UPDATED NextBox Navigatr - December 2015/January 2016

[RogersMargaret]

Hi Community,

On December 15, 2015, I let everyone know that we had started to roll out the updated Navigatr guide.  Take a look here for that post. 

As we continue to roll out the update, customers will be notified ahead of time that they will be getting the new software.

If you have received the updated Navigatr software (i.e. since December 15, 2015) and would like to ask a question and/or share your findings/learnings, please do so in THIS THREAD.  

As always, the Community Guidelines and Terms of Use apply.

Thanks very much for keeping the community a pleasant place to be!

~RogersMargaret

[neilpalmer400]

@molly222

Honestly, it simply amazes me that Rogers CONTINUES to roll out such obviously untested  amateurish software updates.

A kindergarten class could turn out better tested code after a half day lesson.

[jays77]

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@neilpalmer400 wrote:
@molly222

Honestly, it simply amazes me that Rogers CONTINUES to roll out such obviously untested amateurish software updates.

A kindergarten class could turn out better tested code after a half day lesson.

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I'm just guessing, but I get the impression that you are less than impressed with Navigatr. 

[molly222]

Neilpalmer400;

yes, I thought they would test it more based on the July 28 initial roll out disaster.  I also find it disappointing that the Rogers technical help is not kept up to date on navigatr issues.  The first tech wanted me to factory reset.  The tier 2 tech wanted to send a repairman to the house.  Both were unaware of the situation with the "unresponsive" behaviour being reported here and on other forums.  Neither tech even knew there was now a sleep function.  It wasn't until I reached tier 3 that I got help from someone that was aware of the problem.  I still have not had a response from Rogers as to how or when they are going to fix this software problem.  They should be letting their customers know there is a problem and that they are working on it (assuming that they are).

Anyone notice the font on the guide harder to read today??

[ozham]

It is very obvious that the softwares so called development, for the PVR is totally  out of control!

Having been involved in contracts for aviation eqipment, and the documentation

of the software using flow-charting etc I can see that there is a total lack of leadership or management 

of this problem.

AND WE ARE PAYING FOR THIS!

[YtanyaY]

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@molly222 wrote:

"I have had the unresponsive issue now for a week."

There must be different "versions" ("releases") because I've had the power-saving feature since Navigatr came (12/18/16).

I have NOT had unresponsiveness. When the power-saving feature has "done it's job" the BOX still has lights on and the time showing. The TV stays on.

The power DID stay on for a 3+ hour (recorded) video AND the BOX stayed on afterwards (without touching it)

It was an "experiment" - so the remotes were out of reach....

(I thought maybe this issue (power-saving) had been fixed but not the case).

"I never watch live TV...everything is recorded. I would find at about the 3 hour mark of watching pre-recorded shows that the box becomes unresponsive...despite me fast forwarding, pausing, muting, etc. quite frequently during the 3 hours. A Tier 3 Rogers tech told me to try switching back to live tv, change channels, then go back to my taped shows...I do this every hour or so. It's a pain...but it's worked! The last 2 nights I tried this and had no unresponsive issues. I then tested it again today without switching to live TV, and at the 3 hour mark the box was unresponsive. I have not had confirmation from Rogers, but it almost sounds like the sleep function is somehow programmed to live tv only."

So if you watch recorded, it is trying to sleep after 3 hours but ends up in a coma?

(BTW I cannot believe that one has to do the above to watch a PVR item!)

Maybe just hitting a button resets the timer?

When you turn the Nextbox on, the timer starts. If you go directly to your recorded shows and don't go back to live TV and change a channel, the box will go to sleep at the 3 hour mark (although sleep in the Navigatr world is dead, as you have to reboot to turn back on)."

When you watch live TV - does the box also shut off after 3 hours? Do you need to reboot to watch again? Or can you hit power only?

"Also note that you will not see the splash screen sleep warning notice on your tv if you are watching a pre-recorded show or on-demand. It only appears on live TV...Rogers did confirm that last part."

The ones I have spoken to (besides ONE) don't know anything about the 3 hour time-limit!

Today I did try hitting okay, exit etc. to see if it would wake up the BOX but it did not.

I have to "power" the BOX back on (and STILL go through MANY cycles of TV OFF and BOX ON (and opposite) until they match - THIS IS NEW AND CAME WITH NAVIGATR.)

Have you tried hitting the power button when it goes to sleep? (Or coma or death?)

"Another issue...has anyone else noticed the font on the guide seems to be worse after last nights update? appears smaller and blurred...can still read...but barely."

No I have not - Just as bad as usual...

Comment about the updates: 2 times, the BOX has been downloading for > 15 minutes and I've pulled the plug both times.

I cannot tell if I caused MORE problems b/c there are so many already but pulling the plug may have STOPPED other problems?

