viper359 - I had the new IPG installed a week ago on my two 8642's (both with the expensive "purchased from Rogers" 1 TB PVR extenders). I hesitated when the guide was first announced and called Rogers to see if I might lose the recordings on the two PVR's, and at the time (early April I believe) they said there was a chance that could happen and they were working on it. Then on May 4 I got the mass email from Rogers offering the upgrade if you requested it, with the URL link to request. I thought the would surely mean they had fixed the problem of losing all recordings during the upgrade, but followed through and read the FAQ questions and found one that specifically stated you would NOT lose any recordings, so I opted to go ahead with the update. Needless to say I lost over 200 hours of recordings (EVERYTHING) on both PVR's when the update took place. A support tech at Rogers had the nerve to say they'd rolled this out to 25,000 customers and no one had lost recordings. I said if those odds were true I'd have won the lottery several times over. A manager I spoke to at Rogers admitted she lost all recordings when her own PVR was updated.
Four days after the IPG update and complaint to Rogers I had the Whole Home PVR upgrade done (free, as partial compensation for losing all my recordings during the upgrade) and a 4642 added in the bedroom to access the two PVR's..
I have some notes I've been keeping about all the problems I've encountered in just one week. I know some of these are in your list, but I have seen all these occur since May 12. My current software versions are:
Software Version: 3.0.0.1612
UI Version: 3.1.5.24.04.09.11/28392
- ALL recordings lost during upgrade to new programming guide
- Scheduled recordings saved during upgrade lost earlier/later start/end times and save settings (5 days, etc.)
- Can only keep recordings 3/7/14 days (or until Space is Needed/I Erase), no more keeping say 5 episodes (could be 5 weeks)
- Freezing after several modifications made to scheduled recordings "by Series"
- Response time to remote inputs often PAINFULLY slow most of the time
- Upstairs PVR rebooted itself around 15:05 2012/05/11 (around 25 hours after update to new programming guide). Observed this several times in the last week on different boxes, was HOPING this was a software update installation occurring.
- Lost track of program being played and paused when went into scheduled recordings to make several changes
- Can no longer adjust exact start/end times (can only adjust by 5/15/30/60 minutes). This is a big problem with lat night recordings where timings are NOT to the 5 minutes. Like the Tonight Show 11:34.5 to 12:27, Late Night 12:37-01:36, Saturday Night Live 11:29.5 to 01:01. What COULD be done before on one PVR using both tuners to record now requires a second PVR because you can only start a show 5 mins early (not 1, 2, 3, 4 mins) and end a show 5 mins late (not 1, 2, 3, 4 mins). Also occasionally it was useful to end a recording a minute EARLY in order to allow the next show on another channel to start a minute early. Now you can't start a recording late or end on early at all.
- "D" button displays weather. Says on screen "D To Exit", which doesn't work (you have to press the Exit button)
- In my "Scheduled recordings by Series" it lists WNED 61 incorrectly as FOX WUTV (Last of the Summer Wine, MI-5). The Guide itself lists the correct name for 61.
- doesn't remove program progress bar a few seconds after you Pause (must manually use Exit)
- can't do Frame Advance/Back from Pause (does Fast Forward/Rewind). HUGE problem for watching certain sports, or trying to freeze frame Chuck Lorre's vanity cards at the end of The Big Bang Theory. ;-)
- Rewind speeds very slow on occasion. Fast Forward also doesn't seem to be as fast as it used to be.
- can't use Page + and Page - to go forward/back 15 minutes in recording anymore (segmented progress bar). BIG problem when trying to locate points in a long recording, like a game, race, etc.
- if playing (or checking/deleting) multiple episodes in a folder (eg. Top Gear) it returns not to the folder contents, but to top level after each Delete. Now takes about 10 times longer to delete unneeded episodes from "Record All Occurences" recordings.
- downstairs PVR, set to record ALL Top Gear episodes, still occasionally ending recordings early (one had only 49 mins another 57 mins) for no apparent reason (no - not a scheduled recording conflict and the result of priority scheduling, the Top Gear series recording for all episodes has the lowest recording priority)..
