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Official "New Max" discussion (Microsoft Mediaroom)

43K views 174 replies 32 participants last post by  Viper550 
#1 ·
Not sure if this is new but i just seen this on Sasktel.com ....

http://www.sasktel.com/EndecaUI/controller/_/Tab-4294966321/Ntt-newmax

Gives info about the "New Max".


The upgrade process for Max customers is automatic and will start in September 2010 and be completed in March 2011.

Before you get your upgrade you'll receive a letter with timelines.
Two weeks prior to the upgrade, you'll receive a package containing:

* a new Max remote control(s),
* a Max User Guide and
* a checklist of what you need to know and do before your upgrade.

The night of your upgrade, you'll see notifications on your TV screen. The upgrade will then happen automatically, overnight.
# Set DTVR recordings from any computer with an internet connection at sasktel.com/maxdtvr.
# Get multi-room DTVR! Record a show in one room and watch it in another.
 
#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
New max announced

http://www.sasktel.com/EndecaUI/controller/_/Tab-4294966321/Ntt-newmax

Highlights

Slick new Interactive Program Guide

•displays six channels at a time
•shows 14 days of programming
•has picture in picture channel browsing and an
•intuitive new keyword search.

Enhanced Parental Controls

•Hide channels you'd rather not see displayed on the guide.
•Lock out program names and descriptions of adult content.
•Make blocked channels accessible only with a PIN.

Improved DTVR

•Easy to record. Press "RECORD" to record the show. Press again to record the series and press again if you want to cancel and start again.
•You can record the whole of a program you start to watch part way through. Simply hit record and you get the whole show.
•Set DTVR recordings from any computer with an internet connection at sasktel.com/maxdtvr.
•Get multi-room DTVR! Record a show in one room and watch it in another.

Features

MORE OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT THE NEW MAX:

•Faster channel changes - rejoice channel surfers.
•14-day Interactive Program Guide at your fingertips.
•True picture-in-picture browsing with the guide and mini guide.
•Conveniently access your local weather, flight information, movie theatre listings and more while never leaving the show you’re watching.
•Record your shows from anywhere! Set your DTVR to record from any internet connection.*
•You only need one Max DTVR. Record and play back shows from any TV in your home networked to the same gateway as the DTVR set-top box.
•New Max Games with enhanced graphics.
•Smart keyword program/actor search to help you find your favourite shows.
*coming soon

Upgrade schedule

The upgrade process for Max customers is automatic and will start in September 2010 and be completed in March 2011.
Before you get your upgrade you'll receive a letter with timelines.
Two weeks prior to the upgrade, you'll receive a package containing:

•a new Max remote control(s),
•a Max User Guide and
•a checklist of what you need to know and do before your upgrade.

The night of your upgrade, you'll see notifications on your TV screen. The upgrade will then happen automatically, overnight.
 
#8 ·
Does this latest upgrade provide more streams?

With the new ability to watch PVR content from any set top box in the house I'm really thinking about jumping from Shaw to Sasktel. What has held us back in the past was the lack of streams.

We'd like one HD PVR, as well as 2 other HD boxes in the house. Plus a 10Mbit+ internet connection. Anyone know if this is possible with the upgrade? A neighbour told me about fiber roll outs as well, but didn't really have any details.

Thanks.
 
#9 ·
3 HD streams are for sure possible, but it seems to me that 4 is a case by case thing

it's been a while since I've checked tho

i know 25mb service is available as well, but whether or not you can grab that in conjunction with a bunch of HD streams, you'd probably have to phone and ask
 
#10 ·
I want to upgrade my internet to the Extreme package of high speed and keep max. The problem I have at the moment, is that I would have to have the internet and max on separate modems, and have to pay them separately, at full price. NO BUNDLE. I have one PVR and 1 non-pvr set-top box, none of them on HD at the moment

Now that 3 HD streams are possible, and that 4 are on case-by-case basis, is it possible to get Extreme high speed internet with max in a bundle soon or sometime in 2011?
 
#12 ·
I'm pretty sure you are mistaken or you were mislead.

I've got 3 TV streams (2 HD) and hi-speed plus Internet service. They came and installed a second modem when I added my 2nd HD stream. The install was free and I did not have to pay seperately for it. Since SaskTel's STB's are all HD capable it didn't cost one extra penny.
 
#13 ·
Magic 103.5 (the local Golden West Radio station in Weyburn) said in a news update that Weyburn would be getting the update "within the month"

Right now, I can't wait. The stuff right now is quite a downgrade in a way when you're so used to i-Guide (we moved from Ontario a few months ago), but I actually kinda liked how it highlights unsubscribed channels and lets you do the "all/subscribed/HD/favorites" sorting. Sure the design was a little ugly (dryer lint purple? Internet Explorer menus?), but it at least worked, for basic use.

