Good news everybody!

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, that fixed number is killing them, hell the limited titles in Netflix is killing Netflix in Canada!

@%&# regional @%&#, if I had Netflix with all the titles on it I want to watch I probably wouldn't bother with torrents at all.

[Thorin]

It's the Gateway that does all the heavy lifting, as a PVR and media server.  The Total Home Portal devices are basically just receivers that can also send some commands to the Gateway PVR.  The Total Home Portals can probably be connected to the Gateway PVR using Cat-5/Cat-6 ethernet cable or with coax.  That's how the Telus devices work.

The Gateway PVR is the one that sees up to six live streams.  Basically, it records them temporarily to its hard drive if you're watching live TV, or permanently if you have them set to record.  The Total Home Portals then ask the Gateway PVR for an internal stream.  That's how I understand it to work essentially, at least.

Yes, I agree with you that it will all be very expensive.  I said it was Shaw's future, not that it would be cheap.  I'm sure they're betting on pausing live TV being a big draw.

I wouldn't say IPTV through Telus is "fantastic".  I was watching an HD live stream and an HD program was set to be recorded - when the recording started, my channel suddenly displayed "All HD services are in use".  At my house, the Telus cables only support one HD stream at a time, so I couldn't watch one live stream while recording another live stream, BOO-URNS.  Hell, if the kids want to record a show and I want to record a show and they're both on the HD channels, we have to pick who doesn't get their show recorded.

And don't get me started on the stupid @%&#ing letterboxing.  I bought a great big TV and I've got six inch black bars to the left, to the right, above, and below!  That's just retarded.  Thankfully the Telus boxes allow zooming, although they don't do it right (the black bars are simply skinnier) and the zooming functions work really slowly (push the button, wait 20 seconds, see the picture resize, seriously?!).

If I can ever get my big media computer back up and running stable, I'm going back to downloading shows and viewing them via the Xbox.  I'll have them in HD, without black bars, without commercials, be able to pause, rewind, and fast forward, and still be able to tape a different HD stream while watching them.

Telus's TV / Internet / Phone is significantly cheaper than Shaw's offerings.  It's also not as good.  But Telus has Disney Junior, with Special Agent Oso, and Shaw doesn't, so we switched so the rugrat can see his favourite show.

[Thorin]

Oh, and anything you record to Telus's or Shaw's PVRs is encrypted so you can't just copy it off.  And it won't play if your internet goes down - the boxes phone home to check that they're connected at the right customer's house, so you can't take them to a friend's place to watch the shows.  In other words, Telus and Shaw are working hard at locking you down.

[Mr. Analog]

There's a firewire port on my Shaw PVR, apparently there's software you can get that dumps the stream off of it to the PC, though I haven't tried this...

[Darren Dirt]

I really wish they had the option of Bare Broadband 50. Then it should only be like $60-70 and I can deal with that. $89 is a wee much. And I really don't care about thier digital TV service since I can't record a damn thing on it with my own PVR.

Since I need neither cabletv nor home phone, this new plan prices me out -- stuck with Telus now. fml.

[Melbosa]

I am sorry your experience hasn't been great with Telus.  I guess am blessed with more up-to-date infrastructure in my area, and therefore I don't experience the streaming issues you do.  I am able to record and watch HD at the same time, on multiple units, without issue.  I'm sure with Shaw solution infrastructure will be a similar problem... new tech over old lines.

I also do not experience the same letterbox issue you do.  I get full 1080p with no black lines on my HD channels, no zoom or setup required with the set top box, and my TV reports 1080p signal.  I have found, if my TV doesn't boot up fast enough, that I will get the letterbox you describe, but I only experienced that a couple of time (TV didn't get power on signal, so second try on Harmony got it powered on), and changing the channel fixed the issue (and back if I wanted to watch starting channel).  My TV though is older, DLP model, and doesn't have the new tech/rates, so could be that (just a guess).

Hopefully you can get some help from Telus.  

[Mr. Analog]

That letterbox issue is sometimes the fault of the source stream, though I haven't noticed it on Shaw (unless I was on an SDTV channel)

[Thorin]

Are you able to record/view two or three HD live streams (channels) at the same time?  Mine I can only record/view one HD live stream at a time (plus two more SD live streams).  Try recording two, three, four separate HD channels and you'll eventually get the same warning that only so many live streams are possible.

The letterboxing is happening on SD channels that are showing HD content.  So first the side bars come up because it's an SD channel, then the SD channel has HD content on it so it includes the top and bottom bars.  And voila, I'm watching a 32" show on a 50" TV.  HD is showing in 720p (perfect for my 720p plasma).  Yes, I know, that's because of the content.  I've also had it get stuck a couple of times where the HD stream is getting compressed to 4:3 mode and there's still black bars, and everyone is super-skinny.

The stupid bars are causing burn-in, though (stupid plasma, why can't you work like LCD?).  With my old Shaw terminal, it was connected via component video, so I could tell the TV to stretch, zoom, etc.  The Telus PVR is connected via HDMI (officially unsupported by Telus, thanks Telus installer for installing an unsupported setup), and the TV doesn't have the same picture alteration options on HDMI as it does on component connections.

