Feedback After Switching to Ignite TV

[bobleuz]

I recently switched to Ignite TV and internet and I’m sorry that I did.
The channel guide is terrible. It’s black and white and difficult to read. Each page only displays four lines and when you page down the last line on the previous page is repeated.
I set the guide to display only channels that are free to me but it shows dozens of channels that are not free.
The remote is a terrible design. It’s totally black and it’s difficult to see the buttons.
When you want to set the guide to a specific channel it wants you to confirm your choice.
There is a huge display at the bottom of the guide showing details of the program that the cursor is set on. It’s a huge waste of space.
The remote should have a ‘last channel’ button like my previous remote.
All in all this has been a terrible experience.
I wouldn’t recommend Ignite to anyone.
I wish I could go back to the old system.

*** Edited Labels ***

[Biollw]

Actually displays 5 lines . Yes I agree they could better utilize the screen and put more rows, maybe 2 more max.

Did you set the guide default in the settings to only subscribed channels?  I have mine set to subscribed and that's what I see.

Last channel button actually will show 9 of your last channels.

Which remote do you have? Xr15 or xr11? Sounds like you have the xr15. Xr11 is far better remote, larger and easier buttons.

"When you want to set the guide to a specific channel it wants you to confirm your choice."

Do not know what your referring to here.

[mebe]

I still have digital legacy tv, but my wonderful Nextbox 3 PVR Guide is only in black, grey and white, with a turquoise highlighter. It looks ugly, but it works well. My much older box had the option to change the colour of the Guide, but that SD box with no PVR, pales in comparison to my current PVR box.

As we get older, our vision gets worse (so some people get laser eye procedures, or pay for bionic eyes  -- perhaps now $6 million per eye).

When you use the Free-to-me Guide setting, are the listed channels that are not free, ROD movies (only the movie preview is free), or PPV channels?

My Legacy digital box Guide has an option to just see the PPV channels, but they (and the ROD movies) ALSO appear on the Guide even if I choose the Subscribed option (unless I go into the Settings to manually remove all of the Rogers On Demand movie channels or PPV channels, or even any channel that I don't want to appear on any Guide, or when I channel surf).

So if you can't get the Ignite Guide to block the Rogers On Demand Movies and PPV content, that would be annoying, but as I mentioned above, they also appear on my Nextbox 3 Subscribed Guide. However, I CAN remove them, since my Nextbox 3 lets me remove ANY channel that I don't want to appear on the Guide, or when I change channels (simply by pressing my remote's Menu button, to change the settings for displayed channels).

Many people hate the small Ignite TV remote, but there are a few other versions that some people prefer (mentioned in other threads).

As for the Last Channel button, Ignite TV instead assumes that you are flipping back and forth between up to 9 channels (perhaps because all of your cloud recording space is used up, or you simply have a very short attention span). That's why Ignite TV instead has the Last 9 feature that lets you quickly access the last 9 channels that you watched. So it's 9 times better, but might also take you 9 seconds to locate the small back arrow button that's located above the #1 on the Ignite TVremote number pad. Once you get used to it, you should be able to switch channels in less than 9 seconds.

I'm not sure if the remote's voice command function let's you say Go to last channel watched, or Show Last 9, instead of pressing the buttons, but voice commands use up more battery life, and might be even more annoying than the button presses.

Digital Legacy TV will be killed off soon enough, so try to focus on the entertaining content that you are watching, rather than letting the bad design and missing features get under your skin.

Another Ignite TV hidden feature is the ability to change the time skip increments on the two buttons that might be set to increments that you don't like. You can also use voice commands to jump back or go forward by the specific amount of time that you speak into the microphone on the remote.

Mic drop ... Time to get a better remote.

[bobleuz]

I set the guide to display ‘Free to me’ but it shows dozens of channels that I must subscribe to in order to watch. I’m sure this is a marketing ploy by Rogers to entice me to purchase more channels. It’s not gonna happen. I’m wasting my time scrolling through the guide looking at channels I don’t receive.
I’ve started to build my favourites so I can avoid excessive scrolling but that’s time consuming.
I have the remote that was sent to me. If there’s a better one why wasn’t it sent???
When I select a. Channel to go to in the guide a window pops up to show what channel I’ve selected and I have to push the button again.
I know what channel I’ve selected so the guide should just go there.
I hate this system snd am seriously considering a switch to Bell

[bobleuz]

You’re wrong. The guide displays FOUR lines.

[57]

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@bobleuz wrote:

1. I set the guide to display ‘Free to me’ but it shows dozens of channels that I must subscribe to 
2. I’ve started to build my favourites so I can avoid excessive scrolling but that’s time consuming.
3. I have the remote that was sent to me. If there’s a better one why wasn’t it sent???
4. When I select a. Channel to go to in the guide a window pops up to show what channel I’ve selected and I have to push the button again.
I know what channel I’ve selected so the guide should just go there.
5. I hate this system snd am seriously considering a switch to Bell

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1. Are you sure you see "Free to Me" at the top left of the guide screen?  I don't see any channels that I can't watch on my "Free to Me" guide.

2. It's a lot quicker to add favourites using the app or browser.

3. The "better" remote was an older model.   Now that I'm used to it, I don't really mind the "newer" one.  The remote is backlit though, so it's easier to use in a darkened room.  After using the remote for a while muscle memory will take over and there is little need to look at it.

4. The reason that you get a popup is because you are then provided options to go to, whether it's in the guide, or simply changing channels for viewing.  This is similar to the "last" feature which also gives you options. Yes, you are required to press "confirm" because of this "feature".  Some people like it - others don't.  You quickly get used to pressing the confirm button when you work in this manner.

