Perhaps the reason no one is reporting is that they can't get through to tech support via phone or chat. I've had the pixelating/drop of audio on all channels intermittently since Nov 9 (when all cable channels were virtually unwatchable). Many of my friends and relatives say they have seen it too, but they aren't reporting it because they're not willing to spend hours on the phone/chat waiting. I've done the unplug/reset many times to no avail. Had service tech out... he replaced cable from wall to PVR, replaced something in the electrical panel, checked the signal in the closest Shaw box (in the yard next door). (BTW - the problem occurs on all 3 TVs, 2 with older digital boxes) The tech blamed it on my cable wiring and/or bad weather (really?? with underground cables???). It was just as bad after he left. After a few weeks of trying to get through sporadically to tech support again, I finally got a seemingly more knowledgeable tech on the phone that temporarily fixed it by 'clearing' the line/performing some sort of reset from his side (the process took quite a long time as the PVR cycled through a bunch of codes). That worked until 2nd week of January when it became almost unwatchable again. I got another tech 'Bill' who again was very good, ran some diagnostics and I asked him to look at what the last guy did so he could do it again. That worked ... again it was a long process waiting for everything to come back, and it took a while after he hung up for some of the PVR functions to become available again. (Both of those techs said unplugging cable and power does nothing.) Since then it has been working fine again (other than the odd blip) until Sunday night at around 9:50 pm). It was unwatchable after that, and again in the morning (8-10am ish). Have tried for 2 days to get an agent ... I don't have the patience to wait for an hour for an agent (what happened to the 'call back' function? It worked when I called and got 'BIll'.) I have had to resort to setting up an account and trying these forums.
It may be coincidental or not, but these issues seem to reappear after a new release. When I see the pixelation coming back, I check the 'change log' and sure enough, there's a new release (why not add the dates to them). After looking at the planned outages or service maintenance schedules, I see there was a scheduled release for menu changes that match rel 19.1. So, is there something wrong with the way these releases are rolled out??? I see Service outages are also noted for NE Calgary for cable and internet yesterday, but I am in NW Calgary.
This is very frustrating - is it time to call it quits with Shaw and go with Telus or OTA?
