I just had two additional portals installed today. The tech programmed the remotes and made sure both portals were totally updated before he left.

I checked when he was gone and sure 'nuff, latest software etc...

I'm kind of hoping it's just my system but is anyone else having this issue?

While watching different recordings, without pressing any buttons on the remote and not at the beginning or end of any particular time slot where recordings would be starting or stopping(this is just something I have noted for possible troubleshooting value), the playback just stops and the screen goes blank. This is followed by the 'Portal cannot connect to Gateway' message but any inputs from the remote seem to do nothing for a certain period of time, maybe 30 seconds or so.

Eventually, the system begins to respond to remote commands but not always doing what is commanded. I find I have to get back to the 'PVR List' of recordings and then try and start playing the program I was watching. Sometimes I am taken back to where it left off, other times it starts over from the beginning.

This problem is sometimes preceded by what looks like a video and audio 'glitch' but other times, twice today for me, it simply stops playback and goes blank. This seems to be happening more frequently in the past week so I might try a total system power cycle and see if that doesn't help matters. Right now, this issue seems to be getting worse rather than better as far as overall system useability goes.

Well, after having more and more issues last night; couldn't play some recordings, continued 'freezing/blanking' in the middle of recorded program playback and then even while watching 'live' TV, I pulled the plug on the Gateway and, while it did take several minutes to return to 'normal' functionality, things were greatly improved afterward.

This is only the second time, IIRC, that I have had to do this. It's certainly the first time for this year, but then again, we are only in the second week.:rolleyes:

Hey Jet, what is the latest version of the Gateway and Portal firmwares? Searching on the forums here tell me it is (which i have in my newly installed system yesterday):

Gateway: 7.0.1b.9E5BR-P.342538
Portal: 7.0.1b.9X5R-P.342538

However, I got a message from a guy at shaw saying that it should be up to version 7.12.76.xxx, leaving me confused to what is correct now.

Shaw employees may be testing the next version first and then subscribers.

Jetranger, the gateway firmware may have slow memory leaks. As time goes by, it has less memory to work with. When it has to swap memory to disk too often, it slows down the operation. The result is long pause or freeze.

The earlier Windows OS requires us to reboot daily. This is because the OS and/or application program leak memory.

Normally, program takes memory from the memory pool, uses it and releases it back to the memory pool when it finishes. But some badly programmed software does not follow the rule and does not release the memory back to the memory pool. The size of memory pool is getting smaller overtime. This is called memory leak.

I have the following:

Gateway: 7.0.1b.9G5BR-P.342538
Updated: Dec13,2011 03:00am

Portals: 7.0.1b.9X5R-P.342538
Updated: Dec13,2011 10:54am

As mentioned, Shaw employees are typically running the 'latest' software and once they have it, it's usually no more than 3 or 4 weeks before we get it. There are of course a select group of Shaw employees that get it long before that but once the majority have a different code from us, we are not far behind them. I know there is a code in final testing now so maybe that is it.

As for the 'memory leak', I'd say that is a fair explanation as it does seem the problems are cumulative with time. Oddly enough, the weekly 'refresh' does not seem to solve these problems so it would appear there is garbage being left in volatile memory that is piling up and causing problems. Perhaps a script to clear that memory is in order. Now, let's see how long it takes them to write that script and have it only remove the non-essential data from the memory so as not to completely mess up the system otherwise.

Since Jan3rd I have had an issue with eastern feeds. The video will pixelate, sometimes minor ( with just a small strip of pixels out of place scrolling across the screen ) and sometimes the picture will black right out for a few seconds. That audio is fine except during the blackout period where it will cut out as well. I had the techs look at my signals and everything is good, is anyone else experiencing this. I am hoping its just an eastern feed problem and that it will go away as quick as it came. Shaw's only option now is to swap the gateway, but I am not sure this will help as it seems to be feed related. Plus I dont want to lose all my recordings!
Am I alone on this one or is anyone else noticing the same since approx Jan 3rd of this year.

I have issues with the guide on both my TV's. Chunks of it don't show up, very strange I'm having the same issue if I delete channels from the guide. Delete one and dozens disappear. Can't figure it out, doesn't seem to make much difference what channels they are. Although, I've tried deleting every second channel as a test and it doesn't seem to effect it.

