Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

New Telus TV platform - a review of the new system

150K views 252 replies 92 participants last post by  mdmenzel 
#1 ·
Hi folks,

Thought I would start a new thread on this topic, mainly to give my feedback now that I'm switched over to the new system.

so for me, I'm very impressed. a big leap forward from the old system. For anyone that is used to using media centre, this is what it's like - and I love'd using my computer as the pvr in the past.
so wow, nice set up.

the quality of the picture is much better, including the regular feed also. regular tv is almost as crsip as the hd used to be - and hd has improved also.
the dual tuner - long time coming and now it's like a tri tuner (tape three programs at once).

limitations - so far the only one I've noticed is that it shows all the tv channels in the guide, regardless of what you've subscribed to. I liked that the old one let you alternate between all, subscribed, hd, and fav's. If I could change one thing, this would be it. I hate having to flip through all those channels that I don't have... makes the mindless flipping a bit of a pain.
but - this is very minor in comparison to all the other plus'es.

overall, very impressed.
and once again, the install folks were very good. My guy knew his product, was very friendly and personable - make it a great overall experience.
:cool:Thumbs up Telus - kick'en the crap out of what shaw has to offer (imho)

how about you?
-what do you think?
-what differences (positives)
-what limitations do you see? (and solutions if anyone figures them out)
 
See less See more
#94 ·
A real world test of download speeds this morning. I was getting a few well-seeded files that were coming in at 1,670 KB/s - so fast that 5 torrents were overloading my new 2 TB drive (and my first hard drive was a 10MB one). Upload speed seems to max out at 45 KB/s by itself though. What is a byte defined as these days (especially for data transfer)? When did computer science courses when mainframes and card readers were in vogue, it used to be 7-8 data bits and 0, 1 or 2 check bits so anywhere from 7 - 10 bits per byte.
 
#97 ·
Well.. I have had it for a month s far.. no complaints.. UNTIL TODAY!
Seems like my internet Speeds have dropped A LOT.. and my PING is THRU THE ROOF!

urgh ..

not impressed right now..

ONLY 2 COMPUTERS... AND 1 HD FEED at the moment.. has been the same scenario the entire month.. don't understand why its much different today
 
#103 ·
I don't see why they would send around a flyer promoting an older technology. I asked the installer and he said yes it was the Mediaroom system with the 19.2 mbps profile. I'm getting 14+ mbps download speeds on the internet when the system is idle so I have no reason to think they stuck me with Minerva. Like I said it looks pretty good just not up to the Bell PQ
 
#104 ·
Ouch not up to bell picture quality? For hd i and many others consider them the worst. I had a shaw trial recently and it looked much better on hd channels, sharpness and crispness especially since bell converts all to 720p.

This also seems to go against every other report (I am currently with bell looking to switch to media room due to improved pq) I asked many users and they have all had wonderful things to say about the pq.

Video is a huge hobby for me so I would be curious to know what model your set is, I also own two panasonic plasmas different models and can maybe help you on the picture quality end, unless you are on the old system?
 
#112 ·
After considerably more viewing I'm willing to revise my initial impression on the HD PQ. I'd say the Meidaroom PQ is at least the equal of Bell Sat. and may surpass it on occasion. It does however tend to pixelate on fast moving graphics from time to time. I wish I could run them split screen so I could be more definite. However it looks more and more like I'll switch if I can get some concessions on equipment rentals or programming discounts to make up for the lack of HD content I'll be leaving behind.

The Plasma is a TC-P50U2 only about 2 weeks old. Any tips on calibration and general tweaking would be greatly appreciated. One question right now that I have is, is their a huge difference btwn Component and HDMI inputs. The Telus installer told me that their experience had been that these boxes looked better on the Component inputs, does this make sense? An analog over digital input?
 
#105 ·
My review of Media Room

I have had the system for abut 3 days now and here is a quick summary of what I think of it. I am sure there are many more pluses and minuses but this is what is important to me.

I was with Shaw (was Rogers before the exchange of assets) for 22 years.

Pluses:

* The box responds without the Moto (Shaw) box delays.
* PVR anywhere works as advertised and it a huge plus for my family. We had two PVRs with Shaw but the second box was never used by anyone.
* The 3 year contract, which I opted for, is a red herring given that I don't change providers very often. The overall cost of 2 PVRs works out to about $149 vs. over $800 for Shaw (about $400 for each box)
* I sold a Shaw 6412 and 3416 for a total sum of $500 so I am ahead of the game.
* Generally, the Internet speed is faster than Shaw, the upload speed for about 2X that of Shaw. The latter for important to me for online meetings.
* no box resets, so far.
* more HD channels.

Negatives:

*The picture quality seems less crisp and in your face relative to Shaw. My family noticed the difference. I gather the picture quality is better than what Telus TV but I cannot confirm that.
* I am now paying $10 more for my home phone with Shaw (non bundled price). Telus could not beat $56 for two lines, distinctive ring and LD included for NA and most of Europe.
 
#106 ·
Just had the Media Room upgrade installed. The interface is much better, internet speeds are 3 times what they were before with the TV's off...