- "Skip to end" feature gone, have to sit and fast forward all the way through a show (A HUGE PAIN if it is say a 3 hour sports event or movie, as the 15 minute advance/reverse using Page + and Page - is also now gone). I've found myself needing to manually fast forward through several shows, as when I was viewing them the first time the remote was so slow to respond when I tried to stop the fast forward that it went to the end of the recording, so had to play it again and manually fast forward to the end all over again.
- when both tuners were recording, viewing My Recordings, By Date, you can't select a program to play (up/down don't work - Page + and Page - worked).
- Date sometimes overlays episode name text of first item on My Recordings By Date
- started viewing Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 01:15 (45 mins after recording started, scheduled started/end 5 min before/5 min after, so 12:30-01:40), recording showed length of 45 mins when I started viewing, and appears to have stopped recording at that point (could not go beyond 45 mins even after recording finished).
- Inside the Conan (2) folder (indicating 2 episodes), was a Top Gear (31) and Conan (31) folder.
Inside the Conan (31) folder are 2 episodes of Conan, and several episodes of CTV National News, EastEnders, Grey's Anatomy, House, etc. etc. Sort of a multiple level invocation error or loop in the folder hierarchy.
After going back to top level in that folder, the Conan (31) "sub" folder, changed to a single Conan episode.
Checked later, Conan folder now contained 3 folders: Top Gear (41), Conan (41), Conan (41). Again, other shows within those folders.
ALSO, when viewing My recordings By PVR and drilling down into the Conan (41) folder for LIVING ROOM, it ends up showing recordings from BASEMENT.
- If you accidentally go to play a program (eg. Daily Show) after just deleting all of that program's occurrences inside a folder (but before the program guide screen had refreshed again to delete that listing - BECAUSE IT IS SO SLOW), the background audio from the tuned channel continues while the screen ends up totally black (after briefly displaying the black/white program length bar). You then can bring up the program guide, recorded programs, etc. but it will not play anything else. Tried to power off to reset (can't power off via remote - but pressing power on front panel restored picture (all the time the audio from background channel was playing). Could still not get program guide/recorded listings back but remote power off-on then worked BUT ALL CONTROLS STILL FROZEN. Pulled power cord to reboot.
- "Tuning conflict" message when last channel viewed was 581, and was currently playing a recorded program (CTV News, 518, 11:30-12:05) while 2 others were scheduled to record (Late Show with David Letterman 170:OMNBC & Tonight Show with Jay Leno 138:CTV2V). Should be NO conflict with two timer programs recording while viewing a recorded program (only if you were viewing Live TV on a channel that was different than the two that recordings were about to start on). Instead message appeared and PVR recorded show being played back stopped (it also lost the bookmark point where play ended, when viewed later had to start at beginning). (TURNED OUT TO BE THE FACT IT ONLY RECORDED 8 MINUTES OF THE 35 MINUTE SCHEDULED CTV NEWS).
- Series recordings often don't work as scheduled:
SCHEDULED SERIES May 11-12:
CTV News 12:CTVSH All episodes/This timeslot only/Any day of week/Start-End on time-on time
Guide lists as 11:30p-12:05a
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 9:LCTV2 All episodes/This timeslot only/Any day of week/Start-End on time-on time
Guide lists as 12:35p-01:35a (actual is 12:37-01:36)
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 138:CTV2V All episodes/This timeslot only/Any day of week/Start-End on time-5 mins after
Guide lists as 03:35-04:35a (actual is 03:37-04:36)
RECORDED May 11
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 138:CTV2V 11:00-11:37p (Of course this didn't contain ANY of Jimmy Fallon, and Tonight Show recording started 11:37)
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 9:LCTV2 11:38p-01:35a
CTV News 12:CTVSH 11:30-11:38p
SCHEDULED SERIES (after cancelling previous series recording schedule and starting over)
