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bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

1 edit

bacon612

Member

[TV] NextBox HD Terminal is painfully slow.

Hey All

Helped a senior family member that was happily using analog cable merge to a digital setup after there were no channels left for them of interest to watch. Oddly enough their CRT TV died around this time. Upgraded to HD LCD TV. Bought a Nextbox HD terminal off of kijiji for $150. Its manufacture date is Oct 2012. I dont believe there is a newer faster hardware revision. Im told the PVR is faster but i dont need a PVR.

I set it up and I have to say that this box is painfully slow. Yes its HD but it is so laggy that its really frustrating to use. Its almost impossible to channel surf on it as the user used to with the analog setup and built in tuner from the old crt. Trying to explain the concept of using the guide feature to said family senior is not likely a reality. I set up the same huge button remote to work with the new LCD and Nextbox hoping it would be the same as before but HD with a new tv. Not the case.

Ive talked to customer service and tech support a few times and it seems that everyone is ok with how slow these are as there is nothing they can do. When I say slow, i mean that there is a good 5-10 second lag between changing channels and if you hit an On Demand channel, you are there for 30 seconds minimum before you can leave. I have removed all of the channels that are not of interest or subscribed to.

Anyone have any suggestion or want to chime in about this? I haven't personally used a cable box in a long time but im really surprised that this hardware is so slow today. I suppose comparing analog sd with digital hd is apples to oranges but channel surfing is channel surfing and the senior is confused and I dont blame her.

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

Acrimonius

Member

Been through exactly what you have in the past year with 2 LED TV's and HD boxes.

You haven't said what box model number you own. Sounds like the 4642HD. Own one of them myself along with an older 8300HD PVR. Both work great. No issues. Changing channels isn't as speedy as the old CRT TV/analog setups but there's only a slight delay going from station to station on either HD box.

Best advice: Download the user guide for your particular box and follow the instructions to the letter. Sounds like the box isn't set up to interact properly with your particular TV. A little 'failure to communicate' so to speak.

A far as seniors (real seniors) and the Digital TV guide goes, you hit the nail right on the head. It's a nightmare for our elderly non-computer literate family members. They just don't understand the concept of how to use it period.

pulp46
Premium Member
join:2003-01-28
canada

pulp46 to bacon612

Premium Member

to bacon612
You're not alone. My Nextbox 8642HD PVR's have been just awful; crashing, freezing and ridiculously slow channel changing etc... since the significant firmware upgrade performed last week. I'm going to switch to Bell if Rogers doesn't fix it, today, or swap them out for Nextbox 3.0.'s. I'm on *hold* with Rogers as I type....

P.S. Yes, I have unplugged, waited 10 minutes and plugged them back in, about 5x each over the past week.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

said by Acrimonius:

Best advice: Download the user guide for your particular box and follow the instructions to the letter. Sounds like the box isn't set up to interact properly with your particular TV. A little 'failure to communicate' so to speak.

Im not sure how much more complicated connecting an HDMI cable from box output to tv imput could be. Can you elaborate on what you mean by the box being set up incorrectly?
said by pulp46:

You're not alone. My Nextbox 8642HD PVR's have been just awful; crashing, freezing and ridiculously slow channel changing etc... since the significant firmware upgrade performed last week.

Firmware update, huh? This is probably like running software too demanding for the hardware. Someone made a bad idea. It really does seem that this hardware was never intended to run this and it explains why its so slow.

I was misinformed by a rogers rep the other day that you could remove the unnecessarily high number of on demand channels from the guide. Whenever you hit one of these channels (that will never be used by the user) its like steeping on a landmine requiring 30 seconds plus for the box to catch its breath and allow you to leave. I feel like the software could be better at letting the user know that commands have been received and its thinking like an hourglass icon. The lag sometime makes you think that the remote didn't send its command and you click it again and again and then when the box catches up, you change like 5 channels. The result is often the tv and box get shut off and senior moves on. Again, dont blame them. With all of the other alternatives out there for tv coming out, i really cant believe rogers would willingly try and sell this as a solution without fearing more of their dwindling cable tv user base cutting the cord.

