Shaw vs. Telus Cable TV

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by PsnaP

Yes but with the old platform you could just select subscribed channels and not have to 'turn off' the ones you arent paying for.

There are a lot of new features coming this year and I think this is one of them. Also, you will be able to pause live tv on the 330 box, not just the pvr.

That is nice but I like being able to deselect music stations that Everyone gets. Mediaroom software is exciting because it's so flexible, and lots of telco are invested (At&t, mts, sasktel)

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

getting back to the TV itself.. the ability to remove channels you dont want and dont watch (channels you dont buy and french channels., music channels etc) literally is amazing. I can't say how much I hated scrolling through hundreds of channels on shaw. ugh. so wonderful.

Do you manually have to remove the channels, or is there a feature that will remove all channels you don't subscribe to?

And how do you do this? I haven't had much time to play with Telus, but this would be VERY useful.

[HotHotHeat]

I did it manually, just went through and removed all the PPV and music channels. Much cleaner guide to flip through now.

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I did it manually, just went through and removed all the PPV and music channels. Much cleaner guide to flip through now.

^^ this. Go to settings > tv >customize guide. Just uncheck the channels you dont want to show up. It's not like a favourites list, you dont have to press guide then favourites; they simply won't be in your guide. Good times.

edit: something else thats... just awesome. I saw a commercial for the onion sportsdome. I think, hey, I love the onion. So I go to the optik TV recording website, do a search for onion, and set a recording for that show tonight. Even if I was out at a friends house I could do the same thing on my iphone with the recording app. This is what TV is supposed to be. Sorry for the gushing, I really didn't expect to be this impressed.

[HotHotHeat]

Haha, I'm the same way. Telus has stepped up to the plate in a huge way. I'm confident that whatever Shaw comes out with this spring will only be on par with what Telus is offering.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

mick you're patently false slandering of the actiontec is borderline patently false and slanderous.

in all seriousness it has outperformed the dir-655 d link, a highly reviewed router. these slow speeds you speak of seem ludicrous to me

I laughed out loud at "borderline patently false".

I've done pretty extensive benchmarking on my various 802.11n routers. I use iPerf because it's multi-platform and has a ton of options to emulate different types of traffic. All these tests were done at short range, about 20 feet, through a floor. These results are the average of 5 10-second raw throughput tests and 5 30-second raw throughput tests, with the highest & lowest scores omitted from each set of 5.

ActionTec V1000H: 14.4mbps average
D-Link DIR-655: 39.6mpbs average
D-Link DIR-628: 92.2mpbs average

The 628 is the only 5Ghz router of the bunch and that's why it's killing the others. It may be even higher except the iPerf server in my tests is on 100mbit LAN, so 92mpbs is probably close to capping out after a taking some natural slowdown into consideration.

I live in an area of probably medium interference at 2.4Ghz and all these tests were done minutes apart.

In real-world testing, even though 14.4mbps should be enough to stream most of my 720p MKVs, the Actiontec V1000H was unable to get through any movie to my AppleTV or XBMC box without pausing several times to buffer (this is actually what prompted all this nutty testing in the first place). Most of my 720p MKVs are encoded around 4kbps or higher for video, 1500kbps for audio. Any decent 802.11n router should be able to handle this easily. Hell, a good 802.11G router could probably do this. The V1000H could not.

The V1000H may well have a more powerful radio in it which is a good feature if you need to cover a large area or have problems with the signal getting through the floors/walls. But radio signal strength does not equal performance.

As I've said several times, if you just need a basic router to make your internet wireless, it's probably fine. There are plenty of people in the Tech Talk forum who want a bit more out of their router though, and someone thinking about switching to Telus should know that with the exception of radio signal strength, the V1000H falls short of most entry level routers.

[silentsim]

Yeah. I got the actiontec. I don't use it for wireless though. Hook up a ethernet port with it and an Airport extreme. Sadly I cannot use it in bridge mode as QoS is on the ActionTec, but using gigabit ethernet to the airport makes it all good (the actiontec still assigns IP's but the Airport handles the wireless and what not)

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Haha, I'm the same way. Telus has stepped up to the plate in a huge way. I'm confident that whatever Shaw comes out with this spring will only be on par with what Telus is offering.

You can bet that the expectations will be to provide an unmatched user experience for things like mobile applications and web applications.

