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. 

Q4 2024: (note: had to remove previous updates due to character limits on post)

• Zoetrope Previews: See exactly where you're skipping on Live TV, recordings, and On-Demand. Enjoy fullscreen previews when fast-forwarding or rewinding, so you never lose your place. (Thumbnail preview coming soon)
• Fast Forward and Rewind Speeds: Control your scrolling speed with ease:
  • 1x: Scroll at 2x speed.
  • 2x: Scroll at 8x speed.
  • 3x: Scroll at 24x speed.
• Picture Quality Improvements: Most non-sports channels now stream in 1080p (high-definition) for sharper images, with a backup at 720p. Sports channels now uses 720p at 60 frames per second (fps) to keep fast-moving content smooth and prevent display issues—further picture quality improvements to come.
• Recovery After Internet Outage: Your digital box will now automatically resume live TV content as soon as the internet connection is restored.
• Improved Guide on Apple TV: Navigate your TV Guide effortlessly with enhanced performance and no freezing issues.
• Automatic Playback for Recordings: Binge-watch your recorded content with ease as the next recording in your playlist automatically starts playing—no need to press a button!
• Enhanced Restart and Lookback Logic: Enjoy seamless transitions between Restart and Lookback programs for uninterrupted viewing.

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!

Regards,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood TV Product Development Team.

[Optikal_Speak]

This forum is ostensibly used to provide help and assistance.

In that vein, Telus your stock price performance is down 40%+ in the past 3 years (coincidence?).

Likely reflecting the poor quality of your product over that same period.

Just pointing it out in an attempt to help.

[BD17]

Update to picture quality for non-sports channels is great, however the main reason myself and many others still have Optik TV is for live sports. Please have the sport channel picture quality be a priority for the next upgrade. 

[ShawnTheSheep]

Honestly so disappointed in this dev team. They need to up it to 1080p so it doesn’t look pixelated and just for the bandwidth even if it’s broadcasted at 720p60. The pixelation is brutal and I’m a year into my contract. Brutal.

FYI: the non sports channels look great now and the 4K sports channels too but paying this much for the sports theme packs was just a waste of money over the years. 

[hansolo]

The quality is embarrassing. Had some friends over to watch football playoffs and I have a great set up - high end 4K projector, 4K TV etc... and everyone commented how awful it looked. Not exactly great advertising for Telus. 

[ShawnTheSheep]

The frustrating part is it’s been over a year people are commenting about this. They need to up the top layer on the sports channels to 1080p60 even if the broadcast is 720p60, I’ve spent a lot of time in development and I’m in IT this small change will make a big difference while they do updates in the backend to bitrate. 

That’s why the 4K channels look great and the non sports channels look good now too. 

[hansolo]

I just find their channels passable at most. Nothing actually looks great. I do think the remote is awesome and I like all the integration with the apps and obviously Netflix, Prime etc.. show up in true 4K but the actual Telus channels are shocking. I was just in Texas for work and my dated hotel tv looked 10x better than what I have in my home. Truly sad for what we pay. 

[Optikal_Speak]

Telus' digital TV product needs a lot of work to be sure. Honestly I don't have enough tech knowledge to do a deep dive. Having "upgaded" (translation: debatable) from the legacy PVR  product about 6 mths ago the picture quality is far superior re: sports, movies, etc. My devices are non-4K (a LCD Panasonic projector and Samsung smart TVs) combination of HDMI and component connections and all 10+ yrs old. Also, I'm on copper as fiber not yet available in my area. 

It's the plethora of form and function issues that have been ongoing since the "beta" release of this 21T digital gear that I share with all Neighbors in this forum. 

Patience definitely wearing thin. I may give it a year. Definitely not 2 years.  Arguably, a breakup fee should not apply if Telus is not living up to its end of the bargain. 

[ShawnTheSheep]

Well exactly I’m a year into the contract and only watch sports, I use the Sportsnet and Telus app using the Telus account. Not cool. 

[craiger8]

If I’m going to watch a regional Canucks game that is on Sportsnet Pacific only, I will always go to the Sportsnet app to get better picture quality. The Telus Sportsnet channels that are not 4K are awful quality. 

[ShawnTheSheep]

Unacceptable for 61$ a month.

[hansolo]

Yes and I also must note that forums are Internet forever. Anyone searching this product sees ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS, so you may want to get with the times Telus. 

[Optikal_Speak]

Insanity in the Telecom world!

When I switched to the 21T digital boxes in August 2024 and subsequently encountered so many issues and after exhausting the Support team via phone (when you could get a hit with someone) and they were basically throwing their hands up in the air, I found this Telus Neighborhood and immediately thought - I just made a huge mistake! 

Fool me once...!!!

[Rocky3]

The problem is the hardware, of late the 21T power supply has been proven to be the weak link, it fails making it look like the tuner is bad, in fact not.

Having reported this and saying it often many here are not aware. Then the voices at the other end of the phone are not aware of the easy fix and continue to send out new hardware instead of just the power supply.

So many of the issues here may have been solved by PM but never reported fixed in the threads.

I went out and bought a 12V power supply, to be prepared for the fourth failure.

I have Telus cell, telus land line, Telus TV and internet and they are all working well.

Now, waiting for my missing discounts in January to be replaced to cancel out the amount I did not pay.

[Craigvee]

My power supply died on my previous unit also. 

[Montell]

Just seen these posts, my power supply is also dead.

Telus needs to do something about this, to many people having power supplys that die. 

[Optikal_Speak]

Bummer! Got a couple of boxes for my household. No power issues yet, only (6) mths old. 

Hopefully not just something else to not look forward to 🥴

[Craigvee]

Thank you for the Q4 update and finally implementing resolution switching. It is now usable and I can stop using my ARRIS box. 

Of course the quality isn’t perfect but it’s par with Arris. 

[Montell]

Resolution switching? Could you clarify that a bit? Do you just mean you can select something other then auto?

[Craigvee]

Before the update the resolution was fixed at 4K for hdr tvs, however the source content was 720 or 1080. It made the picture quality look terrible. 

You can now set the resolution to match the dynamic range and frame rate. The result is that the box will output to 1080 when watching TV but switch to HDR when watching Netflix or other supported apps.  Telus cable does not put out in HDR and I have never seen that to be the case even with the 4K channels. 

[Montell]

Hmm sounds like two things going on you are discussing. One is the hdr problem so that was the color space issue. I typically use a nvidia shield which had that implemented for years, but its good to have it now on these telus boxes.

Im a bit confused about the resolution comment though. When I use these and arris boxes I just set it to 4k60p since I often watch 4k sports. I guess if you want your tv to do the upscaling you can set it to 1080, but telus might be even broadcasting in 720p, i am not sure.

The problem to me with the new optik system is not the upscaling of the box to 4k, its that the bitrate looks far worse. I kept my arris at 4k60 as well since i often watch 4k sports channels and it looked substantially better. They really need to fix that.

[Montell]

And just to be clear by fix that I mean fix the bitrate of the channels, they look incredibly bitrate starved compared to the old arris optik system. I dont find the upscaling of the box or the resolution the problem to me its a bitrate issue.