Time Warner Cable Navigator - Page 264

SA 8300HDC - ODN 3.1.1_SP1 in NY HV Market
HDMI to Samsung HL61A750, audio via toslink to Onkyo AVR.

I called TWC technical support last night to 'log' my complaint about the fact that with the latest ODN upgrade, the audio defaults to "HDMI" on every power-on, and I have to manually switch it back to DD.

The csr, although very nice, told me to exchange my HDC for a new one, since this was a hardware problem that it couldn't accept this "software upgrade".

Anyone heard that one before?

Doesn't make any sense to me, since everyone else on this forum is seeing the same issue (at least I think so). I tried to argue that with her, to no avail. I really don't want to trade in my box, because o/t this new issue, it's been working very well.

Not to worry, the one programmer in the Far East they have doing the software has just been sent to school to learn English... so by next year, he should know enough English to then attend programmers school in the US. So by 2011, he should be able to deal withy some of the troublesome issues with the code he has written... maybe.

I have the same problem and it only happened after the latest update from TWC last month. It is definitely a software problem, because my DD stayed on all the time even when I am using HDMi before the update. Now everytime I turn it off it defaults back to HDMI even though I had set it to DD. TWC better fix this soon, it is getting annoying.

The box really isn't "defaulting" back to HDMI, it is setting it to HDMI when it establishes the link to your TV. If I leave both my DVR and TV on, but cycle through my TV inputs all the way around, the DVR ends up with HDMI audio set when I return to the DVR input. This was likely intentional as I'm sure before this change some CSR would get calls from people who just hooked up their DVR to the TV using just an HDMI cable and wondered why there was no sound.
If they could preserve that behavior but also add an "advanced" setting to stick to DD, that would be ideal. They should relabel the existing option as "auto-detect HDMI".

You're right, because when I first turn everything on, I see the AVR come on with DD briefly, then, as soon as the HDC establishes a HDMI connection with the TV, it switches back to PCM.

So, if this was indeed an intentional change, sounds like my only recourse is going to be to abandon HDMI, and switch to component video? (Either that or keep manually changing it EVERY time....ugh.)

Yeah, that's what I finally did. It fixed the problem and (to my eye) didn't hurt the PQ. Still, I wish they'd realize that many people want to send the sound directly to their receiver and not have it affected by the HDMI handshaking.

yeah, but with my tv connected to my dvr via HDMi and an optical cable connected to my a/v receiver for audio, my DD setting stayed on every time even when I turned off the tv/cable box until this stupid update last month. It was so perfect.

I want to use HDMI only because I had that input professionally calibrated

TWC definitely messed with something.


Also there are three settings in the Digital Audio section on the TWC settings menu I believe.
HDMI
Dolby Digital
Other

When I turn on the cable box/tv. the audio option is on HDMI. I then click on DD, and I get DD, but it defaults back to HDMI each time when I turn off the cable box/tv.

There is a new version of Navigator coming out some time this year. It will fix the bugs in the 32xx Samsung boxes. It might add some new features. I hope they fix the password protected AC3 over HDMI. That might be bad for the techs since they would have to go into that menu just to enable it. The SMT-H3090 should come out in other divisions soon. San Diego won't be getting any type of Samsung boxes until they rollout a new version of Navigator.

How do u know this? sources please!!! lol

The President of TWC San Diego.

What about the Distort-O-Vision IPG/GUI? That HAS to be one of the things fixed. PLEEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Probably still has the stretch-o-vision UI. The bugs were minor but troublesome. They aren't major but could bother people.

God, I'd be thrilled to get new hardware here with a version of Navigator that supports eSATA. I hate SARA, but I love having the 1TB of eSATA storage plus the 160GB internal. I used to constantly have to monitor the drive space because they added so much HD (We now have about 80 HD channels) but now I can record all I want without worry. I currently have like 40 shows on the drive and am only using about 20% of the space. I have no idea when our division or ANY SARA division is ever going to start rolling out new hardware and software. However, I will say that the SDV with SARA is performing perfectly for me and they are rolling out HD like mad here. The originally announced like ten channels and we got like 40, so that was a decent surprise and one which kept me from switching to DirecTV.

Let's hope that Keyword Search and/or Manual Recording will be on it. Sounds good!

