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.

[TheLastElite]

What version on the TV Box will it say for the Q4 2024 update so I know I have it?

[Optikal_Speak]

Hi Optik-Kate, 

When did you post your Q4 2024 comments?

Just updated my boxes and they still show App version 1.24.11.100, Config timestamp 2024-10-23 T 19:50:08 which was the Q3 update...correct?

Nothing new since October?

[Optikal_Speak]

For further clarification, are updates for the 21T Digital service released universally across the Telus network or are they released based on a some sort of regional time delay?

[Optik-Kate]

Not released universally, instead, we have a two-week rollout schedule for every release to reach all devices and platforms.

[Montell]

Hoping to get this soon on android tv, still no update showing up on my nvidia shield.

Also strangely a recording of a documentary channel i made last night just vanished for some unknown reason.

[TELUS_Support]

Hey @Montell - Can we please have the channel and time of the recording that disappeared? We'll send this off for investigation

[Montell]

I believe it was documentary channel Wednesday hitlers engineers...

I went back and the catch up icon was available for one but the program crashed a little ways in, said check my Internet connection. Has happened before on some recordings/catch up. Everything else is working fine. But the recording was their Wednesday evening then vanished and as mentioned using catch-up it crashed. Not a new issue though sadly.

[Montell]

Oh I guess the time 2pm Wednesday documentary channel called Hitler's engineers.

[TELUS_Support]

Thank you! We've sent this info to our team for investigation

[Grimmt]

Got to give kudos when they're deserved for Q4 2024 update.

The Development Team did a great job on the following:

• Zoetrope Previews
• Fast Forward and Rewind Speeds

Especially want to highlight the Fast Forward and Rewind speed adjustment - the behaviour is well thought out:

1. quick click right (30sec forward), quick click left (10sec back).

2. overloaded long click left or right enters streaming fast forward/rewind mode with additional clicks increasing/decreasing speed depending on mode.

The Dev Team is starting to think about how to integrate a feature while considering how it impacts users .. and I'm all in with that.

Please keep it up 👍

Edit:minor grammar and spelling issues.

[Optikal_Speak]

Fair enough!

Question still remains...is it out for general consumption as of January 12, 2025 19:57 ET?

[Optik-Kate]

The Q4 update is available for general consumption, and the version number is 1.24.11.100. (No December updates due to embargo)
I typically try to update this post once the rollout is 100% complete and confirmed. 

[Rocky3]

Q3 is 1.24.10.400 as found 11/27/24

Q4 is 1.24.11.100   Config version 1729713008   config timestamp 2024-10-23T10.50.08

Roll out does not update all devices. The timestamp date is third quarter. Hard to follow what is newest.

Why did the version & timestamp not change to December or January date (embargo?).

[Optikal_Speak]

Precisely!

To use business vernacular...Telco stands for Telus Confusion!🤔

[Optikal_Speak]

...and I echo the Embargo (?)

What's was or is being embargoed that's getting in the way of updates?

[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.