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Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 Owners Discussion Thread

1M views 3K replies 469 participants last post by  gzink 
#1 ·
This discussion thread is for owners to discuss the new Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 when it becomes available on September 1st.

Please post your thoughts and your feedback on this unit once you have it up and running.


For non-owners, you can ask questions about the unit in our New 630 In Pre Order


Edit by 57: Here's a thread summarizing problems, issues, resolutions, workarounds:

Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums
 
#3,171 · (Edited)
The elimination of component video outputs was indeed required by the big studios to prevent recording. It would happen eventually anyway as technologies like HDMI are making component video obsolete and as a cost cutting measure.

Rent seeking by hardware makers is becoming pervasive. I purchased a product recently that would have some of its most useful features disabled after 30 days unless I paid a monthly fee. Most of those features incurred no extra cost to the manufacturer. It was returned and replaced by another that has the same features with no monthly fee. I would guess that BMW owners would be more immune to such fees but requiring it to heat seats is ridiculous. TV service owners such as Shaw are not immune to such rent seeking but Shaw is far from the worst. It was common practice to add unnecessary fees to TV services or TV hardware in order to cut advertised prices and increase profits until the CRTC banned it. TV service hardware rental at inflated prices is a similar tactic used to increase prices and profits. Customer tracking and inserting targeted ads is a similar tactic that has the same effect but seems to be accepted more as it requires no direct payment. The end result is the same or, potentially, much worse since it includes invasion of privacy issues and the probable distribution of personal data to unknown organizations.
 
#3,172 ·
I too avoid subscription based technology like the plague. Unavoidable for TV in remote areas as OTA simply isn't viable outside of major metropolitan areas in BC. I guess my dream of something new from SD is not comin to pass, so I guess I better go check out the Forum on the 8xx receivers. I know folks were not pleased with them initially.
 
#3,173 ·
Geosynchronous satellite TV is a declining business so there is unlikely to be any major investments in new technology. The switch to HEVC and 800 series receivers is a, relatively inexpensive, cost cutting measure. US satellite TV companies are in trouble and may soon be down to one national service. I don't see how Canada will support two for much longer.
 
#3,174 ·
The only software I pay a yearly subscription for is Quicken. We've used it intensively for many years and it would be impossible to replace so we held our noses and paid the money. Needless to say, we intensely avoid for fee products if there is a no fee product available.

As far as paying for heated seats and steering wheel, when it's winter here, it's summer in Oz so they don't need it.
 
#3,176 ·
Let me see now. We have 3 x 630's and 1 x 830. The 630's will soon become useless $600 paper weights. We will also retire our 830 when the full transition to G1 is completed. We will then (sadly) :cry::cry: retire from SD after nearly 20 years of great service. Reason? The decision between snow-birding in Florida for 5-6 months every year or staying home to watch TV we're paying over $120 a month for wasn't even close: snow-birding won. I hope many fellow snowbirds do the same. It's the only way we can get even with SD for their decision to go with G1: (n):mad:.

Please spare us with the "it's not legal" comments. As long as the service is paid for, it shouldn't matter where the eyeballs are located. Canadian residents have access to Dish or DirecTV in Canada and no one is going bankrupt because of that. Cable/satellite companies in Canada offer nearly all the US based stations. OTA is available free of charge to most people living near the border. US visitors to Canada or US citizens residing in Canada have access to nearly all of their US based TV offerings.

Canadian snowbirds in the US will get zilch. It's pretty much a case of I win - you lose.

In the case of Canadian snowbirds the only ones losing revenue are the US cable/satellite companies. I would be willing to pay for a subscription to them if it would give me access to SD service in the US.

I guess it was great while it lasted. IPTV and/or slingbox replacement project coming up! Unfortunately neither one of those options will offer the flexibility and convenience provided by SD service.
 
#3,177 · (Edited)
Let me see now. We have 3 x 630's and 1 x 830. The 630's will soon become useless $600 paper weights. We will also retire our 830 when the full transition to G1 is completed. We will then (sadly) :cry::cry: retire from SD after nearly 20 years of great service. Reason? The decision between snow-birding in Florida for 5-6 months every year or staying home to watch TV we're paying over $120 a month for wasn't even close: snow-birding won. I hope many fellow snowbirds do the same. It's the only way we can get even with SD for their decision to go with G1: (n):mad:.

Please spare us with the "it's not legal" comments. As long as the service is paid for, it shouldn't matter where the eyeballs are located. Canadian residents have access to Dish or DirecTV in Canada and no one is going bankrupt because of that. Cable/satellite companies in Canada offer nearly all the US based stations. OTA is available free of charge to most people living near the border. US visitors to Canada or US citizens residing in Canada have access to nearly all of their US based TV offerings.

Canadian snowbirds in the US will get zilch. It's pretty much a case of I win - you lose.

In the case of Canadian snowbirds the only ones losing revenue are the US cable/satellite companies. I would be willing to pay for a subscription to them if it would give me access to SD service in the US.

