Forum Discussion
Optik-Kate
TELUS Team Member
TELUS Team MemberTELUS TV Feature Updates - Ongoing
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 th...
KHRTELUS Team Member
TELUS Team MemberThanks Rocky3
There is currently no timeline for the retirement of the Optik 4K PVR and Wireless Digital Boxes. The HD boxes, on the other hand, will start to be retired this year. They were introduced nearly 15 years ago, have not been manufactured for almost 10 and they don't support any OTT apps like Netflix or Prime Video. In addition, hard drives are starting to fail more frequently on this legacy equipment.
For folks on the HD equipment, upgrading to the 4K equivalent is an option. The user interface and functionality is nearly identical, but Netflix and Prime Video are supported on this platform (other apps like Disney+ and Apple TV+ will likely never be supported due to hardware and platform limitations).
That said - the manufacturers of the 4K equipment (Arris and Technicolor) no longer have a license to manufacture and the vendor of the TV platform (MediaKind) has diverted their attention to their next generation IPTV solution, which is based on a very similar chipset and is Android TV-based.
Again - just fix the picture quality please. That’s probably the most disheartening disappointment of the new system.
- This is my biggest beef with the TELUS service overall. The only channels that have looked exceptional are the 4K channels, because they’re getting the bandwidth they deserve. The HD channels have always been inferior to Shaw/Shaw Direct. I visit my parents and always notice immediately that their picture quality is superior.
With TELUS, they’ve always catered to the lowest common denominator (the DSL customers) and encoded the channels at a lower bitrate. I thought fibre customers would eventually get what Verizon FiOS customers have experienced since they launched their TV over fibre product in 2006, offering HD at about 17 Mbps. I believe TELUS encodes at about 5 Mbps tops, but that may have changed.
Anyway, best of luck to customers on the new platform going forward!- I honestly don’t even think the 4k channels in the new platform are getting the bandwidth they deserve.
It makes no sense for the 4K channels to not be given copious amounts of bandwidth. After all, even the lowest tier of fibre has lots of bandwidth and many people are on higher tiers with massive amounts of bandwidth. I think no one would object if a single 4K channel used much more bandwidth, as long as it was rendered properly by the equipment.
- Yes I'm generally ok with the new system (I did complain in this thread or the other one we don't get free previews like MLB extra innings still, yet my parents do on the old optik, seems like an easy fix but unresolved yet, not sure why customers don't get free previews on this platform ever).
I use the app mostly on my nvidia shield (that to me is the future, the app working well on fire stick, apple tv, android, anything the customer has) but I do agree the picture should be an easy fix, I'm hardwired and using fibre and it looks like the new system is bitrate starved compared to the old optik system on fibre and there's more compression. I have been on the system for a year and it's still the same (4k looks fine but regular HD looks worse). That's probably the number one complaint is picture and also likely one of the top things customers look for with a cable provider.- That was like me in the fall - I never received the free preview of NHL Centre Ice
But yeah pic quality is very sub par
