Time Warner’s Mystro update: provisional thumbs up
Jul 14, 2009 Product Review
UPDATE: I noticed another software update last week, but so far have only noticed one difference. If you’ve noticed any changes please leave them in the comments on this post.
Time Warner’s new operating system
I don’t like change, unless it is totally expected and approved by me. So I immediately went into a tech panic this morning when my Explorer 8300HD DVR clicked off and the readout went into countdown mode. It had never done this before. Every once in a while it would click off and reboot, but this was new. The countdown started aroun five or six hundred, and the ones column would start at F, count down to A, and then go from 9 to zero and start over at F. Very weird. I was transfixed. I thought that perhaps when the countdown got to zero, the aliens would blow up the White House. But that was Independence Day. This was a little better. At zero the TV screen went on and informed me that it was in fact an automatic upgrade to a new operating system, something called Mystro. I know nothing about it except what I’ve learned by using it over the past hour or so.
While it will take a little while to get used to everything looking different, there are some great changes.
It’s worth noting that only my HD DVR did this; my other Explorer box is still running the old OS.
Recordings
% Full
The list view now shows in % how full the DVR is. The upgrade might be worth it just for that.
By Date/By Title
Scheduled and recorded shows can now be viewed in either a date recorded list (the old way) OR alphabetically. This is fantastic, very handy. I like to save shows up for a few weeks and watch them together. This makes it so much easier to see how many episodes I have. And my God my kids are recording a lot of SpongeBob. I didn’t realize how much until I was able to see the future SpongeBobs all in a row.
Hours left until delete
Pressing info for a show in the list now tells you about how many hours are left until the show will be deleted. However, I can no longer find a way to save a recorded show for longer without just saving it until manually deleted. I didn’t use this feature too often (save for longer, I think it was called?), so not sure how much I’ll miss it, but it was handy.
Conflicts
There is a screen devoted solely to recording conflicts. On the old OS conflicts were handled very badly. The only way to handle them (if you were even aware of them) was to either change the priority of an entire show’s recordings, or manually cancel the shows causing the conflict. And that didn’t always work. Now, you can click on a show and either cancel the recording or resolve the conflict. If you choose to resolve the conflict, you will be given a choice of which other shows to cancel.
I was able to resolve a bunch of conflicts very easily, shows that I wouldn’t have realized weren’t going to record until afterwards. But I’m curious as to what will happen when there’s a conflict involving just a minute or two. I recently discovered that six episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, which had aired from 9pm until 10:02pm (thanks for that, ABC) had only recorded the last two minutes. I guess they hadn’t been flagged in my future recordings list because two entire minutes were going to be recorded. I have a feeling that the networks do that shit to try to get you to watch whatever the next show is. “Aw, screw it, the shows on the other chanels have already started, I’ll just stay on ABC.” It really messes with DVRs and I hate it. And I want to know how Mystro is going to handle it. Hopefully, just like the other conflicts. That would be fantastic.
Playback.
Returning to List view
I was annoyed to discover that if I press list and scroll around and then go back to the list later, it always shows me the top of the list again, in date order. It would be nice if when I pressed the list button it would show me what I was looking at last, either date view or alphabetical, and show me exactly where I was on the list. This is made up for in a very small way by the addition of a recently viewed screen, so that you can go back to what you were watching last, but doesn’t help you if you hadn’t actually started watching something yet. You’ll just have to find it in the list again.
Skipping forwards or backwards 15 minutes
One small change not easily found: you used to be able to press the arrow buttons (next to the OK/Sel button) during fast forward or rewind to skip right to the next tic mark. The marks are gone, and now you have to hold down the fast forward or rewind button to go back or forward 15 minutes.
Slow Motion
Pressing the play button used to show you where you were in the recording’s timeline. Now pressing play changes the playback to slow motion.
Limited Guide View/Timeline
The arrow buttons around the “OK/Sel” button now have a different playback function. Pressing the right or left buttons shows you where you are in the playback timeline, and pressing the up and down arrows now lets you scroll through the guide one channel at a time. Once you’re scrolling through the guide, pressing the right and left buttons let you change the time for the guide view.
Guide mode itself seems to be pretty much the same.
