@RSS

to skip ahead one day at a time use the remotes 'skip' button and to return to present press the menu button - that should help advancing with your advancing all the time.:rolleyes:
This is part of the problem. A number of complaints I see are from people who haven't done their due diligence in exploring all the features of the system. If you are going to invest in this, take the time to learn everything about it. Download the manual from the Shaw website and go through all of the buttons on the remote. You might find some of the things you are complaining about are actually accessible.

^ Good advice. I don't even have the Gateway and Portals yet, but I'm studying the full user guide like it's midterms.

Full user guide can be found here (http://www.shaw.ca/Gateway/Support/).

Week 2 with new Gateway. Overall, still very happy with it.

Only issue was all of a sudden stopped recording any scheduled shows on Sep. 29. Didn't realize until Oct 3. Reset Gateway by unplugging, and has been working well ever since.

When you guys say "power cycle" the Gateway, how exactly do you do that.

Cheers!

'Power cycle' is just what you did, pull the power plug and put it back in after a few seconds or longer. Usually best to give it 10 seconds or more just in case there is any kind of 'memory' effect or capacitors that need time to discharge.

I have noticed continual blackouts of video and audio during both live and recorded programs of late. Is this isolated or are others having this issue? There isn't a pixelization issue, the screen and audio just stops for between 5-30 seconds then returns :confused:. It is getting to the point of being very annoying. I am considering power cycling the Gateway but I honestly don't think this will help (power cycling is something that should be a last resort and not a quick fix attempt IMHO).

darranmartin

I think you and the Shaw technician are confused as to the function of the IR Blaster port on the portal. Usually an IR Blaster port is used to send IR controls to an IR emitter that is then received by other equipment. That is the IR Blaster on the portal would be used to control something like DVD recorder.

What you should be talking about is an IR extender device that will receive an IR signal and then pass it on to IR emitters that are hard wired to the IR extender and placed in front of the IR sensors in the devices to be controlled.

I have a Speaker craft IRE-1.0 that does this to control my TV which has a speaker that blocks the IR sensor on the TV. To move the speaker is difficult so I went the IR extender option even though it cost a couple of hundred dollars. There are other IR extenders available but the one I chose is one receiver which is hardwired to emitters in front of the controlled devices.

There are probably other type of solutions which will be known to AV installation specialists.

Is it completely black, or do you have the "Cannot connect to the Gateway" message?

@ qwxilvr, Reboot and SnowGoose

I just got back from a week away and when watching tv wth my wife, the sound went out a few times. She was able to get it back everytime though, but indicated you had to rewind then pause and play or other cases do the dance of pause, rewind, fastforward in a random order before the audio would come back

Is it completely black, or do you have the "Cannot connect to the Gateway" message?Completely black, in the past when the timeout exceed 10-15 seconds I would get the lost connection notification, but this past week it has just been a blackout of reception that would return for anywhere from 5-30 seconds. As for rewinding and replaying, it still had the blackout period regardless of replaying the segment in question (both live and recorded).

Completely black

hey Reboot
sounds like your tv has lost hdmi sync. try plugging a composite (yellow) cable in between the portal and the tv, then switch the input to that. if you see a signal, then sync is the problem.
the solution to that issue is to set your portal to output only on one resolution, 1080i being the most popular provided your tv can handle it. you can disconnect the yellow connection once that's done. I found having two made the picture display seem lower quality and laggy , but that could be just me.

Figured out how to delete the shows the other day but thanks for the info also the menu day change is good but it would still be nice if the search worked.

I too started having Audio drop outs and black screen issues while watching a recording last night. Same thing 15-30 sec right in the middle of a program about 4-5 of them.

Also half my HD channels have disappeared and say i can order them even though they are part of my package but this is most likely a shaw issue (yeah 2 hours on the phone jsut to get them to give me what i pay for)

I did notice the lastest version of software but a few things still remain a mystery. When going into the guide and scrolling through channels it does not reset itsself for the next time you go in. Also when searching for sports there is no way to pick just hockey for example. Seems like a simple thing to have??
Am I missing something?

I kinda like having the guide stay where I left it. Was a little confusing at first but once I found that a single click of Menu button sync'd it to current channel I took it as a feature.

Another example of of different strokes for different folks and in the Gateway system there seems to be lots of that :)

I find that as I get more familiar with the 'basics' I'm taking more time to explorer, sometimes with success, like being able to delete a recorded show I'm currently watching by simply pushing stop and clear buttons making it easy to select the next episode.

Being able to search using genre or type does seem to have been overlooked but it has also been brought to Shaw's attention so hopefully this will be added in the not too distant future. It would be in the guide software so that might make it take a bit longer, I don't really know.

As for the guide staying where you left it, I too find it useful. Knowing it only takes a press or two of the menu button to bring you back to the current time slot, as hwitten says.

sounds like your tv has lost hdmi sync. try plugging a composite (yellow) cable in between the portal and the tv, then switch the input to that. if you see a signal, then sync is the problem.

After reading the previous dialogue regarding 1080i, I have all three Portals set to 1080i, initially I did have 1080P as there was no issue on my new Samsung Smart TV, but as there was no advantage to 1080P I elected to take the advise presented here. This is something that has just cropped up, I was not having the problem before I added the two additional Portals

This bug mentioned by Shaw Guru in the old thread (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1286197&postcount=928) still exists:

When certain channels are removed in the channel list (PPV, Centre Ice, Music) there are odd combinations that will cause other channels to not appear in the guide. Add all the channels back and the ones that are supposed to show on the grid will again. This is being worked on . . .

When I remove all channels from the channel list except for Basic, HD Plus and NHL Centre Ice--this causes some Basic channels and some Centre Ice channels not to appear in the guide even though they should be there.

Thought I'd ask before just rebooting everything. Haven't done any adjusting of channel list or anything but OASIS is showing up on 222 and normal 222 is on 230.

I've been getting the Connection to Gateway has been lost. Please call .....

It usually lasts about 5-10 seconds then it comes back again. Any suggestions/ ideas ?

Also, my recording of The Office last week did not work, it looks like it recorded the last 2-3 mins of the show. I have a series recording set up for that. So I think this week I will set a recording ( once off ) for the The Office on the other HD channel so that way I will be recording it twice.

Thx.

I think you are wrong.

I used to have an HD box that came with an IR receiver which mounted on the TV and was wired to the IR Blaster input of the HD box so the box could be hidden in the cabinet.

Last week I switch to the Shaw Gateway which has a "Portal" box at each TV. The Portal box has the same IR Blaster input as the HD box did, but it does not work. I called Tech Support who advised that the feature has not yet been activated.

So... this is a new product version 1 problem. Just like the other earlier post, I have done extensive rennovations on my house to hide electronics in cabinets... but these Portal boxes cannot be hidden. Which pisses me off to no end.

Come on Shaw or Arris... whomever is responsible... let's get it fixed. This is not a NEW feature but something that has been standard for 10 years.

OH...and YES there are other solutions, such as IR repeaters, but why do I need to purchase another device. That's like telling me to purchase an after market radio for my brand new car because the manufacturer has not yet "activated" the car radio. Can be done, but it would be stupid.

Let's not give stupid advice. Let's get Shaw to complete the basic development of their new product and service.