Coming soon to Time Warner: Rewind shows you forgot to record
July 23rd, 2009, 3:35 pm · 13 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
If you’re a Time Warner Cable customer and you spot this on your TV:
… you can start getting excited. This blue screen of annoyance is a sign of new features to come.
Besides the debatable improvement in the program guide, the new Mystro Navigator software, which replaces Passport software in Time Warner’s Scientific Atlanta boxes, paves the way for the “Look Back,” “Start Over” and switched digital video, all features that Time Warner mentioned to us last year.
These features will let viewers watch a TV show they didn’t record for a day or two after its initial broadcast, or restart a show if you tune in after it already began. Time Warner, essentially, is upgrading its on-demand service and creating a networked DVR, allowing for some shows to be stored at the company’s offices rather than the home DVR box itself. Though there are unwanted consequences for some users (see earlier story, “More HD channels coming to cable TV, TiVo users impacted“), this also means customers will get a massive on-demand library of current TV shows they can view at the touch of their remote.
“It’s going to create a system for bandwidth to open up for more HD channels and it’s going to prepare us for the services we’re going to be introducing, Start Over and Look Back,” said Darryl Ryan, a Time Warner Cable spokesman.
Exactly when? Ryan doesn’t know or he won’t say. He’ll only say, “It’s still in development and should be coming very very soon.” But when we first learned that the features were coming, Time Warner gave us a mid-2009 launch date (strum fingers repeatedly).
The Mystro software began rolling out to Southern California customers last year, Ryan said. Those of us getting it now should be on the tail end of receipt, though Ryan won’t confirm.
My personal experience is that when Time Warner surreptitiously updated my HD-DVR box yesterday, I was stuck staring at the blue “DO NOT POWER OFF YOUR BOX” screen for more than eight hours! Apparently, that was a local problem. Ryan said that the upgrade shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. If customers do experience issues, it could be old wiring or some other specific reason. Those customers should call for help, at 888-TWCABLE. The update works fine for me today.
While I haven’t heard of any upgrade issues from readers, there’s a lot of debate online about the good but mostly the bad of Mystro. Google, for example, hasn’t been kind to Mystro and its top search results focus on how terrible Mystro is. There are complaints about the box freezing, not being ready for prime time and even a video showing how lousy Mystro is.
But customers can instantly look forward to other new features: On-screen caller ID for those with phone service, a DVR storage capacity indicator (see image on right — yup, I keep my DVR that full), and ability to view recorded shows by name or date. I haven’t fully checked out all the new features, but I noticed that blogger Selfish Mom offers an overview.
Mystro has been waiting for its public debut for a very long time. The technology, touted as TV’s first server-based, time-shifting service (in essence, the first TV-recording technology that stored recorded programs on the TV provider’s servers rather than on a home DVR box), has been around since at least 2001, when Cable Hall of Fame inductee Jim Chiddix founded the company (see the article, “Fiber and a Charmed Career” from Communications Technology) while working for Time Warner. I first mentioned the feature in an article in 2007, “What’s next for TV service.”
But it’s taken sooooo long to roll out. A big delay has been in getting permission from the TV stations to rebroadcast shows. But that appears to be resolved. Start Over and Look Back features started rolling out in 2006 in areas like New York, so we can get a glimpse of channels that will let us really Start Over:
NY1 , Nickelodeon, CNBC, USA, Syfy, VH1, Cartoon Network, truTV, Spike TV, BET, Comedy Central, Oxygen, TV Land, G4, Boomerang, SOAPnet, MTV2, Noggin, Nicktoons Network, CMT (Country Music Television), LOGO, The Movie Channel, Fox Movie Channel, Showtime HD, Starz HD, Encore HD, NY1 HD, WCBS HDTV, TNT HD, WNYW HD, TBS HD, WWOR HD, CNN HD, Palladia HD, FX HD, ABC Family HD, History HD, Fox News HD, A&E HD, Disney HD, Food Network HD, BIO HD, HGTV HD, National Geographic HD, SPEED HD, Animal Planet HD, Travel Channel HD, and Versus/Golf HD
Then there was an issue with a cable company storing TV shows at its offices instead of on a home user’s DVR. This was resolved earlier this year when Cablevision won a lawsuit filed by the TV networks allowing the cable company to offer the networked DVR service.
