Canadian TV Providers

[westmanguy]

I am very interested in the TV industry in general and want to know who has what company as their provider, and what their impression is:

Vote in the poll for your provider:

And do a review, like mine if you want!:

Bell ExpressVu

Programming

I am in Manitoba and have no Rogers, so since my purchase of a HDTV, Bell ExpressVu has the biggest selection of HD programming for me... only channels they are missing are:

SunTV Toronto-HD
OMNI 1 Toronto-HD
OMNI 2 Toronto-HD
The Score-HD/WS
National Geographic-HD
Showcase-HD

I don't care about the top 4 but I would like NG-HD and SC-HD..

I have 6 theme groups and am very satisfied with the specialty channels I am getting... I am not a fan of MSNBC, but I would have liked it available to me, but its not available.

I get NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX/PBS from BOTH Seattle and Boston, I get the Superstations (CW-WGN Chicago/CW-WPIX New York/TBS-WTBS Atlanta/TV38-WSBK Boston/CW-KTLA Los Angles), and I get tons of Canadian networks for timeshifting and differing schedules.

Overall very happy with the programming offered to me.

9/10 for Programming

Hardware

I have a 9200-HD PVR from ExpressVu, and its the #1 PVR in Canada, I can record 180 hours of digital tv and 25 hours of HDTV. Very handy, and it has a great design.

ExpressVu also has the best On-Screen Guide in the nation (also have a 4100 Regular receiver), I tells me the episode number, original airdate, if its new or re-run, detailed info with actors + synopsis, star rating, content rating, HD programs labelled, correct star and end times (9:01, or 10:01 correct beginnings and endings), and channel goes in little box in corner, I can set it for 4 favorite lists, an "all-subcribed channels" list, and "all channels" list. Only downsides are, sports movies, and series don't have different backgrounds, and only 48 hours listings.

Anyways their hardware is able to be rented to, which I really like.

So 9/10 there

Customer Serivce/Billing

Sorry Bell! Your pathetic here... When I signed up in Dec. it took 2 months to get the bill right, and when I get a PPV credit it doesn't show up until 2 months later.

All their CSRs have thick accents and are not very knoledgable... so, its ok, they are good with offering discounts for sub-service, but thats only good if they get it added right...

So here 5/10

Installation/Service Calls

Unlike the cable company they contract out middle men, and me being in a rural area - it was an awful installation, took 3 appointments to get it right.

So... 4/10

I usually put hardware and programming above everything else, so my overall rating is 8/10

You?

 

[DurkaDurka]

I have a Bell ExpressVu 9200 and 3 4100's. Bell offers some pretty good HD programming, superior to the competition in my opinion, in both quality and quantity.

 

[hermanntrude]

I don't have a TV. i download everything i watch :0) it's better that way

 

[DurkaDurka]

I don't have a TV. i download everything i watch :0) it's better that way

I used to do that until I got a PVR, now I just record all the shows I want and watch them when I want.

You download your shows via Bittorrent I assume?

 

[hermanntrude]

i use torrent files and the program i use is called azureus. I used bittorent but one day was looking through my list of peers and noticed all the good fast connections were with people using azureus. so i changed.

sorry for the apparent advertising. honest opinion only.

 

[DurkaDurka]

i use torrent files and the program i use is called azureus. I used bittorent but one day was looking through my list of peers and noticed all the good fast connections were with people using azureus. so i changed.

sorry for the apparent advertising. honest opinion only.

hey, whatever works for you. I have always used bittornado, works pretty good for the most part.

 

[hermanntrude]

shaw still havent picked up on the fact i'm using nearly ten times my download limit. or if they have they dont care.

 

[talloola]

I have Bell ExPressVu, and I am very happy with it.

One receiver has record on it, and the other one is HD.

I have lots of different packages, as well as NHL Center Ice, which we love.

I can call Tech Support any time, have learned lots from them,they are great, I can do my own fixing most of the time now.

Wouldn't change a thing.

 

[snfu73]

We have shaw...we're happy with it. They seems good...have had little trouble. We looked at Telus...and liked the aspect of picking your own channels...but it seemed so complicated, and we would still get stuck with a pile of channels we didn't want...and it seemed way more expensive. So...shaw it is.

 

[DurkaDurka]

I have Bell ExPressVu, and I am very happy with it.

One receiver has record on it, and the other one is HD.

I have lots of different packages, as well as NHL Center Ice, which we love.

I can call Tech Support any time, have learned lots from them,they are great, I can do my own fixing most of the time now.

Wouldn't change a thing.

Do you ever use the NHL MultiView on channel 420? It allows you to watch up to 6 games at the same time.

 

[westmanguy]

Is that the iTV feature?

The thing I HATE about ExpressVu is simsubbing.

For technically challenged:

eg.

Your sitting down to watch a nice evening of American Idol in HD. You tune into FOX-HD. You watch the first 5 minutes then the screen goes black, the picture breaks up, and then CTV-HD takes over, and all your commercials are Canadian, and you later have it return to digital, then you miss scenes from the next episode.

CTV is OK, but Global is awful...

I pay for CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX, so let me darn well watch the feed UN-ALTERED!!!

