ok. so everything appears to be running well
gateway has the latest update, portals have latest update. (this i know for certain)
Shaw/leviton panel is clean... min number of splitters in.
everything is surge protected, will look into a ups for the gateway and future expanders. i have one but it's huge and in use with a tv :)

as to my changing splitters, I take the 3M approach...examine the current set up and if I see a way to improve it and it's within my capabilities to do it, I will. ((throwing my ideas in here, helped immensely)

a final note of hilarity. When the shaw tech went back to his truck to grab the new portal, I saw the new drop amp. I had been checking out some splitters on line 20min before and saw a moto drop amp with 4 outputs and thought it was a great idea..... i'd thought it would be great to put the modem and gateway on 2 seperate but amped lines. He connected it as a single unit to the portals and gateway. I like his setup better, lol.

again: thanks to everyone for the replies and pointers:
no, i haven't changed anything else (last configuration stands)
now off to another multiwire project. (currently unrelated to shaw gateway :D)

@ Cudtz Glad to hear thing are working for you now!
Thanks. And thanks for your concern about my moving things around.
I'm actually glad things worked out like they did...if they hadn't , i'd still have 5 or 6 splitters in the panel and that much more signal degradation. Now there's 2. one amped, one not. separated my a MoCa filter.

We have a booking for Friday (2 days from now) for a gateway and internet 50 install.

Any advice on what I should watch for and check before tech(s) leave?

Is the main gateway box noisy? Have a fan? Our current motorola pvr has acceptable noise level (but not super quiet). The Sony PS3 we have has a very annoying fan (esp. during quiet sections of blu-rays). I don't want gateway at one of the TVs unless it is quiet.

I think people are having it mounted in cupboards or basements etc? Only portals need to be at the tvs? I assume install techs will cut cables, put in splitters, run cables etc. as needed to get gateway were I want it?

Thanks
Al

@digitalal. I have found the Gateway quite noisy, and have it installed in my Garage where the Shaw connection box is located. If you can do this I would suggest you do. The technician will do all the required cabling, just have him check signal strength coming into your house, as I believe this has been the cause of issues read here (I had to have a new feed pulled into my house).

Before he leaves check all Portals for connectivity and run Shaw Speed Test to determine your upload/download speeds to be sure you are within the Broadband 50 range.

Good luck, once it is up and running it is a great system :)

Thanks Reboot! I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Cudtz, Just to be clear; Did you do this or was it done by the Shaw tech? I ask because it sounds like you did it after the tech was there but I'm not sure. You have so many posts and they seem to indicate you changed it again after the tech left.

Just a quick update:

Looks like when shaw swapped my orange backlit remote for a white backlit one they offloaded someone else's problem to me... I went and got one of my other remotes, entered in the tv code 11423, and volume and power worked. Made sure the same code was entered in the "new" white backlit remote and it doesn't work.

So I guess I get to make another trip back to Barlow trail shaw office... :(

@ Reboot - My gateway is quite quiet. It is sitting right under my portal below my tv. How loud is your gateway? What noise is it making?

@cdncableguy, it is not unlike having a PC running, you hear the drive and the fan, not loud, but I really like not having any noises at all :p. With all my equipment in a cabinet in the garage feeding the media room it is great. My wife and I are avid readers and it is a bonus to sit in an acoustically silent atmosphere. I guess loud was not accurate, it is just much quieter without it in the room :D

Had two Portals added this morning, everything went well and the Portals are both configured with the latest software and working as designed.

Note to Shaw: I had both rooms set up with the HDMI cables etc. ready for the install, to my surprise the technician took all the cabling that came with the Portals (power cord, HDMI cables etc.) that I purchased :confused:. To me this is theft, everything that came in those boxes belong to me, I paid for them. I only noticed this after the two techs left.