I was getting these gaps too--I understand it's a defect in the current software--but disabled the grid guide and haven't looked back after learning the remote shortcuts (ChUp/DN, Back/Next)

Missing channels in the guide when 'non-subscribed to' channels are removed from the list is a well know issue. I thought it was on the list of 'fixes' somewhere along the way but it would seem it still needs some work. Alternatively, if you are having this issue, you should check what revision of software is loaded as you might be on an older load.

Since this isn't a reliable practice, I haven't removed any of the channels so I don't have to worry about missing any. It truly is an 'all or nothing' type of scenario but at least you will still see all the channels you do get. I guess the best way to say it is; they still have some work to do on this 'feature'.

I think that pixelation is due to data speed. When data does not come fast enough, pixelation occurs. It may due to the communication between the gateway and portal. It may due to data lag between your home and Shaw server.

My system was installed on Jan 8th, I don't have pixelation problem.

If you think it is feed problem, test your feed with a HD PVR if you still have one.

I prefer not seeing channels I don't get over having the grid guide, but I wish the channel list was independent of the Music, PPV, etc special lists. It would be awesome if these were independently configurable so I didn't have to see these channels in the main list but could still access them when I wanted.

Have to say, after a couple short days with this I don't want to go back. Fingers crossed that I don't see any major issues :) Thanks for those who recommended 'diving in' last month.

Yeah after having the Gateway for three days I'm generally happy with it as well. Its odd the thing about deleting channels from the guide. I deleted a bunch on Wednesday when I had it installed, and all was fine till the next day when the issues started to appear, actually getting worse. I don't know why they would have the option if it causes problems. Oh well, not a deal breaker.

The missing channels is a strange bug in the system. But I like having a guide with only those channels I want displayed.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the combination that worked to get all of the HD ones to show. (I'm a bit of a snob - if it isn't in HD, I don't watch it.)

So if anyone is interested I found that in order to get all the HD channels in the guide to show, I also had to turn on channels 116, 118, 300-314, 401-433, and 441-449.

In the case of the latter ones they came as a result of the music channel updates last week. After that occurred I lost some of the guide channels which had been previously working.

Don't know if that combination works for everyone or not but in my case it was the only way I could get all the HD channels to show in the guide.

So if anyone is interested I found that in order to get all the HD channels in the guide to show, I also had to turn on channels 116, 118, 300-314, 401-433, and 441-449.


Wow that must have taken a lot of trial and error. I spent about two hours (and four beers:p) last night screwing around with it just making it worse.

@smacker - I just got my gateway installed yesterday and each portal is missing different channels in the grid guide. I have no channels hidden so I'm not sure what is causing that.

Technician installed 2 portals and the gateway at my house and was done in under an hour. He didn't have to replace any cabling. Overall I'm quite happy with it. I had a few freezes and a tiny bit of pixelization on the hockey game.

Indeed odd that the "weekly refresh" didn't help. Earlier today my status showed "device uptime" for the gateway as 1 day 9 hours, which is early Thursday morning. "Uptime" pretty much always refers to OS uptime, or time since the last reboot. That should clear out memory leaks.

Having said that, from experience we probably all have seen that a full power off (and count to 10) and power on "fixes things" better than a warm re-boot (at least on Windows machines ;-). Perhaps the difference is not about clearing out the OS/memory as such but for resetting other peripheral devices and systems built into the machine.

Does that make sense?

Agree. Warm boot will clear out the memory leaks.

Agree. If the problem is corrected after cold boot, the problem is due to something else. We are restarting every subsystems in the gateway.

Had anyone needed to pull the plug to fix the gateway?

Just a follow up on the issues I've been having with my gateway. (freezing picture, no communication with the gateway, menu timing out and channels showing not subscribed to).

I had a Shaw tech come out this week. After looking at my signal levels he worked with another tech back in the shop, they concluded my gateway wasn't talking back and forth to their center properly. He swapped out the gateway for free and completely rebuilt my gateway account.

Seems to be working better now, not as much freezing on the picture and all my channels are now showing up. He even swapped out the portal remotes I having issues with.

Kudo's to the Shaw tech guy, he was very professional, looked at everything and made sure all my portals were working correctly before he left.

(although it sucks I lost all my recordings.. even on my attached hard drive, I know its not Shaw's fault tho)
Hopefully my system will be stable now.