I guess it was great while it lasted. IPTV and/or slingbox replacement project coming up! Unfortunately neither one of those options will offer the flexibility and convenience provided by SD service.
Agreed about the cost of 630 boat anchors. There‘s nothing wrong with my picture quality, mostly. The changeover seems as much as a reason to sell new hardware than anything else.
Much like there’s a reciprocal tax agreement between the two countries, it’s amazing the four, sad, pathetic satellite company executives couldn’t come up with an arrangement for each countries residents to share a portion of fees while traveling. Simple. Companies win, customers win, services continue. But no, because executives are dopes…..
And you can’t blame the FCC or CRTC, since they’re just b@#$*es of lobbyists anyway…
 
#3,180 ·
It's either switch to HEVC, start cutting channels or pay more money to lease space on a new satellite which won't reach the southern US either. It sounds like F2 is not be replaced by the owner so the choices are limited. The fact that Shaw is willing to replace incompatible receivers at no extra cost to customers sounds like good customer service to me. As for snowbirds, they are merely victims of the restrictions mostly imposed by other companies. Shaw does not dictate the design of new satellites they merely lease transponders on satellites built by other companies to meet restrictions imposed by international agreements. If it were me, I would be subscribing to a US service and bringing the equipment north for the Summer. There are other ways to get Canadian content such as news while in the US.

Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of Shaw either as they screwed me over several times with bad service, unresolved technical issues, failure to add new channels on a timely basis and unwarranted price increases due to package changes. In this case it looks like Shaw is doing the right thing. In the past, they made customers pay up to full retail to replace receivers when the switch to MPEG4 was done.
 
#3,181 ·
Good luck subscribing to a US service. Granted I did not do too much research but in California last year I was informed I needed a SSN before I could sign up(more than one service). Not gonna be able to register and get a Social Security Number.
And then there's the fact one misses out on curling and other CDN stuff, etc.
40+ years with someone who is not thrilled with US stays and then would miss out on the curling!!! ;)
 
#3,183 ·
And then there's the fact one misses out on curling and other CDN stuff, etc.

40+ years with someone who is not thrilled with US stays and then would miss out on the curling!!! ;)
Not sure if this site works in the US? https://curling.live/

You may be able to watch curling on Youtube?


There are 30 Curling Youtube Channels including:
  1. World Curling TV.
  2. CurlingZone.
  3. Curling Canada.
  4. Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling.
  5. USA Curling.
  6. Curling Finland.
  7. CURLSASK.
  8. DumfriesCurling.
 
#3,186 ·
Satellite footprints are being made smaller to increase capacity. The F series footprints interfered with possible use by other services in the southern US and Mexico. Modern satellites often have transponders that cover all or most of the north, central and southern Americas and the Caribbean with different transponders focused to serve each region using the same frequencies. Dish uses spot beams in order to serve major cities and other markets with hundreds of stations that cater to their individual areas and to meet FCC regulations. Shaw is only licensed to serve Canada so it makes sense to design a satellite that serves only Canada with their signals and free up those same frequencies for other regions.

US providers Dish and DirecTV use different technology than Shaw so comparisons cannot be simply made. Dish solved their capacity issues, in part, by leasing an entire satellite from Bell that was originally designed to serve Canadians. It was redirected at the US.
 
#3,188 ·
So at what point will a 600 series box be shut down by Shaw/Rogers? I intend to keep my 650's going as long as possible due to their component outputs feeding my SageTV DVR system, as well as my DSR630, as it's component outputs feed a secondary TV that would otherwise barf at HDCP restrictions from the HDMI output.
Can I keep these going until the mpg conversion is complete, and if so, when are people estimating that to officially happen, given the new info about F2's demise - I'm assuming with the China chip shortage, Shaw won't be able to provide all the series 800 boxes in an accelerated schedule (six months), or will they?
Only one person here likely knows this answer, right K?
 
#3,189 ·
Channels will likely go to HEVC in stages. Channels on 6xx receivers will be lost a few at a time as they are switched over. All channels will eventually be lost when the switch is completed. That could take up to two or three years.

Shaw won't want an accelerated schedule, not so much due to equipment shortages as logistics. It takes time and labour to complete a task like receiver swaps. Shaw will likely need to swap hundreds of thousands of receivers and support customers with technical issues while it is happening.
 
#3,190 ·
Channels will likely go to HEVC in stages. Channels on 6xx receivers will be lost a few at a time as they are switched over. All channels will eventually be lost when the switch is completed. That could take up to two years.

Shaw won't want an accelerated schedule, not so much due to equipment shortages as logistics. It takes time and labour to complete a task like receiver swaps. Shaw will likely need to swap hundreds of thousands of receivers and support customers with technical issues while it is happening.
My thinking was that subscribers with recording units, aka 630's, get targeted first, since all recordings have to be done in either one format or another, correct? Old 630's cannot record in HEVC, can they? So what happens if some channels are mpg and some are HEVC - do all the HEVC channels need to be dual-feed, aka a mpg version as well, until they are all ported over to HEVC?
 
