Any further Time-Warner "Navigator" software news?

[Jack 1000]

Well, it IS March, right?
Thankfully, the writer's strike has made fewer new programmes available for viewing and recording-so if Crapagator messes up the recordings, there will be fewer of them to mess up...until later.
Nice of TWC to go in stealth mode and drop this on us!:mad:

BTW, the 8300HDC my neighbours have is slow, clunky and they hate it.
For some reason, they keep watching Directv commercials with a new-found love and happiness...can't figure that out.:rof:

A slow clunkey, hated ,8300 HDC box with Navigator???!! Hahahaha!!! Imagine that!!

Seriously, do you think they are going to Dish, or sweating it out with the new guide?  Actually, if things don't improve with Crapigator, this would be a great motivator for Direct TV sales, don't you think?

Jack

[gparris]

A slow clunkey, hated ,8300 HDC box with Navigator???!! Hahahaha!!! Imagine that!!

Seriously, do you think they are going to Dish, or sweating it out with the new guide?  Actually, if things don't improve with Crapigator, this would be a great motivator for Direct TV sales, don't you think?

Jack

Actually, yes:
I am starting to:
1)Watch CBS58 in SD and log the shows I watch, just to prepare for Directv in Wisconsin.
2) Reviewing the layout of the Directv HD DVR remote and screens.
3) Scheming for "lease fee cash" to get my replacement Directv boxes.
-Seeing what I can get installed when Crapagator comes on line to my 8300HD boxes and I can't take it anymore.
-My DirectvHD dish placement and wiring is figured out and I figure I can use the existing RG6 cabling I have used for my cableTV:
FYI: I even have 2 cable hookups and a telephone jack for use with the each of the 2 HD DVRs I plan on getting, too.
-I am ALREADY motivated and Crapagator will do the rest of the "motivating"!:D

[Jack 1000]

At least some good news,

My brother from Milwaukee said that his recordings survived the transfer to his non-C DVR when it was changed over to Navigator.  Individual recordings seem to have the best results.  Series recordings, I didn't ask about, but those appear to be a hit and miss.  A factor seems to be IF Navigator can find the title and time of the recording from the old changeover, it will most likely survive.  If there is no series title recording when the change over happens from old Passport to new Navigator, it is most likely that the old Passport series recordings will be lost.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

A quote from user PWFD81:

I was told by TWC that is being done by box and location. My parents live down the street from me and there NON HD DVR was done this past weekend. My mom can't stand the slowness of the box and the loss of some of the features. I talked to TWC about it and they said they will ALL be updated in my area by the end of March. Mine should be done within the week I was told.

Thank you PWFD81!

An e-mail response from TWC said that their goal was to have all areas "Navigated" by the end of March.  So hypothetically, if they are converting 40,000 boxes at a time each day by make and model#, and if they said next week for PWF, everyone should start watching what you have recorded and back up anything you can't live without or make arrangements to have someone do it for you just in case any recordings are lost.  It looks like we may all be "hit" within about a 3 day grace period of each other.  (This is what happened when they pushed TV Caller ID to Digital Phone Subs.)  But at least we got something like a 2 day notice.)  Don't count on it here!

Sad to say that assuming my brother is correct about not getting any notice, this forum and the AVS forums may be the ONLY notification of when "it" happens.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

A good tip!

If you are still running Passport and you haven't rebooted your box for say a month or more, and you know that Navigator is coming to your area within a week or so, UNPLUG your box for several seconds to a minute and than plug it back in.  (Don't just do a hold the power button in and wait for the word "Boot" on the display. (Known as a warm reboot.)  Do a cold reboot by unplugging the box to get any intrusive data out.  This will at least insure that your box is at least starting with fresh data around when the change over happens, if the date is unknown.

