Hey guys, I tried looking for prices for the following options on Shaw's website, but couldn't for the life of me find the prices for everything. For those of you in the know, could you calculate which setup would be cheaper? You don't have to factor in the cost of a digital or HD terminal. Yeah, I know I could just call, but I'm a lot more coherent in written form than in verbal form :) so I thought I would take a stab here first. I'm in Vancouver, btw.

Setup 1:
* Digital TV Basic service - $33.95 (I'll need two TV outlets--is that an extra cost?)
* Tier 1 - ?
* HD Plus - ?
* Fairchild (Chinese TV channel) - ? (Is there a bundled discount in Vancouver?)
* High-Speed Internet - $33

Setup 2:
* HD service - $67.95
* Fairchild - ?
* High-Speed Internet - $33

Thanks for your help.

HD Plus is $9.00. The tiers range from $16-20 from what I've read here.

From my July bill

Tier 1 $14
Tier 2 $5
Tier 3 $6

Those tier prices are because you have all 3. You can add the tiers individually, but the prices will be different. Tier 3 on it's own (without 1 and 2) is $16.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I eventually called, which sort of negates the need for this thread, but I'm sure others will find the info here useful. The CSRs pretty much confirmed what you guys have posted. So it all looks like this:

Setup 1:
* Digital Basic service - $33.95
You also get HD Basic if you have an HD box. No cost for three extra TV outlets since apparently that's included when Internet is bundled with your TV service.
* Tier 1 - $14
* HD Plus - $9
* Fairchild - $7 (bundled price in Vancouver)
* High-Speed Internet - $33

Total: $96.95

Setup 2:
* HD service - $67.95
This includes Digital Basic & HD Basic; Tiers 1, 2 & 3; and HD Plus.
* Fairchild - $7
* High-Speed Internet - $33

Total: $107.95

Setup 1 is basically the same as Setup 2 minus Tiers 2 & 3 ($5 + $6), which explains the $11 difference between the two setups.

Anyway, this obviously doesn't include any promotions or the price hike coming in September ($2 for High-Speed Internet and $2 for TV service, I think).

Hopefully, I got all the info right. Feel free to correct me.

How come fairchild is $7? It shows $18.95 on thier website.

The $7 is the actual price for Fairchild when it's included in some bundles that are available only in Greater Vancouver (I think). These bundles are not listed on Shaw's website. There's the Basic Fairchild Bundle for $42.95, which includes Digital TV Basic ($35.95) plus Fairchild, Fairchild East, and Talentvision. There's also the Total Fairchild Bundle for $67.95, which includes Digital TV ($60.95) plus the three channels mentioned above.

I decided not to mention these bundles in my final tally in post #5, but you'll get the same thing if you do this: for Setup 1, substitute "Basic Fairchild Bundle" for "Digital Basic service" and "Fairchild"; for Setup 2, substitute "Total Fairchild Bundle" and "HD Plus" for "HD service" and "Fairchild". (That post doesn't include the recent $2 price hikes for High-Speed Internet and TV service.)

I tried to downgrade my cable bill today by going to Digital TV Basic but was told I would lose my HD+ package. The CSR told me you have to have the channels in the classic cable version to get the HD version.
Is this true?

No it's not true. You can have basic ($36) and add on HD plus ($9) and skip tier 1, 2, and 3 (known as digital tv). The rep we had didn't really understand what we wanted but after we explained to them they said they could do it.

As an aside, you can also add individual tiers instead of paying for the digital tv package and save on money. That is what we did. We're now paying for digital basic + HD plus and now I can watch all hockey games. My g/f needed tier 2 which is an additional $10.

I've been considering making the jump to HDTV and have been looking at what Shaw has to offer. Looking at Shaw's channel lineup for Calgary I see that the local CTV station is listed as an HD Plus channel which seems really strange to me. Is this correct? If true, I'd love to know what made them decide to make the Global station part of HD basic and not the CTV station.