Navigatr October 2016 - Firmware Update 6.2.0.0139: (This post has been updated after I received the firmware on October 31 and includes .0141 firmware which corrected a date bug)
Positive Changes:
1. You now have the option to view recordings as a
List or as Tiles.
2. You can
toggle between Recordings and Scheduled Recordings by pressing “List” repeatedly. You can also switch by using the cursor and menu selection, but that’s more steps, so why bother.
3.
CC now requires fewer button presses – “Info – Enable (or disable) CC - exit” (This is only when watching a recording).
4.
PoP is now larger (the left side nice and large).
5. You can now
delete multiple recordings by selecting them (Manage PVR Space – Select Recordings, Delete Selected).
6. "
Info" no longer stops playback of a recording.
7.
Wraparound (up/down to go from beginning of the list to the end and vice versa) now works in the lists/tiles.
8. People have reported that their NB2s (8642) are a bit faster (compared to previous Navigatr firmware), especially in the list view and with WHPVR. If your unit is slow, try
rebooting to reload the firmware.
9. There is an extra digit in the drive space used number, even though this can often be meaningless due to media shrink…
10. ROD appears a bit different.
11. Series Recordings in progress are now in the "Recorded" list where they should be, instead of under Scheduled Recordings.
12.
Fonts are larger.
13. The
Year of the recording now shows in various places. Before this update, the year did not show.
14. The progress bar is no longer present and no longer stays (requiring you to hit exit) when you return to a recording you're watching from the List view. This is good. List still stops (pauses) a recording that you're watching.
15. After deleting/editing a scheduled recording, you are now taken back to “where you were” in the list instead of the start of the list. This is good.
16. If you "pause live TV" and stop the programme, you are given the options we used to have, including stop/delete.
Negative Changes:
The list now contains
fewer recordings or scheduled recordings per page. (8 tiles vs. 12 tiles previously, 4 Scheduled Recordings vs. up to 12 Scheduled Recordings previously.
I was able to replicate the issue of a
programme not resuming. It will/may not resume if you are not at least a couple of minutes into the recording. It will also
not resume if you switch directly to a channel from watching the recording. The "place-marker" to allow resuming doesn't seem to be set if you do this. If you pause the programme you are watching (which I usually do), it sets a "place-marker" and you can resume the programme. I tried pressing "List" without pausing and doing that does seem to set the "place marker" and it resumes. So, my recommendations are:
do not switch directly to another channel when watching a recording. There are other instances that cause a failure of the "place-marker", like turning the PVR off, using Reminders, etc. Until this issue is fixed, if possible pause the programme before doing anything else if you wish to resume that programme. (Not possible with Reminders unless you cancel the reminder, pause the programme, then go to the channel - a real pain) See post 35 of this thread.
The “Manage” button is missing from certain menu options (like selecting a single recording) so you can no longer easily change a single recording to a series recording, nor can you change the “delete date”.
Delete a programme now defaults to “No”, so extra button presses are required to delete a programme after you’ve watched it. Some people may prefer this option to avoid accidentally deleting a programme. The position of the delete button also changes depending on if you FF to the end of a programme or "stop" the programme. The position also is different for Series vs. Single recordings.
The “
Watched” tag at the top-right of series recordings that you have watched is no longer there on the tile.
On my main 9865, the "list" takes a bit longer than before to come up after pressing "List", whether in Tiles or list view. The time taken to get to the list page may depend on how many recordings and scheduled recordings you have on your PVR, since my lesser-used 9865 is quicker getting to the list. The extra time may be due to the wraparound feature now working and it needing to "count" the number of recordings you have on your PVR and set the "slider" on the right side. Some other menu options also take a bit more time. Most other functionality appears to be the same speed on my 9865s.
The firmware is quite slow on the
older 8642 (NB2) boxes. You need to be deliberate in your button presses and wait for each command to take place, otherwise you may end up with your box rebooting as commands stack up and the underpowered 8642 can't handle it.
Unresolved Items:
The tiles for single recordings
still do not contain information like the channel number, channel name, date recorded, time recorded, runtime. You need to still start viewing the programme for this information. Apparently pressing “more” will bring up the recording length. It would be nice to show the type of information you can see when using AnyPlace Web.
WHPVR doesn’t show which PVR a recording is on if you have two PVRs.
Left/Right wraparound does not work in the tiles view.
