Delayed live sports on new Telus android box

[BradCL]

Anyone else experiencing their NHL feeds being 10+ seconds behind the actual play, and even other streams?

Trying to discuss the game in real time with friends and other fans has become impossible because every significant play is spoiled before I get to see it.

Does this also occur with the old hardware? My last experience was with Shaw and my feed was almost always ahead of my group of friends who I usually watch/discuss with.

[A-B]

Very sorry about that! @Optik-Kate is this a known issue?

[Optik-Kate]

Hi! It is not an "issue" per se as some level of delay is inherent in live sports broadcasting, though the extent of the delay can vary based on many factors. That said, latency reduction is something that the development team is working towards!  

[BradCL]

I will likely call to verify this today when I get a chance, but figured I’d ask here.

Is there an option to “downgrade” to the prior top box version that doesn’t use Telus TV+?

After some reading last night it appears broadcast delays are around 7 seconds from live sports, while streaming it via the internet can be sometimes a full minute or more behind simply due to the limitations of internet based streaming at the moment.

A traditional cable top box with the lesser delay would definitely suit my needs better considering the only reason I have a TV package is for live sports lol

[A-B]

Yeah you'll need to speak with our team on the phone about that to confirm if it's an option. We definitely are working on improving the experience, but as different providers use different technology there can sometimes be slight delays, etc. While we can't control other providers' feeds, we definitely do try to have ours as close to real-time as possible!

[sportsguy1]

I can confirm and concur with BradCL that the delay in "live" sports with the new Telus Android boxes is unacceptable.  I am just in the process of replacing my old Optik4K  boxes with the new Android boxes.  As it happens I have a sports cave with two TV's.  So I installed the new Android box on one of them; updated the software and turned both old and new to the same live sports channel.  I realize that there is always a bit of delay from actually being at a sports event but I was only interested in comparing the amount of delay between the Optik4K boxes with the new Android boxes.  It was significant so I called tech support and they rebooted and updated everything and had me test again.  The difference between the previous box and the new Android is exactly 40 seconds.  Consistently no matter what channel I have on the Android box is 40 seconds behind the normal Optik TV boxes that aren't using Telus TV+.  For movies/TV shows this is no big deal.  But for sports it is awful.  I'd have to turn my phone off to not get notifications or texts from friends because I'm so far behind their TV service when something exciting happens.  You call it latency and I accept it when I'm watching the Telus TV+ app on my phone but not when I'm supposedly watching "live" tv on my TV.  I plan on returning all these Android boxes right away; is there any chance the latency gets reduced to less that 10 seconds in the future?

[Nighthawk]

The older Optik boxes would have a bit of a delay still. Shaw isn't immune to the delay either. It's an issue with how IPTV works when a set top box begins streaming the channel. The delay can be reduced up to a point but it'll never be zero, especially compared to being at a live game. The video stream at the venue has to be recorded, have graphics added, have the video stream compressed, and then sent out for broadcast / streaming. When a set top box connects to a channel/stream, there typically can be a delay before the stream starts. Sometimes it's quite short and on occasion can be longer.

One of the local sports bars where I live has multiple Shaw boxes and TVs. None of them were in sync when viewing the same channel / game. One was off by 10-15 seconds. The rest were +/- 5 seconds off of each other.

[TSC]

I have a Bud Goal Light and it was letting me know that the hockey team scored as much as 45 seconds prior to the television broadcast. Frustrating? VERY. I’m not looking (or expecting) a zero delay, but when watching a “LIVE” event I certainly expect that my provider of the broadcast is doing all that they can to mitigate extensive delays. A 45 second delay is not acceptable

[Nighthawk]

The extreme majority of that kind of delay is on the broadcasters. 4K will have a larger delay than HD also.

[BradCL]

My issue isn’t being behind the folks who are at the game watching live, it’s the people watching on their TV packages at home who are 1+ minute ahead of me.

I had to mute my group chat where we talk about the game this entire Oilers vs Vegas series because I was a full minute behind even the people in the group who don’t have Tv or streaming packages for the games at all.

With my team eliminated though, it won’t be a problem again until next season. Hopefully the service has seen large improvements since then, as watching sports without anyone to discuss with just isn’t as exciting, and hockey is 90% of why I still have a TV.

[st0106]

Sounds like some criminals are stripping the feed off some cable tv boxes instead of some iptv boxes.

[fibretomz]

I can confirm and concur with BradCL that the delay in "live" sports with the new Telus Android boxes is unacceptable.