Another Channel Guide Rant

First of all, let me say, for a multi-billion dollar company, could you guys get your crap together? I had to exit Chrome and load up Internet Explorer just to complete my registration on the forums because the page would persistently lack the final details of my registration in Chrome. Browser support, learn about it. The Lithium forum software used here works fine for me on the Sony Forums, so don't play the blame game on it.
Now I'm just a humble man who's been through 3 different channel guide layouts.
The first channel guide layout was a rather ugly gray theme, with a huge "VERIZON FIOS" tab displayed whenever you pressed the info button while watching a program. Hated it. After a few months you guys must have realized it was annoying and gave us that red/blue theme.
Red/blue theme. It was great. Finally something representative of this amazing FIOS product I keep seeing advertised, not some gray menu a guy whipped up in 5 minutes and shoved VERIZON everywhere. Here's a hint: I don't need a constant reminder I'm using Verizon. It's in my mailbox already, thanks.
Now you've changed it again, and regrettably it resembles that original gray theme I despised when I first began using Verizon. Hate it.
6 channels per page, as opposed to the previous 8 (seriously?)
Ugly gradients that were clearly designed by a drop out graphic design student
Text fails to vertically center in their boxes, wasting space and looking stupid in general
Did I mention I can only see 6 channels per page? Well I'm mentioning it again, because it's really that bad and stupid.
The miniature video box that displays the channel I'm watching as I surf the guide has shrunk even more
If a program started before the current time, a little < arrow would be next to it. It's gone now
Round edges instead of corners look rather dumb
The info overlay when watching a program takes up nearly half of my screen now
I have absolutely no idea how to use the old mini guide that worked while watching a program without opening the full screen guide
I've seen some rather rude responses to those who dislike this theme. While I am appalled that anyone can actually appreciate the awful "update", I would like to clarify:
No, I will not be changing my service. I'm on a contract, so believe me when I say I would if I could. Thanks for your concern.
What are you, blind? The old one was fine, this version looks like a confused student playing with oval shapes in MS Paint.
Believe it or not, the "Classic" setting I keep seeing suggest actually does NOT return it to classic as you've been spreading lies about. In fact, "Classic" makes it display 4 channels per page instead of the new 6, opposed to the previous 8. So stop suggesting that. You know who you are.
To the guy who is happy they won't change it back to the old interface for us, well, forget you.
Apparently there was a poll on which layout people preferred. Here's an idea, if you want accurate statistics, put it in the channel guide itself. I always get spammed about some new 'feature' or widget I don't care about when you guys release it. Make a poll widget so we can show you how godawful this theme is, please. Don't forget to delay the channel guide from opening until the data loads, because we all love waiting for our precious widgets when trying to change the channel.
Now I'm not going to cry my heart out for the obviously superior previous theme, but would it kill you guys to add an actual classic option? I much prefer the old theme, and so does my Aunt, Father, Mother, 3 Cousins, and grandparents who use this service. In fact, nobody in my family prefers the new theme and it really shocks me people find this more ... visually pleasing than the old one.
If you're a newbie here and don't actually know the glory of the amazing old channel guide, here it is:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/02/2-5-08-fios-tv-screen.jpg
Amazing isn't it? A true gift from the gods. I don't know who messed up the volcano dance, but it's been taken away now.
So what's it take to get this done?
I've literally never used the forums before. I've seen some annoying crap with this service, but this has fed me up so much I took the time to register an account here. Believe me when I say there are others who feel this way.

Small fonts and light blue/light black/light white combination reminds of a project that I was on where the development was done overseas (meaning, no graphics design experience). It took me multiple meetings and calls to get them change it to something not so hard on the eyes. So, what you are seeing in fonts and color choices is really what some overseas software coolie with a couple of computer courses has come up with in the first 3 months of his/her first job. The coolie is thrilled by that very first effort, the contracting company fulfilled its obligation, the temps in Verizon met their targets and the bosses met their milestones.
However, somebody forgot to the user acceptance testing. Forget the beta guys. If there was a UAT, it would have failed in glowing colors (with excellent contrast - pun intended).
As for me, I can leave because my contract obligations expired a year ago. I am now examining the options available to me outside of verizon.

