Same here, long term customer but ha, I wouldn't call it an "investment". Just took 4 receivers to the city eco centre because Shaw Direct essentially "bricked" them despite their previous claims on the 500s that they would be upgradeable. I have posted before that I use some receivers for music only and these other receivers like the 500s and the 317 had awesome optional connections for audio. The current ones limit you to HDMI or RCA. They make my receivers obsolete but expect me to pay to upgrade them!

Is Shaw the only guilty party here or are all TV providers on the same bandwagon? Anyone remember Beta vs VHS? I am holding on to my 630 receivers because of functionalities and connections that have disappeared on the 830's.

10 (yes 10) years ago I bought a high-end Denon DVD player and the only output was HDMI: no RCA, no component, no composite, no S video, no optical, no coax.

It seems technological "advances" both add and remove functionalities and it is very frustrating for the end-user. This is true in both hardware and software. For example even Apple removes some functionalities that were present on earlier versions of their Mac OS.

The bottom line is that most of these changes are there to benefit the corporations in some way, not the end consumer and that is sometimes not a pleasant thing for the consumer.

besides losing component outputs, what else does the 830 kill? I bought a spare 630 for just this reason, and some 605’s, as I use component outs to feed my SageTV system.

No clock, no recording or loss of sat signal lights, but the loss of component outputs is the killer for me too.

wow, no clock or indicator lights? what did that cost Motorola, .15 cents in leds?

I miss the digital coax out (orange) for music connections which the 317 and 500 series had, among others.

And that is why I didnt get an 830 yet.... no clock and no front lights like the 630... Seriously who likes to have a device sitting in their entertainment shelf looking like just a brick of metal/plastic?

Full agree ! 👏👍

Actually Bell Satellite did a similar thing to it's line of PVR's.

Their 9242 had features like: picture in picture, swap tuner and a coax output for a separate TV that they have abandoned with their newer receivers (9400 and 9500).

Disgusting that such useful features have been eliminated from their lineup.

There you go, point proven.

The 830 has a number of good features, but the features left out of the black box makes it undesirable to me.

I have the old "Digital Advantage pack" plus time shift.

2 hours 40 minutes on telephone hold and then I gave up. I am on pre-authorized credit card billing. I got a different CC from a different bank. I want to change the Shaw Direct CC to the new CC. The website is not clear about changing cards. I went to online chat. I was told they could not help me, but I should use the SD app. I have no cell phone, therefore no app. It was suggested that I try again on the telephone at 7AM ET.

GRRRRRR

Log into your my.shawdirect.ca site. In the first page you'll see "Auto Payments". Under that, the first option is "Edit credit card". Enter the new info. Click "Sign Up" Done.
The caveat is they say they want 10 days notice. But I know from experience that if you're under that and it is unsuccessful billing the first time, they'll try again in a few days. Just recently I noticed almost en entire month after my billing date that I had old info that had failed, and they just rolled over the next month when I corrected it.

It is true that there needs to be 10 days to update information - the request for withdrawal is sent to the bank 10 days prior, so any changes made under that won't be reflected. Your balance will just roll over to the following month and withdraw at once (unless you make a onetime manual payment through the website in the meantime).