Monthly Archives: July 2013

Apps

Shaw On Demand Search App

Ever wanted to figure out what you should watch when you get home before you get there? With the Shaw On Demand Search app, you can do just that. Whether you’re waiting for the bus or on the train, you can browse our entire Shaw Direct On Demand library from the comfort of your mobile device, and even order your pick so it’s ready to go as soon as you get home.

The app is currently available for Apple iOS devices and Android, so you can get it for your iPhone 3GS and up, your iPad 2 or the new iPad, on any iPod Touch device, and any Android device with version 2.2 and up. You can download it for free from Apple here, and from Google app store for Android here.

sod01When you launch the app, you’ll be taken to a login page with three different options; the first two (“Email” and “Customer Centre”) are for Shaw customers, while the third (“Shaw Direct”) is the one you’ll want to tap on. To login, you need to ensure that you’ve already registered for an online ShawDirect.ca account. You’ll also need to know the password that you used for the online account, as well as your account number.

sod02Once you’ve entered this information and the login has been completed, you’ll automatically be taken to the main “Movies” page, which allows you to browse the listings in several different ways, including by genre, by newest release, and by the most popular titles. Pricing for these titles ranges from free up to $6.99 (taxes extra).

One of the browsing options that we liked was “All Movies,” which takes you to a master list of all available movie titles. The cool thing about this is that you can alter the results by tapping on “Sort” in the top-right corner. Here, you can choose to sort alphabetically by title, by the year of release, by the star rating,  by popularity, and by the date the title was added to our library, which is great if you’re not entirely sure what you’d like to watch yet. You can also choose to only have the app display movies that are available in HD.

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The icons along the bottom of the screen will take you to the other areas of Shaw Direct On Demand listings, including “Movies,” “TV,” “Subscription,”, “Search,” and “More.”

Tapping on “TV” will show you all of the On Demand titles offered by a variety of broadcasters; the titles will be broken up by the different channels, and the content listed here will be available at no charge as long as you have a subscription to the channel.

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sod04Speaking of subscription, the “Subscription” section will list premium channels such as Movie Central or The Movie Network. If you have a subscription to one of the premium channels, you’ll receive On Demand content from that channel at no cost.

“Search” allows you to look for listings by their title, by the name of one of the listed actors, or by the director’s name.

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sod11“More” provides you with the option to view titles that you’d like to watch in future (“Wishlist”), your current orders, settings (including changing your preferred language), general help, and allows you to search for content based on a specific language (“Multicultural”). You can also sign out of your account through here.

To order a title, tap on the listing, which will take you to a description of it. At the bottom of the description, there is a blue icon that says “Order Now”; tap this to choose your format (SD or HD), and then tap “Complete Order.” When the order is successful, you’ll be taken to a screen with instructions on how to watch the title once you’re settled in front of your receiver.

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If you’d rather just add the title to your wishlist, you can do that too. Just to the left of the “Order Now” icon is a small heart icon. Simply tap on this, and the title will appear in your wishlist to be ordered at a later date.

One thing to bear in mind with this app is that you are only able to search titles and remotely order them; it does not stream video.

Any questions about the Shaw On Demand Search app? Don’t hesitate to ask us in the comments below.

*rg

Technical Tips

Descriptive Video Services

dvsMany of you will have seen the icon to the right before, but what does it mean?

This icon denotes a program that offers Descriptive Video Service, also known as DVS. Descriptive video means that certain programs feature an extra audio track where a narrator explains what actions are happening on the screen. This is an extremely important feature as it ensures accessibility for persons with visual impairments.

So, how do you enable or disable this audio track on your Advanced 600-Series receiver?

There are two different ways that DVS can be enabled or disabled:

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The first way that this can be done is by pressing OPTIONS on the bottom right-hand corner of your remote, and then pressing 4 for “System Settings,” and then 1 for “user Settings.” Use the arrow keys to navigate the options to the left. Highlight “On” under “Descriptive Video,” and then press ENTER. Using the arrow keys, navigate back over to “Save” and press ENTER. To disable DVS, simply follow the above instructions, but highlight “Off” under “Descriptive Video.”

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The other option for enabling DVS is a great shortcut that takes a couple of seconds to complete. Start by pressing the HELP button on the bottom left-hand corner of the remote, and then press the D button, which is the bottom of the four round buttons between the volume control and channel up/channel down buttons. Once this is complete, you’ll hear DVS on any show that offers it. To disable DVS using this method, just follow the same steps by pressing HELP, D.

One thing to bear in mind is that if DVS is enabled during a program that does not offer a descriptive video track, you may experience a complete audio drop out and hear nothing at all. If this is the case, try disabling DVS temporarily, or try a channel that is currently airing DVS programming.

If you have any questions about DVS, or anything else, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below!

*rg

Technical Tips

Smart Recording

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If you have an Advanced HDPVR 630, you may have heard of “smart recording.” But what exactly is it?

By using smart recording, your PVR will automatically look for the earliest airing of a program that matches your event criteria. So, if you’ve said that you only want to record new HD episodes of Elementary, your PVR will go through the listings and find the first scheduled showing of a new episode, in HD only.

You can also set priority levels for each show that you set reoccurring recordings for, so when your PVR is scheduling its recordings, it will start with the highest priority shows first, and work its way down. This customisation ensures that exactly what you expect to see recorded will be waiting for you in your PVR list.

In the event of a recording conflict, your PVR will adjust to find a different time to record a show that is set to smart record in order to resolve the conflict. It’s like a referee for your TV. Creating smart recording events allows your PVR to have the maximum flexibility so it can work to record as much content as possible.

Recording conflicts will occur when there are more recordings scheduled than tuners available.  The Advanced HDPVR 630 can record up to two programs at the same time as it has two available tuners.

If there were three recordings scheduled manually through the guide at the same time, there will be a recording conflict and only two shows will wind up being recorded.

By using smart recordings, the PVR will find an alternate time for the show with the lowest priority. How can you tell what has the lowest priority without customising this? As a rule, the PVR will choose the shows on the two lowest channel numbers. So, if you had manually scheduled recordings for shows on channels 12, 36, and 43, if you did not adjust the priority settings, the shows on channels 12 and 36 would be recorded.

Here is how you can schedule a smart recording for a reoccurring series on your Advanced HDPVR 630:

1. Press the GUIDE button on your remote and find the program you would like to record.

2. Highlight the program in question, and press ENTER/OK. This will bring up the “Program Options” menu.

3. Press the DOWN arrow button and highlight either “Smart record new episodes” or “Smart record all episodes” and then press ENTER/OK. The recording will now schedule. If you are recording a show that is no longer being made, you would be best to record all episodes, whereas if you are recording a show that is still in production and have seen past episodes, it may be best to record new episodes.

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Next, you can edit the settings for your scheduled recordings:

1. Press EXIT to close the guide, and then press MENU. This will bring up a menu bar along the bottom of your screen.

2. Press the RIGHT arrow button and highlight “PVR.” Press ENTER/OK.

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3. Press the RIGHT arrow button and highlight “Options,” then press ENTER/OK. This will take you into a list containing all of the programs that you have scheduled to record.

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recordings4. Find the one you would like to edit, highlight it by pressing either the UP or DOWN arrow button, and press ENTER/OK. This will bring up the “Edit Recording Event” menu.

5. From this menu, you can change the priority, delete the recording event, change the recording recurrence, select a channel you would like to record the program on, and more. Changing the priority will mark how important the show is to you in terms of scheduling (as discussed earlier). Recurrence changes between recording all episodes or new ones.

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If you have any questions about smart recordings, don’t hesitate to ask us!

*rg