVR (this one the older SA8300HDC model) for a couple days and it also had the problem of some SDV channels at times not tuning.
So it doesn't seem to be the box, unless its a bug in the new firmware version used in all the boxes now?

The return signal RDC power output dB level is ~47dBmV which seems acceptable, but could that cause such a problem?
This level hasn't changed from when it worked fine and very reliably for months before the past week - can't see anything that has changed at my end.
Anybody have any ideas on what could cause this issue if its not the box?
Edited by BriscoCountyJr - 9/20/12 at 1:25am

My bad. It just seemed very Time-Warner-esque. The way a couple of years ago, they reneged on an agreement with our local public television organization to carry more of its regional channels. But it was no trouble at all. Just another line in my catalog of horrors perpetrated by one of America's worst companies (IMNSHO) !

Will the Apple TV box allow me to record and overlap 17 programs in a row on the same channel and only use one tuner? And record them reliably? Sign me up!

Has AutoHD been enabled in your area recently? I saw something similar right after we got AutoHD. It is better now.

-Ted

Yes, but you then reduce the image quality on (usually) 720p programs. It is a trade-off: convenience vs. image quality.

You gotta read this; http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/patrick-stewarts-battle-cable-saps-live-154244759--abc-news-celebrities.html

The Director of Software development is posting at the TWC Untangled Blog. It might be a good time to leave some feedback.

http://www.twcableuntangled.com/2012/09/how-to-use-our-new-guide-guide-filtering/

Here's my two cents for them:

If you guys are serious about fixing this mess, here are the top ten things you need to do because I'm ready to switch providers solely based on the performance of this software (Yes, it's THAT bad!)

Top Ten ways to make the guide user friendly:

1) Auto HD for all channels. Yes, this is likely controlled from the headend on a division by division basis, but it's needed.

2) A "real' Guide Filter option. Allow for addition/subtraction of channels from the guide and scan. You wouldn't have all the confusion you mention in the blog if you opted for a true guide filter.

3) Change the orientation of the DVR List screen so you can read the show names. Right now they are almost all cutoff. Then add Folders for the DVR List

4) Have KEYWORD search that defaults to ALL and nothing else. Why the redundant options for Title, Name, etc. If it searches ALL, then no matter what the person types in, it should find it.

5) Remove kick to live after watching a recorded show and default back to list

6) Ability to set list display by title or by date as it currently always defaults to date (SARA did 4 & 5)

7) Move to a 16x9 GUI and utilize the extra screen real estate (on boxes that support it)

8) Have a dedicated setting/list for priority. You currently have to go through each and every show to shuffle it in the priority list where a simple click and move list would do.

9) For Whole Home: Show scheduled recordings among all devices to avoid duplicates

10) For Whole Home: Use other DVR's for conflict resolution. If a DVR has a conflict and nothing is scheduled on a connected device, send the recording there. This requires implementation of #8

Some of these are features that other guide have had for literally a DECADE! Some, like the last for multi-room may not be available yet or require very advanced programming - however, the units can see each others lists, so manipulating them should be possible.

Now, those arecompetitiveres to make it competative and user friendly. One of the other key issues is stability! Right now, many of of face near daily reboots just to make it function properly. It bogs down, has audio drop outs, and various other issues. You can find much more detailed and HONEST info/feedback over at the AVS Forum. Here is a link to the current postings:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/723830/time-warner-cable-navigator/17130

I strongly suggest if you honestly want to do what you say and make this interface better that you really start paying attention to things that will actually make it better. Providing instructions for some convoluted implementation of what is supposed to be a guide filter isn't fixing the problem, it's explaining it away and writing it off.

Right now, I'm paying $215 a month for my "Signature Home" service to contend with this monstrosity. So, you've put it out via this blog that you care - that's great. Now, prove it!
Edited by BenJF3 - 9/20/12 at 12:09pm

I haven't heard or read anything about AutoHD on my local TWC cable system.
How could I tell if that feature is enabled?

With the newest Navigator software update, has anyone reported problems with some SDV channels not tuning and scheduled recordings on SDV channels failing with this error message in the recording log:
"Not recorded because the channel was not available (5)"

I've been getting a lot of failed SDV channel recordings due to that the past week, before that the 8642HDC DVR was very reliable for months and I didn't miss any SDV channel scheduled recordings. The only change recently has been the major Navigator software update.
Trying a different HD-DVR box (model SA8300HDC) showed similar SDV channel tuning problems, so it doesn't seem to be the box hardware.

Go into Menu under HDTV and there will be an option for it. However, most divisions are severely limiting this function to mainly non-SDV channels. Our division only has it on about 12 channels and most are locals or non-SDV ESPN. Also, if you check the banner on the SD channel and it says HD in bold to the right it means that channel has it available.

Nope, 8300HD needed daily reboot because it would normally lose the external drive connection. /Dan
Edited by danki6x - 9/20/12 at 3:20pm