Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

OTA on BELL Receivers Without BTV Subscription?

73K views 143 replies 34 participants last post by  heans 
#1 ·
I have three 6141 Bell receivers that I own. They have OTA tuners, in addition to the satellite tuner. At my location in Toronto I can receive a total of 25 OTA digital channels. I am planning to cancel my Bell TV basic subscription.

My question is: would my 6141 receivers still be able to receive OTA signals if I cancel my Bell TV subscription? (I will leave the LNBs connected to avoid getting the acquiring satellite signal message.)

Thanks.
 
#59 ·
Anomaly?

jdevlin, I think that your 9200 receiving the free previews is an anomaly. I had 3 6100`s and a 9200 that stopped receiving the free preview channels after they were replaced with Mpeg4 receivers. A signal was sent to deactivate them even though I had not activated the replacement units, I now use the 6100`s and 9200 for OTA only, I can view channel 271 which is FTA, however I have a 9242 not activated that is capable of viewing the free previews.

If you are able to view Discovery World, channel 1601, you may have an Mpeg4 receiver in a 9200 case! I am not sure if Bell is using Mpeg 4 to broadcast Discovery World or if it is still Mpeg 2 on Bell yet.
 
#62 ·
Ok related question. In the GUIDE it just says digital service. Is there any chance of seeing the PSIP data for the OTA channels?

I manually recorded a show on CTV last week around 10PM and it recorded 21 hours of HD. Or at least that is what appears to have happened. The drive is now full. I did modify the recording event "Digital Service" to end after 1 hour but obviously I did something wrong. Perhaps I accidently set the time to 11PM the next day.
 
#63 ·
PSIP Data is almost certainly never going to be displayed on the 9200, it is an obsolete Receiver, so I doubt they will ever change the software again.

I set Manual Recordings and have not experienced what you did.....
 
#68 ·
OTA on bev

Using OTA on Bev lately.
My question is why do I only get a partial guide on deactivated Receiver.I was hoping to use that guide for my OTA but those i need are not there.I am getting a few free unscrambled channels.Another question is will I receive unscrambled channels from time to time or will the receiver be deactivated for good once it gets upgrade firmware.Or will it stop recieving firmware.
 
#70 ·
Sorry if I did not explain correctly.I am not talking about an OTA Guide.I was talking about the regular Nimiq 91/82 guide since receiver(6141) has these two Sats connected on it.I was hoping to use the satellite guide for the OTA Channels guide.Also wanted to know if a Deactivated Receiver still gets new firmware or does it stick with the firmware it has and thats it.
 
#71 ·
On a deactivated receiver you would get little Guide Data as the receiver is not active, there is no way for it to know what channels to pull in on the guide.

Any Receiver connected to the Sat signal will get the latest software as and when available, providing that the receiver is set to Disable Updates.

For OTA I know people who use the Bell Web Site's Guide data or Zap To It.
 
#106 ·
On a deactivated receiver you would get little Guide Data as the receiver is not active, there is no way for it to know what channels to pull in on the guide.
Just hooked up a 6141 that I picked up really cheap.

Connected 91/82 and OTA antenna:
Every channel showed up in the guide but no video on any channel.
37 OTA channels scanned in from Toronto and Buffalo but NO video on these channels.
The no sub message appeared on the OTA channels too!
 
#72 ·
ok thx Pinza.
Answered pretty well my questions.I guess there is no work around for the complete Bev Guide? If not I will check on the net.
Another thing that puzzles me is that I am currently receiving ''in the clear channels'' that bev is presently offering like Cottage T.V Zeste T.V,and the Cartoon network.Will I continue to receive ''In the clear BEV promotions'' or is this just a temporary thing perhaps because the receiver has been deactivated just lately.I am asking because if there is no guide or ''In the clear promotions'',I might as well just connect RF OTA cable to T.V
.
 
#73 ·
The only advantage of the OTA going through a Bell TV Receiver is that you could PVR the OTA shows if you have an EHD connected to the 6141.
 
#77 ·
yeah,I am also receiving a partial guide but has none of the channels I receive on OTA.I tried an old 2700 that was deactivated for years and had the same partial Guide.My guess is that BEV deliberately gives us this partial guide(seems to not contain Canadian OTA) .I think they could have a complete guide but OTA folks would have benifited from it something they probably didn't want.
 
#78 ·
Bell hasn't sold the 9242 in years, and it's been discontinued for a while now. There is no reason for them to support an OTA guide, when they don't support any receivers with an OTA input.

The partial guide that you're seeing on receivers used only for OTA is exactly what you'd see on any non-activated receiver.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top