Forum Discussion
Optik-Kate
TELUS Team Member
TELUS Team MemberTELUS TV Feature Updates - Ongoing
Dear Neighbours,
We’re experimenting with different formats to assure you we’re listening and working on improvements to the TELUS TV platforms. We have frequent releases designed to tackle the platform's immediate and long-term stability, and we’ll do our best to keep this thread up to date with each new release to celebrate our wins together.
Please note this is not an exhaustive list; minor customer-facing fixes and non-customer-facing backend work are not included. (Note: Previous updates removed due to character limits on post)
Q2 2025 (WIP):
- TELUS TV+ app is now available for download on Amazon Fire TV
- Sports channels upgraded to 1080P at 60 frames per second
- 40+ new Free Stream TV channels
- 4K HDR now available for On Demand content
Q1 2025:
- Firmware Update:
- Dolby vision & HDR support that enhances video quality
- Auto dynamic range adjustment to match the content frame
- Picture-in-picture previews in guide
- Find my remote by holding down the pairing button on the box for >4 seconds
- Advanced audio controls such as normalization of loudness for all content and disable/enable surround sound format
- Privacy & accessibility:
- Customization of microphone and camera permissions
- Adjust text size on-screen with new text scaling options
Q4 2024:
- Zoetrope Previews: See exactly where you're skipping on Live TV, recordings, and On-Demand. Enjoy fullscreen previews when fast-forwarding or rewinding, so you never lose your place. (Thumbnail preview coming soon)
- Fast Forward and Rewind Speeds: Control your scrolling speed with ease:
- 1x: Scroll at 2x speed.
- 2x: Scroll at 8x speed.
- 3x: Scroll at 24x speed.
- Picture Quality Improvements: Most non-sports channels now stream in 1080p (high-definition) for sharper images, with a backup at 720p. Sports channels now uses 720p at 60 frames per second (fps) to keep fast-moving content smooth and prevent display issues—further picture quality improvements to come.
- Recovery After Internet Outage: Your digital box will now automatically resume live TV content as soon as the internet connection is restored.
- Improved Guide on Apple TV: Navigate your TV Guide effortlessly with enhanced performance and no freezing issues.
- Automatic Playback for Recordings: Binge-watch your recorded content with ease as the next recording in your playlist automatically starts playing—no need to press a button!
- Enhanced Restart and Lookback Logic: Enjoy seamless transitions between Restart and Lookback programs for uninterrupted viewing.
Q3 2024:
- Bulk Delete for Recordings: You can now delete multiple recorded episodes simultaneously, making managing your recordings easier.
- Episode List Access: When playing a recorded episode, you can see a list of all other episodes from the same series directly in the player.
- Binge-Watching Made Easy: Enjoy seamless binge-watching of recorded episodes, as they now play sequentially without any interruptions.
- Order Cloud PVR Directly: You can now order Cloud PVR service directly from your set-top box for added convenience.
- Start from the Beginning: Easily start recordings and VOD (Video on Demand) content from the beginning, even if you joined late!
Regards,
Your Friendly Neighbourhood TV Product Development Team.
361 Replies
Hey TELUS Team, in my personal opinion, the new android platform is a great step in the right direction, and I can see the vision for a completely unified platform that will function across a variety of different device and OS ecosystems. Kudos to your efforts so far! To my fellow community members: This is not easy, and for telco providers who started in the previous generation of broadcast standards - the "struggle street" is real when rolling out new features. But I hear all of you, you're paying for a service and expect the same or better quality when getting a hardware upgrade...
TELUS, I think your main focus should be on picture quality with this new platform. Your current offering both HD and 4K is definitely limited on bitrate (and sometimes framerate - I experienced dropped frames during the playoffs)... I have my android box hooked up via Gigabit ethernet so it's not my network.
It's very easy to see when comparing and live broadcast channels vs watching something via the Netflix app (be that HD or 4K on the same android box). The effect of poor video bitrate is further exacerbated with the advent of TV manufactures offering larger screens, at higher resolutions (even though they try use fancy techniques to try "up-scale"). The problem is only going to get worse, and your efforts in picture quality should be top on your list.
anything other then live sports without a 45 second delay is a waste of time.
So while watching one channel, go to guide or channel up/down and pick another channel. Now press PREV and it will show the previous channel you were watching, click and you are back.
Not saying it is not possible to repurpose the amount of uses for a button on the basic remote, but really, how many functions can one button perform and then how many of these functions must the user remember.
Like the long press on rec takes you to the recorded shows, but don't press long enough records the watched show. The go back button also has multi function, yes go back but long press to clear the screen.
The current remote has a go back and also a prev button, perhaps the prev button can be used for previous views. Each goes to a different screen.
Is there an upgrade remote on the horizon with more buttons to reduce multi use functions.
- Just started using the Telus tv app on appletv . Is there no previous channel option ? I know it’s on the Telus android box and the android tv app. Seems ridiculous to have to scroll through every channel ( even unsubscribed) in the live guide to go back to a previous Channel.
