I’ve been using TELUS TV for over a year now so I figured it’s worth reviewing as Canada’s #2 phone company gets ready to launch their HD service later this year.
The Free Trial
In early 2006, I had the fortune of being selected to participate in the free trial for TELUS TV (TTV). After being selected, a technician completed the installation within an hour because it only involved the installation of some additional hardware (two digital boxes, network switch, ethernet cabling) and some configuration in addition to my Linksys WRT54G and TELUS issued D-Link ADSL modem.
Initially, my TTV experience was average; It wasn’t much different from Shaw’s digital service. Picture quality, channel lineup, and the channel guide were very similar to Shaw Digital. However, being a free trial service I didn’t expect much in terms of reliability . That said, during the trial the picture would often be pixelated and freeze almost daily. The only solution was to reboot the digital box by unplugging the power. More about this in the Reliability section.
Free Re-installation of TELUS TV
I moved to a new place around the time the free trial ended, nevertheless, TELUS re-installed TTV in my new house free of charge (Chris likes free!), but this time the job took several hours. Being a new home, the house was pre-wired with CAT5 ethernet cable throughout, but the termination point in the garage was literally a mess of loose wires. One tech proceeded to clean up the wiring mess, crimping each set with an RJ45 connector and plugging each into the free 2WIRE 2700HG-E Gateway. The advantage of this setup is every ethernet wall jack throughout my house runs through the firewalled router — sweet! He also installed a pot splitter at the termination point in the garage so none of my telephones need DSL modem filters.
Meanwhile, the other tech solved my wall jack dilemma: At the time, I had two TVs: one on the main floor and one in the basement, but there were no ethernet outlets nearby either TV! I should mention that TTV currently only supports two TVs per household. I think it’s a bandwidth issue, so basically, if you have more than two TVs in your house, you’re screwed. But don’t worry, they’re in the process of rolling out ADSL2, which will increase the bandwidth significantly to make room for HD and allow for more TVs (hopefully). 
Upon my request the tech converted all of the phone jacks, which actually run on CAT5 UTP cabling but only uses two of the available eight wires (apparently standard practice in new homes), into dual jacks: an RJ45 (network) and an RJ11 (phone). And wherever I wanted to have more than one network device, TELUS gave me a free SMC EZ Switch. I was able to hard wire my TTV to the basement TV along with my Xbox via ethernet cable instead of the flaky Xbox wireless adaptor (never did get it to work–too much interference).
I should mention, the technicians were very professional, answering all my geek questions, and removing their shoes as they entered and re-entered my brand new home!
Hardware
During the re-installation in the new house, TELUS provided me with the following hardware all for free (depending on your plan, see the Cost section for more info):
- Two RCA (Thompson) IP1000T IP Video Decoder Set Top Boxes: Rear jacks include digital and RCA audio outputs, S-Video, RCA video outputs, an ethernet jack, and two USB ports (not sure what these are for); it includes a universal remote (kinda looks like the Xbox remote–RCA) for up to four devices; the box runs on a Windows OS. There’s no hard drive built in and recording with a VCR is a pain because you can’t tune more than one channel at a time–translation: you can’t watch another channel when recording. But rumours suggest the HD version of the TTV box will include recording capabilities with either an option for an internal hard drive or remote storage available for a per GB charge.
- 2WIRE 2700HG-E Gateway: PROS – All in one router/modem; solid user interface; easy to setup port forwarding and wireless security; includes three internal antennas that offer excellent WI-FI coverage throughout my house (better coverage than the Linksys WRT54G) thanks to adjustable signal strength settings; CONS – no VPN capabilities; UI is slow to load.
- SMC EZ Switch: Plug it into an AC outlet, plug in your WAN cable, plug in up to four devices, ’nuff said.
Features
- Interactive Program Guide (IPG): The coolest feature of TTV is this web page accessible on channel 1. You can access headlines for TV, news stories, sports, weather, and movies, but you can’t surf the web (although it runs on IE). There’s also a ticker scrolling along the bottom with breaking news. All this is displayed with the previous channel (before you clicked ’1′ on your remote) in a small box to the right, so you don’t miss your show while you read the headlines.
- Digital Music and Radio: In addition to 45 CD quality music channels, TTV offers radio broadcasts from across BC and Alberta. I personally enjoy listening to local hockey broadcasts of NHL and junior hockey towns. Take that Shaw!
- On-Screen Caller ID: If you’re a TELUS caller ID subscriber, your TTV box will display the name and number of phone calls on your screen so you don’t have to leave the couch–gotta love that!
- Reminders with Auto Tuning: As you browse the channel guide, you can set reminders to popup on screen when a show is about to start or have the channel automatically change to the show when it’s about to start with Auto Tuning.
Reliability and Performance
I mentioned earlier that during the trial, the image would often pixelate, freeze, or stop working altogether. Since the trial ended, these issues have been addressed. The reliability of TTV has come a long way and is now to the point where it’s rock solid–I don’t wonder when it’s going to screw up next.
As for performance, changing channels is slow when compared to Shaw’s digital service — I find this particularly frustrating because I’m a channel flipper. So if you like to punch those channel keys, TTV isn’t for you.
Another performance issue arises with the speed of the Internet connection when both TVs are being used while simultaneously surfing the web. The download stream drops from an average of 1350 kbps to around 300 kbps and the upload gets so ridiculously slow that I’m not going to bother mentioning the speed. TELUS explained that the 2Wire gateway is programmed to prioritize packets, and TV packets take top priority over a computer’s packets. They can’t fix this until new hardware is issued, and this won’t happen until HD is rolled out in late 2007. This is totally unacceptable. I argued that I’m no longer on a free trial and was now a paying customer of both Internet and TV services. Therefore I should receive the full services promised for the money I pay. When the TELUS rep asked me how he could make me happy, I said give me full service/speed or give me a discount. So I received a $5 monthly reduction off my TV bill for six months as compensation.
Cost
Unlike Shaw, you have a fair amount of choice in what channels you pay for. You start with the Essential (basic channels) package ($22), then have the option of choosing theme packs ($4.50-6.00), specialty packs (i.e. french or adult channels), or a selection of à la carte channels ($2 each).
As you buy more packs or individual channels, they get progressively cheaper–everything is cheaper in bulk! While you don’t get to select every channel, at least you don’t have theme packs with crappy channels rammed down your throat like Shaw!
I mentioned earlier that the hardware was free. Well, this all depends on the plan you sign up for. However, upgrades to the hardware is included regardless of which term you choose. Pricing is shown below:
Much like their cell phones, TELUS wants to rope you in for as long as they can. So they tempt you with free hardware a free Logitech Harmony Remote if you sign up for three years.
