Check out my updated review of Navigator here!
Recently, my Time Warner cable DVR was “upgraded” from Passport to “Navigator”, Time Warner’s in-house DVR application. Can I just say one thing? It sucks.
Unlike many others, I actually like the newer, high-res menus, although I can see where the “blue on blue” might be off-putting for some:
![Time Warner Cable\'s \](https://i0.wp.com/jimcofer.com/personal/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/twc_navigator.jpg?resize=400%2C329 "Time Warner Cable\'s \")
Sadly, “better graphics” is about the only nice thing I can say about the Navigator software. Oh, there are a few nice touches here and there – you can now sort your recorded programs by name as well as date, and if you initiate playback of a program that had been stopped previously (if I, for example, watched the first 10 minutes of The Office, then clicked “play” to watch it in full a few days later), you can now press SEL + Restart to begin playback from the beginning (on Passport, you had to select “Save” or “Delete” and then go back to the main menu and press SEL + “Restart playback from beginning”).
Although the new software looks much better and has a few nice upgrades, it fails miserably as a DVR. On Friday night, the DVR was set to record The Soup and Battlestar Galactica at the same time (10pm). Although I was there, sitting in front of the TV, I got up to help Lisa with some aspect of the home improvement stuff, then decided to have a smoke. “No problem”, I figured… “I’ll just wait 10-15 minutes into the show, so I can watch it ‘live’ but skip the commerials”. But no – the DVR didn’t record the episode… at all! Man, I was pissed! So I went into the guide and told it to manually record the 12:30am replay of the episode… and when I checked the settings, the DVR wanted to record the 5:00am repeat of an episode from season 2 – and there was no trace 12:30 episode I had just then set to manually record! I manually deleted the 5:00am episode, then told it to record the 12:30 episode again! (to Navigator’s credit, It did end up recording the episode).
Then there’s the issue of “New” programs. I have most of my series set up to record only “new” episodes of most series. A show like The Tudors broadcasts several times a week on the several Showtime channels, so recording only the first episode of the week saves a lot of hassle and disk space. Between local syndication, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network, shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons come on several times a day, and deleting unwanted episodes is a chore. The Navigator software has an annoying tendency to mark every episode of these shows as new, so it ends up recording episodes you don’t want. But what’s even more annoying is that you can scan the “Scheduled Recordings” menu and fine no trace of these shows! If I were to press the “Scheduled Recordings” button right now (Monday afternoon), I’d see nothing but stuff I actually want to see – tonight’s new episode of Bones (which I actually haven’t watched in a year – I don’t know why I even have it on the DVR anymore), Tuesday night’s new episodes of The Riches and Hell’s Kitchen, then nothing on Wednesday, then a busy Thursday of My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, and Lost. There will be no trace of The Tudors in the “Scheduled Recordings” menu. Yet, somehow, tomorrow morning, there will be a “new” episode recorded on the DVR. That’s simply unacceptable.
Also, as previously reported, missing from the search feature is “keyword search”. With Passport, you could search the program guide for KATE WINSLET or LONDON or TAR HEELS or any phrase you fancied. Passport would return not only movies with Kate Winslet, but also appearances on Leno or Letterman, or Inside the Actor’s Studio. You can’t do that any more. You can only search by the name of the show. Which bites, especially since the “keyboard search” doesn’t seem to work half the time. I typed in “Deadliest Catch” the other day… and there was no trace of the show in the program list… even though I had just seen it in the guide. Nice work, Time Warner!
Navigator also has a nice feature where you can opt to have your Favorite Channels listed in the guide at the beginning of the list, or the traditional “embedded within other channels” way. The problem is that Navigator moves the Favorites to the beginning of the program guide – it doesn’t copy them. Which doesn’t work well with the music channels. If I tune in to the Alternative channel (514), then I can’t simply press the down arrow to get to the Retro-Active channel (515). This is because channel 515 has been listed at a favorite, and is now near the beginning of the guide. So the only way you can navigate to 515 is to open the guide and press the PAGE UP button all the way to the beginning of the guide (which can cause Navigator to crash) or enter the channel numbers manually: 5+1+5+SEL. What a pain!
