I've had the HD service since the 2nd day. I've also experienced lots of freeze ups. The reset time seems to take forever. Also, the whole 3rd quarter of the Sask/Calgary game was gone. I phoned SaskTel, and the rep just kept saying "Ya, ya, ya, we know". So I'm not sure what's going to be done to fix it. I also noticed that when using the "On Demand" movie feature, the 5.1 sound would start making noised taht sounded like mice skittering around, kind of like a scratching. I had to keep pausing and then playing again, probably about 10 times.

Also, watching regular TV tonight, the sound seems to stop every second, just long enough so you can hear it, like a few milliseconds. You have to turn the channel then turn it back, and it seems to be ok for a bit.

I like the whole package, but I'd like it even better if it worked well. Also, no PVR sucks.

If this continues in the next few months, I'll probably have to complain to SaskTel that I am not getting the service that I am paying for, because I think that's what it boils town to.

adodd,

Don't wait a few months. Phone them now. The tech I talked to admited that there were some bugs to be worked out but encouraged me to keep calling in with any comments. His argument was that without feedback from people they have no way of knowing if they are dealing with isolated incedents or widespread problems.

It doesn't hurt to give constructive feedback to someone who is trying something do. In fact, it can do a great deal of good.

My two cents.

just spoke with a sasktel tech.

he told me in mid december they are launching a new hd box because they are having to much problems with there service.

i was surprised to find out what he actually has shaw in his house, had them hooked up (has 2 hd tvs) side by side and he said sasktels picture is alot grainer and has more of a wash to the picture.

as well his sasktel had tripple the wait time to load or change a channel. not to mention he can only have 1 hdtv with there version of "high speed" which is vritually lite speed internet.

Can you clarify this?

HD signals are "pure digital" all across the transmission chain. The symptoms you describe -- "graininess and washed out colour" -- are analog quirks.

Digital signals cannot, by definition, suffer from this. You CAN get data errors which lead to freeze frames, macro-blocking, etc.

Or is SaskTel somehow manipulating Bell's all digital satellite feed with analog filters before restoring it to digital and sending to the customer? Seems unlikely but anything is possible.

Boss;

Can you claify what "I am affiliated with Shaw in Sask" means?

Considering that SaskTel monitors it's calls, it seems strange that when you phoned SaskTel a SaskTel tech would tell you that Shaw is far superior to SaskTel. Unless of course he wants to be fired.

Also, what did you mean when you said SaskTel is trying to jam info via fibre optic down into a phone line?

that was straight from a sasktel tech. i didnt get to indepth with him.

i think what it boils down to is the quality of the HD boxes and the signal isnt as great. but im not tech. all i know is what people have told me.

i talked to a sasktel tech in person. one of my buddies friends works at sasktel. we got into a conversation since i was looking to buy a new hdtv.

affilated means that my sister works at shaw, but she transfered to vancouver.

how sasktel works.

from the office. fibre feeds into a d-slam. a dslam is where the fibre ends. from there it runs via phone line to a house. hence, jamming fibre into a phone line.

thats why sasktel has a channel changing delay. pixilization, freezing.

when you click to change a channel. the signal is sent to the dslam, changes the channel, and then gets sent back to the house. hence the 3 second delay because DSL is limited by distance. and any distance involved means a slow down in channel transmission

if you pay attention and push the up channel button on your remote you will get a black screen. than audio will come in, than finally picture.

thats the time it takes for the channel to get sent to the dslam and back.

shaw doesnt have this long of a delay because all the channels are fed right to the box because coax has the capacity. the delay only occurs when the channel is being tunned with a digital box.

shaw analog WITH NO digital box has zero chanel delay.

WE got HD yesterday, took them 6 hours to install, new port at the switch (???) New cabling from the O/head in the alley to the house. Fianlly at 3:00 my wife said a frustrated good buy. The techs were very nice and very apologetic. Told us that this was a temporary box until December January when it would be replaced. We experienced a few freeze-up last nite. I dunno if this is anecdotal or not but if slowed down in flicking and allowed things to load then the freeze-ups were eliminated. But the kicker is I go to hook a toslink for digital audio annnnd dead air, no sound change cable from the DVD annnnd dead air, changed port on the receiver annnnd dead air, OK so I call tech support annnnnd new set top box. Then I go into the set-up menu annnnd can't adjust any of the display settings.... Sasktel is still on the phone annnnnd another reason to get a new set top box.....

So I am gonna complain as I suggest we all do, and ask Sasktel to extend the High Def promo another month or 4 months after you get the new box that is supposed to work.

I don't like Shaw so I will try and stick it out with Sasktel

You don't have to have HD for these symptoms to show up. I really like the idea of having all my services under one roof, but you have to think that SaskTel is suffering with a narrow urethra. I'm going to wait another month before shopping for another tv service.

I have no idea why you are making excuses for ST. If they need beta testers, then the service should be free, at least until they can approach the picture quality of a circa 1976 set of rabbit ears.

Yes - I'm getting frustrated.

Does anyone know what make/model they will be replacing with?

my guess is another motorola unit.. my guess it wont fix anything, just make customer "feel" like its going to get better. 400 million $ still doesnt mean a phone line in the end will handle more information...

I was told it would be another motorola unit.

We had it now for a few days and the problems are fewer and farther between. I had to re-boot twice only in the last three days, which is an eponential improvement from when it was first installed.

thanks for the info.
I just got a Tivo and it can't figure out Sasktels Pace DSL4000 box's IR signals. I was thinking of going to Sasktel's HD just hoping that the Tivo would play better with a different model but I don't think I want to deal with all the problems accompanied with their HD. Looks like its back to Shaw's TV... I'll keep Saskels interent though - no DL limits

so i called max. checking into the HD service and internet, promos etc.

they can only run 7mbit internet and they CANNOT have there max TV service.

if you have MAX HD TV the fastest internet you can via sasktel is there 1.5.

if you have regular max tv you can have internet at 5.0.

plus there is still a $100 cancelation fee of you cancel there HD service.

it boogles my mind. they blew 400 million dollars to get HDTV... yet they cant even run real high speed into a house with it. there are so bandwidth bottlenecked its not even funny.

i cant imagine having anything less than 10mbit for internet like i have at home. i dont understand how people can put up with the quality of the tv service.

everytime im at a friends house, i joke with him about the huge lag between switching channels and if you try and switch 15 channels up at once, i can go to the washroom and come back and its still not loaded