Searching for your favourite shows just got easier
By: calendar iconJuly 21st, 2011 a 1:42pm

Rogers Quick Start Menu SearchEver tried searching for a show with a title beginning with the word “The?” What about trying to find that new Modern Family episode among thousands of M-titled options?  Not always easy, right? That’s why we’re introducing new search capabilities as part of our ongoing enhancements to Rogers Quick Start Menu.

What’s new?

The Search area of the Quick Start Menu now allows you to search for your favourite shows using a full onscreen keyboard. Even if you only know the name of the actor in a particular show, or the channel it’s on, you’ll now be able to find any show because you’re able to search by:

  • Program title
  • Keyword
  • Actor/Actress
  • Director
  • Genre
  • Channel Name/Number

The Search functionality will search among all TV content in the Guide, up to 7 days. On Demand and PVR Searches are coming soon.

How does it work?

There are two ways to access the search:

  • Press the * on your remote or,
  • On the Quick Start Menu, scroll down to Search

Now, let’s say you want to watch Entourage. Usually, you’d press the E button and have scroll through dozens of shows until you landed on the one you want. Now, all you have to do is use the arrows on the remote to start entering the first few letters of your search. As you type, intuitive search results will start to appear on the right hand side so you can just toggle over and highlight the right search result. From here, you can tune into the show if it’s currently playing, set to record, set a reminder or see other available showings. Another neat feature is that you can look at the cast and crew of a specific episode and then further drill down into other programs the cast might be in.

When will I get the new Search functionality?

Customers with the a Quick Start Menu enabled cable box should already have the enhanced Search functionality. The Search functionality excludes SA 2000/2010 and PACE 551/501 set top boxes, and is currently not available on Cisco 8642HDPVR and Cisco 4642HD yet, but we’re working on it. We’ll let you know when we have more news to share about availability on these boxes.

If you have a compatible cable box but cannot access Search, try rebooting.

How do I find the Quick Start menu?

Most customers will find it when they first hit the GUIDE button. If you re-sequenced your remote, simply hit GUIDE twice to find it.

Have you tried the enhanced search capabilities yet?

Miranda MacDonald is a regular contributor to RedBoard

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 2.1/5 (14 votes cast)
Searching for your favourite shows just got easier, 2.1 out of 5 based on 14 ratings
category iconCategories:
Cable TV, Customer experience
tag iconTags:
, , , , , , , , , ,

share this

Jump to Comment Form
  1. EROCK says: July 21st, 2011 a 1:47pm

    Ok, this is getting ridiculous. The PVR you sell everyone now at every store is not enabled for the last 2 great things you’ve told us about (the iphone app and now the search capability). I don’t understand why you guys focus on OLD technology first. You should WANT people to adopt your NEW technology to get rid of your OLD technology. This is just a constant slap if the face for people that upgraded/purchased a new box in the last year.

    “Hey, look at this GREAT NEW TECHONOLOGY available only for OLD HARDWARE!!! WE’RE AWESOME!!!”

  2. E Palpatine says: July 21st, 2011 a 1:54pm

    “…but we’re working on it.”

    The x642 boxes have been out for nearly a year now. It is suprising that the quick guide, call display, and other “promoted” features from Rogers are not yet working on these boxes. It would also be interesting to know when the multi-room PVR functionality of these boxes would be implemeted.

  3. David says: July 21st, 2011 a 2:21pm

    >We’ll let you know when we have more news to share about availability on these boxes.

    I don’t want to be argumentative here, but with a continued rollout of new features that EXCLUDES the most recent/most expensive PVRs Rogers sells, I need more information about exactly WHEN Rogers will bring new features to the products that it has been selling with the promise of new features to come.

    From the RedBoard April 2010 article introducing the 8642.
    >We’re confident that these new PVRs and the upcoming technology and Interactive Programming Guide >enhancements later this year will address those requests.

    I sure took this as a clear statement that the 8642 was the path to a better cable box future at Rogers. And here we are over a year later, and my new 8642 has seen NOTHING in the way of real improvements. I feel, frankly, hugely disappointed and frustrated and angry. I have no idea what real benefit I got for my investment of $500 in Rogers hardware. Sure seems that I would have been better off sticking with my rental 8300HD.

  4. Tom says: July 21st, 2011 a 4:05pm

    Why could this search function not be made a part of the Guide itself rather than as part of the Quick Start? You might remember the furor caused when Quick Start was first introduced. The fact that the new search function is part of Quick Start seems to me that Rogers is making another attempt to resurrect Quick Start. The search function belongs as part of the IPG!

  5. Matt Gorman says: July 21st, 2011 a 5:46pm

    ~Good job Rogers! Way to introduce great new software that no one can use.
    When you do get around to making this software work with the Cisco PVRs can you make sure that the PC application that goes along with it works only with Windows 2000 and ME? That would be great.~

    P.S. The ~ symbol denotes sarcasm.

  7. RogersMiranda says: July 22nd, 2011 a 3:33pm

    Hey everyone (@EROCK, @EPalpatine, @Matt Gorman, @David, @Tom)

    We’re actively working to bring all the features (like Caller ID, Remote TV Manager and Advanced Search) to the 8642 and 4642 models. We anticipate that these features will be available early next year. I’ve passed this feedback onto the team here. Appreciate your patience while these features are under development.

  8. Lisa P says: July 22nd, 2011 a 5:04pm

    Congratulations Rogers – so I guess you got your will at the end – forcing people to use the joke of a Quick Start Guide. Way to stay on top of customer wants

  9. Chris Saunders says: July 22nd, 2011 a 5:06pm

    Are you not embarrassed when announcing these things ? Rogers just can’t stop coming short…

  10. E Palpatine says: July 25th, 2011 a 12:59pm

    “We anticipate that these features will be available early next year.”

    This would be nearly 1.5 years from when the boxes were initially released, and promoted as being a more advanced box than currently available.

    Maybe Rogers should have waited until it had the technology in place to function on these boxes before selling them to its customers.

  11. Paul says: July 25th, 2011 a 9:56pm

    Early next year? With the speed technology evolves someone at Rogers actually thinks that having these features not being implemented in the latest PVR’s until next year is acceptable? I would suggest that Rogers sign some sort of deal with TiVo and use their hardware. When I bought the 8642 in December the advertising indicated that it was a far better box than it is, the search features on my Toshiba PVR that I bought 6 years ago is far superior to what is found in the 8642. As a customer who has multiple services with Rogers I am not impressed.