Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 67

Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio(Akron/Summit County)

A. I've had Navigator since August 2007.

B. I'll give the 8300HD box aB- (Because I'm happy with the picture quality. A few channels look too compressed, but that's not the boxes fault. Also, the 8300HD is a BIG improvement over the 8000HD)
NAVIGATOR-OVERVIEW
I give Navigator a D- to an F. The menus are just plain ugly and the channel banner is too big and guide shows less info than the Passport guide. The menus are also more confusing, I liked Passport's A B C options at the bottom of the guide and DVR, I don't like the left/right menus and options. It makes me think of Directv's guide and I liked Passport better than them too. Also, the Access Menu is pointless, just another way for TW to force their services down our throats. And the "Enhanced TV" thing is pointless, all it does is come up when a channel is also in HD.
NAVIGATOR-RECORDING
Recording gets a an F! My VCR was more reliable as long as I had enough tape. I've had shows record for only 10 minutes or not at all because of "Channel Not Available" and unwatchable recordings because of audio dropouts, especially on HD channels. Also, the other tuner doesn't buffer live TV and the main channel doesn't buffer live TV when the box is turned off or playing back a show. I was p!$$ed the first time I found that out when I turned on the TV in the middle of a show and couldn't go back.

#C. I REALLY HOPE NAVIGATOR IS NEVER A STRONG PRODUCT!! IT SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE ABANDONED AND THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THAT SOFTWARE SHOULD NE FIRED!! Leave the software development to the professionals at Aptiv. IMO, Passport gave Time Warner and edge over satellite, it was one thing I considered after switching to D* briefly. When Navigator goes live on all boxes, there's gonna be more trouble and I see customers leaving.

Quick Question: Does anyone have Navigator running on an older box like a BD-V1000 or a SA8000? If there is this much trouble with the new boxes running Navigator, I don't see how the old boxes are going to handle it.

nicdawg

From what I gather, Navigator needs the faster/more processor/memory of the newer boxes.

I don't know about firing the Software Developers though. Usually failures like this stem from upper management not defining the project correctly and/or inadequate funding.

If TWC had just struck a deal with Tivo...they'd own our market.

I have the new OCAP 8300HD. The guide/UI still moves slow. I don't think the old Pioneer or 8000 boxes could handle it. I can't wait to see how that will work.

And here I thought watching Ghost Whisperer for JLH's bounteous ta-tas was perfectly acceptable?

It seems that the only difference between the HD and the HDC boxes are the installed RAM. Everything else appears to be the same.

The really scary part is that there are 2 Nagivator variants, one for the larger memory space and one for the HUGE installed base of HD models. As soon as they roll that second variant, I'm swapping boxes... BUT I get you I'll have to wait for weeks/months to get a HDC.

Riverside
Realize there are hardware revisions within the 8300HD spec.

Here's SA's recommendation:
http://scientificatlanta.com/custome...ce/7008360.pdf

In this document they specifically note that OCAP is recommended only for 8300 "C" or "HDC" models with 128 MB Ram.

So if you have revision "C" of the 8300 HD-DVR you may very well get Navigator. I'm guessing they have a way of knowing at head end which type of box is eligible to receive Navigator on a roll out and flag the rest for replacement. (If they don't, ugh that'll be ugly)

I live in the Kenosha area and over the weekend caller id was added. About three months ago a TW tech told me we would be getting caller id for the exact reason you gave nextoo. Good call.

Just swapped my 8300hd box with passport for a 8300hdc box that booted up with Navigator, so wish me luck, wanted to see what all this is about...

On a side note, do you guys know who builds Verizons FIOS TV guides? I was at a buddies that just had it installed, and was blown away by the look and performance of the guide which is running on a MOTO box, it seriously makes Passfart and Navicraper look like a freaking fat zit faced teen in his parents basement...glasslike, fast, beautiful, and its a damn shame I'm in an AT&T service area, I would drop TWC like a hot rock...

I believe the Verizon IMG is all done in-house now. They used to run Microsoft Mediaroom (a bit like at&t Uverse) but they dropped it and went their own way.

Please report your findings with Navigator. Let us know your first impressions as well as what you like and dislike about it. Post an issues or problems and the differences you find between your old software and the new one. In other words, give us a review.

Is Verizon going to be for cable, or dish, or are they a separate company that delivers the signal in a different way? What is the FIOS Guide like?

Yea, good luck with Navigator.....(knock on wood.)

Jack

Navigator Week 6:

New symptom tonight, I think. On playback of recorded tonights episode of How I Met Your Mother, it froze for a few seconds then jumped to middle of a commercial, right in middle of scene...played part of the commercial then seemed to return to show to catch last 30 seconds of the scene...then went to last part of the commercial it just left. I don't think it was the network's problem but I forgot to go back and confirm before I deleted.

Have had random freeze ups and of course its slow,slow,slow and analog audio is horrible. I finally switched analog outs to the secondary output and confirmed that it removed distorted audio on right channel that was occurring. Volume is still screwed up though, very compressed and tinny sounding, no matter the surround mode I try.