- A-B
Community Manager
So assuming you're using the AppleTV remote, I checked online and it appears that the bundled remote doesn't have a previous channel button, however double tapping the 'Siri remote play/pause' button may do the trick? We're asking our team if they're aware of a definitive answer in case that doesn't do the trick.
- Thanks for the reply. Yes the Siri Remote doesn’t have a previous button. In the android tv app on Sony tv or the Telus digital tv box while watching a Channel when you press the directional pad up or down you will see the progress bar and option for previous channel, record, restart tv. On Apple TV there is no previous channel option .
When will we be able to see and use profiles? I did get a chance to set up a couple of profiles but have never been able to use them or find out where to access them.
KHRHi Dave68
Profiles are live in the TELUS TV+ app and on the TELUS TV Digital Box. If you've set them up, the first screen that you get when you power on the set-top box or launch the app should be a profile selector (see image from iOS). A few details about how profiles work:
1. they each have their own unique list of recordings (set, watch, edit recordings independently of other profiles)
2. they each have their own unique watch list with bookmarks (you can pick up where you left off independently of other profiles)
3. Recommendations are profile-specific so they depend on viewership history within the profile
4. Favourite channels/series and movies are profile-specific
5. Maturity rating filters are profile-specific
6. Purchase PINs are set at the Admin profile level and apply to all profiles
7. On Demand purchases are available across all profiles (but may not show up or be playble depending on the maturity filters applied. For example, an 18+ movie will not show in a Kids profile)
It's worth noting that profiles are not supported if you have legacy Optik TV equipment; 4K PVRs and 4K wireless digital boxes.
Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I do not receive this screen either on the TELUS TV+ app or on the TELUS TV Digital Box when they first start up.
Your input here is appreciated. Thanks for reminder that others may not share developement progress.
Where the TelusTV failure is in most cases is that it is the very basic things already well known/used features fom past products are still in development stage with this new product. We are beta testers to develop a product that will become obsolete before fully developed.
Then there is the recent announcement that those with a previous product which in their opinion works better than current will soon be retired and replaced by this current one.
- KHR
Thanks Rocky3
There is currently no timeline for the retirement of the Optik 4K PVR and Wireless Digital Boxes. The HD boxes, on the other hand, will start to be retired this year. They were introduced nearly 15 years ago, have not been manufactured for almost 10 and they don't support any OTT apps like Netflix or Prime Video. In addition, hard drives are starting to fail more frequently on this legacy equipment.
For folks on the HD equipment, upgrading to the 4K equivalent is an option. The user interface and functionality is nearly identical, but Netflix and Prime Video are supported on this platform (other apps like Disney+ and Apple TV+ will likely never be supported due to hardware and platform limitations).
That said - the manufacturers of the 4K equipment (Arris and Technicolor) no longer have a license to manufacture and the vendor of the TV platform (MediaKind) has diverted their attention to their next generation IPTV solution, which is based on a very similar chipset and is Android TV-based.
- What do customers with owned 330 boxes do when the Optik TV is phased out?
So I don't see any update or posting such as Q2 2024 (WIP) on this thread from any TELUS employees, Optik-Kate KHR ? Only a plethora of complaints about the current state of the TELUSTV-21T platform.
What is being actively worked on and prioritized first for an system update?
Any plans for updating the real basics such adding additional time to recordings, bulk delete for series recordings, extending the 90 day recording limit?
- KHR
Hi MrSL
As mentioned 3 weeks ago in this thread "We are looking at a number of improvements to recordings, including more start/end time modifications (either manual or automatic), sports team recordings and a longer storage duration. As usual, we can't promise any timeline on these items, since development times can vary and anything that requires multiple parties to participate gets complicated." We are only about 1/3 of the way through Q2, so when any changes that impact the user experience are available, they will be shared here. More than likely, a view of Q2 changes will likely be towards the end of Q2.
I'm not aware of many telcos that give you this much access to product development roadmaps, timelines and folks on the team, so let's try to be a little bit more civil. I'll end with the cliche that the grass isn't always greener on the other side, but you're welcome to go have a look. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/04/05/bell-fibe-to-delete-viewers-saved-tv-shows-after-60-day/
Your mention of Bell customers having it worse doesn’t make things any better. All it shows is that most corporate management minds in these companies (ie those that signed off on implementing beta products like this) are like-minded in their detachment of the needs of their customers. All it’s going to do is push existing customers away even more so, perhaps to a combination of over-the-air tuners working alongside streaming boxes like Apple TV, so as to still have access to a certain range of speciality channels via streaming providers.
Like we’re paying Telus for TSN for F1 Racing right now but could easily get better access via the F1 TV app at the same cost. So things are reaching a tipping point, if you will. And unless these problems are resolved expediently, you’ll only see more customers dropping their television packages from typical providers (ie Telus, Bell, etc) and customizing them on their own from an assortment of streaming providers.
