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Switched from Shaw to Telus: First Impressions

RobbyD
Organizer

After being a Shaw tv customer for over 18yrs, I finally bit the bullet and switched to the green team.  I have been using the Arris Gateway on Shaw since it came out.  Current setup is Optik TV with 4k PVR, and wireless 4K boxes, Pick 6 and Internet 300.  

 

First Impressions: 

  1. Switching channels is lightning fast compared to the Gateway.  No more lag and waiting for channel to switch.  Its instantaneous. 
  2. Setting up recordings on Optik is way easier.  Just press record once for a single recording, or twice for series recording. The one thing i find unusual is the recordings start before the show starts, and ends a minute or so after.  Not a big deal but a little annoying when u need to skip forward on every show at the beginning just to get to the show.  Telus should sync their start times with the networks better. 
  3. It seems like Telus cheaped out a little  on their hardware.  No time or channel display on the front of the box.  Just a single green dot to show its on, and a wifi symbol on the wireless boxes.  It was convenient to have a time display. 
  4. The remote control has no backlighting.  I watch a lot of tv in bed or in low light.  Its impossible to tell what buttons are what.  They all feel the same.  I am frequently pressing the "1" instead of the volume down.  Can you use a aftermarket remote like the Harmony or does Telus offer a different remote?
  5. When setting up a series recording, it defaults to "new and repeats".  There is no master setting so you need to go into every new series recording and change this manually.  
  6. Three of the four tvs are hardwired via Cat6, and one is on wifi.  Even on the second floor and about 45 ft away from the modem, the wifi box gets 4-5 bars all the time.  No lag at all. 

As for the internet, I have been a Shaw internet customer for most of the last 18yrs, but occasionally switched to Telus if a deal came up.  Currently setup with Internet 300/300.  Ping is 1, and down/uploads are over 300mbs.  I am a gamer and have always had issues with bad ping and speed issues with Shaw internet.  In the evenings when everyone is home, the neighborhood gets bogged down and connection speeds drop.  I have never had any connection or speed issues with Telus.  

 

Shaw offered pretty much the same pricing as Telus but the deciding factors were:

  1. More channels (Pick 6 vs Small tv 5).  Way more HD channels and 4k channels
  2. Faster Upload speeds. (Shaw 30mbs vs Telus 300mbs) 

The two things that scared me from changing to Telus were the long wait times when trying to get technical help.  The online chat frequently has a que over 50, and hold times are over an hour.  The second thing was the learning curve of using the new hardware and relearning all the channels. 

 

If Shaw had 4K content on Bluesky TV and faster upload speeds, I don't think I would of switched.  Their customer service has been top notch and I can always get a hold of someone in less than 20minutes. 

 

Cheers 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

@RobbyD wrote:

 

2. Setting up recordings on Optik is way easier.  Just press record once for a single recording, or twice for series recording. The one thing i find unusual is the recordings start before the show starts, and ends a minute or so after.  Not a big deal but a little annoying when u need to skip forward on every show at the beginning just to get to the show.  Telus should sync their start times with the networks better.  


There is an option in settings to adjust the start and end offsets. Since broadcasters don't always start and end on time Telus chose to start a bit early. 

 


4. The remote control has no backlighting.  I watch a lot of tv in bed or in low light.  Its impossible to tell what buttons are what.  They all feel the same.  I am frequently pressing the "1" instead of the volume down.  Can you use a aftermarket remote like the Harmony or does Telus offer a different remote? 

 

 

 

Logitech Harmony remotes have been successfully used by many. A search should turn up model numbers folks have chosen.

 

 

 

NFtoBC
If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Kudo"

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11 REPLIES 11

vishwa
Leader

A balanced and just view that coincides with the experiences of many.  Thanks for sharing.

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

@RobbyD wrote:

 

2. Setting up recordings on Optik is way easier.  Just press record once for a single recording, or twice for series recording. The one thing i find unusual is the recordings start before the show starts, and ends a minute or so after.  Not a big deal but a little annoying when u need to skip forward on every show at the beginning just to get to the show.  Telus should sync their start times with the networks better.  


There is an option in settings to adjust the start and end offsets. Since broadcasters don't always start and end on time Telus chose to start a bit early. 

 


4. The remote control has no backlighting.  I watch a lot of tv in bed or in low light.  Its impossible to tell what buttons are what.  They all feel the same.  I am frequently pressing the "1" instead of the volume down.  Can you use a aftermarket remote like the Harmony or does Telus offer a different remote? 

 

 

 

Logitech Harmony remotes have been successfully used by many. A search should turn up model numbers folks have chosen.

 

 

 

NFtoBC
If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Kudo"

Is there a "input" button on the remote that I'm missing?  I would like to be able to switch from TV to Xbox without having to pickup my old tv remote.  

 

thanks

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User
On the current remotes there isn’t an Input button.

