When will TELUS improve the Optik TV platform?

[glinden]

* no Exit button on the remote, or easy way to exit watching a recording or when streaming

* provide a Trash Can for recently deleted recordings with capability to undelete

* improved voice search capability on the remote: e.g. saying "FBI" should pull up FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International ... instead of You Tube videos

* text search capability on the remote

* only 1 Stingray channel compared to Rogers Xfinity which has 60

* it's difficult to determine future sporting events by type

* marking of recordings as watched

* automatically extend recordings of live events (e.g. sports)

* manually extend timed recordings

* ability to keep recordings longer than 90 days compared to Rogers Xfinity which has no expiry

[TELUS_Support]

Thank you for the feedback! Our Optik team is continuously working on updates and improvements to the platform. We'll definitely pass this feedback along to them right away!

[glinden]

The poor search capabilities of the remote are among are one of the top issues.  It is impossible to find Traitors UK for instance, even though it is available for streaming.  Also cannot find the TV series The Hunting Party - the search recognizes that such a TV show exists but can only pull up a movie of the same name when you attempt to stream it.  This inability to access content would be enough to make me want to switch back to Rogers Xfinity at my earliest opportunity.  Recording a hockey game but the recording ending in the middle of the overtime period while watching is also highly agitating and yet another good reason to ditch TELUS Optik TV.

[TELUS_Support]

We've forwarded this post to our dev team for feedback. They definitely want to hear the specifics surrounding the issues our customers are facing. Again, appreciate you letting us know!

[glinden]

After using Optic TV for the past 17 days, I would add to the list of areas to improve: the painfully slow updating of the TV Guide when moving forward into the future.  I have 3 GB internet service but compared to how fast Rogers Ignite updates the TV Guide, which is more or less instantly, Optik TV is sorely lacking by comparison.  I can only conclude that the TV Guide is not stored on the set-top box.  This seems like a no-brainer area to improve upon!  I also see no reason to restrict the TV Guide to 10 or 11 days into the future.  If you want to be as good as Rogers Ignite you would have match their 14 days.

[Flash54321]

If you are continuously working on updates and improvements, why are they so few and far between?  

there are BASIC features that your customers have been requesting for years that are STILL not available.  

I no longer believe you are working on them and am waiting for my contract to run out. 

[TELUS_Support]

Hello again! Our dev team had some information for you regarding your original post.

* no Exit button on the remote, or easy way to exit watching a recording or when streaming

The back/exit button (reverse arrow under/to the left of the d-pad) should return you to the last place in the user interface that you were; usually it's the home screen overlay. You can also configure the PREV button in settings to bring up your last 4 channels/apps. If you're watching a recording and press the PREV button, you can get back to your last channel with 2 button presses. Video will be playing in the background while you navigate, so shows will continue to play while you choose something else. If the show ends, it'll return you to the last live channel.

* provide a Trash Can for recently deleted recordings with capability to undelete

We're looking at an emergency recovery feature, but for now there is unlimited capacity which mitigates that somewhat.

* improved voice search capability on the remote: e.g. saying "FBI" should pull up FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International...instead of YouTube videos

There are 2 implementations of voice search on the TELUS remote. Google Assistant, which searches across all installed apps incl. TELUS TV On Demand results. Secondly, voice to text which searches Live and On Demand results (as well as some 3rd party streamers such as Netflix, Prime Video, etc.) Voice to text is accessed via the magnifying glass on the Home screen.

* text search capability on the remote

A full keyboard on the remote would present significant accessibility challenges. The on-screen keyboard search can be found via the magnifying glass mentioned above.

* only 1 Stingray channel compared to Rogers Xfinity which has 60

You should have access to the following: Vibe (580), Loud (581), Retro (582), Country (583), Classica (585), Festival 4K (591), Now 4K (593), HITS (2045), Palmares ADISQ (2046) as well as Naturescapes (727) which is more of a screensaver than music videos. Your Optik TV subscription also incl. access to the Stingray app available for download in the Google Play Store, which has many different channels and genres.

* it's difficult to determine future sporting events by type

Usually the program info in the details page or in the guide has descriptors like 'NHL Hockey'. Also of note, program titles are determined by the broadcasters themselves.

* marking of recordings as watched

We recently introduced a progress bar to show whether a recording has been partially or fully watched in the recordings manager, recent recordings lane, and resume lane. This is currently available on iOS, tvOS and the web browser version, and is coming soon to Android TV and mobile, Fire TV and the set-top box.

