How is Bell XpressVu TV?

[ollie]

I'm fed up to the point of thinking about dumping Rogers for my cable TV. Is the competitor any better? I'd be getting HD so any particular information in that regard would be appreciated.

[color:#CCCCCC]Still on hold.

[bokonon]

I sell it. Honestly, I wouldn't buy it. Your service goes out in rain, receivers get zapped in lightning and if you have a problem with your service you have to call some number that directs you to Pakistan or Dubai or somewhere like that. Bell TV sucks, to be honest.

[jaybone]

90210 still sucks.

[bouche]

When I had expressvu, i was happy with it. mind you, hacking it was a breeze. I'm not sure if you can still hack it, but it's a fun project to get working.

The only problems I had were during nasty storms, and you can even get a snow or ice build up on your dish. That's only a problem if you can't possibly get access to it.

[Basher]

Xpressvue is great. That is, until it starts to rain.

[bokonon]

P.S. Bell has re-branded. It's "Bell TV" now.

[Patchoulia]

Not even just rain...a windy day will knock it out too...basically, any inclement weather..

[Kanada Kev]

I wonder if that's due to poor installation. We've had Bell Expressvu for years now and rarely have issues at all. We have one of the first generation PVRs that still kicks ass and has had a LOT of use.

One good thing about it, is that the receivers are NOT transmitters if you don't hook up the phone line to them. This way, you can share one account with somebody else if you get an extra dish (they aren't hard to point at the satellite either). Cuts your costs dramatically

[bouche]

simple bad weather shouldn't affect it. maybe there is a shoddy cable connection somewhere.

[Jaimoe]

Almost every time it rains here at work, we lose all of our Bell ExpressVu TV signals - most would say that this isn't such a bad thing. For this reason, I won't switch from those fucking Rogers bloodsuckers to those fucking Bell weasel hackers.

[berk]

We've never had issues with reception. But yeah, customer service at Bell sucks. From what I remember, Rogers was not all that impressive to deal with either.

[jonyak]

hmm my bell sattelite has worked nonstop.

even during the big snow storm last year.

Ps: someone tell me about hacking please.

[Kanada Kev]

Ps: someone tell me about hacking please.

You used to be able to get hacked cards to insert into your receiver. However, they have "upgraded" to Nagra2 and Nagra3 cards I believe. These ones are much harder to hack, although i think they have in Europe.

It just gets to a point where it becomes more of a pain in the ass to keep up with the hacking shit than just paying a bill

[Mr. Photogeek]

In our old house (new sub-division - no trees or buildings) we had great reception. It went out once during a snowstorm, but it was easily accessible so we brushed off the snow and we were fine. When we moved downtown to a neighbourhood with lots of giant trees (like 30-40 ft plus) we have had issues...it was installed in the fall and it was fine...until it snowed and then we couldn't clean it because it was mounted so high to try to clear the trees. The summer has been pretty good, but like others, bad weather seems to affect it way more now. I am actually considering the switch to Rogers, but I am holding out until I finish school and can afford a new tv and hd programing! I believe rogers gives you an hd pvr for 2 years if you trade in your satellite or something like that. Is Rogers really that bad?

[ollie]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I'll stick with the devil I know for now. If I wasn't so addicted to HD I think I'd drop the service and just download the shows I watch.

It would be nice to see some de-regulation in the cable TV industry.

[Jaimoe]

It would be nice to see some de-regulation in the cable TV industry.

And it's getting more stringent with regulations.

How does Jennie Garth's new face look in HD?

[Booche]

Probaby similar to this:

[bokonon]

If you ever do have to call in to any of Bell's channels for customer service and would like to speak to someone who speaks english select French as your language. I know this seems counter-intuitive but you get through to the Montreal call centre. Most people in Montreal speak both languages and the people at that centre don't live in grass huts and have actually seen a satellite and the internet unlike the people at the centres you get farmed out to if you pick english. To bypass all the automated questions in French that you might not understand just hit "0" four times, you get right through to an agent. The odd time you will get an agent who only speaks French and he will transfer you to the english side. Don't do this! Just hang up and try again unless you feel like going on a fantastic voyage to Pakistan.

[bokonon]

Oh yeah, it is very easy to set up one Bell TV account at multiple locations and have it quasi-legal. Just get a dish for every place you'd like service, activate your receivers on the legal account but hook them to the secondary dishes. There are extra dishes all over the place. Then you can split the bill with someone else. Don't get greedy though, Bell will audit accounts with ten receivers.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

fiendishly clever

[bokonon]

Really though, if you have an account at your house I don't see why you shouldn't be able to use the same account at your cottage.

[Kanada Kev]

^^^^

that's what I was talking about. And the only disadvantage with that setup is that the locations that are not the one on the bill can NOT connect the phoneline to the back of the receiver. This means you can't watch instant pay per view selections. Personally, I haven't found this to be a problem whatsoever.

Bokonon I also heard that an HD receiver counts as "2" receivers toward their 10 limit??? Is that true?

Great tip on customer service though. I'll have to suggest that to a few people i know with Bell

[Kanada Kev]

Really though, if you have an account at your house I don't see why you shouldn't be able to use the same account at your cottage.

When we got our first sat receiver (Starchoice) that was exactly how they were pluggin' the service. We were at The Cottage Show at a convention centre in Toronto and both booths were set up selling their packages that way (and you could connect both accounts to the phone). So, what was OK with them while they were trying to attract new customers is now "uncool" with them

[bokonon]

Very uncool with them now!

The HD PVR counts as two receivers because you can hook two TVs up to it. One HD and on SD and they can watch two different chaennels at the same time and the remotes will work from different rooms. (They can actually work from outside too, which makes it fun to fuck with people in the house) This is perfectly okay in Bell's eyes to have two TVs on this receiver. You can hook up both tuners to one TV as well so you can do picture in picture. I have no use for this feature but then again, I have no use for TV really. I have enough porn to watch inside my imagination and in real life too!

[Kanada Kev]

Thanks for that info. It comes in handy. Makes planning for a setup in the future that much better.

So what happened to all those people with the "cottage" setup that I was talking about?? Are they grandfathered and allowed to continue, or did they get some threatening letter from Bell to start paying for 2 accounts? Curious.

Get back to your porn now