Similar Messages

Channel Guide Update - Questions & Concerns

In speaking with customer support this morning, it would appear that my only recourse for letting Verizon know that I don’t like the new Channel Guide is to make a post on the forums and this seems like the most applicable one.
To start, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old channel guide and I can’t figure out what the new guide does better aside from possibly displaying 2 additional channels per page…at the cost of incorporating a GIANT active dvr UI (user interface), an awful color scheme and a PiP window in the channel guide that seems to have had its size reduced to about ¼ of the previous one.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to change the display back to the old style or at least something close to it? I only had 15 minutes to play around with it this morning before work, but the rest of the new display styles are even worse than the standard one and I was hoping there was another options section that I didn’t notice as far as the overall display goes.
For those of you who use the verizon DVR services, that display has also changed and I can only assume that it’s geared towards displaying commercials while we use the dvr functions b/c there’s no other reason for it to take up so much room on the screen at the moment.
The previous dvr display used to consist of a small horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that displayed the basic channel info (channel #, name of the show, run time etc etc), showed you the speed at which it was rewinding or fast forwarding and the point in the show that you were currently watching. With the update, the DVR window is MASSIVE and it has to be taking up close to 1/3 of the screen when you hit the FF, RW or play button. However, even with the new giant dvr display, there’s nothing being utilized in the actual display and I have a feeling it’s going to be used for corporate commercials or simply advertising verizon on-demand programming.
The new channel guide is clearly slower than the old one too and as I said earlier, I just didn’t see anything that warranted the huge makeover and I have trouble understanding how this new version of the channel guide could’ve possibly been beta tested by anyone and wound up in this state.
I love the verizon internet speed and I’ve come to find that their customer service is excellent, but this change was possibly enough to make me drop the full package I currently utilize and simply maintain the internet going forward for the sake of accessing websites like hulu & netflix for my television needs.

Agreed. The new guide format is slow, the text is difficult to read, but worst of all, you can only see a few channels at
a time when scrolling. With hundreds of channels, you need to be able to glance at many channel listings quickly
on one screen, before quickly scrolling to the next screen.
I agree this is so bad that I will have to look at cable or satellite options if the old channel guide is not restored, at least
as an option. It was great! Why fix what isn't broken? Or more to the point, why break something that was an asset
to the service?
If FIOS tries to hold me to whatever the term of my contract period and penalizes me for dropping the service, my
position would be that the service provided by FIOS with the new channel guide is materially and adversely different from
what I signed up for, and this unilateral change on the part of Verizon voids my obligations under the deal. But all
I really want is the option to return to the prior channel guide format.

V1.9 Channel Guide - Questions & Concerns

In speaking with customer support this morning, it would appear that my only recourse for letting Verizon know that I don’t like the new Channel Guide is to make a post on the forums and this looks more appropriate that the tech forums after looking around a bit.
Cable Television issues:
To start, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old channel guide and I can’t figure out what the new guide does better aside from possibly displaying a few more channels per page…at the cost of incorporating a GIANT active dvr UI (user interface), an awful color scheme and a PiP window in the channel guide that seems to have had its size reduced to about ¼ of the previous one.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to change the display back to the old style or at least something close to it? I only had 15 minutes to play around with it this morning before work, but the rest of the new display styles are even worse than the standard one and I was hoping there was another options section that I didn’t notice as far as the overall display goes.
DVR issues:
For those of you who use the verizon DVR services, that display has also changed and I can only assume that it’s geared towards displaying commercials while we use the dvr functions b/c there’s no other reason for it to take up so much room on the screen at the moment.
The previous dvr display used to consist of a small horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that displayed the basic channel info (channel #, name of the show, run time etc etc), showed you the speed at which it was rewinding or fast forwarding and the point in the show that you were currently watching. With the update, the DVR window is MASSIVE and it has to be taking up close to 1/3 of the screen when you hit the FF, RW or play button. However, even with the new giant dvr display, there’s nothing being utilized in the actual display and I have a feeling it’s going to be used for corporate commercials or simply advertising verizon on-demand programming.
The new channel guide is clearly slower than the old one and the dvr seems sluggish too. As I said earlier, I just didn’t see anything that warranted the huge makeover and I have trouble understanding how this new version of the channel guide could’ve possibly been beta tested by anyone and wound up in this state.
I love the verizon internet speed and I’ve come to find that their customer service is excellent, but this change was possibly enough to make me drop the full package I currently utilize and simply maintain the internet going forward for the sake of accessing websites like hulu & netflix for my television needs.