Conclusion
Overall, TELUS has a great TV service on their hands; Shaw should look out when TELUS actually starts to market and go mainstream with it. The reliability issues have been fixed, the hardware and installation are free, on demand headlines are cool, and the technicians are professional, and the price is quite competitive with Shaw. As I mentioned, the WI-FI signal can be jacked up a fair bit, so you may eliminate some dead spots as a bonus when you sign up for TTV.
My recommendation is to wait for the HD service to launch before signing up if you have an HDTV–stay with Shaw in the meanwhile. If you have an old CRT, switch over to TELUS TV now and get familiar with how it works. When you upgrade to an HDTV, TELUS will update your hardware for free and you’ll be good to go.
Update: TELUS recently contacted me about a free trial for their HD service. I haven’t received an installation date yet, but the TELUS rep said to expect it sometime in the fall. My understanding is that my bandwidth will be increased significantly to accommodate HD’s requirements, as well I will receive a new set-top box that includes a built in recorder.
Does anyone when Telus TV will be in Richmond. I am in the Steveston Area less than 1 1/2 miles from the switching station at No. 2 & Williams Rd.
I hate Shaw, Rogers and all cable companies and want HDTV
I live in the area as well, Railway and Williams area, and was able to get TTV with HD, about 6 months ago. So far so good, I read a lot of these complaints and just don’t get it, the service works excellent, absolutley no complaints from me.
Hey Sonny,
I was told that Telus HD gives you 25mpbs connection to internet. Do you know how much you are getting?
If not, do you mind checking that for me
Clicking the Seattle button will run the speed test.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Thanks so much!
My Telus HD connection comes with a 25 Mbps fibre optic connection straight into my house! Check out my speed test here
Brian, I live by Woodwards and Railway and have TTV with HD and absolutley love it.
I read a lot of people whining and complaining about it all over the place, but its been nothing but good for me. HD picture is excellent and I can use both TV’s and the computer at the same time with no problems.
I agree – I love my Telus TV!
Yeah I’m a pretty big fan of Telus TV. Fast forward 5 years though please so we can have 90% of channels HD! I virtually only watch HDTV, so end up watching about 8 channels. All others are virtually useless IMO.
I recently spoke a telus rep about getting Telus TV. One of my concerns about getting the service was the internet speed connection at 3mpbs. Currently I am outfitted by shaw for a 5mpbs (which I get 2.5 in reality).
The rep checked my area, and said I am capable of receiving Telus HD. I asked, can I upgrade to the Extreme for Telus, because I’d like to atleast have the same speed (as advertised through Shaw) or more, in which he replied a NO, but did offer me the info that with Telus HD, my internet connection is set at 25mbps, making it 4 times faster than the advertised speed at Telus’ website. Interestingly, I cannot get the 6.0 from telus, but I would be considered on the telus 3.0 plan with the added 25.0 boost.
I did some investigation, and it is technically possible to get 25mpbs speeds, is it an actual reality when having Telus HD? Has anyone else experienced this?
Considering the price of it all would be $70+tax.. This is $35 cheaper then my current non-HD plan, and is 4x faster… why shouldn’t I be skeptical…
Hey Zack – read my post about Telus HD with fibre optic 25mbps Net connection here.
It’s true — it’s just that FAST!
I meant to ask if the price was comparable to shaw’s $93 for Nitro?
Hi Zack, I has heard the same but per the installer that did my setup, it’s true that they set you up with at 25mbps profile, but they do cap your internet at 3mbps, the TV service needs about 16 or and the rest is a buffer.
I just did the speedtest and I’m getting download of 2777kbps and that is with both the TV’s running, so not bad for a 3mbps connection, like I said before, I don’t see a slowdown (or much change at all) with or with out the TV’s running.
Damn Chris, I wish I had fibre, is that 25mbps second connection the somparable to shaw?
I’ve never used Shaw’s Nitro, and currently my fibre line is free as I’m on a trial. What the pricing will actually be when the service goes mainstream is a mystery to me. I imagine it will be similar in pricing to Shaw’s Nitro.
Hello to all…I came across this post while doing a search for Telus TV Harmony Remotes. I have a friend from Toronto who sent me six brand new Telus TV Harmony Remotes to sell on Ebay since I’m a single mom who needs the money. However, I live in the US and while doing a search for Telus Harmony Remotes on both US and CA Ebay, I found nothing. So I have two questions that maybe one of you might be able to help me with…
1. Since it says Telus on the remote, does that mean it can only work with Telus TV service or can it be programmed to work with any tv or cable box?
2. Does anyone know where or how I could sell them? I see a couple on Craigslist for Canada for around $60 each, but I’m willing to let them go lower if I can find a buyer.
Thanks all!
Sharon,
The TELUS Harmony remotes are only TELUS branded, they will work with any components that a regular Harmony remote will. FYI – it is a Harmony 550 Advance Universal remote (the button layout is customized for TELUS TV but can be programmed for any system). Retails for about $149.99. Search for that when deciding on your price.
Cheers,
Geoff
Geoff,
You have no idea how happy you’ve made me with that info!!! Not only can I make some money, but I’ll probably keep one for myself now that I know I can use it too. Thank you so so much for the info. Take care!
Sharon
Hi Chris, great blog…it helped me with my decision to move to Telus TV.
The move has been ‘mostly’ smooth. There seems to be an issue with the 2Wire modem/router NOT playing nice with my existing network config (2 WiFi routers, 3 switches, and a handful of computers downstream). Router decides to redirect pages to gateway.2wire.net after a period of use…or overnight. TV continues to work through the interruption.
I have a Seimens Modem that I’ll try switching in to see if that solves it. Will be talking to Telus tech support again in the morning.
Other than the Internet connectivity thing, the TV is very nice
Glad you’re enjoying you Telus TV experience Brad.
On the data end, I’m using only the Telus supplied 2Wire Gateway to run my entire network. I find the customization and powerful wi-fi antenna to work very nicely.
I’ve usually used Linksys routers in the past, but the 2Wire does the job well, and who doesn’t like free!!?
As for you problem, I think you can use the 2Wire as a modem only and leave the IP/firewall duties to your other routers. Not too sure how to set this up though. The Telus tech should be able to help. I’ve found them to be very helpful and full of answers to my many questions.
Good luck.
Hi Chris,
I think the 2Wire modem I have is toast. It repeatably drops http traffic after a few hours. Everything else works fine.
I swapped my Seimens in and everything works perfectly, so it’s the modem. I’ll call tech support and have them get me a replacement.