Deleting recordings
When shows have ended, on the old OS you pressed the letter buttons to either save or delete a show. On Mystro, you scroll to choose what you want to do: Save, Delete, Resume, or Restart. I like that restarting a show is now an option during the entire playback, and not just at the end of a show. However, I don’t like that I no longer have to confirm that I want to delete a show. I guess they figure that having to scroll down to Delete takes the place of pressing a button and then confirming. I’m not so sure. Confirming has saved me from deleting many shows when my fingers were moving faster than my brain.
Conclusion
I’m sure that there are many other changes that I haven’t found yet. But so far, I like what I see. If everything works as it is supposed to, I’m going to like the upgrade a lot. They’ve put in several features that I didn’t know I was missing but now can’t imagine being without. They seem to be taking into account the fact that many of us don’t just pause a football game, pee, and then resume like on the earlier commercials. I want to be able to control and sort my listings. And most of all, I need to know that when I set something up to record, it will record, or the DVR will give me a chance to see that it won’t record. And at the very least, if it doesn’t record, the DVR will tell me why. We’ll see how it goes.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
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Tags: Time Warner, TV
I just noticed another small-ish but annoying thing: the list view no longer shows the duration of the recorded shows. It still shows what time the show was recorded, but not what time the recording ended – you have to press info each time to see that.
No more active dual tuners?
I am in Queens, NYC. This morning at 10:30AM EST I noticed my box was doing something funny. It had lines on it instead of the time. I was heading out and didn’t think anything of it. I came back and turned it on to the new Mystro UI. I hate it, but that’s not my issue here; as I knew it was only a matter of time.
So I’ve accepted this fate, but here is one thing that REALLY is making me irate. On the Passport system, I could keep my active dual tuners on 2 channels, without having to record one. I mean that I could watch 2 different channels, and as long as I didn’t change the channel on either, and I only used the SWAP button, the last hour on each channel would be saved. This is EXTREMELY convenient, as I make heavy use of my DVR. I NEVER watch anything live. If 2 shows are starting, I will watch one, then when that goes to commercial, swap it to the other, and watch that one. This is of course not for something like movies, but when I have talk shows on ESPN, I play them while I do my chores. But if there’s a movie I want to see, I let it build up on the other tuner, then I start to watch it, and can of course FF through all the commercials — very convenient; as this is the service I pay for.
Now, getting back to today, with the new Mystro, everytime I swap it, the other tuner no matter what reverts to NY1. I checked settings and I have the power on channel set as “last channel”, which is what did the trick under Passport (it was NY1 before). But, not luck this time. With all this being said, I want to know if anyone has ANY suggestions, better than these I can think of:
1. Record the “other” show, while watching one. This would effectively accomplish what I want, but this eats up valuable DVR space. As I mentioned earlier, if I have an ESPN talk show on, I would have to record a 2-hour movie to watch that. Whereas on Passport, I would just swap it, then start to watch the movie without eating DVR space.
2. Is there a way for the old swap function to work under Mystro. Does the new H3090 work with swap? This would of course be the best solution.
3. Would Tivo be a better alternative? Meaning, would Tivo store the last hour of the 2 active channels, without having to record one?
If it matters, I have a SA8300HD, that was on Passport until this morning. Any comments or suggestions appreciated. Thanks.
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@Stephen – Hi there, I’ve been trying to recreate this on my Explorer 8300HD, but I can’t. When I swap back and forth, the dual tuners stay on their channels and keep caching. In fact, I realized that I could even rewind to the previous show, something I wasn’t able to do with Passport. Sorry, wish I could help, but looks like it’s not a problem on my box.
One notable feature that’s missing is the ability to search by keyword, like an actor or director’s name. Right now on my Mystro software, I can ONLY search by title. So if I want to record all the films of Woody Allen, or things starring Robert De Niro, I’m out of luck. This is a huge loss for me. I called Time Warner to complain, and I was told that they are working on possibly adding this feature in the future. Well, what am I supposed to do in the meantime?
To me, this is a downgrade in service, with no reduction in price. In addition, the fast-forwarding is much slower now (probably to force us to watch the ads) and our start times were thrown off for a whole week – I had shows programmed to start 3 minutes early, and they started 3 minutes late! Also, shows that are re-broadcast later in the week (repeats) are still labelled as “NEW”, so if I am recording only new episodes of a series, I’m getting each one recorded two or three times!