The only thing that’s changed about my opinion of the new channel guide after having a chance to really play around with it after work yesterday is that it’s even worse than I had initially thought.
While I think the color scheme is really ugly and a poor choice, at least it wasn’t handled as badly as the new layouts. I mean, really….there’s so much empty & wasted space that it’s hard to understand how this could’ve been beta tested or handled by professionals unless there really are going to be a lot of additional advertisements eventually crammed into the channel guide layout while we’re looking through the guide or dvr.
The search bar at the bottom of the screen, which now causes dvr function & channel info displays to take up over 1/3 of the screen, contains NOTHING except for the basic channel info, the time and an indicator that you should hit the ‘B’ button to open the search function. It could’ve easily been reduced by at least 50% considering how little information it actually displays…yet someone thought it would be better if it obscured a lot of screen space.
It wouldn’t be so bad, but on top of taking up a lot of screen space, this new search bar shows up all over the guide layouts. As it brings almost nothing to the table and presents the information as poorly as possible, I can only assume that Verizon REALLY wants people to start using the search function b/c there’s absolutely no reason for it to take up so much space.
There are some new channel guide options for different layouts and while I hate just about everything related to v1.9, I will say this; the ‘Channel Guide’ listing is almost useful in that it can be used as a secondary guide option to view a particular channels lineup for the day. Unfortunately, someone decided that it needed to have giant channel logos, so that section takes up about 25% of the layout for that guide. While it’s a nice layout for the intended purpose, outside of the stupid channel logos hogging up so much room, I’m not really sure why this was needed vs the previous method of simply pressing the button that scrolls to the right for a particular channel once you’re in the guide.
The layout that’s most similar to the old guide, Full Listing, has an absurd amount of empty space that’s being sacrificed for the aforementioned giant search bar at the bottom of the guide, a window carved out for channel logos that’s about 2x-3x too big for the actual logos being used and another empty space below the logo window where 2 channel numbers are displayed. Here we have yet another baffling instance of awful layout implementation for no apparent reason. Aside from eventually forcing us to watch more advertisements, I can’t even begin to imagine how this passed some kind of final approval b/c there’s no reason to have so much empty space when redesigning any kind of layout.
The other glaring mistake in the Full listing layout is that the display indicator that shows you where you’re at in a particular channel block and/or show is at the top of the screen. Which, if you think about it, was a poor decision since the channel guide always stays in the middle of the channel block you’re viewing and the new bar doesn’t seem to lineup properly with the shows based on watching some tv last night. The old layout let you know exactly where you were with the show you’re watching whereas the new is displayed in such a way that it’s become more of a ‘close guestimate’ since it will never overlap with the actual show you’re watching as it’s now anchored to the top of the guide.
Here’s a free one, the channel you have highlighted in the channel guide should have the time display bar right above it so that you don’t need to look in two places at once to see where shows start/end and where you’re actually at in relation to the programming.
To be fair, I didn’t notice any sluggishness last night as everything seemed to be moving very smoothly and I’m using hardware that’s at least 3-4 years old. Maybe they patched something or maybe the earlier sluggishness was just a temporary inconvenience. However, I still haven’t found anything that comes even remotely close to warranting the implementation of a new program guide aside from the proposed theory of eventually forcing us to view advertisements via the vast amounts of empty space that were purposely chosen for the current layout.