Let’s hope that the Start Over and Look Back service is worth waiting for. Cox, Orange County’s other cable TV provider, is also rolling out switched digital video and currently offers several prime-time shows on demand (see the earlier “Time Warner Cable looking more like Hulu“).
Recent Time Warner Cable news:
Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local TV services
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I came home Wednesday (July 22) to find my box converted to the new software. Boy, has it taken some getting used to! I found my program settings hadn’t all converted over and some new shows mysteriously arrived in my scheduled recordings window.
And disturbingly, the save option for most shows was set at “save at most 7″ or something like that, so a series of shows I had taped (“Deadliest Catch”) were suddenly half gone … argh.
All in all, I was perfectly FINE with the old software … I think. It worked and I knew it inside and out … Now I have to re-learn … oy vey, Tamara!!!
Hey Tamara, was anything said about customers who are on the Motorola platform as opposed to the Scientific Atlanta one?
Tivo FTW!!!
My biggest complaint about the new guide is that hitting “FAVORITE” while in the guide doesn’t take you to the channel listing for your next favorite channel, it just tunes the next favorite channel. It’s extremely annoying, along with TW’s penchant for repeating channels 3 times in the guide.
How about
Coming soon to Time Warner: Cheaper rates for basic service!
$60 is a joke!
I called and talk to a rep at Time Warners call center and she said it was available in my area yet and I’d have to go to the Local office. At the local office they didn’t have a clue about Mystro and looked at me like I had no clue what the heck I was talking about. Later she said that it’s only being tested in Texas and not available in this area. Not what I was told when I called the call center.
There’s no word on when they’ll update the firmware on the Motorola boxes like the Motorola DCH3416 I have. No word on when my local office will get the different boxes. I was told that the Motorola DCX3400 is would be the replacement for the DCH3416 when I called and talked to the women at Time Warners Call Center in the mid West ?. I asked if I could get the Local Office number to see if they had the DX3400 and she wouldn’t give me a number. She said I’d have to go down there with my cable box in tow and see if they had the DCX3400 which by the way it has a larger hard drive 120 GBs yet searching the web it could come in different sizes for the hard drive, smallest being the 120.
They don’t even know when or if they’ll be getting the DCX3400 they only have the DCH3416 model. Ask about getting on a waiting list no go there as they don’t or haven’t started one and wouldn’t start one.
I told her about this article. She says maybe that’s up in Northern Calif ? I said why would the OCR have wrote an article about it being in Northern Calif ?
I’m curious to know what city the author lives in ?
I’m in Huntington Beach, but I’ve heard from other readers plus an official Time Warner spokesman that the roll out is happening right now in Orange County. I’m still checking on the Motorola box or any other non Scientific-Atlanta boxes. The Mystro software gets pushed out to users so just hang tight and let it come to you.
Interesting – I still think Time Warner and Cox should just open up the already-existing ports on the boxes so people can add HDD expanders to their boxes. Being limited to 120 or 160 GB is stupid in this day and age, when you can buy a 1TB drive for ~$100.
YES!!
Can this new software REMEMBER the stop you last stopped watching a show?
It would be nice if my current TWC HD DVR got this 1990 capability!
Seriously, anyone that works for TWC should be embarrassed by the current capabilities of the current DVR.
I am so mad I can barely see straight. They didn’t ask me if I wanted this Mystro junk; we are alpha testers for this amateurish nightmare. I was a totally loyal TWC customer, paying my bill BEFORE due date for 12 years. Now they do this horrible Mystro thing to make their CEO look good and treat us poorly: there are SO MANY deficiencies compared to Passport: “search by keyword” and “what cooking shows are on right now” to just name two big problems with Mystro: it cannot do either of those.
Time Warner really pulled a boner on this one. Mystro compared to SARA is a real POS.
Your article mentions all the upgrades Mystro enables but it does mention some of the features it kills, most notably the DVR controls.
For example; I use to be able to hit the left or right select button during fast forward (or RW) to make 15 minute jumps in a program, now I have to slog along at 3x.
The channel bar a “fuel gauge” are too obtrusive as well. Clearly I see the “TVGuide” influence all over it.
Too bad, I use to like Time Warner. Now they suck. Good news for DirecTV.
I cannot lower my volume or mute it. When i turn it all the way down its still blasting even after I re-booted. It seems there is a bug in the new system. Anyone else having this problem?