Lastly (for now), the FF and REW buttons are… odd. If you rewind a recording, it rewinds but then skips ahead a few seconds. Passport did this too, but did it well. Navigator, on the other hand, seems to wait a variable amount of time to skip ahead after rewinding, so it’s almost impossible to get to exactly the point where the show is coming back from commercial. After futzing with it for the past few days, I usually just watch the last 8 seconds of the commercial and stew about how crappy Navigator is.
I could go on, but I won’t. I’ll just say that I long for the days of Passport. It didn’t have a lot of fancy features, but it was rock-solid at being a basic DVR. I know I seem to be the minority when I say that, but for me it’s been true. Sure, the SA8300HD could act up sometimes, but it was, for me, a pretty solid machine. I guess my local TWC head-end is just well run, ‘cos I really hadn’t had that much trouble with Passport. Navigator has crashed three times on me so far, and that’s 2 more times than Passport crashed on me all of last year. Scrolling quickly through many menu can crash Naviagtor, and rebooting the box will take up to six minutes! (No, that is not a misprint). Word is that TWC is testing some brand new Samsung DVR boxes to appear to work much better with the Navigator software. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, ‘cos the current situation sucks!
In the interest of fairness, I’d like to add a tip and dispell some myths about the Navigator software:
– To get into the “configuration screens”, press the SEL key on the remote until the “Mail” LED lights up on the front of the cable box. Then press the DOWN arrow. You will see at least 28 configuration pages – you can’t edit any of these pages, but you can get important information like the version of the software you are using, the hardware in your box, and how much free RAM\disk space you have.
– When Navigator debuted, many complained that TWC had “killed” the 15-minute skip feature that Passport had. This rumor was either not true, the feature was not documented, or perhaps it was added to the software later on, because you can easily skip in 15 minute increments by pressing and HOLDING the REW\FF keys on the remote.
– Passport had the option to change the screen resolution (Normal, Zoom, Stretch) by pressing the VIDEO SOURCE button on the remote; you could also press the pound key (#) to do the same. Navigator has killed the VIDEO SOURCE button, but you can change the resolution in Navigator by pressing the # key.
Thanks for your fair review of the Navigator software. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, Time Warner will allow the option to change colors on the menu. That would certainly be nice. There do seem to be a lot of software-related issues with the new Navigator, but all in all, there’s going to be a lot of cool things coming, or so they say. Have a great day.
As soon as Navigator was installed my gray sidebars disappeared subjecting my tv to burn-in. Time Warner insists Navigator has nothing to do wit that. However, the C/S rep answering the phones d=said TW would no longer transmit the signal that produces the side-bar images on 4:3 non HD channels. I find it ironic that the bars disappeared the minute Navigator was installed but TW says not related…don’y sue us for TV damage is the real message.
ANyone have any idea how to turn on the greay bars?
If you have an Explorer 8000\8300 box, you’ll probably want to subscribe to this Yahoo! Group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/explorer_8000/
I’ve been a member for the past couple of years and have found it invaluable as a source of information and tech support for the 8000\8300. Give it a try – you won’t be disappointed!
The reason I bring it up – aside from being a good source of information – is that someone there reported that when they press the SETTINGS button, there is an option called DEVICES that allows you to tweak the colors of the sidebars. I do not have this option, but it’s possible that that person has a newer version of the Navigator software, so this feature might be coming to you soon.
I live in Cincinnati, and we got the upgrade earlier this week. We have found that Passport had a feature which we can’t find at all in Navigator. We had it set to record Jay Leno only on Monday nights (so we could watch Headlines) but the feature of picking just one night a week is gone. So we have to record Jay every night of the week and then manually deleting them.