Jack

Word on the Charlotte TWC thread is that some folks here are now getting handed 3090's with 160GB drives. I think I'll keep my 320 and hope for new ODN software soon. In the meantime I will continue to schedule the Panny DVR as backup.

BTW - no problems or missed recordings this week at all after forcing the factory reset and ODN reload Saturday night. Even Criminal Minds, which had not recorded in weeks, worked fine.

I'm one of the Charlotte folks who got a 3090, with a 160 drive (checked out the label on the hard-drive last night to confirm) and as I've posted on the Charlotte TWC forum, I've had and continue to have problems recording. For example in just the last few days, "The Mentalist", "CSI", and "Southland" all failed to record. And even trying to manually record them was unsuccessful.

I'm not a happy camper. However with the TV season wrapping up, for the most part, I'm going to hold off a few weeks before trading my 3090 in and hopefully by then, all the 160s will have been given out and only 320s will be in the system.

Are you running Navigator .11 or .13. Seems like the newest version .13 seems to have cleaned a lot of the problems up...

Your missed recordings were CBS & NBC... same as the majority of mine. Also missed one FOX... but never any ABC, CW (only Smallville, before I hear any jokes, lol) or any cable network. The majority of missed recordings, by far, have been CBS. Also, the very first problems reported were NCAA tournament... on CBS.

have you tried the factory reset as jcalabria did? i havent had to try it as i only had the one program not record (NCAA). just wondering if it would work for you too.

We are on 3.1.0_11 in Charlotte. I have noted a few times that the recording problems seem to be exclusive to Charlotte, so it could be the difference. Everyone else except K.C. seems to be on 3.1.1_3 and have not reported missed recordings here in the Navigator thread. But other divisions have not had them as long as we have, either... mine worked fine for the first 2-3 weeks before it started acting up.

It's easy and appears to be safe... only audio output settings and favorite channels were lost. Recordings and series schedules remained intact.

I'll try the factory reset when I get home later today. Couldn't make things much worse (famous last words).

That's what I said when I was at a point that I could not even get Navigator to load. I REALLY had nothing to lose. I wasn't gonna get my recordings back in any other way at that point... they were lost if the reset blew'em away and they were lost if I turned the box in for another.

Fortunately it turned out OK and I can report my success. YMMV... YADA YADA... LOL.

has anyone noticed this?

when there is a change in the tc schedule. like harpers island gets moved, the box will still record the hour even though the guide now has the corect show. this time criminal minds.

this also happened when Kings was moved the first time and second time. the first time it didnt schedule the new showing even though it was on the guide as being new the following saturday.

cant say that ive noticed it. actually just the opposite. with all the moving around theyve been doing i havent missed any of my series recordings. heck i even set up some series from reruns airing at odd times during off season and told it to only record new and when the new season started it adapted to whatever time slot it was in.
BTW what version of ODN do you have on the HDC

That's a new one.

Shockingly neither have I. The current MDN and whatever network tweaks they've done here has made the box pretty reliable which also makes for fairly uninteresting reading in this thread.

The usual UI quirks still suck but they've already been covered, so not much to report from MDN Land.

I wonder if they have put MDN development on the backburner so they can get their programmer focused entirely on solving the Samsung problems?

When I got home did the factory reset, redid my recording list and the first test came at 9:00 p.m. when I had scheduled "Patton 360" on History HD, which recorded fine last week and "Dollhouse", which did not. It's a little after 9:00 p.m. now and both shows seem to be recording normally.

Now we'll see how things go for a week or so.

Thanks to all the folks who offered their advice, tips and tricks to me!

Indeed. Very interesting. Makes me wanna scream WHERES THE CHANGELOG?!


FWIW, It's actually in their best interest to cut off development of MDN completely since it is in a 'good enough' state right now.

MDN was really only meant as a stopgap solution for the older non-OCAP boxes that are still out in the field. As of right now, non-OCAP boxes are not able to be legally purchased so whatever is currently in TW's posession are the only ones they have. Once they croak, that's it. OCAP equipment (for all intents and purposes. TECHNICALLY it's cablecard equipped boxes but just about all of them are OCAP equipped too) is the only boxes that cableco's are legally able to purchase now.

So long story short, MDN is on it's last breath and ODN's still going to be in use with primary development focus for the forseeable future.

KC (at least my area) now has 3.1.1_3. **cough** updated a day or two ago. Still no eSATA.
Bastards

Skid