Set up restricted profile on 'new' Pik TV digital box?

[insyzygy]

Hi all,

Is it possible to set up a Restricted profile on the new Pik TV box like I'd already set up on the old one?

If not, how am I supposed to curate apps or content for my kids?  I am really hoping I can block a bunch of apps, e.g. YouTube.

Also, I don't want them messing about with my profile.

Thanks!

[KHR]

Hi @insyzygy 

Restricted profiles aren't currently supported on the TELUS TV Digital Box, but we are looking at adding purchase and parental PINs in the future. 

I'm not sure how sophisticated your kids are, but you can remove apps from the home screen by removing them from your favourites: bring the app icon into focus state, then hold down the OK button and you should see 'Open, Move, 'Remove from favourites, Info'. Note that the app will still appear if you press the apps button on the remote control. The other option is to set up restrictions or PINs within the individual apps (Restricted mode in YouTube, for example).

[insyzygy]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

What is the ETA for the parental PIN feature? 
Removing YouTube from favourites list doesn't handle my use-case since YouTube already has a dedicated row further down the screen.

I disabled and stopped the app via the app menu so that's a temporary fix.

Restricted Mode within YouTube doesn't help my use case either and YouTube in-app PIN isn't a thing (although it is with Disney+).

[insyzygy]

Hi, I was looking for an update on this parental PIN feature and when/if it will be released on PikTV? Thanks

[insyzygy]

Poke.  Looking for an update on when the per-app PIN feature will be released.  All other home devices allow restricted access at the app-level.  This is a bit of a disappointment from Telus.

[KHR]

Hi @insyzygy 

I'm sorry that this is a total disappointment. We do offer the full-featured Optik TV service that includes features like purchase and parental PINs. If you need this level of control, I'd really recommend Optik TV. Pik TV is a discounted TV service that doesn't have all of the bells and whistles as Optik TV service, and is meant for smaller households with less complicated requirements (hence the limitation of one set-top box and 2 concurrent streams).

In the meantime, we are still looking at a number of additional features such as personalized profiles, PINs or the ability to pause Optik and Pik equipment from within the TELUS Connect app; if you are using the Pik TV app on a compatible device such as Android TV or Apple TV, you can pause those devices, but unfortunately at this time we do not have the ability to pause the TELUS TV Digital Box. While there's nothing to share at the moment, stay tuned for updates in the New Year.

[insyzygy]

Just want to point out that Pik TV, before the hardware change, allowed me to associate apps with different profiles and this allowed me to effectively restrict YouTube in this way.  So calling this feature a "bell" or "whistle" is not really warranted since it existed before with the old Android OS.  It is just since the new Android OS that this issue has arisen; previously it was fine and I didn't have to consider upgrading to Optik for a feature that I already had.  Yes, I am aware of the pausing, etc. but I am not interested in those. 

I only want app-level PIN access, that's all.

I will stay tuned for updates...

[KHR]

Fair enough, I totally get your concerns. While we are working on a Pik TV PIN solution, there are certain things that are totally outside of TELUS's control - features at the Android TV OS level and security updates on legacy OS's are two examples. Google ended support and security patches for Android P (the OS that the Pik Media Box ran, and the highest letter upgrade available on that chipset) in January, which is what drove the need to replace the hardware with the TELUS TV Digital Box. Google also made the decision to remove restricted profiles from Android Q. 

[insyzygy]

To close off this ticket, since I could not control access to YouTube, I experimentally disconnected and boxed away the PikTV device.  The family didn't notice its removal since we could access all the services we wanted directly through our TV, including password-controlled YouTube and TV through a standard antenna. 

For that reason, I just removed PikTV from our Telus account with minimal fuss.

[JesScarlet6]

How did you password control access to youtube? I have just spend 2.5 hrs on the phone with telus trying to block youtube access using parental controls etc to no avail, bc even if we block the channel for it, my son can still access it using the app button on the remote!

[insyzygy · Accepted solution]

Hi, I simply cancelled my PikTv service and purchased a Chromecast for a one time fee. I can set up profiles for my kids and block YouTube on there. I also can get all the other apps PikTv has, except piktv app of course