Several new digital TV features will be available this week to customers in Charlotte and Raleigh:
On Demand Portal on channel 999
Improvements to DVR Manager
Widescreen guide option
Upgraded Advanced Search
Reintroduction of DVR compensation
General performance improvements
On Demand Portal, DVR Manager and Advanced Search
Only customers with the following ODN and ADSG-enabled set-top box models will receive the On Demand Portal, DVR Manager and Advanced Search enhancements:
Motorola - DCX3200-M, DCX3400-M, DCX3510-M
Samsung - 3260, 3270, 3262, 3272, 3090, 3362
Cisco - 464x, 864x, 474x, 874x
Widescreen Guide
Only the following ODN and ADSG-capable set-top box models have the capability to display the guide in the new widescreen format:
Motorola - DCX3200-M, DCX3400-M, DCX3510-M
Samsung - 3090, 3260, 3270, 3262, 3272, 3362
Cisco - 464x, 864x, 474x, 874x
New Digital TV Features:
The update will enact several changes to the user experience for our customers. New features include:
On Demand Portal
The On Demand Portal consolidates all VOD channels and content in one destination on channel 999, with movie and TV show box art, browse by category functions, a keyboard search and more.
DVR Manager
The DVR manager has been updated to improve the overall customer experience with simplified navigation of recordings and recording schedule, box art, a better layout, a new series page, multiple episode delete option and more.
Widescreen Guide Option
The guide has been optimized to display in a 'widescreen' format at 16x9 ratio, which is more compatible with HDTV sets. This view allows for additional area to display seven rows of guide data, a 2-hour grid, longer program titles and extended description data.
This new option eliminates graphic stretching on Samsung boxes and the video curtain on Cisco boxes so customers will now enjoy a true HDTV experience on the guide.
*This option is only available on ADSG-capable boxes (see list above for specific model types).
The default setting for displaying the guide is now 16x9 format. To display the guide in the 4x3 format, customers can update their settings in the Settings menu: Settings > High Definition > Menus > Choose Standard (4x3).
Advanced Search
Advanced Search provides search results with box art, full program descriptions and cast listings for both Live TV and On Demand programming, so customers can choose to watch now or set up a recording to watch later. With this new release, customers will enjoy optimized search results for Movies, TV series and Sports Teams, higher quality box art, prioritized HD and NEW episodes in series results and more.
DVR Compensation
The DVR compensation feature will also be reintroduced on all digital navigator boxes. DVR compensation starts playback a few seconds earlier than the time the play button was hit.
Additional Fixes
This update also includes several minor performance improvements and bug fixes.