Blue curve Xi6 picture quality vs. Gateway

deepsand
Grasshopper

Switched to BCurve from Gateway, and though I like the feature set of the wireless 4k boxes, the picture quality is NOT the same at all.  I am not getting pixellation or other issues reported here, system is working fine, and internet signal strength is excellent.  However, there's simply not the same crispness of picture (if you have a good TV you will notice the picture is like comparing a poor TV's 720p quality (B Curve)  to a great TV's 4k in the gateway...and often actually worse!) that we had with Gateway, and also the colours are NOT the same and off (tint is screwed up, colours don't "pop" as before and the tint effect changes from channel to channel so you can't adjust for it!)

I guess having the signal over the internet simply can not compete??  Really frustrating as I just want to be done with setting up my Shaw system.  Twenty five years with Shaw, days and hours of headaches and life lost to holding on calls, and I still can't get a system in my home's that is THOUGHT OUT and delivers proper functionality!

Almost like what happened when you turned contrast down or picture quality down on old TV's and got a less vivid/dull/hazy picture.

I'm wondering if I can live with this for it's features when Gateway system is FAR superior for quality.  

Labels (2)
19 Replies

You shouldn’t be compromising picture quality. Try some t...

rickatk
Master
@deepsand wrote:

> Switched to BCurve from Gateway, and though I like the feature set of the wireless 4k boxes, the picture quality is NOT the same at all.  I am not getting pixellation or other issues reported here, system is working fine, and internet signal strength is excellent.  However, there's simply not the same crispness of picture (if you have a good TV you will notice the picture is like comparing a poor TV's 720p quality (B Curve)  to a great TV's 4k in the gateway...and often actually worse!) that we had with Gateway, and also the colours are NOT the same and off (tint is screwed up, colours don't "pop" as before and the tint effect changes from channel to channel so you can't adjust for it!)

My first impression...faulty HDMI connections. Are you using the supplied HDMI cables? They should be part No. HDMI30D6FPETH. Blue and White head with silver connector tips.

I am using the Xi6 boxes and before that the BlueSky boxes last year. I have found the picture to be of the same if not better quality as previous platforms. 

During the activation procedure did each box state it was optimizing video for the tv is was hooked up too?

Have you checked each tv/box to make sure the video is set correctly?

Contact Shaw they will check your boxes from their end. I discovered one defective box. On another occasion the picture degraded slightly. The tech pushed out an overnight update which required a restart in the morning. Problem solved.

 

> I guess having the signal over the internet simply can not compete??  

Not necessarily. I have always had a good picture over IPTV using my AppleTV. As well much of the wired BlueSky VOD service including Netflix shows I watched last year were IPTV based and they looked great.

Shaw offers a wired 4K version of the Blue Curve boxes if you aren’t happy with the Xi6 wireless boxes. But try some troubleshooting. You might be happy with the results.


> Really frustrating as I just want to be done with setting up my Shaw system.  Twenty five years with Shaw, days and hours of headaches and life lost to holding on calls, and I still can't get a system in my home's that is THOUGHT OUT and delivers proper functionality!

I am there with you there...living on the bleeding edge does take some work. But for the most part I have always been happy with the newest versions and platforms Shaw puts out. Except the early Gateway product. That interface was difficult to see and the harddrive kept losing recordings.

>Almost like what happened when you turned contrast down or picture quality down on old TV's and got a less vivid/dull/hazy picture.

Funny, I always felt the TELUS Optik platform looked that way - fuzzy.


>I'm wondering if I can live with this for it's features when Gateway system is FAR superior for quality.  

 



You shouldn’t be compromising picture quality. Try some troubleshooting and experimenting and contact Shaw. 

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

The picture quality in B curve is terrible.. I got a new...

Ggill
Grasshopper

The picture quality in B curve is terrible.. I got a new tv and am subscribed to dazn. Yesterday's soccer game was on dazn and also broadcast on NBC. I switched from dazn(720p) to the bcurve channel and it was nowhere close in quality to the dazn signal. It's not one Box it's the same on my old tv. I switched the box video settings to 4K UHD and still terrible picture quality. My old tv already had those setting. The lake Tahoe hockey game was also a mess with bad quality. It's worse than 1080i... I will ask Shaw's rep what can be done about it today. Super bowl was brutal aswell. I think there will be no fix. It just wasn't meant for big tvs where you would notice how poor the picture is 

 

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

Can’t speak for the Xi6, but the XG1v4 on my Sony 75 inch...

rstra
Grand Master

Can’t speak for the Xi6, but the XG1v4 on my Sony 75 inch KD75X750H is very nice, right up there with anything off the AppleTV 4K and Fire Stick 4K. 

Reply
Loading...

I have the same situation as deepsand grasshopper. Becaus...

Mzungu
Grasshopper

I have the same situation as deepsand grasshopper. Because of pixelating channels, my wired bluecurve boxes were switched out for wireless Xi6 boxes. Color is not the same. Games on sports channels now look like 720p. All HD channels look like 720p. I asked Shaw for the wired boxes back and was told they don't have any now. One guy on the phone said I would have to wait until after the pandemic.

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

Just switched from Gateway to 4K Wireless TV player, and...

HelenJiang2021
Grasshopper

Just switched from Gateway to 4K Wireless TV player, and it's completely disappointment. Even my 80 year old dad noticed the the quality of image has gotten worse. All the HD channels are not with crispy images as it was with the wired Gateway. 

Reply
Loading...

just set up the new 4K wireless boxes two days ago , also...

RC28
Grasshopper

just set up the new 4K wireless boxes two days ago , also noticed obvious pic quality down grade .

will put back the wired box and see the different tonight . 

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

Since I had my Shaw cable PVR swapped out with the Xi6, I...

rob190
Grasshopper
Since I had my Shaw cable PVR swapped out with the Xi6, I have definitely noticed a huge degradation of HD picture quality even with the Shaw XB7 Gateway with high download speeds. Very noticeable on a Sony A90J TV. I sure hope Shaw will work on updates to correct this discrepancy. 
0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

You mentioned XG1v4, is this being provided by Shaw? Does...

tc10
Grasshopper

You mentioned XG1v4, is this being provided by Shaw? Does it have a local PVR hard disk as well as the cloud services?

 

Also is the XG1v4 internet connected or coax connected?

thanks,

Bruce

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...

I have the newest blue curve  digital box’s , and seeing...

MajorTendonitis
Grasshopper

I have the newest blue curve  digital box’s , and seeing as it has an Ethernet port I have hard wired it . Also got the new Xb7 modern and the 1 gig download package .

I swear the picture is what you guys are noticing, a little hazy compared to my gateway. Even the sports  channels that claim to be 4K look less than 1080 imo.

I may have to hook my Apple box back up for YouTube programming in order to get that great video I had before . Kind of disappointing. 

0 Kudos
Reply
Loading...
TALK TO US
We're here to help