Telus or Shaw

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

My Shaw internet was tortoise slow, while my Telus Optik internet is fast, even when I have 2 or 3 other people streaming videos on their laptops. Does NOT affect my wired PC's speed at all.

At the moment I'm not what you would call a heavy internet user. Don't stream much, but perhaps if I go with Netflix, that would change, since it would have to come over my net connection with Shaw.

[Doug]

Thanks for all the views everyone. Its much appreciated.

I agree Mike, about the many fill in channels we are forced to take in packages. I imagine if all providers had a choice where you only pay for channels selected, most of those fringe channels would go the way of the dodo bird, as very few would watch them.

[mike31154]

Yeap, channel overload big time. I can count the ones I watch regularly on one hand. I pay an extra $5 a month for DW TV so I get a bit of a European/International flavour to my programming with NO ADVERTISING! For sports I like to watch the odd soccer match, but those channels are not part of my bundle & cost extra, along with most other programming I find worth watching. I like local news & stuff so I watch CHBC for that and guess who owns the network? Shaw. Last year I dropped a bunch of channels that were making my monthly bill just too hard to take. Trying to spend a little more time in the real world instead of the fake world of 'reality' TV. I could spend hundreds a month if I used their pay per view service! They must think I'm made of money.

I didn't talk much about hardware in my last rant. The Motorola HDTV cable box I purchased when first subscribing to Shaw is somewhat dated by today's standard. I think they're in the process of bringing out new ones. Another reason I'm hesitant to switch providers is the hardware. That stuff is getting obsolete almost as soon as it hits the market these days, just like LEDs or even TVs themselves. I thought I made a pretty good buy a few years back with my LCD TV, but the thing's already a dinosaur. Only one DVI input, no 3D and certainly no 120 Hz refresh rate. Back to the Shaw cable box. It's a power hog, warm, even hot to the touch even with the TV off. I measured the wattage last year & the thing uses over 40 watts just by being plugged in. It needs to be powered to retain the Guide & Menu info, but I've started unplugging the thing at night now. This means it takes 5 to 10 minutes after plugging back in to get all the Guide info loaded back up. I can live with that to save the wasted KWhrs of having the thing plugged in 24/7. Might not seem like much, but over the long term, that's a lot of wasted power.

The box also comes with a myriad of inputs such as USB, ethernet, smart card etc. None of these are enabled so pretty much useless. I phoned Shaw one day to ask why and/or how I could use these ports & they had no clue. I got the proverbial Catch 22. The box manual says to contact your service provider about those features & the service provider Shaw, says to get the information from the manual. I did not buy the box with the hard drive for PVR option. They wanted way too much extra for a stupid hard drive inside the box. I managed to find the info on the net (some home theater forum) on how to use my notebook hard drive connected to the box to record programming. One of the Shaw reps I talked to said "Really, how did you do that?". Duh. Anyhow, conventional hard drives are quickly being replaced by Solid State drives. So all you folks with the built in PVR hard drives already have dinosaurs as well. This is another reason I wouldn't be too hasty to switch at the moment. Not sure what Telus Optik hardware has in it, but I doubt they are Solid State drives at this point. We're only now seeing the odd notebook computer being offered with Solid State drives & they're still pretty pricey. Either way, PVR is not an option I'm that excited about. If I'm not home to watch something, so be it. Can always catch up by streaming or web cast on the interweb.

Whew! Another novel...

[StirCrazy]

ok since no one from Kamloops has answered you. I will

out here Shaw seams to be the better deal. I am partial to shaw so I will state that now, and i have internet/phone and HD digital TV. 5 people on my street are changing from telus to shaw, they switched from shaw to telus two years ago when the optek came out and have had nothing but problems. I have had shaw for 3 years and the only problems I have had is from the PACE HD box, they changed them out for the motorola boxes (3D and EVO ready) and all problems are gone. one thing to note is with optek if you are using your internet for downloads it does affect your TV bandwidth, where shaw doesn't. if you want to be able to record more than two shows at once (if you looking at PVR and HD) go with the gateway you can record 6 shows at once and watch them anywhere. my other niebour has just telus internet and he is switching because of lousy speeds, but I think that one is a factor of us being 14Km or more from the main hub, and we all know the farther away you are with telus the slower it is.

are you here now Doug?

Steve

[MarkoD]

ok im gonna clear something up. On telus, when watching all 3 streams of TV at once, they still guarantee high speed internet on your computer (which is 6meg) with every tv that you turn off, your speed goes up to a max of 26meg.

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg

[Doug]

Hi Steve. Thanks for the reply. Not there yet. Leaving at the end of May. Still not sure where we are living. Our place we purchased in Brock is for sale, although we may still keep it. Looking at a nice larger mobile out in Campbell Creek. Not new like the one we own but sure purdy and some privacy out there. Lost of room for a nice tank in the one we were looking at.

[StirCrazy]

quote=Doug;716252] Looking at a nice larger mobile out in Campbell Creek. Not new like the one we own but sure purdy and some privacy out there. Lost of room for a nice tank in the one we were looking at.[/quote]

hmm out my way now eh. there is another brand new park out here only two units in it now, but you actualy own the land so no pad fees. it is accross from the flying J can't remember the name right now off hand though.

Steve

[Doug]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

ok im gonna clear something up. On telus, when watching all 3 streams of TV at once, they still guarantee high speed internet on your computer (which is 6meg) with every tv that you turn off, your speed goes up to a max of 26meg.

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg

Appreciate the input Marko. My current provider is a cable company, tv and internet. I just checked. Running just under 1m upload and about 8m down. Fast enough for our use.

[sphelps]

Telus optik is pretty good, I like it better for TV over Shaw, but I find Shaw internet to be better overall especially in more remote areas. If all you can get from Telus is satellite don't even consider it.

You'll find rants on both sides relating to promos and bad service, neither side is better in this department but Shaw is more likely to service remote areas better than Telus in terms of how quickly they get techs out to your place, but it will depend on the area.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg

I can tell you that just doesn't happen. once the levels drop below a level they add another node. (I have seen two nodes added to my niebourhood in the last two years because of all the people switching to shaw) in the begining days of shaw internet it used to happen. Telus has been using a problem they fixed almost 20 years ago as a bad thing to try make them look better than shaw.

not trying to turn this into a Pi$$ing match as I have no vested interest in either company and my beef with telus was from there residential home phone days when they screwed over 1000's of people. If telus was beter than shaw I would be the first to admidt it even though I will never go back to them, although I do have a telus cell only because I don't like rodgers coverage in BC and Shaw doesn't have cells.

Steve