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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.
 
#132 ·
I disagree with Voodoocobra's comments about Bell not wanting you to use old PVR's for OTA service.

For over a year now, if you leave a 3100 or 4100 receiver off line for more than a few weeks, the same SMARTCARD NOT AUTHORIZED message pops up.

When I see this happen on service calls, I have to call Bell to reset the receiver. It's a PITA because on one call, the customer spent two hours on the phone until Bell got the 4100 receiver back in service.

Usually the call to Bell is made after I re-align the dish. Customers think they've lost signal, and they move the dish around hoping that a realignment will get rid of the this message.

If you see this message, call Bell TV. Don't move your dish.
 
#133 ·
One of my satellite receivers (9242) has the over-the-air Antenna tuner built-in, but I will be honest, I do like having that feature built in, but I have never had a need to use it, at least not at this time right now. I am already receiving all the stations that broadcast over Antenna through my satellite feed already, so I guess I am fine. but it's too bad I live in a neighbourhood where geographically I am not line of sight to the CN Tower, and when I did try to use Antenna once, I only picked up 2 measly Antenna channels and they were not very strong signal strength. Maybe if I ever move one day to another area I would test out the antenna reception. But I would not solely use the antenna only, I would use it to compliment my satellite service but not replace it. I am a sports junkie and NEED to have my sports stations.
 
#134 ·
If you lived in area where you could receive USA channels you would use it more often to avoid symsub and this Sunday to watch the real super bowl broadcast not the Canadian version symsubbed.
It is one of the main features along with PIP and swap that you can't get on any of the new receivers. I would NEVER give up my 9242.
 
#135 ·
I don't really care about USA Channels or Avoiding sim subs, but im sure others appreciate it, I might have when I was younger, but I would have to agree with you that the PIP is an awesome feature I would not give up and I use it quite often. I also enjoy the fact I can have 2 TV's with one single receiver and even hide the receiver out of sight in another room.
 
#137 ·
Yes they will still work.
I have my old 9200 connected to a dish, as that is required and my OTA antenna. Have been receiving super high quality HD over the air for 5 years. The PVR also still works, but the start time, end time and channel has to me manually set just like an old VCR. Works fantastic, told Bell to stuff their service 5 years ago and never looked back.
 
#142 ·
I used my Bell 9242 for OTA only for a long time before the capacitors went bad and I wanted to add more OTA tuners, so I sold it and bought a Channel Master DVR+ instead.

I had no issues with it has an OTA tuner - it was a serviceable option to use when I was done with my subscription and didn't feel like replacing the capacitors - just didn't like that it didn't have any guide information and all recordings had to be manually setup and renamed from "Digital Service".

I was able to sell my 9242 for about the same price I paid for a used CM DVR+, so it was a good trade off at the time.
 
#143 ·
I have never done an HD swap in these satellite PVRs but did them with cable PVRs. If I remember correctly the partitions needed to be wiped out before installing the drive. This forced the OS to do its own partitioning/formatting. If you have a USB enclosure it is quite easy to do this with a PC.
 
#144 ·
I used to use it too for ota and also found out that you didn't have to use a bell satellite it also worked with the dish satellite so if you are facing west just point it at a dish satellite for the 9200 to work for the ota as it will load the dish programming in it and make it still work forota
 
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