Am I the only one who even hates to press the guide button on my remote? It's just plain ugly. I don't expect amazing graphics or anything from the IPG but the choice of colors, the 30 minute timeslot, the channels repeated 800 times, not knowing what channels you're subscribed to before clicking them and the general unusability of Rogers digital cable boxes compared to StarChoice or Bell ExpressVu bothers me. I'm moving soon and I was thinking about getting Rogers Cable so I wouldn't have to worry about losing signal with every drop of rain like I do with Bell but I don't know if I can live with that UI.

If I get the PVR, will it be different? Are there any other options to change it or to see multiple timeslots, not just the current half-hour without pressing right like you can with BEV and *C?

i think the ipg needs a makeover too

The Rogers IPG is absolutely horrible. The guide is inflexible, still 4x3, ugly and far less intuitive than the competition.

Related topic Isn't the Rogers On Demand UI bush league? (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=82920)

I agre, Having SC,BEV & Rogers together at the sametime once I can tell you this between the thre:

Colour whise?

SC wins hands down. Their IPG is very colour full.

PIC In Guide?

BEV wins hands down.
Rogers PIG is not even sized oproperly part of the pic doesn't even fit the small screen the ratio is off.


SC is so-so its not bad.

Info on Programing?

Tie. I don't know why or how each one gets their info for their guides or even how its download, but the info is either wrong or they have a basuc generic info about the program or TV show, no real info on it or when the do have info its not long enough. I don't know how their IPG are set up to display the info and prehaps there limited it what can be displayed.

Time lenght?
Tie. Both Rogers & Sc offer a weeks of programing. When I had BEV it was only 3 days, I'm not sure if this has change since I last had BEV or not.

Lay out of Channels?

BEV wins right out.

The way BEV has their line up set up is great.
The locals & Time shifting are down by region not by network grouping like Rogers & SC does(espercially for Rogers and timeshifting)
The different cats are group in certain ways ie Sports.
True botheRogers/SC/BEV more or les have the same what set up, BEV is much better,but I do believe and this is just my opion , Does Rogers really need to repeat the ROD 3+ times? or with other channels? To me thats a waste of channel space which they could better be used in future channel addtions(new channels) and a better groupng of the way certain channels are layed outt? Ethnics? French are mixed?Now I don't know how Rogers or Sc receiver how their software is set up to display channels or the numbrer cap. but with BEV(and you can se this by Dish)they can go from 0001 to 9999.

Sub/all Channels selection?

BEV wins folowed by SC.

The problem with Rogers is though "technically" you can may a sub list via 'favorites' your limited in how many you can put into that favorites list.


Tuners?(Dual PVRS/regular)

BEV wins)never had a SC PVR sio don't know its functions)With BEV's dual tunner system you can have two remotes, each can independly operate each tiunner. You can hook up two tv even in two rooms. BEV also has the capablility to that you can asign 16 differenty address cods(16 I believe which makes having a dual PVR or two receivers in the same room don't effect each other.

With Rogers your stuck with one code, one receiver in one room. If you put two receivers in the same room both remotes will interfer with the other receiver.Also their dual tunner isn't the greatest, you can't hok up two tvs in to different rooms and use the remotre in the other room.

Colour choice of the receiver?

I know this might not seem tht great opf a deal but when you have a Home Theater set up more or less, you want the system to match colour wise. The problem here is that both BEV & Rogers,depending on the model are either silver or a black/black-grey. As for as I know SC offers a black-grey on all their receivers but could be mistaken here.

So having at one time having all 3 receivers at the same time, I'd have to say BEV comes out first followed by SC then Rogers.

TOM :)

I press the Rogers Guide button only to set my scheduled recordings - after using Zap2it (and IMDb for movies).

The aspect of the Rogers guide that I dislike the most is the sluggish responsiveness. There is a significant lag between pressing the remote button before the action takes place (e.g. scrolling up and down or forward in time). I have the 3250 box, does the 4250 box work any faster?

Note that different color schemes can be selected in the options. I have a light blue/grey setting that is easier on the eyes from the default.

It may be worth noting that the original poster in this case is from Newfoundland (assuming his location is listed correctly) in which case, he's likely seeing the Atlantic Motorola "Prevue Tan Guide" which is god awful. I've seen the ones in Ontario which at least have PIP. The tan/blue guide on the motorola boxes (which by the way is no longer supported and its obvious to see i.e. no more IPG ads ect) is vastly inferior and we are luckily getting a new one soon. This however affects Rogers Atlantic. The Ontario guide while better than tan guide leaves a lot of room for improvement too, but i'm just pointing out that in this case he's seeing really boring graphics as opposed to the average looking SA ones.

You mean there is an even worse IPG than the one we get? Wow.

Cisco (since they have now officially dropped the SciAtl branding) really needs to fix this.

