Any further Time-Warner "Navigator" software news?

[Jack 1000]

I dunno, I got it today too on my 8300HDs and I'm definitely with LoadStar here; it's not nearly as bad as I expected.  The speed of mine ironically seems faster to me.  It's a new interface that I'm not in love with (the look that is) but I'm not experiencing anything so far that has been a real problem.  I did lose a lot from my series manager but I think some previous thoughts are correct; what I lost seem to be series that are not currently on and some that never will be again.  It's nothing that really bothers me.  If the Sarah Silverman show comes back on, I'll set it up again

All in all I'm not unhappy with this at all.  What I will be unhappy about is if this does not bring more HD choices our way very soon.  Since that seems to be (thought to be?) the reasoning behind the software switch, I'll give TWC the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer (yes, you all know that I just really don't want a dish on my house).  I'm not sure how long I'll give them but let's just say I hope something happens soon.

Yea,

With all of the negativity about the guide I am SHOCKED that the issues that I am experiencing are overall good.  The problems are not a big deal.  Now, for the rest of the country or different box models or configurations, who knows?  I can only speak from my own experience.

One glitch that I found is that when doing Keyboard searches, episodes that are on multiple times will often be seen 2x in the guide, but with different headings.  Let me give you an example.  Let's say that I do a keyboard Search for Leave it to Beaver, and it is on TV Land at I don't know 12:30 pm on 4/21.  But, let's say that Beaver is on a different channel also at 12:30.  What I find is that after hitting select to view all listings of a title, one tier will say Leave it to Beaver at 12:30 and give the channel number (TV Land, 61) and the description.  A second entry (always directly above or below the first) ALSO shows Leave it to Beaver at 12:30 but  does NOT give a channel number.  I have no idea which one to record.  But than, I look at the Listings and find out that the '97 LITB MOVIE is also on the schedule.  So, is Navigator confused with two different shows that have the exact same name?

The other thing is that although I don't use series manager, no one seems to know how Navigator defines a "New" episode?  Is it considered as a first-run, or the first time it is shown in the guide, or the first time it is offered for the 7x day period contingent on how far "Loading Data" goes from day to day?

The Keyboard shows WAY TOO MUCH information at once.  It was easier to do a B, Find Shows, and than narrow my theme down.  Once you know the subcategory of a theme, searching isn't bad at all.  If you look for Movies and All Movies, it's going to take a while because your search is much too general.  TWC is trying to consolidate a lot of info in one place.  But I think the question is, how can you narrow down general searches?  The answer is to somehow make title searches more efficient.

I can use page+/- for very quick scroll.  Guide data disappears during the scroll, but comes back quick.  I heard some boxes have trouble with this feature.  What I am noticing is not so much a slower guide, but scrolling that does not have as "Smooth a feel to it."  Passport guides along.  Navigator is more  jerky, go, jerky, go.  You don't smoothly progress from cell to cell in the Guide's grid on Navigator.  You don't see the type of pleasant "shift" from one time block to the next.  Things just appear without the smoothness of the old version.  But it's only about 1-1.5 seconds longer if that.  I wouldn't say the guide is slower, just more jerky in going from cell to cell.  But this is not a big problem.

Things look good overall, so I am going to give my current Navigator experience a C+.

Jack

[markd]

Another thing that seems gone (which would seem easy for TWC to fix) is the timeline position while manipulating live TV.  During the Brewers game last night, I paused to rewind a little bit and I used to get a marker with the time on it as it moved through the timeline.  Now there is no frame of reference.  If I wanted to rewind to 8:30, I really couldn't (I'd just have to guess).  This is pretty annoying and I hope it gets fixed in the first wave of updates.

I don't know if it's just because it was newly pushed to my boxes yesterday, but the only info in my Guide was for yesterday.  I had to do a day forward and then another day in order for some of my scheduled shows to show up in the DVR list (I was curious about the DVR display stuff).  After getting a few upcoming shows in there, I'm also not a big fan on having to select the list twice to basically see it.  Who really needs to sort upcoming shows by date or title!?  Just show me my upcoming shows by date.  At first I thought my shows weren't being scheduled until I realized I had to select which view I wanted first :rolleyes

[dicktwi]

Thanks for your comments, Jack 1000, now you have Navigator forced upon you like the rest or most, of us.

