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Time Warner's New Viewer Guide

M

Mark Giardina

I am curious to what others think of Time Warner Cable's new viewer guide.

What I discovered is a number of regular shows that I record on a regular basis were not recording, but there were some shows that I never watched (The View) set to record on a daily basis.

I called customer service at Time Warner to inform them of this problem and they were baffled.

Anyone else having any problems recording shows, or learning how this new system works?

Personally I would have appreciated having an operator's manual mailed out showing how this new viewer guide operates. After all TW spends a small fortune mailing brochures every month trying to get me to sign up for their three-in-one package,one would think they could afford to mail out a simple manual showing their customers how this new guide works.
 
I really like the new format, however I experienced some ::) ::) ::) problems recording. I have had instances where programs will record for only 2 or 3 minutes and stop. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Otherwise I like the graphics and the ability to search for programs via the keyboard.
 
It will take some time, and practice, to learn this new system. However I do agree with Mark that it would have been nice if Time Warner would have mailed out instructions on how to use this viewer guide. Instructions were provided when I received a new remote control and it made it a lot easier to operate.

From what I've heard, and read, there are apparently some "bugs" that needs to worked out of this system.
 
I'm still waiting to get it pushed to my DVR box here in Brighton...but in the meantime, we'll be talking about Navigator later this afternoon on WXXI's Mixed Media, 5:44 PM on AM 1370/FM 88.5, and podcast at wxxi.org.
 
Scott Fybush said:
I'm still waiting to get it pushed to my DVR box here in Brighton...but in the meantime, we'll be talking about Navigator later this afternoon on WXXI's Mixed Media, 5:44 PM on AM 1370/FM 88.5, and podcast at wxxi.org.
Click to expand...

I didn't hear your show because I was babysitting one of my grandchildren. What was the reaction to this new viewer's guide?
 
We just got notices in the Syracuse/CNY region about Navigator "coming soon." Explained how the A/B/C buttons will work with the new system, how to make sure aspect ratio is right, etc.

It said that all settings from the previous software should be carried over (ie. parental controls, DVR selections) but check to make sure. Based on posts I've seen here and elsewhere, I'll definitely be checking as I don't trust the software will carry everything over as perfectly as advertised.

A poster on syracuse.com's TV/radio forum who implied (but didn't outrightly declare) he/she is a TW employee said downloads should begin "around the 18th."
 
If it's enabled for the Syracuse market, you should be able to go to www.twcnavigator.com and enter your zip code to see a list of which boxes will be updated on which dates. I'm still a couple of days away from getting my box updated here in Rochester.
 
Scott, thanks for the link. The poster on syracuse.com was right - earliest date listed for CNY region is 5/18, but my specific model won't be updated until nearly a month later.
 
I find my Time Warner Viewers Guide to be very slow. In the viewers guide going from one location to another it takes forever. At times I think I could get up and change the channels faster by getting up and going to the TV myself. I thought it could be my remote's batteries, so I changed them and it make no difference. I do like the graphics and the program info page has a clearer text which is easily readable. I wish they could speed it up. :eek:
 
I withheld any further comment until I had some time to actually work this new recording system.
The problem that I discovered is recording one show (say Bones) on Thursday night only, I discovered that every Bones rerun is also scheduled to record. WTF?

Another thing mentioned that I also noticed is that when one bypasses commercials and wants to restart the show they taped, most of the time the recording shows the tail end of the last commercial.

While there are some advantages to the new TW viewer guide, there are also a number of setbacks.
 
Most of those "glitches" actually turn out to be advantages once you dig into the settings. There's a new "series manager" function that didn't exist in the old guide that lets you choose how much or how little of a series you want to record - it can do all episodes, whether new or rerun, or you can tell it to just record new episodes, or even specify by airtime. Yes, you have to go in once and tell it what to do...but then it seems to work quite well.

The fast-forward functionality also works really well once you get used to the difference between the old system and Navigator. With the old system, where you stopped fast-forwarding is where the show resumes. Overshoot the end of the break, as I tend to do, and you're partway into the next segment of the show. With Navigator, I've found that I can comfortably keep fast-forwarding in 3x mode until I see the show come back, and then it jumps me back to just before the end of the break. Takes some learning, but it really does work well.

There are negatives, too: Navigator appears to put a pretty hefty strain on the processing resources in these boxes. It's definitely even slower to change channels than the old system was. That's getting annoying.
 
My cable box has locked up a few times a day every day since the new Guide installed. It needs a complete power recycle, reboot and wait. Besides that I don't like that you can't look ahead like 5 days without going through the entire guide to do it.
 
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