The State of Pik TV

[Qix]

I realize that this is not a premium product for Telus, I've never seen an ad for it.

I've come to this forum for about the last year looking for solutions to various problems. These all seem to follow the same basic pattern;

Somethings broken,

patch incoming,

in the meantime, factory reset or replace the box,

patch arrives,

something breaks,

repeat.

But of course that is only half of it, what is left out is the countless hours dealing with support staff.

As far as I can tell this is the only official forum for Pik TV and if that is the case, the information being passed on to the consumers is lacking.

Pik TV works fine on every other platform in my house, Android and Windows, but not this box.

I understand the appeal is to have free data, but really the time and energy involved in getting it is becoming quite tedious.

I accept the limitations of Pik TV, I see it more as a gateway to Optic TV. That said, if Telus is going to offer a product then the least they can do is to maintain it.

Maybe Telus should go to a simple android box and offer subscribers a better deal on data instead of trying to keep this working.

/rant

[WestCoasterBC · Accepted solution]

There are very few hardware manufacturers that have a certified "Android TV platform". Telus doesn't manufacture the hardware so when (app) software updates arise and something breaks after fixing other issues/new features.  They must contact the hardware provider in most instances if a software fix can't be made on their end alone. Thus it takes longer then normal at times to "fix" something. PikTV is making strides and the app is getting better on the platform, sooner later all the bugs should be out of it.

[Qix]

"There are very few hardware manufacturers that have a certified "Android TV platform"."

That doesn't matter to me, sounds like a good reason to move on.

" PikTV is making strides and the app is getting better on the platform, sooner later all the bugs should be out of it."

That makes it sound like we're in some kind of testing phase, maybe Telus should be paying us.

I'm just getting frustrated with this service and wanted to get my 2 cents in. I can only hope this forum is monitored by Telus employees so they can pass the frustration on.

[NFtoBC]

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@Qix wrote:

maybe Telus should be paying us.

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In a way they are. PikTV is less than half the cost of the ‘skinny basic’ TV offering mandated by the CRTC, and contains the same or better channel offerings as does the TV offering.

[bb123]

I completely agree with this thread. As a long time customer of internet, TV (previously optik) and mobility, Telus should be embarrassed to offer this product. It does not work regularly (or well when it does) and should not be offered until it does. Price doesn't matter, just because it's cheap doesn't mean it shouldn't work.

[atheoncrutch]

As a former owner of multiple Android TV boxes (Nvidia Shield and Nexus Player) I can attest to the platforms issues. It’s great how opened ended it is, but software development seems limited and scattered. I switched everything over to Apple TV and couldn’t be happier. Less futzing around with issues and crashing apps.

I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I was told an Apple TV app is coming for Pik TV this month. If that happens, I will be signing up for Telus Internet and Pik TV (provided the app works and all that).

I think an app solution on multiple platforms (think Bell Alt TV or Sling TV in the US) is a better direction to go, as opposed to a specific Telus branded box.

[yvrmike]

Basic functionality such as "Turn TV on and expect to see video... but get no video but app controls visible, with sound, instead" shouldn't be an issue at this point of this product's roll out. Despite our setup being as straightforward as possible - Pik Media box directly attached to recent model HDMI TV, with 150mbps fibre internet / ethernet connection (the issue is never related to connectivity)... this happens far too often.

A bunch of steps will restore video, usually.

What gives Telus?

And then there's the app failing to load. A bunch of steps will generally not result in joy; walking away for a day or two or ten... is often required.

What gives Telus?