Tonight Show With Jay Leno 524:HDNBC All episodes/This timeslot only/Any day of week/Start-End 5 mins before-5 mins after
Guide lists as 11:35-12:35 (actual is 11:34.5-12:37)
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 524:HDNBC All episodes/This timeslot only/Any day of week/Start-End 5 mins before-5 mins after
Guide lists as 12:35-01:35 (actual is 12:37.5-01:36)
ACTUAL SCHEDULED RECORDINGS
Tonight Show With Jay Leno 524:HDNBC Start-End on time-on time (even after trying to change to 5 mins before/after it refuses to change from on time-on time)
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 524:HDNBC Start-End on time-5 mins after (refused to set start 5 mins before)
BASEMENT SCHEDULED RECORDING/SERIES May 12
Saturday Night Live 524:HDNBC All episodes/This timeslot only/This day only/Start-End 5 mins before-5 mins after
Guide lists as 11:30p-01:00a
BASEMENT RECORDED May 12 (LIVING ROOM didn't record at all, despite being programmed)
Saturday Night Live 524:HDNBC 11:30p-06:00a
SCHEDULED RECORDING/SERIES May 13
Desperate Housewives 518:CTVSH Single episode/Start-End on time-on time
Guide lists as 08:00-09:00p
Desperate Housewives 522:HDABC All episodes/Start-End on time-on time
Guide lists as 09:00-11:00p
RECORDED May 13
Desperate Housewives 518:CTVSH 08:31-09:00p
Desperate Housewives 522:HDABC 09:06-11:59a MONDAY (was STILL recording next day, manually stopped at 11:59a)
SCHEDULED RECORDING/SERIES May 14
Formula One Racing 54:SPDHD Single episode/Start-End on time-30 min after
Guide lists as 12:00-2:00p
RECORDED May 14
Formula One Racing 54:SPDHD 12:00-4:57p (was STILL recording at 4:44P, should have ended at 2:30p, manually stopped at 4:57p)
- Monday 11:55 Recording of Formula 1 (SPDHD) can't start due to limited space on PVR (Desperate Housewives STILL recording after almost 15 hrs, PVR showing 10.6% full)
- message appeared 5 minutes before 5:00p recording due to start:
Attention
The recording of Top Gear which is due to start at 5:00p will not be able to record due to limited space available on your PVR.
Please click Manage Recordings below and remove some recordings in order to ensure there is enough space for this program.
(PVR was only 12.5% full - seems to ignore the space available on PVR Extender when presenting this message and assumes it has only 160GB of disk. Formula 1 scheduled from 12:00p-2:30p was STILL recording, had to manually end recording).
- manually stopped Desperate Housewives recording at 11:59a, recorded 14 hr 53 min, PVR still only showing 10.6% full, Formula 1 recording *SPDHD) started 12:00p
(Stopped Desperate Housewives DOESN'T show up in My Recordings By Date, only By Title and By Channel)
- 04:41 Sat May 12, on screen message about set top software being updated from network, will take several minutes, a reboot may be necessary, call 888-???-???? (only on screen less than a minute - didn't have time to write down number). Didn't automatically reboot HOWEVER would not play any recordings. Disconnected power to force reboot.
- scheduled Big Bang Theory, record series, Ch. 518 Thu 20:00-20:30. On 2012/05/10 recorded 3 hours from 20:00-23:00.
- Guide doesn't remember last position viewed, goes back to channel 1 each time. A real pain.
- Recorded program list doesn't remember position, again takes a lot of wasted time to get back to your position.
- Adding a manual recording, can't use keypad, have to scroll through ALL channels starting at 1 (or back from 999)
- Adding a manual recording, can only alter start/end times in 15 minute increments, based on time you press button to add a recording (ie. 12:47, 01:02, 01:17)
- occasional audio dropouts (using HDMI output to TV)
SUGGESTED ENHANCEMENTS
- Timer App to turn TV off at night (especially useful for boxes installed in bedrooms)
- Option to dim the clock/channel display (again, (especially useful for boxes installed in bedrooms)
- Wasted space with 5 letter channel code, why not channel icon and real network/channel name, separate small HD logo
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Advice to those who are unhappy - call Rogers, complain (every time something annoying happens to you with the new IPG). Ask to speak to the retention department and see what they will do to avoid losing you as a customer. My wife wanted me to remove the old Bell Satellite dish from the roof, I said no way - I want it there to make it easy to switch back to Bell.