Time Warner Cable may be robocalling you any day now with news that your set top box is getting what the cable company is calling an upgrade.

Time Warner Cable is making this robocall to customers with set top boxes announcing an upcoming upgrade. (1 minute)
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Calls are being made to customers with set top boxes in Buffalo and Rochester notifying them an upgrade to the new Mystro platform begins as early as April 13th, depending on the box being used.  Syracuse and southern tier residents can expect their upgrade to commence in May.  The company maintains a website that will let you find the exact schedule for the Mystro upgrade in your area.

Time Warner Cable’s Navigator software displays the electronic program guide, helps you program and control your DVR, and also includes the setup menu for the box.

The upgrade will result in a dramatic change in the look and feel of the box’s on-screen graphics, change how you navigate through the program guide, and provide more options for hooking up today’s HDTV sets. If you have a DVR box from Time Warner Cable, the upgrade sets the stage for an upcoming feature that will let you remotely program your DVR while away from home.

Not everyone is thrilled with the upgrade, however.  In fact, a Google search for “Time Warner Navigator upgrade” reveals a large selection of websites and forums filled with complaints.  Regularly reported problems include:

• Sluggish performance, especially on older set top boxes;
• Poor responsiveness on fast forward/rewind functions for DVRs, making it difficult to land precisely where you want to be;
• The loss of “virtual HD” channels which some boxes passed through to even standard analog-only TV’s (albeit not in HD of course);
• DVR bugs that made recording reliability inconsistent;
• A DVR menu that makes it difficult to record only new episodes of series that repeat regularly on the channel lineup;
• Box crashes, lost program guide data, and issues with the box retaining settings, especially for more complex HDTV setups;

Time Warner Cable began testing Mystro at least two years ago in selected markets, and the company believes it has worked out a number of the bugs noted above along the way. Time Warner plans to systematically upgrade their customers to the new platform nationwide now that testing has been completed.

This customer was so bemused with the Time Warner Navigator upgrade, he made a video illustrating the absurd journey he took to find a science-fiction movie to watch.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Navigator Demo.flv[/flv]

Time Warner Cable’s own promotional videos show off the new Time Warner Cable Navigator system in a better light. (5 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Anti-Cable Pay TV Ad from the 70’s.flv[/flv]

I ran across this “public service announcement” about the perils of cable television coming from the over-the-air broadcasters terrified of the implications of a new concept in television delivery — coaxial cable.

Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, big lobby dollars from broadcasters kept a foot on the throat of the newly-born cable television industry, prohibiting them from showing sporting events, movies and programs offered in syndication, unless they were from local stations of course.

To allow this new competitor to gain access to lucrative programming would cost local jobs, hurt investment in television stations providing local community service, and ruin it for everyone!

Ironically, broadcasters are still using these arguments when confronting intransigent cable companies that won’t write checks to pay those “free TV stations” for the right to carry them on the cable lineup.

Whenever a new player enters the marketplace, the existing ones panic.  That’s why the National Broadband Plan, Net Neutrality, and the concept of open networks terrifies incumbent players.  It’s a whole new world — one they aren’t comfortable with — market instability and players out of their comfort zones always invoke a fear-based response, especially on Wall Street.

Forty years after the pay television monster envisioned in this advertisement, we are still watching local over-the-air broadcasters.  In fact, the only harm viewers have experienced comes from an industry that treats local TV stations like commodities, bought and sold for millions of dollars, even as many stations cut local programming and community service.  These days, it’s not uncommon to find a major local affiliate not even producing a newscast any longer.

We now face another transformation in telecommunications with the release of a national blueprint for improved broadband.  Existing players have no problem with it, as long as they define it, benefit from it and get to implement it.  But the idea of opening their networks and providing consumers with additional choice, as well as protection from meddling providers who want to monetize all-things-Internet, just cannot be entertained.  To do so would … you know, cost jobs, harm investment, and ruin it for everyone.

Much like a broken record, this rhetoric is obsolete.

The Delmarva Peninsula

Four towns are better than one when trying to negotiate improved service and better terms for Delmarva Mediacom cable customers.

Bethany Beach, Millville, Ocean View and South Bethany are considering joining forces to renegotiate their agreements with Mediacom, all coming up for renewal within a year of each other.

Councilman Jay Headman from South Bethany is among those advocating the joint effort to get a better deal from Mediacom, which provides cable service across many parts of the peninsula encompassing Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia.

