wrote: I have been told that I would have to switch to re...

[mdk]

@Kritiker wrote: I have been told that I would have to switch to rental units.

In the past, I owned the first HDPVR (paid about $700 for it)

When Shaw "retired" it, I was told that they would waive the rental fee on its replacement, because I owned my HDPVR.

Although there are "promotional" discounts that show on my monthly invoice, I cannot tell if I still get that offer, as one of the discounts. Too complicated!

[Kritiker]

Good point @mdk. I'll keep that in mind. Ditto on the promotions. I am (supposedly) grandfathered into lifetime warranty coverage on any device I had owned or subsequently acquired, rather than rented. Not sure how that plays in. Certainly if I don't own any gear the warranty becomes moot.

[mdk]

@Kritiker wrote: Certainly if I don't own any gear, the warranty becomes moot.

It depends if the "lifetime" warranty is based on your life, or that of the purchased PVR.

My hot-water tank expired just a month before the end of its 10-year warranty. The plumbing company replaced the tank, at their cost (I had to pay "labour"), but the new tank was given only the remainder of the  10-year warranty, namely one month.   So, I don't know what Shaw considers to be "lifetime".

[Kritiker]

Hmm, good point.

from May 2012

Lifetime Hardware Warranty

As a Shaw Friends member, you automatically have a lifetime warranty on all Shaw hardware purchased through Shaw, either previous to or following your enrolment in the Shaw Friends loyalty program. This amazing benefit also includes equipment purchased via Easy Own.

[JeffGWpg]

Ha! I started with @Home too! I believe I was one of the first cable internet customers with Shaw back in the late 90's. Good times!

Edit: After reading the rest of this thread, have to also point out that I too purchased one of the HD PVR's at around $600 and like you, I still have my Gateway and 2 portals that I own. I originally had 6 portals but 4 were returned when I switched to Bluecurve.

Regarding Bluecurve, as a long long time Shaw customer, they did take some getting used to but things have settled down now and I am quite happy with them, for the most part. My biggest concern, and one that continues, is the inability to rewind on a program I was watching on a different player or even on the current player when I was watching recordings. It is not a true PVR in the sense of what we were accustomed to with Gateway. There is no pause live TV and resume from a different player. If you change channels and go back to the previous channel, there is no rewind as it's not saving 6 tuners to your local storage. That part I really miss. That being said, though, everything is HD. That is the biggest plus. No more SD channels.

[Connine]

Just went through this same thing and now have Ignite. Arris had some better features that I miss very much, could rewind portions of programs even if you were playing back when it originally aired, started recording from the beginning of the program instead of when you pressed record, buttons were much more arthritis friendly, etc. Also I had almost 50 hours of recorded shows on Arris, which I lost because they failed to notify me that the two boxes could not run in tandem as with my previous box switch. I definitely am not used to the new system and still can't figure out how to search without voice. 

[JeffGWpg]

If the recordings on your gateway are important to you and you own the hardware, you can always power it back up and it will still playback your recordings on a portal. I've done it.

[Kritiker]

@JeffGWpg PBS Detroit was only available as an SD channel, but I have already cancelled the time shifting option so I have already given that up. Otherwise, there are no SD-only channels that I would miss.

[Kritiker]

@ConnineI have to wonder if attaching your old Gateway/Portal to a different input on your TV would allow you to play the old recordings.

[JeffGWpg]

Oh...my bad! I thought everything was available in HD by now.