Interesting. They allowed me to stay with my 75 Mbps subs...

[bernardf]

Interesting. They allowed me to stay with my 75 Mbps subscription and didn't charge anything for any of the 3 boxes or gateway. They showed in my bill as charges and then corresponding discounts in the same amounts.

[mdk]

@bernardf -- Rogers w/Shaw is "retiring" all the Gateway HDPVR units. When they tell you that you must convert, emphasize that you are paying "zero" for those 3 boxes & the gateway, and, as a "loyal customer", you want the same deal. Good luck -- you may need it, to be accommodated.

Also, if you have a few months left on your current two-year Value Plan, and the new Value Plan has a higher monthly fee, ask for a "bill credit" for those few months.  I got $25, since I had 2 months left, because I am now paying $9/month (plus taxes) more for the next 2 months.

[mdk]

@rstra -- yesterday, they sent me a "Shaw Agreement" & a "Shaw Contract" PDF.

Both of them showed $5/month for the 2nd TV box. I confirmed that amount, today.

Meanwhile, at 11:47 PM yesterday evening, I got a "scam" E-mail, claiming to be from Shaw, but actually from a GMail ID, claiming that I owe $748 by August 22.  The web-site that they promoted looked like a Shaw page, but all the (alleged) "hyperlinks" were not links at all -- just plain text. The page asked for my E-mail ID & password.  I reported the E-mail to Google. Within Microsoft Edge, I clicked "report unsafe site" (under the "help" part of the "three-dots" pull-down) to report the web-page to Microsoft.

[rstra]

@mdk Yes, that is what mine says too, but my invoice warned that it is going up by $7, I will have to wait for my next invoice to see how it plays out.

[bernardf]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. That was my invoice after they switched me to the new boxes. I didn't have a contract, which was good, because I could cancel the TV service at will.

[RichJo]

I got a similar letter saying my TV service would be cut off by September 9th I f I did not sign up for the new equipment. Seeing I have two TV's they sent me two Ignite boxes. 1st one took 4 restarts to connect, 2nd box refused to connect automatically, had to manually enter gateway address and password, which was a complete pain, because remote kept multiple entering characters, sometimes filling the entire line with same character.

After 4 days, 1st box had brain freeze after 4 days, would not let me access the guide or see saved programs, restart did not work, had to completely remove the power for 30 seconds, then do a complete reset, to reestablish normal operation.

Intermittently, it suddenly wipes all buffering, irrespective of whether you are watching delayed or live feed and jumps to the live show. This is particularly common around midnight to 2am Mountain time, when Shaw Calgary does service updates.

I have had it suddenly jump to another channel, when nobody is even touching a remote.

I have resorted to installing good UPS's on both the Internet Cable modem, and the Ignite box and TV, plus have a Shaw technician come and remake every cable connection from the distribution box to the Cable modem and tune the signal strength for optimum performance, as it was to strong.

After detailed discussion with the technical specialists, I found out they have been ordered to remove all Cable TV boxes on the network, to allow for more Internet modems on each distribution cable, without having to spend more money on infrastructure.

Once Telus or another provider, gets to put in fiber in my area, I will switch.

[mdk]

@RichJo wrote I have had it suddenly jump to another channel, when nobody is even touching a remote.

Are you watching some late-night talk-shows, such as the Tonight Show?  If so, then even if you tune to the NBC channel, you are watching the feed from CTV2, because the CRTC allows Canadian broadcasters to substitute the Canadian channel (showing Canadian commercials) for the same program (showing USA commercials). 

This is why Canadians watching the NFL Super Bowl do not see the special, high-cost, commercials during the game.

Also, if you have paused the live feed, then when the CTV2 feed ends (in real-time), the "replacement" ends, and you start to see the NBC live feed -- losing the ability for you to see the "buffered" content, i.e., an apparent "channel change without touching your remote-control".

[amnon]

You are incorrect. The Gateway had 4 separate buttons with which to move around in a program, recorded or not.

FF 30 seconds

Rew 15 seconds

FF 15 minutes

Rew 5 minutes

With those controls you could skip through commercials in maybe 5 seconds or just do a quick rewind for something you just missed.

The new Ifnite remote absolutely sucks for the lost functionality as well as how little it buffers. What also drives me nuts is that when you pause a recorded program after a not long period it switches to live TV and starts playing it. Why can it not stay paused!

[CESchumacher]

Aug 31 ‘24:  A tech’n recently installed my tv box & modem.  A remote was provided as well, but no instructions for the remote or the what displays on the screen.  Of course these instructions are available online, but they’re not in pdf format and each one needs to be opened & printed separately - a waste of paper (ie. money).  They’re cluttered with repetition, and are hard (dark) to see.  They are not marked with arrows, have inf’n that does not relate to my specific tv box, and have links which obviously don’t work in a print out.  Next:  For some reason, the tv box effects my “aspect” and/or “picture” so that it goes from edge to edge.  I previously had it arranged so that there was a large black border around the display.  This is because I live in an ap’t and my viewing chair is close to the Tv screen - shrinking the viewing area makes the picture more “palatable” to my eyes/brain.  Thirdly:  I have printed off the channels in my (basic) package:  it appears that there may be some channels that I am able to view (eg. HGTV) not on this list.  This list is huge: it covers an entire page of small print in three columns. BUT … almost half of them are music channels (ie. radio stations?!); and, a goodly portion of the other half are sports channels - sorry, but I’m not interested in sports.  So my monthly Shaw fee pays for radio stations (which are FREE on any radio station), and sports which I don’t watch.  Great, wonderful.   Fourth:  I can’t abide the channels display on the Guide: it’s not easy to move through; lists absolutely EVERY channel - even the ones that I can’t view because I’m not a subscriber; does not give the year of the program’s release; and is altogether NOT User Friendly.  I can’t understand how anyone could be happy with this disorganized manner of providing access to the shows I wish to watch.  There seems to be a belief that the primary viewer wants their tv to behave like Netflix.  Maybe they do, but I don’t; I want a tv to behave like it used to behave.  
I too think that I will give Telus a try. They may not be any better, and if that’s the case, then I think that I shall live without tv from this point forward.  I now know many people in my peer group who are no longer watching TV.  I am very close to joining them .  Telus will be my next attempt.  
Regards, CES 

[CESchumacher]

I forgot to mention that the sound is not synchronized with the characters’ talking!  This is very disturbing to my brain and sense of visual correctness.  It’s not just one channel, or some of the time … it’s every cannel, constantly!  I really, really dislike this mismatch!