Telus TV Switching to Microsoft Mediaroom

[beecue]

I wonder if Shaw can do the multiple tv thing? That's the only sweet thing about this because 4-5Mb while watching tv is pretty shitty.

[GoChris]

Can you get this Telus TV without paying for their internet? 4-5Mb/s is too slow, I'd want to stick with Shaw. But I'm not super happy with Shaw HD, they still don't have much for HD channels, and that's all I watch.

[cdnsir]

I think the 5mb internet will only happen if you max out the TV side and watch/record 3 feeds at once. It does sound like a compromise, but come on! Who really needs to run 4 things once!?

I can watch the game in HD (6mb), while recording another HD show (6mb), and still have 7mb left for torrenting stuff. That should be good enough for like 95% of the population, and for sure good enough for me. For that reason, I've made the call and the installer will be coming by next week!

[GoChris]

Ya I wouldn't have 3 tv streams, but I would easily have 1 HD stream on all the time in the evening, and usually another recording. 7Mb isn't really that great though, but it's ok.

How's the pings while HDx2 is on, specifically for gaming?

[adikoni]

As cdnsir said with 2 HD's going I get about 6-7 Megs dwnld. I'm lucky I only have 0.6 dB loss to my condo. Fiber to the curb about 10 feet from me and other side of my condo wall is the phone room.

[cdnsir]

Alright finally got a chance to run speedtest with the new pvr running. The results are way better than our initial estimates on how much bandwidth the TV actually eats up. Whatever multiplexing or compression it's doing, it's doing a damn good job!

One interesting thing that we can see is, what's being watched live seems to affect the bandwidth the most. In this case we see test #4 beating test #5 where an SD is being watched instead of the HD. We also see bandwidth basically gets unaffected when I'm recording 2 HD while watching 1 SD. I actually ran that test 4 times cuz I couldn't believe the results, but what you see there is really a steady 13Mb!

Overall, they are advertising as 15Mb and I'm pulling in 13Mb on a single computer... not too bad. What is surprising is it only went down to 9Mb with the max. 3 TV streams running. I'm pretty happy with these results in terms of download speed. But I was even more happier with the results when I was watching and recording during the Olympics. What I saw was great picture quality, instant channel changes, and a really good looking channel guide with built-in previews. I'm usually pretty easy to get impressed by geeky things, but this new service totally blows me away!

PS: The internal hard drive is just a plain WD 320gb sata, and it also has an usb port up front so upgrading SHOULD be quite easy.

1. No TV


2. 1 HD


3. 1HD Live + 1HD Recording


4. 1HD Recording + 1HD Recording + 1SD Live


5. 1HD Live + 1HD Recording + 1SD Recording

[Alterac]

So, what this is telling me, is that the Telus TV is calling a 2Mbps stream HD... lol. I suppose its better than nothing


The real question is, how does it look while your hammering the connection? No pixelation / blockyness?
Is there an information button for the stream? is it showing 720p ? or what? and same with sound, is it stereo / dolby digital / or dts?

[GoChris]

That's actually impressive. What area of the city do you live in?

[cdnsir]

Hidden Valley. The resolution was 720p and I had DD outputting to the TV using hdmi. Don't think it'll make any difference if I had my receiver on (connected thru optical). But either way, no stutters or lags during the tests. I have seen lag with their old system before, but nothing on this one.

[Alterac]

Thats not horrible..

Anyone know the stats on shaws HD channels?

Accordnig to your tests

HD - 720p Dolby Digital (AC3) @ 2mbps
SD - 480i Stereo @ 0.5mbps


Can you do the test with just 1 SD stream, and 1 HD stream again ?


Probally best to watch a channel that has lots of action also to maximize the bitrate the tv uses.

[eblend]

Really thinking of getting this. One thing I am not sure is if it actually runs over fiber. I have a fiber drop in my basement, will this run over that or over standard telephone lines?