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xebug67's avatar
xebug67
New Contributor

Missing many episodes within On Demand, from DIFFERENT providers AND other On Demand problems

The most recent episodes for this past week of programming are not appearing within the On Demand menu for any of the various network providers.  I've called Cox about this several times already and am not receiving any satisfactory answers or help.

I'm more than familiar with the fact that some networks offer current episodes almost immediately pursuant to their regular "live" airing in real time (sometimes even concurrently or prior), while others make you wait a day or two or more.  I've taken all of that into account this past week.

However, I find it odd that this past week (dating back to Friday, 11/04/16) for at least 5 different networks for the first time since the 2016 Fall programming season began I have not been able to watch any programs in a timely manner, with NO current episodes available to be watched. 

The networks and current programming for this past week that I've thus far been able to ascertain as NOT having current episodes available for viewing and missing from the On Demand menus are as follows:   Aftermath on SyFy (airs Tuesday evenings and until this week I had always able to watch it first thing the next morning); Van Helsing on SyFy (airs Friday evenings and until this week I had always able to watch it first thing the next morning); Designated Survivor on ABC (airs Wednesday evenings and until this week I had always able to watch it first thing the next morning); Timeless on NBC (airs Monday evenings and until this week I had always able to watch it first thing the next morning); and Westworld on HBO (airs Sunday evenings and until this week I had always able to watch it first thing the next morning); Below Deck on Bravo (airs Tuesday evenings BUT this is one of the programs that can take a day or two to become available within On Demand). 

A different and possibly related issue pertains to The Walking Dead on AMC (which airs Sunday evenings - this too is one of those programs that is occasionally not immediately available within On Demand), where although the most recent episode from last Sunday is listed (episode 3) it contains the wrong information/description about the episode (it contains the description for episode 2).  I am currently unable to test if the information is accurate or not, because we have been unable to utilize our On Demand this evening because of other Cox problems/maintenance that is purportedly taking place.

I don't know if any of this is related to having had both of our cable boxes switched out this past Monday morning (every one of the 5 or more Cox phone reps I've spoken with up through today say it isn't) BUT we've had nothing but problems with On Demand ever since then. 

The problems began the very next day after our boxes were switched out, on Election Tuesday, with our losing the ability to rewind/pause/fast forward during live programming.  I was not in the mood to deal with calling Cox about it that day and waited until yesterday to call them about it - thankfully the problem was resolved in the afternoon.

But then later on in the very early evening other problems occurred relating to using the "information" button on the remote within On Demand programming.  It became completely unclickable, to it providing inaccurate information, and the worst problem of all which occurred last night was that a large rectangular blue box that covered 3/4 of the 56" TV screen appeared and could not be gotten rid of.  It was the "information" box but it was empty and all that it said was "Loading...please wait" and it stayed onscreen whether I remained within the On Demand menus or reverted back to live programming and it took a lot of time and effort dealing with different phone reps to finally get this resolved. Then once the first phone rep was able to get the info box to actually contain actual info vs. the "loading...please wait" it was only partial info - one line vs. the lengthier usual info, and it took another round of phone calls until that problem was resolved.

Immediately after getting off the phone with these Cox reps the info button within On Demand AGAIN BECAME UNCLICKABLE and I just gave up on dealing with it further last night.

Now tonight we experienced another freezing up within On Demand after I had checked to see if any of the programs I wanted to watch were yet available with current episodes.  Another 3/4-sized rectangular blue box was superimposed over the screen, this time saying something like "programming being temporarily unavailable" and it was not possible to change the channel or exit out of that screen.  Finally after several attempts to shut the cable off as well as our TV and then restarting both that obtrusive blue box onscreen went away.

But the missing episodes from the On Demand menu have been an ongoing issue every day all week long up through this posting, and no Cox rep seems able or willing to assist with this, basically saying that they're not responsible for On Demand programming and thus have no control over it or what it does/does not do.

My husband and I have very few hours available in the way of free time to watch TV as we both work at multiple jobs & businesses, and this is very disappointing to not be able to have reliable programming.

I hope someone from Cox will address these issues and assist us.

Thank you!

8 Replies

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  • Hi xebug67,

    Thanks for your message on our Cox Forums. At times, unplugging the receiver power for 20 seconds can correct a feature or guide trouble. I see you mentioned you had performed a hard reset to the receiver to address the info box.

    Sometimes it can take TV Network series longer than 24 hours to populate On Demand. If there are missing Episodes of series, we can have this investigated and often resolved. If you are experiencing a frequent freezing, and errors with On Demand, we may need to take a follow-up look at this trouble.

    You may email us at Cox.Help@cox.com and we can review this with you. In your email please include a copy of this forums link, your address, and name.

    Thank you,

  • xebug67's avatar
    xebug67
    New Contributor

    Dustin, I appreciate your response and would have thanked you sooner but I did not receive any notifications that anyone had responded to my post, despite my having opted to receive notifications within my settings.  Up until today I had been under the impression that my post had been ignored and was only checking back in to see if any other forum members since I posted had also reported the same or similar problems.

    Can someone please look into this separate issue/problem of why my settings aren't "honoring" my preference to receive notifications?

    With regards to the missing episodes, I have been having numerous problems with my cable boxes (in addition to the missing episodes) and do have yet another technician scheduled to come out to my home this afternoon.

    Meanwhile, all the afore-referenced missing episodes EXCEPT for those pertaining to "Designated Survivor" have finally appeared within On Demand.

    Kind regards,

    Xebug67

  • Hi Xebug67,

    I checked your account settings, and it appears that the conversation notifications were turned off. I enabled all the notification settings, and I'm hoping that you get an email when I post this reply.

    I'm glad to hear that most of the series you enjoy now have new episodes available in the On Demand library. There was an issue with some of the video files we received from ABC, and one of the impacted titles was Designated Survivor. ABC is sending new files, and we will get them loaded as quickly as we can. Thanks for your patience!

  • Angels1958's avatar
    Angels1958
    New Contributor

    HI Becky: Thank you for the update on Designated Survivor. I have watched through episode 4. I went to get caught up yesterday afternoon (ep 5 and 6) so I would be ready for last night's primetime broadcast (ep 7). Do you have a timeline as to when 5-7 will be available to view using On Demand?

  • xebug67's avatar
    xebug67
    New Contributor

    Hi Becky:

    I appreciate your response from the  17th.  Unfortunately, it never came to me in my email.  That is why AGAIN I am so delayed in replying to a forum response. 

    As an FYI I do have screen shots on my end that I took to prove that my notification preferences were ALL CHECKED OFF so I don't understand why from your end "conversations" weren't.

    Any way, to reiterate, I'm not receiving any notifications from this forum.

    Thanks also for the explanation about "Designated Survivor".  On my own I found out the episodes were finally in On Demand and have been able to catch up.

    Kind regards,

  • Hi Angels1958,

    I apologize for the delayed reply. We are unable to provide a timeline for the availability of individual episodes.

  • Hi Xebug67,

    We are checking into the issue with Forum thread notifications. Sorry about this!