So I saw that Best Buy (as well as Visions, London Drugs, Future Shop, etc) are having the DCS3200-M for sale for $100, so I picked one up. At the very least, to pick up the new MPEG-4 channels we can get on one of our newer boxes but not the older ones.
Two things.
1) The thing is slower than molasses in the antarctic. I thought Shaw's boxes were slow to begin with, but man these ones you can grow old without seeing a moment of TV.
2) The new guide and combined HD listings really suck - especially if you have older boxes with the old channel lineup - suddenly the channels don't line up anymore and it's confusing as well. Especially when switching between boxes.
The first I can solve thanks to third party DVRs that can be far more patient than I can be (and have their own guide listings so browsing is not so painful).
The second - I really can't. Is there any way to get back the old guide or at least the old channel lineup? Remembering that the high def channel is now back over the old SD one isn't fun, and when you switch back to the old box (which have DVRs), it just really messes you up.
Of course, if I were to guess, Shaw's doing it to force us to use the crappy DVRs versus a third party by offering screwed up guide listings, but still.
Guess I'll have to hunt for an older box with the older guides and channel lineup.
The boxes went back to the store - a sale isn't worth it given the crappy slowness and the new guide just clinched the deal. That and other little things (like no way to have the channel/clock display, either one or the other) really didn't endear me to these new boxes Shaw is putting out.
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