TWC finally getting new dig. cable interface

[shanedude]

Mar 21, 2010 8:57:32 GMT -5 shanedude said:

My old receiver (didn't have hdmi in.out) does this. So I have it hooked up hdmi to my tv then optical from tv to the receiver. I am getting dolby dig that way. Have you tried that?

Try this out and see if this resolves your audio issue. Might have to sub the optical in place of coaxial audio unless your tv had both

[the block]

Mar 28, 2010 21:01:02 GMT -5 the block said:

So what's the general consensus on the 4250? It's painfully slow and laggy for me. I'm thinking I might bring it with me tomorrow and stop by TWC on my way home from work and see if they'll swap it out with anything newer.

I went yesterday after work which was a waste of time. They say they have nothing newer than what I have (non-dvr). Oh well.

[bbowers]

I was told last night by TWC support that they are aware of the audio issue with the 8300 reverting back to HDMI and will be providing a fix at some point.... when is another question.

[the block]

I complained on that Tell Us What You Think form a few days ago:

I think it's easy on the eyes, but that's about it. It is EXTREMELY slow and laggy, painfully so, especially when you're used to years on the older version. Shouldn't the newer version be faster (that's generally how technology works)? I even took my box into my local TWC office hoping there was a newer, faster box that would run the new software better, but they told me I had the latest and the greatest, even though my box is several years old at this point. The lady at the counter told me it could be slow because TWC is still pushing updates out, but I saw a look of confusion on her face, and I think she was just telling me something to tell me something and get me out the door to get to the next customer as there was no legitimate help she was going to be able to offer. My only saving grace is that I use a TiVo in my living room for most of my TV watching, and only have to deal with the slow cable box in my bedroom before I go to sleep. In closing, I think the concept was good, sprucing up an interface that looked (and was) ancient, but I think TWC dropped the ball on this. Sacrificing usability for aesthetics is not something we should have to do, and I am just being hopeful TWC will get the bugs worked out of this, because other than fill out an online "Tell Us What You Think" form, there's not much else customers can do about it.

This is the answer I got:

I'm sorry the transition to the new Navigator has been a difficult one.

You had mentioned you had some problems with the whole guide being slow and laggy on your box. You had also mentioned a Front Counter representative telling it was a known issue being fixed by an update, but she didn't seem very sure about that.

The lagginess and slowness is in fact being considered a bug with some models of boxes. There is lag and short lock-up experienced throughout the guide and DVR list. This manifests differently on different sets on equipment, worse on older equipment.

As to getting a 'newer' cable box, like I said above it manifests in a handful of different ways on different boxes, but there is no model that seems to be experiencing it worse than others. If the box is old and its age is causing technical problems (was somewhat buggy even before Navigator), the comprehensive update would have exasperated these problems.

As to specific newer equipment, the newest non-DVR model is a Cisco and Samsung brand HD-converter. Some front counters are stocking the Cisco non-DVR's and I don't believe the Samsung model is available quite yet. Please call the Customer Service number and ask a representative if they could contact a Front Counter to see if they have either of these models in stock (there is no outside number to reach the Front Counters at). Stocks of any kind of box fluctuate heavily up and down so there is no way to guarantee that the Front Counter will have these in stock or if they would be ready for circulation yet, so please call beforehand.

As to your comments about the usability, just like with the slowness bug above, there are a number of issues that only popped-up after the rollout that we will be issuing updates to in the coming weeks and months. One advantage of this new software is it is Time Warner owned and operated, meaning we can collect data and implement repairs in a much quicker fashion then before.

What I took away from the email, is basically they know it's a buggy piece of crap, and the only thing to do is wait.

I wish there was an option to switch back and forth between the interfaces, so we can use the old one until the new one is actually usable.

[mattbanks]

I haven't been having any problems on either of my 8300HD boxes, but my non-DVR 4250HDC is very slow and I get "Please wait..." on a black screen quite frequently. Might have to trade that one in.

[the block]

Looks like they have a whole blog now over at the TU for people complaining about the new interface: blog.timesunion.com/kristi/25572/what-do-you-want-to-know-about-your-new-time-warner-dvr/

[Skaggs]

A tweet from TWCableHelp:

Folks in Buffalo and Rochester, your on screen guide will be updated to Navigator-- learn more here: bit.ly/cIbASC

Good luck to those in Buffalo & Rochester.

[BenJF3]

Well, based on a poll at the Albany Topix Boards it seems that most people "Hate It".

www.topix.com/forum/albany/TJQOABDBSA9C4T97U#lastPost

Out of about 53 votes thus far.

[rv65]

A newer version of the legacy box software was deployed in a Brighthouse division and they get remoteDVR and DVR compensation. You can control the REW and FF algorithms.

[BenJF3]

Remote DVR is going to be useless unless it has an iPhone app (or general Smartphone app).