Whats hilarious about this all though is that I’ve been mentioning this day would be coming for years to those in your Loyalty Department (who have compensated me immensely for the frustrations I’ve had with your services in the past) but little did I realize that the greatest impetus for this change would be caused by your own companies attempt at creating a streaming box itself. I definitely did not see that coming.
I currently have UIW8001 PVR and 3X UIW4001e. They work pretty well. The old saying, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" comes to mind.
From all of the reviews and comments here and elsewhere, such as DSLReports (https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r33851979-ALL-Comments-Experience-New-Telus-TV-Digital-Box-TelusTV-21T-Android), these new boxes sound like a step backwards, not only in terms of functionality and also picture quality. I've been with Telus long enough to highly suspect that customers will pay more for the priviledge of having less functionaly and worse picture quality.
Considering that 4K TVs are common and 8K TVs are becoming more common, it's not reasonable to expect that customers will be satisfied with poor picture quality on their big and expensive TVs.
This makes me wonder if Telus is serious about staying in this business. Eventually, charging more for less will catch up with you. Unless Telus is intentionally trying to kill the TV market, these new TV boxes sound like a mistake.
- Nailed it.
After a recent billing issue with my internet service, I called in and discovered that my TV agreement expires at the end of this month. I’ll cancel and try the OTA TV thing for a while. I purchased an HDHomeRun box with 4 tuners and I’ll pair it with my Plex server for PVR capabilities. I’ll be saving $80 a month and can stream anything that I can’t get over the air.
Good luck to existing and future Optik customers.Best of luck... Waiting for my contract to expire but another 13 months to go 😢
I see the new Telus TV Android boxes getting a lot of flack here, and I personally don't think it's entirely deserved.
Full disclosure, I worked at Shaw for 12 years, and via the employee discounts had every iteration of their TV boxes. This includes Rovi, HD Guide, Gateway, and their new X1 boxes both QAM and IP based (Bluesky/Bluecurve TV, now called Ignite TV under Rogers). I'm a big fan of the Comcast X1 platform, so my basis of comparison is that platform.
I've had the new Telus TV Android boxes for a few months now, after not having cable for a year. Prior to the year without cable I was on Shaw Bluecurve (now Ignite TV) which is the syndicated Comcast X1 platform. I feel like I'm quite particular with picture quality, and quite honestly I don't notice a difference between the Bluecurve boxes and these new Telus TV boxes. In the past Telus has struggled with picture quality particularly when compared directly to Shaw, but I was pleasantly surprised with these new boxes. Not sure why/how others are saying the picture quality is worse, but my experience has been very positive in this aspect.
The guide/UI is a little clumsy, and this is where I see Telus has the most opportunity for improvement. I don't like having to hit the back button 10 times to get out of Netflix, and the guide can be a little slow to load when the box first turns on. Having seen multiple iterations of tv boxes launch at Shaw, I know that development is always ongoing and most of those platforms had a less than that stellar launch (I'm looking at you, HD Guide). Keep in mind that Telus is actively developing for this platform so I would expect things to improve substantially over time.
I got Telus TV in time for the Superbowl and was very happy to be able to watch it on TSK in 4K. It looked fantastic. While these boxes aren't about to win awards for most outstanding anything, I feel like they're better than their reputation on this blog (and the Telus subreddit).
My 2 cents anyways.
- The issue is with 4K tvs and with the box pushing content in hdr even if it’s hd resulting in a blown out picture quality.
I have both the previous iteration 4K Arris box and the Android box and the picture quality for HD is not even in the same league.
The firmware issues with the Android box are confirmed by Telus and apparently we’re to wait for a new Android OS.
Are you using a 4K tv?
It’s honestly a joke they’d push this out to customers. I only use it for 4K and for streaming services.
Just to point again and this has been an issue for awhile. Telus and I believe every major cable company is offering the first week of mlb extra innings free for users.
Works fine on the old optik, on the new optik platform you get nothing other then asking us to subscribe.
I am not sure why this is still an issue on this platform, why we never get free previews on this platform that the old optik users get??
You used to be able to see what was currently in free preview but according to Telus, "there was a business decision to pull the free previews page on TELUS" so not easy to find any further info...
https://forum.telus.com/t5/Optik-TV/Free-Previews-List/m-p/145277#M13797
- No comment on this from the team? You just don't get free previews on these boxes for some reason?
- KHR
Hi Montell
I can't comment on what other telcos offer for free previews, but capabilities, pricing and reliability certainly all vary. The TELUS TV Digital Box (and the TELUS TV+ app) are based on a different back-end platform which doesn't support free previews the same way as the legacy Optik TV platform.
I know the response won't be satisfactory, but free previews are on the development roadmap, however they are lower in priority than items like video quality and HDR/SDR switching. If there is programming or content that matters to you, you are welcome to subscribe.