If you have a scheduled download date, the less that you have your box doing at the time, the better the transition might go.  Try not to be watching and recording multiple content on the night of the change-over.  In fact, if you know your transfer date, don't be recording anything (if you can) between say 2am-5am on the transfer day.  The transfer usually happens around that time and I heard takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

Understand that these tips are in no way guarantees.  It's just little things that you can do that might make your box behave a little better during the download/change-over process.

Jack

[gparris]

I wonder if SE Wisconsin TWC will get the HistoryHD and National Geographic HD channels (like NE Wisconsin TWC's Green Bay location did last week) once Navigator is dumped on all of the TWC boxes here?

In other words, why couldn't Passport/Aptiv Digital be used with SDV to eliminate the alienation of so many past and future TWC subs, instead of this Navigator crap?
Didn't TWC ever ask its subscribers what they did (if that was possible) like about it and needed to fix before its release on all of us subs?
-IHMO, I don't think so because they don't seem to care about us subs.

I'll bet that TWC still thinks its "ALL-IN-ONE" packaging will continue to be their "saviour".
Maybe that will be true, but those special packages probably don't include DVRs, do they, so their exposure to Navigator probably never happens?

[Jack 1000]

I wonder if SE Wisconsin TWC will get the HistoryHD and National Geographic HD channels (like NE Wisconsin TWC's Green Bay location did last week) once Navigator is dumped on all of the TWC boxes here?

In other words, why couldn't Passport/Aptiv Digital be used with SDV to eliminate the alienation of so many past and future TWC subs, instead of this Navigator crap?
Didn't TWC ever ask its subscribers what they did (if that was possible) like about it and needed to fix before its release on all of us subs?
-IHMO, I don't think so because they don't seem to care about us subs.

I'll bet that TWC still thinks its "ALL-IN-ONE" packaging will continue to be their "savior".
Maybe that will be true, but those special packages probably don't include DVRs, do they, so their exposure to Navigator probably never happens?

Good points!

But as Navigator (at least here) was downloaded to the non-DVR boxes first, even the non-DVR's subs are stuck with it.  In other areas outside of Wisconsin, I heard that Navigator was scrapped on Motorola DVR's!  So I don't know what TWC will do.  Probably just swap out the boxes when the Passport change-over happens.  It has also been recommended to NOT use an external hard drive when your box gets Navigator, because Navigator has enough problems as an IPG, without an added hard drive added to it!

The only thing that I see as an upgrade relates to my own experience with being hard of hearing, that I will now be able to use Closed Captioning on the same cable remote instead of the TV remote.  I would always have to use the TV remote for CC, because that was the only thing that never worked on my Passport box.  But even if for some reason that still doesn't work, the non-C boxes seem to work better than the C-boxes.

I DID hear that when Navigator was tested on some SA boxes from January 2007-March 2007 that they did have a statement that said they were testing the new guide.  TWC-Milwaukee President ,Jack Herbert last January, did send out a form letter to me saying that at least one of my boxes would be converted like the day or two days after I got the letter.  But the change never happened.  At the time he said that they planned to have all boxes converted to Navigator within the next few months.

This was when I had my old Pioneer.  I called TWC sometime in that January-March 2007 span and they said that the SA DVR's were going to be done first and the Pioneer's last.  But when the "$hit hit the fan" in Lincoln Nebraska around that same time frame when they got the early releases of Navigator that make these newer ones look stellar, TWC abandoned the DVR downloads and all further box downloads because it wasn't ready.  The ONLY boxes at that time that had Navigator were the test marketed SA non-DVR units.  AFAIK, the downloads on the experimental SA boxes were ALL NON-C (no integrated cable card boxes.)

The FCC mandated integrated cable cards on all new boxes as of July 1st 2007.  All C-units had Navigator at that time.  It was still bad, but not as bad as other divisions.  The non-C rollout to the remaining SA boxes, and old Pioneer units began around November 2007.  The change was supposed to be complete by the end of the year.  But I heard they had trouble with the DVR's.  They are working on the Non-HD DVR's now, or finishing up the transition.  Than the HD DVR's, which may be starting now, or sometime this coming week.  TWC Wisconsin wants all non-C units in the field converted to Navigator by the end of March.  Change-over date is based on your box model and location.

