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New Optik TV stinks

CanuckRS
Organizer

We just moved to a new home and they sent us the new optik tv boxes with remotes. 

They are tiny boxes now that use android os.

Overall impression, they suck!

Can't access recordings easily anymore, hard to set recordings, they always push you to the home screen to buy something, menus are super unintuitive.

Don't do it!

We just plugged in our old boxes, hadn't sent them back yet, ahhhh, yes, much better.

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

@WesJD @RobG3987 Hi there, we created the following post in hopes of bridging some of the information gaps. https://forum.telus.com/t5/Optik-TV/Optik-TV-Bulletin-Board-Discover-Discuss-and-Develop/td-p/136951

View solution in original post

15 REPLIES 15

Optik-Kate
TELUS Employee
TELUS Employee

Hi @CanuckRS , you can easily access your recordings by long pressing the red rec button on your remote. There are also several ways to set your recording, one of my favourite ones is when I'm watching a show, I press the ok button to bring up the play bar and I can navigate to the red record button on the screen to set a recording for the ep or series. Hope that helps. 

That's good to know, thanks.

The biggest issue I see is that the user is frequently forced to the "home" screen which is all on demand stuff. Super annoying. Takes way more button presses to do anything now, much less efficient and irritating for sure. They need to overhaul the UI.

Are you looking for a more "live TV" focused view? If you long press the back button, it dismisses the home screen. 

Does that have to be done every time, or just once?

KHR
TELUS Employee
TELUS Employee

You can press and hold the back button to hide the home screen at any time to return to your last live TV channel, but you cannot disable the home screen altogether. You can also press and hold the back button from anywhere else in the user interface (Settings, Recordings Manager, etc.) to return to live TV playback.

 

The home screen is meant to be your hub, and while there are titles there that are available for rent - the majority of what you see should be unique/customizable to you. It does take some getting used to and setting up if you're coming from a different TV service or interface, and not everyone uses all of the features...

 

The first row is featured content - right now I see one movie available to rent (Mario Bros), and then a bunch of TV series; The Kardashians, Will Trent, Survivor, Succession... 

The second row is Apps - you can download more apps, rearrange the ones you see or remove the ones you don't use.

The third row is your resume feed - this is where you can pick up watching shows where you left off and it is unique to your profile.

The fourth row is your recent recordings.

The fifth row is where you can set up your favourite channels.

The sixth row is where you can set up your favourite movies and series.

etc.

 

Perhaps someone could make a complete reference section somewhere that lists all the short cuts, tips, general functionality of the new boxes and remote functionality ?
This is twice now I've see people be frustrated over the system only to be told a certain shortcut or function exists. "Oh,, didn't know that" is a common reply.
So why not let people know all this tips and tricks ahead instead of fumbling around. This system functionality is terrible as it is. Anxiously awaiting some feedback on when it might be improved.

And what they call a "tutorial" is not.

@WesJD @RobG3987 Hi there, we created the following post in hopes of bridging some of the information gaps. https://forum.telus.com/t5/Optik-TV/Optik-TV-Bulletin-Board-Discover-Discuss-and-Develop/td-p/136951

Hi @RobG3987 , not sure if you've seen this page already: https://www.telus.com/en/support/article/telus-tv-digital-box-remote

I take your point that there seems to be general confusion on the remote, I am working on a new documentation for this forum. Please stay tuned! 

I was just talking to tech support and they said there is no way to disable or change the Apps row.

RobG3987
Ambassador

My personal experience, and an ongoing frustration, is the PVR and recordings functionality overall is defective. Series recordings don't always work, can't select "new only", guide doesn't show "new" or "repeat" status, can't recover deleted episodes,. Shaw Blue Curve wasn't perfect either but it was leaps ahead of what this NEW Optik is!

I urge you to try it ALL out before committing to being locked into the 2 year contract: check out my thread where many of the shortcomings are listed:
 https://forum.telus.com/t5/Optik-TV/PVR-Recordings-don-t-match-when-I-view/td-p/136401
They claim "some fixes" are forthcoming but no timeline but this is like Beta testing a defective release that wasn't ready for release. Its terrible.

 

Mjwatts
Friendly Neighbour
Yes I agree with all of the above. In addition to what was mentioned above, I've got two issues with recording things that were not issues with Shaw.

1. I cannot record Global BC News on a schedule. It will not record. We do this so that we can skip the stories we don't want/need to hear about.
2. I've discovered you can't select every channel for new episodes or events. This is particularly an issue for Formula 1 race events and Friday Practice, Qualifying, and the Grand Prix could be on any of the 5 TSB channels. If you change it, it will record one of the three but maybe not the other two. With Shaw you could record on ANY channel and it would pick the first availble capturing all of the events of a race weekend.

Totally agree. I'm a new user and the whole recording platform is terrible. I record golf which often switches channels too. I now have to rely on my cellphone app to see which tv channels it's going to be on. Crazy! Also the guide doesn't display if the program is new or a repeat. Furthermore, if you want to check what's being recorded on a particular day you have to go thru each title to see it...

Btw, have Global ever uploaded clips exclusively on BC1 to their website or yt? It seems like most of the programs are either simulcast or reruns of Global National.

I use F1TV.com to watch everything F1 related, it costs me $35.00 a year and I can watch all the races, practise, qualifiying and all the other shows related, anytime, anywhere in the world, and on up to 6 devices at the same time. TSN coverage sucks.