Finally, the banner button for long duration had to be changed to medium, but that was not a big inconvenience, just the mess that is Navigator:
.

I have Navigator on an 8300HDC box and I'm not able to find any setting to change banner duration.  Where did you find it?

[LoadStar]

I have Navigator on an 8300HDC box and I'm not able to find any setting to change banner duration.  Where did you find it?

In MDN, the banner setting is "Settings" -> "Display" -> "Banner Duration." I can't tell you if the setting is the same in ODN or not.

[basshive]

The other thing is that although I don't use series manager, no one seems to know how Navigator defines a "New" episode? Is it considered as a first-run, or the first time it is shown in the guide, or the first time it is offered for the 7x day period contingent on how far "Loading Data" goes from day to day?

I do not know how *gator decides what is new but I do know that when a new episode of a show is coming, multiple airings of that same new episode will show as new in the guide.

I have had to reset my series more times than I can tell you. Some series record non stop every time they air even though its told ONLY new and only 3, etc. I have just given up on them and deleted the series and now record manually

[Jack 1000]

I lost the little TWC logo at the bottom of the IPG screen.  Maybe they are trying to tell me something? LOL!  Actually, things are going much better than expected with the new guide.  You know what I would like to see?  A way that the guide would only show the content for the channels to which you subscribe. There are  so many instances of "There are multiple listings for this title."  Than you open up the folder, and the movie or event is on a channel you don't get!  This would cut down the search results and overkill of information in searches.

Jack

[LoadStar]

I lost the little TWC logo at the bottom of the IPG screen.  Maybe they are trying to tell me something? LOL!  Actually, things are going much better than expected with the new guide.  You know what I would like to see?  A way that the guide would only show the content for the channels to which you subscribe. There are  so many instances of "There are multiple listings for this title."  Than you open up the folder, and the movie or event is on a channel you don't get!  This would cut down the search results and overkill of information in searches.

Jack

Agreed, but I'm sure they don't do this because listing the channels and the programs on them gives them the ability to "upsell" every time you see a show that you might like on a channel you don't get.

I'd also love to see a "favorites only" or "all channels" selection in the guide. This would make scanning the channels so much easier, but this too probably won't happen for the same reason.

[MDR]

Just an update from last week when I first got Navigator.
Last Fri., I had the set on while watching TV (actually on computer with TV as background noise). I had the same channel on the whole time. External drive was hooked up to the SA8500HDC. When I tried to change the channel the box was frozen and the only way out was a hard reboot.
I "assumed" that the system would buffer to the drive with the most space like it did with Passport. Here again I can only speculate that this isn't true and I was a victim of external drive going to sleep and crashing the unit as reported by others.
All the shows I had recorded Thur. and Fri. were lost. The system log stated it was unable to record (code 13) these shows. The strange thing is I had actually watched 3 of these recorded shows that it claimed it was unable to record. Luckily I was able to go online and catch the others that were totally lost.
I disconnected the external drive and haven't seen any problems with recording and playback since then (Knock Wood).
Still not that crazy about the user interface and some of it's quirks, but at least I haven't lost any recordings. My biggest gripe now is with the joke for a hard drive they have in the box. This thing fills up so fast that you can't wait to watch at your leisure. That's why I'm still looking at getting Directv next month.


Another note: My mother also got updated on her SA8300HD. Hers took the update OK ( not like it killed mine so I have the HDC now). We're off the same headend so what affects one should affect the other.
I tried accessing the menus for both the 9 and 16 Page diagnostics and it didn't work on hers. For jollies I tried the old(Passport) way. I got a 28 page list. From what I could figure her version is 2.4.2-92.
There are obvious differences between our two units(HD vs. HDC). So when people start comparing we've got the apples/oranges problem. Not just the difference between markets but in the same market.

While in her 28 page diagnostic, I noticed it still listed hard drive space and free space like passport did. In fact my first impression was how similar this looked to Passport's diagnostic. I've added this last tidbit becuase someone in this forum or another asked about this feature.