Thank you

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[YtanyaY]

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@ozham wrote:

It is very obvious that the softwares so called development, for the PVR is totally  out of control!

Having been involved in contracts for aviation eqipment, and the documentation

of the software using flo-charting etc I can see that there is a total lack of leadership or management 

of this problem.

AND WE ARE PAYING FOR THIS!

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We are helping for free as well!

Isn't it lucky they are NOT involved in aviation! This does NOT seem to have gone through ANY sort of steps that software goes though before even the coding (JMO)

[molly222]

YtanyaY;

I got original navigatr July 28 and the updated version Jan.12--I believe the sleep function is new to this most recent release.  When watching pre-recorded shows I use the fast forward and pause very frequently, so I am touching buttons, but it still goes into a coma...everything stays on...but the box is unresponsive...can't fast forward, delete, etc. and I have to reboot.  Even the boxes power on/off doesn't work.  The steps I mentioned in my earlier post seem to be a band aid fix for now.  I also reboot my box every night at 7:45 because most shows I record start at 8:00...I call this my pre-emptive boot.  

[neilpalmer400]

@molly222

So Rogers spent programmer resources adding this new unwanted sleep feature (that, like most of the rest of the code appears to be totally untested in any live environment) INSTEAD of. fixing all the outstanding bugs that have been reported here on the forums since July 28?

[TheArcher]

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@RogersDarrell wrote:

Hey Community,

Starting today, we’re rolling out the new Navigatr software to some NextBox cable customers in communities north of Toronto and to the east – Barrie, Orillia, Richmond Hill, Orangeville, Caledon, Collingwood, Elmvale, Bolton, Midland, Owen Sound, Scarborough and Pickering.  Starting Monday, we’ll be rolling out the software to all NextBox cable customers in Toronto and Etobicoke.

We’ll keep you posted on upcoming Navigatr updates to the rest of our cable footprint, in addition to notifications customers will be getting by mail, email and text.

RogersDarrell

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This was from last Thursday. I know the Toronto/Etobicoke roll-out was scrubbed but I don't recall anything about the roll-out to the other mentioned areas being stopped. Did anyone in any of these areas get the Navigatr version 2?

[TheArcher]

Here is a comparison of the Recordings page on SARA  v. Navigatr v2.

SARA:

5 row table showing only 5 recordings.

Each recording line has: 1. Complete or almost complete description. 2. Date. 3. Start Time. 4. Duration.

Arrowing to any recording also brings up additional information in upper left of screen.

Navigatr v2:

2 rows of 6 portrait oriented boxes =12 recording boxes visible at a time.

Highly truncated title text in each of these boxes and in some a pretty picture may be displayed.

To get useful information, Arrow to a box and press Select . To get information from another box, press Exit then repeat previous steps.

My suggestion to vastly improve the Navigatr Recording pages is to combine the 12 boxes into 2 rows of 3 letterbox shaped boxes i.e. 6 recordings visible at a time (still 1 more than SARA). Now these boxes would be large enough and of the right orientation, to provide within each one, all the useful information that SARA and pre-Navigatr RTN provided.

[billmcintyre]

Except I think Rogers/Cisco/Espial have designed the 'boxes' that show programs so they look like little movie posters that will appeal to people when titles are displayed on VOD choices - so that people are MORE likely to PAY to watch a movie or TV show/series (when each image of the title looks like a little movie poster.)

But - hey - we're only left to speculate on WHY Rogers is implementing Navigatr - because they continue to REFUSE to explain WHY they are inflicting this disaster on us.

If Cisco was bought by someone else or was getting out of writing firmware for set-top boxes, and Rogers was forced to hire some other company to write interface firmware - then we might be a little more understanding of the Navigatr we are enduring - but still - they remain silent.

And @molly222 I want to thank you again for your font of knowledge and sharing it to those who are suffering with unacceptable service with the latest infection.  I suspect that someone at Rogers may even get around to FINALLY passing your accumulated wisdom about the box locking up issue on to front line tech support phone operators.  But if anybody calls Rogers today and is STILL being told to to a complete Factory Reset on their box - then Rogers is failing massively again to properly inform their customers about how to deal with problems created by Rogers failure to properly test their problematic PVR.

Thank you molly222 for your detective work.

[unun4848]

Since receiving Navigatr, my Nextbox 2.0 PVR is painfully slow to navigate and the Settings screen is blank. This needs to be fixed.

[YtanyaY]

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@unun4848 wrote:

Since receiving Navigatr, my Nextbox 2.0 PVR is painfully slow to navigate and the Settings screen is blank. This needs to be fixed.

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SETTINGS: IMO you're not missing much; in any case almost NONE of the setting features can be changed

(NB 3.0 & NAVIAGR (since 12/18/15); At least that is my experience.)