I betcha Mediaroom is going to blow our minds.

p.s. Oh, and this season we're getting NFL Red Zone too. Oh joy, for Sunday Ticket users.
 
#17 ·
It's been a couple of days since I last posted, and I found out some information.

That date, September 20th? It's the day BRAND NEW CUSTOMERS get transitioned to new max, not the switch day for Saskatoon for current customers like me. I asked tech support since I last posted.

Sorry for any inconvenience I may've caused.
 
#21 ·
So after playing this afteroon I learned a couple neat things that I didn't realize

The whole house pvr works different than I expected. This might have been a misunderstanding on my part.

Ie lets say you have a pvr another hd box and 2 sd boxes
I thought that you could just stream whatever the pvr records to other boxes


You can BUT you can hit record from ANY box and it records to the pvr

Then you can access that recording from any of the boxes

It was pretty decent.

And just to verify again, sd looks so much better, not even funny
 
#22 ·
Tikker can you do more of a full review once you've had it for a bit?

Am I to understand a person could have numerous plain boxes in their home, and only needs to have one actual PVR? And that with such a configuration you record to one box but can stream the recordings back on any other unit?

How does an Xbox and home computers integrate with this?
 
#23 ·
@Neild, with Mediaroom you can have a single PVR and several STBs. Each STB can either watch live TV or view programs from the central PVR. The functionality of the standalone STB is the same as the PVR - you can watch previously recorded shows, schedule recordings or delete recordings.

The only thing you can't do from a standalone STB is pause live TV; however you can record a TV program and watch the recording "live". You can then pause or rewind as desired.
 
#24 ·
@Neild at some point down the road, the xbox will integrate into whole house pvr just as if it's a STB. not at launch tho, but it's on the roadmap

as for home pc's there is a plan to bring them into the loop as well, but that seems to still be quite a ways out. I'd expect to see smart phone integration before PC


kind of the long and short of it is that all streams flow thru the PVR, and the other STB's are kind of remotes off of it.

I have to admit, I didn't try pausing a live stream on a non PVR, but one thing we did do was:


on STB tune to a channel, and hit record
this causes the recording to start on the PVR

you can then go to the pvr, and start watching that recording
if you then pause the recording on the PVR, go back to the STB and start watching again you can continue on past the pause point on the pvr

ie, each STB has it's own watch/pause buffer which was kinda neat


the other thing that surprised me was you could record the buffer


with MCE (xp 2005, vista, win7) you can't do this. you can only record from the point in live tv you are at

overall, if you've seen media center (mce) you're going to be really familiar with media room

it handles tuner/stream conflicts exactly the same, the recording is mostly the same
etc etc

I have to admit, it's quite a bit better than I was hoping
 
#26 ·
kind of the long and short of it is that all streams flow thru the PVR, and the other STB's are kind of remotes off of it.
My understanding is that live TV goes directly from the modem to a standalone STB. If more than one STB or PVR is tuned to the same live channel, the stream is multicast by the modem and only uses one stream.

the other thing that surprised me was you could record the buffer
The buffer that you record is the PVR buffer. If you are using the PVR, it will record the current program from the beginning of the buffer. If you recording on a standalone STB there is no buffer so it will record from the time you press RECORD.

What version of Mediaroom are you running? On MTS the button sequence is:

Menu, Settings, General, System Information, System Info.

The info on MTS is:
TV2 client version: 1.6.25075.49 (RELEASE)
Platform OS/Version: WinCE/5.0.1400
 
#27 ·
That's interesting, but doesn't sound much different than a solution involving say 3 or 4 PVR's in a home all set to record the same schedule. On the one hand, it might be handy having multi-room access to one recording, but the drawback of course is small capacity.

On Access, the DVR hard disk capacity is very small, so a similar multiroom setup would suffer due to the limit recording space.

I do like the idea that receivers are theoretically just an IP hop away, so placing a set in a difficult location is now more theoretically possible.

It sounds like the main benefit here may be for the provider, who can cut costs by giving a household one 'expensive' PVR, and then several cheaper stream-only STB's. It will be great to see our monthly bills drop when those savings get passed along :)
 
#28 ·
@dr dave. technically yes, it's all multicast and the stream is just at the STB, but hitting the record button initiates recording right on the PVR

so while you have 1 PVR, all STB's on the network have full PVR functionality

@neild the big benefit as I see it, compared to multiple PVR, is that if you hit record downstairs, you can now move upstairs to the bedroom and start watching the show right from where you left off
 
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