A consolation is at least they aren't dumping it on all boxes at once!  I heard from the AVS forums that on Tuesday, March 11th, all of Cincinnati Ohio's boxes and DVR's are getting changed over at the same time.....ARGGHHHH!  The one good thing is that they are going slow enough here in Wisconsin to try to isolate any problems, and the survey is still on the TWC Wisconsin website. (although you may have to look around for it.  It should be under cable TV options.)  At least it was there the last time I checked.  Still ****ed that it looks like no one is getting advance notice of the change-over.

The changeover could happen any night now.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

How's it going all?

Any updates from your "neck of the woods" or TWC on Navigator's DVR rollout?  If you find any notifications in advance, please post them here.

Jack

[gparris]

Personally, I am waiting to see if the 8300HD (no C) boxes do better with Navigator added after Passport is dropped and will report on this, including the the possiblity of missing season passes and erased recordings.:mad:

-My neighbours who bought the 60A3000 HDTV set hate the slowness and clumsiness of the 8300HDC box vs. their old 8000, but are "suffering" through it for now.*

*Until our neighbourhood does its "DirectvHD upgrade" (we still are planning as a group), just to show TWC Milwaukee how much we "love them" with all their crap.

[gparris]

As you know, TWC's Navigator for HD DVRs and the legacy boxes (8300HD) are about to be hit with this crappy programming system very soon now.
Here is an excerpt from an angry neighbour of mine, one of many that is extremely disgusted of TWC and its Navigator system in their 8300HDC.
Here is what his family sent to TWC today and I have left out the address as I believe the moderator's will delete it per forum rules (PM me and I will give it out):

"Dear Ms. Greenberg:
  Messages to you in the past have been mostly centered around trying to find out the issues as it relates to the roll-out of Navigator, and pretty much what would the issues be when it was deployed full-scale to the entire SE Wisconsin Community.  To that end the answers have been pretty much:  
      Paraphrased:  “Whatever they are, and we know there are issues, we are not going to tell you, our subscribing public that pays us millions a year to use the service.”
   Now, truly, you know that no one on your staff would say such a thing, as he or she would be fired for certain, however, a conclusion that this is the case given both your’s and TWC’s failure to state the known issues up front, along with a time-frame for fixing these.  And we all know that given the market if you were to announce the issues up front your subscribing public would be flooding your email with complaints.
   As a corporate entity you have two obligations the first one, unfortunately is keeping TWC Ownership (Stockholders) happy, the second keeping your subscriber public happy.  Albeit, I wish it were the other way around.
  In speaking with a neighbor yesterday over an extended conversation the neighbor advised how unhappy they were with Navigator, not just the slow response, but the fact that they are ending up with the programs they are opting to schedule for recording is not being recorded every time, and the frequency of this happening is more than it is not.  And in fact, they are ending up with shows being recorded that are in fact not on their ‘to be recorded’ list.
 It’s clear that the problems that plagued the Nebraska rollout, and many others like it across the nation  are now occurring here in SE Wisconsin, and the community here will very much see the same issues as before, with the non-application of lessons learned previously, as a reference to a much earlier email to you and your staff.  I have just one question, “why”.
   I am forwarding a copy of this email to the MilwaukeeHDTV forum here in SE Wisconsin with the instruction that they should post my home address to forum members, here and elsewhere to instruct them to document not only their issues, but a breakdown of communications with TWC to reach a resolution on the matter.
 (PM gparris on the address if interested)
   Those letters, along with a formal complaint will be delivered to the Wisconsin’s Attorney General and the Consumer Protection Department outlining the issues occurring not only across SE Wisconsin, but within other divisions of TWC that can be captured, as well as a breakdown of HD Channel disparity across the TWC Markets as well.    A copy of that complaint will also be forwarded to the FCC for review, members of Congress that not only represents the local area, but the state as well.
   Ms. Greenberg, you already know that there are severe issues with the deployment of Navigator across SE Wisconsin and you know that to continue to deploy in it’s current state would amount to the inability to deliver acceptable service levels, and that to continue to collect fees with such performance issues could be constructed to be an act that could result in legal action not only against TWC but you as well, given this is being done under both your knowledge and leadership.
 As I started this message, I indicated that I have attempted to get insight into the issues as Navigator is deployed, that’s remains my position.  I want to give Navigator at least 30 days in my own home before I make a decision to ditch it.  Knowing a schedule for deployment would be a wonderful thing – but that information is being with-held as well.
   You know my position and by now it’s certainly clear – accountability and nothing less, and I expect to get what I pay for – and nothing less, and nothing more.  
Sincerely,
Roger D. Sago"

