New Shaw Gateway Experience

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

That is the spot I am in. I sat down and mapped out the same channels/Internet/phone and it came out to $152 Shaw vs. $142 a month on Telus.

However, you only get 25mbps Internet on Telus at that price. So I call it a wash, if not a bit of advantage to Shaw.

Where they lose big time is hardware. Telus you can get a Gateway for $250, on Shaw it is $600. On top of that Telus is offering a $234 credit for new sign ups.

After pricing this out over 2 years I determined I would save almost $1000 switching to Telus.

I can't see how Shaw's system is worth 1K more over 2 years. DLNA is not a big deal to me, I have a PS3 and network ready Blu Ray player. If I need DLNA for my 3rd TV, I will get Apple TV or some other $99 solution.

I am calling Shaw tomorrow and asking them how they expect to keep me as a customer when they aren't even competitive anymore.

i wouldn't be so quick to switch if i were you. i did and i'm regretting it quite a bit. the Telus box is a POS, the delay from when you hit a button on the remote to when the box actually decides to respond is terrible. the guide layout is worse too from my experience (an example being in the PVR section you can't actually see how much space is being used or how much you have left. you have to go into the settings menu and drill down to some obscure option). combine that with Shaw's recent big increase in internet speeds and i wish i had just stayed. i'm gonna ride this 6 month promo and then i'm promptly switching back

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i wouldn't be so quick to switch if i were you. i did and i'm regretting it quite a bit. the Telus box is a POS, the delay from when you hit a button on the remote to when the box actually decides to respond is terrible. the guide layout is worse too from my experience (an example being in the PVR section you can't actually see how much space is being used or how much you have left. you have to go into the settings menu and drill down to some obscure option). combine that with Shaw's recent big increase in internet speeds and i wish i had just stayed. i'm gonna ride this 6 month promo and then i'm promptly switching back

Yup.

There are still some issues with the gateway on Shaw, but that's only because it is so new. I know for a fact that they will be quickly rolling out firmware updates to fix issues. The one thing that I am simply amazed about is the way the PVR features react with this new system. Starting playback on a recording, ending it and skipping ahead, back, FFW, etc. are SO much faster with no issues. I can literally click the 30 sec skip ahead button numerous times and it reacts right away without issue and I can click the skip back and the same. Watching recorded content is a breeze now and way better than with the older boxes.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i wouldn't be so quick to switch if i were you. i did and i'm regretting it quite a bit. the Telus box is a POS, the delay from when you hit a button on the remote to when the box actually decides to respond is terrible. the guide layout is worse too from my experience (an example being in the PVR section you can't actually see how much space is being used or how much you have left. you have to go into the settings menu and drill down to some obscure option). combine that with Shaw's recent big increase in internet speeds and i wish i had just stayed. i'm gonna ride this 6 month promo and then i'm promptly switching back

Thanks a lot for this. I am loathing the thought of switching to Telus. Just the thought makes my skin crawl. I used to work for them, and I can honestly say I would never buy a product marketed by them. Kind of like working for McDonalds.

Anyways, I just am seduced by price. I haven't called yet, but if they can throw me some kind of bone, I will stay. I just know deep down that whenever I deal with Telus it ends up biting me in the a$$ every time.

EDIT: Called Shaw and had a good tech talk with the CSR. He admits that Telus hardware is cheap, but you get what you pay for. Shaw's goal is not to go the super cheap route but to give you a high quality system. We walked through the pros of Shaw gateway and it did sound better.

Since the service cost is same price or a bit better on Shaw, it comes down to hardware. My bad experience with Telus in past, combine with good experiences with Shaw, and the responses here on Telus sealed it for me. I ordered the gateway, and am getting it next week. I'll post back with my thoughts when I get it.

[OldDutch]

I have now had the Gateway system for 2 weeks now. There are defiantly pros and cons to this system, and I am not sure which side of the fence I am on.

Install went fairly smooth, but it took 3 hours. I would say 20 minutes to hook up, and the rest of the time downloading updates for the system, and sitting on hold with Tech Services. The installer was friendly, but to be honest he didn’t know a lot about the gateway outside of how to install it. Basically he set the screen resolution, and told me just to play around with the system in order to learn it. That was fine for me given my background.

