How to update channel list on basic HD box?

[#1]

I mentioned to my mom that Shaw has some movie channels on free preview for the holidays, and she asked how she can see them. She has a basic Shaw HD TV box - not a PVR, not a Gateway, not 4K, not Bluesky. Is her box the same my Gateway and portal units in that you won't let you manually select channels that aren't in the channel list? If so, is the procedure to edit the channel list the same as mine? If it is, I suspect that's probably too complicated for her to handle. Is there any way for me to do it for her remotely if she doesn't have a Gateway or Bluesky PVR?

[shaw-tamara]

Hi geopro1 

If you're referring to the Hollywood Suite channels, her guide should have updated automatically to allow her access to these channels. If it hasn't, she might need to get in touch with technical support directly to have them take a look. That said, it doesn't hurt to try power cycling the box as that might be all it needs. She can do that by simply unplugging the power for 30 seconds or so and then plugging it back in. 

[#3]

Really? How come my Gateway box doesn't do that?

[shaw-tony]

geopro1 the Gateway TV equipment should have all channels enabled. If you manually removed channels from your guide (ones that you aren't subscribed to) you will need to manually add them back.

The HD guide TV box should automatically hide channels you aren't subscribed to, you can always re-enable everything with the steps here. The free preview channels should show up even if all channels are not enabled.

[#5]

Thanks, I didn't realize that there was a difference in how the channel list behaves between the Gateway and the regular HD box. So hopefully if I tell my mom to punch in channel number 289 (for example), she should see the free preview.

As for how the Gateway box works, I think that's a design error. Nobody wants to see their guide cluttered with dozens of channels that they don't subscribe to, and there is no option to show "subscribed" only, so the only option is to edit all the unsubscribed channels out of the channel list manually. But since you can't even go to a channel number manually if it's not currently in the channel list, the only way to see free previews is to check for them in the online blog, look up the local channel number (not given in the blog), then manually edit the channel list separately on the Gateway and each portal. I realize that the Gateway is obsolescent now and is never going to be fixed, but really I wish they would do more user interface testing before releasing these products. While the Gateway has a lot of capability, a lot of it was poorly designed, and a lot of things are much harder to use than they could have been.

[#6]

Mom confirms that she's getting the free preview channels. But she told 2 friends about it who also have Shaw service, and they aren't getting them. Maybe different equipment?

[shaw-tony]

geopro1 awesome! Glad to hear your mother is receiving them now.

As for her friends, it is possible they have different equipment (on different channels) or they require a quick power reset to get the channels. I'd recommend having them try that first. If they continue to not receive them, please have them reach out to our technical support team members to get that fixed.