tonyr
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Joined 5 years ago
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cloud contour so much worse than harddrive
pre-alert: the following is full of sarcasm and bitterness After 2nd instance where disk that was more than 90% full died, I was convinced - in spite of reservations - to start using the "newer and better" cloud based contour. HUGE mistake is an understatement. Features that were not mentioned before the transition include but arent limited to: * smooth flow of viewing is the exception rather than the rule * a 30 minute show can take as much as 40 minutes to view -- including attempts to use fast forward. 60 minute shows are negatively affected at least as much. ** somedays are worse than others. I have stopped trying to watch live or recorded shows on saturday. But no day is ever symptom free. I'm writing this on the wednesday before thanksgiving and throughput is pathetic to the point where i have stopped trying to watch anything thru contour ... including the apps. * any button pushed on the remote, rather than proving immediate feedback and functionality, now requires a significant delay before even acknowledging that a button has been pushed. * more than once replay of a recorded movie froze toward the end. After a long delay, the movie restarted! ** i attempted to fast forward to get back to the end. It took 8 MINUTES before the screen even displayed the FF icon. Don't ask how long it actually took to get to faster FF speeds or when the near end spot was reached. * frequent frozen black screen. Is that because show/recording was actually on a black frame or something more insidious? I don't know and as a consumer i don't care. * Is the problem with delayed response to something pushed on remote an issue of direction of signal? Well one of the new & improved features is that the contour box no longer has a visible led that faces the user, so it is impossible to determine if the signal was sent/received. Too often a foolish 2nd interaction with the remote leads to eventual unwanted 2nd action. * contour recording for only a few seconds instead of full length of schedule has higher rate with cloud version than harddrive. * along with previous there is increased frequency of problems with accessing show/recording * at some point i expect there will be a comment that i can revert back to using the contour hard drive. Of course that comes with a guarantee that everything saved in the cloud will be lost. But they appreciate having me as a customer Things that have not changed: * cox is sorry about the difficulties and the lost recordings but continues to offer no solution * cox appreciates my being a dedicated customer [isp for 23 years just at this address and does absolutely nothing to retain me as a customer. ** in the last round of contact with help desk i asked that the thread be forwarded to their customer retention group. I don't know if that was ever done or it was done but i was never contacted [be either group] but i'm not surprised that Cox Communication ** at communication. * in the last round of problems there were 2 different technicians that made a house call. Each said they would send contact information and follow up to see how things were going. No surprise - neither followed thru. ** extra kudos to 1st tech who said he would schedule appointment for the 2nd guy [specialist] but never did. * all of the unfriendly user interface issues remain, including but not limited to the most frequent activities requiring the most steps/clicks and conversely the things used only once at initial setup require the fewest clicks. * there is still approximately zero ability for end user to manage diskspace. and so much more cox should not be proud of the fact that i assume they will make no effort to correct flaws in the hardware/software/helpdesk/communication but they will be very aggressive about sending email offering more things that would require me to shell out more cash.540Views0likes1CommentRe: Morning Boot Issue
unit never did reboot today, so new question [holler if i should open up new post] Tech that was here yesterday thought one problem might be with the outside wires. He said he would schedule different tech to look at that but never did. I finally called and arranged for one -- but not until 5-7 pm tomorrow. But i digress I wonder if a stop gap can be implemented whereby i retain the almost full dvr but do something to allow access to tv until [hopefully] the outside problem is resolved. The local store was no help - i could turn in the old box but lose everything. IS IT POSSIBLE - to temporarily hook up different contour box [hard drive or cloud] to access new stuff for the next few days THEN if outside turns out to be the problem, remove the temporary kluge, hook up the old dvr and continue with all recordings and schedules preserved?247Views0likes0CommentsRe: Morning Boot Issue
cloud is not a solution since what is currently on the hard drive is lost. cox offers no mechanism to export a list of what is on the dvr. cox offers no mechanism to export what is scheduled to record. your suggestions are all me doing manual stuff [watch quickly, determine what is available on demand or for re-record, write down what is scheduled to record] which entails a lot of effort, high possibility of being incomplete or inaccurate. guaranteed to raise blood pressure and dislike for cox's concept of 'solution' i was hoping maybe someone knew of a way to actually grab information from the dvr [if it ever reboots] * recordings * list of recordings * list of scheduled recordings e.g. swap and/or copy the hard drive whether to new dvr hard drive or some other media. cloud translates to streaming. if i want to stream, why bother with contour? no - none of what you've mentioned can be called a solution105Views1like2CommentsRe: Morning Boot Issue
