We had our Gateway installed yesterday. The information provided here helped greatly so I was prepared with where I wanted portals and the Gateway and things went fairly straightforward. I was disappointed that I couldn't have a previous DCT700 moved to another existing outlet since that would create more than 4 active TVs in the house and I would have to pay an extra monthly fee for more outlets. Ironically, the Gateway actually ended up on a fifth outlet with no TV so that is not considered part of the four. I thought that sort of limitation was dead with almost everything needing digital boxes now but I guess not or at least not in all cases.

Nothing really unusual about the install itself. I kept a DCX3400 in parallel on one TV with a portal (hedging my bets and we need to watch the recordings on that box) and was surprised when the installer put a MoCA filter on the 3400 but I guess it won't hurt. Otherwise, pretty straightforward except two portals were being stubborn about provisioning. Installer tried hard a few times then passed it off to a second tech who came back later in the day and got them working. Apparently most of the work to get them working was done back at the Shaw office to get them provisioned properly.

Both the installer and follow up tech were pleasant and helpful and except for not getting one outlet active that I was hoping for, I'm fairly happy overall.

Seems like things are much smoother for installs than in the past but occasionally provisioning issues still crop up to delay things.

@t.brereton Our portals did not appear to resetting at all after final install was done but they had a long forced update by the second tech. Perhaps they weren't forced to update in your case so they are doing that now.

Man, that bites. When are they going to send a memo to EVERYONE at Shaw explaining how the # of outlets works? I have 6 Portals and two PVRs. I don't pay any extra and it has already been posted here that the Gateway only counts as ONE outlet since it is the only device receiving the signal. Portals all connect to the Gateway so they don't count. You will need to contact Shaw and get them back again if you need your 700 functional. Perhaps one of the Shaw employees here will be willing to assist you with this process.

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled with that either. I was planning the 700 to go onto an old tv we have in a gym area that was only getting analogue before. Now I can blame Shaw for not using the gym area and not getting in shape. :rolleyes:

Abdawg my primary rationale was making sure that I had a stable fallback position in case of flakiness with my install, and to preserve my marriage in case my wife has a hard time with the technology transition (jury is still out) :)

Agreed. Putting all of one's eggs in a single basket is seldom recommended. I have at least shut down one of my old PVRs but I still have the 3400 running with an Expander on it recording most series recordings 'just in case' they are somehow missed by the Gateway or if the Gateway goes down.

Hey guys,
I just had the gateway and 2 portals set up today. Now I have a few questions; some I found the answers to and some not so here I go:

1. When I set the portal to 1080P 24hz the picture shakes on my TV. No problems when I set it to 1080i. The shaking is more visible at the bottom of the image. I have a Panasonic TC-P50VT20 and Pioneer VSX-1325 receiver. No problems with other devices such as blu-ray, xbox, media centre or old 3416.

2. Power off: is this possible? hitting power button on the remote doesn't power off either of my portals!

3. No exit button on the remote: thank god I have the Harmony 880 and got exit to work. But stuck with no exit button for other portal. I know hitting Live button does the same thing but not quite, it has a delay.

4. I can't find a setting to show Channel instead of time?

5. Is it possible to change order of channel listings in the guide to go ascending from up to down on the screen the way it was on my 3416?

6. I have a Harmony 880; is it possible to program the Down and Up Arrow buttons to do page up and down on the guide?

Thanks in advance

Hi Smacker..

#1 1080i is all the portals are putting out at this time.
#2 nope..portals go to sleep, they don't turn off per-say.
#3 Live button is the answer, the delay is normal, the gateway system is no where near as "snappy" as the other tuners I have played with.
#4 there isn't one.
#5 again, nope..not that I have been able to find anyway.
#6 sorry I haven't got an answer for that one..

Actually:
1. Portals will output 1080p but it is 'upconverted' and they don't do well with that at this time. If you are having problems with your picture on the 1080i setting, try the 720p one. Some sets don't work well with the Portals right now. Also, if you are going through an AV receiver, try connecting directly to the TV and see if that makes a difference when you are on 1080i.

3. The 'Zoom' button is actually the 'key'. Try that as it is the closest thing you will find to an 'exit' button.

6. See Post #1 in the main Gateway thread as it has a link to the 'Remote Cheat Sheet' that you might find interesting.

The other answers are all good.

