Optik TV Smart Remote

[Wolfman5001]

I phoned Telus today to voice my concern about the discontinuation of the smart remote and I was told it was because not very many people use it. Well good job Telus, you forced a much worse app with a fraction of the functionality on us that I'm certain even less people will use than the smart remote app.
This is the reason people are moving away from cable to online streaming. You know what I can control from my phone with an app? Netflix, Hulu, amazon video etc. This is a complete step backwards and if it wasn't for live sports I would totally cancel tv all together. The removal of this app is just another example of how out of touch our cable companies are.

[mbp]

@Wolfman5001 - You should have looked about 3 replies up if you wanted the most likely reason the app was discontinued.

[Vanbakeld]

I agree. The new app is horrible. We were already thinking about going back to
Shaw and this might just be the push we needed. Telus sucks.

[frankw]

@mbp Telus is a company worth about $27 billion, not some tiny undercapitalized startup running in a spare bedroom that must do things at very low cost. They mismanaged their Smart Remote project if they were cheapskates and made it dependent on a software component made by a little company (maybe 1 person?) that didn't make enough money and one day decided to cease operations. A competent tech company (actually the people in charge of the Smart Remote app) would make sure their project had a more solid foundation. If they are blaming the outside framework supplier, that's just an excuse, it is Telus's responsibility to develop reliable systems and they failed on this one.

[RB2]

I just signed up to make the same point, only to find a long string of posts from disgruntled users.  The ONLY thing I used the old app for was to program the PVR when I was away from home, and that worked reasonably well.  I've been trying to use the old one for the past few days and kept getting an error message - until I went to Telus' website I didn't know that it had been discontinued, because Telus had not bothered to tell me.  The new app tries to be too clever, and the part that I want (remote set recordings PVR) is clumsy at best, and doesn't work for specific needs (e.g. if there is a news program with the same name on every hour, I cannot record (for example) the version that comes on at 6:00pm).  Scrolling is inconsistent, the programs don't keep up with the time, and a slight mistake results in the time jumping back to the current time.  And I don't want to watch TV on my phone.  ANY CHANCE OF BRINGING BACK THE OLD APP, OR OFFERING AN APP JUST FOR PROGRAMMING PVR'S?

[Rentalguy]

I totally agree. New app is horrible, and the remote is gone. Worse, nothing on the App Store or app tells you this. I just spent 20 minutes try to get the non existent feature to work. TELUS LUSTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS !

[LC2]

I totally agree, as a loyal customer who is the adult in the house who pays the bills I'm extremely disappointed in the decision to not offer the one great feature Telus had on their smart Optik remote.

[LC2]

I would like to chime in...the Optik Smart Remote is a feature truly valued by our family and we are highly disappointed that this app is no longer functioning without a suitable replacement. 

[WestCoasterBC]

I would imagine if it's a feature Telus can implement in house in the future they may work on this feature. Keep in mind it was a 3rd party that supplied the remote feature before that is no longer around.

[Mikekpt]

Smart remote for a smart home.  Everything is run off my iPhone. I have a tv on the wall with speakers on each side wired to a central spot with my Telus box. The app had some glitches which could and should have been worked on.  Telus claiming the new app works only to find it doesn’t by tech support after we discovered this together. Really disappointed. Turn up the app again Telus. Up until now I told new neighbours and community how happy I was with Telus.  If I didn’t have others in the house that watch the blue jays and news I would have just cancelled the tv service. 

[Mikekpt]

Well said. 40 or more characters to say anymore Telus.¿ don’t get me going anymore. Waste my time and now I’m looking at $800 to wire in a repeater to my tv to use a remote like its 1992.

[Mikekpt]

Yes same here. Xantech dinkylink has been a good product as I used to install. Loved my house operating off iPhone. So pissed off. I split the telusbox living room and master. So I’m $200 per tv plus install or pay someone. Thanks Telus. I can say you suck again. 

[Arrvon]

Hi, I also registered (as many others in this thread have done) to voice my displeasure over the Smart Remote app being cancelled.

The fact that so many users have registered just to bring this issue up should show TELUS how much this means to them and how important it would be to fix the issue.

The new app is clearly just a web based app. It’s only 8mb to install so it’s likely just running your web browser in a fancy TELUS looking app.

In any case, it is a big step backwards and loses some of the very important features the other app had. Here are the features that Telus has taken away for me:

-a quick guide to search days ahead
-a quick guide to scan channels quickly and then select it/play it on the tv
-the ability to let me kids browse on demand kids shows from the app and then play them on the tv. (One of our boxes, the one connected to the kids tv, is the older generation Telus box which is extremely slow to navigate so this makes it much easier)

The new app would be somewhat useful if it at the very least could send the shows to start playing on the tv instead of a small iPad screen.

Overall it’s an extremely dissapointing sign as a customer that Telus would even consider losing all these features as an option, let alone actually purposely deciding to get rid of them. Even if i.TV was ending their support, the software should have been purchased by Telus and integrated into the new app.

I sincerely hope that Telus brings back the smart remote features that were clearly a selling point and much used/loved feature.

[GarbageApp]

This was so dissapointing. Take away an amazing funtional app and force me to watch on my tablet?!?

What idiot thought this was an improvement? For Christ sake, what a stupid move. I’ve deleted this stupid resource pig.

bring back the ipad/iphone remote app.

how many pages is this thread expressing the same dissatisfaction.

idiots

[Shank]

Does Telus even monitor this forum? An answer would be appreciated. This isn’t the only thread on this topic

[NFtoBC]

I expect they don’t have much to say. The developer of the product, and owner of the intellectual property has abandoned the product. This leaves Telus in the position of no longer being able to offer the now unsupported product, and likely unable to re-create it without being in a copyright infringement situation. If it was as simple as cut and paste, it likely would have been done by now by someone.

[Digitalone]

Besides which, who watches HD TV on their iPhone? Wow why did I spend all that money on my 60" Oled UHD TV? Crazy. 

[Digitalone]

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@frankw wrote:
@mbpTelus is a company worth about $27 billion, not some tiny undercapitalized startup running in a spare bedroom that must do things at very low cost. They mismanaged their Smart Remote project if they were cheapskates and made it dependent on a software component made by a little company (maybe 1 person?) that didn't make enough money and one day decided to cease operations. A competent tech company (actually the people in charge of the Smart Remote app) would make sure their project had a more solid foundation. If they are blaming the outside framework supplier, that's just an excuse, it is Telus's responsibility to develop reliable systems and they failed on this one.

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Exactly, is Telus telling us that they don't have the resources or knowhow to add the remote functionality to the new app. Bull $#%@. If a small outfit like i.TV could do it then certainly a 27 billion dollar company can fork up enough cash to get the right peps to code that feature or licence it from i.TV if required. 

Digitalone. 

[WestCoasterBC]

i.TV is no more. It’s hard to license something from a company that no longer exists. Along with any IP they once had.

[VV]

We have our PVR boxes in cabinets beside our two main TVs.

We used the old app to change channels.

Can't do that now.

Have resorted to running transmitters, temporarily.  

Extremely disappointing that Telus does not have RF remotes and/or discontinued the app that addressed that issue.

We custom designed our dream home to hide all of the components....

The suggestion from Telus is that they will send a technician out to move the boxes - that is a joke!

We are now looking at Shaw and will be moving immediately.