of course, there are things I can do - but nothing that cox can do including, but not limited to providing a means for exporting a list of what is currently on the dvr [or recording schedules] since i am now into hour #6 of trying to get the box to reboot - i doubt if even yourkluge will help. likelihood of being able to reduce number of unwatched shows from 90% to something even remotely acceptable before having to abandon the titles very close to zero.334Views0likes4CommentsRe: Morning Boot Issue
Same started for me a couple of days ago. When lucky, one cold boot of modem/router/dvr eventually [minimum 30 minutes, but often more] completes the ~5 minute daily update. Last 2 days i haven't been lucky needing AT LEAST 5 iterations [well, today 5 and counting] Cox has offered ZERO solution that will allow retention of recorded shows [disc ~90% full] I can get new box, but lose recordings. I can go to cloud based, but lose recordings. retaining box that only sometimes behaves in order to eventually seen what has been recorded - while obtaining new one for future recordings. That isn't done. Copying contents of diseased box to new box - that isn't done. "Is there anything else we can help you with?" Seriously? You have been no help. Does ANYONE know of a workaround that allows recovery of recordings before trading in for a new unit??97Views1like9CommentsRe: Contour recorded shows are deleted on their own
this is one of many undocumented features of Contour's design to make things as difficult, if not impossible, for the end-user. To make up for the disappearance, they: * don't list the nuked title(s) in Recently Deleted * provide zero hints as to the order titles will be deleted, but not listed, by cox * seem to bypass titles for deletion that will be available again for recording# for shows that will not be available to record. * too often seems to nuke most recent [LIFO] rather than oldest # one design improvement could be for cox to automatically set up for new recording before nuking I have a much longer list of failings in "disk space management" and lack of user-friendliness [ex: maximizing number of clicks required for the most common tasks and easy access to things that were set on day 1 and never touched years later]4Views0likes1CommentRe: disk space management - followup
in no particular order - and possibly some redundancy 1) knowing the % full does not address size of individual recordings. 1a) it only gives a suggestion of when cox will start magically removing recordings, ~94% seems to be the trigger point 1b) manually deleting a single show may or may not show a change in %Full - and even if it does, if the recording has not been watched, it is unclear whether or not that should be the one to watch and manually delete to prevent the unknown cox algorithm from nuking something else 2) "Recently Deleted" only shows what I have manually deleted, the key point for the original thread revolves around the recordings that are magically removed by cox 2a) if i can't figure out what was nuked by cox because space needed, then i can't know when to re-schedule 3) if save for "1 year" = relative to record date, what is the mechanism to save beyond that record date + 1 year 3a) inability to sort by record date means end user can NOT proactively manage disk space 3b) inability to reset save until as pure guess means end user can NOT proactively manage disk space. Compounding that is if we go thru manual drudgery of highlighting show, click recording options, the response to original question seems to say - does not matter if you again select save for 1 year, that it won't change anything 4) inability to sort Recordings according to record date [or unknown delete date] exacerbates the problems 4a) when a particular show has multiple episodes "Most Recent" just sorts the entire folder by most recent instance that was recorded. there is no way to either sort within that folder or easily jump to the oldest episode [# of clicks needed for too many tasks is another topic outside the scope of this thread] 5) for recordings flagged as save "Until space is needed" 5a) there is no way to sort by size if that is the approach i want to use for what to watch first 5b) there is no way to determine in which order cox will nuke those recordings because spaces is needed 5c) when cox has nuked a show because space was needed there is no way to recover or even identify which recordings were nuked 5d) it is unclear if the cox algorithm has a first priority to nuke something that will be available for re-recording before something that is not have in the upcoming schedule 5e) it seems that cox will nuke a show without automatically scheduling a re-record [unless that show is recording all including duplicates] 6) conclusion seems to be that there is no way for user to manage diskspace short of keeping % full below the undocumented threshold 7) closing a thread before poster has a chance to reply is just wrong0Views0likes0Commentsdisk space management
constant problems managing disk space on Contour 2 dvr 1) is there a way to expand capacity [ex: external disk drive or what i believe is disallowed option to download from dvr to personal computer] 2) is there a way to tell in which order recordings will be automatically removed to make way for new recordings 3) is there a way to tell the amount of space taken up by each recording [to help prioritize order or watch/remove ] 4) record options are binary: a) until space needed b) for 1 year 4a) 1 year from when? 4b) is there a way to sort saved recordings based upon date recorded and/or the "1 year" that is chosen 4c) is there a way to reset the "1 year" clock From all appearances, the end user really has no control or ability to see what might/will happen when disk space runs short, so a follow-up 5) is there a way to identify which shows have been automatically deleted without being watched? 6) when the software decides which recording to remove, does the algorithm take into account which show will/will not repeat 6a) if it does priortize by first nuking shows that will re-run, does it automatically reschedule recording of that to-be-nuked show751Views0likes1Comment