A thorough look at my experience with BlueCurve xi6

[deepsand]

My experience with the new Xi6 boxes has been mixed, but generally 75% positive.  I never did use the "Bluesky" system and was coming from the Gateway system which I found worked quite well other than simplicity of use for a few features that were a pain such as the guide (which was drastically improved recently but still needed more work).

After over a month with 5 of the xi6 boxes and the new BlueCurve system, here's my experience:

1)  Without a doubt, the picture is NOT as clear as the Gateway system.  It is very good for me (don't let Shaw tell you that you must have weak wifi etc if it's not exactly as good as using a coaxial connection, that's nonsense, my wifi is very good) but NOT as clear as in the past.  If you have a high end TV as I do, you will miss the details in the picture.  You will especially notice this with fast moving action.  Again, if you have a really good TV this matters and if you don't, it won't. 

2))  The "rewind" and "fast forward" feature on the Xi6 Blue Curve system is absolutely TERRIBLE!  Like totally useless, very annoying terrible when coming from Gateway where it was precise.  You will find yourself constantly having to "guess" as to when to best stop rewinding/forwarding to get it to play where you want.  The cloud based system is really bad for this.  Almost enough to go back to Gateway, especially if you are a sports watcher and enjoyed a crisp visual during your rewind etc.  On this system, there is an overlay that clouds the visual rendering you basically unable to see details as you forward/rewind very well (you can see, but overlay dims visual etc)

3)  There is NO "SLOW" fast forward as there was in Gateway!!  (At least I haven't found it).  This is really frustrating as I basically only have a Shaw subscription for live sports (I'd gladly cut the wire otherwise) and thus made use of the slow feature with crisp visual all the time on the Gateway system.  No go with this supposed "new and better" system.  HUGE miss!

4)  I have noticed issues with HDR activation on my TV with these boxes.  I have yet to make a full determination, but HDR does NOT seem to work, or work fluidly as it does with my Smart TV's own apps.  (BlueCurve has its own built in apps, which are very limited...just Netflix, Youtube, and Prime from what I can see).

5)  You can only have a maximum of 5 boxes in your home with this system!  With Gateway, I had 6.  Not a huge deal though as you can alway unhook one of your five xi6 boxes and move it to the 6th TV if you need to use it...but that's still annoying!

6)  Ease of use features with the new system are MUCH IMPROVED over the Gateway (aside from the gripes above, especially rewind/forward).  The voice command is a MUCH appreciated feature, and the visuals in the overlays (other than the ones that interfere with forward/rewind etc), which now include little "album art" type displays for each recorded show and searched listing, make the experience better.  The simplicity of the layout of the guide and features of the system are very good, and the voice command really nullifies any issues you may have with that layout anyways, as you bypass messing around with buttons with the voice command.

7)  Voice command works surprisingly very well!  I say this is a surprise because when does VC seem to ever work like it should!  In this system, it is generally very precise and you will not be repeating commands to be understood and wanting to throw the remote out your window.  I can honestly say the voice command feature of this system is probably the BEST Shaw tech EVER introduced into their cable systems for the consumer!

😎  The built-in Apps that come with this system are NOT as good as those in your Smart TV, and a Roku etc is still far superior!  There are issues with clarity/quality of picture I found (though slight), and sound (my 5.1 system would work, but sometimes not have its display light which signifies 5.1 is active light up), and certainly HDR (I'm seeing from online searches that HDR is available in these boxes but might not be active yet...but not sure as those posts/notices are from a few months back)

For now, that's a pretty good list!  I spent a month analyzing in detail whether I wanted to stay with this system.  Initially, after a few weeks, I was CERTAIN it had to go back as the picture quality loss, and the rewind/forward issues were just too big a deal to live with.  NOW, I've decided to keep it and hope for some improvements, as I've grown fond of the "ease of use" features in this system which are it's greatest advantage over previous iterations.  HOWEVER, I better see some improvement in the aforementioned deficiencies soon Shaw, pretty please!

[rickatk]

@deepsand  wrote: My experience with the new Xi6 boxes has been mixed, but generally 75% positive.  I never did use the "Bluesky" system and was coming from the Gateway system which I found worked quite well other than simplicity of use for a few features that were a pain such as the guide (which was drastically improved recently but still needed more work).

After over a month with 5 of the xi6 boxes and the new BlueCurve system, here's my experience: ...

@deepsand 

Thanks for the very detailed review. My experience differs on a few points:

I found the picture quality to be quite good. Especially from the on-demand sources. I did a side by comparison of Shaw On Demand Crave, Prime and Netflix v Apple TV. The images are crisp and clear. I think there is less moire in the Shaw source content. 

The regular Blue Curve TV content doesn't come over in HDR but Netflix and Prime does. My Samsung TV confirms that. 

Audio has been very good. DD5.1 has been superb on all sources. I use Bose HT gear. It all decodes nicely and sounds great! Shaw promises more functionality down the road.

I found the fast forward and rewind to be pretty functional. I haven't used the Gateway product much but BlueCurve seems to work fine with x1-x4 and lightening search.  

Voice search is excellent. If you add the source (Netflix, YouTube, Stingray etc)  in your syntax that helps. Comcast won an Emmy award for this feature.

Setup was very easy. I went around the house, put all my wireless TV players in the ready, called Shaw for activation and let the TV boxes figure out the optimal setup for each TV, remote etc. This was quite impressive. 

I agree, the apps are pretty meagre. Adding Disney+, Apple TV+ and CBC Gem would make the Blue Curve platform more inviting. Certainly the apps that are included (Netflix, YouTube, Prime, Stingray, On demand and Cloud PVR) are pretty good and work well. 

Glad to see you are somewhat happy and willing to let the platform build out. 

Great Review!