Tv/cable | GTAMotorcycle.com

Tv/cable

LGdrama

LGdrama

Well-known member
So I'm a "new" customer looking for TV choices. I have heard MANY stories that if you call a company you can haggle deals/prices if you say one of their competitors offered you a better price - so that's what I've been trying to do & haven't been very successful. Any ideas on how to get what I want?
What ever happened to basic tv cable with channels 1-65 for a set price - it's such a scam with all these "packages/bundles" that don't provide me with the channels I want.

Pretty much I'm looking for:

1. I would like channels 1-100 (including a&e, discovery, tlc, Hgtv,MTV, all that jazz) with 2 receivers
2. I want a free PVR for a year.

For approx.$50/month.
 
LittleSaki said:
So I'm a "new" customer looking for TV choices. I have heard MANY stories that if you call a company you can haggle deals/prices if you say one of their competitors offered you a better price - so that's what I've been trying to do & haven't been very successful. Any ideas on how to get what I want?
What ever happened to basic tv cable with channels 1-65 for a set price - it's such a scam with all these "packages/bundles" that don't provide me with the channels I want.

Pretty much I'm looking for:

1. I would like channels 1-100 (including a&e, discovery, tlc, Hgtv,MTV, all that jazz) with 2 receivers
2. I want a free PVR for a year.

For approx.$50/month.
Click to expand...

Then you don't want Bell, The only way to get basic cable channels is to buy about 7 packages that each have about 2 of 10 channels you actually want.
On the other hand I know that with the bell Hi-Def receiver you can plug a USB External drive in the back and turn the receiver into a PVR.

For $50 you might get the basic Rogers plan.
 
I would like a brand new lexus for $10k too, but it's not going to happen. You are looking for a discount of more than 50%, good luck with that.

The most affordable TV solution I have seen is splitting satellite (ie. your parents have 4 receivers and 2 dishes at their house, Bell doesn't know that half of the equipment actually lives at your house, the two families split the bill [obviously a contravention of the TOS and possibly illegal as well]). For everything you want, even this will probably be over $50/month.

Another alternative (more complicated and I don't know about the legality) is putting a remote access PVR at a friends and splitting the bill. A linux box running Myth can serve the recorded shows to boxes in your house (pretty much any DLNA client). You would use your friends cable and internet so I am not sure if this would work well or not.

There is a reason TV subscriptions are dropping quickly and people are downloading what they want to see. Aside from live events, TV is very expensive for mostly repeated content (both reruns and same content on 5 channels) that is full of commercials. The networks are starting to put full shows online, they still have commercials, but it is on demand and no monthly bill. I can't see TV as we know it surviving in the long term. I think the main reason Bell and Rogers are pushing for capped download limits is to force people to subscribe to satellite or cable as downloading hidef content with their meager download caps is not feasible. It's a dirty way to force people from a reasonably high margin product into a ridiculously high margin product.
 
GreyGhost said:
I would like a brand new lexus for $10k too, but it's not going to happen. You are looking for a discount of more than 50%, good luck with that .
Click to expand...

Considering Rogers offered me what I wanted for $69 or basic digital cable for $50. I just want it a bit cheaper as I'm on a budget + Internet is expensive too! I might just borrow basic cable from my neighbor.....

Anyone one have feedback on this FIBETV? How come it isn't in all areas?
 
I'm canceling my Rogers and going all online.

Teksavvy connection with 300gb limit is under $50/month. Most of the Canadian networks have their lineups online for free. In addition, I'm gonna pay another 8$ per month for streamingvpn.com so I can watch Hulu, which has a huge library of current and past tv.

Couple this with a cheap HTPC and torrents for movies, and I have all the bases covered without giving Rogers or Bell my money (directly, anyway)
 
Don't do what many people are doing. Purchasing and registering multiple Bell receivers and splitting the monthly bill with 2-3 friends or relatives. Paying $30-40 a month for premium packages with HD programming. This is considered dishonest and illegal. Besides, why would anyone want to screw these big corporations anyways? Especially a company such as Bell who always puts their customers interests first.
 
Ha! Don't try that trick with Shaw either... a similar 'greedy corporation' but with actually decent customer service :cool:

I actually have 2 digital box (1 HD, 1 SD) and most HD feature programming for about $40/mo taxes in (for 24 mo).

How did this happen? I called and complained about their pricing, and wanted my box rentals for free, and they gave me the 60% off deal.

I also have Rogers cable, and Rogers home phone (VOIP but with dedicated bandwidth), which I think was a term/condition of the deal.

Don't be afraid to negotiate and ask for a deal. If you're willing to bundle a cell, a home phone or an internet connection, you'll probably do even better.

I know that in the age of the internet, it's dumb to pay for home phone and TV, but... I like having everything on the remote in good quality HD (sports suffers when streamed), and I never had good call quality over VOIP.
 