I know, I can just change it myself.  And I will, eventually.  Although if I tell the TV to zoom, it zooms the entire picture and thus the Telus menu goes at least partially off-screen.  I wish there were shortcut buttons to tell the Telus box to stretch/zoom, then I could just program those into my Harmony and have a "Picture Size" button.  Because when the Telus box zooms, it doesn't zoom the menus, just the stream.

Anyway, my experience has been "meh".  Yeah, we got more features (pause/rewind live TV is pretty damn cool!  and we finally have HD channels) for less money ($60 to $80 less a month), but now we have to manage streams for recording, picture sizing, and put up with slower Internet speeds.

[Tom]

There's a firewire port on my Shaw PVR, apparently there's software you can get that dumps the stream off of it to the PC, though I haven't tried this...

I somehow doubt that that port is even enabled on Shaw PVRs. And even if it was, the files are encrypted.

I really wish they had the option of Bare Broadband 50. Then it should only be like $60-70 and I can deal with that. $89 is a wee much. And I really don't care about thier digital TV service since I can't record a damn thing on it with my own PVR.

Since I need neither cabletv nor home phone, this new plan prices me out -- stuck with Telus now. fml.

Hm, the old plans are still in place. Including Extreme, at 25/2.5. Thats not going away. And you can get it standalone for like $56.

[Thorin]

That port on the PVR is for adding the PVR Expander, a 500GB drive that the PVR will recognize and use to store extra data.

Darren, if you don't want Telus you can certainly still get Shaw for internet.  Probably costs a little more.  I was more than happy with Shaw's Extreme internet speeds.

[Tom]

That port on the PVR is for adding the PVR Expander, a 500GB drive that the PVR will recognize and use to store extra data.

Darren, if you don't want Telus you can certainly still get Shaw for internet.  Probably costs a little more.  I was more than happy with Shaw's Extreme internet speeds.

Thats what the eSATA port on the PVR is for. Firewire is capable of much more. But usually disabled, since it can be used to stream video off the box, or potentially hack it.

[Darren Dirt]

That port on the PVR is for adding the PVR Expander, a 500GB drive that the PVR will recognize and use to store extra data.

Darren, if you don't want Telus you can certainly still get Shaw for internet.  Probably costs a little more.  I was more than happy with Shaw's Extreme internet speeds.

When my "$20/month first 6 months" promo ends I probably will switch... just no way I can get equiv. to the "Turbo 15" for that cheap from Shaw. The 1meg UPload is essential for me, so which Shaw plan includes that? from what I see it's like $60+ for any of them that include 1meg upload.

http://shaw.ca/newpackages/?WT.mc_id=C995A2047S98

the pricing is quite unclear:
http://shaw.ca/Internet/High-Speed/ (0.5 meg upload)
http://shaw.ca/Internet/Extreme/ (2.5 meg upload)

And there's nothing in-between these.

[Lazybones]

Shaw highspeed is now 1Mbit up and extrem is 2.5 up

[Darren Dirt]

Shaw highspeed is now 1Mbit up and extrem is 2.5 up

:interesting:

[Thorin]

Telus internet package details:

http://www.telus.com/content/internet/highspeed/compare-high-speed-plans.jsp

and pricing:

http://www.telus.com/content/internet/

Note that Telus has listed an actual cost per GB for going over your monthly cap (those f---ing bastards), so you can damn well expect to be charged if you go over, and the caps are stupidly low.  And I have yet to find any kind of monitoring page that'll tell me my current usage.

Shaw's view of it is 1) give bigger caps, 2) if a customer goes over automatically move them into the next plan for the month (resets back to the normal plan at the start of a new billing cycle).  Granted, #2 is right now only stated as will be done with the new packages, but spending $10 to move to the new package for just the month you're over is a whole lot better than spending $200 for being 100GB over the cap.

So lets compare.
Telus: High Speed Turbo, $47 a month in bundle, $52 a month unbundled, 15Mbps up, 1Mbps down, 125GB cap, $2/GB over cap.
100GB/month: $52
150GB/month: $102 ($52 + $50 over-cap)
200GB/month: $202 ($52 + $150 over-cap)
250GB/month: $302 ($52 + $250 over-cap)
300GB/monht: $402 ($52 + $350 over-cap)

Telus: High Speed Turbo 25, $63 a month in bundle, $68 a month unbundled, 25Mbps up, 2Mbps down, 250GB cap, $2/GB over cap.
100GB/month: $68
150GB/month: $68
200GB/month: $68
250GB/month: $68
300GB/monht: $168 ($68 + $100 over-cap)

Shaw: Extreme, $49 a month in bundle, $59 a month unbundled, 25Mbps up, 2.5Mbps down, 250GB cap (new in June), no mention of $/GB over cap.
100GB/month: $59
150GB/month: $59
200GB/month: $59
250GB/month: $59
300GB/monht: $59 (unless there is a $/GB over-cap)

And they both have six-month intro rates, so you could bounce back and forth easily enough.

Man, if it wasn't for my kid wanting to see Special Agent Oso and me having spent $250 on Telus equipment I'd seriously consider moving back to Shaw and getting that Shaw Gateway...  I wonder when they'll let us put together the bundle prices for the new packages.