Don't think of it as an 'update' but rather a 'refresh' of sorts. It is supposed to help keep the system 'up to date' but doesn't typically 'update' anything, per se. I believe it should 'initiate' an update if one has not been received by the boxes but it isn't an actual update itself.

We just got back from holidays yesterday, and now I can't seem to keep my Gateway connected to the portals for more than a few of hours. Prior to leaving it was working flawlessly. My wife called yesterday to say she couldn't get anything on the TV, and that it was just looking for the Gateway. When I got home I unplugged everything in the system and got it all to reboot. It worked for the aforementioned few hours or so, then during playback of a recording cut out again. I had to give the whole system a reboot to get it to connect again. I didn't turn it on this morning, but I quick glance at the portal showed only two lights on the front (power & MOCA) so I'm assuming it's lost again. Is my Gateway screwed?

@brunt51 - Sounds like it, time for a tech to come and visit, with a new gateway...

My main Portal has 'reset' itself twice in that past week, both times in the middle of the day while watching TV. No commands from the remote were being sent at the time so I'm quite certain it was nothing I did. Rather strange behavior.

Also, yesterday I had the chance to visit stanl and I can confirm his setup is operating with fewer issues than mine is. I tried the same skip forward and back commands, repeatedly, that come with great delays on my system, and they were very smooth and required no waiting between button presses to achieve said smooth operation.

He did mention that browsing the grid guide seems to be 'slower' than with the previous code load but it is still manageable so really not a big deal. When I tried it out on both his and my own systems, it is certainly slower than the videos previously posted by another member(sorry, I can't recall who that was at the moment) that showed the rapid ability to navigate through the listings. Even with this 'slower' browsing, it isn't an issue as such.

One big difference is his grid doesn't 'blank out' like mine does. I probably had it on the screen for about 5 minutes and I didn't see it blank once. I can't view the grid guide on my system for more than about a minute without it going blank for what seems to be an ever increasing number of seconds.

Thanks for having me over to compare our experiences, stanl. It was a real pleasure to meet you and 'compare notes'.

The delay may be due to the communication between the Gateway and portals. The cabling are different in different installation since both of you have the same hardware and firmware. For Jetranger installation, it takes longer to get a response back from the gateway.

It would seem logical but we also had a look at his wiring setup and it is far more convoluted than mine is so I honestly don't believe that could be it. At least logic would tend to lead one to think a more direct path would mean better operation but perhaps the opposite is true the case of the Gateway system? It would seem to defy logic but stranger things have happened when it comes to electronics.

Is there any cable outlet which is not properly terminated?

Do you mean something like a 4 port drop amp with 3 unused/unconnected spuds? Not in my setup but there is in his.

EDIT: While the above setup is not 'ideal', in this case it is working better than some others that are considered 'ideal' so I would say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

For the first time since I got the system, one of my portals glitched and reboot itself while we were watching the evening news yesterday.

We were just watching and then suddenly the screen went blank and reboot. It took a little longer than usual to start up which had me worried for a bit, but after that it was just fine again.

Luckily it wasn't the gateway since we had a few recordings going on!

I was reassured yesterday that this 'resetting' behavior is a known issue and that it even happens to Shaw employees so it is definitely on the list of 'needs to be fixed' issues. No word on when it might get that fix though.

As you mention, dimensionzero, it doesn't seem to affect recordings so at least that much is good about it. Anyone else experiencing these 'resets' while you are in the middle of watching?

I've had the spontaneous resets but tonight I had a different issue. The portal completely locked up and I had to pull the plug on it but everything was fine after that. I've had it for 3 weeks and I've only had to restart the gateway once.

Generally I'm pretty happy with it, it's not as stable as my old Motorola pvr's but I like the interface and the new capabilities.

I do wish you could network them over cat5, I believe it would be more robust and I have cat5 wiring throughout my house.

Cat5/6 connectivity is coming, eventually.

I had a strange thing happen just before noon today as I was watching a 'live' program. The picture and sound just froze, as if I had pressed the Pause button. Nothing showed up on the screen though and I wasn't anywhere near the remote at the time. I tried pressing 'Play' but that didn't work so I tried a 'Skip Back' and that seemed to get it going again.

It then played past the point where it had 'paused' by itself so I have no idea what would have caused this.

Shawhelp just tweeted this:
Customers may be experiencing a blank screen through Shaw media gateway. We are aware and working to resolve issue as quickly as possible.
Anyone here experiencing this problem?

I think they were referring to their 'internet gateway'. Shaw used to refer to one of their modem/routers as a 'gateway' and had to change when the Total Home Gateway came out. If it is the 'Total Home Gateway' they are referring to, they will need to do a better job of identifying it in the future.

Ah … that makes sense. It seemed a little too quiet in this thread for their message to ring true.

I knew someone today that had the "Channel not Available" blank screen, which I had at Christmas a bit, and Shaw was telling us on Twitter that they were having that problem today and were working on fixing it.

I'm not sure if it's the "blank screen" problem, but some time yesterday my entire gateway system went down. I'm in Saskatoon. I just had it installed about a week ago, and yesterday all portals started displaying a blank screen and lost all channels. I've cycled all portals as well as the main gateway at least half a dozen times, and the portals always report "failed to connect to home network" and attempts to reconnect result in the same.

So much for switching to cable for increased reliability.

I'm in Calgary and it's now Sunday morning. I just had the gateway installed last Wednesday but it has been offline now for 2 days. Blank screen and "no shaw gateway found". Support has been telling me it should be fixed in the next couple hours for over 30 hours now. Day 2 with no tv. I am VERY unhappy!

Hey mdchris, I'm in Saskatoon also. Last night my Gateway system was working fine. I wonder what the problem could be.

Called Shaw today as last night my system was acting up and basically unwatchable (AGAIN)...

Recorded message on their support line saying "Gateway system not working correctly .. " blah blah blah..

Now waiting for a call back (system said 6-12 minutes for call back)... lets see how long I will have to wait. 9:45am PST.