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boosterjuice · 05-30-2012, 10:58 AM

Gateway Initial Review by a Bell user(after 1 night usage):

Hey all, I got my new Gateway installed yesterday. Reporting back as promised.

What I have:
I’m currently with Shaw for my internet and phone service. I have x-treme internet package and unlimited long distance phone. For tv, I have Bell Satellite with (1) 9241 receiver in the bedroom and (1) 9242 dual mode receiver in my basement theatre room that also sends an SD signal to the living room. Three tvs in total. My monthly bill with Bell is $130/month. In total, I’m spending $240 a month for tv, internet, and phone.

My Gateway Setup:
I ordered the X-Large Gateway promo package. This gives me the gateway and three portals and bundles in phone and broadband50 (big upgrade over x-treme) internet service. My pricing is $139 per month for the first year, $169 for the second year, and $199 for the third year and thereafter. This pricing includes the monthly rental for the gateway system and (3) portals.

Installation:
Firstly, I was very impressed with the speed of install. I ordered it via phone on Monday and the installer came as scheduled yesterday morning. The install took approx 1.5hrs. I could tell the installer was in a hurray to leave to his next appt but he made sure to show me how to use it.

Menu and Interface:
I love the interface of the Gateway. It automatically divides channels up into genres for you through a very user-friendly menu system. This is completely different from the Bell guide that I am used to but I had no problem navigating. It divides the channels up based on sports, kids tv, HD, Movies, or all. The response time seems very fast in navigating from screen to screen. I notice some video stutter when switching between tv and menu. There are minor delays here and there but overall it is very fluid. The Gateway does have a traditional guide that is similar to Bell that you can use as an option.

Shaw onDemand:
Being a former Bell Sat user, I had no idea how amazing shaw ondemand was. From the limited advertisements that I have seen for this, I had thought that this was for movies only. For the uneducated (like I was), this applies to regular TV and free movies as well. I couldn't believe my eyes when I could pull up HBO programming ondemand and some in HD. This is also great for the rest of our family as the ondemand service has many kids programs as well. No more clogging my PVR with Dora the explorer, Diego, etc. These programs (and many others) are available ondemand. Of course, Shaw’s onDemand pay service has an amazing selection of movies as well with many in 1080p. This alone is worth the switch from Bell.

Picture Quality:
Picture quality looks great to my untrained eye. I had some French Open Tennis on yesterday and it looked great. To me, it seems very similar to Bell HD quality ( I did not test side by side). I tested on my 106” projector screen.

Audio Quality:
The audio seemed good on my 5.1 setup. I need to test it out further at higher volume. You need to specify in the audio settings that you want Dolby Digital instead of stereo. We did have an audio problem on our SD tv though. For some reason, the volume would go inexplicably high on the first volume notch (as soon as you turn the volume up one notch, it would be at a high level). This happened a few times and would revert back to normal. I’m not sure if this my tv or the gateway portal.

PVR Experience:
Of course, the main benefit of the Gateway system is to have a shared PVR system between multiple TVs. We haven’t had to record 6 shows at once yet. I doubt that we will because most of what we need can be found through their onDemand service. The one thing that I really liked about the PVR was that it separates tv shows into folders. It would piss me off on Bell that my PVR would flood with recordings of Dora, Diego, Barbie, and other kids shows. With this PVR, episodes show up in folders. Really nice feature. The one small irritation I had with the PVR recording was that it automatically recorded “All episodes” instead of “new episodes only” by default. This means that for each recording, I have to spend a little extra time to ensure that the settings are correct. Bell Sat seems a little more polished in the recording options. Again, just something that I can easily get used to.

Internet:
Shaw installed a new modem so I could get the broadband 50 service. This new modem does not play nice with my existing wireless router setup. I am still in the process of working with Shaw tech support to fix the issue. I guess the modem has to put into “bridge” mode for it to work with my existing setup.

Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF).

So far the WAF is good. She loves the onDemand service but misses the operation ease of the Bell system. We've both had Bell for over 12 years so it feels a bit strange for her. I expect that in a few weeks she will completely forget about the Bell system.

Very happy that I switched from Bell to Shaw Gateway (so far). We'll see if that changes in the weeks to come.