Loving the HD channels.. Don’t have a HD disc player yet, so this is our first exposure to HD in our home
Worthwhile.
Brad
I remember my first HD experience. I was sceptical at first because the of the high cost (this was several years ago). But once I had my first taste of that hi-def nectar, it was like the first time you watched a DVD after growing up on VHS.
There was NO GOING BACK to the inferior picture of SD. The vast improvement in picture quality is stunning. I was truly blown away.
I’m considering a Playstation 3 to feed my Blu-Ray curiosities. But I’m waiting to see if the Xbox comes out with their Blu-Ray external drive, as I’d much rather get the Microsoft offering and resurrect my Halo addiction!
Heh…yeah, that’s what we’re finding out. Loving the look on Discovery HD, etc. PS3 is tempting but I too have 360 so a MS solution would be preferable, as long as it’s cheap
Doh. Following up on the dead 2Wire modem. Rather than simply ship me a modem to swap in (I do know what I’m doing with these things
Telus is scheduling a technician visit. He’ll watch while I swap out the Siemens for the replacement 2Wire.
Ah well, whatever floats their boat.
Another followup.
The Telus tech delivered the replacement 2Wire router/modem.
It worked for about 2 hours, and then started failing to deliver external http traffic to any browser connected to it.
I could get to the admin screen and reboot it no problem, but anything else external it failed.
BUT..it continued to keep TelusTV up and running…Interesting.
But not what I need. I’ve switched back to the Siemens router / modem and it’s been rock-solid.
Next step is for the tech to deliver a Thompson dedicated modem, and configure the 2Wire for Roter only mode.
We’ll see how that goes.
I was at Kingsway Mall in Edmonton on the weekend and there was a Telus TV display there. I had a chitchat with the person manning the booth (Telus vs Shaw vs Starchoice) and he stated that only Telus TV broadcasts in 1080p resolution. Is this correct? or did he mean 1080i?
Thanks Chris for this informative discussion thread.
John – my TELUS HD maxes out at 1080i. This is not to say that they don’t upgrade in the future. However, my understanding is that networks who broadcast in HD can only offer 720p at best due to the limitations of the cameras used. Since 1080i is an interpolation upon the 720p signal, I can’t see how TELUS or any provider can offer 1080p without TV networks upgrading their cameras. Walk before you run
Anyone else with input on this?
I figured that the salesperson was trying to snow me as I am a senior and he probably thought he had a mark! As it is, I only have a 720p TV anyways.
I signed up for Telus TV this weekend (ON-LINE not at the mall!) because we now have HD available in our area. We have a Starchoice dish at our farm and we were able to get Starchoice in our city condo for a one-time fee of $50 (and the purchase of an additional receiver) on their Home Away from Home Plan.
Alas, the dish that was installed on the roof of our Apartment style condominium 10 years ago is not an elliptical dish (therefore, no HD!). As well, the building has to be re-wired due to the number of splitters in use. Our Starchoice signal strength is typically 74 in the city, which produces an good digital picture and 94 in the country which produces outstanding HD signals and great signal on the digital channels. I see no chance of upgrading the dish and re-wiring the building as it will cost $5000 and only 8 of 44 units subscribe to Starchoice – all others have Shaw Cable.
I am looking forward to viewing Telus HD after installation later this month. We will keep Starchoice, no monthly fee anyways, also hooked up as we prefer Spokane/Detroit over Seattle/Boston stations. It would be nice if Telus had a choice on East-West American cities. Maybe in the future???
Sorry to bore everyone. Thanks for providing this informative site Chris!
Thanks for reading John. The Telus HD service is in its infancy. There will undoubtedly be a greater lineup of HD channels as the service goes mainstream — if for no other reason than to remain competitive with Shaw and Bell!
3 questions…
What, exactly is Upcoversion to 1080p (like the advertisements for DVD players say)?
Can this be done with TV broadcast signals?
Have you heard of any plans by Telus to add more HD channels in the near future – like HDNET (24 hours HD broadcasts, includung Sunday live concerts)? I noticed that when I signed up for Telus TV that there were a couple of channels (NATGE HD, TSN2) that are not on the channel listings.
The salesman at the Mall said that by January they will be adding more HD (if I could believe him!) He said that agreements with older providers like Shaw, Starchoice and Bell pre-empt Telus from adding some channels.
Upconversion is basically the transforming of a lower quality signal into a higher quality signal.
I don’t think this can be done with TV broadcast signals – but maybe someone else knows for sure?
The Telus HD service is still young – so I’m sure we’ll see more channels offered in HD as the service matures and becomes competitive with Shaw and Bell.
I’ve had Telus TV (standard def) for 1.5 years. We started off with a 1 year contract, which switched to month to month. I phoned Telus today to switch to an HD box. They said that was free with a 3 year contract, $25 with 2 year contract or $125 with a 1 year contract, more for just month to month. What sucks is that an HD box is free for new subscribers if they sign up for 1 year.
Has anyone managed to get Telus to upgrade from SD to HD without a long contract or a fee?
Yes. I had a 1 year contract for TTV and cancelled it at the end of September (exactly one year after) because our apartment-style condo had Starchoice (but I found out later it is not an elliptical dish-and hence no HD).
I then signed up for TTV a couple of weeks ago with HD programming with a 1 year contract via their website. I got a call-back from Telus the next day and got the following:
“You will receive the following Promotion
1 TELUS Digital Boxes – Free rental
3 Months Free of The Essentials, 15 Theme Packs and Movie 6 Pack”
I told the rep that when I signed up for TTV, HD was not available in my area and the only reason for re-signing with TTV was for the HD programming. It worked.
My problem now is that I returned the old regular digital box as per Telus instructions through Canada Post (with which TTV has an agreement) and was billed $150 plus tax until the box was returned. I just got my new bill today and still have not received credit for the returned box, even though I had called 2 weeks ago with the Postal receipt.
I switched to TTV from Shaw last December and have been smiling ever since. I was completely fed up with Shaw’s fluctuating internet service and the insanely expensive HD STB.
My deal with Telus: First 3 months free everything including 2 STBs and HD service. I agreed to a 3-yr ‘term’ to avoid rental charges on the STBs. They said if I wanted to cancel the service, there would be a $140 cancellation fee. If I moved to an area where TTV was not available, the cancellation fee is waived. Once the trial was over, I called and told them which channel bundles I wanted, and they added 5 more bundles for $2 more than what I was originally asking for.
I recently asked a tech agent about the HD PVR, and I was told that Telus has them and have been testing them and are basically ready to launch them, but apparently the percentage of their TTV customers that have HD is too low to justify it… I dunno, that’s what the guy said.