For you Harmony One (or Harmony 1000 owners) here is how to setup the Shaw Portal Device.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- ADDING THE DEVICE

--> Devices
--> Add Device
Device:
--> Video Recorder
--> PVR
Manufacturer:
--> Shaw Cable
Model:
--> MP2000

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Note: After adding the device, you should go to
--> Device (e.g. Shaw Portal / PVR)
--> Settings
--> Confirm infrared commands

This will help you find a more complete match for the Shaw Portal remote.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do the above step then the only infrared commands you should have to learn are:

PVR --> List (MyDvr)
VOD --> VOD (VideoOnDemand)

Enjoy your Gateway guys.

We had the gateway and two portals and internet 50 installed on Friday. A bit of mix up with the order and had to wait around all day but tech did finally arrive late afternoon and had it all running in 1.5 hours. He was in a rush though and certainly did not want to do any extra wiring. Gateway box is in the den with the internet modem - seems OK there. Portals at the two TVs. A speedtest on the net50 showed expected results.

First impressions of gateway:
- hd guide/menu is modern and nice
- picture quality is very good
- menu is confusing at first when coming from the old motorola pvr
- lack of feedback when setting up series recordings is esp. confusing
- channel changing is a bit faster than motorola but not like Optik from what I've heard - but we use the down arrow and get the menu bar for more rapid looking around now - that is very fast


Problems: - I may need to post this on another forum

- the worst issue is audio drop outs - does anybody hear this? Every minute or so there is a blip in the audio (drop out like) but no corresponding drop out in video [using hdmi out to a Yamaha receiver that switches our hdmi sources to the Panasonic TV - we have no audio drop outs with our PS3, Netflix box (WD TVLive), or old motorola box (was not hdmi though)]

- I really liked how with the dual tuner motorola pvr you could swap back and forth between the two tuners (both with buffers) and essentially watch two shows (or look for a new show during commercials of the other). I can't find an easy way to do this with the gateway (even though it has 6 tuners).

Happy so far (except for audio dropouts) but overall it will take some getting used to.

Wow, I must be incredibly daft, I have loaded and installed several different codes to my Harmony 900. I still can't get the skip button to work properly, it skips ahead and back 15 minutes which is a bit too much when commercial break jumping. Is there somewhere simple easy instructions on training a 30 second command? Is there a Harmony forum somewhere that I have missed? I have attempted to reprogram the skip function several times as per the Harmony instructions and still no 30 second skip.

dsouth, you need to change the setting in the Gateway. I believe it is set for each Portal so keep that in mind if you find it different in other rooms. There are two ways to skip so make sure you are not confusing them. One is adjustable, the other is not.

...
I can't find an easy way to do this with the gateway (even though it has 6 tuners).


Just use the 'last' button, between the Vol - and Ch - keys. It switches between tuners and will do more than just two, with buffers.

For you Harmony One (or Harmony 1000 owners) here is how to setup the Shaw Portal Device.

Manufacturer:
--> Shaw Cable
Model:
--> MP2000
Wow - this is news - is this a more complete device map than the Moxi that was originally suggested\recommended by Shaw?

There wasn't a listing under Shaw for the ARRIS system before so this should be a good foundation to work from now that they are listing it. As previously mentioned in the original thread, the IR codes are the same for the MOXI system but for some reason there are a few keys that don't seem to work and need to be 'learned' from the original equipment remote to the Harmony.

The Shaw remote works fine on my Sony TV and Sony Surround, turns both off and on, but for some reason none of the codes will work on my Yamaha receiver :confused:, it will turn it on but can't find a code that will do both :(.

I like using the Harmony one, but my wife hates it so the original remote is for her use, but she won't like having to push a button to turn off the sound (between you and I :p)

Hi Jetranger
I've checked that setting several times, the Shaw remote pops the show ahead perfectly, the Harmony however insists on skipping 15 minutes no matter how I try to teach it.

See the PDF below. This is how I have my Harmony One set up.

I have the Gateway set to skip 30 seconds and then the non-adjustable 15min jump forward and back is on the Up and Down arrows at the top of the remote.