11,000 hours of content, movies, shows, first run content. Will be available initially in beta only to Rogers and SHAW customers.
It will be streamed over IP to set top boxes, tablets, Xbox, smartphones, etc.
I just got an e-mail from Rogers.. Free until March.. LOL. They are gonna be pissed when the dual bay goes on the roof on the 19th and I cancel cable!! Hope they have the shomi app for android up by then for Rogers, if they have HGTV programming for the wife like they have hinted, I would subscribe.
Still haven't seen this on Shaw. Tried to sign up on their site and was met with an error message. Not even sure I can access this with my older digital stb or not.
Here's a big weakness I see already with Shomi, and it's a problem with Netflix, too.
Partial TV series. If a TV series is 4 or 6 or whatever seasons long, then put them all up. There is zero sense in me starting through a TV series if I can't watch it all.
When hovering on a title cover for information, either put all of the information in the pop-out or make the "More info" window a new window, new tab or a pop-up.
This way I can look at the details, watch a trailer, etc... without losing my place in the infinite scroll display of all the titles, which insists on returning to the very top when going back from the title details page.
I heard about the free trial for Shomi and was thinking of checking it out. It has not shown up on VOD menu. I understand now you have to sign up and they will start charging after the one month period unless you cancel. Why not just provide it for a month and if I like it, then I will go ahead and order it. Think I will just stick with Netflix. Not great marketing by Shaw.
Shomi doesn't work in the browser on my Windows 8.1 tablet (Which I tried because the video and audio is horribly stuttery on my desktop)
On the tablet, the "Browse" menu that gives you access to the genres disappears as soon as I remove my finger from the screen - it doesn't persist letting me touch something else. Fortunately I have an active stylus which lets me "hover" without clicking.
On the page of media titles, tapping a cover does nothing. Again I have to hover with the stylus to get to the "play" button.
Activated the "trial" yesterday here in Calgary and given that there is about 30 movies in total and 4 TV series - this is not exactly what I would call "selling me" on purchasing anything.
I am accessing this via the VOD area on our cranky Pace Summit box...but I cannot see any reason to continue since this looks exactly like the free crap Shaw used to offer in the VOD area - prior to Shomi.
Please tell me that there is more to this than this?
I already have Dec 1 circled to cancel this thing out.
I know, which kind of defeats the purpose for me . I don't watch Netflix on any of those devices either, even though I have an iPad and phone. The ui is crappy on the Gateway as well, just endless lists, I was hoping for something more like Netflix on my PS3. What stb are you using?
I know that Shaw does the same thing with their regular on-demand TV shows. It seems the STBs don't have the capacity to show all the available programs.
Further to the question regarding limited content on legacy STBs; their limited RAM and functionality do reduce the content shown on screen but the full catalogue is available using either vod.shaw.ca or the VOD search app. Titles can be added to your 'wish list' and then accessed from your STB Wish List menu for viewing on your TV(s).
Sure, it's annoying but at least it does work. It's a limitation of the Rovi guide software that the older STBs run. HD Guide boxes and Gateway don't have this issue and display the full library that is available. They are clearly still adding content.
Seems someone at Shaw was reading this thread and now S1 of the original series is all there. However, S2 is no longer there. Maybe they are only allowed to put up so many episodes? I see there are 29 listed for season one. Oh if we could only go back to those days rather than the meager 8 or so most shows do today. How times have changed.
My understanding is they will only put up series to the previous years one if it is a 'current' series. This means that the only access to this years episodes would be on VOD and full of commercials with no transport control other than pause.
As for how many seasons they can put up, one would think that 'all' previous seasons should go up but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. I believe they are still adding material so only time will tell. I'm really not sure what the hold up is but I suppose there is probably some kind of electronic catalogue that might need submitting and approving before the rights are granted for adding to the new 'Shomi_' service rather than just to the BDU holding the rights already. That's just a guess on my part.
Just spoke with an agent online. Took about two minutes. She said they were aware of the problem, and were working to get it fixed. I have to admit I am quite impressed. That being said, I wish there was much more content. We were really looking forward to some binge-watching of Homeland though.
It looks like Netflix has the Canadian rights to Homeland. Its not on US Netflix but is on Canada and UK
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