US Cable Support > Time Warner Cable TV/Voice > [TWC] Time Warner Navigator

reply to scififan68

Re: [TWC] Time Warner Navigator

Oh yeah I'm sure I'm the only person in my area who does that. No issues with channel surfing, but I was wondering if it was a bug. Tv also doesn't interest me as much as looking for empty qams, a precursor to more Docsis downstream channels.

Syracuse New York just got Navigator 6.0. Reported Speed improvements and "Subscribed Channels" list added to the guide filter. Hope this will address the reliability issues that have been reported.

Satch

I will be glad to get the new update. I hate scrolling through channels I don't receive.

reply to Satch
Quote From User About Navigator Guide Slowness:

"It's not the box that sucks, it's the program. Once they went to Maestro, or whatever they call this piece of crapware is, it started this. All my calls to support tell me that this "sometimes" happens. I guess that sometimes is a couple of times a week.
Also, before they went with Maestro, I was getting three or more weeks of program schedules. Now it's no more than a week.
And if it's near the time when they have to update the schedule, it's slower than molasses on a snail in February!"

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MY RESPONSE:

The TWC Navigator Guide's performance varies considerably from box to box and division to division. I believe that Navigator was poorly designed from the get-go and that TWC should give up on the software altogether and bring in some programmers, (NOT INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS) but certified STB software developers. Get Passport back, Tivo, Arris, Moxi, Apple, any company who's heart and soul is in STB development.

My view is that TWC sees the set-top box as a matured and dated technology, so they don't want to spend the money for major improvements, because its not a money making asset to their business. TWC does so well with the excellence of the High Speed Internet Service, and Digital Phone, which have been really good! However, I don't think TWC believes a better program guide will attract more subs to their failing cable TV landscape, whereas Internet, Phone, and Mobile Devices are thriving.

I think TWC should just stick to providing the cable TV service, and leave the STB development to those who can do it right with a proven track record of success. (Professional STB programers and testers.) The team is trying with Navigator, but after five years, they aren't even close to where a 2012 cable guide should be concerning reliability and feature sets.

Customers with older boxers, especially some of the non-DVR SA boxes. Try to swap them out for the Cisco's, which are much faster. A new software upgrade was just released in Syracuse New York, (one of the least reliable Navigator divisions), so I am watching to see what this fixes. I hope this does something positive! If TWC could at least get Navigator working reliably across divisions, everything else would at least have the potential to be good concerning the guide.

My judgement is that customers playing $100-$300 a month deserve a better guide concerning reliability and modern features. Mocking an i-Pad color scheme, is next to nothing in the ways of improvement. TWC needs a set-top-box guide that can be reliable and easy to use. Praised, not laughed and cursed at by its competition. And for several years, Navigator has been laughed at and cursed at by its competitors. Customers are leaving TWC Cable TV service because of the Navigator Guide. This is why the guide needs to get better.

Satch

Can anyone tell me how to check the ODN version number on my Samsung 3270 stb. I used to be able to do it by holding the select button down for approx. 8 seconds and then hitting the down arrow. This no longer takes me to that diagnostic page. Select up arrow takes me to the pages it used to, but there never was an ODN version there. I'm in the northeast Ohio-northwest PA area. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Try entering channel 1900. If it brings up a diagnostics for you, look on page 6.

1900 doesn't work. Any other ideas?

I'm not sure about the Samsung boxes, but on the Cisco boxes, after you hold down Select until the Power Indicator blinks, if you want to access the diagnostic screens that your thinking of, you have to keep pressing select for a few more seconds until the Mail light blinks and then press the down arrow and on the first page you'll see the firmware version.

Also if you go into the Select+Up diagnostics, when you get in arrow down to ‘Manufacture Diagnostics’ press select and page up to page 12 and the info is there as well. Again this is on Cisco boxes, I don’t know if the Samsung’s are slightly different or not.
--
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Thanks Steve. My Samsung box used to work like that until the update that was pushed to it last Sunday night. Now I can't find the odn version anywhere. The manf. dia. are not there anymore. My SA 4250 box changed too, but I can find the odn version on it much the way you describe the Cisco box. Actually, I believe they're practically identical.

reply to jacko15

Thanks Satch! The box in question is a Samsung. If I double press the Guide Button it shows 'All Channels', 'High Definition', 'On Demand', and 'Favorites'. It doesn't show 'Subscribed Channels', so I must assume my ODN version is 5.2.09. That's the same version that's on my SA 4250 box. I guess that answers my question as to what version of ODN is on my Samsung box. Still wish I could discover a way to access the diagnostics page giving that information. Just wondering, will my Samsung box's ODN version always be the same as my SA 4250's version? Or does TWC push updates to a particular box, not to every "C" box in the area?
Thanks for all the information. This forum has been a wealth of information to me.

"Just wondering, will my Samsung box's ODN version always be the same as my SA 4250's version? Or does TWC push updates to a particular box, not to every "C" box in the area?"

I have never seen updates to individual makes or models of boxes. They have always done every ODN box.

Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

Satch

reply to hobgoblin
Thanks Hob! That takes care of it for me. I'll just track my ODN version on my SA box.

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

reply to Satch

said by User About Navigator Guide Slowness :

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"It's not the box that sucks, it's the program. Once they went to Maestro, or whatever they call this piece of crapware is, it started this.

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SARA is an ugly piece of trash missing support for TWC features like Start Over and Look Back. I don't think it does CallerID on TV either. Besides that its VOD client looks totally different than the guide and in my experience frequently crashes, even on newer boxes.
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If it's important, back it up... twice. Even 99.999% availability isn't enough sometimes.