New Channel Guide is Even Smaller Than Before

We have two TVs connected to Verizon FiOS. One TV is on a DVR and the other is simply on a set-top box. The TV on the set-top box has a channel guide that shows seven channels over 2 1/2 hours in full HD (9x16) format. It has always been superior and doesn't seem to have changed with the Feb. 4 update. The channel guide on the TV with the DVR used to show only six channels over 1/12 hours in old 3x4 format. The Feb. 4 upgrade made it even worse, now it only shows five channels over 1/12 hours in 3x4 format. All we want is for the channel guide at the DVR to be as good as the one with the set-top box. I tried and tried to change settings on the TV and DVR but cannot fix it. I phoned Verizon technical support and was told that our Motorola DVR simply cannot accommodate the guide that our Motorola set-top box does. He added that the service in our area cannot change to Cisco or other DVRs that might support better guides. We should not pay the premium for a DVR when it has a poorer channel guide than a set-top box. It is hard to understand why Motorola would produce a better set-top box than DVR, if the set-top box and DVR are really the culprits.
We like to view at least six channels at a time so we can see all the broadcast channels in our area at a time; we like to view more than 1 1/2 hours at a time so we can see later times without shifting so much; and we prefer to have a full 9x16 HD guide when we are paying for HD service.
We were told that our Motorola DVR cannot support a channel guide that shows seven channels over 2 1/2 hours in full HD format, like our Motorola set-top box does. Is this correct? What can we do about it?
Do other regions have better guides with their DVRs? Why?
If you can provide us with an effective solution, we would be appreciative. If not, then please submit this as a complaint to your closed-loop corrective and preventive action system and notify us accordingly by email.
Thanks, Tom {edited for privacy}

So I just checked my STBs.
I have a 7100P2 HD STB and a 7232 HD DVR.
Both show 7X2.5 hours.
What model DVR do you have.
The 6416 does not support a HD guide and will show less channels that a 72XX series DVR.
If a forum member gives an answer you like, give them the Kudos they deserve. If a member gives you the answer to your question, mark the answer as Accepted Solution so others can see the solution to the problem.

New channel guide push wiped our dvr and pause / rewind of live tv doesn't work anymore

The new channel guide, which I am not fond of, we found out the day it appeared had wiped out all of our recorded programs, all of our recording schedules and the pause / rewind does not work on our dvr anymore. This would normally be ok waiting for a representative to contact us but having an autistic child at home and having to try and explain why all of the programming we allow him to watch has been wiped has caused a serious problem in our house. If we could have had warning that this was going to happen or even be a possibility we could have tried and done something to work with the situation. Now we are left with a situation where all we are doing is trying to calm our son down. Not fun...

We determined what the problem is. When the channel guide was pushed down, we were remodeling our master bedroom and had the receiver unplugged and unhooked from the wall. Our dvr was acting like a receiver with no hard drive. I plugged the bedroom receiver back in and rebooted the dvr. The dvr is acting as it should. Why would a push reprogram a dvr to act like a diskless receiver?

Channel Guide not Full Screen

Since the new update for the FIOS cable box, the channel guide will not fill the screen. I did some research and found that it is because I have one of the older models of cable boxes.
I called Verizon and the supprt tech told me that I could order a replacement but there was no guarantee it would be one of the newer models as they cannot specify the model.
I was directed to the Verizon site where I could request a high capacity DVR but there is a wait list and it would cost $40.00.
Does anyone know how I can get a newer model without a fee or is that going to be a given?
Thanks in advance.

Go to one of their stores is the most relibale.
Otherwise play pot luck on asking for a replacement. Tell them you need one that supports adding a external disk, and you might have better luck getting a 7216 or 7232, since the 6416 does not support esata which is needed for an external drive.

Averaging selected range based on value of another channel

I have one channel, X, with a bunch of integer values from 0 to 90. I also have another channel with various corresponding data, lets call it Y. I would like to find the average and standard deviation for all of the values in Y that have a 0 in its corresponding X row, then the same for all values in Y that have a 1 in its corresponding row and etc, all the way up to 90. Is there an easy way to do this? Perhaps there is a way to sort the data and put all the Y values into new channels that are grouped according to their X values?