Anyways, I am super happy with the picture quality, the way the channels are grouped together, the on-screen guide, the internet connection, all of it, even the bill.
Hi Chris,
Your reveiw was fantastic man. However its been more than a year and a lot has changed with regards to Telus TV. Therefore I was wondering the following.
I currently reside in Edmonton, Alberta. On November 20th Telus will come out to my apartment to install Telus TV with HD. I am currently subscribed to High Speed Enhanced. With the newer box and router will bandwidth be an issue for both my internet and or TV? FYI: I download a lot
I have two HD TV’s one will be getting HD and the other SD, so will telus upgrade my entire connection of 3mbps to accomodate 1HD, 1SD, and 1 3mbps internet connection and to what? Or will my 3mbps connection be shared between the internet and telus tv? Will my download speeds suffer if I am watching on both TV’s (while one tv is watching in HD)?
If they do decide to upgrade my entire connection lets say to 10mbps will I download at a 10mbps connection when both TV’s and STB’s are off? or is the extra 7mbps bandwidth solely for telus TV?
Currently I have 3 room mates and so in total we have 3 computers in total. Also the living room HDTV is running on Windows media centre so 4 computers in all (5 if u count the ps3). All computers are attached to a wireless router via ethernet cat5 cabling (which I have kinda just pined up against the wall). A ps3, A NAS (Network storage enclosure) and the living room computer are all attached to a switch which is connected to the dlink wireless router.
Every device connected to the router/switch access content from the NAS such as movies, music, tv shows. Will the local network bandwidth suffer as a result of telus TV or will telus TV suffer from it. For example if I am on my computer watching a HD movie on my NAS, will it create to much traffic and effect the quality of telus TV?
In addtion with all this stuff attached will this be a hindrance to the technician staff coming in to install Telus TV for me, especially in an apartment building?
Anyways, On November 21st Ill post my entire experience from installation to quality to hardware and what they did. And probably then I can answer my own questions.
But chris, if you know now I would much appreciate it if you could answer for me.
Thanks.
@Moiz,
I’ve got a similar setup to you. The only issues I’ve experienced are:
1) 2Wire modem/router loses HTTP: connectivity and wants to call home to mama (2wire.com/some_broken_internal_link). HD and SD both still work fine though web surfing, downloading etc break. I’m using a slightly older Siemens modem/router and it’s worked great!
2) Turn the HD box off when not using it. Otherwise it appears to continue to stream in the current channel, slowing down other apps (Skype, XBox360 voice/video,etc).
I have a 25Mbps fibre optic link for my Telus Internet – so I’m able to run three HD boxes and use my computer for browsing at full speed. I have bandwidth to burn.
If you only have a 10mbps connection, I think you can only use one HD box and surf without noticing a slow down — anything more will cause a choppy picture on your TV or a crawling Net connection.
As for your watching a movie off your NAS – this has no effect on your Net connection since your router can run up to 100Mbps — plenty of bandwidth to go around for your HD movie and HDTV connections.
I look forward to reading your post about your installation experience!
Chris, this was a VERY useful read for me. We’ve been with Shaw for a very long time, and have hesitated shifting mostly because of the pain of switching e-mail addresses. But I’m looking at Telus’ new bundles and freebies, and seriously considering. We currently have Shaw basic cable and high-speed internet, and Telus phone service.
One continuing hestitation for me is that we can only get High-speed enhanced, 3Mbps download, with the Telus TV. I’m not a techie, so I’m uncertain how much this will affect our family. We have 2 computers, like to download games and watch shows on the ‘net, and Shaw gives us 5Mbps download.
Will I regret the switch to Telus high-speed enhanced, if I’m used to Shaw? (in case it matters, I’m in Calgary)
Thanks.
Thanks for reading Lisa.
I used to be a Shaw High Speed customer myself. And one thing to not is that their service offers up to 5Mbps – but this isn’t always the speed you’ll get. The speed of cable Internet service varies depending on how many people in you neighbourhood are online at the same time. Thus if many are online at the same time, you may not get 5Mbps, but in fact more than 3Mbps on average. You can visit http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ to test your speed. You’ll notice that peak times during the day offer slower speeds (i.e. noon, 6pm-8pm).
ADSL from Telus is a constant speed regardless of how many people are online at a given time. Your constant speed is determined by you distance from the Telus exchange point. Closer = faster.
All this being said, when I had Telus 3Mbps service, I was only able to operate one TV while surfing the Net or downloading files without a noticable slowdown. Operating two TVs and using the Net simultaneously caused the picture to pixelate from time to time and pages/files downloaded very slowly. I now have a Telus fibre optic connection (25Mbps) so there’s no slowdown running the Net and 3 connections at the same time. Fibre optics is in trial period though, so it may not be available to you just yet.
Good luck!
I took the plunge and got Telus HDTV. I live in North Vancouver and the HD service started sometime this spring but I got it a couple weeks ago. Here is my review and story.
I called Telus and they made an appointment for a Thursday afternoon between 12-2 pm. On the day of the appointment the installer called at 11:50am to say he will be there in about 10 minutes or so and he was there on time as scheduled. I was at the work at the time so my girlfriend was at home to answer the door. I left for home early that day and got home around 1:30 pm (he had said on the phone it will take a couple of hours to install).
He installed everything, he was very professional and was a pretty nice guy (name was John). He connected the HD box and supplied me with HDMI cable and Toslink Optical cable for my sound system. He was also nice to give me a surge protector since the one I had was small.
Now on to the HDTV. The HD picture looks pretty damn good, about as good as Shaws. I had read people complaining about slow remote control and that WAS true. However I called and asked about that and he said Telus is issuing a new program for the HD box that will make the remote faster and it SURE did. Ming you its not AS fast as Shaws but now its good enough that it doesnt bother me like it used to. I also have the caller ID on TV and its great at weeding out telemarketers while I am watching the TV.
Basically I am getting the “Watch a lot” package with the Movies and all the HD channels at if my math is correct I am paying about the same I did with Shaw’s digital service + movie channels only. So basically I get the same thing as Shaw but also get HD + some Channels I did not get with Shaw like Discovery Animal planet, Fox News, BET, etc.
Someone also mentioned that if you lose your box you cannot change channels or turn on the power, it is not true. I can turn on the box and change channels from the box itself. There is no PVR available yet but for some reason the remote has a PVR and RECORD button on it so I am wondering if its just not activated yet.
I was having some problem with HD tv losing signal on and off after a week and called the installer (who asked me to call him if there are problems to get straight to the problem). He said something about the line being tapped and it will be corrected the next day. The next day the problem was gone at so far it has not resurfaced so I am thinking its solved.
I also have Telus ADSL and have not noticed any slowing of the internet while watching HD. Mind you I had the 1.5 MB ADSL for many years and am currently at 3MB. I have played Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 4 online with the HD tv running and have noticed a sligth increase in ping (from 80 to 88). Basically the internet is the same speed as it was before when it comes to playing games and browsing. Downloading is faster since I used to have 1.5MB and now the 3MB is twice as fast.
If you have any questions do ask and I will try to answer.
In conclusion, am I satisfied with Telus HDTV? The answer is Yes, it delivers like advertised.
Its too bad for Shaw actually I would have stayed with them but the idea of paying $350 to be “ABLE” to have the priviledge of paying them monthly to watch a few HD channels never appealed to me. I called Shaw prior to cancelling them and ordering Telus to give them a chance. Their best offer was that they will rent me the PVR and give me the chance to buy it for half price after 6 months. To which I replied that I like Telus’s offer of free box, to which the Shaw gent reminded me that it was a great offer for half off, to which I replied free is always better that any price off. I was also told by a co-worker that has shaw that the regular Shaw HD box does not come with HDMI connection, dont know if thats true or not, but the Telus comes with HDMI for the tv and optical Toslink for the sound system.
In all I feel that Shaw will learn like Fido (which I also cancelled) did when Kodoo came out with No System Access Fee, and let Shaw customers RENT for free the HD boxes as long as they are Shaw customers like Telus does.
Hi Emilio,
Great review…I did have a question about how Telus TV is connected. Does the line come form your phone line or does it come through a coaxial cable in the wall? I did a little research and I read that it uses your internet/phone connection. I’ve always had Shaw so that’s all I’m familiar with when it comes to a TV service.
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks for reading my blog Mike. To answer your questions, the Telus TV service can run through either your coaxial cable, or ethernet if you have it running through your walls. The telephone wire carries the signal into the modem only – from there you choose either coaxial or ethernet.
Excellent review Emilio. I am still thinking about getting TTV once I have settled into the new digs. I read in your review that you had a “tapped” line. I just wanted to clarify what that was because some people might think that someone is listening to their calls. A tap on the line is called a “bridge tap” and all it means is that there is a little extra wire on the line. That extra copper can cause reflections/echos that only the modem can hear which can cause data to be lost. I work on a large campus and we have some T1 lines that go between some buildings on a cable-plant that we own (not telus) and the issue with bridge taps showed up one time when we did some splicing. It’s neat to hear it used here for ADSL too!
The tapped line is as you suggest, an extra piece of wire that they had to come and disconnect because it was causing a few glitches on TV. They fixed it the next day and the problem has not resurfaced at all.
Also the remote is a lot faster now, still not as fast as Shaw, but it is good enough to not bother me.
The Telus PVR has been released! They have the details under the hardware section on their website. It seems good, and has a bigger hard drive than the Shaw PVR, except there is only a single tuner, meaning you can’t watch one show while recording another. This is a major disadvantage when compared with the Shaw PVR. The Shaw PVR, with its dual tuner, allows one to watch one live show while recording a second, or record two live shows at the same time. One benefit of the Telus PVR is that they give it to you free with a 3-year contract, but I only have 1 year left on my Telus TV contract, and it will be a tough decision for me…renew a 3-year contract for a functionally crippled Telus PVR, or wait 1 year, switch back to Shaw, and get a fully-functional Shaw PVR. Opinions?
An update to this PVR issue…it turns out that the box does have dual tuner functionality, but it will not be enabled for most users. Only users living in new buildings wired with Ethernet cabling will be eligible for dual tuner functionality, and even then, probably not right away (some time in the near future).
My big question is that since this is obviously a bandwidth issue, not a limitation of the PVR itself, why allow 2 TVs, but not 2 channels streaming to the same TV/PVR? In other words, what’s the difference between sending 2 different channels to 2 different TVs, and sending 2 different channels to the same TV? Seems the bandwidth requirement is identical, so why disallow it if the PVR can handle it?
Personally, I really think this 1-channel-at-a-time thing for the PVR is a major limitation. I’m not going to start a new 3 year contract with Telus just to get a free, but much inferior PVR. Why lock into a 3 year contract for yesterday’s technology, when Shaw already has a better PVR offering on the market (and has for years), and will probably release an even better one before my 3-year contract with Telus is up? It doesn’t make sense. Don’t be fooled by Telus’ “free PVR” offer…I think paying a few hundred for Shaw’s PVR is well worth the ability to record one channel while watching another, which any decent PVR experience should allow.
Comments and thoughts?
Good review…
Had Telus TV installed either late June or early August 2008. Initially it was good not great, but satisfactory overall. Then I started having issues with pixelating images, weird audio glitches, and images that would freeze and then the screen goes black! Have had Telus out to my place in Langley twice, and they will be out again today.
I have the Scientific Atlanta box, and multiple computers connected to the internet. The last 2 times I called Telus my comment to them was it’s just TV and I am displeased with their service. I have had cable in some form or other for over 25 years (in Vancouver) and never had to think of it. That being said I did change from Star Choice TV to Telus TV in hopes of avoiding the pixelating sometimes experienced with satellite TV……. Telus TV has been a way less stable image and system for me.
While I understand now that Telus’ delivery method may be relatively new, I find it very hard to accept this level of picture quality and inconsistency for a basic service such as TV….. I mean come on fix the bugs then try to compete and sell into the public market…… am close to canceling Telus and switching to Shaw, whom I had in the past in Vancouver with absolutely no issues!
Please comment on this if you have time and let me know if there is anything you know of I should mention to the techs…..
I have had Telus TV for 6 months now and have had some issues with it as well. I find that atleast once a week I have to reset the system. The screen just freezes and I find powering it off and on again seems to work. tonight alone the system has gone down 7 times on me. I once called Telus customer service, and their call centre is in Montréal, where the only Telus product they have is mobile service. The agent tried to relate to what I was going through by comparing it to her Videotron service. I have to say, as nice as they are when you have a problem, it is troubling to think this is now 2008, and their approach to this system is reminiscent of 1980. They never offer, by the way, any sort of compensation for the issues you may have.
I have booked but not yet installed Telus TV. I am wondering, that since the PVR supplied by Telus won’t allow one to watch another channel, how about a DVD recorder? Can a DVD recorder record one show, and we watch another show at the same time?
I was informed by one of my friends that any phone messages appeared on screen are also recorded, and there is no way of skipping the phone messages. So when your friends watch the show you recorded, they know who had phoned you and at what time. Has any one had experience with this?
