fbtjr
7 years agoNew Contributor
Missing functions in Contour 2
We recently "upgraded" to Contour 2. Immediately discovered there is no way to skip channels, a basic function of previous boxes. Yes you can set up a SINGLE Favorites list. Previous boxes allowed setting up MULTIPLE USERS each with setup for hiding channels AND setting favorites, among other Per User preferences. In Contour 2 it takes 6 key presses per channel to add a favorite and move to the next channel. In the old box, if you had a list of the channels you wanted to see, hiding the rest was 2 key presses per channel (check the box & move to next). Selecting the Favorites view of the Contour 2 guide only shows the favorites, but channel up or down tunes through EVERY channel, including SD duplicates, porn, and other unsubscribed &/or unwanted channels.
Other Cox Moderator responses have been the "use favorites", parrot the Cox party line response. Cox misses the point completely. Multiple user profiles and hiding unwanted channels were VERY USEFUL features of the previous generation boxes. Yes, there are some nice new features in Contour 2, however leaving out basic functionality is not an improvement.
Improvements to Contour 2 should include:
1. Multiple user profiles with individual favorites, skipped/hidden channels, default guide view, general preferences having to do with the "look and feel" settings, and individual playback pointers for DVR & On Demand.
2. Instead of or in addition to the built in HD Only guide, ones that Hide SD Duplicates and display Only Channels I Get. An On/Off selection in the General Preferences menu would be OK for these functions. In the previous boxes we always left one "User" set to the default "show all channels" view.
3. Add a one button method to prepopulate favorite lists with Channels I Get and skip channel lists with Channels I Don't Get.
Some of the new features are very nice. Now go back and put in at least the underlying functionality that was there in the previous generation boxes.
If the box is already getting tight on memory space, go through the code and eliminate duplication. For example there are at least two horizontal menu routines similar to the menu format you get when you press Contour. The Contour menu wraps moving the cursor past the left and right ends. Other similar menus do not. Use the Contour menu as the correct model so all work alike. Define the menu list, location on the screen, & go to pointers, then call the only copy of the "give me a horizontal menu" function. There are also multiple variations of the Record Options menu. Most of them leave out choices and values when you should be offered ALL of the recording options no matter how you get there to change an option. For example some places you can extend a recording up to 2 hours or more, other places only up to 30 minutes. Allow only one copy of any menu list and only one copy of the code to present similar menus. Apply the same principle throughout the software. Retrain your programmers to utilize only the common library of such functions instead of each writing their own. Code written using this method is more compact and much easier to maintain.