Progress bar only shows time to the end, which is useless when a recording is still proceeding. It would also be useful to know how long the original air-time was since many of us extend recordings in order not to miss the end.
Zoom is still not zooming the correct amount to view 4:3 letterboxed as full screen. How difficult can it be to zoom by a factor of 1.33 in both directions?
An option to view “oldest first” would be appreciated for viewing series recordings. At least with wraparound you can now go to the bottom of a list without pressing buttons many times to get there.
Reminders still don't change the channel when the time comes up. You still cannot set “daily or weekly” reminders. You must set each reminder individually. If you do not acknowledge the reminder, for example if you're away from the TV at the time and not on the reminder channel, then the reminder will come up again in 5 minutes. I'm not sure if it'll keep doing this every 5 minutes for say ½ hour, or if it only happens once.
The option to start recording a programme late, or end it early, still doesn’t exist (
Manual Recording)
CC still takes at least 7 clicks when watching live. "Info" should function in a similar manner whether you're watching live or watching a recording. It currently does not.
The Huh?
Under the "Recorded" tab you not only have your recorded programmes, but also zombie recordings and scheduled recordings (in that order). This is not really an issue, it's just a bit weird to have scheduled recordings under the "Recorded" tab. It's nice that the Zombie recordings show up somewhere though - helps to keep track of scheduled recordings that are not in the IPG for the next week... The scheduled recordings do not show the next recording date/time in the tile view like they used to (under Recordings), but they do show the next recording date/time in the list view (under Recordings).
Many people are affected by
Updates at 2AM. If you are, a reboot typically won't take place at that time if you are recording a programme, so set a (daily?) recording for a channel like Stingray music (726?) for that time frame. Stingray recordings take up very little hard drive space and can then be deleted the next day, or once per week.
If you press "List" when watching a recording, you will be automatically returned to that recording after a couple of minutes.
If you are watching a recording, then press List and watch another recording, when you're finished with the second recording, when/if you delete the second recording, you are taken to the list, but if you press "Exit" from this list you are taken to your first recording, not the previous channel you were watching. This is essentially backing you up in time, which I guess is good.
During a reboot, I see that the little progress timer at the bottom right is appearing again, like with RTN. I don't recall seeing this with Navigatr, but perhaps it was there...
After you delete a series recording, rather than taking you back to the list you are presented with the settings for that series. I see no reason for that extra step. It's now many more button presses to delete a programme due to the position of the delete button, the need to confirm the delete, and the settings screen mentioned here.
I noticed another minor irritant last night that I believe is new to this latest version of Navigatr. When navigating the IPG, there is information, regarding the particular programme you're on, at the top left of the screen for most programming. This information area used to show 3 full lines of information and would scroll if there was a 4th line. It now shows 2.5 lines of information forcing a scroll for any programme with more than 2 lines of info. This is quite distracting and now affects more programmes. Perhaps a font size change caused this? Perhaps the screen area devoted to this information can be increased to compensate?
Each night I bring up my favourites (I have about 30) in the IPG and scan for new programmes to record a couple of days out. When I was trying to navigate down one channel using the down arrow (I was already down about 15-20 channels) the IPG "jumped" back to the top of my favourites, meaning I had to page down again. This seems to be a glitch which is repeatable. If I go to the third or fourth page of my favourites, a couple of days out, press "day-" to go back a day and press the down arrow, to get to the next channel, the info at the top left shows the incorrect channel from the first page of my favourites and as soon as I press another key, I'm taken to the first page of my favourites. I have found a workaround by not pressing the down arrow after "page-", I press the right arrow first. This precise combination of button presses may not be used by other people...
A thank you goes out to Rogers for fixing many of the issues, however, your work is not done as indicated in the list above of issues that remain and new issues created.
Tips:
1. By using "AnyPlace" (App or Web) you can see more information regarding your recordings and also more easily schedule or search for upcoming recordings, etc.
https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/anyplace-tv-overview
2. To delete a zombie (or other) series recording (Zombie = a scheduled series recording that doesn't have any air-dates in the next week).
- Find the zombie (or other scheduled series recording) in your tiles view
- Select the zombie or scheduled series recording.
- Select "Scheduled" on the right side (on the right side of the screen.
- Select "Cancel Series Recordings" (which becomes visible after step 3.) Confirm