4a. When switching channels for viewing you may wish to use the voice command. For example say "CBC" and you're taken directly to that channel.  

4b. I thought I'd not use the voice commands, but it's very handy in some instances - for example to skip ahead a certain time, to find specific programming or actors or programmes, etc.

5. Bell HD channels are only 720p, so the picture quality is not that great.  The Ignite TV PQ is excellent.  Every provider and platform has plusses and minuses. I suggest you give it a few days and experiment with the many Ignite TV features  that are superior to Legacy Digital Cable or Bell Fibe.

Other. 

6. You may wish to experiment with the transparency of the guide in the settings. This may make the print clearer if you select less transparent.

7. I don't know why page down in the guide leaves one previous channel. 

[57]

My Guide displays 5 channels at a time.  If you page down, one channel from the previous selection "stays".

If you have a guide that only displays 4 channels at a time on your TV, please post a photo.

Also, give the app or the web browser a try. A lot more channels are displayed there and certain functionality is a lot better there.  On the App on my iPad I can see 12 channels at a time and on my browser I can see 11 channels.  The number of channels displayed may depend on the device and/or device settings for font size and/or screen size.

[bobleuz]

I give up.
This system is too difficult to navigate.
I’m going to Bell.

[jays77]

I'm still on cable but reading theses forums it does seem like a steep learning curve and lot of work just to get the news broadcasts and a couple hours of entertainment..  

[Biollw]

It is easy. Can you speak? press the voice button and say what you want. 

"NetFlix"; "Prime Video";"channel 245"; "Fox";"Blue Jays";"Pearl Harbour";"schedule"

can't get any easier than that.

Good Luck.

[57]

...some people don't like change, any change...  It's actually a good thing to exercise your brain with new things.

Going to Bell is going to mean learning a whole new operating system, unless you were with them before.  Bell is certainly not any more customer focused than Rogers, probably even worse and the fact that Fibe and Bell Sat is 720P instead of 1080P for HD channels is a big difference in picture quality.

People should look forward to some of the changes in life as fun or an opportunity to discover new ways, but there are all kinds of people and I'm willing to accept that some will never be "happy".  If someone wants something, they usually make an effort to learn new things, like cell phones, different apps, etc.

[jays77]

And yet these forums are filled with posts by people who are more tech savvy than me having problems.

I'm sure when forced to we will likely switch but it will be confusing for a bit, and with three adults with three different viewing interest probably more expensive to have close to the choices we have now.  

[jays77]

I've gone from an antennae with 8-10 black and white channels to  colour TV, then cable and now digital. I imagine I'll get it figured out over time.  

[roycer1]

100 % agree. Old way was better 

[Datalink]

You can still use an antenna to receive digital broadcasts and probably end up with better resolution and colour reproduction compared to any cable system feed, after it goes thru all of its compression and processing. 

[stardust403]

I'm with you. I hate everything about it .Starting from the design of the remote. When I want to record it decides which channel it records on or doesn't. When I chose a channel and time I expect it to record that specific channel and time. There are at least another 5-10 things I hate.  If I had a choice I would take my Gateway back. Thought things were supposed to get simpler with technology. I have to Google how to do just about everything and I have had the ignite for 4 months now.

[mebe]

I think of the IgniteTV cloud-recording system as being too fancy for its own good ... simply because the programmers have left in too many bugs, and made too many bad decisions, making it look like they never watch TV at all).

If Digital legacy TV is a single scoop of ice cream on a cone, than IgniteTV is a double scoop (with sprinkles) that is loosely packed, and thus the top scoop keeps falling to the ground and then you have to clean up the mess.

The thing I would do first, if I just switched to IgniteTV, would be to throw away the top scoop of Ignite ice cream, and just lick the one scoop ... Which means I would delete all of my fancy scheduled recordings, and then make sure to only use the IgniteTV Guide to make scheduled recordings on the specific channels and times I want to record. Once I witness the recording bugs and oddities (like not being allowed to record the same show twice, even if on different channels), I would then use the workarounds mentioned in these forums.

Once I mastered the basics, I would try some of the fancier settings (like this time only setting that will fail - unless you use the workaround to limit the number of recordings).

There are several things that IgniteTV does, that I wish digital legacy would offer, but since there are just too many overall IPTV irritants that I'd rather not bother dealing with, I'm ready to retire once legacy tv dies in my area.

[ChuckTO]

you are so right: this ignite TV is a much poor service interface than the PVR cable interface. It is much slower to switch between channels. The channel lineup is difficult to read. The programming of recorded channels is awkward.
I can no longer have two channels at the same time either. I’m sure I’m forgetting more. I wish I looked at this community forum before I did the switch. I totally regret it.
Staff on the phone should actually tell us like when you get a new drug. What are the side effects instead of just saying oh yes, it’s amazing. It is so misleading and dishonest.
The remote control is really hard to press and not backlit. Yes, the voice control is probably the only better feature.
Last I find the so cold “resident expert” additional replies, totally derogatory and more like it disguised salesperson, please don’t bother on this one thank
Just had the service for 12 hours and also regretting I switched.
I’m definitely considering switching over to Bell. Or simply cutting cable.

[ChuckTO]

blah blah blah. You sound like the world is perfect and this service is the best in the world. You could acknowledge some of his shortcomings instead of sounding so dear Agathe to the original post.

[ChuckTO]

yep, I’m considering doing the exact same thing. This user interface on the new ignite TV is absolutely terrible and there should be a document warning users when they switch. Misleading sales technique.

[ChuckTO]

just don’t switch. Stay on the original digital cable, much better interface, and much faster response time.