TELUS TV Feature Updates - Ongoing

[Optik-Kate]

Dear Neighbours, 

We’re experimenting with different formats to assure you we’re listening and working on improvements to the TELUS TV platforms. We have frequent releases designed to tackle the platform's immediate and long-term stability, and we’ll do our best to keep this thread up to date with each new release to celebrate our wins together.

Please note this is not an exhaustive list; minor customer-facing fixes and non-customer-facing backend work are not included. 

Q3 2024:

• Bulk Delete for Recordings: You can now delete multiple recorded episodes simultaneously, making managing your recordings easier.
• Episode List Access: When playing a recorded episode, you can see a list of all other episodes from the same series directly in the player.
• Binge-Watching Made Easy: Enjoy seamless binge-watching of recorded episodes, as they now play sequentially without any interruptions.
• Order Cloud PVR Directly: You can now order Cloud PVR service directly from your set-top box for added convenience.
• Start from the Beginning: Easily start recordings and VOD (Video on Demand) content from the beginning, even if you joined late!

Q2 2024:

• Recording improvements: 
• Eliminated the skipping of the first episode when scheduling recording series
• Reduction of removed recordings due to metadata inconsistencies
• Series schedule will remain in the recording manager after a season ends
• Launch of Free Ad-Supported Streaming Channels so you can watch them anytime, anywhere, without a subscription
• Apple TV interface redesign for better navigation
• Custom date/time picker on Android mobile guide
• Remove content from the resume lane by press & hold (long press) on items in the lane

Q1 2024:

• Recording improvements: Series recording on news-related programs
• Guide filter selection such as “my favourite channel” remains after turning the TV off and on
• Search results are now expanded to include third-party streaming apps availability in the program detail page
• Optimized search functionality via content type and cast member names
• Default focus on home - requiring only one click of the “back” button to return to the last watched stream
• User experience and design improvement on Apple TV and iOS

Q4 2023:

• Additional 4K channels on the TELUS TV Digital Box and Android TV devices 
• New and Live tags in the TV Guide
• Increased Cloud Recording duration to 90 days
• Pay Per View events are now available for purchase
• Recording improvements 
• Unviewable recordings can now be deleted
• The recordings manager now shows the newest recordings first
• Bug fixes related to recordings going missing
• Bug fixes for sports recording auto-extension 
• Surround Sound is now available
• Dismissing the “next episode” prompt is now working correctly

Q3 2023

• Chromecast - cast from TELUS TV+ mobile app to Chromecast-enabled receivers
• Game Zone - a dedicated zone on the Telus TV Digital Box with over 180 free and simple-to-play games using your mobile device as the controller 
• Resume from your Apps row on the home screen to resume shows from Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime Video and more

Q2 2023 

• Playback Performance Toggle - A new option in the Settings menu aimed at improving video playback on older Android devices (mobile/tablet).
• Pause Live TV for up to 15 minutes on the TELUS TV Digital Box and TELUS TV+ app
• Restart a show from the beginning that aired up to 30 hours in the past

• Profile improvements
• Recordings only show in individual profiles
• ‘Recommended for you’ personalized by profile
• ‘Favourite channels’ and ‘Favourite movies & series’ by profile
• Live Sports recordings are automatically extended; 90 minutes for tennis & 60 minutes for all other sports

Regards,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood TV Product Development Team.

[broadcastguy]

That’s cool. I’ll cancel my Optik
/TELUS TV service if that’s the case. They aren’t listening to customer complaints, and have gone all-in on an inferior product—I’m out.

[KHR]

Hi @viperdiablo1 @broadcastguy @Rocky3 @KTown 

That was a support article created specifically for folks using Optik HD equipment AND the Netflix application with legacy internet equipment. Netflix removed support for their app on legacy HD Optik equipment, and these customers would have been left with no way to watch Netflix on TELUS equipment. This is the reality of technology and working with partners...the partners can withdraw support from a given operating system at any time. Prime Video was never supported on HD equipment and Netflix removed their support. At a certain point, all equipment will have to be retired, but rest assured that you will be notified to the best of TELUS's ability, and not simply by an article posted to our website. I always recommend having your correct email address and phone number on file (you'd be surprised...).

For what it's worth, TELUS currently has 3 generations of Optik TV equipment: Optik HD PVRs/Digital Boxes (there are a few iterations of these, but the newest is from ~13 years ago), Optik 4K PVRs/Wireless Digital Boxes from 2015/2016 and the newest TELUS TV Digital Box with Cloud Recording for Optik TV introduced in 2023. It is specifically the HD equipment that we will be phasing out over the coming years. The 4K hard-drive PVR will continue to be supported for a little while longer. If you're on HD equipment and prefer that user interface and functionality, I'd recommend upgrading to 4K equipment by connecting to our customer service folks.

