Pik TV is getting an upgrade!

[KHR]

Hi everyone,

I'm the product manager for Pik TV, and I'm excited to announce that the Pik TV Android Media Box is getting an upgrade! We're rolling out some improvements over the next 10 days - for more details, see the article here.

We hope you enjoy the new experience, and if you've got any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear them. I'll do my best to answer or pass them along to the team to get an answer.

Cheers!

KHR

[VeryCarefully]

Is the new app coming to Apple TV users as well and will it support tvOS 14?

[Nighthawk]

tvOS 14 is still in beta. An updated Pik TV app is likely but most likely at or just after tvOS 14 is officially released.

[KHR · Accepted solution]

Hi @VeryCarefully 

As Nighthawk mentioned, tvOS is currently in beta (and the developer beta has only been available for a few weeks). It likely won't be supported it until it is rolled out to the market later this year. The Pik app for tvOS recently got a refresh and we enabled some features such as Video on Demand purchases, Universal Search and Zero Sign On. If there are any features you'd like, please feel free to comment, or add them to the ideas forum and I can take them back to our development team.

Thanks! 

[ThatGuy]

Will the bugs be worked out during the 10 day rollout?
Opening the channel Guide blacks out the current channel; the Previous channel button on the remote is unresponsive; free preview channels are nowhere to be found.

[KHR]

Hi @ThatGuy @Leehsac 

There are a few known issues with the app that will be fixed in the next release, and a few others that are a limitation of the current Android operating system. The 2 issues you highlighted are related to the operating system and the experience is a little bit different.  

1. With the current app, pressing the guide button will stop playback and take you to the static guide. If you want to browse the guide while watching TV, you can launch the live guide by pressing the OK button twice during live playback. (Pressing OK once will bring up the show info, a second press of OK will launch the live guide). Pressing back/exit will close the info or guide overlay. 

2. If you exit live TV playback, by pressing back/exit or on demand or guide, the prev button will not remember your channel history. If you stay in live TV playback mode and go to another channel either by pressing the ch^ or ch˅ or by using the live guide, the prev button will remember your history and work as expected.

For more information, please see our support articles.

As for the free channel previews, this was something that was negotiated with our content providers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but TELUS did not control the end date. A good chunk of the free previews ended on April 30th, some on May 31st, and the remainder ended on June 30th. If there were channels that you had free access to until the app update, it was likely an error and you got an extra few weeks by mistake! As a friendly reminder - you are able to change your channel selections every 30 days at no cost, either via telus.com/mytelus, the myTELUS app or by calling or chatting in to our customer care (310-MYTV).    

[outlooker7]

same here and a big pain... this new update is crappy

[Leehsac]

I am having the same issues as previous poster. Guide goes full screen and you cannot browse the guide while still watching current show. Previous button does nothing.

Thanks!

[fredoffsamee]

As the others have said about the bugs bugs bugs.Not a fan of not being to watch and see listings at the same time.

btw: how do you reset the android device if want to sell it...the option to wipe the drive and reset is gone!

Sure wish Telus would just admit defeat (have had my android box since 2018) always bugs! Only reason I stay is because of the cost $$$. Other then that, this device has been a complete failure!  Telus have you ever turned on a Roku device? That's what Pic TV should have been! 

[KHR]

Hi @fredoffsamee 

Are there any specific 'bugs' that you'd like to highlight? Perhaps there is some troubleshooting that I can help with or some details on upcoming app releases. Real-world feedback that I can pass along to our development teams is valuable and appreciated. 

If you want to browse the guide without stopping live playback, you can press OK twice on your Pik TV remote to launch the live guide overlay. See my responses above for more details. 

The update to the Android operating system was required as Google support and security patches for the old OS were coming to an end. There were some trade-offs that we had to make as some functionality of the existing Pik app and remote was not supported on the new OS. Overall, though, we feel that the experience is vastly improved with faster guide loading and better audio and video quality.

If you want to reset your Pik TV media box, you can do so by navigating to the home screen of the Android TV experience (press the home icon or Google 'G' logo on your remote) and then navigate to Settings (looks like a gear or cog in the top right of your screen)  --> Device Preferences --> About --> Reset. This will erase all data from the device's internal storage including your Google account, system and app data, settings and downloaded apps.

[Piky]

Before the 2020-07-16 Pik TV update, I could change the TV channel by pressing the micorphone button on the remote and speaking the TV channel number that I wanted.  After the update, pressing the microphone button on the remote and speaking the TV channel number seems to search YouTube and find nothing.  How can I change TV channels using voice commands with the Pik TV remote?

[KHR]

Hi @Piky 

As part of the OS upgrade, we were forced to use the Google Home Assistant for our voice control feature of the remote. It does a pretty good job of finding content by title or actor, but does return search results from Youtube and the Play Store as well as Pik TV. Unfortunately, there is still some work to be done on this front to enable more Pik TV-specific commands like finding a specific channel. 

[BennyB]

I certainly agree with the feedback of many here.  One step forward and two steps back is how I'd describe the upgrade.  In addition I have found no way in the Guide to 'page' ahead, as both the channel up/channel down, as well as arrow up/arrow down seem to scroll you 'one channel at a time' through the guide.  This is annoying to say the least, as the Guide always starts from the lowest channel.

[KHR]

Hi @BennyB 

Unfortunately, the implementation of the page forward, page back functionality was a limitation of the Android operating system and our existing remote control. That said, the speed at which the guide loads and the speed at which you can scroll down one by one was improved significantly in all of our testing, so we felt that this trade-off was worth it. 

The guide starting from the lowest channel, even when you enter from a different range on the home screen (such as News, Sports etc.) will be resolved in a future app release. For now, you are able to filter your guide so that it only displays channels to which you are subscribed, so that should limit how much scrolling you need to do. 

[Casper]

This thing was unwatchable a year ago, still unwatchable. I would be embarrassed to put my name to this thing. Take a look at Shaw's to see how it is supposed to work.

[KHR]

Hi @Casper 

I'm sorry to hear it hasn't been working for you. Are there any specific issues that I can try to address? Have you tried contacting our technical support team to troubleshoot anything for you? 

[wjanzen]

Thank you KHR, for upgrading the Andriod OS version and the PikTV app for the Android TV box.

Over the last few days of using the PikTV with the Android updates, I have found the application and box to be more stable. Prior to the upgrade I would have to reboot the box everyday and that no longer has been necessary. I am enjoying the use of PikTV and look forward to the future changes you will be bringing.

Sincerely,

wjanzen

[KHR]

Thanks for the feedback @wjanzen!

I'm glad you're liking it so far.

[Jayfish82]

Hey! Is anyone else having this issue with their piktv box? On Friday our box did an android security update and now our tv says there is no signal. We thought that the update might have fried the box so we went and exchanged it for a new one today. We went to start setting up the new piktv box and the android security update automatically started, and the same thing, our tv says that there is nothing connected. No signal. Even though the boxes green light and bluetooth light are on. Its hardwired to the modem and hdmi connected to the tv. We are a little frustrated. Anyone else having this issue?

[NFtoBC]

For me, the update proceeded without incident. I just had to login again.

What happens if you try it on Wi-Fl?

[KHR]

Hi @Jayfish82 

A few other things I'd suggest (apologies if you've tried these already): 

1. Try power cycling both the Pik TV box and the TV itself - unplug each from the wall for 30 seconds

2. Ensure the Pik box is turned on (you should see 2 green lights and one blue light). The remote might be out of sync - you press power and the TV turns on but the box turns off or vice versa. 

3. Make sure you've got the HDMI inputs correct and that the HDMI cable works (is there another device you can try?)