Does anyone have a solution? On Passport, the option for the day of the week was not on the regular Series Recording Options menu but was on a different menu. But that menu seems to have disappeared on Navigator.
Someone should sue Time Warner over this. The Navigator software SUCKS!
I live in Cincinnati as well, and recently had this “upgrade” forced on me. I use the word “upgrade” very loosely, as that is not the word I would use to characterize a change that removes useful features and makes the device run slower.
This change screwed up all of my series recordings, and I had to go back in and fix all the things it screwed up. Even then there are some things that I just can’t fix with this new software. It doesn’t give the option to record a series on any channel or just one channel. It doesn’t give the option to “save until manually deleted” under series recording, which seems pretty stupid. Now I have to go in and set that manually on each scheduled or completed recording. If I had the free time or the ability to remember this on a consistent and regular basis, I would just watch the shows rather than saving them until I can get around to them.
In my attempts to recover all of my scheduled recordings that got screwed up, I also found the search functions to be much more restricted and mostly useless, as has already been outlined. Furthermore, in browsing ahead in the program guide I reached the point were there was “No Data Avaliable” less than 48 hours into the future! How in the heck am I supposed to use this thing if that’s going to be the case?
Earlier today when I tried to change the channel it would give me nothing but silence and a black screen, unless I powered the box off and back on.
In the meantime, I still don’t get NFL Network, Big Ten Network or Versus (which I got on analog service with TW when I lived in Dayton). Thanks TW for turning diamonds into dog crap.
RE: Hateful Navigator
Recently, Time-Warner Cable introduced a new on-screen menu. It is not exaggeration to say that it is a horror and is eliciting horrified reaction from subscribers.
But Time-Warner refuses to acknowledge (at least to customers) that there is a problem. A letter to the President of Time-Warner Cable has gone unanswered. Three calls to customer service have each elicited the answer that “this is the way Navigator (the new menu system) works.” No acknowledgement that “the way it works” is stupid beyond belief and couldn’t have been purposeful.
One example: In the former menu system, if you told the DVR to record a series and then decided you didn’t like the series, you simply clicked on the series on the menu and the clicked “delete series.” The series was then not recorded.
Navigator does not have the choice “delete series,” only “delete this recording.” Thus, for example, say you decide to record a series like Seinfeld (reruns) every day and then find you remember the episodes to well and want to tell the DVR not to record the series. You can’t. What you must do, for the rest of your life, is go to the menu every day and delete that day’s episode. (You could simply let the DVR record each episode and then delete the recording, but this is even worse; it prevents you from recording a different show at the same time.)
Another example: In the old system, when you recorded a series, youu were asked whether you wanted episodes at this hour (i.e., the hour of the episode you clicked) or all hours. You now aren’t given this choice; when you record a series, it’s recorded at all hours. This is a horror for two reasons. [1] It records hours and hours of episodes you son’t want and you have to individually delete them. [2] Some of these hours conflict with, and supersede, shows you have recorded, so you lose those shows.
Another example: You’re given the choice of recording a series only some times, not others. Worse, formerly, when you recorded a series, you were given a choice of “this hour and channel only” or “all showings.” It always made sense to choose “this hour only” because you didn’t know what the other channels and hours were (Seinfeld is on all over the place) and not limiting the recording inevitably scheduled recordings at times you were recording other shows; this often prevented the other shows from being recorded.
Another example: Navigator is so tediously slow that it results in many errors when you think a task has been accomplished, proceed to another task, and find that the latter interferes with the former. Even when this doesn’t happen, what used to be instantaneous demands endless waiting (e.g., the crawl on the schedule menu is now literallly a “crawl.”
Another example: It used to be that, to get information on a show, you’d press one button and then the “page” button for more information. The page button no longer works and you’re reduced to getting the information about “Murder, She Wrote” that “A murder is committed.”)
I suspect that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Every Time-Warner customer I’ve spoken to who has had Navigator installed (some still have the old system) is enraged, usually for different reasons.
