I think it would be best if you spent some time reading this forum before asking this type of question.

Start with the Discussion on HD programming for SC.

Waste of a channel, IMO. I'd like to see ABC W HD and Discovery HD before anymore sports.

Anyway, the process is complicated. Considerations:
-Transponder space on the satellite (which is very expensive)
-Transponder space on the satellite (more channels = lower picture quality)
-Getting a contract with the channel (channels cost money, sometimes exclusivity aggreements exist, sometimes the channel requires carriage of other channels too).

Also, look at the # of subscribers to RaptorsTv SD version on Starchoice and you'll see why they will not add this channel for a long, long time. Besides, they haven't had one Raptors Game in HD this year.

But some of us like watching the Lakers :)

To be honest the quality of the CD version is brutal compared to Sportsnet and The Score, so i figured this could be an improvement...

Oh well...

I know that the NBA Raptor is not in HD, but I see some game in HD at SportNets or Tsn.

For Tonight Election, RDI en francais will show there first HD program. I will look at it tonight.

Hope you're party will win. PC for Quebec.......................Bonne soirée

How is Bell ExpressVu able to offer 24 High Definition channels and *choice only 14? BEV offers ABC West, PBS West, CTV West, WGN, CitiTV, Global, Discovery, PPV and NBA Raptors in High Definition... none of which are offered on StarChoice. I live in the west and have a right to the same level of viewing convenience as anyone else. BEV can offer this. How is their techonolgy more advanced? How can they do what StarChoice can't -- or won't. I want to know.

NBA Raptors TV offers the best High Definition baskeball available anywhere. The TNT HD feeds they pick up are the best team match ups with the best announcers and superb half time shows with Sir Charles, Kenny Smith, Magic Johnson and others.

As a *choice customer, I am totally frustrated. I don't have line of sight on the BEV satelllites so I am stuck with the StarChoice inferior channel line up.

I have not read a reasonable explanation about the discrepancy between BEV and StarChoice HD offerings. StarChoice sends me pathetic form responses with patronizing statements that they offer the most HD channels in Canada.. LOL

Switch to Expressvu then. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the sacrifice for Bell's larger HD lineup is the quality of the broadcast - everything is much more compressed, allowing them to stuff more channels into the same amount of space, resulting in lower picture quality.

A big minus of Bell's HD scheme is that they end up simsubbing almost everything with the Canadian broadcast - so many people are upset they're paying $10/month and are denied access to most of the channels anyway.

See this thread (http://www.canadian-tv.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Programming&Number=247847&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1), specifically the 3rd post, for some comments on Bell's HD lineup from actual Bell customers.

The grass is not always greener on the other side.

...How is their techonolgy more advanced? How can they do what StarChoice can't -- or won't. I want to know.

I have not read a reasonable explanation about the discrepancy between BEV and StarChoice HD offerings.
Their technology is LESS advanced than Starchoice matter of fact.
Their conditinal access has repeatedly been compromised and their receivers are NOT capable of all the advanced signalling techniques like 8PSK & MPEG4!

BOTH the DSR505 & DSR530 receivers have integral 8PSK tuners that may one day permit additional capacity as well as easy MPEG4 upgradability.

Digicipher II remains uncompromised after repeated attacks.
Good CA cost more BTW!

That aside, the reason is quite simple.
BEV's parent BCE, owns Telesat and the Nimiq sats they get signals from.
BEV's parent also owns several of the HD channels they carry as well.
Having a suggar daddy with deep pockets, no near term plan to turn a profit and content and distribution done 'in house' allows them to do that.

Starchoice on the other hand has to;
1. Pay for satellite space to guess who? Telesat
2. Pay for some HD programming to guess who? Some BCE companies.
3. Required to be at least a little profitable for shareholders that prefer not to loose money.

BTW, have a look at their '24' channels.
How many are true HD and ON 24 hours a day.
A quick look at lyngsat indicated they are re-using the same TP space over and over and just turn on channels as needed.
A technique surprisingly similar to the old *c omnibus HD channels of recent times that THEY complained and put to rest.

Add up the TOTAL hours per week of HD programming and compare.
While slightly more, is it worth the money and the drop in quality?
Why did you buy HD in the first place? For the pretty pictures I hope.

Maybe your cableco can offer more HD, maybe not.
A major western MSO has only 6 HD's.

The main reason that there is less HD on SC is that Shaw does not want to grow the business. They only want SC to continue to generate free cash flow and a little profit that they can use to grow the Shaw telephone business. They would rather have Shaw Cable bundled customers - bundled with cable/internet/telephone than SC customers - much more profitable and much less likely to churn.

SC has a big advantage by being a DTH company using FSS satellites, as opposed to DBS. They do not have to buy, launch and maintain complete satellites at 1 time like the DBS boys have to. SC/Cancom merely buys/leases transponders as they require to meet the requirement of their cable head customers (Shaw Cable being their biggest customer).

Example - Fight Network is being added to SC in February. Why? Do you see threads in this forum demanding it? - No Rogers wants it sent to it's head ends in Newfoundland - so voila - a new service available to SC subs.

The jig is up for Cancom/SC in 2008 or 09. By that most of the US majorcable channels (A&E/TBS etc) will be running some type of HD service - either as HD clones or compilation HD channels such as Universal HD is now in the US.

At that time, SC must either go MPEG4; go to triple satellite feed or do nothing and whither.

Knowing Shaw, my betting is on the "whither" option.

But don't dispair; Expressvu will be concentrating on IPTV by that time to effectively have some chance against cable.