If I use my own DVD recorder, Can I watch one show and record another simultaneously?
Kam – do yourself a favour and save yourself the headaches.
Shaw has a very strong HD/PVR offer with the Motorola box…can record two shows at once and watch the TV.
Besides, don’t even ask me about the billing headaches I went through…
My complaint with TTV is the picture quality. If they can fix that I would be fully satisfied. I have a 37″ LCD and watching hockey is like watching a poor quality YouTube video. Lots of pixelation and the picture is blurry.
I called to complain but they said they could do nothing but recommend upgrading to HD channels. I am doubtful that the picture will improve however, considering I am not getting a good picture for the regular channels.
This is not a Shaw Cable blog site! Chris has a fantastic page here, for people to ask questions and hopefully get honest answers about their TELUS TV experience.
I enjoy reading all of the comments on this page, especially the early ‘teething’ years that Chris was able to let us in on. Also Emilio, who took us through the whole enchilada! Let’s not forget ‘bcradiogeek’, he really tells it how it is, plus he does know his stuff! Don’t hear him trying to sway you to another cable provider, just the facts, you decide..like Chris.
Then we come to the ‘plants’ the covert double agents [every blog site has them]…can you recognize them? I guess Chris can, by looking for the “shaw.ca” e-mails…but can you dear reader? Look back a couple of comments and see if you can spot the phonies…hmmm.
P.S. I have neither Telus nor Shaw, no bone to pick, just a casual observer with a delicious appetite for the TRUTH.
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1
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I just had Telus TV installed. One SD TV upstairs on a 32″ tube TV. Downstairs, it is hooked up to a BenQ w500 720p HDTV projector on a 100″ screen. Internet was hooked up too.
The install took about 2 1/2 hours, it looked like the tech had to run new wires to my projector and TV, however used the regular phoneline for my internet connection.
The SD on the upstairs TV looks very “Meh”, you can see the compression and it is a bit soft when compared to “regular” coax shaw cable. But what I was interested in was the HD.
Now i’m using a real big screen and have been spoiled by 360 games and Blu-rays on it, so any compression and imperfections are going to be glaringly visible.
The HD is actually… pretty darn good. I watched a couple NHL games on Sportsnet HD and TSN HD and the difference is massive from SD. Yes, you will see some compression, like when the TSN logo splitter hits the screen. Of course , you’re going to get compression with Shaw, or Bell, or Rogers etc… Some channels seem to fare better than others. Discovery HD, National Geographic HD and Movie Central HD look really good. Score HD…. Ugh… not so good. Telus gets their feeds from Bell, so… not sure who to point the finger at there.
One thing I noticed is that when changing to certain HD channels, the video will stutter and lose sync for about 2-3 seconds and then “ramp” up to speed and “lock” in. This is obviously the transfer taking a second or two to stabilize. I really didn’t find it a big deal.
The remote/PVR has a search and a button that will just show the HD channels which is handy.
So, all in all Telus TV is for real folks and serves as an alternative to Rogers and Shaw. The package that I may settle on is the Basic + HD channels plus sports + HD package which is $41.00 a month. Not bad at all. If you only using one HDTV, and want to go with Telus internet as well.. it’s a pretty good deal. Internet is 30/mo with a 3yr contract.
rmatheso is offline
I don’t know how you could get Basic plus HD sports + HD package for $41.00. In Edmonton Ineed to sign up for the regular package to get the HD equivalent (like Adventure to get NATGE HD and Discovery HD).
Score HD is as good as TSN/Sportsnet HD on live games and live Sports talk shows.
Have problems with Audio volume difference between regular and HD channels (volume of 8-12 for regular and 25-30 for HD channels,off the TV speakers). Also with synchronization of video and audio (audio is slighhlty behind video for a few seconds after changinmg channels, not as much with regular digital. TTV hooked up LG TV and TTV box using HDMI cable.
We signed up for TELUS a couple months ago. We have a 100 year old house in Vancouver and they had to run a new phone line from the pole, and they spent about 8 hours here over two days.
The system works great, and with the updates they issues in mid-December, the channel changes are much quicker. We have had some audio issues when watching HD and when I called about, they said it was a known issue with an update, and sent out some free component cables to use. But, I’ll tolerate the audio issues so I can using the HDMI cable to max the video.
I also recently bought an AV Receiver and awesome speakers so I am absolutely loving the 5.1 sound quality on some channels, and the VOD is also great.
The price is excellent. We signed up for a 2 year contract and got 2 free HD boxes (only 1 can run HD at a time) and almost all channels free for three months.
The last time I called them, they asked if I wanted to extend to three years, and if I did, they would replace one cable box with a PVR, and send me a free Logitech Harmony remote. I declined, but I did purchase the Harmony remote for 49.95 and am TOTALLY looking forward to fewer remotes.
I was wondering if you knew how to program my Telus Tv remote for a Sharp Aquos.
Thanks!
Hey guys, switched from Shaw to Telus HD yesterday and so far I’m noticing that I only get 720p on the Telus HD vs. the 1080i I was getting with Shaw. I have heard that you can set your box to do 1080i. I am guessing it must be in the settings section but that asks for a password. Any info appreciated if anyone knows how to do this.
I believe the password to enter the setup is ’0′.
I subscribed in early January and am pretty happy with the service and the hd pvr box, especially since it was free! There were some problems getting HD channels initially but it was worked out eventually and Telus threw in some free programming to make up for it.
Biggest drawback is not being able to record and watch another channel at the same time on the same box. Hopefully with Telus dumping in 200 or so million this coming year for infrastructure we can get the second tuner on the box turned on. I think this thing has two tuners but one is disabled for now?
I currently switched from shaw to telus and I miss shaw so much because shaw WOULD NEVER freeze on me. Telus tevo always freezes or one time i pressed exit to exit the recording and it just went black and i had to pull the plug and wait for it to load. What kinda tv box is that?! It sucks. I definately would choose Shaw if I had my own home.
Hi,
I have Telus TV (digital not HD) and have attached the Telus Box to a Sony DVD recorder via the audio and video out on the Telus Box. (HDMI out cable going directly to the TV).
My question is how can one record a different show on the DVD recorder vs the one you are watching? Or do all the signals have to go through the Telus Digital box first and then to the TV and DVD Recorder?
I believe that the Telus digital box only put’s out one digital signal at once?
I believe taht my DVD (Sony RDR-GX380) has a built in tuner but this cannot be connected before the Telus Box?
Any advise / ideas appreciated!