I think this is a big story waiting to be told.
they just switched us to navigator here in manhattan. i hate it. it can’t even do the dvr basic task of pausing whatever is on channel A while you watch channel B. there are a million things wrong with their horrible new software. i am switching to rcn.
We have two dvr’s. One is with the new Navigator and the other is with the Old Passport. The older version is so much superior than the new Navigator. The problems I have noticed the most, is that you can now scan the guide by date anymore. I mean wtf? With scheduled programs it deleted, I had to scan through the whole week just to reset it to record. And most of all, I had to do this because the program wasn’t even listed in the program list. That program list is the most useless piece of garbage I have ever seen.
Also not to mention, that all set programs it did maintain are now set to record new and repeat episodes when I had it only set for new espiodes. The shows I had set to record last night dont even show up for next week so I cannot tell if they are going to record or not. Is the show I had set for Friday night going to record next friday because it was preempted for baseball? I cannot tell anymore because its not on my list or even in the list of programs.
I have planned to switch to Uverse when it becomes available in my area. Now I need to call AT&T to tell them to speed it up because this new Navigator is unacceptable.
Uverse is more expensive than TWC in my area. 🙁
Found your website, Jim, after doing a Google for “I hate Time-Warner’s new Navigator”. Somehow, I had a feeling I couldn’t be the ONLY person who dislikes (an understatement) TWC’s Navigator.
I live in midtown Manhattan, and my cable box ‘upgraded’ (?!!) to Navigator at 3:26 a.m. this morning. My immediate reaction was WTF?!? I immediately phoned Time-Warner and conveyed my EXTREME dislike for Navigator — if for no other reason than the visual display. Granted, charcoal and blue look awesome together in, say, a clothes closet (a charcoal grey suit and blue tie look rather elegant, IMO), but NOT on the display — especially since the lame, small white font is reminiscent of a stone-age computer from the mid-1970s that ran programs in BASIC or DOS. There are, like, 8-trillion different fonts to choose from — and TWC decides that a feeble, ‘retro’ look is appealing?!?
I don’t know how many ‘focus groups’ TWC used, but I can only assume the TWC management did NOT take into consideration the needs of ‘senior’ subscribers when deciding on the ‘guide’ display font size. My vision ain’t exactly what it used to be, and, sadly, the display font on the Navigator ‘guide’ is MUCH smaller than it was on the Passport.
Anyway, thanx for letting me rant on your website, Jim. It’s comforting to know that I’m not alone in my HATRED of TWC’s Navigator.
I have the new navigator on my DVR in NY NY. For the last six weeks or so the GUIDE has not been updating daily. I wait a few days, call cable and tell them and they give the usual, have you rebooted? you can replace the box and I tell them that it is MY BOX, the problme is on TW’s end because I know other people that are having the same problem.
A problem I have is that when the memory is getting full, it changes the icon to let you know that a previously recorded show is in danger of being deleted but no longer tells you how long it will be until the program is deleted. Does anyone know a way to find out that information?
@JJ: on my DVR, you can highlight the program in question and press the INFO button; the resulting screen will then tell you how long before the recording will be deleted.
Of course, I could be using a different version of Navigator than you; TWC Carolina switched over to Crapiagtor before many of the larger markets did.
Thanks, I’ll try that when I get home. I have TWC NY, NY.
An open letter to Time Warner:
I just want you to know that you’re new “navigator” system for using the DVR is the biggest piece crap that I have ever encountered. I contacted your customer service to request that the old navigator be re-installed on my DVR’s, but she said we were stuck with the new version.
The old version was simple, straight forward, and easy to use. This version makes you jump through hoops. Not only do you now have to perform 3 or 4 steps where you used to do 1 or 2, but parts of it are completely useless. And this is not a snap judgment, I’ve been trying to become acclimated to it for three weeks, but no dice. I’m making a list of issues in which it does not work or demands useless extra steps, and I WILL be back in contact with you.
