contour dvr locks up and remotes are delayed

Few questions:

1) Do you have whole-home DVR (master/central DVR and client/remote boxes in other rooms?)

2) What model DVR do you have? is it record 6?

3) What area do you live in?

4) Can you see what contour firmware you are running?  To do this, press and HOLD the select button for 10 seconds then press the up directional arrow. That will enable the internal system menu. It should show a version number and date like April 13 or something like that.

Otherwise, I'd say you are experiencing typical performance (or lack thereof).

So, after receiving the LONG awaited Contour software upgrades here in RI this week, I woke up to the same sluggish, unresponsive Record 6 box problems this morning.

Very very disappointing and even more infuriating for a subscriber to this premium service from Cox.

Moderators, tell your managers that decisions to suppress the truth about the poor performance of your Contour product will only result in more upset customers and continued negative reviews of this offering.

Your paying customers deserve to know the truth about what issues are understood and are being actively researched and corrected by your software development team. We don't want to hear about minor features like changes to animations and DVR management options that were introduced many years ago with competing products, including your own legacy DVR systems.

How about making this flashy Contour system work at least as well as your non-Contour DVRs ? That's a good start.

You know my name and my account information on this forum. I will be calling tech support and escalating this issue now.

It's time to consider my options for TV and DVR service, and I'm afraid Contour isn't in the running.

Thank you so much. I was about to go to COX today and switch to the Contour System. My wife told me it was a P.O.S. but I actually thought that after being out for as long as it has they must have all the bugs worked out by now. I guess I was wrong. Thanks again.

When the contour "locks up" does it respond to pressing buttons on the unit? If so, I wonder if you might have something in the room interfering with the IR light the remote uses. Try to isolate the signal with a empty paper towel tube, or even your hand. Bring the remote right infront of the box and see if by putting the tube (or other) against the box front (on IR sensor) and shining the remote through it, if it works.

Nope.  It doesn't respond to the one button it has on the box-- the power button.

remember the signals are reaching the box and the box just delays its execution of those commands. 

Tiffany, I'm not sure if I follow you. Of course I power cycle the box because it's the only way to get it to work again when it decides to be slow or unresponsive.

Since last Tuesday night when the new cable box software was pushed down, the box has been power cycled at least once every other day.

I don't understand your recommendation. Why would power cycling the box THIS time have any different effect? Or were you simply stating the obvious that a power cycle is necessary to get my expensive Record 6 Contour box to actually work?

The goal here is not to find something to get the box to work again when this happens -- it is to find a solution to PREVENT it from happening all the time. 

It does appear that we (I) should be more specific about my many complaints against Contour.

The freezing and poor performance seems to be related to the whole-home network feature of Contour, not simply the guide.

Therefore, I would imagine many people who simply have a standard Contour DVR without the shared DVR network in their homes probably don't experience all these freeze-ups.

The Contour commercials are so usless since they push this TV just for me feature which 1) is barely helpful and 2) requires the user to remember to change the cable box to their special user ID every time they start using it assuming there's more than one person in the home. Yeah right, as if that's going to happen.

The end result is that normal users will get a useless mix of recommendations since everyone uses the same user account.

How about we get the DVR to work properly and match the usability of the decade-old legacy DVR platform Cox has been offering before Contour?

ATPTourFan said:

It does appear that we (I) should be more specific about my many complaints against Contour.

The freezing and poor performance seems to be related to the whole-home network feature of Contour, not simply the guide.

Therefore, I would imagine many people who simply have a standard Contour DVR without the shared DVR network in their homes probably don't experience all these freeze-ups.

The Contour commercials are so usless since they push this TV just for me feature which 1) is barely helpful and 2) requires the user to remember to change the cable box to their special user ID every time they start using it assuming there's more than one person in the home. Yeah right, as if that's going to happen.

The end result is that normal users will get a useless mix of recommendations since everyone uses the same user account.

How about we get the DVR to work properly and match the usability of the decade-old legacy DVR platform Cox has been offering before Contour?

ATPTourFan,

Thank you for the feedback. We have future Contour upgrades coming and I've passed your suggestions to our Video Team for review.