I do like the “percentage full” info – it saves me from having to add up the lengths of what’s been recorded. And I do now have access to more Movies on Demand, but those are the only positive points – other than that, Mystro’s been just lousy.
@John Holderried – Hmm, I don’t think I had ever searched any way other than by title on the old system, so I didn’t notice that missing. I did notice the slower FF-ing. But my finger quickly learned to press the button three times so that I don’t get that annoying pause.
I have not experienced the same thing you have with the “NEW” issue, so that’s weird. Everything that was recording was still set up the same way as on the old system. After using the new system for a couple weeks now, the only things I’m really missing is the List being in the same place each time (now it starts at the top of the list each time). I would also love to be able to “Save until space needed” from the end of the show, instead of having to go back to the List to do it. Other than that, I love the new features.
Two other things that are missing:
Single frame mode in pause. Left/Right buttons on sides of Select used to move forward single frame and back by key frames.
Also, the “Video Source” button used to change the display aspect ratio, but that does not happen anymore.
We’re in Manhattan and just upgraded; I’ve got a long list of gripes.
1. Can’t use favorites to scroll through the guide. Only works switching channel to channel, so you can’t check to see what’s on. You can sort the guide with all your favorites at the beginning, which I think is pointless. Most of the time I scroll through the guide, but sometimes I want to flip through the favorites in the guide.
2. No “View Channel Now” option. If it’s 5:59, you can’t click on a show that starts at 6:00 to switch to that channel, it brings up the record menu. Have to go back to the previous show to switch to that channel.
3. Along with that, even if it is 5:59, the guide doesn’t automatically move to 6:00. The old software automatically moved ahead at 25 and 55 minutes so you could see what is coming on next.
4. Info no longer shows movie runtime, but just the timeslot allotted. Before, you could see that the movie had a 2 hour runtime and a 3.5 hour time slot, meaning a full 1.5 hours of commercials, which would be seriously annoying to watch.
5. Info has much less info overall. Used to list all main actors in a movie, now seems like it only lists the main actor. The guide used to have a little info which you could expand, but now the guide summary and the info window are the same, the summary just truncated.
6. No quality rating stars in summary window. Used to list the number of stars a movie got. Now you have to click info to find out. Used to be a movie title I didn’t recognize, but with zero or one star I didn’t need to click info to find if it was worthwhile or not.
7. Blue and yellow? What, are we all blind? Something a little more muted would be nice.
8. The display on the front of the 8300 now always has the output resolution when turned off. The only way to know it’s turned off is when the little tiny circle disappears.
9. Doesn’t “auto-record” a channel when turned off. Used to record the last hour of whatever channel it was on, even when powered off (so I guess it is never powered off). Now, when you turn it off, it doesn’t record. So when you’re running out for 10 minutes, you have to leave the box on, or record the show.
10. The “auto-record” resets itself. So if you had to make a call and missed the last two minutes of a show, you can’t scroll back if it’s already moved onto the next show.
11. When FF or RW, it doesn’t show the time stamp. If you are recording a show and go to bed at 10:37, you can’t just FF to 10:37, you have to guess when to stop and FF/RW until you get to the exact point.
Overall, I have to say that it is a huge disappointment.
On the other hand, it looks like Mystro supports an external hard drive where passport didn’t. I don’t know if TWC blocks it here, but since the drive’s aren’t too expensive, I’m gonna pick one up and give it a shot. Being able to record 200 hours of HD instead of 20 would make me a little happier.
@John Holderried –
Just like John Holderried I too used the KEYWORD function (on the previous software called Passport) and I am VERY DISAPPOINTED with the new software called Mystro. I’ve made about 3 or 4 calls to Time Warner expressing my disappointment since the switch to Mystro about a month ago and I’ve searched the Internet for other people that feel this way. This is the first time I’ve found anything on the subject. I too feel this is a downgrade. Perhaps others we unaware that the feature even existed previously on Passport so they don’t miss what they never knew they had. It used to be more like TiVo. After having this feature for about 4 years I really can’t believe Time Warner has taken it away. According to the Tech Chat I just had with a customer service “analyst” the person to complain to is:
Time Warner Cable
Attn: Susan Dolan
Client Relations Manager
4161 Cassina Blvd
Flushing, NY 11355
If anyone finds out her direct email address please add it here. Thanks!
