Having had a brief subscription with Cogeco's Epico Android TV service, Bell lured me to its current version. That was driven by price, my wife's frustration with the learning curve when we migrated from Bell's old hard drive PVR to Cogeco's platform and my desire for the better Internet ping, jitter and upload performance Bell currently provides in my location. I've had a couple of days of overlap between the two and observed a few differences in their TV systems worth noting. I'll post them here, in a series under this one topic, if that's allowed (some forums prevent replies to one's own post).
Because both Epico and FibeTV boxes run respective Android TV applications serving the same purpose, the remote controls have to provide much the same functionality and have much in common. But there are intriguing differences highlighted in the above image in which a control that exists on one does not on the other.
Cogeco
- On/Off and Input selection for the TV with a separate On/Off for the set top box. Bell combines On/Off for TV and STB. Bell's worked for 2 of 3 TV's but not for an old Polaroid set while Cogeco's did for all three. So we had to pull the old TV rc out of the drawer to turn it on and off. And, with Bell, we need the TV remotes to change the selected input.
- Transport controls: Jump to beginning or Previous, Stop, Next
- FILMS - never tried it but might be same as or similar to Bell's On-Demand button.
- Live TV - one click jump from anywhere to full screen of currently selected TV channel. I've not found an equivalent shortcut on Bell.
- Option - wherever a screen has options, e.g., the Guide, this button displays them and can toggle through them as can the navigation controls.
Bell
- mic LED - shows that the mic is active and flickers with the level of sound. I don't remember if Cogeco had anything on the rc, relying solely on the on-screen display.
- On-Demand - may be the same as Cogeco's FILMS.
- Apps - jumps right to the Apps screen; Cogeco requires Home > navigate to Apps. The 3x3 grid symbol is consistent with Google services.
- Crave, Prime Video - missing on Cogeco so you navigate.
- PVR - jumps to PVR screen on Recordings; on Cogeco: Home > Recordings
In Darkness
The photograph below was taken in a dimly lit room to attempt to compare the visibility of controls. I've reduced the brightness of the resulting image (cameras compensate so much) to be closer to what my eyes saw so this is a very rough approximation. I can't say that either is a clear winner. Both have tactile cues on the "5" button (both with 2 pimples) and on the Volume and Channel controls (valleys on Cogeco, end stops on Bell). The Assistant button, by virtue of its position and concavity, is easily found on both.
Having made the difficult transition between quite different technologies, I think my wife was getting comfortable with Cogeco when we switched to FibeTV and is finding this transition to be not so difficult. However, we've experienced system problems on both when she wonders how she would be able to cope taking care of it herself...