[broadcastguy]

It’s pretty sad that the technology from 2015 is superior to what was released last year. I honestly thought they’d release a product with higher quality, and less compressed, video for fibre customers. I’ve got 3G symmetrical fibre and the new TELUS TV uses less bandwidth than ever. Crazy, and not what I’d consider innovation.

[viperdiablo]

I appreciate the reply. Why would the faq have this posted on that article referring to the 4k pvr box as well as the others you mentioned? Maybe that needs to be updated?

“Frequently asked questions
My equipment is working fine. Why do I need to upgrade?
Starting in 2024, TELUS will no longer be supporting Optik TV on your HD and 4K PVRs or Digital Boxes. To ensure that you can continue to enjoy Optik TV, you need to opt in to upgrading your equipment. “

[KHR]

That looks like a typo, the newer 4K equipment will continue to be supported past 2024. I will bring it to the attention of the correct folks and have it updated. Apologies for the confusion.

[KTown]

So let me get this straight. I have 2 "old" Optik boxes in my house, one that is hardly used. I'll have to pay an additional $10 for the privilege of having a 2nd box? And because I'm on the Essentials TV plan, I have to pay an additional $10 for the privilege of being able to record? Huh?

Will there be a way to tell Telus I don't want the ability to record and to tell them I don't want a 2nd box? I'm not paying $20 more a month for inferior technology and service when I'm sitting here on single strand copper. I really, really regret signing a contract last August. 

[Rocky3]

Have you been told this or is this an assumption?

[KHR]

Hi @KTown 

When and if you are upgraded, you will be presented with options for functionality, equipment and pricing. If you want to opt out of certain equipment, you can do that at any time. If you don't want the ability to record, you can opt out of that at any time as well (for example, you can return your PVR and opt for a Digital Box without harddrive). 

Further, you seem concerned about the pricing changes. As an example, our current pricing structure for new customers is:

TELUS TV Digital Box rental price: $10/month

Cloud PVR: $10/month

Core package: $35/month

TOTAL: $55/month

The legacy pricing is: 

Optik 4K PVR rental price: $20/month

Recordings: included

Essentials package: $43/month

TOTAL: $63/month

The new pricing structure is less expensive AND offers more flexibility.

I hope this helps.

[KTown]

I pay $43/month for my essentials package with one HD PVR and one wireless HD box and don't pay any rental fees on either. So this new hardware initiative will cost me at least $12 more a month.

I'm on 50mb/s single strand copper (not even bonded pair) so supporting two 4K boxes is not feasible. My connection struggles with 2 people streaming HD content and another person browsing. And as far as I'm aware there are no plans to install fiber on my block.

It looks like in my case that after 12 years as a customer, Telus will be losing a customer even if it means paying the penalty to break my contract.

[KHR]

I'd strongly recommend reaching out to our customer service representatives first to discuss your options rather than deciding simply to cancel. They have tools and discounts at their disposal to ensure that you're satisfied with your bill. Even though the newer 4K PVRs and boxes support 4K video, only ~12 of the over 400 channels on Optik TV offer content in 4K resolution (I believe only 1 or 2 channels in the Essentials is in 4K). You could upgrade your equipment and only ever watch HD channels and nothing would change bandwidth wise. 

If you're not paying rental fees on either of your current boxes, you have either purchased the boxes outright or you have an offsetting discount for being on a service agreement. If you have equipment discounts, these would still apply on upgraded equipment.

[Montell]

Just to point again and this has been an issue for awhile. Telus and I believe every major cable company is offering the first week of mlb extra innings free for users.

Works fine on the old optik, on the new optik platform you get nothing other then asking us to subscribe.

I am not sure why this is still an issue on this platform, why we never get free previews on this platform that the old optik users get??

[Montell]

No comment on this from the team? You just don't get free previews on these boxes for some reason?

[KHR]

Hi @Montell 

I can't comment on what other telcos offer for free previews, but capabilities, pricing and reliability certainly all vary. The TELUS TV Digital Box (and the TELUS TV+ app) are based on a different back-end platform which doesn't support free previews the same way as the legacy Optik TV platform. 

I know the response won't be satisfactory, but free previews are on the development roadmap, however they are lower in priority than items like video quality and HDR/SDR switching. If there is programming or content that matters to you, you are welcome to subscribe.

