Thanks Peterweb! I would prefer sooner rather than later...but at least we have SOME details now.

I just e-mailed Rogers via the "Contact Us' option on their website to go to Cable Digital Support. If we let them know that a lot of us are expecting this update knowing that it's been out since May 2005 and a number of other cable companies have already rolled it out, it MAY get them moving on it. You'll never know, but it's worth a try.

I just e-mailed Rogers via the "Contact Us' option on their website to go to Cable Digital Support. If we let them know that a lot of us are expecting this update knowing that it's been out since May 2005 and a number of other cable companies have already rolled it out, it MAY get them moving on it. You'll never know, but it's worth a try.

And here's the response I got:

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of
online customer service.

In your recent email you informed us that you were interested in knowing
when Rogers is plan on upgrading the firmware for the
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD PVR to SARA v.1.88.

In order to better assist you we ask you to contact our Repair
Department at 1-800-738-7891, we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As a valued customer we appreciate your business.

Regards,
Rita G.
Rogers Online Customer Care
http://www.rogers.com


Gee. Thanks?

It is so sad that Rogers supplies these canned responses to a specific question or comment.

When I get one of these, I usually reply and say "please do not send me a "canned" response for a very specific question or comment that you can easily answer by e-mail. Please respond to the original question (or comment), since I don't have any need for repairs or any technical issues.

Most of the time, I then get a proper response, even if the answer is "We don't know".

I've gotten two 'canned' responses in a row now, both from Rita G, who is an absolute bundle of information.

And I even called their tech support number, where it was offered that a tech come out to look at my PVR, or maybe I should power-cycle my PVR if I'm having problems. So frustrating. Because it's really a crap-shoot who you get on the phone. Sometimes you get someone who doesn't insult your intelligence, sometimes you do. I wanted to strangle the guy on the phone though. He was quite sure all of the problems I mentioned could be fixed by power cycling my PVR. He even had a PVR at home, and was sure that none of the problems I mentioned ever happened to him. I bit my tounge though... thanked him for his time...hung up the phone, and called him lots of nasty names once the line was dead. :)

I also mentioned the TVGuide problem, and not to go off topic, but was given the same 'we don't provide the information', which admittedly, is true. But come contract-renewal-time for Rogers, I hope they look at some other options (are there any for Canada? Maybe right now there's no one else, I don't know)

I wonder whether one of the measures of performance is how many responses you can handle. It's sure easier to send something canned after reading the first few words of your e-mail than actually providing information....

I'd reply back to the Rita G two (if you still have both) and ask for an appropriate response from a supervisor and perhaps the supervisor could monitor Rita G for her responsiveness, not just how many e-mails she handles.

I may just send one myself when I get a couple of minutes. ;)

I've been in some high-level support positions in my day, and there was definately monitoring of the amount of tickets that we did. For obvious reasons, you wanted to insure that your people did *SOME* work during the day. But there were never any real prizes for the most amount of tickets, and the content of the tickets were always looked at to insure that people weren't doing exactly what Rita G is doing right now. I thought about trying to escalate it... if I get another crappy response, I might try.

I will say this, should I ever decide to move into a support role at Rogers (can't imagine why in the heck I'd do that), I'll *NEVER* just BS my way through tickets for all you fine folks. :) ...allthough...I can see it now:

Customer: My PVR made a loud pop, and smoke came out of it, then it caught on fire, and melted into a puddle of plastic and circuits.
Me: Did you try power cycling the PVR? I could have a tech come out and check your signal levels...we're having some technical difficulty...hello? hello? ..squququrrrsh...squrrrsh...you're breaking up...hello?...sorry, you're breaking up, wait, before we get cut off, let me take the time to screw up your billing...thankyou for choosing Rogers! *CLICK*

Ah yes...the future, she is looking good. ;)

(of course I kid, Rogers can be annoying, but I don't, in general, find them any worse or better than any other large corporation)

I got this gem from them after trying 3 times to get some sort of reply:
In your recent e-mail, you have informed us that you wish to know when
we will deploy the SARAv1.88.

We have not been notified if or when the terminal will be available.
Please continue to use the rogers.com site as if it does become
available, you will see it appear on the link.
So...apparently SARA 1.88 is a terminal...and not firmware. Jeez. ;)

I'll just email back. One of these days, I might get a real response.

And the final word:
Like advised in the previous email we were not informed if there was any plans to have a software update for our terminals. However, as an alternative you can always contact our Technical Repair department at 1-888-ROGERS-1 or 416-446-4329 and they might be able to find an answer
for you as they are the expert in this field.
Sigh.

