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Shaw Direct 6xx Feature Wish List

11K views 50 replies 31 participants last post by  painter 
#1 ·
Some of the features I would like to see, in order of importance:

-external HD
-Whole House PVR
-Internet Access
-Channel Mosaic

Seeing as how Shaw Direct employees frequent this forum and are incredibly helpful, I was thinking they might be able to focus on whatever consensus we reach here.
 
#2 ·
One of the most important features is to get the receiver from rebooting. I know it sounds silly but the foucs needs to be there first and foremost.

I agree that all those features mention above would be nice down the road for sure. Are they really possible, only time will tell.
 
#4 ·
I agree with the OP suggestions

also HD version of the guide. what I mean is smaller text to allow more lines on one screen. and see more times without needing to scroll forward. this would need to be a selectable option so that SD TVs could view the guide.




Also Please lets not make this thread a vent for problems. there are loads of threads for that. My new 630 has been solid after the upgrade. the first one had a bad disk.
 
#6 ·
Disclaimer: For discussion purposes only!

Hi Krydor,

Great list. Here's some questions to get a better idea of what your expectations are...
-external HD
- One of the biggest limitations currently is that the content on your external HDD is still "married" to the receiver. So if the receiver goes defective, you lose all your content on both the internal and external drive, even though the external drive is still perfectly healthy. How big of an issue is this?
- Are you wanting to expand the capacity of your existing PVR, or turn a 605 into a PVR box?

-Whole House PVR
- Do you have Cat5/6 (ethernet) wired to each location you have a TV?
- How difficult would it be for you to do this?
- Are you looking to share content recorded on a single PVR on multiple TVs, or play content stored on your computer on your TV?

-Internet Access
- Are you looking for a full browser, or just widgets that display limited information from the internet (e.g. weather, horoscopes, sports scores, etc)
- How would you want to interact with the TV? Are you looking for a full keyboard/mouse solution, or would you want to navigate with your existing remote?

-Channel Mosaic
- What kind of channels would you want to see in the Mosaic? (They're broadcast nationally, and can't be changed by the individual user)
- Is this a higher priority for you than new channels?
- How important is the ability for Parental Controls to be enforced individually within the Mosaic (e.g. if 1 channel was broadcasting an 18A movie, and you had that locked out, would you want that Mosaic feed individually blocked?)
 
#19 ·
answers for SD 630 support

Thanks for asking!

- Are you wanting to expand the capacity of your existing PVR, or turn a 605 into a PVR box?
Both.

- Do you have Cat5/6 (ethernet) wired to each location you have a TV?
- Are you looking to share content recorded on a single PVR on multiple TVs, or play content stored on your computer on your TV?
Yes I have CAT5 through my house. Those who don't, can invest in wireless bridges or hope powerline. Viewing a 630's content (and perhaps scheduling recordings) from an ethernet-connected 605 would be a great feature. The latest TV's and blu-ray players can stream from PC (so I don't expect my satellite box to do this for me) but currently the only way to watch from a remote PVR is over channel 3 coax, or if you are lucky enough to have hdmi in your walls.

- Are you looking for a full browser, or just widgets that display limited information from the internet (e.g. weather, horoscopes, sports scores, etc)
- How would you want to interact with the TV? Are you looking for a full keyboard/mouse solution, or would you want to navigate with your existing remote?
I'm not too interested in this. If you had something similar to the interactive weather, but with sports stats and scores, I might use it, but I wouldn't pay for it. The interactive weather is of limited use since it won't admit to you when it was last updated - i have found it to be giving old information before. Environment Canada's page will tell me when the forecast was issued - for all I know the accuweather forecast on my receiver could be from yesterday.

- What kind of channels would you want to see in the Mosaic? (They're broadcast nationally, and can't be changed by the individual user)
- Is this a higher priority for you than new channels?
- How important is the ability for Parental Controls to be enforced individually within the Mosaic (e.g. if 1 channel was broadcasting an 18A movie, and you had that locked out, would you want that Mosaic feed individually blocked?)
This channel mosaic sounds cool at first but once users realize they can't control the individual channels, they will be let down. IPTV can do this properly with different streams all onscreen at once. Satellite and cable can't since they would need a tuner for each stream. It's not worth the trouble - save that bandwidth for new channels, or most importantly, improved picture quality.

I would hope that the EHD and 605 ethernet access to the recordings on a 630 would be the first priorities as they offer the most value for the least development risk. Play to your strengths!
 
#9 ·
Hi 630,

I'm really wanting to expand the capacity of my 630 and give my kids the ability to record and watch their own stuff. My PVR is half full right now, and only looks to get fuller because I'm not watching the Kennedys until the whole seies is there.

The internet access would be for applications (like MLB.TV or League Pass).

The whole house PVR is really easy for me to set up, because our house is small. I never even thought of a feature that would stream the same way I stream my PS3.

Widgets for the internet. Full on browsers on things that aren't really designed for that purpose don't usually work that well. Something along the lines of what you suggested. My Wii has a pretty low rent news channel that just picks up top stories and scores.

News, Sports and Networks for the Mosaic. Certain events need more than one view without clicking back and forth. Films? Nah. I was thinking more along the lines of playoffs and elections, or world events.
 
#11 ·
- One of the biggest limitations currently is that the content on your external HDD is still "married" to the receiver. So if the receiver goes defective, you lose all your content on both the internal and external drive, even though the external drive is still perfectly healthy. How big of an issue is this?
Not a problem the 630 is stable enough I am not concerned about it "going defective". I would like to be able to watch HD but cannot since the "improvement" to the time remaining meter. I never know if i will have enough time to record my shows.