[Montell]

Understandable and the hdr/sdr issue falls under picture quality which I said needs to be number 1. My Nvidia shield can properly switch between hdr and sdr but I know these boxes need that fixed. As mentioned though by many the bitrate and bitrate starved streams should be improved as well. You can only improve picture so much if the streams are bitrate starved. Generally a good encoder can only do so much with a low bitrate.

With that said on the free previews spectrum welcoming us to subscribe is not a great answer. That defeats the entire purpose of free previews, so we can see the channels and decide if we want to subscribe. It should be addressed, I had this box last year and did not get any free previews either. At some point a year later customers are going to want features present on the old optik system for years.

[Montell]

I do appreciate Telus employees taking time to respond here though.

[Montell]

Sorry one more. Given where this platform is at and the concerns of customers I also hope internally Telus as a company is providing the resources needed to address these issues expressed by customers. Hopefully they are giving the dev team enough resources to start knocking some of these off the list as this platform gets pushed to more customers. Can't have a small dev team overworked expecting to fix everything. Hopefully Telus is supporting them enough.

[MrSL]

You used to be able to see what was currently in free preview but according to Telus, "there was a business decision to pull the free previews page on TELUS" so not easy to find any further info...

https://forum.telus.com/t5/Optik-TV/Free-Previews-List/m-p/145277#M13797

[bimmerdriver]

I currently have UIW8001 PVR and 3X UIW4001e. They work pretty well. The old saying, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" comes to mind.

From all of the reviews and comments here and elsewhere, such as DSLReports (https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r33851979-ALL-Comments-Experience-New-Telus-TV-Digital-Box-TelusTV-...), these new boxes sound like a step backwards, not only in terms of functionality and also picture quality. I've been with Telus long enough to highly suspect that customers will pay more for the priviledge of having less functionaly and worse picture quality. 

Considering that 4K TVs are common and 8K TVs are becoming more common, it's not reasonable to expect that customers will be satisfied with poor picture quality on their big and expensive TVs.

This makes me wonder if Telus is serious about staying in this business. Eventually, charging more for less will catch up with you. Unless Telus is intentionally trying to kill the TV market, these new TV boxes sound like a mistake.

[Pattydee3]

I see the new Telus TV Android boxes getting a lot of flack here, and I personally don't think it's entirely deserved. 

Full disclosure, I worked at Shaw for 12 years, and via the employee discounts had every iteration of their TV boxes. This includes Rovi, HD Guide, Gateway, and their new X1 boxes both QAM and IP based (Bluesky/Bluecurve TV, now called Ignite TV under Rogers). I'm a big fan of the Comcast X1 platform, so my basis of comparison is that platform. 

I've had the new Telus TV Android boxes for a few months now, after not having cable for a year. Prior to the year without cable I was on Shaw Bluecurve (now Ignite TV) which is the syndicated Comcast X1 platform. I feel like I'm quite particular with picture quality, and quite honestly I don't notice a difference between the Bluecurve  boxes and these new Telus TV boxes. In the past Telus has struggled with picture quality particularly when compared directly to Shaw, but I was pleasantly surprised with these new boxes. Not sure why/how others are saying the picture quality is worse, but my experience has been very positive in this aspect. 

The guide/UI is a little clumsy, and this is where I see Telus has the most opportunity for improvement. I don't like having to hit the back button 10 times to get out of Netflix, and the guide can be a little slow to load when the box first turns on. Having seen multiple iterations of tv boxes launch at Shaw, I know that development is always ongoing and most of those platforms had a less than that stellar launch (I'm looking at you, HD Guide). Keep in mind that Telus is actively developing for this platform so I would expect things to improve substantially over time. 

I got Telus TV in time for the Superbowl and was very happy to be able to watch it on TSK in 4K. It looked fantastic. While these boxes aren't about to win awards for most outstanding anything, I feel like they're better than their reputation on this blog (and the Telus subreddit).

My 2 cents anyways. 

[Craigvee]

The issue is with 4K tvs and with the box pushing content in hdr even if it’s hd resulting in a blown out picture quality.

I have both the previous iteration 4K Arris box and the Android box and the picture quality for HD is not even in the same league.

The firmware issues with the Android box are confirmed by Telus and apparently we’re to wait for a new Android OS.

Are you using a 4K tv?

It’s honestly a joke they’d push this out to customers. I only use it for 4K and for streaming services.

[Pattydee3]

Yup, using 2 4K TV's and one non-4k. Guess I'm lucky I don't have this issue.