But the picture quality....

Oh dear...

Compared to the old Minerva system the HD picture quality is much more compressed than before, a softer image for sure but on my 100" projector screen really shows it.

Really disappointing... I called the installer and voiced my displeasure... Might ask them to put be back on the Minerva system until they can get the picture quality issues sorted out...

:(
 
#107 ·
if you are going back to minerva for better picture quality you probably have some other issues going on.

Mediaroom (as far as picture quality goes) is pretty much where it is going to stay for a while. MPEG4 is huge leaps from what telus tv was before, and probably will stay that way for a while.
 
#108 ·
THis recent influx of users claiming lower pq is a bit odd. Especially the last one claiming more compressed then telus tv, that does not make sense.

Regarding the person said its not as crisp as shaw. Were you comparing a 1080i feed? If you were looking at a 720p feed depending on your set or how good the cisco boxes are upconversion might not be the best method since telus transmits 720p in its proper format, while shaw upconverts 720p to 1080i for the user. THis can be good or bad depending on how good your equipment is.

You would need to compare a 1080i feed channel from telus media room to a 1080i feed on shaw to get a decent comparison.

I wish I still had my shaw hooked up i actually wanted to investigate if they do some edge enhancement, it would explain why the high amount of uisers claim how sharp it is, but shaw users also complain about insane amount of artifacts as well.

I wonder if i could do a media room demo, just having shaw recently, currently having bell, i could do a promising comparison and write up and make sure all things are on equal ground when picture quality can be compared. As well as a 1080p projector that would help me investigate. I am actually close to just getting it, but i was also planning on signing a contract so i want to make sure picture is top notch.


I plan on going with media room when they add hdnet though but i want to make sure picture is top quality.
 
#109 ·
"Were you comparing a 1080i feed? If you were looking at a 720p feed depending on your set or how good the cisco boxes are upconversion might not be the best method since telus transmits 720p in its proper format, while shaw upconverts 720p to 1080i for the user." TheSphinx.

Under TV Option I did have the feed setup to 1080i. My monitor is 720p and 1080i. So, what you are suggesting is that I should set to TV to display at 720p and it may make a difference. I will give it a shot and see if there is a noticeable difference.
 
#113 ·
No beangee its best to leave the box set to 1080i. What set do you have?

What I am suggesting is comparing a native 1080i feed, not sure what channels all broadcast in 1080i I believe CTV does, maybe someone else can chime in here.

And compare a native 1080i feed to shaw. Some channels are broadcast in 720p, and unlike shaw, telus does not upconvert the television transmissions at 720p to 1080i. Shaw re-encodes all 720p to 1080i before it reaches a customers home.

Yes your box can upscale those 720p feeds to 1080i as while, but i have no experience with how well these boxes scale. Although scaling from 720 to 1080i is relatively simple i am amazed by some products poor scaling abilities. However I would still set it 1080i.

Leave your box on 1080i what I was suggesting though is making sure your comparing a 1080i television feed for a fair comparison.
 
#114 ·
CTown is also correct, make sure your setup is using hdmi. I recently had shaw cable here installed and they had hooked up my G15 upstairs when my wife was home and i was at work using component. It looked very bad. Component should not be that much worse then hdmi, but i believe many companies developing products dont spend time to impliment component properly anymore. The focus is mainly on hdmi. Dare I say its now night and day difference using hdmi compared to component, of course this varies by set. Back when hdmi and even dvi was used on my older sets, component was close but hdmi and dvi were still sharper. However component connections i have viewed lately look terrible.


Hdmi is also sharper in nature then component anyway, it maintains an all digital transmission as opposed to having it convert to analog for component. Hdmi should be used.

Cgoon, I do not agree with them. Hook it up via hdmi trust me it should yeild a better picture.

Make sure the telus box is set to 1080i.

For help calibrating, head over to avsforum.com check the plasma forum its thousands of users like you who share their thoughts, problems, calibration suggestions.
 
#116 ·
"CTown is also correct, make sure your setup is using hdmi."

This could be the problem. Shaw's Motorola box may have been better at putting out signal via component. Unfortunately, my monitor does not have an hdmi. I will look into getting an HDMI blade for my Panasonic monitor.
 
#117 ·
myteammytown said:
Telus doesnt support HDMI, and there have been a variety of problems reported using HDMI with both the 430 and 330 boxes (boxes not booting, audio chirping, picture going green and/or pink etc)
This is news to/for some of us. For the approximate year I've had TTV service, I've never connected my Minerva and now Mediaroom SA 430 box with anything but HDMI and it works fine. Only quibble using Minerva is that it took at least 5 seconds for the TV to sync to the box, even with the box on already, while it's pretty instantaneous with my new MR box.
 
#118 ·
Most providers don't support HDMI due to incompatibility issues with the technology. If it works, great. If it doesn't, use component. They won't troubleshoot an HDMI issue any longer, at best they'll get the model number of your TV and pass it on to the developers.

That being said, Mediaroom has been more stable when using HDMI than Minerva. There have still been a few instances with certain TV models that boxes wouldn't even boot up when using HDMI.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top