Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 hey folks, i'm moving back to Ottawa at the end of the month and trying to figure out what the best options are for internet providers, TV, and phone. I want to avoid Bell and Rogers. I'm leaning towards TekSavvy for internet and phone. trying to figure out the best plan is. Does anybody have experience with their DSL and/or cable internet services? i.e. which is better (more reliable, faster, etc). Anybody have any issues with their phone service?And if I plan to subscribe to Netflix and i do my share of DLing torrents is 300 GB a month enough (I have no idea how much bandwidth Netflix uses)?while we're at it, does anybody have any experience using a Roku box in Canada? anything that I need to know there? I'm thinking if getting my Netflix through them. and possible MLB. still deciding on whether I want regular TV service. leaning towards a Shaw dish for TV. looks like I can get, at least, the local stations for free for a couple of months. thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Distributel has cheap, unthrottled, unlimited DSL or cable Internet and comes with home phone with all the bells and whistles and either free or 2 cents/minute long distance. I have the highest speed DSL and home phone and pay $60/month. Don't know about Roku but I use a Western Digital Live Hub for my media streaming / storage etc and they have Netflix and MLB on that box too. The other versions of the WD streaming box don't have storage like the Hub does and therefore are half the price. Never had an issue in 3 years of use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 I've heard that Roku is on par with Apple TV. I have the latter and love it. Something I read about Roku most recently was to wait for Roku 3 which is out in US but not in Canada yet.I've also read really good things about internet and voice from http://acanac.ca and I believe they've launched IPTV service on the cheap too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Apple TV is great if you want to organize all your media in iTunes and be severely restricted in terms of media formats / codecs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 My reaction reading AD's reply: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Apple TV is great if you want to organize all your media in iTunes and be severely restricted in terms of media formats / codecs. I haven't experienced any restrictions. I have no problems with iTunes either. Format conversion is what Handbrake is for. The biggest advantage for roku is having a slot to plop in media, but it's restricted to MicroSD. Not sure why USB 3.0 isn't on everything these days.A bonus with Apple TV only benefits if you have iphone/ipad/macbook. Airplay. It's a snap to instantly throw stuff up on the tv from the device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 If you haven't experienced any format restrictions why would you need to convert stuff with Handbrake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 bouche upon reading AD's reply: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 If you haven't experienced any format restrictions why would you need to convert stuff with Handbrake?bias much?most files are already mp4/m4v already. just need to convert avi's and mkv's. i believe one needs to convert avi's for playback on Roku as well. we'll always need to convert something for every device. nothing is perfect, not even for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 thanks for all the info. i've done some further research based on what i've read here.Bouche: re the Roku - the MicroSD slot is only for storing more channels or games. the Roku 3 does have a USB hub for playing stored content. but you need to subscribe to a specific station, and it only supports limited formats.So, the it looks like WD is the way to go for both streaming AND playing my own content (that I may, or may not have DLd via torrent). AD: It looks like Distributel only offers the one seed of DSL. they do offer faster cable, but I'm not sure that it's necessary. and no throttling sounds nice. (I've been getting such fast speeds in France anytime of day which has been real nice.)any reason why I'd opt for DSL over cable? what's the difference? (acanac does have good deals, but there seem to be some very disgruntled customers out there.) (of course i just found a bunch of people unhappy with Distributel. I guess it happens with all of them. consensus seems to be that Teksavvy is getting worse and Distributel is getting better. until i found all these people recently pissed off with the latter.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 I'm not biased against Apple TV at all, I just think other devices perform better and without the need for conversions. One such device is the WD series. You can plug in USB devices, create themes, store content on the box, stream from services, it'll play pretty much anything you throw at it without conversions, and if you don't want to be hooked up to iTunes you don't have to be. Just compare the specs and reviews. I use plenty of Apple products but don't think Apple TV comes close to the WD Live. Interface is marginally better but that's it. Re Distributel - what do you mean about seeds of DSL? I was given 3 speed options when I signed up. Is that what it refers to? Or maybe it was bandwidth. I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 oops - i meant speed. they only offer one speed (bandwidth) now for DSL: DSL 6 (6 Mbps) @ $36.95/month. for cable they also offer 25 Mbps for $51.95 and 35Mbps for $59.95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 If you're already an Apple household and you use iTunes to manage your media, Apple TV would be perfect. If you already use iTunes for music it might be worth it to do some video conversions to have that interface for your music on your TV. But if you're looking for great video box with other media on the side, you'd do good to consider the Boxee Box or WD Live / Live Hub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) no Apple household here. Apple TV would be the obvious choice if that were the case. i need to get caught up with the new technology. fuck - my TV isn't even HD (or flat). When moving fron the States back to Canada, in 2001 I bought, a nice new Sony Wega. it become outdated very quickly. Edited August 23, 2013 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 no Apple household here. Apple TV would be the obvious choice if that were the case. i need to get caught up with the new technology. fuck - my TV isn't even HD (or flat). When moving fron the States back to Canada, in 2001 I bought, a nice new Sony Wega. it become outdated very quickly. My anti-apple-bias detector must be defective. I'd better check to see if there's an update in the app store I didn't see the USB spec for the Roku. They seem to have a few products and not all of them have USB support. WD Live does look pretty impressive. Good life-span out of that TV. The upgrade is going to be huge and shouldn't cost much considering prices these days. Who even bothers with 3D panels? Just curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 I'm not anti-Apple at all. i just generally get a good laptop and a blackberry from work. otherwise i'd probably have already gone the Apple route. I like the compatibility b/w all their products. Can't stand the incompatibility with other products though (but hey - that makes sense). hey - they make good, dependable products. not sure how fast i'll be doing that TV upgrade. not sure the budget can handle it right now. And if I do it I want to get something bigger screen-wise. twelve years really shouldn't be that old for a TV. but it was dated by like, 2005 given how fast things changed. Roku 3 has USB, but only HDMI output, so WD Live looks like the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 My Apple-fanboy detector is working just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 I'm not anti-Apple at all. I didn't mean anything you posted. I responded to too many things with one post so I shouldn't have quoted. I was just referring to my previous response to AD. I was mistaking his response to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 My Apple-fanboy detector is working just fine. says the guy who's probably wearing something Habs related right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted August 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 don't want to get b/w brotherly love here, but...a have a couple of questions:any advice re DSL vs. cable? is one better than the other? more reliable? is 6 Mbps fast enough for streaming Netflix, etc? and DLing torrents? or will it be too slow if both are happening at the same time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 I've only ever had DSL when it comes to high speed internet. While it might technically be slower than cable I've never had any problems with streaming et al. I'd prioritize the difference pretty low in terms of a deciding factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau. Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 (edited) is 6 Mbps fast enough for streaming Netflix, etc? and DLing torrents? or will it be too slow if both are happening at the same time? When I had 7 Mbps cable I could stream netflix & dl torrents no problem, and still got a more then acceptable DL speed (450-700 kbs). Although, I did have to turn off HD streaming on netflix as I found the audio would fall out of sync on occasion. The only time I saw any real issues was playing a game online (on PC or xbox) and trying to torrent, (game lag, slow dl etc).I've never had DSL so I can't comment on which might be better. Edited August 24, 2013 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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