[Dr.Dave]

This thread will discuss the upgrade of MTS TV to Mediaroom 2.0.

MTS is sending out letters announcing the upgrade procedures for Mediaroom 2.0. The only new feature listed in the letter is the ability to pause live TV on any set-top-box (which is a feature of 2.0). The link in the letter points to the old upgrade last October.

The upgrade will take place between late March and April between 1 and 6 am. If your STB is off at the time, you will be prompted to proceed the next time you turn the STB on.

 

[CoryB]

The link is www.mts.ca/ultimatetvupgrades

Based on the date of the letter being March 29, 2011 I suspect that most of them will occur in the April time frame. I would also not be surprised to see the remote PVR setting function listed as being part of this upgrade. Further, I would not be surprised if support for stream to Windows Phone 7 devices appears as part of this update to help MTS push their new phone network. On further review, it seems Windows 7 computers and the XBOX 360 could be enabled as non-PVR clients as part of this update.

 

[hugh]

from the site

MTS will implement upgrades to MTS Ultimate TV between late March and April to prepare for great new features coming to your Ultimate TV service.

To minimize disruptions to your TV viewing, upgrades will take place between 1:00 am and 6:00 am. During these upgrades, your TV service and PVR functionality will be interrupted for approximately 20 minutes. If you have more than one set top box they may be upgraded on different nights. This enhancement will not be complete until all of your set top boxes are upgraded.

When each Set-Top Box in your home is ready to begin the upgrade, one of three scenarios below will appear:

If you are watching TV at the time of the upgrade, you will receive a notification that the upgrade is about to start. At this point you will have two options:

1. Select "OK" - the upgrade will start immediately and will last about 20 minutes. If no action is taken, the upgrade will automatically start within 2 minutes.

OR

2. Select "Remind me in 3 hours" – this will delay the upgrade for 3 hours. After 3 hours, the upgrade notification will appear again.

If your Set-Top box is powered off at the time of the upgrade, the next time you turn on your TV and Set-Top Box, you will receive the same notification as above.

If your TV is not being watched at the time of the upgrade but the Set Top Box is powered on, then no action is required. The download and reset will start automatically

.

 

[Dr.Dave]

Here is the upgrade list from the MTS site. You can also see screen shots and examples there.

'PAUSE LIVE TV' from any connected TV in the home
Now all set top boxes have their own LIVE TV buffer. Pause, FF and rewind live TV from any connected set top box in your home for up to 90 minutes. Also, customers can “skip” back and “skip” fwd.

Display the last 5 channels viewed by pressing the 'LAST' Button
For customers who want to go back to the last channel, press the ‘LAST’ button twice. As you scroll over the channel, the PIP will appear.

Menu options have been updated
When watching LIVE TV, press the Enter/Aspect Button and your viewing options will now appear vertically.

When you press the Guide on your MTS TV remote control, press the Enter/Aspect Button and your guide options will now appear vertically for easy access.

Set Descriptive Video permanently as your primary audio source
Now you can set descriptive video as your audio source. When a program has descriptive video it will now be the preferred audio language even when you switch channels.

Also, if the above preferred language settings are set to English, and DVS is temporarily desired once a channel is tuned to, then DVS can be set for that channel. The DVS audio is now used for this channel. However this will have to done each time the channel is tuned. If DVS is always desired as the preferred language, then the preferred language settings described above should be used.

 

[dm_4u]

With this upgrade is MTS any closer to adding one more HD stream to their lineup?

 

[Dr.Dave]

I don't know if MTS will add more streams. AT&T in the U.S. has up to 4 HD streams (depending on location) with Mediaroom 1.6.

I'd like to see more streams as well, but some of the providers that have done that have a lot of upset customers because they can't get the same number of streams as other people or they get reduced internet speed or both. MTS has a simple marketing approach - everybody can record 2HD/1SD and get 7.5 Mbps internet at the same time.

My modem syncs at 60 Mbps, so I could watch 4 HD and download at 32 Mbps at the same time (wishful thinking).

 

[Mozza]

How do you check what the modem syncs at?

I used to think I needed more than 2 HD feeds... but it's rare to need them if you timeshift.

 

[dm_4u]

I do timeshift almost every show.

