Telus Optik TV and Internet

[M Speed]

Who has them? Reliable? Good/bad?

They have a decent offer out for Basic $66/mth for 15mbps internet and essential TV. First 3 months is $30.

Shaw is not helpful to retain their clients....so I am hoping for a switch. But Telus want 3yr contract for free PVR rental and XBOX360.

[disqx]

I have it, install in mid-December. So far so good. Internet's reliable. HDTV on the basic channels. The XBOX is delivered via Canadapost, allow 4-6 weeks delivery. Ask Will for more technical info. The PVR is very handy as it also has web and iPhone access.

[DKaz]

I'm with Telus without the contract. I have to pay $15/mo for PVR rental but meh... you can buy the PVR as well for $250. You just need one PVR, and then the rest can be digital boxes around your house for $150 each. Then you can record and watch from any television in your house. You get I think 13 basic HD channels included with the Essentials package.

And to add, I use my XBox 360 as one of the digital boxes. It's a bit slow but it's handy, they do charge $5/mo digital access fee which is meh, but I could have a second XBox 360 onboard if I wanted.

[M Speed]

But the downside of Optik TV is you need a digital box for all TV in the house and a phone jack.

[DKaz]

Yea that's the downside, but actually all the digital boxes are connected to the router. If your internet goes down though, TV is also down.

[serpico007]

My parents and brother have it and seem to be happy. Too bad you need boxes for every TV.

I'm happy with good old over the air TV. Free HD in 1080i glory!  Though I miss some channels like sports or cooking but the internet is your friend for everything else!

[hessiebell]

i've had Optik since july.  i didn't get a PC or xbox, but i got tv/internet for $30/month for a full year.  yeah, it's a 3-year contract.

the PVR software, while generally awesome, is sometimes annoying in that it will only record the first X minutes of show and then stop.  this has only happened a few times, but the consensus on message boards is that it's a known issue with the software that may hopefully be fixed some day.

while my connection speed is technically half what i got with shaw extreme (33 vs 14 Mbps), i find downloads are actually faster now.

overall, i'm very pleased with my switch to Telus.

[Golddragoner]

I've been pretty happy with it. The digital boxes have a bit of lag time if you're trying to watch a show off the PVR (jumping ahead pauses the recording for about 2s or so while it catches up). There are a few glitches, but overall its better than Bell was.

[M Speed]

ok I guess I will have to make a call to join and say F-off to shaw!

[kyoshi]

one thing to note is that you have to use their router, so what others have done is piggy back their existing routers off of it.

[hatchattack3]

shaw for the winnn boyyyyyy

[Heavenclosed]

My shaw box stopped working last fall.  Shaw simply told me to go and buy a PVR at Futureshop.  So I switched to Telus Optik.  It has been good so far.  Channels are messed up from Shaw. 

Shaw was a little taken back.  I was their customer for 12 years straight with no problems, they told me they were disappointed in my choice!  LOL!

[M Speed]

Shaw just go on and on about how their cable is superior to telephone line etc. Then I asked, you guys keep asking me to switch my landline service which run with TV cable.....the CSR went blank for a second....LOL

[DKaz]

I guess one thing good about equipment rental is if something goes wrong, they'll replace it.

I think Shaw's HD service is higher quality than Telus, but I only notice it during sports games when they quickly pan the camera to follow the play, you see artifacting with the spectators, but it is just less noticeable with Shaw, not completely gone. In comparison, Over The Air HD is gold, virtually zero artifacts. When I move back to the lower mainland, I'm getting an antenna to at least watch Hockey Night in Canada in 100% virgin HD.

BUT, I have heard that internet slows down when you are watching TV on Telus. I'm doing a test right now, my service is supposed to be 15Mbps....

Watching Super Bowl in HD... 10.23Mbps down, 820kbps up, 30ms ping
Turned the XBox off... 14.50 Mbps down, 820kbps up, 25ms ping. I think my mom in law is watching TV in the room, in standard def.

Of course you could go with Optik High Speed Turbo as well which is 25Mbps.

[DKaz]

Just for the heck of it, recording one HD program while watching another...

6.38Mbps down, 820kbps up, 28ms ping.

[serpico007]

Shaw really are dumb. They call me every other week and mail me deals too.  I've told them to stop but they still waste paper and keep calling me.  I just don't see what the big deal is to give me cable for $19 for 6 months. Where is the deal?  6 months or even 1 year goes by fast.

I don't watch much trash tv and that's pretty much what is on cable. Free over the air channels is enough for me, all the trash is still on our local HD channels anyway, so why pay for it!

[theurgy]

I picked it up at the end of December and I've been very happy with it.

As an FYI... it's not TV over Internet. It's TV over IP.
That means they have their own segmented IP network for television delivery and the router they give you is QoS configured for your TV, so you can download all you want and it won't affect your TV.

Also you can record up to 3 HD programs at a time as well as there is an Optik TV App for the iPhone so you can record your shows while you're away from home.

I've used a number of services before from Starchoice, Bell Satellite, Rogers, Shaw and now Telus. I have been the happiest with Telus to date.
Internet has been no issues for torrents, no blocked ports and I think the 125GB cap isn't that bad.

[DKaz]

As an FYI... it's not TV over Internet. It's TV over IP.
That means they have their own segmented IP network for television delivery and the router they give you is QoS configured for your TV, so you can download all you want and it won't affect your TV.

Also you can record up to 3 HD programs at a time as well as there is an Optik TV App for the iPhone so you can record your shows while you're away from home.

Why did my Speedtest drop when I added different shows? Downloading may not affect the TV but seems that TV will affect downloading. TV gets priority to bandwidth.

Also, it's 2 HD and 1 SD program at a time, and there's an app for Android and you can log onto the website from any web browser as well to record.

[theurgy]

Correct.. TV will affect your internet if you're getting multiple streams of HD recordings.
There's only so much in the pipeline.. I take it as a limitation of the technology.
What I was only trying to correct the idea that the TV comes from the Internet.

[hessiebell]

Also, it's 2 HD and 1 SD program at a time, and there's an app for Android and you can log onto the website from any web browser as well to record.

that depends on your location. for me, it's 1HD, 2SD.  sucky, but better'n nothing! =)