I made the switch from Bell TV and Shaw phones and internet to Telus in March. I have 1 PVR and 2 HD STBs with 2HD/1SD. Basic phone and 15Mbps internet.
Here is my review if you are interested.
The installer - He was quick, clean, friendly and on time. He got the job done in no time but he had everything he needed in the right places. He gave me his card and told me to call him if I ran into any issues in the next couple of days...and then after that to go through Telus.
The deal I got:
I did 1 month of "month to month service" just to see if the service was any good before I locked in. It seems pretty good so after 1 month I locked into a 3 year contract and they gave me:
1 HD PVR rental for free for 3 years
2 HD STB rentals for free for 3 years
6 month discount pricing...basically half price for all the services for the first 6 months.
Pros of the services:
Cheap! - I am paying a little less for all three services with Telus then what I was paying for just TV from Bell. I have the You pick HD package with the movie channels and a couple of individual channels. After 6 months the cost of all three services with Telus will still be less then when I had Bell and Shaw services.
PVRanywhere - I had my house back fed with my Bell receiver so I am use to PVRanywhere but this is still the best feature as I should be able to watch what I want in whatever room I want.
Remote PVR - I do not use this feature a lot but it is nice to have. Telus' Remote PVR is much better than Bell's remote PVR as far as speed and interface go.
HD picture quality is equal or better when compared to Bell. Hard to tell fore sure as I don't have both services side by side.
You can use coaxial or cat5 cable for TV. I have a mixture so it was nice not to have to run any new wiring.
The interface is 17895447857843 times better than the Shaw interface. Clean and crisp...easy to navigate.
Cons:
Glitchy or jerky picture at times...like what you get when watching a movie on your computer. Have even had a few recordings jump ahead a few seconds.
I never missed a show I had scheduled with my Bell PVR in the 6 years I had the service. With Telus I missed a whole weeks worth of recordings. I didn't catch this as I was busy watching playoff hockey and not worrying about the shows I had set to record. A simple restart of the PVR fixed everything but extremely annoying and what are the chances that this will never happen again?
The remotes for the STBs are well laid out...better than Shaw's horrid remote but not as nice as the Bell remote...but they need to be pointed directly at the STB in order to work. I am use to my Bell remote that can be pointed anywhere...could be in another room...could be under 20 blankets and still work.
The STBs are slow to respond to the remote when they are first turned on. I'm guessing this is because they are like mini computers and everything needs to be loaded into memory or whatever. Once they have been on for a few minutes the remotes are more responsive and the GUI interface is quicker.
Internet speeds are a little disappointing. I am getting less than the 15mbps that I am paying for. I maybe get 12mpbs with the TVs off and around 9mbps when I am recording. I haven't seen anything over 12mbps yet. Definitely not getting the same quality of service as I was with Shaw internet. If I was to do it again I would have stayed with Shaw internet and did Telus phone and TV.
I can't remember ever having to reset my Shaw modem or ever having internet problems with Shaw. With Telus I have had to reset my router at least 3 times already because either the internet speeds were horrid (wires and wireless) or my laptop wasn't talking to the router anymore.
The router is very basic and missing a few common things that I would like to be able to do...like give out static IP's. Not a huge issue.
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