It may be worth noting that the original poster in this case is from Newfoundland (assuming his location is listed correctly) in which case, he's likely seeing the Atlantic Motorola "Prevue Tan Guide" which is god awful. I've seen the ones in Ontario which at least have PIP. The tan/blue guide on the motorola boxes (which by the way is no longer supported and its obvious to see i.e. no more IPG ads ect) is vastly inferior and we are luckily getting a new one soon. This however affects Rogers Atlantic. The Ontario guide while better than tan guide leaves a lot of room for improvement too, but i'm just pointing out that in this case he's seeing really boring graphics as opposed to the average looking SA ones.
Yeah... I don't have Rogers but I've used a friend's many times (I have no clue why I said "I" in the original post). The only Rogers digital cable receivers I've operated are ones in St. John's so I dont know if the guide is different elsewhere.

The most annoying thing is moving down in the Guide moves up channels. Up is down, and down is up :confused:

Yeah, but it moves down the screen, which is totally intuitive to me, but others have had the same comment as you. I think most people would find it counter-intuitive to have the higher channel numbers at the top of the screen...

The Rogers IPG is awful. It is like Commodore 64 compared to Mac OSX. What is really crazy is that in the Rogers On Demand you cannot search by title (!!) but you can search by movie studio...

If Tivo had offered HD I would have switched ASAP.

Yeah, but it moves down the screen, which is totally intuitive to me, but others have had the same comment as you. I think most people would find it counter-intuitive to have the higher channel numbers at the top of the screen...
The Bell ExpressVu GUI lets you choose either ascending or descending.

Is it me or does the guide seem to be getting worse in detail? I watch the tv show " In Plain Sight" and it has been on for at least 7 weeks now and not ONCE has it even said what the episode is about. I have noticed a few other shows as well that has been happening to as well .

I never understood how a major cable company like Rogers is horrible in its episode descriptions compared to Cogeco . Cogeco I absolutely love, not only does it tell what the episode is about , but the episode name as well and if it is a repeat or not. This is not just to tv shows , but I even noticed cartoons as well has a description and episode name .

Another beef that I have always hated and Cogeco has is how you can look for a show and it will give you when it is on ANY night of the week rather then doing a search thru every night . That is just plain aweful . I like to tape shows and have to go thru every night rather then easily get a show name and it shows when it is on during the entire week .

I don't mind the guide but for one thing. When you select to look for a show by title, you can only select the first letter of the show, which in most cases will take considerable time to find what you are looking for. I feel like I'm wearing out the scroll button on my Harmony remote :( . Being able to select at least the first two letters would be a vast improvement.

Heh heh... it's funny you mention Harmony remote, as a few buttons on my 880 are beginning to wear out, mostly the volume buttons.:mad:

With regards to Rogers and the UI, I agree with the concensus that is it just plain horrible. Unfortunately, looking at the situation objectively from a purely business perspective, how much more revenue/profit will Rogers stand to gain by spending big bucks to revamp the interface? Probably not much... at least compared to the money spent, as *most* customers don't really care (excluding yourself, if you are reading this!). Furthermore, the added strain on the tech support people from all the induhviduals confused by the new UI, and it has the makings of a huge headache for minimal financial gain.

Remember, MOST customers don't know/don't care there are other/better options out there. The people who frequent these boards tend to be far more knowledgeable and critical, but represent a VERY small percentage of Rogers' business.

Unfortunately, I feel that unless Rogers starts losing droves of customers citing their ugly UI as the reason for moving their business away, we are unlikely to see any significant change... :(

Right now, I'd be happy just to get that high-res update to the UI, that we saw some screenshots of last year around the time of the long-overdue update to 1.89 firmware.

All is just my opinion, of course....:cool:

bump. it's time for a UI redesign. i find the IPG to be more responsive to *C's however it seems these STBs are not taking advantage of HD.

That said, I guess adding HD also adds to the complexity because you would need a guide that is still 4x3/SD compatible and then a 16x9/HD guide for when component/hdmi/dvi is being used. Is there enough room in the firmware for 2 guides?

You don't need two guides, I believe you just need the firmware to recognize when you're on an SD or HD station and act accordingly.

Long story short i had no choise but to switch to rogers, its temporary. (rental unit does not allow dish, moving to new home next summer)

But having been a Bell HD PVR customer many things came to be taken for granted. And after a day with this new rogers system i really am disappointed.


Here are the things BEV did for me that i cant seem to get my rogers 8300HD to do, if it can do it please let me know
-Search(either highlite a show and findout when its one for the next 12days or simply spell or partiall spell a show your looking for
-Guide: Show only subscribed channels, or multiple favs lists
-Expand the guide to various sizes to show more or less info
-PVR gives option to record only new episodes
-Sometime episodes give info like episode number or date aired.
-HD channels are somewhat listed to gether(rogers are all over the place and some times the same HD channel appears in 2 or 3 different places.)


So far thats it, the lack of search is the most annoying issue, second is the record new shows only..43d is the guide showing 800channels of wich i only need to see the ones i pay for

Other then that the picture quality is great

All of those topics are covered in the stickies at the top of either the Rogers or SA8300HD forums so you should probably give those a read.

Long story short, not much that can be done about them.