 

[talloola]

Do you ever use the NHL MultiView on channel 420? It allows you to watch up to 6 games at the same time.

I click onto it once in awhile, but not to actually watch games. I will watch intermission interviews,
and chats, while watching to see when other games are going to start. Screens are too small,
I want one game at a time, on my 60" TV HD, as they are fabulous, except for Sportsnet, who don't
have HD yet, for hockey games, hope they do it soon.

 

[talloola]

Is that the iTV feature?

The thing I HATE about ExpressVu is simsubbing.

For technically challenged:

eg.

Your sitting down to watch a nice evening of American Idol in HD. You tune into FOX-HD. You watch the first 5 minutes then the screen goes black, the picture breaks up, and then CTV-HD takes over, and all your commercials are Canadian, and you later have it return to digital, then you miss scenes from the next episode.

CTV is OK, but Global is awful...

I pay for CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX, so let me darn well watch the feed UN-ALTERED!!!

I've not had that problem, but I don't watch sit coms, or american idol, or reality shows, I'm a
movie lover, sports,biographys,documentaries, CNN/FOX, but I am tiring of both of them, as
the repitition of "their own" slant on things is becoming very tiring, especially FOX. I love old
western shows, (not all) and movies, so I watch Lonestar, and I love CSI, and other such shows
like them, and Seinfeld reruns.

 

[westmanguy]

You don't watch Network TV?

If you watch CSI you know what its like when CTV takes over...b

 

[unspoken]

We have shaw...we're happy with it. They seems good...have had little trouble. We looked at Telus...and liked the aspect of picking your own channels...but it seemed so complicated, and we would still get stuck with a pile of channels we didn't want...and it seemed way more expensive. So...shaw it is.

I used to work for Telus (quit while the testing phase of TV was going on in Calgary and Edmonton) and the difference really isn't that much. Sasktel has had a service pretty much exactly like it for years now too. The difference in packages is that they go by "Theme Packs" instead of Tiers. But the majority of people still say that they pay for a theme pack of 6 to 8 channels and watch only 2 or 3 of them, so the ability to completely pick your own channels is not true. The biggest drawback to these systems too is that due to bandwith constraints on the phone line, you can only have 2 TV's hooked up in your house, and each one has to have a seperate box(although they were working to make it capable to 3 TVs). Theoretically you could use a splitter and hook up two TV's to one box, but both TV's would have to watch the same channel and you'd have to leave the room to change the channel on one of the TVs.

For me I have Shaw. I have the occasional problem but it gets resolved pretty quickly. I don't know if I'd want to go to any dish system due to bad weather making it more difficult to get good reception, and I wouldn't go to either of the phone line based systems(Telus or Sasktel) due to the fact that you cannot order Pay Per View events on them, and I'd go crazy without my monthly UFC/Pride/Other MMA pay per views. Shaw also recently got The Fight Network so I'm pretty much set.

 

[unspoken]

Is that the iTV feature?

The thing I HATE about ExpressVu is simsubbing.

For technically challenged:

eg.

Your sitting down to watch a nice evening of American Idol in HD. You tune into FOX-HD. You watch the first 5 minutes then the screen goes black, the picture breaks up, and then CTV-HD takes over, and all your commercials are Canadian, and you later have it return to digital, then you miss scenes from the next episode.

CTV is OK, but Global is awful...

I pay for CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX, so let me darn well watch the feed UN-ALTERED!!!

I hate that too, especially on the day of the Super Bowl. It also angers me when I don't get to see scenes from the next episode of 24 on Global because they don't show them and would rather promo the show that starts immediately after the credits are over.

It's not a Bell thing though, it's a CRTC regulatory thing so that the Canadian networks can jack up their ad prices because more people see them.

 

[Air Advocate]

i had rogers

What a joke this company is not on the top of my list for customer service that’s for sure, all they want is your money, i was late paying my bill once and they disconnected me i paid them the 25 dollar reconnection fee and the next week got disconnected again now they wanted 75 dollar this pissed me off so much. Now i do not have any cable and you know what its not much different i just can't watch the same show three times a day in the different time zones. What a joke there cable packages offering so many channels mean while it’s just the same channel in different parts of the country.

How do you do these survey things?

 

[Air Advocate]

what do you think of the free to air satelite dish system any one got one yet?

 

[MsMiller604]

Shaw vs Novus, 10 Bucks Special

[FONT=&quot]Picking the best cable provider is hard - figuring out who can offer you the best deal, even harder. I wanted to pass on information about some recent predatory pricing tactics being used by Shaw Communications in Vancouver against a small downtown provider, Novus Entertainment. Shaw is currently offering only Novus clients a completely under-cut deal for a year of internet, digital cable and high speed internet, just to steal our customers and put us out of business. We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic … check out http://www.10buckstoo.com, sign the petition and vote and check out Search Names: i hate shaw | Facebook . Consumers need to be made aware of what is going on, if we allow for large companies to take over, this will take away a consumers rights for choice.[/FONT]

 

[Ron in Regina]

Ms. Miller...would you consider your two identical posts on different Threads as SPAM?

If you worked for a Marketing company, I'd almost think you where using this Forum for
Marketing Purposes. Would I be wrong in that assumption?