Sorry about the length of this post, but I'll probably be on a Directv forum in the near future.

MDR

P.S. No banner duration in ODN Version.

[Jack 1000]

OK something interesting,

Most of you know that when you select a future program to record in the IPG that it shows up in Green as scheduled.  However, I selected two programs to record later tonight by going to get them through a Search.  The Record List of future recordings has them listed.  But if I go to the grid, the color of the show is not Green.  So I don't know how this will be handled.  I don't want to have to redo it in the grid, because than I might get a conflict.  I'll let you know what happens.

Jack

[flash]

Ok, we got hit by Navigator yesterday and the on screen caller ID still doesn't work.
I even looked at the call log in the menu and it doesn't show squat.

Still only paying $125 for 5 Megs internet, unlimited phone service and an HD DVR
so until somebody can compete with those prices and offers free repairs........ OH I know I'm dreaming but a guy's gotta dream sometimes. :blush:

[Jack 1000]

OK, we got hit by Navigator yesterday and the on screen caller ID still doesn't work.
I even looked at the call log in the menu and it doesn't show squat.

Still only paying $125 for 5 Megs Internet, unlimited phone service and an HD DVR
so until somebody can compete with those prices and offers free repairs........ OH I know I'm dreaming but a guy's gotta dream sometimes. :blush:

As much as it would suck to wait on hold because of  everyone getting Navigator now, you should call and say that "My caller ID on TV isn't showing up."  You don't have to say "I haven't had it for a long time", but maybe they could fix it.  When I wasn't getting my Premium on Demand, I called and although it took about 3 hours after the box hit, it solved the problem.  Caller ID on TV is very cool.  This could just be an activation issue.  Good luck!

Jack

[Jack 1000]

OK something interesting,

Most of you know that when you select a future program to record in the IPG that it shows up in Green as scheduled.  However, I selected two programs to record later tonight by going to get them through a Search.  The Record List of future recordings has them listed.  But if I go to the grid, the color of the show is not Green.  So I don't know how this will be handled.  I don't want to have to redo it in the grid, because than I might get a conflict.  I'll let you know what happens.

Jack

It's OK.  The program scheduled to be recorded only changes color on the grid.  Scheduling a recording only changes the color recording confirmation when setting this up inside the grid!  Note this difference from Passport, and that you didn't do anything wrong in setting up your recording if this happens to you. (In Passport, users got a color coded confirmation of their recording, no matter where they were in the IPG.)  Also, this relates to the MDN version of Navigator (No C-Non-OCAP boxes) in our area.  Not sure how the C-boxes, or different Navigator versions outside of Wisconsin, deal with this information.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

Good Navigator News!

On my old Passport software, I would get these freezing screens for a few seconds where there was nothing on them.  (Channel 14 in my Metro Milwaukee area did this all the time.)  It always showed a blank screen because it was a local Govt. Access channel with nothing on it.  In Navigator, NO FREEZE up when going to and from that channel.  Who would have expected that?

Jack

[nick3092]

I have the MDN version, and I have to say it is much faster than it's ODN sibling.  Speed was one of the biggest concerns I had after seeing how it performed for multiple people I know with the ODN C boxes.  So far, I don't have any major complaints.  But so far is the key here.  I've only had it for a few days....

I do miss the C button showing me all the times a program is airing from in the guide.  And I do miss the actual time being displayed above the marker when your forwarding/rewinding through shows.  But these are minor issues so far.  I was pleasently surprised to see that my HDMI connection is still working, and working well.  I read a lot of people having trouble with HDMI and Navigator.

Now I just have to hope my box never dies, or I will have to endure the pain of the ODN boxes.

[zoothorn]

I'm a few days into the new Navigator software and overall not having much of an issue with it. One thing I do miss that I haven't seen mentioned is when fast forwarding through a recorded program I used to be able to jump 15 minutes at a time by pushing the 'sideways' arrow. That doesn't seem to work with the new software.

Anyone know how to make that work or is it gone for good...?

Thanks,

Zoot