Sunday, September 13, 2009

A REMOTE CHANCE IN HELL?

Recently - at least here in NYC - Time Warner Cable made some adjustments to their system. They juggled a few channels, which I didn't mind; that's just a matter of memorization. But they also "upgraded" the DVR system and there were a lot of things they changed that didn't need fixin'!

So I wrote to them......

I don't mind the channel changes; it'll be easy enough to remember CNN is on 78 and not 10once I use it enough, for example.


My complaint is with the new DVR "upgrade". It's slower and doesn't stop soon enough when fast-forwarding and it "skips" ahead too far when you rewind to a certain point. Also, I miss the actual amount of time spent on a program shown (for example: 00:45) because I could gauge exactly how much time I had left to watch. That little arrow on the bar just doesn't cut it; we need more info!

The description of the shows recorded also used to show how long it was. Now it only shows what time it started, which isn't of any use once it's been recorded. I think people would rather know how long the program is.

I do like the percentage given of how much space is used up, however. And once I get used to it, I'm sure the new prompts will be easier to use than the old system. But if you could retrograde those two time situations, that would be great.

It's been a week and finally, here was their response:

Thank you for your recent message to Time Warner Cable.We appreciate that you have taken the time to share your comments, and we can assure you that your comments and suggestions are not going unnoticed.

While some features you may be accustomed to with the older model cable boxes under the older interfaces are not currently included, this interface is designed to more readily accommodate new features in future upgrades.

For more information about the new Navigator guide, please visit our Website and select Learn-Digital Cable-Navigator On screen Guide . Or you can go directly to:


We thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts.

So if there's room for improvement in the future, I'll just wait and see if any of my ideas are considered.....

BCnU!

1 comment:

Jim Peyton said...

A friend of mine who is active in the Audio Engineering Society and SMPTE says that the cable companies have basically neglected all the metadata that is contained in progreamming. The cable box companies must use Lance Link Chimp engineers as they constantly avoid using the embedded information thus causing some of your issues.

BTW I believe that was Response #6 you received. I think they use Gibbons for customer service.