Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 590

I can report a small occasional bug with the SA-8300 HDC,

I have the remote set to control both the STB/TV on/off, through the Power Button. It's a TWC Synergy remote, one of the older ones from a few years ago, but it does have the Day +/- buttons.

Sometimes, after I am done watching a show that I have recorded and press Delete Show, the show deletes, but sometimes when I power off the box, like I'm done with TV for the night, the screen will pause instead of Power Off. Or the screen will go black for a second or two and than come back to the live channel being watched in Pause Mode. Hitting the power button a second time, turns off the TV/Cable box as it should.

The workaround that always works, is to wait about 20 to 30 seconds when coming out of playing back the recording of a show before powering off the box. (Whether you choose to Save or Delete a watched recording.) It seems like the playback portion of the DVR when a show is deleted, or stopped. needs several seconds to make the transition back to, "OK, you're done with the DVR and back to Live TV."

I think (but am not sure that my old SA-8300HD (no C) did the same thing from time to time.

Jack

I am also getting random audio dropouts with my 8742HDC along with pixelation(this doesn't happen as often though).

During playback, sometimes the sound will just stop after resuming play from fast forwarding through a commercial. The video is playing but the audio is nonexistent and will not return unless I rewind and try again.

Well I had a tech out here to replace a cable line today and inquired about the Cisco 8742s as he was leaving, he said he had one on his truck and asked me if I wanted it. I was more than happy to say Yes at getting a brand new latest and greatest model DVR. I’m still running the 8642 in the living room but now have the 8742 in the bedroom. It seems a little faster and snappier. A combo DOCSIS 3/Phone modem and an 8742 both within a month, I’m all happy for the time being

Hi Justin,

Please post this information as well in the "Problems in the Syracuse Area With Navigator" over at DSL Reports. I have also asked Ben for a list of specific sub-divisions in the region that he is in and those customers in the vicinity with the audio drop-out problems. (He services a bunch of TWC customers in the Syracuse area with the audio drop-outs:)

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27737507-Navigator-Non-Stop-Navigator-Problems-in-Syracuse-NY-Area

I personally think there's a bunch of cable wiring connected to various taps in those head-ends that has not been replaced for 30-50 years. Several things going from the trap to the head end that only work intermittently. It's not the customer's pole-lines, which the signal meters are reporting as "good." It's wiring from the late 60's-70's traveling to and from those nodes that's old, brittle, and breaking. TWC is going to have to being replacing all these old wires to stop the audio problems, and should report this to all Customer Service Reps to let them know these issues are far too mainstream and widespread to be a "box problem."

Jack
Edited by Satch Man - 12/8/12 at 12:50pm

I did have that search slowdown a few days ago, which that patch before ODN 6.0 was supposed to fix. I don't have 6.0 yet, but I really hope that fixes the slowdown once and for all! Too many customers are confused by the slowdowns, and some people who may be elderly or have mobility impairments may not be able to get back to unplug the box for a cold reboot when this happens.

ODN 6.0 is supposed to be another speed boost and the cloud service preparation.

Satch

Has there been much talk here about this?

While I was in the Cary, NC TWC office returning my equipment, I noticed several customers picking up boxes so they can get channels that are disappearing from the analog tier. Of course, I saw about 10 times as many people canceling cable and turning in boxes. In fact, I have never seen so many people at that office. Probably about 30 people in line the whole time I was there. I spoke with a few of them. All but one were switching to Dish or DirecTV. The other one was going OTA.

-Ted

just another FYI: i was in Pinehurst, NC the other day and stayed at the Carolina Hotel or whatever the old classic hotel is. The room Televisions there had Time Warner cable boxes. They were itty bitty things strapped to the back of the TV....which was mounted on the wall. Interestingly, the interface was much different than the one on my Explorer 8300HDC in Charlotte. Also, it functioned MUCH MUCH better. I actually liked it. Flipping through Entertainment on-demand to find TV episodes was like using windows media center with the "album art". I should have taken note of the hardware etc they were using. it wasn' t a typical hotel system. it seemed to be just normal ole TWC, piped into the hotel. i wish my $200 a month pkg and hardware worked that well.

I get the same

Audio dropouts tonight are about 3 every half hour. The "jump back" button usually corrects it. It's been worse than ever since the 6.0 update. Keep these great "fixes" coming Time Warner!

Be careful what you wish for. I'm continually shocked how crude and simpleminded the [non-DVR] Comcrap guide is, even compared to Navigator. It even has a banner ad!
BTW it's been quiet here in LA-LA county for the last couple of months, one or two late night updates that didn't change the ODN version.

