Post by dkennedy on Jul 22, 2008 5:08:49 GMT -5
Cable guide annoys viewers
July 22, 2008
By Danny Hooley, News & Observer North Carolina
If you're a Time Warner Cable customer who uses a cable box, you can't help but notice a big change in the menu lately.
Time Warner recently rolled out the Navigator menu as a replacement to the old Passport menu system for finding and recording programs.
Time Warner promised Navigator would be an improvement over the old system, calling it the "smartest and easiest" way to find shows and citing the soon-to-come "start over" option that allows viewers to jump to the beginning of a show if they missed the first few minutes. There's also an on-screen caller ID that saves viewers who subscribe to TWC's digital phone service from getting off the couch needlessly to answer unwanted calls.
But, compared to Passport, it's disappointing. No longer can you just click the little red button in search mode to find all future showings of a highlighted program. Now, you have to take a couple of steps before typing out the title of the program you'd like to search on the keyboard.
There are frequent reboots. The time between changing screens and channels has slowed considerably.
"It's not only annoying, but sometimes there's stuff on the screen you don't want your grandchildren to see, or somebody on there you can't stand, and want to get off the screen, like Dr. Phil," says Jack McGarrigle, 74, of Fuquay-Varina. "Plus they changed it to white against a pale blue background, which is difficult to read."
When rewinding a show by a few seconds, viewers may find that, when the "play" button is hit, the show jumps back to the point where rewinding started. (Here's a helpful hint: Hit the "play" button twice for slow-motion, then hit "play" once again for regular speed, and your show should start again at the point where you want it.)
The show synopses on the menu are much shorter than they used to be, and sometimes even incomplete and lacking content information useful to parents. People who record and save shows on the DVR no longer have any clue as to how long they have until one of their shows gets bumped off the "saved" list by other, newer shows.
Melissa Buscher, director of media relations for Time Warner locally, says the menu system was changed in an effort to conserve bandwidth for additional high-definition channels in the future.
"Rolling out the new guide is like any new technology," Buscher says in a written statement. "There are bugs that need to be worked out, and we are doing that. The new guide will have enhanced search and browsing features that enable a better customer experience.
"Beyond that, it serves as the platform from which we will launch many more HD channels. We are listening to our customers and are aware of the issues some of them are experiencing. We apologize for any inconvenience and promise that we will continue to work hard to fix the issues."
Buscher says Time Warner is also working on improving wait times for customers who call in complaints, only to be greeted by an automated voice, then kept on hold interminably.
"We have had higher-then-normal phone traffic over the last few weeks," she says. "Besides the storms and power outages in our service area, there have been some issues with the technology. So we're increasing staffing, and improving some items in our call center to get more customers in as quickly as possible."
July 22, 2008
By Danny Hooley, News & Observer North Carolina
If you're a Time Warner Cable customer who uses a cable box, you can't help but notice a big change in the menu lately.
Time Warner recently rolled out the Navigator menu as a replacement to the old Passport menu system for finding and recording programs.
Time Warner promised Navigator would be an improvement over the old system, calling it the "smartest and easiest" way to find shows and citing the soon-to-come "start over" option that allows viewers to jump to the beginning of a show if they missed the first few minutes. There's also an on-screen caller ID that saves viewers who subscribe to TWC's digital phone service from getting off the couch needlessly to answer unwanted calls.
But, compared to Passport, it's disappointing. No longer can you just click the little red button in search mode to find all future showings of a highlighted program. Now, you have to take a couple of steps before typing out the title of the program you'd like to search on the keyboard.
There are frequent reboots. The time between changing screens and channels has slowed considerably.
"It's not only annoying, but sometimes there's stuff on the screen you don't want your grandchildren to see, or somebody on there you can't stand, and want to get off the screen, like Dr. Phil," says Jack McGarrigle, 74, of Fuquay-Varina. "Plus they changed it to white against a pale blue background, which is difficult to read."
When rewinding a show by a few seconds, viewers may find that, when the "play" button is hit, the show jumps back to the point where rewinding started. (Here's a helpful hint: Hit the "play" button twice for slow-motion, then hit "play" once again for regular speed, and your show should start again at the point where you want it.)
The show synopses on the menu are much shorter than they used to be, and sometimes even incomplete and lacking content information useful to parents. People who record and save shows on the DVR no longer have any clue as to how long they have until one of their shows gets bumped off the "saved" list by other, newer shows.
Melissa Buscher, director of media relations for Time Warner locally, says the menu system was changed in an effort to conserve bandwidth for additional high-definition channels in the future.
"Rolling out the new guide is like any new technology," Buscher says in a written statement. "There are bugs that need to be worked out, and we are doing that. The new guide will have enhanced search and browsing features that enable a better customer experience.
"Beyond that, it serves as the platform from which we will launch many more HD channels. We are listening to our customers and are aware of the issues some of them are experiencing. We apologize for any inconvenience and promise that we will continue to work hard to fix the issues."
Buscher says Time Warner is also working on improving wait times for customers who call in complaints, only to be greeted by an automated voice, then kept on hold interminably.
"We have had higher-then-normal phone traffic over the last few weeks," she says. "Besides the storms and power outages in our service area, there have been some issues with the technology. So we're increasing staffing, and improving some items in our call center to get more customers in as quickly as possible."
