^^^
In terms of price for what your getting, i don't think you have anything to lose. If anything you could always switch back, no?

Shaw no longer matches offers. Thanks to all you promotion seekers who ruin it for everyone else who aren't cheap asses and will actually pay regular rates for services. I had Telus before and will never go back. Their sales people will try to sucker you into a 3 yr contract and when their service is installed ( and btw, they flubbed the install, not a very good first impression ) you'll be quick to notice that all the channels they promised you are missing. THE ONLY REASON THEIR PACKAGES "SEEM" CHEAPER IS BECAUSE THERE ARE FEWER CHANNELS. By the time you add all your favorite "theme" packs, you'll be paying MORE than what you were paying with Shaw. Read the fine print people, do your research and THEN compare.

You'll also notice your internet speeds suffer when you're running HD or have any TV running for that matter. A problem that never occurred when I had shaw with 2 laptops, desktop, xbox and PS3, and 3 running TVs. And btw, they charge for every outlet in the house. Shaw provides 4 at no additional charge.

There are pros and cons to every provider. At the end of the day, do what works for you. If its price, then promo hop. For me, its customer support, packages, and reliability. And I wouldnt trust any of that with Telus.

But that's just me

I'd agree with you if the savings were say $20 a month but by flopping back and fourth you can save probably 40-50%. I'm glad I made the investment in PVR's for both providers I have no loyality to either. I would never sign a contract either, thats what they bank on.

By going back and fourth and negotiating better deals you can easily save $600-800 a year which is worth it IMO.

i totally get what you're saying. there's always gona be better intro rates for signing up for new services. no matter who you're with at that time or who you're thinking of going with. Of course you're gona save money by switching back and forth. its a given. intro rates are always gona be a lot cheaper than reg rates. But the thing with promotions is they all expire. When that time comes, you're back at square one faced with the reg rates of your provider. Personally, I couldnt be bothered with the hassle of switching back and forth every 6-12 months. I have better things to do with my time. i'd much rather pay a reg rate that i think is fair for what i want in my service, and not have to think about calling a retention department to negotiate every 6 months.

and a FYI, I got some inside connects with Shaw where I heard they will be coming out with more flexible cable packages in the near future, more customization options to give you what you want the most, and save $ at the same time. For someone like myself, this would be a much preferred route than promo hopping.

Alright made the switch to OPTIK TV and will have the tech come in on friday. Hope the PQ is still there as I read the recent update on the STBs aren't great. I've also bought 2 STBs, 1 PVR and 1 HD Digital Box.

From what I've read on forums, the current STBs will be refreshed(in a couple months) with newer models that comes with a better chipset system.

Will update when I have the install done.

I've had optik for 1/2 a week now, and here are my findings.

1: ARTIFACTS. every now and there there are definitely artifacts. once every 20 mins? once every hour? something like that.

2: I've never had HD on cable, (only OTA) but telus HD is noticeably worse than OTA. You can see the compression in the picture quality.

I don't have a PVR, and am on the 15mbit plan. I only have 1 tv. Even with the TV on a HD channel, i still get my full 15mbit speed.

the very first day i got optik installed, it went down for about 10 mins. has been stable since though.

^ after the media room 2.02 update the video quality has been worse

also, i used to get 15Mbps, now im only getting 6Mbps with the TV on, lame.

Shaw uses compression too, and I notice that it's so bad sometimes I wonder why I'm paying HD prices for their clearly non HD quality.

We get fucking gyped.

Is your stb fed by ethernet or coax ? If by coax make sure the connections are tight. There should not be pixelation/artifacts that often.

The ten minutes it went down was almost guaranteed the test that runs when the job is written off. It is intrusive and lasts between 5 and 10 minutes usually.

Telus's HD quality is certainly worse than Shaw. On the other hand, Shaw's HD quality is far worse than American cable.

Why is it that we always get short-ended?

Want the best PQ for HD? Then stick with BELLUS Satellite. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of PQ for a cheaper bill.

I just changed up my Shaw plan and found out that Extreme got upgraded and is now 25mbps down

I can look past the crappier HD quality because Optik Highspeed Turbo has been great for me.

2.8MB/s downloads off newsgroups ftw

just found out shaw is 25mb download for extreme. :/

ahh, thanks for the info guys. makes sense.

i feed cat 5e to my stb. the connection is solid. There is definite pixelation issues though. it usually just happens for 1 second, then goes away, but still, it's there.

what really gets me though is how movies look like they are xvid rips. a plain black screen, yet you can clearly see artifacts due to compression.

Overall though, i'm happy.

Just waited all day for telus to come in and install telus optik tv and optik highspeed turbo.
No one came! :fuuuuu:

^did you get a confirmation call from Telus, days prior to the install? It's an automated system that tells you if you're still up for the install. It will usually say "press 1 to confirm or 2 to cancel or talk to a representative". The number is usually "403-310-2255" Did a tech call you before he/she heads over? If the tech didn't come within the time you've agreed upon when you signed up, you're suppose to call Telus to see what's up right away.
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Yes and even got a letter in mail that they were coming today.
At around 6 they called me saying they were too busy to come in and resheduled for next week.

^ if you look like your display pic I will come install optik for you XD

not if I get there first! :fullofwin:

I had a good laugh when I clicked on his avatar and his profile picture showed up! :haha:

Alright got Optik TV installed. The tech is great and did a great job wiring the house. So far, internet speeds are great and I see minimal degrade in PQ. It's there, you can see it but it's minimal. The HD picture quality is pretty good/decent. It's definitely no satellite quality. SD picture quality is horrible compared to satellite. Though, who would watch SD channels when HD channels can be watched with non-HD TVs. This is coming from a long term bell satellite customer.

Overall I am satisfied with the install and the tech left a card too for easy contact.

do a Speedtest.net to test your Internet connection speed.. :)

Alright, here are the test with Both TV on. 1 with HD and one with non HD. I'm on the OPTIK high speed package (15Mbit)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1284816251.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1284817283.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1284818809.png

Running Telus' own speed test. Basically downloading a file size of your choice off their FTP server. In this speed test I chose to download the 100MB file. I find this to be the most accurate.

http://i51.tinypic.com/snnhuw.jpg

I'm just wondering, for the people who just signed up for the Optik TV, are you guys going month to month or did you guys signed the 3 year contract? I work at a Telus store now so if you guys want Optik stuff, let me know and I'll see what I can do to sweeten up the deal. :D