He also was clueless about the SMC router. I asked for bridge mode, and he had no clue what that meant. Kept repeating “No worries man, this is plug and play”. As we all know it is not. Again not a big deal, but what really ticked me off was he had the router in his hand, but forgot to install it and left. Now I am waiting over 2 weeks for them to mail me a SMC router. Kind of a moron move if you ask me.

As for the system, I have 3 TV’s. I think this is the minimum you will want to justify this systems cost. Otherwise you can get 2 used PVR’s for less than half. I like the interface but it is really buggy. Flipping channels while the guide is up, will sometimes result in wacky things being displayed. I didn’t know there was a clock on the guide until I saw that the show information was overlapping it. Switching from SD to HD can result in the show information covering the whole screen for up to 15 seconds. When you page through the classic guide, it takes a few seconds to download the next set of results to the portal, this is really annoying. No more “Exit” button (really?). Honestly, a lot of these bugs could and should have been caught in house. Also, The portal does not have an IR extender which is a step back from the Motorola boxes.

On the pros, there is the potential. If they can work out the display bugs, it will be a solid system. The response time from pressing guide is instant (unlike Telus). It works with my Harmony remote. I like the PVR anywhere feature, that is a great.

So bottom line is that I am less than impressed with this system. It has a long way to go to be mainstream ready. I in no way recommend someone who is not ready to live with the bugs use it. I almost think Shaw should give a discount to their early adopters. It is that buggy.

I am holding out hope that this code drop in September will magically fix these issues. However, if you are on the fence between Telus and Shaw, stay there for another few months. Shaw could end up with an awesome system, but right now it’s like “The Dion”. All promise for tomorrow, with a lot of hassle today.

[OilKiller]

Personally I don't find the bugs anywhere near that bad OldDutch. I think you are being a little dramatic.

Are there bugs? Sure. Are they dealbreakers that cause the system not to work? Not in my opinion.

I can still record, playback, watch TV, etc. Nothing is bad enough that is stops you from being able to use the system. It's mostly cosmetic and I'm sure it will be worked out in the next firmware update.

[FireFly]

The 'LIVE' button functions the same as exit and takes you back to whatever live program you were watching previously.

[McG]

thanks to all for posting their thoughts on the gateway. i am really interested in getting this into my house.

my problem? i have submitted 2 online requests for Shaw to call me so that i can pay them and buy this new stuff. not sure what is up with that...supposed to be 48 hours callback.

i guess i will just have to call them directly...just disappointed that i have to contact shaw a 3rd time to buy their products.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by FireFly

The 'LIVE' button functions the same as exit and takes you back to whatever live program you were watching previously.

Sure, but say you are watching something live and you have paused it for a few minutes while the phone rang, if you hit Live, you will go right to live TV and lose what you have paused. So for example, you have paused for a couple of minutes, then you remember you wanted to check something coming up to record so you hit the C button to bring the guide up. Now, if you want to get rid of the guide on your screen without going "Live", simply hit the Zoom button. It is very much like an Exit button.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Personally I don't find the bugs anywhere near that bad OldDutch. I think you are being a little dramatic.

Are there bugs? Sure. Are they dealbreakers that cause the system not to work? Not in my opinion.

I can still record, playback, watch TV, etc. Nothing is bad enough that is stops you from being able to use the system. It's mostly cosmetic and I'm sure it will be worked out in the next firmware update.

After reading my post, I agree I was a bit harsh, but didn't mean to be. I really tried to write down all the pros and cons to be fair. However, it looks like I came up with a bunch more cons at this point.

I agree there are no deal breakers, just a lot of annoyances. It is in pilot after all so it is wrong to fully judge it yet. That is why I said I like the potential of the system.

Not everyone here is an early adopter though, so a minor annoyance to you can really tick off someone else. There are no major bugs, all functions work, just with some rough edges.

Again, it is a pilot system, and is in beta. It just ticked me off because a lot of these bugs could have been fixed before the pilot. They happen with simple use of the features. I think they just wanted to put something out quickly, test in the wild, and update down the road. Optik was killing them.

So my advice stands, if you want a system that works as well as the Motorola, then wait a few months. If you can live with the minor bugs I stated, then jump in. I do think it will be a solid system one day, just not today. So you really have to make the judgement call on what you personally can tolerate.

