Very nice. Thanks JetRanger and Jorton for that. Helps a bunch. I'll have to change my Harmony configuration to add the ChUp/ChDn for PgUp/PgDn too.

Just spoke with Shaw Gateway support after having my new Gateway installed. I notice that i didn't have the new iS2 firmware installed, so I called them and asked them to push it out to me. They then told me there there was a problem with this firmware, and earlier in the week it had "killed" a lot of their gateways so they had rolled back the gateways to the previous version. Has anyone else's gateway gone back to running iS1?

Hit the PVR button, right arrow to the Settings (looks like gears), press OK, down arrow to Channel List, and toggle them off with the OK button. Note that you might get "blank" lines in the guide after doing this. I had to add some back to get the gaps to fill in.

Couple notes after using it:

- the included remote is _far_ faster than the Harmony 300s I got as universals. To the point that I'll likely keep two remotes out. Pressing and holding gives really fast up/down channel scroll.

- many operations seem to take more keystrokes. I miss the page up and down buttons and the easy priority setting for series recordings. I like the ease of setting series recordings by hitting ok if the details are acceptable.

- the grid guide feels tacked on and really confuses navigation, and it still had gaps after trimming the channel listing and making sure the portal was on latest firmware (the gateway was, but initially the portals were not). Ended up just turning the guide off.

(edit)

- oh, and I really love the size, silence, and temperature of the portals. There is some vibration, but not noisy (yet). It's weird having them always on, especially in the bedroom where I've turned off the front panel.

- I miss asymmetrical skips, and think there needs to be some smaller gradations (1, 2 minutes) preferably with ability to set different in each direction.

Fun so far. :)

t.brereton, there's not much chance of that but if that's the line they are going with, I guess that's how they are choosing to deal with it. If you don't have the latest code, just wait a few days and it should update itself.

One last question. If I press buttons too fast on the remote, ie scrolling through menus or typing something the portal locks up and resets. Both of the portals are doing this. Is this a known issue?

Unfortunately, yes. It was supposed to have been fixed in the latest code but it didn't last long as only a few days later it started happening again. I can't even skip back once without a long pause and the second press of the button is almost guaranteed to get the 'communication lost' message which at least clears itself fairly quickly.

I personally wouldn't lose any sleep over it until you're at the latest firmware. The amount of things fixed in that release definitely changed the tone of those posting here. I for one am very grateful to the trailblazers who made things so much smoother for those of us who followed in their footsteps :)

- the included remote is _far_ faster than the Harmony 300s I got as universals.

I have a Harmony 650 and 700 and they both allow me to change the delay between button presses. I would think the 300 model allows this too but I am not sure. Adjusting that should get your Harmony to scroll as fast as the Shaw remote.

Hey Jet,
Would you agree that the gateway portals are not a "Snappy" in regard to guide and channel selection as your other boxes?

IE a bit of lag between button press and the device response?

CowtownBiomed, I don't know if Jetranger agrees with your statement, but I do.

I really like the Gateway system and wouldn't go back, but my main gripes about it are responsiveness, as well as the interface, which looks great, but is rather difficult to navigate. It's like someone tried to copy the Sony PS3's XMB interface and did a poor job at it.

I've had it for 3 weeks now and I still make frequent mistakes. Learning to drive an iPad takes zero thinking and I wish this was as easy.

I think you will find that everyone's experience will be different. I have no idea why there are so many differences in user experience but there is.

In my case, both the guide and channel selection is snappier than either my old 3400 or the 3416 I had previously. Much snappier in fact. Overall, I have found the Gateway to be much more responsive. However, I know that is not the experience of many and I know my system is more responsive than Jetranger's.

And I have gotten used to using "zoom" as the exit key now so I don't find that annoying anymore. Using the live button is painful. I'm not sure why it even exists. It would be so nice if some of these buttons were programmable so we could program them for our own unique ways of operating.

Hi Pokerchip.
Thanks for that, at least I am not the only one to notice this.
I went from a Bell HD PVR and it was "snappy" (Don't really know what other word to use)
I am hoping, as the software gets streamlined that this gets better over time.
I never compared it to my PS3, but, ya, now that you bring that up, it is quite similar. (not in a good way)

It will be interesting to see where this device evolves to, with the RJ45's on the rear it will make the smart TV connections to the network really easy (I highly doubt that they will move the MoCa network onto it.) But hard wired connectivity at each portal will be sweet..(Starts to think about building a media center PC from junk I have lol )

Cheers
Cow..

What delay are you using on your harmony to speed things up. I have mine at 1500ms and it's painfully slow, but I don't want to adjust it too far and have it not be able to communicate with the portals at all.

Unfortunately, yes. It was supposed to have been fixed in the latest code but it didn't last long as only a few days later it started happening again. I can't even skip back once without a long pause and the second press of the button is almost guaranteed to get the 'communication lost' message which at least clears itself fairly quickly.
Thanks JetRanger! Your post are by far some of the most helpful, and most prompt! I think Shaw should be paying your royalties!

Had mine installed yesterday, so far so good. Only issue is missing channels on the guide, MC and HBO specifically, even though they are selected. I'll leave it for a while and see if it fixes itself, if not I'll try some of the solutions posted here. Ordered one of my free Shaw Friends VODS last night no problem, although I noticed that HD versions are $6.99. A little steep as I can get them for $5.99 including taxes on my PS3, so after I've used up my frees ones I probably won't order anymore.

@t.brebeton That is a very long delay. Mine are set at default of 100ms for interbutton delay. Make sure you are not confusing this delay with the power on delay or the interdevice delay. Those can be quite long (eg. 10 sec. power on delay for my TV)

I had my Gateway system since Sunday.

Changing channel is faster than Shaw PVR as long as I don't hit the remote too fast between presses. I give it a short rest when it freezes.

I am looking forward for Shaw to enable the DLNA on the RJ45 port in the near future. This will save me from buying a DLNA media player box for every TVs. The $48 portal was a good deal during the Secret Sale. One cannot buy a DLNA media player for $48.

Sorry for not responding sooner, guys. I was out and about this morning. I definitely see a difference between stanl's system and my own as far as 'snappiness' goes and I have no explanation for that whatsoever. It does give me hope though that mine and others will all be that 'smooth' one day.

I should mention that the 'freezing and resetting' that the Portals do is a symptom of the previous code and is fixed in the current iS2+ code. I was thinking about the long pauses that are sometimes followed by the 'cannot connect to Gateway' message. That one is still in there.

As for 'code roll backs', that's a definite not. If your boxes have recently been installed and don't yet have the latest code, they should update themselves within a week.

I have to head out again for a bit but I'll definitely be back on later.

My installer did the firmware update while he was at my house. Yesterday, I went to the diagnostic screen. The firmware version for the gateway and portal are the same as reported in one of the earlier post.

I have not seen the 'cannot connect to Gateway' message yet. But sometime, it lags a bit. Usually, when a number is pressed, the number will be displayed at the bottom left corner right away. Yesterday, I got my portal to a condition that the number did not displayed right away. I gave my remote a rest for short time, it returned to normal after rest.