[AHG27]

Every since Rogers performed an update last week, my HD NextBox 4642 is turning off automatically.  The power indicator light is off.  It happens 3 to 4 times in a 24 hour period.  Has anybody else noticed this? 

[YtanyaY]

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@molly222 wrote:

YtanyaY;

I got original navigatr July 28 and the updated version Jan.12--I believe the sleep function is new to this most recent release.  When watching pre-recorded shows I use the fast forward and pause very frequently, so I am touching buttons, but it still goes into a coma...everything stays on...but the box is unresponsive...can't fast forward, delete, etc. and I have to reboot.  Even the boxes power on/off doesn't work.  The steps I mentioned in my earlier post seem to be a band aid fix for now.  I also reboot my box every night at 7:45 because most shows I record start at 8:00...I call this my pre-emptive boot.  

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Hi,

I wonder if the UNRESPONSIVENESS could be a related to the length of time one has had Navigatr et al (I.E. constant frequent updates; unfortunately BAD code, etc.) finally stressing out the BOX?

I doubt there's any reason to find out b/c it won't make any difference to the CURRENT problems (except if it (UNRESPONSIVENESS) is related to the length of time Navigatr has been installed, it might be signalling IMPENDING IRREVERSIBLE BOX DEATH and a NEW BOX might not be a bad idea (but that would have to be WITHOUT NAVIGATR & I REALLY doubt that will happen)

Thank you

[billmcintyre]

Hi @AHG27   Yes.  It is a very common problem that you can read lots more about here:  http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/PVR_settop_boxes_remotes/thread-...

It seems Rogers has botched the new Navigatr update - again.  It's so bad that they stopped sending the newest infection out to the rest of Toronto and Etobicoke.

Maybe NOW they will spend a little money on a few more programmers to properly beta test the NEXT 'update.'  Anybody want to take bets on whether the next update goes smoothly?

@YtanyaY  I suspect the problem of NB2's operating very slowly is because the 8642's were severely underpowered CPU-wise - even when they were first launched.  They were slow slow slow - even back then.  The size of the new Navigatr code is probably too much for them to handle at a reasonable speed.  They simply lack the brain power to perform instructions at an acceptable pace.   Sort of like the designers of the box.

[YtanyaY]

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@AHG27 wrote:

Every since Rogers performed an update last week, my HD NextBox 4642 is turning off automatically.  The power indicator light is off.  It happens 3 to 4 times in a 24 hour period.  Has anybody else noticed this? 

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YES!

It's the "automatic power-saving feature" which canNOT be disabled or adjusted.

Something to do with a CRTC offshoot regulation (which is OPTIONAL at this point) but NAVIGATR may have misread this part?

IMO it has destroyed the TV watching part of my  life.

[Gerim]

So I now have a new glitch since the update along with PVR shutdown and no on demand. In the last 24 hours I have had 3 different recordings, all series recordings, that continue on past the scheduled time. Anyone else seeing this?

[james1919]

I'm having the same problem. Daily reboots of my Nextboxes 3.0 and 2.0 since the new Navigatr update on Jan13,2016. Have a tech guy coming saturday for what good that will do

[molly222]

"Re: james 1919      

"I'm having the same problem. Daily reboots of my Nextboxes 3.0 and 2.0 since the new Navigatr update on Jan13,2016. Have a tech guy coming saturday for what good that will do"

I can't believe it's been over a week since people have been reporting this same problem (longer for people that got the "upgrade" earlier) and Rogers is still sending Tech's out to customers houses when they know and have told us that this is a software problem.  This would explain why I just received a letter from Rogers notifying me of a price increase...I guess someone has to pay for this mess!

[molly222]

"Re: james 1919      

"I'm having the same problem. Daily reboots of my Nextboxes 3.0 and 2.0 since the new Navigatr update on Jan13,2016. Have a tech guy coming saturday for what good that will do"

I can't believe it's been over a week since people have been reporting this same problem (longer for people that got the "upgrade" earlier) and Rogers is still sending Tech's out to customers houses when they know and have told us that this is a software problem.  This would explain why I just received a letter from Rogers notifying me of a price increase...I guess someone has to pay for this mess!

[YtanyaY]

billmcintyre wrote:

@YtanyaY  I suspect the problem of NB2's operating very slowly is because the 8642's were severely underpowered CPU-wise - even when they were first launched.  They were slow slow slow - even back then.  The size of the new Navigatr code is probably too much for them to handle at a reasonable speed.  They simply lack the brain power to perform instructions at an acceptable pace.   Sort of like the designers of the box.

"Sort of like the designers of the box."

designers???

I wonder if at some point even the BEST NB stops being able to handle VERY POOR "programming" (or efforts at).

If UNRESPONSIVENESS varies with the length of time NAVIGATR has been on the BOX - that could be a hint? (Cumulative effect)

I apologize but looking for remoteS and writing down program reminders is getting very tiring...