Its been 3 weeks and TWC still hasn't buried the cable in my yard either, supposed to come this week.

I hate this box and hate the company but don't have viable options at the moment.

If anybody knows or has friends or relatives of friends who work for TWC as program developers, field techs, or is in any way involved with the programing and or distribution of Navigator, PLEASE let them know about this site. Even giving them this direct URL might help. This isn't meant to be cynical. There are so many wonderful people who could help the programmers, techs, and developers work out the bugs in Navigator. The people here could provide almost an on-going Instant Messaging communication where this information could be passed on to the development team.

I am even optimistic that there are people at TWC who would like to help. But the problem is that there appears to be so much ineffective communication or misleading information between TWC's local, state, and national divisions, that many of Navigator's problems aren't being solved because the structural foundation of the new guide is still so unstable for most people. I believe that there can be positive communication to fix things if there are massive complaints about the problems. But as posted above, there aren't enough people outside of the great posters on this board who are voicing their concerns about Navigator. I guess my question is, going beyond the conventional call CS, speak to an often clueless CSR, reboot the box/exchange box repeat the ritual due to this mediocre software 5 times over, who can be contacted from a programmer, engineer, or head CEO, that can bring about enough complaints about the Navigator system to get TWC to realize at the national level that Navigator is a very unstable product even after a year in the field?

Are there any higher ups that could be contacted to at least put this planned national roll-out on hold for six months to a year until it is ready? For those of you with Navigator, and if you have problems, have you tried contacting the President of your local division or any higher ups? What if any responses did you receive?

Jack

Well so far I'm not impressed in the least bit, I think I took a step backward...the funny thing is Navigator is basically TWC blatantly copying and ripping off Aptiv and their passport software, how are they actually getting away with it, it is almost identical...

Anyway, it is definitely slower, channel changing, guide speed, FF and REW...a lot of it, especially going into settings and channel 199, seems like its streaming in from the back end somewhere and thats why it takes so friggin' long. Search isn't so hot either, slow clicking through to the letters. I can definitely see why everyone is up in arms about this thing..I may give it a few more days just to clear out my wife and I's shows that are recorded and hopefully get my 8300HD with passport back...my office is usually pretty good about exchanges which was the case yesterday.

Satchman, here's a nice flash demo of the FIOS guide...makes me cry actually..

http://promo.verizon.com/img/

In my market, they have been giving out HDC boxes w/Nagivator since 7/1. So far, they have left along our HD/Passport boxes. Like I said, I have many times heard about an alternative version of Nag. that was "meant" for the HD boxes... which were RAM limited compared to the HDC boxes. THAT is way scary... an alternate IPG to a very buggy piece of software!

I would if I could but I have very little to complain about. I believe I'm coming to the end of my third week with Navigator. No missed recordings, no reboots (that I am aware of), very responsive guide, etc. The guide is actually more responsive than the Passport guide. For example when scrolling through the guide starting from channel 1 and going to 1999 Navigator blows away Passport. Here are the results:

Navigator - 27 seconds to scroll from channel 1 to 1999

Passport - 2 minutes 47 seconds to scroll from channel 1 to 1999.

I think I posted before that Navigator offers hyper speed in the guide when scrolling channels. It's fast. Passport chugs through the guide one channel at a time.

Also when moving out a few days in the guide Passport slows the process down with the "loading data" prompt on the screen. Not so with Navigator. At least based on my experience of running the two boxes side by side. I think the entire guide is resident in the Navigator box but with Passport you only have a couple days resident in the box and have to pro actively load the entire guide by scrolling through the upcoming days for the data to show. I should note that my Navigator box is a SA8300HDC with 128 megs of ram.

In my case this affects series recordings. With Navigator scheduled series recordings show the entire upcoming week. With Passport only the next couple of days show as series scheduled recordings. Unless you scroll through the guide and load the entire week - then the entire week of series scheduled recordings show up. At least that's how my flavor of Passport handles it.

I believe this also affects how the search function works. In Navigator the entire week is searched because it is resident in the box as a default. With Passport it will only search what has been "loaded". If you don't pro actively load the entire guide the search function only goes out a couple days.

I think I did find one potential deal breaker though. And that is it looks like my Navigator box is dropping the esata connection to my external HDD. It is inconsistent at best which causes problems. Meaning if the esata drive is no longer seen by the Navigator box it will delete recordings on the local drive in order to make room for new recordings. Not good. Tough to complain to TWC on this though because TWC does not officially support esata drives. I'm running the Navigator box without the esata drive now and it has been rock solid (absent of some user issues I posted early on).

As far as putting "lipstick on a pig" that was previously directed at me from another poster. I can only report my experience. I think there is a lot at work when it relates to Navigator. There is more than one version - meaning one for OCAP boxes and one for non OCAP boxes. And within those subsets there are various versions of STBs. And various versions of Navigator. There is also distinct differences in cableco infrastructures. So for a poster who is having problems and then taking the liberty in assuming all users must be having the exact same problems may be is a bit misguided. Or self serving. Use your energy to complain to your local cableco.