However I do watch Hockey (Centre Ice) and basically all sports live every day...and with 4 HD tv's in the house...2 HD streams just wouldn't cut it.

 

[CoryB]

We are into week 2 of the upgrade period. Just wondering if anyone has received this update yet.

 

[Dr.Dave]

Reboot to update

Version 2.0.26496.3 is available. I unplugged my STBs this morning to force an update. I tried the same thing yesterday and the update wasn't there.

If you want the update right away, you should reboot all your STBs. Otherwise you can wait and you will get it automatically over the next few days.

 

[Dr.Dave]

One additional feature not mentioned on the MTS list of changes is that the progress bar is changed slightly. Each time you press the FF or REW button, you get a faster speed. The old progress bar would show up to 4 arrows to indicate the speed. The new progress bar shows arrows indicating the direction with a number up to 4 indicating the speed. The progress time is shown in light blue.

If you are fast forwarding or rewinding and want to see the bottom of the screen as you go, you can now press the EXIT button to get rid of the progress bar. This is handy if you are scanning a news crawl, stock ticker, etc.

The pause and rewind now works on all STBs. As expected, this feature reserves more space on the PVR's hard drive even when the other STB is turned off. I protect all my recordings and manually erase them as needed. Previously I was able to record new programs until my available space reached 5%. Now I can't record unless I have at least 10% available.

If you watch the same channel on 2 different TVs, they share the channel buffer. For example, if you are watching a channel on TV1, you can tune to the same channel on TV2 and rewind back to the point where TV1 started watching the channel.

I like the change to the LAST feature. You can preview the last 5 channels by using the up/down arrow buttons and switch to the one of your choice by pressing the OK button. Good for news and sports junkies when you want to switch between a handful of channels. If you want to get rid of the LAST menu immediately, just press the LAST button again.

 

[Mozza]

I wonder if you only have one STB if that extra space is still reserved...?

 

[crempel]

I came home from work, and turned on the TV. I instantly noticed how good the SD channel looked, so I flicked through them and they do appear clearer to me. Then I remembered about the mediaroom update, and sure enough my STB was updated. I checked the HD settings and everything was the same as before.
Anyone else notice the difference, or is it my imagination?

 

[merve04]

SD Channels do look better on Mediaroom as now its using mpeg4 rather than mpeg2 with hardly no difference in the amount of bandwidth being used prior to the upgrade. You should notice improvement on HD ones as well.

 

[mac2crack]

I haven't noticed any change in picture quality. One issue I am having is when a show is recording on the main t.v. changing HD channels on the other t.v.'s have a 2-3 second pause before they load picture and sound. SD channels are no problem.

 

[Lorne]

I'm noticing some sluggishness when changing channels as well.

 

[merve04]

Whats your guys upload speed out there? Cause on Telus with mediaroom 2.0x channels change instantly and I'm on a 32\3 profile

 

[Macman]

AFAIK, they haven't changed anything with the VDSL2 profiles. But i'm only 99.9% sure.

Still 35/2 profile.

 

[mac2crack]

My DL/UL on MTS DSL is 15/2.

 

[Dr.Dave]

Bug in Disk Space Management

I noticed that the disk space is getting "lost" in MR 2.0. I rebooted my STBs Saturday morning, watched live TV on the PVR and my 1 STB, recorded and deleted a few programs and watched and deleted a few old programs. I started the day with 11% available space and ended the day with 9% available and wasn't able to record. Since I hadn't added any new programs and had actually erased a few, I knew this couldn't be correct. I turned off the STB and PVR to clear the current channel buffers, which didn't help. I unplugged the PVR and STB and plugged the PVR back in. My disk space went from 9% available to 14% available which seems about right.

So far I'm not impressed with the disk space management in MR 2.0. I was able to consistently use 95% of my disk space in MR 1.6. Now I'm only able to use about 86% based on my 1 day of normal use and I don't know if I can trust my PVR to reliably record programs in the future, since I don't know how much space MR will "lose".

Personally, I'd rather have the extra 9% of disk space back (which is about 9 hours of SD programming). Pausing live TV on the extra STB isn't that important to me. For the few times I used it, I could record a program and watch the recording "live" if I wanted to pause and rewind on the STB. I know that won't change, but I hope they fix the disk space management.