Whoever designed this disaster should be shot, but I’m sure Time Warner gave him a big bonus. Instead shoving crap like this down your customer’s throats and claiming it’s a great leap forward, why don’t you do something that your customers would really appreciate, like adding the NFL network.
Angrily Yours,
Jerry Gardner
I echo all the negative comments here. Navigator is terrible. By far the worst is that you can’t schedule a “manual recording,” i.e. inputting a day, channel number and start and stop times. We actually got out our old VCR just to be able to do this.
The Navigator SUCKSSSSS!!!
there is lag…and it’s such a pain to search the shows you want to DVR, so much easier on the old one..and i agree with all of the other negative comments!!! SUCKS..i want the old passport back NOW!!!!
ditto ditto ditto. hate the lag, can’t “rewind” easily, hate it hate it hate it.
I live in Manhattan and have had all the problems described above and more. When I delete an upcoming episode of a show, it reappears on my schedule in a few hours. Inevitably, it ends up taping the deleted show and that takes up space and deletes stuff I wanted to see. The worst thing, though, is that it doesn’t let you know when something isn’t taping – and not just when my DVR is full. I almost missed the premiere of Caprica tonight because of this. So now I have to babysit it, which defeats the purpose. Argh.
I wonder if this software switch voids my agreement to stay with TWC for two years. I didn’t sign up for this! Anything has to be better. Any ideas on IO or Verizon?
You could not be more right. I was excited when time Warner announced the big “upgrade” to Navigator. Dear LORD bring me my old DVR back. I have experienced all of the problems you have and more. And it is SOOOO slow! I am seriously considering dumping Time Warner if they don’t make some changes… and SOON!
Unless Time Warner Cable changes it’s new design quickly, they have lost me as a customer. It seems that every few months the company makes a system change which makes things worse and more difficult, rather than better and easier. This is the final straw for me. I have exactly 79 “favorite” channels, and until today have been able to scroll down through the menu to see what’s on the tube. Today my menu shows every single channel that Time Warner offers, rather than only my favorites. Customer support now tells me that this change will be permanent, and that I will from now on either have to scroll through every single channel on the network, or press the favorite button to get to my next favorite channel. This means that in order to randomly learn what I might most want to see on TV at any given time, I must now press the favorite button 79 separate times. In the past I was able to scroll the menu while simultaneously watching a program, so the new mandatory feature has now even lost that ability as well. That a company as big as this cannot figure out how to make improvements to make customers happier, yet periodically and consistently chooses to make things harder and harder for them instead, is completely absurd. And it goes on and on. Bye bye Time Warner. I refuse to deal with idiots any morons.
Gee, I always wanted DVR but haven’t sprung for it. Now I’m glad I don’t have it as everyone’s complaining about how crappy that is. Even without DVR it’s a piece of crap. Last channel recall doesn’t work properly, it tunes the last channel tuned via channel up/down or manually tuned, but not last channel tuned via the favorites button. Every time I turn off the tv, when I turn it back on, the cable box resets my audio settings because it sees I have an HDMI cable installed, so it assumes I’m using HDMI for audio (when I’m not). So I have to change the audio from digital to dolby, and then the volume control from fixed to variable so I can control the volume via the cable box. From my chair, it’s way too slow, and 1/2 the things don’t work properly. On top of that, the signal drop out problem has become worse since the “downgrade”.
@John L: Well, it’s not all bad. There’s a lot to gripe about, but TWC’s DVR generally works pretty well for me. You’re just gonna see a lot of bitching in this post!
Larry is right! “Improvements” have been rolling out like toilet paper with little or NO thought to the technology being ready for sale to the unsuspecting customer. I had a price increase this year…for WHAT? The worst cable service I’ve ever seen. I have my own DVR, and until today I could record programs on separate channels. Now, the box won’t switch to the channel that’s supposed to record. I was told by customer service that I’d “have to be there to change the channel”. Hel LO! It’s all going backwards and they don’t give a crap. I’m leaving this lousy company, too.