Last edited:
Cable bill with Rogers is under $50 bucks a month, one HDpvr and reg HD box as part of the package.

I get Speed tv and all the other sport channels, the system never goes down so i'm happy. TBH i would pay $50 a month just for channel 569 alone, great coverage for both Soccer,Cricket and Rugby.

I think Both Bell and Rogers are giving away from HD PVR boxes right now as promotions.

PVR greatest invention in years.
 
Last edited:
I split my Rogers with some family members a few houses down. But lately the terminal has been deauthorizing randomly and now works maybe every other day. Is it even possible for them to catch on? I don't see how it's technically possible for them to differentiate houses connected to the same CO or whatever it's called.
 
I'm not sure. As far as I was aware, you could just buy and sell terminals you own.

Maybe there's impedance drops in the wiring from splicing it a bunch of times?
 
Jayv said:
Cable bill with Rogers is under $50 bucks a month, one HDpvr and reg HD box as part of the package.

I get Speed tv and all the other sport channels, the system never goes down so i'm happy. TBH i would pay $50 a month just for channel 569 alone, great coverage for both Soccer,Cricket and Rugby.

I think Both Bell and Rogers are giving away from HD PVR boxes right now as promotions.

PVR greatest invention in years.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty good deal. I get my cable through the condo. They make Rogers the exclusive TV supplier for 124 homes for x number of years. We pay $42 w/tax for all those channels and an HD box, but no PVR and no HD channels (I think, I don't use the HD box so I'm not sure).

You'd have to lock all your friends and family into Rogers for many years to get that kind of deal, I'd think.
 
honduhmatic said:
I'm not sure. As far as I was aware, you could just buy and sell terminals you own.

Maybe there's impedance drops in the wiring from splicing it a bunch of times?
Click to expand...

The way Im thinking it works is that all houses in a given small area which are serviced by the same CO (the big boxes scattered around towns and neighbourhoods) terminate into a dummy switch and no differentiation is made between the 'ports'. When you get a box they know which CO you're gonna connect it to, they know the box serial number, and the rest takes care of itself. When you need a box authorized they send the signal to the CO and it works its way to your box blindly. Anyone know the techie nerd side of this?
 
mmmnaked said:
The way Im thinking it works is that all houses in a given small area which are serviced by the same CO (the big boxes scattered around towns and neighbourhoods) terminate into a dummy switch and no differentiation is made between the 'ports'. When you get a box they know which CO you're gonna connect it to, they know the box serial number, and the rest takes care of itself. When you need a box authorized they send the signal to the CO and it works its way to your box blindly. Anyone know the techie nerd side of this?
Click to expand...

I don't, for better or worse.

It almost sounds like a 'floating licence' issue, where so many boxes are allowed per CO - and sometimes you get a connection and sometimes you don't. A little like the CAD terminals at work.

Hope it only happens when nothing good is on TV :cool:
 
JZ67 said:
buddy of mine was bragging about apple tv. I don't know **** about it, just throwing it out there.
Click to expand...

I've been asking my friends & family too & the majority were promoting this apple tv as well. Can anyone explain this service to me? I think there's a tiny box you buy but what kind of channels/regular shows can I get with it? Is it just for movies??
 
LittleSaki said:
I've been asking my friends & family too & the majority were promoting this apple tv as well. Can anyone explain this service to me? I think there's a tiny box you buy but what kind of channels/regular shows can I get with it? Is it just for movies??
Click to expand...

It puts iTunes onto your computer. That is the most basic explanation of it, although it does a few more things of course.
 
imnothng said:
It puts iTunes onto your computer. That is the most basic explanation of it, although it does a few more things of course.
Click to expand...

It doesn't load iTunes onto your computer... Off the top of my head:

- movie rentals
- Has many tv shows for purchase
- plays music from your iCloud/iTunes library
- stream photos/videos from an iTunes library or idevice
- stream music from an idevice (eg terrestrial/Internet/siriusxm radio)
 
LittleSaki said:
I've been asking my friends & family too & the majority were promoting this apple tv as well. Can anyone explain this service to me? I think there's a tiny box you buy but what kind of channels/regular shows can I get with it? Is it just for movies??
Click to expand...

Stock, the Apple TV allows you to buy or rent movies or tv show episodes, stream videos and music from itunes on your computer, netflix, and a few other little things. Where Apple TV gets good is if you jailbreak it and install XBMC, this is what your friend was talking about. With XBMC, you can stream videos of any format from your computer to the apple tv, as well as install plugins for various streams. With the plugins you can stream videos directly from the internet without having to predownload them. Icefllms was the best one, but that's not working right now because it relied on Megaupload, there are some others that work though.

If you want to play around with XBMC, you can install it on your computer and see what it's capable of.
 
Thanks y'all

I got a "fix" from kijiji for tv , which isn't costing me at this time. But I am definitely looking into apple tv especially If there is a jailbreak for it. I'm not a very law abiding citizen. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom