Shaw Gateway whole-home PVR

[gregzz4]

My wife is out of town, and the final season of Dexter starts tomorrow night, so I'm going to record it for her
I thought about buying a DVD Recorder, but before doing so I checked into the Shaw system

OMG

For 6 TVs (we have 7) it will cost nearly $1100.00, and we can't use our old Digital Boxes. So we have no option of using an old box on other TVs and just a few of these new modules

This new system advertises a bunch about HDTV, but you can still use it with Digital Cable and TVs. I don't plan on buying an HDTV until our current bigscreen craps out, so this is good
But the price is too out there for now, even if we go with the $30/mth for 36 months deal

So, I bought a Toshiba DVD Recorder for $129.99

Thanks for nothing Shaw
I've been with them for 30 something years, but that means squat

"You can also sell your old boxes once you install the new system"
Ya, whatever. Who's going to want them ?

[scherzo]

Wow. I didn't know that you couldn't run this new box with old boxes on the other TVs.

I though that you could get the ONE HD PVR box and still keep the old ones even though they won't be able to play back the recordings.

I have an older PVR from Shaw and I love it. We have 2 other TVs with the older digital boxes on them and don't have a problem with the newish box in the house mixed with the older boxes.

Did you look into just getting the regular HD PVR box? That is what my in-laws have and they have a mix of the old boxes in the house with the new HD PVR.

[gregzz4]

I thought about the older PVR but I'm going to wait until our 52" RCA craps out
Then we'll get a bigscreen HDTV and this new system

I'm just shocked what they charge for the equipment considering how much they rape us for each month, and just for Digital service

[madchild]

The whole home system is pretty cool but far too expensive. I'm more annoyed that I purchased 3 hd-pvr's in the last few years (2 of the older silver Motorola, and 1 500gb black Motorola) and only the black one plays all the channels. The older ones have some hardware issue where they can't play some of the newer channels like FX(hd)

I called in too see if they would exchange, but the basically told me to go pound sand.

As much as I hate Shaw, they are still better than satellite and telus...

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by madchild

As much as I hate Shaw, they are still better than satellite and telus...

I hear ya

I'm a bit peeved with them right now as, due to all this new service, they cut all the cable FM radio stations out
Now I have to listen to KISW in my office on my PC

[MarkoD]

let me know if you want telus whole home PVR. dont have to buy boxes. first 3 are free and the next are 5 dollars each per month

i can assure you telus is now better than shaw. whatever you heard or saw few years ago means nothing now.

the new boxes are crazy fast, they're all HD, they all access the PVR

[scherzo]

The other tactic is to phone Shaw and tell them that Telus is offering you their whole home system.

I have to agree that the Shaw system (especially internet) is a better deal and a better system. Telus is now doing something that allows them to deliver more content and data but I think there is still more capability in the Shaw system.

The FM station thing is annoying. I think what everything is changing to is everything is switching to DATA. They can already see the writing on the wall that everyone is going to on demand and they have to compete. Notice how your "cable" portion of your bill is getting cheaper but your data or internet part of your bill is slowly creeping up.

They are afraid of Apple TV and XBOX where you can get your content any time, any way you can. That is probably why Shaw bought Global TV. It gives them the opportunity to maybe be an exclusive provider of Global TV content in the future.

The advantage of the whole home PVR is that you can get it anywhere you want it as opposed to an XBOX or AppleTV where you're kind of stuck on the one device. Apple TV has it right though, $109 per TV might not be a bad price so that you can choose to watch your content on any TV.

Maybe in 5-10 years we'll be saying --- "Remember the PVR? How archaic! We had to wait for weeks for an entire season! Now I just buy the show I want to watch and I watch it when I want, and where I want ... just like reading a book"

Someone's making money ... and it ain't me!

[WarDog]

I love the new Shaw system. Record 6 shows at once, wireless playback on any tv in the house. Of course we have HD everywhere, so I can see why you dont need it yet.... and we sold our old boxes on craigslist and got $75 each for them.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by scherzo

They can already see the writing on the wall that everyone is going to on demand and they have to compete. Notice how your "cable" portion of your bill is getting cheaper but your data or internet part of your bill is slowly creeping up.

They are afraid of Apple TV and XBOX where you can get your content any time, any way you can. That is probably why Shaw bought Global TV. It gives them the opportunity to maybe be an exclusive provider of Global TV content in the future.

Maybe in 5-10 years we'll be saying --- "Remember the PVR? How archaic! We had to wait for weeks for an entire season! Now I just buy the show I want to watch and I watch it when I want, and where I want ... just like reading a book"

Someone's making money ... and it ain't me!

You're on the right track here, the big cable/phone providers have had it pretty easy for many years & they are fat. With any luck it won't take 5-10 years for them to smarten up, but I'm sure they've got a pile of money tucked away and as you mention, the large providers are buying up TV networks! It's a monopoly & a racket. The good old boys at the CRTC are finally starting to allow more competition, as shown by the opening up of wireless phone provider market.

I'm on Shaw but don't have a PVR, don't really need one. I've long had an issue with the fact that even the old Motorola HD box I have from them has a 1394 FireWire connection but they don't provide any info or support on how to use that because they'd rather sell you a bigger better HD box with hard drive PVR inside that will quickly become obsolete. With the 1394 and a cable you could hook any computer to the cable box and record shows same as a built in PVR. You need to do a bit of searching on the net or have the know how to do it though.

Anyhow, it's moot since I don't use the feature. There's really nothing to record with the basic digital service I subscribe to and I'm not getting nickel & dimed to death for each additonal 'package' or channel that I'm really interested in. 95% of what's offered on TV today I consider crap, reality shows & infomercials. I can't believe I'm paying the cable company to watch shows with advertising? When did that happen? I'm seriously contemplating cancelling the TV portion of my Shaw service entirely & simply watching over the air HDTV which is now available if you have a newer TV with built in tuner. Not many channels here in the Okanagan yet, but I think I could live with that + using one of the on demand services like Netflix. This way I can still watch the local news with the over-the-air, free by the way, and order the shows I want to watch for a few $$s a month. You folks in the larger cities, especially near the US border already have access to plenty of the same HD channels over the air for free that you're currently paying for with basic digital cable service.

I need to get a new TV first though & at the rate they keep coming up with new features like 3D, 120hz, motion activated command & new data formats such as MPEG4, it's hard to know when to pull the trigger.

And as you're happily spending the big $$s on new digital boxes for every room in your house that are MPEG4 compatible, rest assured there's already a newer format in the pipe that will require retooling in a few more years.

[paddyob]

7 tvs? Wow. Must not miss anything. Lol. I'm glad my wife snd I can share one!

Aka... She won't let me put tv in all the bedrooms.

I love shaw cable. My 3yr old box is hdpvr and gets all channels. How old are the other ones?

Oh yea. My box was only 99.00. Not sure the hard drive size but I never miss anything.