* automatically extend recordings of live events (e.g. sports)

First-run sports are actually already extended for 60 min (90 min for tennis). While this doesn't help with rare games that go past even that point, we do have Restart capabilities, and always recommend recording subsequent programs just in case.

* manually extend timed recordings

Looking to add this in the near future.

* ability to keep recordings longer than 90 days compared to Rogers Xfinity which has no expiry

Already looking at this as well, though customer feedback and usage data indicated that unlimited capacity was more valuable than storage duration. While we can't speak directly to competitors' offerings, the Rogers website itself indicates that Xfinity actually only allows 200 hours for one year.

Hope that helps!

[glinden]

The whole point of an Exit or Stop button while watching a recording or streaming, is to not have the shows "continue to play while you choose something else" - so your convoluted explanation for workarounds is somewhat tone deaf.  I don't see how unlimited capacity mitigates the lack of a Trash Can or undelete function in the slightest.  The magnifying glass on the Home screen provides an on-screen keyboard which does seem to provide better search results than voice recognition from the on remote button - so thanks for that information.  I have no intention of setting up a Google account on my TV boxes and it is annoying that I cannot remove the notification that keeps prompting me to do so.

[glinden]

I have to also add that in spite of your assurance that "first-run sports are actually already extended for 60 min", my recording of the Edmonton Oilers game on channel 100 CBC tonight prematurely ended at 9:53 of the 3rd period at the 2h 24m mark.  So obviously your automatic extension is not working! 

[KHR]

If you want to send me a PM, I can have the dev team look into why recordings on your account are not auto-extending. The below is what I see on my devices; the last 3 NHL games had recording times of 3h 32m. The scheduled run-time was 2h 30m. All recordings are set to start 2 mins early and live hockey games are supposed to be extended by 60 mins. The Jets/Stars game had a scheduled run-time of 3h, hence a recording os 4h 2m.

[glinden]

The problem appears to intermittent.  As a software developer myself, you have my condolences.  There is no such thing as "bug-free" software.  Intermittent issues are the hardest to find and fix.  But as an end-user, it is very frustrating to not be able to trust that I will get the whole sporting event recorded.  At some point, I will just decide which platform, Rogers Xfinity or TELUS Optik TV has the lest amount of annoying bugs, design flaws or poor support, high pricing, etc. as every consumer does.  At lot of problems come from having poor alpha and beta testing, or just a total lack of concern for the end-user.  So far, I appreciate your attempts to help but cannot Accept as Solution.

[KHR]

There is an option to configure the prev button on your remote to take you to the last live channel. If you are watching a recording and you hit prev, it will take you back to your previous channel. Is there somewhere else you'd rather go to exit a recording? Back/exit lets you navigate the interface and prev takes you back to live TV...

As for the trash can, there IS a trashcan icon in the recordings manager, both at the series level and program level. Is your issue that the trashcan is emptied immediately? or that we do not yet have a 'delete after watching' prompt? Or both? The team is looking into both of these, but there is no ETA. I think the comment about unlimited capacity was intended to mean that if you have a tendency to delete things by accident or to change your mind, one (admittedly not perfect) solution would be to not delete anything.

[glinden]

My issue with deleted recordings is that there is no trashcan icon that I can see!  Not deleting anything is a ridiculous suggestion!  I tend to record at least 6 hours of TV per day.  The number of recordings to look through would just become unmanageable!  I would welcome a prompt to delete any recording after watching.  Best flow would be, visually mark recordings as "watched" when exiting from the recording at the 95% completion mark, then prompt to Delete, Keep or Mark Unwatched where Delete would be the default.  But almost anything would be a vast improvement.

[KHR]

Each of the different apps has a trashcan to delete a program recording or a series recording if you navigate to either a series or a program within the Recordings list (right hand side of the screen on the web app). The visual cue for a 'watched' indicator will look like the below progress bar on the web app (you can see that I watched more of the Oilers game than the Habs game, but didn't watch either to completion). This visual cue exists for recordings today on web and Apple (iOS & tvOS), and is coming soon to Set-top boxes, Android TV/Android mobile and Fire TV. 

[glinden]

The reason for a Trashcan would be to have a place that you can Undelete from.  There is no Trashcan that I can see on the Set-top boxes using my remote.  I have no intention of using any web apps to manage my recordings.

[KHR]

I can assure you that the trashcan is there; please see the image below. However, it is designed for deleting; a common design pattern where you put things you no longer want. I know this isn't satisfactory, so I will reiterate that the team is looking into an 'undelete or recover' feature, but no promises on an ETA.