Time Warner Cable’s “Navigator” Sucks

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21 September 2007 14 Comments

When I got my notice last month that my neighborhood was next in line to get their Time-Warner DVR’s “upgraded” from Passport to Navigator, I was worried. I’d heard plenty of horror stories from those further south who had already received the “upgrade”. Tales about how all of their recordings were erased. All of their scheduled recordings wiped out. Boxes constantly rebooting. Being unable to record anything. Having to drive 10-20 miles to one of the poorly-located stores (why isn’t there one anywhere near the Plaza or Downtown??) to wait in line and exchange their DVRs for new ones that might work better.
Fortunately they got those issues worked out before the “upgrade” came to my neighborhood. When it came to my box, everything went smoothly.
Or so I thought.
After a few weeks, my saved recordings started randomly disappearing for no reason. Including one irreplaceable saved recording of a live broadcast.
Then it randomly started deciding it no longer wanted to record various series. No warning, no error in the log, scheduled recordings just up and vanish from time to time.
Then this week it started flagging programs as NEW when in fact theey were reruns that it had recorded before.
The interface is ugly. The white letters on blue backgrounds are difficult to read, especially on standard televisions.
It is also poorly designed from a usability standpoint. For instance, when searching for a show in the old Passport system, you would be taken immediately to the alphabet keypad. Now under Navigator you are taken to a scrolling list of every show title that no one in their right mind would ever want to use, and you must navigate to a second screen to get to the more useful alphabet menu.
The system is S….L….O….W. Last night I added two new series to my recording schedule. Under the old Passport system, this would have taken about a minute, maybe two tops. Last night, under Navigator? It took just over twenty minutes. No joke. This includes time that it had to sit and think and process my scheduling requests… for multiple minutes… with all buttons on my remote frozen and unusable until it was done.
Good grief.
To paraphrase my best friend, it’s like being used to using OSX and then being forced to “upgrade” to Windows 98.
Time Warner Cable has reduced the features and services they have given us by dumping this clearly not-ready-for-market software on us, yet has not lowered our rates to compensate for this reduced service. It’s time for TWC to own up to their mistake and either lower their rates or switch back to the old software until they are capable of developing a product that is actually usable.

14 Comments »

IAmMonkeyBoy said:

I have one word for you: Tivo

# 22 September 2007 at 10:54 am

Biz said:

Unfortunately, Tivo won’t work with Switched Digital Video.

# 22 September 2007 at 8:35 pm

ChrisM70 said:

Here’s another word - at least one that I’m considering:
EVEREST.

# 24 September 2007 at 9:14 am

Garroteman said:

Hello
I love this photo of yours
http://www.scootutopia.com/photos/office.jpg
can I get a high ress of that one for my deskop wallpaper?
Please send it to:
dagg20@interia.pl
it would be great. It really inspires me to do office work and I would enjoy having it on my laptop.
Love your photos!

# 25 September 2007 at 12:49 pm

spa said:

Dude. I feel your pain. I was just switched (MKE, WI). Something needs to be done.

# 16 April 2008 at 10:35 pm

Joe said:

Idiots, switched video means higher picture quality. Seconed, TWC has to switch because of the new OCAP regulations. Thirdly, it’s just saved recordings, not the end of the world.

# 22 April 2008 at 9:14 pm

ScooterJ (author) said:

Looks like the last poster is either a TWC employee or one of the Navigator programmers.
BTW Navigator STILL sucks. They continue to switch people in my area to it and the same problems continue to happen with no solutions in sight.

# 23 April 2008 at 11:05 am

Superfool said:

Here here! I despise the new system. Our bedroom TV got the upgrade several months before the main, HDTV, and I immediately despised it. Terribly slow, clunky, confusing, and, worst of all, unpredictable! I was hoping to find out why it suddenly began recording shows 5-10 minutes after they started. No clear conflicts that I can see… Bring me back my old Passport!

# 8 May 2008 at 7:50 pm

angry said:

This new navigator OS is horrid compared to the old Passport. There are numerous shortcuts and sensibly laid out operations that are simply gone, simply too many to list here. In fact, about the only thing that is new that I like about navigator is the on the DVR function it shows you the percentage of HDD space in use, that is nice. Everything else is a downgrade.

# 12 July 2008 at 7:31 am

hman4ever said:

Some features I like better on Navigator but some I do not and it’s buggy. I miss having two size choices for PIP, now there is only one and they are too centered as opposed to in the corners. Also, every once in a while it will change my power on channel and only a reboot will get it back. The biggest problem is that it keeps changing my audio output setting every time I turn on my tv. I use HDMI for video but optical cable for audio as my reciever doesn’t have HDMI output.It keeps changing from Digital Audio setting to HDMI. Anybody know a fix for that?

# 2 May 2009 at 4:21 pm

rv65 said:

hman4ever,

I hear that the new Samsung 3090 and 3270 DVR allows HDMI and Optical audio. You have to go into a Password protected menu. Not all divisions have the Samsung DVR’s though. It’s called Enable AC3 over HDMI and it’s only available by pressing Vol+ and Info. It’s in the extended diag menu of the HW diagnostics. Go to enable AC3 over HDMI and type in the model number and it should enable it instantly. No rebooting is required.

The search function in Navigator is going to get better over time. Keyword Search is a top priority for them. They eventually want Navigator to match Passport but it’s taken a while. MDN and ODN have gotten better but they have it’s issues.

# 2 June 2009 at 10:51 am

Steve said:

WELL LAST NIGHT I FAILED TO DISCONNECT MY COAX AND THE IDIOTS INFECTED MY BOX WITH THIS CRAP!! (A friends 2200 was infected also (They infect @ night))

ITS SMALLER,HARDER TO READ,NOT AS EASY GOING AS SARA WAS……. ITS A PIECE OF GUTTER TRASH!!

IM NOT SURPRISED THOUGH SEEING THEY ARE CHEAP BASTARDS WANTING TO SAVE $$$ (NAVIGATOR IS CHEAPER FOR THEM TO RUN (STUPID MORONS))

ITS NOT ABOUT WHATS GOOD ANYMORE,ITS ONLY ABOUT $$$ IN THIS STUPID COUNTRY AND THATS SAD!!

# 25 March 2010 at 3:42 pm

Henry said:

WELL LAST NIGHT I FAILED TO DISCONNECT MY COAX AND THE IDIOTS INFECTED MY BOX WITH THIS CRAP!! (A friends 2200 was infected also (They infect @ night))

ITS SMALLER,HARDER TO READ,NOT AS EASY GOING AS SARA WAS……. ITS A PIECE OF GUTTER TRASH!!

IM NOT SURPRISED THOUGH SEEING THEY ARE CHEAP BASTARDS WANTING TO SAVE $$$ (NAVIGATOR IS CHEAPER FOR THEM TO RUN (STUPID MORONS))

ITS NOT ABOUT WHATS GOOD ANYMORE,ITS ONLY ABOUT $$$ IN THIS STUPID COUNTRY AND THATS SAD!!

# 25 March 2010 at 3:44 pm