Telus Optik TV Review - Optik TV Review Part 3 - Vancouver BC

Why is bad about Telus Optik TV?

It was easy to write about all the great things that Telus Optik TV offers. Coming up with the bad isn't so easy. I'll do my best to come up with an accurate list of issues with Telus Optik TV and be assured that I will update this page with cons as I discover more frustrations with Optik TV.

Reason 1 Why Telus Optik TV isn't so great:

If you have profile 1 you aren't able to watch and view different HD channels at the same time. Profile 1 is certainly not geared to the multiple HD TV home.

Reason 2 Why Telus Optik TV isn't so great:

Know of the Microsoft blue screen of death? Well with Telus Optik TV, when you use over your allowable HD feeds at the same time, one person will get a black screen with the text "all available HD resources are in use". The Telus Optik TV BSOD is about equal to the Windows BSOD depending on how unlucky you are. So how this works is whatever you were watching is no longer there and until you either cancel the recording or you tell the person on your second TV to get off of their HD channel, you will not be able to view your program.

Personal experience? This happened during the Canucks playoff overtime game. Was I happy? Think opposite of happy and then times that emotion by about 10. I'm on profile 2 and a third HD feed is not allowed.

Reason 3 Why Telus Optik TV isn't so great:

Again I need to talk about profiles. Sorry folks! If you won't have Telus internet along side Telus Optik TV then perhaps this won't be an issue to you. It's a bit technical and I'm not sure if having a seperate internet service or package outside of Optik TV will be affected by your TV viewing habits.

The bottom line is this. The bandwidth or speed into your home from Telus Optik TV is like water pressure. HD TV channels use a lot of that "water pressure". If you use 2 HD TV feeds at one time, it most likely will affect your internet download speed. I can say for me, 2 HD channels on at the same time drops my internet speed. A big deal? Not really actually. The reason it's not a big deal to me is because I get extremely fast downloads which are unaffected so long as 1 HD channel is being used. I don't even think about it actually. If you're downloading files or streaming HD content, sure it can slow that down. Regular internet usage will be unchanged even with the 2 HD TV feeds being used. Website content can only load so fast!

Just be aware. At least you have control over your HD channels and can decide whether you really need that super fast download speed.

Reason 4 Why Telus Optik TV isn't so great:

This con is perhaps a non issue for yourself, so that it for what it is. I do not like SD TV channels showing up in my guide when I have the same channel in HD TV. When you have hundreds of channels, or even around one hundred channels, scrolling through TV channels you will never watch is a pain. To fix this you need to painfully edit, or shall I say untick those undesirable TV stations from showing up in the guide. This takes a while and could clock you about 30-45 minutes depending on your remote skills. Just be sure to save! There is just too much clutter, like the international TV station and radio stations that make surfing the guide a real pain. If there is an easier way, I'm all ears. Let me know about it. I was told by the tech this is the way to do it. With this said, Telus does update the software on a regular basis with improvements so perhaps there will be a much quicker method of customizing your guide.

Reason 5 Why Telus Optik TV isn't so great:

This isn't so much a knock on the Telus Optik TV experience which is why I leave this for last. I just think the billing and pricing is very confusing for Telus Optik TV especially if you're like me with internet and phone sevice part of the package. How do you know what you originally agreed to price wise? Is it easy to know when prices have changed? Is it easy to figure out? Not in my opinion.

Certainly not a deal breaker but it's important because of this. If you get a special deal or something similar you may get confused when it ended or if that deal was even honored in the first place. My advice is to write everything down at the time of signing up. And I mean write it all down and keep it somewhere to reference later. If you get a fixed price, make sure you know the start and end date of that.

(adding content...please be patient. Updating August 2011 and in the days following)