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Telus Pik TV


Firestorm

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Telus has just released Pik TV in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. The pricing is very good at $5 per month for 23 local channels plus 5 specialty channels. They have teamed up with Google (I believe) and deliver the channels via a Telus Android media box or Apple 4K TV box. You will also be able to view TV on your Android or IOS phone or tablet. (No mention of Linux unfortunately and not surprisingly either.)

I have two homes , both with Telus Internet and Shaw TV. One has Telus Fibre with a Control4 system and the other has Telus 25, but is also wired for fibre. The Shaw services alone cost ~ $250 per month. I would like to convert both homes to Telus Pik TV to reduce the cost of the TV services. Telus Pik TV would appear to be an obvious choice for the home without the Control4 system. The Control 4 home  currently has two Shaw DTV boxes located in the rack and distributs TV via component cabling and distributed audio system to 4 TVs in 4 separate rooms. Most of our viewing is on streaming services (i.e., Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime) and about 30 to 40 % TV using the Shaw DTVs.

My question is, could Telus Pik TV be integrated into the Control4 home as described above. While I understand that that there is a problem integrating the current versions of the Apple TV, could the Telus Android media box be integrated in place of the current Shaw DTVs?

I look forward to hearing your recommendations.

Kindest regards.

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I'd have to have a closer look at the boxes, but if it comes with an IR remote, pretty much be default, yes you could. What is required to change the shaw TV boxes over will depend on details I don't know - ie do you need hdmi audio extraction or is that in place, that sort of thing.

 

If it runs a regular android TV system with a special telus app, than it would be possible to simply use existing android IP integration (VideoStorm IRUSB), but it would depend how 'integrated' the Telus software is.

Same would go for AppleTV for that matter, while the C4 driver is a pain in the rear, there's other options available (IR, a recent 3rd party IP driver).

Honestly, I'm thinking that if not yet, then soon it will end up just being an app available in the AppleTV or AndroidTV stores. They'll just keep it to 'their' devices initially to test it out.

 

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Pik TV sucks. 

The price is great but compared to a BlueSky service its night and day. You get what you pay for.

My apprentice has PikTV and he even says things like one time he had a dinner party and had a few friends over on the wifi and while they were watching TV the channel completely cut out and a message came up and said "too many people on the Wi-Fi. If you want the TV to continue to work have people disconnect from the wifi"

That sucks big time especially when you have a bunch of friends and family over and the game cuts out at the worst time because too many people are on the Wi-Fi. That kind of stuff doesnt happen with Shaw.

Telus cable boxes suck big time too and you cannot hardwire them. They MUST use wifi which is ridiculous. Meaning you can't bridge the modem and you need to have two separate networks in place congesting the Wi-Fi even further. You need one network for the Pik TV and one for everything else (C4). I mean at least you can bridge port 4. but not the same as being able to bridge the whole router.

With the new shaw blusky wireless gear you can bridge the router, use your own router, and if you want to plug the wireless wifi box into ethernet for the best performance you can. And even better they still over tradtional coax style cable boxes for the absolute best performance.

I'm a big Telus hater, here so I may be a bit bias. I also have a really old legacy cable plan from shaw that is basically every channel for like $60/month. I'm kinda screwed now becuase I can never cancel or change my plan or I will never get this awesome package again.

As a new customer Telus's pricing and such seems grea and thats why people choose it. But it is clear you get what you pay for and there is a reason Telus is cheaper. There is a reason Telus will give you a free 55" 4K TV just for signing up with them. Its because their system sucks and if they didn't low ball the pricing or give you a free TV then literally everyone would be with Shaw.

My .02

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LOL.

I have zero experience, direct or indirect, with the Pic piece so can't comment on that, but I agree on the Telus thing in general. Then a gain, I could use a new 55" 4K TV ;)

 

That said, we leave the telus boxes (wired or not) on the telus wifi, everything else goes through our own setup (at least Telus allows port bridging in the user settings so it's relatively easy to work with in that regard compared to some other providers in the wider world).

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5 hours ago, BraydonH said:

Pik TV sucks. 

The price is great but compared to a BlueSky service its night and day. You get what you pay for.

My apprentice has PikTV and he even says things like one time he had a dinner party and had a few friends over on the wifi and while they were watching TV the channel completely cut out and a message came up and said "too many people on the Wi-Fi. If you want the TV to continue to work have people disconnect from the wifi"

That sucks big time especially when you have a bunch of friends and family over and the game cuts out at the worst time because too many people are on the Wi-Fi. That kind of stuff doesnt happen with Shaw.

Telus cable boxes suck big time too and you cannot hardwire them. They MUST use wifi which is ridiculous. Meaning you can't bridge the modem and you need to have two separate networks in place congesting the Wi-Fi even further. You need one network for the Pik TV and one for everything else (C4). I mean at least you can bridge port 4. but not the same as being able to bridge the whole router.

With the new shaw blusky wireless gear you can bridge the router, use your own router, and if you want to plug the wireless wifi box into ethernet for the best performance you can. And even better they still over tradtional coax style cable boxes for the absolute best performance.

I'm a big Telus hater, here so I may be a bit bias. I also have a really old legacy cable plan from shaw that is basically every channel for like $60/month. I'm kinda screwed now becuase I can never cancel or change my plan or I will never get this awesome package again.

As a new customer Telus's pricing and such seems grea and thats why people choose it. But it is clear you get what you pay for and there is a reason Telus is cheaper. There is a reason Telus will give you a free 55" 4K TV just for signing up with them. Its because their system sucks and if they didn't low ball the pricing or give you a free TV then literally everyone would be with Shaw.

My .02

I have Telus over fiber with 750/750 service (up to gig/gig available), blows Shaw out of the water .. but in a previous home Shaw was indeed the winner, with Telus only offering up to 100mbps over copper.

It really depends on the area.

I have never used Pik, but on Optik TV they can be connected either with ethernet or coax (moca, same as bluesky)

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Cyknight: The Telus android box has a Bluetooth remote and not IR. Is this problematic for integrating with the C4 remote, or the system in general? (We currently have a older Apple TV with an IR blaster that works reasonably well. I assume that the latest Apple TV still uses IR for their remote?)

BraydonH: Thank you for your frank comments/opinons on Telus services and hardware. I can definitely see your WIFI concerns especially for our home that is still on copper. At our C4 home we have the top tier Telus Pure Fibre service (160 Mbps down, 80 Mbps up) so speed/traffic may not be a problem. I will also investigate the Shaw Bluesky service, however, I don't believe that there will be any cost savings going that route.

Robbie3130: I concur that the Telus Pure Fibre is extremely stable and quick. I will also look into the Optik TV option.

Thank you all for your comments. It would seem that we should be prudent and possibly wait for more real world data on the Telus Pik TV, rather than being out on the "bleeding edge" of this new Telus service. 

Kindest regards.

 

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