Has anyone actually called the Repair Department? Maybe they do know something about this....

I'm going to give them a call tonight. See what happens.

Well I just called the number. I spoke to a guy who didn't identify himself. We spoke for about a half hour. At firs this stock answer was, we release about 3 firmware upgrades a year. If its' been awhile you'll probably get a new one soon. But, when I got into it and started talking about all the problems he said he'd call around and see if he can dig up any scuttlebutte on 1.88. I'll be EXTREMELY suprised if he callse me back. If he does, I'll post the info here.

One thing that was interesting was he said that Rogers wouldn't likely implement a box-specific upgrade. That if an upgrade is rolled out it would be to all Rogers set-tops. This is odd. I don't really understand it. Does that mean that non-PVR boxes get software they can't use? Does this make sense to you guys. This guy did seem reasonably smart and wasn't just a desk jocky.

...Dale

One thing that was interesting was he said that Rogers wouldn't likely implement a box-specific upgrade. That if an upgrade is rolled out it would be to all Rogers set-tops.
I think this has happened in the past...like when they upgraded everyone to firmware that supported the multi-room options. However, this was two different firmware upgrades (one for PVR, one for non-PVR) simply done at the same time to everyone.

I think the last time they made specific changes to one model at one time was when they upgraded all the 8000-series boxes so that their feature-set matched the 8300...and that might have been because the 8300's came, by default, with a newer firmware than the 8000's, and it was just easier to upgrade the old ones.

Dunno.

In the past all STB firmware upgrades were STB specific. He talks about 3 upgrades per year, well we haven't had even one on the SA8300HD in 1.5 years. I believe that CSR is mistaken and you probably wasted your time, unfortunately.

A CSR who "knew" would likely not have fed you the BS. I always ask for their name and ID number when I begin the conversation. Less likely to get the BS then.

I haven't actually gone into the setup menus to check, but I believe I received the 1.88 firmware. I started watching a show, that I was recording part way through, so I hit the rewind button 3 times to scan back to the beginning of the show at the fastest speed. Instead of rewinding, it jumped straight back to the beginning of the show. I was still watching the show when the recording time ended and I was not 'kicked out to live', it kept playing. I will verify later what version is on my 8300HD.

I'm in Ajax fyi.

An easy way to check (other than going into the menu which is pretty easy in itself) is to press rewind 4 times...if you get an extra rewind speed (or fast forward I guess), you have the new firmware, if not, you don't.

There are ways to avoid the kick-out bug, one is to make sure the box is on the channel you want to record before the program starts...if it is, you won't get kicked out. I try to use this method whenever possible...but obviously it's not really practical. In addition to that, if you had 1.88, it would have prompted you to play from the beginning, and not simply played the program.

I rebooted my box to double check if it had been downloaded, but not applied, but I'm still at 1.87a11...along with everyone else on Rogers network. Grrr...

Don't know how to look for the firmware but this a.m. May 4th when I turned on my box it was on channel 1 so something was done. No power failure as my computer didn't go off.

8300 SD & 3250SD both were set to 1

Don't know how to look for the firmware but this a.m. May 4th when I turned on my box it was on channel 1 so something was done. No power failure as my computer didn't go off.
There are a few ways to check, but I find the easiest is to go to the PVR, hold down the select button until the mail LED starts flashing. Then hit info, and press Vol+ or Vol- to scroll through the screens.

Mine was on channel one, but nothing appears to have changed. Still at Sara 1.87.16.a1, 1394 is still set to Unavailable.

Don't know how to look for the firmwareSee the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Tips for SA STBs" - instructions on various SA functions like getting into the diagnostics are there. The firmware version is listed on one of the diagnostics pages. You can also check your signal strength, etc while you're in there.

All my STBs went to their usual channels today, not channel 1 (SA8300HD, SA3250HD, SA1840). It may depend on if you have the STB go to the "last channel" or to a "specific channel". I have mine going to a specific channel on startup.

I believe I received the 1.88 firmware. I started watching a show, that I was recording part way through, so I hit the rewind button 3 times to scan back to the beginning of the show at the fastest speed. Instead of rewinding, it jumped straight back to the beginning of the show.
I hope that that indeed you got the new firmware, but I suspect you've hit a known bug see http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29201&highlight=fumbled) whereby you get instant rewind to the beginning. This has happened about 10 times with me now but never when I want it to happen.