Hi Martin,
You have a couple of options. You could indeed use the FormulaCalc() command to split out various rows from your data channel that all have the same index into a new data channel and do this for each index. Alternatively, you could determine which rows contain a certain index, then use the StatBlockCalc() function to determine statistics from only these rows of your data channel:
Dim Channel, Msg
Channel = "[1]/Time"
For i = 1 To 22
StatSel(i) = "No"
Next
StatSel(4) = "Yes" ' Minimum
StatSel(5) = "Yes" ' Maximum
StatSel(6) = "Yes" ' Arith. mean
StatSel(14) = "Yes" ' Standard Deviation
Call StatBlockCalc("Channel", "1-13", Channel)
Msg = Msg & "Min = " & StatMin & vbCRLF
Msg = Msg & "Ave = " & StatArithMean & vbCRLF
Msg = Msg & "Max = " & StatMax & vbCRLF
Msg = Msg & "Dev = " & StatDeviation
MsgBox Msg
Note that if you have DIAdem 10.1 you should loop up to 23,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

Channel guide

no info on blue banner on bottom of screen when changing channels. No info on channel guide -TV listings says "to be announced" It disappeared from tv about 3 days ago. what happened?

Hi chartam415, in reviewing your account I am seeing some poor signals that are likely affecting your guide. Can you please let us know if ComcastTeds refresh signals helped? Also I will be sending you a private message to schedule a technician if you are still having issues.
Also if you haven't already please make sure that the coax cable on the back of the box is screwed on tight bypassing any un-needed or gold splitters. After please power cycle the set top box by unplugging for the power cord for 10 seconds and plug back in. If you are still having this issue please let me know.
Thank you

Record to VCR while watching another channel

Will the STB output 2 channels simultaneously, so I can record a program on my old low-def VCR while watching another channel?

None of the Verzion boxes can output more than what is being viewed. Even the DVR which has 2 tuners is incapable of outputing 2 different channels / programs.
Does that make it clear?
If a forum member gives an answer you like, give them the Kudos they deserve. If a member gives you the answer to your question, mark the answer as Accepted Solution so others can see the solution to the problem.

Bad readings when another channel maps ranges

Two channels read about half correct voltage, but only if another channel (several A/D channels away) is set to Map Ranges with correct values. If set to Map ranges with defaults, or No Scaling, then the channels read correctly. This is verified in two different applications reading the same channel list.

It is a little hard to figure out what exactly might be going on with the information provided. What application are you testing this on? What version of NI-DAQ do you have installed onto your machine? Are you using virtual channels for all of your inputs?
Using the test panels on my machine, I was able to play around with the Map Ranges setting in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) but was unable to duplicate the results that you are seeing. I would be sure to verify that your virtual channels are indeed referencing separate channels and that the settings are being saved and set as you would expect. Do you see these results in the Test Panels in MAX?
I was not able to find any report of this type of phenomenon happening so hopefully it is just a set
ting that we are overlooking on your system. If you are still having this problem, then provide a little more information and we can see what we can do. Thank you!
Regards,
Michael H
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Favorite channel guide not available

My favorite channel guide not available on two TV sets.I have unplugged the power from the box w/o any luck. This has been occuring for several weeks. Please help.

This is usually a communication issue back to the X1 servers... if you would like some help from the users of the forums, can you post your Upstream Power Level, your SNR and your downstream power levels for others gto see and comment on? You undoubtedly may need a TECH onsite to clean up your signals, but posting those levels here can confirm this.