Ironnically enough, i came across this articel yesterday and I think there is a strong parellel between what the blogger is saying and whats happening at rogers with these cable boxes now.

»www.theverge.com/2015/2/ ··· terrible

I don't think its unreasonable for me to expect better performance from rogers

I rep on the phone said to me yesterday, its sounds like you just need a digital adapter as a solution to my problem. To me, there is something fundamentally wrong with an adapter that takes a digital signal, converts it to an analog output only to be fed to a digital tv. You cant even buy crts anymore. In fact you cant really even buy a non high def tv, so why would rogers be providing such a garbage experience.

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

Acrimonius to pulp46

Member

to pulp46
said by pulp46:

You're not alone. My Nextbox 8642HD PVR's have been just awful;.....

I'm just wondering if the Rogers box firmware is not really compatible with the installed TV firmware. I do know that the TV firmware has to be updated manually by the end user every so often. The latest TV firmware would be located on the manufacturer's website. Usually it's just a case of downloading the rom onto a USB drive and plugging it into the TV.

Could be the solution and the latest TV firmware is always recommended
Acrimonius

Acrimonius to bacon612

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to bacon612
said by bacon612:

Im not sure how much more complicated connecting an HDMI cable from box output to tv imput could be. Can you elaborate on what you mean by the box being set up incorrectly?

Yea, I see you haven't read the User Guide. There's a lot more to setting up the TV properly that plugging in an HDMI cable.

Read the Guide. That's why there is one. 'nuff said.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

1 edit

bacon612

Member

said by Acrimonius:

Yea, I see you haven't read the User Guide. There's a lot more to setting up the TV properly that plugging in an HDMI cable.

Read the Guide. That's why there is one. 'nuff said.

»www.cisco.com/web/consum ··· 77_A.pdf

Just read the guide. I still don't know what I am missing that will help my case. Can you cite what more there is to setting up the TV properly?

Edit: Seems that I am really not alone in this. A quick google search of the model number results in many complaining about the same thing...

»www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/ ··· 581.aspx

Edit 2: In contast to this rogers box nonsense. An apple tv outperforms it in every way. Yes its an apples to oranges comparison but my point is that they are both HD media boxes connected over hdmi. The apple tv works smoothly with no noticeable lag and streams HD while the cisco box is really an aweful experience. One cost $100 and the other $300. Whats wrong with this picture? I suppose my point is that im not sure how rogers plans on trying to stay relevant and competitive. The rogers box really feels like its outdated by ten years. Again, expecting more in not unreasonable to me.

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

Acrimonius

Member

Sadly, Couldn't help you if I wanted to. Every TV is different. If you post the make/model and, possibly if you can find it, firmware revision your TV is running then maybe someone on here will be able to help you further.

Also post the box model number and firmware revision your Rogers HD box is running.

You will get it sorted out eventually. Like I said above, both my boxes/TV's run like a champ..........
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

Box is 4642 HD
5.1.1.0104 is Firmware on the box.

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

2 edits

Acrimonius

Member

said by bacon612:

Box is 4642 HD
5.1.1.0104 is Firmware on the box.

Just one quick helpful? hint. Try removing the HDMI cable and connecting the box to the TV using RG6 coax. Read in different places the issue could be with the HDMI cable. Some brands work just fine, some don't. If things improve using the coax then you'll know the HDMI cable is causing issues with the Rogers box.

This all sounds like a signal issue to me but I'll leave that to the tech members on here to decide..........Anyhoo, best of luck.

pulp46
Premium Member
join:2003-01-28
canada

pulp46 to bacon612

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I got the latest Nextbox 3.0. SAHWEET!!!! Really fast and works just perfectly.
puzz1ed
join:2005-02-20
Markham, ON

puzz1ed to bacon612

Member

to bacon612
I have an 8642HD and had Rogers downgrade it back to the original UI that runs on the 8300HD. Works much better for me and eliminates the lag changing channels and navigating the menus.