Please feel free to write TWC Milwaukee ("SE Wisconsin TWC") as you feel free or PM me to get the address for a massive dump of letters , as you see fit.

Enough is enough, TWC, this is only the "tip of the iceberg" with disgusted TWC subs about Navigator and the forgotten HD channel additions in SE Wisconsin.

[Jack 1000]

Still not converted yet,  But I thought it might be a good idea to post your box type/model either in your message or profile when you are.  Some of the boxes work better than the others.

Jack

PS.  I have an SA8300HD DVR.

[Jack 1000]

Well,

We are closing in on the conversion.  I think those with the non-C legacy boxes might want to discuss what to expect.  Unfortunately, it appears that we will get no warning.  I am expecting some slowness in the guide and having the need to get used to finding things, But since I have a non-C box (DVR) I am certainly anticipating a faster response time than that poor fella with the Pioneer box demonstration on You Tube.  I still have my SD TV so no special hook up for me.  When it's downloaded, I am anticipating some mild issues.  But nowhere near the horrors that other divisions have had.  So far, people's recordings have carried over in Wisconsin, and that's certainly an improvement.  But there is certainly a long way to go!

We have all prepped so long for this, that some who might be expecting the worst, may be ok.  Having said that, who has a legacy, non-C, HD, DVR that has been changed?  When the first report hits this board, all of us will most likely have Navigator within the week I'll say.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

Has anyone gotten Navigator in Metro Milwaukee on a HD DVR yet?  Channel 1 is now all Navigator AOD menu help.  But so far, I have not received Navigator on my SA 8300HD box.

Jack

[PWFD81]

Has anyone gotten Navigator in Metro Milwaukee on a HD DVR yet?  Channel 1 is now all Navigator AOD menu help.  But so far, I have not received Navigator on my SA 8300HD box.

Jack

I was told by a TWC installer that he just installed a 8300 HDDVR the other day and when he plugged it in it had passport, then rebooted and downloaded Navigator.  Here in Port my two 8300 HDDRV's do NOT have Navigator but the installer told me it will be VERY soon.  He told me they are doing the updates Wendesday and Thursday nights?.  Sounds like maybe this coming week is when I could get hit?.  

I HOPE NOT.  I'm sure DTV hope so since I am leaving the day TWC updates mine!

T

[gparris]

When my family can longer stand Navigator in its 8300HD DVR boxes once it comes, we will find a way to return them:
For HR21-100's, the coolest and quietest of the DirectvHD boxes out there, if we can find them and work it out to get the first one for $99 and the second for $199 (per the Directv website). These boxes, according to the dbstalk site are the best yet and it may take some time to get Directv for installation, then maybe not.
We don't know how to get these "100" series HD DVRs, but the wait will be worth it, I'm certain.

Additionally, a spot has been located in our yard for a southern "access lock" on all sats and we are just waiting for TWC to frak up and dump a slow and unresponsive Navigator on us.
All we will lose is the CBSHD service since CBS58HD doesn't lock in well OTA at my location and locally, I can't get a waiver to get CBSHDNYC.
-Not a bad price to pay, IMO, to let TWC their cableTV service bites.