[amorak]

I would jimp if someone could come up with a DD-WRT hack to get it on the Actiontec. This router is balls if you want to do anything.

One thing I've noticed - my ping is 20-30ms worse than buddies in the same area on Shaw (and mine when I was on shaw).

Anything we can do to optimize ping with the actiontech / telus?

[theonlywhiteout]

QoS will always be on actiontec as it ensures the TV quality is top notch.


What are you trying to do with the actintec specifically Amorak?

edit: Found my 1st beef with optik TV, the color bleeding I'm seing in these football games. BOth the Packers and Steelers yellow is bloeeding slightly green when the camera is zoomed out during regular play. Shaw has some of this as well but it's not nearly as noticable.

[old-fart]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Shaw has also slashed departmental budget 10% company wide, which screwed with a lot of projects that were already in progress. they'll be spending a lot of money soon to try and match what Telus has, but this time they're playing catchup which they've really never had to do

Shaw is in a tough spot because of their wireless plans as well. If they don't launch a 3G network soon, they won't be able to roam onto other carriers 3G networks (there is some CRTC ruling that existing providers have to allow roaming, but only for a specific period of time - and I think it is 2011 or 2012). So if they do delay and then launch 3G while Bell, TELUS, Rogers are just rolling our their 4G they will yet again be behind the curve....

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by old-fart

Shaw is in a tough spot because of their wireless plans as well. If they don't launch a 3G network soon, they won't be able to roam onto other carriers 3G networks (there is some CRTC ruling that existing providers have to allow roaming, but only for a specific period of time - and I think it is 2011 or 2012). So if they do delay and then launch 3G while Bell, TELUS, Rogers are just rolling our their 4G they will yet again be behind the curve....

Shaw's cell network will be 3g/4g LTE. They could switch on 3G HSPA+ right now in some markets but are waiting to invest in 2011.

Shaw was really put behind this year as they put up a boat load of cash to purchase the Canwest/Global channels.

[CKPThunder]

Had dinner with a friend of mine, who works for Telus, and he mentioned that they are planning on upgrading their version of Mediaroom to version 2 in the next 6-8 weeks. From what I gathered, this would allow users of Optik TV to watch their television from their mobile devices. I'm sure members of this forum who are more in the know with Mediaroom will correct me if I got my facts wrong.

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

Had dinner with a friend of mine, who works for Telus, and he mentioned that they are planning on upgrading their version of Mediaroom to version 2 in the next 6-8 weeks. From what I gathered, this would allow users of Optik TV to watch their television from their mobile devices. I'm sure members of this forum who are more in the know with Mediaroom will correct me if I got my facts wrong.

this is the latest scuttlebutt going around. media room 2.0 will allow a lot of new features, also, it should allow everyone 3 HD streams (so long as you arent on a 15 profile--i think).

i really do like the fact that this service is so malleable. its nice to have improvements coming down the pipe a lot.

[Hemi-Cuda]

quick question, does Telus sim-sub the Calgary CTV feed for NFL playoff games and the superbowl? i have to reschedule my install, and i'm just wondering if there would be any point to trying to get it done before next sunday

[silentsim]

pretty sure all canadian television providers limit you to the crappy canadian ads now

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by silentsim

pretty sure all canadian television providers limit you to the crappy canadian ads now

not Shaw Direct at least, since they don't carry the HD CTV Calgary feed

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

Had dinner with a friend of mine, who works for Telus, and he mentioned that they are planning on upgrading their version of Mediaroom to version 2 in the next 6-8 weeks. From what I gathered, this would allow users of Optik TV to watch their television from their mobile devices. I'm sure members of this forum who are more in the know with Mediaroom will correct me if I got my facts wrong.

There's supposed to be PC and Mac apps for Mediaroom as well.

Unfortunately it seems like the mobile streaming is limited to Windows 7 phones atm.

[McG]

bumping the thread to ask if anyone "in the know" can comment on Shaw's MoCA offerings, any new timing, and whether or not the existing DCX3400 box will be the flagship going forward, or if there is another motorola box on the way.

thank you!

[Rathji]

I haven't heard anything regarding that specifically.

I did hear that there were some new plans/bundles up and coming for Shaw, but don't know any details other than "it makes internet speeds like Warp and Nitro *WAY* more affordable in a bundle with TV."