In the department of ironically named features... comes Rogers' new "Quick Start" menu. This replaces the normal handy dandy program guide with a new menu system with links and some minor new features:

* Link to the actual program guide
* Link to the recorded programs menu
* Links to so-called "mix" channels, which are 6 PIP screens for news, sports or kids. You can change the audio by moving the cursor from PIP window to window. These, however, are accessable as normal TV channels and don't require the menu system.
* A nested menu system with all HD channels sorted into categories... even the ones you don't get. Also a similar menu for On Demand channels.
* The weather (considering that if you have a cable box you also have the weather network...)
* 4 rather small games
* A link to reboot the box (actually this could be handy, save for the fact that the menu is probably not going to be working right when you need this)

So, it's all kind of useless fluff. The problem is that the GUIDE button now brings this up. If I want the actual program guide, which I use countless times every day, I have to hit GUIDE a second time (but not too quickly - you have to wait a couple seconds for the screen to load or it does nothing).

Of course what's most irksome is that the remotes that Rogers uses have two particular buttons: GUIDE and MENU (plus of course LIST and SETUP). Previously, these both did the exact same thing: bring up the program guide, because there wasn't anything else for MENU to do.

Now? They both bring up the Quick Start menu. Why didn't they put Quick Start on MENU? Or if they wanted to force current in-a-comfortable-routine customers to see that by default, they could have at least put Guide on MENU.

It sounds like what I call "feature soup". I refuse to give Rogers any more of my money so I canceled their service a few years ago. The only thing cable, or satellite, have going for them is the specialty channels. You can get Biography & History for free on FTA anyway.

This reminds me so much of Sony's camcorders in the early 2000's, when they decided to simplify the user interface by putting on a touchscreen and removing almost all regular buttons for manual functions. The end result was everything neatly and logically stored in nested menus you could access simply by tapping the screen.

The problem: it was slow and utterly unusable if you actually wanted any of those manual features.

A couple of generations later they did a full 180 - scrapped the touchscreen and put on a button for everything. I have one of those first prosumer models with that concept, the HDR-FX1. It has 38 buttons, 12 switches, 2 toggles, 2 wheels, 2 rings and 1 dial.

I guess people will complain and they will change it to , Menu bringing the Quick start and Guide then showing the EPG as you suggested. The Bell TV remote works that way BTW. They acctually needed to do something about the HD channels though , it is nice to have a way to show HD channels only on the EPG like we Bell users can.

Donnyjaguar, until very recently A&E HD and History HD were also available in the clear on C-Band. There is also more HD stuff either as feeds or as a regular channel on C Band but still for some people Pay TV providers are a viable and good choice. It is a shame though that as a customer you pay for a service that has less quality than what it is available either OTA or via FTA satellite signals.
Some of this signals are what is called a master HD feed with lots of bandwith allocated to them , therefore the quality is amazing , altough it would not be fair to pretend that the TV providers (even OTA) are supposed to deliver that quality to the masses. It would be like asking the Music industry to distribute and sell the master audio tracks to the masses.

It doesn't work that way. The generally inaccurately named "What's On" menu only *lists* HD channels. So you click on What's On, select High Definition, select a catagory such as Networks, Movies or Sports, and you get a bunch of channel names. Selecting a channel tunes that channel (or doesn't if you don't subscribe to that channel). There's no program listings at all in this section, the actual guide remains the same.

The whole thing feels like one of those third-rate "portal" sites loaded with useless features and advertising. 99% of what it offers is completely useless, and it even has spots for banner ads which you KNOW are eventually going to start mentioning how good Rogers home phone and cell phones are. Oh and would you like to subscribe to a magazine?

What they should have done is redesign the guide. Widescreen, high resolution, proper customization capabilities, better searching. They could have even implemented one of the few useful features from the QSM, the weather.

Wow , and I have been complaining about Bell TV , lol. The grass is not always greener on the neighborg's lawn eh?.

The sad part is when I really want to know about something coming on (ie. something simple like if it's NEW) I actually have to go to my Sony HD OTA system which uses TVGOS captured daily from PBS.

Possible saving grace?

I was just contacted from someone at Rogers who says that they will be adding a configuration option during the first week of March that will allow the program guide to come up on the first press of GUIDE... and I guess the QSM on the second press.

Oh my... Rogers keeps making the Quick Start Menu more and more useful. Now there's... get ready for it... BANNER ADS. Yes, the digital service I pay $2.99 extra per month to access over plain analog channels is now loaded with banner ads for burgers, insurance and cheap vacations.

I'm sorry, but you people are fools for wasting money on Rogers. There are other options.

What, Bell with primarily 720p resolution? My preferred reception is via OTA, but primary - especially for recorded programs - is still cable.

I just re-read my posting and apologize if I came across as rude. I'm just enthusiastic about my disdain for Rogers. :)