Q for Satch, please link to where you found that TWC uses subcontractors for Navigator programming. Sounds like typical MBA groupthink - outsourcing everything possible is goodness.

After searching I couldn't find an answer to my latest question, namely, wtf did the 'screen saver' come from and can it be turned off?
On my STB after exactly four hours and five minutes of being tuned to the same channel a static panel comes up saying 'channel so-and-so is not available at this time'. Pressing the 'A' key IIRC restores the channel. Time of day or night or channel does not matter. I know this because I listen (remotely via FM xmtr) to a music or favorite channel as background frequently.
TIA, Mike

Sup Mike?

I found out through a source at TWC that the original Navigator development team was fired. The new team that was brought in was based in Syracuse, (yea, Ben's area with all the problems!!!!!) The Syracuse group convinced a head CEO at TWC to go with their programing plan for the new Black Guide, instead of another plan that an in-house developer wrote. As I understand it, TWC is going to be going back to the original development plan for the software. What this means is that it appears that the Syracuse development team was NOT the improvements that TWC subs had hoped. The Syracuse team was an independent contractor company.

It seems that the personnel in house directly related to TWC have a better plan for the guide, and my source says that supposedly TWC is going to be going back to that plan. This next build of ODN 6.0 is the preparation for cloud services. The biggest problem with Navigator now causing so much of this mess according to two sources. There are too many boxes with different hardware and software parameters that are needed for code backward compatibility. Each update, whether MDN or ODN, has to meet proficiencies for ALL of the makes/models of boxes. This means that if there are ten-twenty boxes out there, they have to work with each update before general release, and that is a problem.

Direct TV, U-Verse, and Dish Network, only have to code for maybe three different boxes. Not twenty or more. That's why Navigator is so far behind. And it may also be a reason why some other cable systems are behind as well. Charter Cable has at least THREE Guides depending on where you live, and box type (Moxi, Passport, I-Guide.)

Mike, AFAIK, there is no way to disable the Navigator screen saver. However, in Settings, see that Power Save Mode is turned Off. Go Under Settings and than Display, (I think.) This may stop that message. I think it says, if turned on, cable box will turn off after four hours of inactivity.

Jack

Satch, he is getting the SDV Timeout message. There is nothing he can do about that, but hit the "A" button to reset the timer. TWC does this to release SDV channels it thinks no one is watching.

The power saver may disable the TWC logo screensaver, but to my knowledge, there is no way to disable the SDV timeout.

Hey All,

I had an issue last night where my closed captioning did not turn off after turning it off in settings. The only way I could turn it off was to force a cold reboot of the box. Last week or so, an update was pushed to the box.

We recently had new lines and signal tests done and the box was OK.

Satch

...and somebody in the Charlotte thread reported today that his box went into Fast Forward and wouldn't stop, either (short of a reboot). They must be pushing some good drugs to these boxes!

Or the TWC Navigator development team is ON DRUGS, which is a prerequisite for being a TWC Navigator developer!!!

Jack

Samsung has a new 6 tuner Gateway DVR. Model number is SMT-H4372 and it has 6 tuners and an 8x4 channel DOCSIS 3.0 modem. It also has a transcoder for transcoding to other devices. Other companies such as Cisco and Motorola have similar products that can do what this Samsung gateway can do. Still the same old ODN software.

Edit: This box has a 1TB HDD!

When four tuners are used for a DOCSIS-3 Channel Bonded High Speed Cable connection,
that only leaves the usual two tuners available for TV.

I believe the DOCSIS chip is separate from the tuners. I think it has 6 TV tuners plus an 8x4 DOCSIS tuner setup. 

It is separate from the video tuners, this unit is designed to be it's own gateway at the subscribers home and from there all your slave devices would be wired or wireless. The amount of signal on the forward needs to be at around 10dbmv> with a return at <40dbmv or less. It is designed for 862mhz> greater with a 18-over tap value return HFC system. It is designed to be competitive with FTTH systems that have GHz GPON at the demarcation.