#3,191 ·
@tvmaster because the 830 can support both formats it will simply decode the channel and record it regardless of whether it is HEVC or not. I believe according to Shaw Broadcast that some of the channels begin the change in September and they indicate a dual feed period. In the past Shaw Direct and Shaw Broadcast have gone mostly with dual feeds. On some occasions they have done flash cuts of a channel from one format to another. It is more an issue for headends that they have to make sure they have all the equipment in place and personnel in place to handle the flash cut at the appropriate time. The 600 series could handle mpeg2 and mpeg4 and recordings on the 630 would have been encoded as either a mpeg2 or mpeg4 until that change over was finished. Because I am a bit of a PVR packrat I probably have some shows that are still mpeg2 on a 630.
 
#3,213 ·
Technically speaking, 600 series cannot handle HEVC channels, so any channel which is converted will be list from a 600 series, yes? Any idea when the first channels to be changed to HEVC will begin, and which channels those are? And the 800 series will process both formats, so you could gradually start changing over boxes? I’d like to hold onto the component outputs until the last possible moment…
 
#3,192 ·
Regarding active DSR receivers (like a 630, etc) on your account - I just logged into my Shaw Direct account to see how many were currently listed, and I can't find that information anywhere.
Did Shaw remove it from their online site? Reason being I have one or two spares, and I wanted to see which were the active/un-active boxes.
Will this require online Chat?
 
#3,194 ·
I have six boxes on my account, legitimately, and that Shaw has a record of. Problem is I haven't had two of them plugged in for about five-six years.

So I did that today, and they both had to go through about an hour of updates to get to current firmware #.

Now that they've done that, I did a receiver refresh, but neither box grabbed the correct CHANNEL MAP.

I tired the 'Options - Manually change Channel Map' trick, but that pulled up two even weirder maps.

It's possible the last time they were plugged in was when I had a different LNB, or, as they are both used boxes I bought from Kajiji/eBay (yes, I made sure they were clear of owed money and were transferable to my account before purchasing), I wonder if Shaw's software is confused and is reverting to a really old map.

If that were the case, is the only solution calling/chatting with a CSR, or will they right-themselves if left alone for a day or so....l
 
#3,200 ·
I bought a DSR630 off Kajiji maybe seven years ago, as a backup if mine went down.
Price was really good, hence the purchase. Also cleared Shaw’s no-money-owed phone call check on the UA #.
I‘s like to activate it now, and I have space for one more on my account.
Does anyone see why Shaw Direct would be unwilling to - it’s still a legitimate device.
 
#3,201 ·
@tvmaster =>To my knowledge the rules are still the same, so I'd add it now. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll offer you replacement 8xx for all your units as they'll wake up a bit when you call to add the 630.

A buddy of mine moved last year, and his new basement suite came with Telus Optic TV, so he gave me a couple 6xx receivers. I too kept them as back-ups but never bothered to light them up on our account.
 
#3,205 ·
Long time client I phoned and asked for an 800 & 830 to replace my aging 600 7 630 which were generally still good "No problem will send them out as free rental units"
Had them for a couple of weeks when the old units ended up "decommissioned" The new 800 would not activate & after 2 hours of frustration & finally a factory reset Agent said need to replace Now can the decommissioned units be given a factory reset & set up on another account?
 
#3,204 ·
Actually, turns out I acquired it in 2018, so not THAT long ago...I'll run it up the flag pole and see what CSR I end up with :) And given the new news about F2 crashing in December, I'd think Shaw would be happy to not have people demanding 800 series boxes by then. lol. What a mess this will likely end up as. Maybe Rogers wants it to collapse so they can just sweep the whole thing under the rug when they take over.
 
#3,208 ·
It sounds like Shaw is trying to maintain stock levels and reduce profiteering by customers. Rentals, even free ones, must be returned to Shaw. This way, customers cannot get free 830 upgrades and then turn around and sell the for a tidy profit. It sucks that 6xx owners are losing the equity in their receivers but that would happen anyway.
 
#3,209 ·
Hi Gents,

Most folks don't resell their receivers when they move on from Shaw Direct anyway (see my post above), they give them away or simply recycle them. I see no problem with Shaw Direct sending out "Free 8xx Rentals" to replace the 6xx units that will be rendered technically useless very soon. In addition to preventing profiteering on Shaw Direct's dime, I'm betting there are tax write-offs in play for Shaw Direct with "Free Rentals", which will allow them to depreciate the cost of all these units over time versus taking a hit on their books in the year(s) they'd be giving away these assets. (My ages old accounting training at work here...)

It's a very complicated position that Shaw Direct is in with little time to sort it out, especially when you consider they are also in the middle of being taken over by Rogers (if the CRTC and Federal Government allows). So far, their effort seems top drawer to me. I just wish they'd announce a schedule for all this to be completed.
 
#3,212 ·
I agree with Mr. Jim; I would not want to hold on to an obsolete receiver if given the free use of a new current model receiver.

Most folks don't resell their receivers when they move on from Shaw Direct anyway, ... they give them away or simply recycle them. I see no problem with Shaw Direct sending out "Free 8xx Rentals" to replace the 6xx units that will be rendered technically useless very soon.
 
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