05-30-2012, 10:58 AM	#362
boosterjuice Backup Goalie Join Date: Jul 2011 Exp:	Gateway Initial Review by a Bell user(after 1 night usage): Hey all, I got my new Gateway installed yesterday. Reporting back as promised. What I have: I’m currently with Shaw for my internet and phone service. I have x-treme internet package and unlimited long distance phone. For tv, I have Bell Satellite with (1) 9241 receiver in the bedroom and (1) 9242 dual mode receiver in my basement theatre room that also sends an SD signal to the living room. Three tvs in total. My monthly bill with Bell is $130/month. In total, I’m spending $240 a month for tv, internet, and phone. My Gateway Setup: I ordered the X-Large Gateway promo package. This gives me the gateway and three portals and bundles in phone and broadband50 (big upgrade over x-treme) internet service. My pricing is $139 per month for the first year, $169 for the second year, and $199 for the third year and thereafter. This pricing includes the monthly rental for the gateway system and (3) portals. Installation: Firstly, I was very impressed with the speed of install. I ordered it via phone on Monday and the installer came as scheduled yesterday morning. The install took approx 1.5hrs. I could tell the installer was in a hurray to leave to his next appt but he made sure to show me how to use it. Menu and Interface: I love the interface of the Gateway. It automatically divides channels up into genres for you through a very user-friendly menu system. This is completely different from the Bell guide that I am used to but I had no problem navigating. It divides the channels up based on sports, kids tv, HD, Movies, or all. The response time seems very fast in navigating from screen to screen. I notice some video stutter when switching between tv and menu. There are minor delays here and there but overall it is very fluid. The Gateway does have a traditional guide that is similar to Bell that you can use as an option. Shaw onDemand: Being a former Bell Sat user, I had no idea how amazing shaw ondemand was. From the limited advertisements that I have seen for this, I had thought that this was for movies only. For the uneducated (like I was), this applies to regular TV and free movies as well. I couldn't believe my eyes when I could pull up HBO programming ondemand and some in HD. This is also great for the rest of our family as the ondemand service has many kids programs as well. No more clogging my PVR with Dora the explorer, Diego, etc. These programs (and many others) are available ondemand. Of course, Shaw’s onDemand pay service has an amazing selection of movies as well with many in 1080p. This alone is worth the switch from Bell. Picture Quality: Picture quality looks great to my untrained eye. I had some French Open Tennis on yesterday and it looked great. To me, it seems very similar to Bell HD quality ( I did not test side by side). I tested on my 106” projector screen. Audio Quality: The audio seemed good on my 5.1 setup. I need to test it out further at higher volume. You need to specify in the audio settings that you want Dolby Digital instead of stereo. We did have an audio problem on our SD tv though. For some reason, the volume would go inexplicably high on the first volume notch (as soon as you turn the volume up one notch, it would be at a high level). This happened a few times and would revert back to normal. I’m not sure if this my tv or the gateway portal. PVR Experience: Of course, the main benefit of the Gateway system is to have a shared PVR system between multiple TVs. We haven’t had to record 6 shows at once yet. I doubt that we will because most of what we need can be found through their onDemand service. The one thing that I really liked about the PVR was that it separates tv shows into folders. It would piss me off on Bell that my PVR would flood with recordings of Dora, Diego, Barbie, and other kids shows. With this PVR, episodes show up in folders. Really nice feature. The one small irritation I had with the PVR recording was that it automatically recorded “All episodes” instead of “new episodes only” by default. This means that for each recording, I have to spend a little extra time to ensure that the settings are correct. Bell Sat seems a little more polished in the recording options. Again, just something that I can easily get used to. Internet: Shaw installed a new modem so I could get the broadband 50 service. This new modem does not play nice with my existing wireless router setup. I am still in the process of working with Shaw tech support to fix the issue. I guess the modem has to put into “bridge” mode for it to work with my existing setup. Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF). So far the WAF is good. She loves the onDemand service but misses the operation ease of the Bell system. We've both had Bell for over 12 years so it feels a bit strange for her. I expect that in a few weeks she will completely forget about the Bell system. Very happy that I switched from Bell to Shaw Gateway (so far). We'll see if that changes in the weeks to come.