Regards
Blaine
I have had telus tv for just about 1 year, I had been upset at Shaw for the pixalation on hd channels, and the lack of respect from tech, I had told them my box was dead but for 2 months they came replaced connections etc, finally they replaced box problem fixed. After all of this I went to telus tv and got a 3 year contract they hooked me up, set me up and away we go. So now I am stuck with telus tv for two more years of a crapy guide a crappy signal and no HD I am so sick of seeing the windmill and countdown timer.
I do not know if it is updating or what last night in the middle of a show crap from speakers flashing green lite, red light, blue light, no signal ten minutes later the show was back on. Last time I called by the time I got through it was back on and tech said every thing looked fine but if happens again check modem to see if it is on yea rite go up stairs look at modem it is all on,by the time i get there. I have two boxes the one I have up stairs goes to my DVR so I program box to some shows, and forget about it till repeats start checked it last week all the presets are gone and no no power outage sense I had set it. So in conclusion telus tv sucks!
I am current shaw tv customer. Quality good but customer service is terrible. Psy per view movie stopped before end. Spent 59 minutes on hold only to find out only 1 minute remained until end of movie. Said they would allow me to order again for no fee. Unable to use terminal for over 24 hours as would not reset. When I finally viewed the remaining minute my account was charged for 3
viewings. Customer service refuses to credit movie as they say I did not rewatch within 24 hours – regardless of the fact the terminal was unusable. Unbelievable. Spend over &150 a month
for ppv movies and standard line up — can not see how telus could not be better. Telus has always had great customer service (phone and i ternet) so any reasons not to switch to Shaw
Hi Lucy,
Go for Telus TV we are very happy.
Blaine
We have Telus TV and have no complaints. Picture quality is good and hooked up 2 dvd recorders so can watch one show and tape another via the 2nd Telus digital box.
I Have Telus TV with a pvr. i find the service acceptable. Unfortunately the bandwidth is unacceptable to accommodate multiple streams. I want my pvr to at least perform like a 1980s VCR allowing me to record one show and watch another. Telus told me that I couldn’t do that even though I know the Cisco made pvr is capable of receiving 3 streams. It’s a bandwidth issue. I only have one TV. Why can’t they activate two streams? Telus entering the tv market this late in the game and offering excuses why I cant watch tv like i did in the 1980s is unacceptable. I just hope they have heard of VDSL version 2 to increase their bandwidth.
I’ve had the Telus TV high def service for about a month in downtown Vancouver. I switched to Telus because I kept getting audio drop-outs on Shaw and Shaw just kept telling me that it was getting better. I did not sign a contract with Telus, which is a good thing because I’ll be canceling it as soon as I can get through to a live person at Telus.
The picture either pauses or pixelates way too often. Watching any kind of sports is almost impossible. The PVR often does not stop recording. A one hour show that I had scheduled to record on Friday turned into over 2100 minutes of recording time over the weekend. Other scheduled recordings are skipped when the PVR doesn’t stop recording a previous show. The PVR also seems to occasionally record late night infomercials. That’s just insulting. The PVR is not intuitive at all.
I didn’t realize how much I used the dual tuners in the Shaw PVR until I started using the Telus PVR. Having a single tuner is very restrictive.
I was really hoping that Telus would be a good alternative to Shaw, but it appears that they’re just not ready yet. For now, I’m going back to Shaw.
Best thing to do with the Telus TV boxes…
1. Go to overstock.com or similar places and *buy* a model IP1000T or IP1100T (the standard def ones) for about $45.00. I actually got two on eBay for US$22.00 each.
2. Unlock them and load Linux. Easy to do because these models are actually small PCs. If it’s a IP1000T (not sure about the other), you can even add additional memory, a hard drive, or DVD-ROM. Need a small quiet server? Done! Want a media player capable of playing just about every audio and video format under the sun? Done!
I’ve done this and it is slick. Only catch is your television must have a VGA input. There are some really bright people reverse-engineering the TV-out circuit, so I don’t expect it to be too long before you’ll be able to use S-video. Oh yea – it never “skips” or “freezes” or “reboots”.
Remember folks – it’s never wise to sign up for multi-year plans in a market where the speed is going up and prices are going down. Why do you think they “give” a remote or even a PC if you sign up. Guess who really benefits from it?
How to record 1 channel and watch another using the Telus PVR:
When your show is recording on channel X, go to PVR recordings. Select the show that is currently recording. It will start to play from the beginning. Hit guide and use your arrows to scroll to another channel and hit ok. You should see it in the preview screen. Hit exit to exit the guide and your new channel will be on screen but your old show is still recording. If you go back into your first show on PVR recordings you will see that it keeps taping the first show without interruption!!!
This trick works well for me. The downside is that this will use up 2 streams (one for the recording and one for the channel that you’re watching). This means you cannot use your 2nd STB for your 2nd TV while you are doing this.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Eddie! That worked like a charm!
Hi There,
Just had Telus HD TV installed last week. Like another post I asked for two HD boxes and once the installer came he notified me that only 1 tv can be HD. So beware there.
But…I do have another question.
I was a little upset in that I can not tape 2 shows at once or watch one show and tape a different one on the PVR. When I spoke to telus customer service she said, “I shouldn’t tell you this but go to Future Shop and someone there can tell you how to unlock your PVR to tape muliple shows and to tape something and watch another at the same time!” So I went to Future Shop and the guy there hadn’t heard anything about this at all. And they don’t sell Telus equipment.
Has anyone heard of this situation and if so how does one unlock the PVR?
The Telus rep did say they should have the capable boxes in a couple on months.
Thanks alot,
G
I have a 48in RCA projection tv and i have been advised from a tech friend that a cable amplifier will help the picture quality?All(TV,Internet and phone)are with Telus.Probably get HD when my contract is up in about 9 months but Shaw are pushing like hell to get me back!Will the cable amplifier help the pic quality?cheers.Tom
If you are planning on getting the old style analog cable then yes an amplifier or filter may help… but if you are getting digital cable (with a digital box) then no.
A digital signal is either there or it is not so an amplifier will not help. An analog signal can have the strength boosted and it will help the signal a bit but I would not expect to see a massive improvement with an amplifier. A filter and/or better cables would probably be a better investment as they will at least help if you are going digital.
Thanks for your reply.I am on Telus TV and therfore digital?I guess i’ll wait for HD.While i’m here,i was wondering if increased memory/Ram? will improve my start up speed of my computer and if not,do you have any advice?Cheers.
Not worth the hassle.
We’ve had Telus TV (supposedly) for a week now, and the intermittent service ended 3 days ago (friday) when Telus cut off both the TV and internet service. They claim that we cancelled the account, and could do nothing until monday during regular business hours.