I really can't wait for Navigator here. I have been using Windows 7 Media Center for awhile now in my office and it's AWESOME. If Navigator ends up sucking, I may ditch my box altogether and build a custom HTPC.

[Skaggs]

I found a printable brochure from TWC on Navigator. "...will guide you through a number of the functions that are new or different with the new Navigator software"

The New Time Warner Cable Navigator

It's a PDF file, so you need Adobe Reader.

[addy]

Apr 6, 2010 7:41:11 GMT -5 mattbanks said:

I haven't been having any problems on either of my 8300HD boxes, but my non-DVR 4250HDC is very slow and I get "Please wait..." on a black screen quite frequently. Might have to trade that one in.

I had this issue as well just after I changed out the 3-way splitter in my basement for a 4-way. I put the 3-way back and it goes away. I'm fairly certain that as your signal levels approach the danger zone that channels running on the higher frequencies start up with the Please Wait message. That only happens for me on the SDV channels (those with cablecards know what I'm talking about) so presumably the forward signal going from the settop back to TWC that tells them I'm on that channel so they can send it gets really slow and unreliable the less signal you have. I had a service call and they changed out some of the wire and ends and now that settop works as fast as the rest. The tech explained that poor "forward signal" will slow down the responsiveness of On Demand (also painfully slow) and SDV channels. Most likely the same in your case but who knows. I did not wind up changing the box.

[addy]

Mar 30, 2010 9:38:38 GMT -5 bbowers said:

I was told last night by TWC support that they are aware of the audio issue with the 8300 reverting back to HDMI and will be providing a fix at some point.... when is another question.

I have a friend that said he changed the audio out from HDMI to Dolby to prevent this. Said it still sends Dolby on HDMI but the audio being on HDMI was like a "everything audio and video related on auto" setting. I don't have that setup myself so that is third party at best but easy to try out. Give the other audio formats a try and see if the settings stick. Let us know!!

[addy]

Mar 27, 2010 17:41:50 GMT -5 UsualNoise said:

Well, I now have a much bigger problem, on my own 8300 HD. I have no picture. I have it connected via HDMI to a Denon receiver, and then HDMI to my projector. This had worked fine for at least 2 years. After the Navigator update went through - nothing. It keeps flickering from black screen to no signal screen, but no picture. Seems like an HDMI handshake issue, but I'm very confused as to what changed so that I have no picture at all now. I tried a direct connection from the 8300 HD to the projector and the picture showed correctly. However, I need the connection to pass through my Denon receiver if I'm going to have any sound.

Any ideas, or should I call tech support?

2 things I've seen with friends and family since the upgrade.

1. My brother found that he had no pic except on certain HD channels. He turned off the 480 formats and now it works fine. I would assume it can't be just his type of settop or tv otherwise I'd be seeing far more complaints. I tend to think it might be the cables. Seems that certain HDMI cables don't do 480 on the new nav - weird huh? He swapped the cable and was able to put 480 back on again. Maybe a difference between HDMI 1.2, 1.3, 1.4??

2. One of my friends was pulling his hair out trying to get the pic to show up on his monitor (not a TV) via HDMI. Tried settings changes and everything else he could think of and after all that he wound up trying a different HDMI cable and the pic came back!! And it was working fine pre-navigator upgrade. I'm beginning to think that the new navigator has issues with certain HDMI cables. Not sure if it's a quality issue or maybe a specification issue. If you have other HDMI cables lying around give em a try. Embarassingly, my friend had $100+ monster cable HDMI lines and the one he swapped it with to get pic back was the crappy $5 one they gave him with the box at Time Warner?!? Go figure...

[mattbanks]

Apr 26, 2010 1:42:27 GMT -5 addy said:

Apr 6, 2010 7:41:11 GMT -5 mattbanks said:

I haven't been having any problems on either of my 8300HD boxes, but my non-DVR 4250HDC is very slow and I get "Please wait..." on a black screen quite frequently. Might have to trade that one in.

I had this issue as well just after I changed out the 3-way splitter in my basement for a 4-way. I put the 3-way back and it goes away. I'm fairly certain that as your signal levels approach the danger zone that channels running on the higher frequencies start up with the Please Wait message. That only happens for me on the SDV channels (those with cablecards know what I'm talking about) so presumably the forward signal going from the settop back to TWC that tells them I'm on that channel so they can send it gets really slow and unreliable the less signal you have. I had a service call and they changed out some of the wire and ends and now that settop works as fast as the rest. The tech explained that poor "forward signal" will slow down the responsiveness of On Demand (also painfully slow) and SDV channels. Most likely the same in your case but who knows. I did not wind up changing the box.

All of my connections come directly from the main splitter that Time Warner installed outside. They ran all the wires and confirmed that my signal is good, so it has to be the box. I haven't had any time to swap it out, but I'm hoping to get over to the office later this week.