Additional Expectations of a Software Developer

“Mystro” was originally a project to compete with Tivo, created by AOL/Time Warner back in 2003 to try and revolutionize video/entertainment on demand by offering a onscreen navigator that is simple to use yet very advanced while also allowing TV networks to insert ads and restrict which shows could be recorded. The project fell apart at the time because of copyright issues and now it seems they’ve brought it back from the dead to cut down on costs from having to pay pioneer for the existing “Passport” software which was far superior and easier to use in my opinion.

Other features that are missing and/or suck:

• seems to be completely incompatible with certain boxes that TW provides, my mother is on her 3rd box because the last two models with this software would not save the HD output and aspect settings when using HDMI, she’s now back on her original box which does finally save the settings

• you can no longer pull up the guide and hit a single button to see all upcoming showtimes of the program that is being selected without having to search for it by letter or title first

• you only get the full info for a program when hitting info on the guide, but when watching the actual channel, the info is as basic as it gets

• recording a series now defaults to all episodes (reruns and new), and you do not get the record options unless you go into the series manager after setting it to record and modifying the options then

• numerous reported problems with audio and aspect when using HDMI, only way to resolve them is to reboot the box, which can take up to 10 minutes

• each time box is rebooted, software is re-installed

• the default sort order of the guide (which is why your numbers are screwed) is by showing favorites only, this needs to be set using the menu and then settings options to show “All Channels” otherwise you get so frustrated you want to rip the box apart with your bare hands because there are channels missing

• if you can’t remember the number of say HBO (285) and Press 284 on your remote, you get a nice big triple ??? symbol because 284 doesn’t exist and it keeps you on the existing channel instead of changing to the channel closest to 285

• PIP looks like a grainy VHS tape with less features

• many of my shows have only taped the last 10min or first 10min if there is a recording directly before or after that has been scheduled

• manual recordings have been removed, say you’d like to record 2 hrs of a 4 hour show, not possible anymore

• when the upgrade to the software occurred, somehow it brought back recordings that had been deleted over a year or more ago. All of these recordings showed up in the list as “Unknown Recording” and each one had to be viewed and then deleted again

In case of emergencies, the number to DirectTV is 1-888-777-2454