@BenJF3, your explanation does make sense. Since I notice the timeout on video channels, I'll have to pay attention so see if this happens when set to a Music "Choice" channel; surely those very low bandwidth sources won't be on SDV? BTW the power saver 'feature' has No effect on a 4250HDC.
@SatchMan and @Jcalabria, I'm getting similarly erratic behavior on my STB. At certain times of the day the PG becomes unusable because I will press an arrow key ONCE to step the channel or time and then the PG WILL KEEP ON SCROLLING! Pure anti-navigation. Pressing another key may stop it.
To my IT/EE brain this looks worse than a memory leak, probably too long of a critical 'path' length for the processor performance i.e. twenty pounds of code in a five pound bag. They really, really need to reduce the size of the bloated Navigator code or just trash it.
The 'underpowered STB' issue deserves some further investigation. TWC wants to charge me >$300 to replace this ancient non-DVR technology, yet low end satellite rcvrs run $100 to 150 IIRC. And of course the oxymoronic OpenCable won't certify any STB that the CEA vendors can design+make for a reasonable price, thus preserving the CableCo rental monopoly.
Thanks all!

Saturday night had the second occurance of this in as many weeks. Turn the TV on, whatever channel t was last on is showing....go to the recorded list....Watch pre-recorded show fine....when the show was over, go back to live TV and all the channels are "black" with no sound. Guide still works (but preview window is black and no sound coming out), and I can call up the recorded list and watch another recording no problem. Only way out of it is to pull the power cord and plug it in for a hard reboot. (SA-8300HD).

I've been having the same problem with my Samsung 3270. Exact same thing. Happens several times a week. I do a reboot with my remote to get picture and sound back. What's up with that?

My 3270 also has been doing it for weeks. 98% of the time can change channels and back and it pops in (or sometimes just wait it out and usually comes back). Rarely have to boot, but lose the buffer when change channels usually. /Dan

My sources indicate that TWC has been having trouble trying to get all these different boxes to update properly. Things have been going good in Wisconsin with ODN 5.2.09 since that emergency service pack was applied. I did have to do one cold reboot and for the last week or so, my SA-8300HDC, known for its slowness in some areas, has been pretty fast. Now, the million dollar question is, how long will it hold?

ODN 6.0 is gonna be widespread pretty soon, and is the prep update to move the boxes to cloud services to free up the bloated memory in the legacy units.. TWC really wants to get the legacy boxes to cloud service because of memory issues. The transition has begun in many divisions by moving analog channels off the "In the Clear QAM, and requiring a digital cable box for them.

The reason why the competition is kicking TWC's ass with the program guides, speaking of Direct TV and Dish Network, is because they don't have to do backward compatibility code for ten-fifteen makes and models of both MDN/ODN boxes. TWC in theory SHOULD only be writing Navigator code for ODN, and have two boxes out there. A top DVR box, and a top non-DVR box. The problem is, the fortune in cost it would take for TWC to swap out 15-20 MILLION STB's/DVR's. They would rather work with the hardware issues on a case by case die on the vine/replace the boxes as needed.

The other issue is that the swaps and the models you get seem to be based on local office and franchise location. Some divisions will only give out the modern Cisco's/Samsungs to Whole Home Subs only. I can report that some areas of New York and Pennsylvania are giving out legacy MDN boxes. A source with TWC says it could take three years just to get the legacy boxes out of the system, maybe more. Each update for ODN/MDN is separate, however within those OS designs, the code has to work for ALL the boxes within that ODN or MDN framework. It's like you said, "Too much information for some of this old hardware to handle."

I would cold reboot your box. Turn off the box first, unplug for 30 seconds, and plug it back in, allowing the box to reboot. We will be waiting and reporting on the rollout of Navigator 6.0 soon.

Jack
Edited by Satch Man - 12/17/12 at 12:56pm

Instead of rebooting with the remote. Cold reboot in its place:

1.) Power off the box
2.) Unplug for 30 seconds
3.) Plug back in and wait for reboot to complete.

Hopefully the forthcoming ODN 6.0 for Navigator fixes these slowness and freezing issues.

Jack

I used to have this problem at least once a week. Finally, I just had it with the myriad 8300 problems. I got an 8640 and so far it's been flawless (knock on wood.)

As of 12/27, I'll be doing the ultimate cold reboot. That's the day I unplug these worthless pieces of crap, throw them in the trunk of my car and drive them back to the local office. And along with TWC losing my cable business, they will also lose my phone service as well. In two years when my contract with Directv is up, "Navigator ODN version 15.989" will be out and hopefully their 10 year old DVR will only freeze up once a hour instead of the 20 times per hour I now enjoy.

Did you reformat using the "Field Tools" menu? There is a feature that allows you to save all of your Favorite Channels and your Series Manager list to a server (though, none of the recordings). You're issued a PIN to use when restoring your settings.

I did not.