Adjusting to Contour cable box and the switch to digital programming

1) I now have a new Contour cable box installed on my HDTV.  My other TV's are connected to the small cable boxes pursuant to the switch to all digital.   Since this happened, I've had a few issues. The large Contour box stopped working and I had to call Cox - was on phone 45 min. & still wasnt working - got disconnected and had to call back and got another Cox rep. and started all over. Turned out to be good, because he got me going again in about 15 minutes.   This tied me up for at least an hour and took 2 Cox reps to fix. 

2)  Tonight, a TV connected to  one of the small green boxes lost many of its channels - and I had to call Cox and have it reset.  It was due to a problem on Cox's end.  Apparently, a lot of "random" things happen due to tweaks on Cox's end,  that cause problems with many of the smaller boxes.   This was my first time to have a small box issue.

3) A group of channels on my large Cable TV box suddenly all started being broadcast in Spanish.  After googling this problem, I went back in to "settings" and was able, after about 4 different clicks, to get the programming back to English.  I went for 2 or 3 days not able to watch these programs until I finally figured it out with the use of the internet.  Was happy I figured out how to do this on my own.

4)  My main complaint now is with the Contour Guide.  It won't let me look "back" in time.  It only shows the current time and what is showing "now".   But I am using it to make a selection of what to watch.  I can't tell if a particular program is a 2 hour show, or an hour show - have no clue.  Don't want to start watching something that has only 30 minutes left of a 2 hour program.  Someone else on the forum mentioned it and another person responded you don't need to know that!   You can't record going "back", so all you need to know is "now".   But I beg to differ.  I used that feature constantly - there are many reasons to want to see how long a program was, to help determine how much has been missed.    Is there any way to edit the time settings on my cable box to let me see at least 2 or 3 hours back.  I just want what I had before they installed this new and so-called improved cable box.   

I've been a Cox customer for about 40 years continuously.  I've spent more time on the phone with Cox in the past 4 months than in the past 40 years.  That should tell Cox something.  If anyone has any answers on "going back in time", I would really appreciate help with it.  Thank you.