Things to consider before going to wireless 4K boxes

[rickatk]

I have been following the rollout for the wireless 4K boxes and doing a little bit of research with the idea of converting my older BlueSky setup. I have come to a few conclusions I would like to share with the Community.

1. I have been advised by Shaw sales agents that at this time switching over to the wireless boxes requires switching to a Total TV plan. This in effect would require me to lose my legacy plan which has superior and less expensive programming.

2. Wired connectivity is still the best method for connecting the satellite boxes. Reports on this forum are mixed on how well the wireless boxes are working right now. The wireless boxes require pristine wifi connectivity. In my house wifi reception is good and my wireless devices (Apple TV, Bose SoundTouch, Samsung TV, lots of smart home lights and switches) seem to be working fine. 

3. A switch to wifi boxes will likely result in lost PVR recordings for shows recorded before the cloud  PVR service was activated in my area a week ago.

4. I have evaluated my setup an concluded all I require at this time is master wired 4K box for my one 4K tv. I don’t require full programming for my kitchen tv nor am I interested in running a new cable wire to that location. There are plenty of Apple TV apps that will do the job for watching tv in the kitchen. Ironically the kitchen tv location is the closest to the wifi gateway. A wireless Blue Curve box would likely perform quite well.

[Ajc]

I am considering going to bluecurve as well. My concern.... i bridge shaws modems and use my own router. Seems the new modem bridged will not work with the new wireless xi6 boxes. Seeing they don’t have coax on the xi6, will use the ethernet connection, however, i have no answer if that will work with the bridged modem using my own router.

Another question i asked is to have the shaw modem wireless to my tv boxes only, and my own mesh router for the rest of my devices..... again, no answer.....

And, the person i spoke to a few days ago regarding signing up for another two years with new equipment and a partial monthly discount, never bothered to call me back today when they said they would.... 25 years with shaw, you would think they would want to continue our partnership.....  

[mdk]

> Another question i asked is to have the Shaw modem wireless to my tv boxes only, and my own mesh router for the rest of my devices.

If the Shaw device is *NOT* in "bridged" mode, then your TVs should be able to connect to the device's built-in WiFi.

Then, connect one CAT-5E or CAT-6 Ethernet cable from the Shaw device to the "uplink" port on your own mesh router, and the rest of your devices can be connected (wired/wireless) to your router.

I would configure your mesh router to set its internal "gateway" IP-address to "10.0.0.1", and set its DHCP-server to grant IP-addresses between "10.0.0.10" and "10.0.0.250" to your devices.  This lets you "reserve" the IP-addresses "10.0.0.2" through "10.0.0.9" to devices where you want to have a "static", i.e., never changing, IP-address, such as printers, or a networked file-server computer.

Your TVs should be granted IP-addresses in the "192.168.xxx.yyy" range by the Shaw device.

The "uplink" port on your mesh router will also be granted an IP-address in the same range.

The rest of your devices will be granted IP-addresses in the "10.0.0.xxx" range by your mesh router.

[rickatk]

A few updates on the BlueCurve 4K wireless service:

I contacted Shaw directly to inquire further about the requirements for switching over to the BlueCurve 4K wireless product. I spoke with a service representative who was able to set me up with the BlueCurve wireless boxes without changing my existing BlueCurve plan. No requirement to move over to a Total TV package. I can keep my existing TV plan and theme packs. Good news! 

I placed my order and expect to pick up my new gear in a couple days. There is no mail option. I was advised setup is very easy. 

Further research has revealed that the BlueCurve 4K wireless players are indeed streaming boxes. There is no master tuner with coaxial connection. Each box is like an Apple TV getting its stream from the Shaw Gateway directly. All individual BlueCurve wireless tv players require connection to the 5Ghz band on the BlueCurve gateway.

There is also no physical hard drive for the PVR function. All PVR functions are cloud based. 

Indeed the BlueCurve wireless 4K package is a full IPTV solution. I am quite looking forward to setting up this new gear!

[jayace]

Just curious how everything is working for you? Are you using the 4k wireless IPTV boxes? Do you still have your own router in use? I'm currently on the older Bluesky coax boxes but have been having issues lately and my plan is up in 2 months so I'm looking at my options. I'm using the Hitron modem and my own Asus router. I have some home automation devices, a NAS, multiple smart home devices, etc. Total of about 40-45 devices connected, some wired, most wifi. Some need static IP's. If I get the HB6 and the use it just for the IPTV boxes can I still just connect my Asus router to the HB6 and use my existing network as is. If i decided to switch over the BlueCurve network can i assign static IP's to devices though the the bluecurve home app?       

[rickatk]

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@jayace wrote:

Just curious how everything is working for you? Are you using the 4k wireless IPTV boxes? Do you still have your own router in use? I'm currently on the older Bluesky coax boxes but have been having issues lately and my plan is up in 2 months so I'm looking at my options. I'm using the Hitron modem and my own Asus router. I have some home automation devices, a NAS, multiple smart home devices, etc. Total of about 40-45 devices connected, some wired, most wifi. Some need static IP's. If I get the HB6 and the use it just for the IPTV boxes can I still just connect my Asus router to the HB6 and use my existing network as is. If i decided to switch over the BlueCurve network can i assign static IP's to devices though the the bluecurve home app?       

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@jayace 

I have been posting quite a lot of about my experiences so I will try to summarize:

1. I settled on a Technicolour version of the Gateway. This cable modem / wifi router has worked very well.

2. After installing the wireless Xi6 boxes I ran into a few hiccups, freezes and stalls. This in part due to a defective xi6 box and strained wifi connections at the furthest points of the house.

3. Installing 3 pods and setting the router to dual band mode has corrected the connection problems and I am getting “excellent” connection to the gateway on all Xi6 boxes. Picture and sound quality is good. All the streaming services are working well as is the Cloud PVR.

4. A couple days ago I noticed some subtle deterioration in the picture quality across all the boxes/TVs. Connections were all good. Shaw Support sent a data burst of some sort that required a restart overnight. Picture quality has returned.

5. Its still day to day right now but all in all I am very happy with the Xi6 boxes and BlueCurve Gateway. 

Sorry I can’t answer your question about static IP. I will say the Gateway has performed every bit as well as my old Airport Extreme and is supporting approximately 36 connected devices of all descriptions and flavours around the house.

Thanks for the inquiry.