I have to agree with Larry’s post from 4/6. I was recently “honored” to be upgraded to the latest version of the software here in Cincinnati and found the Sort By Favorites gone. Talk about a totally bone-headed move to make! I’m really sorry I signed up for the 2-year price lock last year. Now I’m stuck with TWC or a termination fee if I want to switch to a system that actually is user friendly!
Just had the new Navigator turned on in Rochester, NY and it sux. It’s slow, cumbersome,obtrusive – and I’ve only gone through half the features.
Simple stuff like losing the ability to have the clock displayed when the box is off and the channel displayed when on. Gone.
The “Find a Show” function is really, really bad. It constantly has to “load data” and the list of shows in the left hand column is so generic you have to click each one for details to see if it’s the one you’re looking for. Even when I knew the time and channel for a baseball game that’s on later this afternoon, I couldn’t find it.
No, it’s not me – I’m tech savvy and I’ve done web programming for a living. This is bad, really baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Maybe even worse though is reading the various Nav complaints posted on the Internet going back years and realizing TW really doesn’t give a $hit about their customers. Time for satellite.
“Simple stuff like losing the ability to have the clock displayed when the box is off and the channel displayed when on. Gone.”
That feature works here in Charlotte. You sure it just didn’t get disabled during the “upgrade”?
I just got “upgraded” last night. The only channels I can see are 2 (QVC) and 9 (YNN) and that is it. The customer service person, who was reading from a script, is sending a tech since they have never seen this problem. Due to my work schedule, it will be 3 days from now that the tech can come. I am furious.
Well this is just craptastic. My first day with POS as been great. So everyone here is just complaining. Can anyone tell me what the best combination of service and DVR is? Satellite? If so, which one? I have defended TWC for years, but I think I have finally had it. And I am sick to death of all the crap (maps, scrolling info and logos) on the local channels every time there is a sprinkle outside. I could barely watch Lost a couple of weeks ago because someone was getting pea sized hail eighty miles away. Do you see this crap on the local channels on satellite too? I know this is not TWC’s fault, but I would like to find some clean channels somewhere. I’m sick of TV. I think I am just going to get rid of it. I think the answer will be TV over the internet. Then we can control the software we use to record it or we will be able to stream a show anytime. That will rock. Lets hope it happens soon.
Just got my wonderful upgrade. Gone are all the programs I had set up to record when they returned to air new shows. Now I have to go my TV GUIDE and find out what shows are on for each week. I had my schedule set up to tape shows such as Burn Notice and others when they returned to the network. That is all gone now. The old program was a nice “set it and forget it”. How could they do away with the “first run option”
Hate this new guide! For many, many reasons, including the fact that I can’t easily get to a different day in the guide to pick my shows to record. I know where they are…I dont need an alpha numeric serach listing.
I called to complain that the audio and video inputs on the front of my DVR box no longer work. Supposedly this is because of the upgrade and I use that term loosely. These were convenient for video games and viewing video camera footage because they are on the front of the system. TW could care less that in their process of giving customers NEW things that we don’t want they have taken away something that people were using.
TW touted the fact that I can now set recording with my cell phone…who cares? If I forget a recording there’s the internet.
I hate Navigator!
“I can’t easily get to a different day in the guide to pick my shows to record.”
Huh?
On my unit, there is a button for day forward and another one for previous day. It took me a long time to figure it out, though, and I understand how frustrating it was in the mean time (I believe both the SA8300 and SA8700 boxes have these day navigation buttons).
Yeah, the remote for my 8300HD has “< Day" and "Day >” buttons that let you go backwards and forwards by day in the guide.
Also, in most flavors of Navigator, if you’re in the guide and press RIGHT ARROW then quickly press a number button, the guide will advance by that many days. So. RIGHT ARROW + 3 advances by three days.
