SHAW - WHEN CAN WE EXPECT 4K CHANNELS?!

[MrDizzy]

Shaw,

All of your clients have been very patient. We need to know when you expect to launch 4K channels. If there is no plan for this, we deserve to know! 

[IslandBiker]

Shaw is unable to deliver 4k over normal coax cable so they will have to deliver it over ip just as telus/Rogers does. Currently the network they are building will struggle to deliver 4k over ip. The current shaw boxes are all comcast and you can see that comcast still doesn't have real 4k channels. Comcast does have support to stream 4k Netflix, YouTube, Amazon prime but no channels. A robust ip network is required for 4k which shaw does not have and won't have until they abandon copper (coax). If you are serious about 4k then switch to a company who is building fiber

[mdk]

> Shaw is unable to deliver 4k over normal coax cable ...

Really? 

So, if I have the Shaw Gateway system, with four "1K" receivers connected to the Gateway, each watching a different channel, this will not consume the same bandwidth as just one "4K" device?

My "normal" coax cable transmits over 200 TV channels, and 40+ Stingray audio channels, and 300 Mbit/second Internet. That's a lot of capacity.

[rickatk]

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@IslandBiker wrote:

Shaw is unable to deliver 4k over normal coax cable so they will have to deliver it over ip just as telus/Rogers does. Currently the network they are building will struggle to deliver 4k over ip. The current shaw boxes are all comcast and you can see that comcast still doesn't have real 4k channels. Comcast does have support to stream 4k Netflix, YouTube, Amazon prime but no channels. A robust ip network is required for 4k which shaw does not have and won't have until they abandon copper (coax). If you are serious about 4k then switch to a company who is building fiber

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I am not too sure about that. First, Shaw’s network is built out on fibre. Requiring fibre for the last mile to your house is a bit of a marketing fallacy. So is the notion that duplex signals can only be carried over fibre.  Read up on Docsis 3.1 and the last mile: https://www.networkworld.com/article/3234526/decoding-docsis-3-1.html .

Second, consider that perhaps the Xi6 boxes are the first step to providing a robust IPTV system. Certainly on my setup I am receiving download speeds of 630 Mbps which is plenty for carrying the 4K streams associated with Netflix, Prime, YouTube and the Apple TV app for that matter. All 4K HDR streams on a copper system in the last mile.

I suspect the technology behind the BlueCurve TV app will be bringing 4KTV pretty soon.

[jaycooksgood]

@IslandBiker is correct, while it may have been true years ago when they were still using analog signaling, however they completed their DNU (Digital Network Upgrade) project a few years ago so that freed up a tremendous amount of bandwidth on the network. They are also doing node splitting in high congestion areas. As well the backbone network is completely fiber. It's more a content availability thing and I know there's testing going on with 4k channel content, I don't know what is taking so long to deploy....the network and hardware are totally capable of supporting it. 

If I remember correctly it had something to do with the industry hadn't settled on what codecs would be used 

[mondoguitar]

I switched from Bell satellite to BlueCurve three months ago.  I have to say I’m a little disappointed in the number of channels that are still not HD on this system. Eastern Canadian networks (CBC, CTV, Global, City) are all SD and many entertainment channels are also still SD.  I just cancelled my timeshift add-on because of this.

If Shaw is struggling to get some major channels in HD, then I’m unsure how 4K can be close.

[shaw-anthony]

@MrDizzy Hey there! Thanks for the wait. We officially have some 4K Sports content now. You can find more info on this here: https://bit.ly/2ZuDiIT. 

[Mcal07]

Great. When can we expect TSN nationwide though?

[shaw-ada]

@Mcal07 We are hoping to expand the 4K availability to all regions! Sorry, we don't have info about it yet. The link provided previously will be updated as information becomes available! So kindly bookmark it! 😊