Personalized channel guide

I'm new to FiOS TV and find myself facing many of the same questions, and disappointments, I had as a Comcast customer. For example, channel clutter.
The package I subscribe to has dozens of channels I will truly never, ever, ever watch even though I am subscribed to them by default within my package. Checking the guide requires scrolling past listings of all those channels I don't care about. Channel surfing is like walking through mud it's so thick with uninteresting channels.
For decades TVs have allowed users to quickly and easily add/delete channels from showing up when surfing. That's pretty much what I'm looking for - get the unwanted channels off the guide, out of search results, and never appear when I'm surfing.
I think I could create a "Favorites" set if I had the patience. But adding each channel via the web UI requires four separate clicks:
On the little heart at the left of the guide
Choosing Favorites 1 or 2
Save
Closing the "Your channel was added to Favorites" window
I just don't have the patience for 200 or so clicks just to create my personalized favorites list.
Someone please tell me there's a better, meaning faster and easier, way to customize my viewing experience. I feel like I have gone backward 20 years in flexibility.
Thanks,
Jay

Thanks for trying but it doesn't really help.
The new system sucks. CHANGE IT BACK!!!!

Channel Guide completely wrong for Stanley Cup Hockey

Just wanted to report the dismal job that Fios did managing both of the Stanley Cup Game 7's that were on tonight. I set up my DVR to record the Washington Capitals Game which was shown as being on Channel 590. Fortunately I turned on the TV to see that 590 was actually playing some history of cold war era hockey...the game was actually on 576 which was incorrectly listed as MLS Soccer. This is NOT the first time I have seen this happen either. I quickly switched to record 576 instead, but that was only a short program which stopped recording in the middle of the game...because I overlooked the fact that I would have needed to record the next 9 shows to actually get the whole game. Really? Someone can't update the guide with 24 hours notice?
To add insult to injury I was also trying to watch the Bruins game 7 and was recording it as well. When I came back to watch it, the "poker" recording that was actually the Bruins game was completely missing, meaning I did not get to see any of the overtime. I have a witness who saw this entire fiasco unfold.
What a horrible TV experience for two big game 7's.
Oh yeah, and the Fios TV rates went up $10 this month. Certainly NOT a happy customer.

What area are you in? Because it was listed correctly in our area on the guide last night.
However, when a game is being broadcast nationally - and also on the local RSN, no matter what the sport - it will show up in the guide, even if it's being blacked out. The national broadcast is subject to local blackout nearly all the time when the local RSN is broadcasting the same game. This happens frequently with the Mets and Yankees. When they are on ESPN or MLB Network in a game that isn't an exclusive national broadcast, the game will still show up on the ESPN or MLB Network guide info for every provider - FiOS, DIrectv, Comcast, etc. Even though it's blacked out locally.
Hope that made sense.

The Sender agreement has another channel

Hi all you guys
I have the following problem:
I create a scenario RFC --> XI --> JDBC in wich I configure the sender agreement:
SERVICE : SYSTEM A
INTERFACE: INTERFACE A
COMM CHANNEL: cc_sender_RFC_A
THEN I create another cc by security issues with the user that is used in the first cc for another scenario RFC --> XI -- JDBC and its sender agreement was created like that
SERVICE : SYSTEM A
INTERFACE: INTERFACE B
COMM CHANNEL: cc_sender_RFC_B
but in the RWB its trow the following error:
Wrong Sender Agreement:The Sender agreement does not have channel cc_sender_RFC_B configured for the function module
INTERFACE A
IINTERFACE A and INTERFACE B are function modules.
Any ideas with that?

Hi,
When you are sending messages from same system in both the cases what is the need of creating another communication channel?
Thanks,
Vijay Kumar T.

Web Channel Guides

Hi
Is there any place where I can find the elearning or step by step guides for Web Channel
Regards
JM

Hi John,
There are e-Learning (RKT) materials availabile but requires customer access. You may want to check internally for accessibility.
You can also go to the service marketplace for web channel information:
[https://service.sap.com/crm |https://service.sap.com/crm ] Then select SAP CRM 7.0 --> Web Channel. The PDFs found here are comprable to what you would find in the RKT materials.
For the technical guide, the "Development and Enhancement" guide is the place to go. You can find that guide on the SAP service marketplace under 'instguides" (alias). The guide can be found under SAP Business Suite Applications -> SAP CRM -> SAP CRM 4.0 -> E-Commerce Installation Guides. The way modifications are done has not changed dramatically at all from the 4.0 release to the current 7.0 release.
Hope this helps.
Deb

Another Channel Guide Rant

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