Am on the phone and getting the impression that they cannot restore our new service, but they are willing to sell us a new package – again. Hope this isn’t a weekly event.
As far as the TV service goes, we couldn’t access most of the “extra” channels we paid for, and the converter box fails regularly (3-4 times daily) and needs to be rebooted.
We have been on the phone literally for hours with technicians and “customer service”, who inevitably cannot help us (somebody else’s department) or put the call on hold an never pick up again. Eventually the line goes to dial tone.
*******UPDATE************Oh joy! Just got off the phone with Suzie, and they can send a technician around in three weeks to restore our television service! Ah – now THERE’S customer service!
Interesting comment on ‘upcoverting’ a broadcast signal which I had asked about earlier (that was about upconverting from 780p to 1080p): ctv calgary recently started broadcasting network programs in HD:
When will CTV News Calgary be available in HD-TV?
Good question -we’re working on it. The switch to carry HD programming required some major changes to our infrastructure here at CTV in Calgary, and so will the switch to produce our News in High Definition. That means changing all of our cameras, edit suites, and studio equipment. It’s a big investment, but we’re committed to doing it. In the meantime, CTV News Calgary will be seen on our HD service. Our Standard Definition signal will be “up-converted” for broadcast on CTV HD.
Additional comment: Global Calgary and Edmonton also went HD in June/July. It seems not all local stations are suffering a financial crunch and are on the verge of closing down if the cable/satellite companies don’t give them bucks for airing their stations.
The thing you need most if you are a Telus TV subscriber is a nearby friend who has Shaw Cable. That way, when your Telus TV stops, you can visit your friend and watch their TV.
Now,that was funny!However,i’ve been on contract for 2 1/2 yrs now and without a doubt,things have improved,drastically.ie;my family have virtually stopped nagging me,on a daily basis,to dump Telus!I am ‘Thinking’of renewing my contract in 6mths time?Shaw are hammering me to go back,with them and it’s hard to hide all the incentive mail coming,on a regular basis.HD is in my area and i was wondering if anyone knows what the current incentive programmes are to renew?
I have Telus HD receiver since last November and had to reboot only twice since then.
**When I first got Telus TV I was unplugging/rebooting the digital receiver about 3 times a week! But, I never had any prolonged loss of service, other than for the reboot time (10 minutes)which was annoying enough**.
Telus has great natural colors and sharp pictures in combo with my 42′ LG HD TV -even on non-HD channels.
we are on starchoice satalite, considering going to telus tv
does anyone have any thoughts on that? please explain answer.
I have the HD-TTV for a couple of years and I am reasonably happy, they improved considerably, however my LCD just got Image Persistence (Burn-in) due to HD programs like CTV News, etc, not being true 16:9 HD and having 1 black band each side. Does anyone knows when Telus will broadcast all HD as real HD?
When are we going to get HD in N.Delta, all I ever hear is its coming thats been 2 yrs now.
Still having issues of having to reboot and it freezing, when are they going fix the info on the guide, if you go ahead of the time your watching there is lots of info but when your show comes on none whats up with that?? NOT Impressed!!! after 2 yrs of this crashing all the time, all i know is after the 3 yrs is up Im going to check out other sources. HD WHEN???
Depends on where you are at. We live in edmonton and have Shaw Direct (formerly Starchoice)at the cabin and Telus TV in the city. We are quite happy with them both. Telus has Global HD Toronto and Vancouver and soon to get Edmonton Global HD; Telus also has CTV HD Calgary which Starchoice does not. Currently they ae just broadcasting network programs in HD because the cost of HD equipment is expensive for local prograqmming. Telus also has CITY HD Toronto which Starchoice doesn’t – they have local HD programming.
To another question – Telus or any other service provider like Bell or Shaw Direct or Shaw cable can only broadscast the signal they are given. I.e. if the broadcast format is 4:3 that is what you will see!
Hoping someone here has Windows Media Centre hooked up to Telus TV. I do have a computer that has 2 tuners but I’m not really sure how to set up my Vista Windows Media Center to record and watch tv via a digital box. Has anyone done this and had success. It was easier when I was w/ Shaw as I just plugged in the coax into the tuner. Please help suggest something or direct me to a website.
Thanking you for your time.
Sincerely,
Raphael
My telus TV box has baseband video and audio out, as well as s-video and component (IPN330HD) in addition to the HDMI and Digital Audio outs, so I dont know why you cannot just use one of those to record in Media Center?
Their is no RF out on Telus-TV as the device does not have a modulator. Your only other choice would be fairly complex using something like (VLC media player) to view/record the multicast stream that your Telus-TV is receiving.
You can use a regular ethernet port for this, but you would have to be comfortable with understanding how multicast IP works (google will yield some instruction on how to do this with a windows machine and VLC), also Telus may not appreciate you doing this – although, technically I cannot see how this can be an issue for them, as you need to actually have the Telus-TV box and subsribe to Telus-TV to do this, you cannot intercept something you don’t already pay for.
Thanks for that info, however, I was hoping to use the Windows Media Center functionality w/ my STB. I managed to set everything w/ Windows Media Center expect for the remote programming. My Windows remote can’t get the correct channel changing signal.
I prefer having the windows media center guide than the Telus TV – i.e., time based programming versus show based.
For example, I can set to record a show using the WMC guide but when the STB is turned off, windows can’t wake the box up nor can it change the channels.
Anybody have a hack to this???
Well, after years of suffering terrible throughput, I discovered the problem recently. As soon as I connect the 2-Wire device supplied by Telus, the throughput drags to a dismal, pathetic crawl! I had Telus visit numerous times as I was not getting the 6 MB/S I was promised. None of the technicians could fix it. They used to replace the previous modem/router with another of the same, perpetuating the problem.
Finally, recently, I discovered that I had to keep resetting the 2wire device in order to get my 6 MB/S speed. It would work for a while, then again, I would see the speeds dropping.
So, I went back to my old Linksys router and a separate D-Link modem, which was given to me by Telus some time ago. Voila! The speed was back up! Recently, I switched from Linksys to a Netgear router and the speed is still up there. Just out of curiosity, I replaced the Netgear device recently with the Telus-supplied 2Wire only to be disgusted! So, the 2wire is now a doorstop at my house. And, I am back to my Netgear and 6 MB/S speed. Happy, at last!
I’ve had Telus TV since spring 2009. No regrets. A bit bumpy in the start but no issues overall. Saving tons of money in the process. I see Telus advertising their TV now, so I’m sure it’s better than ever.