When we first bought it, it came with the old UI and was okay. We asked to upgrade it to "Nextbox" at some point to get some obscure feature but it got very slow. After a while we got them to put it back and things are much better.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

You can get rogers to push an old firmware? Mind sharing the software version number or perhaps post a screenshot of the information page on your 8642. Ive been talking to a few people about the fimware "upgrade" they did. Seems that whoever pushed it has low expectations of performance or made a big mistake. These boxes feel so laggy that they were never designed to run this software.
puzz1ed
join:2005-02-20
Markham, ON

puzz1ed

Member


versions

sara info

classic UI
 
When I say old firmware, I mean the original firmware. This was more than a year ago we did this. They said it could get reupgraded at any time but it hasn't happened.

Sara v1.92.21.1 from Jun 20, 2012.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

Many thanks for sending that along. Its cool that they were able to do that for you as the low res UI likely speeds things along nicely. Having high res ui at the expense of usability is ridiculous to me. I just chatted with rogers and they confirmed with me that they cannot roll back my firmware. Not really surprised. Rather disappointed in the whole situation. Here's hoping that a better solution arrives sooner than later.
puzz1ed
join:2005-02-20
Markham, ON

puzz1ed to bacon612

Member

to bacon612
Technically, it's possible but they probably won't (anymore) just to keep people moving "forward". My parents have a DOCSIS 2.0 modem on the legacy Lite Internet. If they canceled and later signed up again, Rogers says they wouldn't reactivate it.

Perhaps you can get a "free" rental of a Nextbox 3. It is quicker although I prefer the basic UI on the 8642HD (and 8300HD). The retention department seems to like to throw in free PVR or modem rentals as sweeteners at least for us anyways.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

Cancelled Rogers the other day. Installed OTA antenna. Get all major networks in HD and TVs built in OTA tuner is lightning fast. Only channel missed is CP24 but its not worth $40 a month. Problem solved. Felt fantastic cutting the cord.
puzz1ed
join:2005-02-20
Markham, ON

puzz1ed to bacon612

Member

to bacon612
Congrats. Did you pick a DVR solution? That and no CNN or CBC Newsworld would be my concerns.
bacon612
join:2007-10-31
Oakland, CA

bacon612

Member

No, but that goes beyond the scope of the senior that watches it. I've seen windows 7 media centre work really well with a TV tuner card. U dont need a powerful PC to for it to work well either.
Sanek
join:2006-08-10
Kanata, ON

Sanek to bacon612

Member

to bacon612
Had an older Cisco 4642HD box (no Nextbox markings). One day Rogers pushed the new UI and everything got painfully slow. I was changing from an older Internet plan and they asked me to come to the store to pickup the new modem.

I figured I'll try and swap out that box for another one while I'm there. Guy gave me a brand new sealed box, I booted it up and... It was just as slow. Called up tech support and CSR pretty much told me that this is normal for these. Asked about changing to the older guide and he refused to do anything as it is "no longer supported". He did say that they are working on a new firmware that is supposed to be much faster, but he did not know when that might arrive - "probably summer".

I also have an 8642HD with the original guide - it just never changed. Listening to everyone diss it, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones on that front.
Sunfox
join:2003-12-14
Stouffville

Sunfox to bacon612

Member

to bacon612
It probably wouldn't hurt to try to get them to downgrade you - although you will lose some admittedly useful recording management features (but the SPEED of the old software makes up for that).

I have three owned Nextbox 2.0's in my house (8642) and two run old SARA software, and one runs the new software and is barely usable (but I have to keep it that way because changing software wipes out your recordings - not on an upgrade, but it does on a downgrade).

Also, don't take "no" for an answer. When I downgraded my first box, some reps said it wasn't even possible, and then another said it was and did it without issue. Then when I tried to downgrade my second box, the first person insisted it had to be done "by account" instead of "by box" and that meant I'd wipe out the box I didn't want wiped - but eventually I found a different department (I think billing instead of tech support? I know it was the exact opposite of what you would expect), who had no difficulty downgrading just the one box on my account.

With that said, I also have an older 4250 that was perfectly fine up to maybe 4-6 weeks ago, and then SOMETHING happened that has made it incredibly unresponsive to any commands - it's almost impossible to punch in a channel number or browse the guide... and even changing channels using the buttons on the front, you'll hit CH+ 10 times and it will take 30-40 seconds to work its way through 10 channels.