Jim … “That feature works here in Charlotte. You sure it just didn’t get disabled during the “upgrade”?”
I had the cable guy here for another problem and he said it was the box. ??? Switched me to a Cisco HD box (was Sci-Atl) and the clock/channel feature now works the way I want.
However, w/ the new Nav my TV now shows me all the premium channels offered by TW, like HBO, Tennis Channel, etc. I don’t subscribe to those channels so if I surf onto one of them, my TV freezes for 30 seconds. The last Nav hid all unsubscribed channels and passed right over them when surfing.
BTW, I had the tech out because now when I switch from one HD channel to another HD channel, the screen goes blank (navigator still shows though). I’ve had TW for over ten years w/o a problem. Now all this in just a few weeks – and all since the new Nav was released. Coincidence?
You are so right!! And is it just me or can you only record one show at a time, AND only watch the recoreded show!! :(( I f youchange the channel while recording ( yes while recording) It deletes it as a recording! I wanna watch cold Case on TNT and SVU on USA, but no you gotta choose one. So, I turn it all off!!
“And is it just me or can you only record one show at a time, AND only watch the recoreded show”
It’s just you. Just tonight I recorded “Wipeout” and “Deadliest Catch” at the same time whilst watching “Pawn Stars”, and all in HD, too.
Totally agree that the nava from Timewarner sucks the print is too small and takes forever to process. I will be looking into Direct TV does anyone have suggestions??
Time Warner has just rolled out its demise. This Navigator is not better…it is worse. AND WE’RE STILL PAYING FOR IT!! One of the best features they had, which allowed you to dub a DVR recording to a hard drive or DVD no longer exists.
If you try to record, you’ll get some screen that p[ops up telling you you can’t view this program through your DVI input. NICE. Way to go you pinheads.
This is last straw. I CAN’T CALL DIRECT TV SOON ENOUGH. SEE YA!!!!
I am having a hard time with volume control with the new navigator. I don’t use the TV speakers at all, as they are horrible. I bought a set of boss speakers and used the volume control from the DVR. I was able to control the volume on the speakers through the cable box, and left the TV volume all the way down.
Along comes the new navigator. I have been on the phone twice with them, and even had someone come out, and I cannot control the volume through the cable box!!
I go to quick settings, toggle up to devices, I then go to audio digital output and press other. Then I toggle down to audio volume control and chose variable. Then I finally get the yellow volume bar and all is well. BUT when the TV and cable box are turned off, it does not hold the settings!! I have to go through the whole thing again to get the volume control back. Am I doing something wrong? This is a pretty major flaw in the software. If anyone has an answer for me, I would appreciate the help. Time Warner cannot help me.
I am not a fan of the new “navigator” upgrade either. My main concern is the “source” button which has been disabled. We are now unable to watch dvd’s hook up the game systems etc, unless we hook them up directly to the tv as opposed to the dvr box.
However, when doing this the dvr box has to be unhooked from the tv which means we can no longer record and watch a dvd or play games and record etc. I hate it!
Time warner told me that using the source button would damage the dvr box now that I have been upgraded to navigator. It’s the same box that I’ve always had, I do not understand how a simple button could damage the box.
I could not be more annoyed with the answers i got for the reason they took out Sort by Favorites feature. After talking to several supervisors and technical people the best answer i got was it was a Corporate decision and they don’t know why.
I’m so mad I’m in the process of going canceling my service pending cancellation fees. Taking out this feature to “save memory for future upgrade” is total crap. This feature alone does not take up any more memory then a simple 0/1 logic since the favorites are stored anyway in this upgrade they did. In a good business model you don’t take something out in anticipation of future updates when those updates could be as long as a year away.
No way to get it back unless enough people complain in my opinion to get that simple feature back. I suggest you call 800-TWCABLE and express your concern like i did.
