Time Warner Cable: Worst TV Interface Ever?

I’m making Julie saying “Let’s watch Honey Boo Boo” into a ring tone. Hilarious!

This is so completely true.  Being used to Comcast and DirecTV, my family and I were subjected to TWC this summer having been in Maine for a couple of months.  it is by far the most buggy, convoluted, unresponsive interface I have experienced on a digital video system of any kind.  The menus make little sense, things are buried where they shouldn’t be, and the remote design is a step above primitive.  Once I felt like I finally got the gist of it after a few weeks, they “updated the software” to an even more confusing menu layout, where we were constantly getting kicked out of one menu and back to the beginning as we made selections.  At that point we pretty much just stopped using VoD, and just recorded to DVR or watched in real time.  And even the DVR and general navigation menus were buggy and unresponsive.

I feel like a complete and utter nerd writing all of this, but the nightmare is still fresh in my mind, so it feels good to vent to someone else who felt the pain.

Well at least your TV is working…so now you can be frustrated with that POS cable box.  FYI the green button is your DVR List (your recordings).

Better yet, get rid of that turd and get a TiVo Premier XL…VoD is a joke anyway.

Far better reliability and interface and if you’re ummm too frugal to get a universal control system the peanut remote blows all other OEM controllers away!

Time Warner Bright House in the Tampa Bay area the worst cable provider in the US.  Over five months and 30 technicians TV Box problems, internet what a joke edge was faster, yet they wanted there invoices paid for non service.  What is this country coming to.

I agree totally with this article!  I just moved from Chicago and had Comcast.  Expensive, yes, but the slightly “cheesier” looking GUI was very easy to navigate.  I’ve had TWC in Kansas City now for about a month - and am very frustrated with it.  Sure hope it changes soon….

You want a bad remote (small buttons plus very un-ergonomic placement of major DVR controls) plus “hidden” menus? Just try CenturyLink Prism TV! And don’t get me started on the “being able to record four shows at once from the whole-home DVR” . . . what’s the POINT when only ONE can be HD?? We’ve had the service since June (after switching from Bright House Networks (a TWC partner and “spinoff”) and my poor wife still hasn’t figured out how to access recorded shows.

Folks, take a trip to South Jersey, stones throw away from Philly!! Pretty much where Comcast began, and check out Comcast’s service… One step ahead of the good ole rabbit ears!! We have the oldest equipment and network. The menu still looks like something from the 70’s/80’s and it is just horrible to look at.. I have a better shot of grabbing a box of crayons and drawing my own menu on my TV screen. And to make matters worse their service is horrible.. Switched back to Comcast a little over a year ago and the sound cuts out every day and the screen pixelettes every day!! Hey Mr Roberts, fix your crap and I will make sure I pay my bill on time!!!

It’s all relative. This summer we vacationed in New Hampshire and the house had TWC. We could not get over how much BETTER it was than our Charter Communications interface at home.

You liked that, Seth?

I’m not going to say I think it’s the best interface ever but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as you’re making it out to be. It’s laggy at times I will give you that. As far as needing to go to the help menu to get the DVR list is just simply not true. Yes you CAN get to it that way but if you cant figure out how to get to it by hitting a single button on your remote than that’s your problem. Same goes with OD. It’s not nearly as hard as you are making it out to be. I found that show OD in less that 20 seconds. Entertainment od, scroll over to TLC select honey bobo and then what episode you want to watch.

Like I said I’m not saying it’s all that but most all of the things you are complaining about are user error. I work in IT I know ALL ABOUT user error

Julie,

You are wrong.

It is *NOT* the worst TV interface ever.
It is THE WORST INTERFACE of anything ever created in the history of man.

Take everything you rightly called out, and then add in that they just change features on a whim. One day something works, the next day it doesn’t. The day after, a menu item moves. What a complete mess.

And don’t even get me started that on their new boxes (like the one you obviously have) 30 skip is unavailable, even though it clearly is supported generally.

We are giving them a few more months before we switch, and we work very hard to tell our story to anyone who will listen.

Ugh.

it was designed in a South Central Asian country by low rate engineers.  No UIX input other than color scheme and font.

This is what happens when MBA’s get tasked with rolling something out.

i have universal control which is helpful many shows seem to overlap the times and conflict forces you to decide not to record the next show in the guide.

I feel your pain Julie.  You obviously haven’t seen WOW’s GUI.  You and I are peas in a very painful pod.

I’m this close to going Hulu full time. Great story that needs telling.