Well after months of reading all the gateway threads I am getting a Gateway and 2 portals installed today. Hopefully all goes well and there are no major issues. I look forward to joining the discussion on this topic.

6. I have a Harmony 880; is it possible to program the Down and Up Arrow buttons to do page up and down on the guide?

The default setup you get when choosing Shaw/MP2000 codes from Logitech has Shaw remote's next and back buttons mapped to the up/down button on the Harmony. You can remap anything on the Harmony, of course, you just need to move the existing functionality somewhere else. I too am thinking of making the Harmony up/down map to ChannelUp/ChannelDn which would make it do the page up and down on the menus and put the ChapterNext/ChapterPrev onto the LCD custom buttons for the Shaw next/back buttons.

Please note: This thread is reserved for installation and setup questions.
General comments regarding the Gateway should go in the main thread.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=145709
Several posts have been moved.
Thanks for your understanding and your co-operation.

Since the Ch +/- already do the Page Up/Dn, I like having the 'Back/Next' buttons closer to my thumb. They move you 15 minutes back or ahead when you are watching programs and also move you in the guide. Each to their own but I found it fairly simple to adapt once I forced myself to 'accept' the differences from the previous PVRs remote layout.

Gateway & 4 Portal install went smoothly took about 2.5 hours. Installer was very nice and knowledgeable. He was using his Smartphone to activate everything through a web-interface which I thought was cool.

Gateway was installed next to the SMC modem (splitter + MoCA filter). Internet speeds were comparable before and after install. 4 portals were also quick to install; used splitters on 2 because I kept 2 DCXs active.

Took about an 1 hour to update the portals and push out the programming. All channels said "Call Customer Service to Subscribe" or something like that. He eventually got everything up and running.

The first thing I tried out was "Games' feature.....haha!

Thanks Shaw for the "Secret Sale" and a smooth install and also to the Digital home community for sharing great information.

I have 2 TV's, both 1080p. I tested direct or throgh receiver and still at 1080p/24 the image shakes on both TV's. But at 1080i they work fine. Since there's no content broadcasted at 1080p it's not a big deal.

Zoom button seems to do the job, thanks. Also on the Harmony it seems to map by default the zoom button to exit which does the job. If you hit guide or menu then hitting exit will actually exit the guide.

Hmm. Abdawg's post makes me wonder if my installer missed something. I don't have a filter on my SMC modem, despite the run being split just before it to add the gateway. One of the locals I talked to about his setup has a filter on his SMC modem as well.

My modem and Gateway seem to work OK now, and I haven't seen any of the speed / freeze-up issues in the menu that others have noted (it seems faster than my moto menus in most cases) but I wonder if I'm going to run into issues as a result of this. I can't imagine they'd just hand me one if I walked into the office :p

I'm an IT pro by day, and assuming the role of an unassuming and unprivileged user by night drives me nuts. Wish I could talk Shaw into letting me <strike>play with</strike> test early releases under NDA :D

JasonB...the installer was very specific in that should I decide to move the modem to another outlet, I "must" take the filter with it. I didn't ask what issues would result if I didn't do it.

It certainly follows with best practices that a filter should be installed on any connection that is not directly related to the MoCA network but it seems 'experience' has shown it is not absolutely necessary with all equipment. Some can happily coexist in a MoCA environment but others can't. The hard part is knowing the difference. Logic would dictate if you simply follow best practices and always use a filter, fewer problems will occur.

There is a 'cost' factor involved as well but given the possible 'cost savings' from fewer call backs, I would think a few extra MoCA filters would more than pay for themselves in short order. You could always go to a Shaw office and ask for a filter. The worst that can happen is they say 'no'.

Posted by smacker; Since there's no content broadcasted at 1080p...

..., yet. There's a reason that option is available in the Portal.

I have issues with the guide on both my TV's. Chunks of it don't show up, very strange. Could this be caused by a splitter at the portal, even though the Shaw tech changed the splitter to meet the specs?
How about long or older coax cables for the portals? Access to my outlet was difficult so he didn't change any of it. The gateway is installed right where my modem is at the junction box on my condo. He added couple of splitters in there and also what looks to be a MoCA filter.

old coax cables need to go if they look compromised, surprising, with my install the tech replaced all cabling, cut to fit the locations. Make sure you tighten the cables with a wrench, they "must" be tight to get a proper signal.