For those that are having serious problems I would cancel service. Speak with my wallet. DVR service is not included in the Bill of Rights. If you are using a service that does not meet your needs either look for a better service or cancel. It's pretty simple actually. Cancellations will speak louder to a cableco than any other alternative.

Yeah but cancellations aren't an option for many people, especially for people like me who has a townhouse that don't allow dish's, which I wouldn't pay for all that equipment anyway, that is why cable is such a double edged sword, you don't pay for anything but the service...but at the same time when there is only one cable company to choose from and you are stuck with stuff like this...hell even Comcast wised up and is now offering alternatives like TIVO..TWC really needs to wake up.

True enough. By the way you mentioned that channel 199 was sluggish on your Navigator box. What is channel 199 being used for on the Navigator box? Is your version of Navigator using it for caller ID settings?

No, I couldn't find any settings for the caller ID on 199...it was just a diagnostic page...but man, it took about 90 seconds to pop up..I put in 199...waited waited waited, screen went black for 30 seconds, then it popped up.

First I have heard of channel 199 being used as a diagnostic page with Navigator.

Channel 199 is used in my Passport box as a channel for setting up caller ID.

Odd that Navigator is also using it as a diagnostic channel. When I press 199 on the remote for the Navigator box I get ????'s in the banner after about 3 seconds because the Navigator box cannot access that channel. This also happens for any other channel not offered.

What I am hoping for is that since Nextoo and I are both from Wisconsin that whenever I get Navigator I will get a smooth transition. Maybe some divisions are doing better with this IPG than others. However, the problems that people are having are major and should not be happening regardless of where you live.

A question might be, where does there seem to be such differences in Navigator's performance from state to state? Perhaps searching for a solution to this problem could begin to improve Navigator's performance overall.

Jack

We need more user experiences from SE WI. I've always said that it looks like I got a "good box". I'm sure there are "bad boxes" out here in SE WI but so far users have not posted here. Also there may be portions of the local system that may pose problems logistically.

What I find interesting is that there is no real outrage being posted in the local Milwaukee HDTV forums (so far). Similar to the outrage posted by OH and NC users seen here. Nothing similar to what was reported in the Lincoln roll out here locally - yet. Mostly just TWC complaints about a small HD channel lineup in the local forums.

WOW! I almost crapped myself!!! Now that is what an interactive guide should be!!! The only problem is that I've looked into FiOS for TV and where I am it just ain't gonna happen anytime soon. We are years away from seeing that (we don't even have DSL!) Therein lies the problem. Time Warner knows a majority of people don't have alternatives, so I feel they really don't care. As I mentioned in a prior post, my only other option is satellite and it's far more expensive than what I get from TWC now. The plus side is that we don't have Navigator yet.

TivoHD may be an option. There are those that report that the break even point when considering the up front costs is not that bad.

Until Tivo can handle SDV it really won't be a solution. Here is where TWC totally misses the boat. They should have pursued a Tivo option. I would have easily paid an extra $5 a month for a rock solid guide/DVR that incorporated the Tivo features.

Navigator Week 6.5

Well, I guess I've got a date with a pig.

I sat down, turned on cable and the phone rang. Whaddya know, the phone number showed up on screen. I thought, well, that had to have been a new download, wonder what else they fixed. Here's what I've noticed so far:
-Menu guide speed is now fast...as fast as Passport, perfectly acceptable.
-List guide speed is now fast...deleting program is vastly improved (always used to hang).
-Sound has been fixed, I was able to select "Normal" without drastic reduction in volume.

I'll play with the HDMI output this weekend and see how the reboots/freezes go.

I must say I'm pleased. Obviously they have different builds of Navigator out in the field, this release is night/day different for me.

Awesome news DMC!

Tell us what version you have please!

Jack

How do I get to diag screen to look up version?

Also, is there any way I can try tunning between digital and analog on some of the basic cable channels? Are they sending those digital yet?

Comedy channel has always looked like crap through set top box but looks great plugged directly into cable ready TV.

On my 8300HDC you press the Select button on your remote until the envelope blinks on the box. Then release the Select button and press the down key underneath it.

I'm on version 2.4.5_4 dated 8/29/2007. It's my third box since replacing my 8300 to go to HD. This one reboots at least once daily also.

TWC, Cary, NC

Interesting.

It says last reboot was 10/11, so there was no reboot today like I would have expected with new load. Software shows as 2.4.5_4 just like yours. Says my SDV server IP is not available...so I tuned to TBSHD to make sure its not dynamically assigned when needed...still says not available. However SDV Server Reistation says "State Pending". SDV carousel Status: Initializing Switched Digital Video.

Profile version is 339 (whatever that means).

Last page indicates there were a2 "Profile catalog updates" during course of today, starting at 6am, ending just before I got home.

So I'm guessing there's functionality in the Profile catalog updates? Something changed for the better.