As for the exit button. 3 different exit buttons depending on context is a nightmare. Live TV, Zoom, Clear? Wow that is some pretty Wacky design, and I can't see many non tech users loving that over a simple exit button.

[Ironhorse]

So does each gateway box act as a tuner as well, or do they only play back recorded PVR content?

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

So does each gateway box act as a tuner as well, or do they only play back recorded PVR content?

Only store/tune content for a portal. So you need 1 portal for each TV to use the system. The gateway cannot be hooked into a TV directly. Only acts as a server to store content and tune for each portal box.

That is why the package is one gateway and one portal

EDIT: I like this design a lot. Since the gateway is noisy, and the portals completely silent. It allows you to hide the gateway anywhere there is cable. Like the basement. So you can watch TV without hearing a fan going.

[Ironhorse]

One more: So I take it that each portal also allows live TV watching also?

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

As for the exit button. 3 different exit buttons depending on context is a nightmare. Live TV, Zoom, Clear? Wow that is some pretty Wacky design, and I can't see many non tech users loving that over a simple exit button.

Agreed. They really needed an exit button. I don't like that design at all.

Originally Posted by OldDutch

EDIT: I like this design a lot. Since the gateway is noisy, and the portals completely silent. It allows you to hide the gateway anywhere there is cable. Like the basement. So you can watch TV without hearing a fan going.

Unfortunately, since I'm in a townhouse, there really is nowhere to hide the gateway away, so we have it on one of the shelves of our entertainment unit and the portal sitting on top of it. It is a little loud and I wish we could hide it away as well. Maybe our next place I guess, as we are just renting.

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

One more: So I take it that each portal also allows live TV watching also?

Yes. Unless all 6 tuners are taken up. That's my understanding. So if you are recording 5 things and watching something live on one portal, I don't think you could watch something live on another portal. There are 6 tuners that allow recording/live TV watching. After that, all you could do is watch something previously recorded on another portal for example. At least that's the way it was explained to me. Not sure if with 6 tuners, that would ever be an issue though.

[OldDutch]

I think why I miss the Exit button, is the one second stutter when you hit LiveTV exiting the guide. I find myself flipping open the guide and looking around, then wanting to exit every few commercial breaks. The stutter by pressing Live TV just irks me. Again a minor annoyance.

I think they want you to get away from the guide and use Menu or the arrows. I admit that design is better but I am not used to it. Sort of like when Gmail came out, I hated the grouped conversations, but learned to love it. Just a whole new way of thinking about flipping channels that is better long term.

[OilKiller]

No stutter if you hit zoom.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

No stutter if you hit zoom.

Ya, just tried that out last night, no idea that button had that function. Wish they would have showed me that at the install time. Instead I was handed the remote and told to just play with it to figure out everything. The guy ran out the door pretty quick.

Thanks again for showing me this.

[Envitro]

Good thing I found this thread, lots of good info.

I'm having mine installed tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Ya, just tried that out last night, no idea that button had that function. Wish they would have showed me that at the install time. Instead I was handed the remote and told to just play with it to figure out everything. The guy ran out the door pretty quick.

Thanks again for showing me this.

No problem.

The guy who installed mine spent a lot of time showing me "tricks" and how to do this and that. He was great.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

No problem.

The guy who installed mine spent a lot of time showing me "tricks" and how to do this and that. He was great.

Helps when the staff gets to trial! I only get to play with it during breaks. Will have to try the zoom function.

[Vinny01]

I got the system installed yesterday on that promo deal for the 3 years at $99/month. I was/am very disappointed when I found out that I am not getting barely any channels. Sure I get all the HD channels but I don't even get teh comedy network, bravo, teletoon etc. so the $99/month is going to skyrocket once I start adding back the channels I had in the past. That is my error though for not reading close enough.

Another thing is I have a Sharp Aquos from late 2006. It was one of the first LCD 1080P tv's released. When I went to adjust the picture quality the best I could get on the TV is 720. I know that TV has 1080 capability and I am not sure how to fix it. Also it was VERY slow compared to the menu on my old shaw PVR.

Also is there a way to switch inputs on the remote? If I want to switch to my PS3 can I do it from the Shaw remote? I have not been able to find that function.