Amy Reply:
September 4th, 2009 at 12:45 am
I think you may have hit the nail on the head, Ricky, when you said that perhaps others were unaware that the feature even existed. There have been complaints in the comments about things missing that I never ever used in the old system, and even here at home I’ve complained about certain things and my husband has said “Really? I never used that!” I think part of it is personal preference, but a lot of it is that Time Warner has never done a good job of “selling” the features of their DVRs. I’ve found some features accidentally, and others online, not on their site. But of course none of that matters at all if they then take those features away!
As soon as I get a chance I’m going to update/rewrite this post, incorporating the comments – perhaps it will catch the attention of someone at Time Warner.
Has anyone else had problems with the new season on ABC not recording? My wife is furious. I’m thinking maybe it prompted us to switch away from what we were watching and we were not home to say “OK, please tape what I told you to instead of the active channel that we are watching, but are not home to see right now”
Anyone else have problems with shows not recording?
@M Ameres, RPI, Bosco – OK, I have a theory about this. I’m not sure if it’s correct, because I had two DVRs going at the time of the upgrade and since then have switched one for another hi-def one, and frankly can’t remember which shows I had set up on which DVRs. BUT I’m pretty sure that since the upgrade happened over the summer, when a lot of network shows weren’t available in the guide, those shows didn’t make the jump to the new software – the software couldn’t find the shows in the guide and they just got lost.
Some of my network shows made the jump, and if my theory is correct, I think it’s because those shows ran reruns in the summer on their networks.
It’s also worth noting that now that I have two hi-def dual tuner boxes running the same software, I know for sure that the software does not behave the same on all boxes. My boxes are supposed to be the same, but they each have unique quirks when interacting with the software. Not sure what’s up with that.
My trouble with TWC started about three months ago when I traded “up” to one of the new Samsung boxes. Caller ID wasn’t working on the old Scientific Atlanta.
Almost immediately I had problems with programs recorded on channel 705 when that channel was broadcasting HD. Instead of recording the shows in a one-hour segment, the recording was divided up into five, six, or seven segments. Some as short as a minute, others 5 or 10 or 15 minutes.
I had three new Samsung boxes installed. And each one had the same problem. Monday (two nights ago) the repairman came and swapped a Scientific Atlanta for the Samsung.
The segmentating stopped. But I have had two Fox HD shows from 9 pm to 10 pm both stop recording around 9:52.
Tomorrow I call TW for another repair appointment.
I’m from the Tampa Bay area in Florida, a BrightHouse (which used to be TWC for us) customer, and also unhappy about Mystro. The Mystro software was downloaded to my dvr sometime on the morning of Nov. 17. My main complaint is that I can no longer record from the Explorer 8300HDC dvr to my dvd recorder … easily. In a program on the recorded list, the selection for “record to vcr” is missing. I used to be able to start that recording then watch something else, either something else on the recorded list or another cable channel. And the resolution on the recorded dvd is not the same as the original program. Now it’s like the old days of vcr, when you either watched what you were recording or went off to mop the floor or something. Most definitely a big step backwards.
You can instead now use the # button (the pound or number symbol) to do the same thing.
Nothing weird about counting down from F to 0, that’s simply hexadecimal. Computers using binary which is alot of ones and zeros. Hexadecimal (Hex = 6 + Decimal = 10 which equals base 16) is simply a short hand version of binary with 16 digits (0-9 and A-F) (A=10, B=11, etc), so 16 digits from zero to fifteen. What the box was doing was counting down packet numbers received or installed/unpacked or whatever. Not really sure, but something along those lines.
Mystro translates to “My thumb up your ass” and you are paying me for it. :~) You loose……….
List of problems with Mystro v2.4.9.4 in Manhattan
1. Continuous pixelation at intermittent times
2. After pause, the picture permanently freezes
3. 15 minute jump back or ahead does not work no matter how long I hold those buttons
4. When fast forwarding, the play button does not respond all the time forcing me to watch that last commercial three or four times (probably intentional).
5. Bad pixelation when using the Start Over feature, also can’t fast forward
6. Sometimes, it just flat out skips a scheduled recording!
7. Sometimes, hitting fast forward or pause causes the show to start from the beginning. Crazy annoying!
Anyone have anything similar or know of any resolutions? I can anticipate the five second conversation with TW, “Come and get a new box! Click…”