If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Like" or mark as an accepted solution if it solves your trouble. 🙂

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

@Nighthawk wrote:
On the current remotes there isn’t an Input button.

There is some combination of buttons or button presses which will change the input source. Unfortunately I don’t know which, as the remote has been behind me when the buttons were pressed.

 

NFtoBC
If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Kudo"

I use a Harmony one remote that works well with the Telus box. I also switched from Shaw to Telus a year and a half ago with no regrets.

 

There is NO setting to change start and stop recording offsets, I've been on optic t.v. since 2014, and have the latest 4k boxes . No setting,

if you are seeing a magical setting tell us as so, with button presses.
Menu/settings/

Why make things up? That helps no one.

The reason as you stated is because not all channels start the show at the correct time.

People would be more annoyed that a part of thier program is missing, than would if there's a minute or two extra.

Also nothing as you've mentioned in the "options" key menu.

psl
TELUS Employee
TELUS Employee

@RobbyD Thanks for taking the time to write your first impressions! I enjoyed reading your post, and immediately shared it with few other members of our team. For remote, currently we do only have the one version, and will take your feedback away for improvements. 

 

Once you have more time to use our services, do send us an update. Looking forward to hearing more 🙂 

pbsme
Ambassador

I use a Harmony 650 remote, which I can see quite nicely in the dark.  It is often on sale around this time of year at BestBuy.  I rather like that the PVR starts a little before and after the end of a program.  Since the beginning of many shows have a flashback to remind you of what went on in the last episode, I'm usually skipping forward, anyway.  In the past, on occasion I missed the end of live shows, because they went overtime.  That hasn't happened to me since I got Telus.

 

I also migrated from Shaw, due to frustrations over some channels not being available in HD.  I held on hoping for several years and finally gave up.  It appears that now, more than a year later, they still do not offer a time shifted high definition PBS channel.  My only regret is that I didn't make the switch to Telus sooner.

 

I'm impressed with the Guide and some offerings in 4K, which makes sense because 4K sets are flying off the shelves in stores, and that will only increase toward Christmas and with Boxing Day sales.

 

I can't imagine I would ever go back!

After a week of using Optik TV, I would suggest the following improvements: 

 

  1. When watching PVR programs, include a status bar at the bottom so when you're fast forwarding, you know how long is left in the show. 
  2. Replace the "delete" key with a "input/source" button. I much prefer the rubber backlit buttons on the Shaw remotes vs the smooth buttons on the Telus Slimline remote. 

I have noticed that the channel changing is lighting fast on the wireless boxes, but its laggy on the PVR box.  I think I read somewhere that a firmware update recently bogged it down???

 

Overall I am very pleased with the Optik TV platform and how things are laid out.  The learning curve wasn't as steep as I thought, and I would recommend Optik to friends and family.    

 

I was originally on Internet 75 on copper, then upgraded to PureFiber 300.  The internet is slightly faster, but I think the bottleneck lies with the speed of the servers of the sites you are visiting.  Telus internet has always had consistent speed and low ping.  

Telus slim remote control version 1 has the input button, find yourself one, the rest of us are fine without it, lol

as for backlit remote , you do understand that service is what your paying for right? The clock is in the osd, there is a playback bar that tells you how far along your recording and rewound show is.

At my other place I have Shaw. Thier service quality is garbage. They default to sd channels, and thier HD ones are chaotic. Also many of thier lower cost boxes also don't have a clock. They're still on a old old bulky remote control style.

They've no way of watching tv via thier own app , it's clunky. Old tech this is "true carrier class iptv", massive difference mate.

Your complaining about nonsense, until Shaw ditches thier ancient cabling system and thier "all flash no gas " boxes, for full fibre optic closed loop pure ip system. As some of thier cable company cousins have done in the U.S., there is zero comparison

Shaw thinks it's advanced, yet it called DVD quality video HD in 2012 just because it's Progressive and not interlaced. All that said Rogers in Toronto is the absolute worst tv provider, for the sake of variety and a massive number of channels (they envy the US satellite companies) they've overcompressed so many channels to the point of looking worse than SD.

followed by the Bell/Telus satellite sd channels, HD satellite channels on Telus/Bell satellite are awesome.

Unless you wanna talk about the ridiculous amounts both companies change for thier services .

Also Telus TV v1 sucked so bad pre 2012 that they ditched the entire setup, and started a new system and had bell satellite that they sold as Telus satellite at the same time. Will or can Shaw cable do that? Nope and even if they could they won't, they're family run like Rogers, not a proper corporation like Telus.

I'll admit sure a remote backlight would be a good novelty, at the expense of having to find new batteries before thier time. Also in would rather see the software updates to sense the supposed bluetooth they claim these remotes have. Use that control me battery level. Until then the 2 led on the remote will suffice.

No one really needs a review of Telus Optic TV here, because we all have it. Your review would be better on YouTube, Yelp and whatever else like make FB