What's the next "improvement"?

[JEL]

You used to be able to adjust recordings by one minute intervals in both directions, i.e., start earlier or later, end earlier or later.  No more.  Now you have to adjust by larger increments, and only earlier to start land later to end.  So if the Olympics is on for 4 hours but the first hour conflicts woith two other programs, you can't start an hour later, for example, unless you do a manual recording, like we used to do with VCRs 20 years ago.  The reason is obviously to make it difficult to switch networks which have added a minute to the end of many shows (in Canada, not in the US).   Bastards.  Aided and abetted by Rogers.

And you used to be able to jump to the end of a recording, landing about 3 minutes before.  No more.  Now you have to start from the beginning and FF through the entire program all over again.  And much of the time the screen freezes so yo have no idea where you are.  Or it gets stuck on FF and you can't stop it.

Remember when you could stop a recording and delete it?  No more.  Now your only choice is to save it and delete it separately.  Not a big deal, I suppose, but that shows the direction of where this is headed.

And when you reboot, it takes a looooong time before you get control.  Seems to be loading hundreds of times more stuff than it used to, or else it's just hundreds of times slower.

Just used the RoD for the first time.  Discovered that the remote controls are disabled and you have to watch (or at least wait for) the commercials.  That's my biggest worry.  Rogers controls the software; you have no choice.  How long before they disable FF through commercials?  That HD antenna the size and shape of a BBQ grill is looking better all the time.

This has been gnawing at me for some time.  Thank you for letting me vent.

***Edited labels***

[Gdkitty]

i agree, that they should bring back the SMALLER increments.
you CAN set a 100% manual recording.. but its BURRIED under some of the other menus.. should be more easily accessible.

Which BOX do you have? the NB2? (8642?)... some of the lag you have noticed, not being able to stop the FF etc.. the NB2 has ALOT of lag problems, and is very prone to stuff like that.. The NB3 doesnt have that issue really, and is much more responsive.  The reboot, is much the same.. FOREVER on the NB2, not long at all on the NB3

If you dont own the NB2, and your renting, etc.. may want to consider the NB3.  Its still the same software... so missing stuff like the 1 min time settings.. But at least its faster.
(also has 8 tuners.. so the chance of conflicting recordings.. is pretty much zero :P)

[JEL]

Cisco 8642.  Bought at Costco 2 years ago, replacing the earlier machine which was malfunctioning, which replaced the even earlier machine that didn't work properly.  No wonder Costco doesn't carry this anymore.

[Gdkitty]

Yeah.. unfortunately.. the software that runs on the box now... makes it aful slow, which compounds the problems 😞

The new NB3, is lightning fast comparatively... but yeah.. your kinda stuck without buying a new one, etc.
(only other thing, would be to call into retentions and complain... see if they can comp you on a rent to own or something on it, so you dont have to pay, etc)

[jt-kanata]

I have the same complaint about the FF/Rev functions being disabled in the ROD. i can understand they don't want us fast forwarding though commercials but its not like they are really commercials for the most part, just a single ad about a rerun show on the same channel most of the time.

What drives me nuts about it is if you miss something and want to rewind it to hear it again, you cannot. Your only option is to start back from the beginning, which of course you can't fastforward from. In fact, I ran into this last night watching a ROD.

Definitely not taking into account the customer at all in these decisions.

[jimboden]

jt.kanata:

What cable box do you have? I have the old 8300HD PVR and ROD has a fast forward/reverse function. It's different from the cable box, though, and only has one speed.

[Gdkitty]

I think it varries, from what you are watching.

There are SOME RoD things, i can / have been able to.. and some not.

Its disabled on some.. WHY? i dont know.

[jimboden]

GDkitty:

That's very interesting. I didn't know that some ROD content doesn't do fast forward/reverse. My ROD use is limited to TMN and HBO stuff and I've never seen it there.