Mediacom serves many parts of the Delmarva Peninsula with cable service

“If we could come together and negotiate as one, we could save money and have more clout,” Headman told The Daily Times. “We know for a fact that it’s smart to negotiate together. When we have a larger clientele, (Mediacom) has to deal with us, and we can split the cost for the lawyer.”

While the four communities would find a competing provider launching service on the peninsula a useful tool to increase competition, they don’t necessarily believe its likely.  Many residents of the towns are part-timers, staying for extended summer vacations.  In fact, getting a better deal for part-time residents who wish to subscribe for part of the year is one of the concessions they hope to obtain from Mediacom.  The towns are also seeking a shorter agreement — the current franchise is for a 15-year term — and better service in general.

Vice Mayor Carol Olmstead, of Bethany Beach, told the newspaper the town is allocating $5,000 in next year’s budget to cover legal fees related to the negotiation.

“I think everyone who has cable TV would like better service,” she said. “Why not join together? I think the feeling is there’s strength in numbers.”

Young viewers whose parents subscribe to Time Warner Cable in parts of North Carolina got an eyeful last Tuesday when explicit previews from The Playboy Channel ended up on two on-demand channels dedicated to children.

For at least two hours, Kids on Demand and Kids Preschool on Demand accompanied its menu of available programs for young viewers with steamy footage of naked women pawing themselves and sharing explicit sexual fantasies.

One Raleigh-area family’s four year old made inquiries of his parents as to the reason why Tom ‘n Jerry also included naked women that morning.  Horrified parents called Time Warner Cable, but technicians still took some two hours before finally pulling the pornographic previews from the channels.

Company officials were apologetic about what they characterized as a “technical glitch.”

“We’re very, very sorry it happened – we know parents are concerned,” Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Poston told several Raleigh area newscasts. “It was a technical malfunction that caused the wrong previews to be shown on our kids’ on-demand channels. Unfortunately it hit at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels.”

Time Warner Cable has had occasional mishaps with customers subjected to unwanted explicit programming.  In 2007, one Time Warner Cable customer wrote The Consumerist about receiving a recycled Digital Video Recorder box that contained the previous owner’s recordings.  His wife might not have been concerned if it involved several editions of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, but instead she found herself scrolling through titles including, Got Male, Foursome, and Hole Diggers (Part Two).  Thankfully, she found it before the kids did.

[flv width=”576″ height=”344″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WRAL Raleigh Time Warner apologizes for porn mix-up 3-16-10.flv[/flv]

WRAL-TV Raleigh interviews one North Carolina family who got more than they bargained for when tuning into Time Warner Cable’s kids-on-demand channels, and ponders why the company didn’t yank the channels after the first complaints arrived. (3 minutes)

[flv width=”600″ height=”358″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTVD Raleigh Playboy shown on kids channels 3-16-10.flv[/flv]

WTVD-TV Raleigh explains how The Playboy Channel ended up on Time Warner Cable’s video on demand channels.  (3 minutes)

A Norfolk, Virginia girl faces serious reconstructive surgery after running into an unattended cable line the city determined to be the property of Cox Cable.

Laurel Pont says her grandchildren were on their bicycles in May of 2008 when Willow got caught in a spiraling cable stretched across several lawns and driveways in an alley near her home.  The cable had been left there, unattended, for at least seven months.

Bill Pont noted, “This wasn’t just a wire, this was a coil. It was like a giant slinky laying here.”

Both of Font’s grandchildren were injured from the encounter.  The result for Font’s granddaughter was a serious facial injury.

Laurel Pont told WAVY-TV the little girl faces reconstructive surgery after she nearly severed her top lip from her face.

“She doesn’t smile. She used to have this huge smile, big toothy grin,” Pont said.

The matter is now in the courts, and that prompted a major dispute between city officials and Cox Cable, both named as defendants, over who is responsible for the cable.

“We originally sued Cox and the City of Norfolk. The City of Norfolk has filed what they call a cross claim against Cox. Cox then filed what they call a 3rd party action [against a subcontractor],” said Joseph Young, the Font’s attorney.

The Font’s turned to WAVY-TV’s 10 On Your Side in hopes of getting the matter resolved and to also expose the danger of unattended utility cables.  The Font family is also working with legislators to create a law that would limit the amount of time a hazard can remain in a neighborhood.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WAVY Norfolk City – Cable Company Dispute Over Girl’s Scarring Injury 2-22-10.flv[/flv]

WAVY-TV’s ’10 On Your Side’ covers the story of a girl seriously injured because of unattended cable television wiring. (5 minutes)