TWC has intentionally disabled a number of long standing features on the DVRs. The eSATA port on the back which allowed an external expansion hard drive to be attached has been disabled for no other purpose than to inconvenience the customer. There was an undocumented change to the last versions of the SARA system and now with Navigator. The ‘skip to end’ or whatever it was called on the menu has been deleted. This was useful to see if the end of the program had been recorded or not before watching…who wants to watch a show and not know the ending?
There are so many inconsistencies in the design of the menu choices that it is apparent that various portions were designed by different working groups without the benefit of standards…or common sense. One wrong click in some of the menus and a program is deleted where as, in other menus (as should be the case in all of them), if you select ‘delete’ you get a warning before it is actually deleted. In other places you may edit a recording in the onscreen guide and then the onscreen guide gets dumped and you have to go back in and find the day and channel again. But certain choices return you to the onscreen guide (as should be the case) where you can exit with one click if you so desire. The same problem exists when viewing the list of recorded programs. If you look at one to make sure what it is and then delete it you are dumped out of the listing and have to go back in and start all over whereas, if you delete a program on the list of recorded programs without looking at it you will return to the list of recorded programs where you can continue to “prune” the list.
I ran across a beta tester who said that NONE of the recommended changes were incorporated in the release versions of Navigator. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! or is that Dumb! Dumber! Dumbest!?
The “upgrade” for Oceanic Time Warner Cable just got to Hawaii last night. It’s does not even let me record even though it shows the program has been set to record highlighted in red. This is the most stupid change from something that worked fine and now it’s worst than the old version. The customer service is horrible and now the DVR software changes goes from bad to worst. I’m really considering canceling the Cable service and use only the Internet for T.V., news, and media content.
I am shocked that no upgrades have happened since this thread …i hate that they make us hawaai people use it with the same problems you all clearly defined…
well they lost me in 24 hours…I did my research Dish and Direct tv are both offering better prices then cable, higher resolution and HD for life…The call response is no more then a five minute wait and installation in 24 hours…mine is coming sat because I have to work today…
I was amazed that 50 bucks a month is all i am going to pay with direct tv for a year then up to 80 bucks next year for two rooms….and ill still get all my channels 200 of them in the right time zones and I dont have to pay for equipment or anything…oh and the dvr they supply has room for 400 programs…and will work my my external storage device making 1000 programs that can be stored.
WOW i wish I did this 6 months ago!!…thank you Navigator because of your ass hat system I am now saving 60 dollars a month, storing more stuff, receiving better customer service…all because because i am leaving you and going with Direct TV!!! ha ha. as we say here…Aloha!
@wolfgirl: Jeez… do you work for the satellite companies? You sure sound like a shill!
I hate the navigator and I really wish there was a way to remove it. Not only did the audio get worse on all channels after they switched to it, but having to wait one to three seconds just to get to the next channel while browsing to see if anything is on is obnoxious. It lags like a motherfucker, and that’s JUST the menu!
This updated navigator really does suck. The audio skips and the up to 3 – 5 second wait to see the next channel or just view the channel menu is annoying as fuck. Now you have an extra button push to just get back to viewing after just wanting to look at what is next on the menu. The “select guide channels” was cute after the first 5 clicks, but after 100 or so, it is annoying as shit to get back to viewing the channel. Thanks TW for the extra click to get back to viewing and who the hell wants to see the select guide channels every fucking time you just want to see the channel menu.
There’s a reason for everything. The reason there is less customer control is because the customer is now being exposed to more commercial time which equals more money for Time Warner. The person who designed the system probably did get a huge bonus as they made it possible for TWC to collect more money. I absolutely HATE the new system, but unfortunately where I live we aren’t allowed satellite dishes or I’d call Direct TV right now. The only way TWC will change this is if they lose more money for a prolonged period of time than they are making of from reshowing commercials. And people just aren’t going to band together to do that and TWC knows it.
I absolutely agree! It sucks! it is abrasive and harsh on “old” eyes.