- Are you wanting to expand the capacity of your existing PVR, or turn a 605 into a PVR box?
Yes!

- How would you want to interact with the TV? --- or would you want to navigate with your existing remote?
That would be impossible have you even tried the search feature.... Its only bearable to use occasionally.
 
#13 ·
too bad you couldn't use a "Smart 4x8 switch" or "smart LNB" to allow the units to communicate with each other through the existing RG6 to allow for remote PVR access. That would take care of in house wiring. Wireless USB dongles would not be enough for most setups for HD content
 
#14 ·
external HDD would be a nice to have and to have it married to the account even better.

Already had a 630 go belly up and lost my recordings if I could back them up so I had them when the new one arrived that would have been nice. also more space would be nice. I am always flirting with full drive now. I like to hold onto concerts and some movies for a long time limiting what I have left for day to day recordings.
 
#15 ·
External HD - married to the box is fine by me. Even if the recordings are lost if the box goes belly up.

Whole House PVR - would be nice. My house happens to be wired with Cat5 to every TV location.

Even nicer would be the ability to Access the PVR Remotely (over the internet) to set recordings.

Internet Access ... Not needed. Have laptops and tablets and smartphones for that.

Channel Mosaic - would be nice if I can pick which audio is played (1 tuner shows the mosaic video other tuner tunes to the audio I want). Parental controls aren't important to me, but may be to others (probably whole "program" should be rated the highest of the channels shown). Would be nice during Olympics or hockey playoffs or March Madness basketball. Not sure of other times when it would be needed.
 
#18 ·
Channel Mosaic - would be nice if I can pick which audio is played (1 tuner shows the mosaic video other tuner tunes to the audio I want). Parental controls aren't important to me, but may be to others (probably whole "program" should be rated the highest of the channels shown). Would be nice during Olympics or hockey playoffs or March Madness basketball. Not sure of other times when it would be needed.
The way mosaic channels work on other providers (I had the opportunity to try out), is that the mosaic channel has an audio track for each channel it has, and you use the remote to select the "window" you want to listen to, and select to change to that channel full. I doubt Shaw would deviate from that model.

A channel mosaic would be good for a major news event (such as the Japanese quake or citizen uprising du jour)
 
#16 ·
Wish List Item 1: Multi-Selection editing. For example, if I have 15 episodes of Dora for my daugther and I want to delete them, I want to be able to check mark each episode then do 1 delete operation. How about a "Select All" "deselect all" while we're at it?


Wish List Item 2: If I setup a 1 time recording, I want to know right there on the spot that I will be trumping a recurring recording if that is the case. I know that there are other ways to find out that is the case but a warning window would go a long way.

Wish List Item 3: I want to be able to stop a recording and delete it without having to either change channels or wait until the extended recording time has expired. It is so complicated right now (when I'm able to actually do it) that I stopped trying. This happens for sporting events and they are by definition long recordings that take up alot of space until I can do the cleanup in the following days.
 
#17 ·
Enable the pvr with external hdd for the 605.

Just received one of these the other day. A lot of connection options are removed from this compared to the 505. Second composite, s-vid, rf are all gone. Their removal would not be so bad if the pvr was enabled.

I really hope that this will not be like the guide upgrade for the 505 (or the internet option for the old 401). Wait and it never happens.

Bell has a hd external pvr box and shaw is left in the dust.....
 
#20 ·
Since the PVR is dual tuner, PIP would be nice.

The next one I know is asking for much, but one has to look into the future. If the internet is activated on 6xx's Shaw could innovate in the sat industry by joining forces with Netflix. Since Netflix coming to Canada is here and will grow regardless it might be best to attempt to get a commercial deal with them for exclusivity on sat boxes. They are being added to almost every other types of electronics that can be connected to the tv when not the tv itself. With an exclusive deal Shaw would better position itself to compete for market shares against Bell and Videotron.
 
#21 ·
Local Data Option

As posted in another thread I started it would be nice if SD implimented and is able to display local data specific to the receivers location. The best example of this is The Weather Network sends a constant stream of local weather data that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Also at various times during the hour the entire screen is deticated to your local weather forcast. This is a normal feature when you are on a cable system and I just discovered that all current Bell receivers can display this info as well. On SD TWN displays a generic non-location specific overlay which shows major city weather info. It will be nice if SD impliments some of the suggestions in this thread, however they need it catch up on this one so that they are at least even with Bell and basic cable boxes.
 
#22 ·
No ordinary pay provider I know of does Netflix on their box. Being Shaw now has their own online VOD, I see Netflix being even less likely than their Internet VOD being on box, which I think is even a stretch.

I have also said in the other thread they have an on box Weather App (all advanced guide boxes), but probably could do a TWC overlay.
 
#24 ·
Hardware for home network connections are there now (605/630), enable it and have an app to access SD internet VOD. (I already have wiring in place for my 630, and would be very willing to add cabling for the 605 to get this function).

That and PIP are two things that are the biggest things missing when comparing to cable providers (in Canada).
 
#29 ·
I have a small feature request.

I would like to see a setting that configures the default value for the "Channels" of a recorded event. By default it always comes up "All Channels" and I have to go in after creating a recording and change it to "HD Only". 95% of the time my usage is to search, create a recorded event(s) and then go back to Options and set the default to "HD Only".

I would like the behaviour to be defaulted so that 5% of the time I have to go and tweak the Channels and set it to either "All Channels" or "SD Channels". Simple but a real time saver when initially setting up recording events.

To make the feature a little smarter, check to see if the program is available in in the default Channel format and if not set it to "All Channels". If the recorded event is being created and it does not exist on HD for example, I still want to record all new programs.
 
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