This isn't the US where there are 2 satellite companies who live or die by their satellite business. This is Canada where the largest telco doesn't care if their small (to them) satellite division loses a few bucks, or the 2nd largest cable company who invests little to get some much needed cash flow to help their core business grow.

Ok had my 505 for a week or two and have sxrd tv so not exactly crappy tv.It looks great on xbox 360,very good on most upscaled dvds but this starchoice starting to wonder.
It looks horrible on most SD channels .It looks not that great on most hd channels.Many many hd channels are 4 by 3 format...even hockey on tsn and stuff that says hd in big letters.What gives with that.I have to zoom it up to fill my screen and it looks crappy.
Some prime time shows look not too bad and some have serious redish faces yet next show looks more normal in face tones.
Is starchoice hd just crap.I think see much better clarity on things like discover hd on expressview.
Also what should my signal strength be and does it matter ..think get 84 to mabye 89 on most satelittes ,does this matter to picture quality.
I am not very happy with starchoice hd right now.
I went with it as already had starchoice non hd and had the right dish for the hd setup.

Is the picture quality much better on the recording 530 unit over the 505?
I think the sd looks ok though on my 37 inch crt non hd thru my old starchoice reciever.

I guess just expected to be blown away with hd on my new 505 and its for the most part just not happening. Are those shows with big hd under them not really hd as they are in 4 by 3 format.

I can understand commercials being 4 by 3 and not hd on the hd channels and sure quite a bit of the programming especially during the day on the hd channels is not true hd but they shouldn't be putting big hd symbols under stuff that is 4 by 3 and dont' look very good. Or can you have bad camera work with hd cameras.I see some horrible crap on the pbs station that also has the big hd sign on it..horrible quality..looks like cheap home camera sometimes.

I appreciate all the responses to my inquiry regarding the difference in HD channels between BEV and SC. Apart from the one childish response regarding "a gun to my head", this was helpful. As mentioned, my location in northern BC, combined with the neighbour's trees, does not give me a line of sight access to the BEV satellites. Otherwise, I may have jumped already.

It was mentioned that BEV HD channels may not be on 24 hours a day. How is this relevant? SC network HD channels offer HD broadcasts a tiny fraction of their broadcast day. CBC HD offers perhaps one hockey game per week and 3 football games per year in HD. CTV HD, which is an eastern feed, offers only HD programs which are already available on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX East HD channels .. in the same time period. I have not needed to watch this station a single time since it was added. It is all duplication anyway .. how is this different than simsubs? I also have no interest in watching standard definition broadcasts on HD channels. I'm not into black and gray bars. The SC HD broadcasts make up less than 10% of the available broadcast time on each of the 14 HD stations they offer. I would prefer 10% of 24 channels if I could get them. Unfortunately, I can't.

Quite frankly, I preferred the previous omnibus stations of SC, as they could fill their stations with true HD programming all day long and pick up HD feeds from a variety of US networks not carried in their regular channel line-up ... TNT, ESPN and USA networks for example. Given that corporate politics and the CRTC eliminated omnibus stations, I have to live with what is but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.

I appreciate the truly objective responses here. They are helpful. I am going to post the same original question on the BEV HD forum to compare responses. I am guessing that there are BEV and SC apologists and advocates in both forums.

The bottom line is this -- virtually every television advertised today is High Definition capable. The technology in Canada for delivering all available HD programs to meet consumer demand is horribly retarded. The CRTC needs to get tough and mandate level playing field requirements for service providers to deliver ALL available HD broadcasts to consumers immediately. When it is madated, they will comply. We are being hosed for profits by both of these satellite providers. We deserver much better than is being provided.

Whew!! I feel better. Thanks for allowing me to rant. Be kind.

John

jeades
You answered your own question: It was mentioned that BEV HD channels may not be on 24 hours a day. How is this relevant?
Quite frankly, I preferred the previous omnibus stations of SC, as they could fill their stations with true HD programming all day long
This is what Bell is apperently doing, just without jaming everything into 1 "channel" on the receiver. They're turning some channels on and off so that there is never something broadcasting on all HD stations all the time. Very similar to what they stopped Star Choice from doing.

Anyway, you're not going to get a higher % of HD content on Bell's NBC HD versus Star Choice's HBC HD (or any of the US nets for that matter). The amount of HD content is what it is right now.

I think if someone took the time to do a detailed comparison of hours of unique (you can't count the 2, 3, 4th broadcast of the same program) "HD" on a week of ExpressVu HD versus a week of Star Choice HD, I don't think it would be as dramatic a difference as it appears.

As time goes on, the number of HD stations is only going to improve. I'd rather see more US HD channels then something like Raptors HD or Global HD, which I have a feeling is the direction Star Choice will go. Just be patient!

Al B.
First, a bit of advice - take a more positive tone, and you'll get a much warmer reception. :)

If you're getting programs with the HD logo showing in 4:3, it sounds like:
a) you're not using component (Red/Green/Blue) or a DVI cable
b) you've got the receiver set to 480i or 480p resolution instead of 0000 or 1080. Use the RED BUTTON under the Star Choice logo on the front panel.

Correct those two things and you should see a big difference on HD broadcasts.

Also, signal strength isn't a big deal. If its over 50, you're doing fine.

Here a quote from Rob Brodie's column in the Ottawa Sun:

"For the first time in Canada, a significant parcel of high-definition coverage is being offered. Any HD coverage being shot by the Olympic host broadcaster will be made available to CBC viewers. That includes the opening and closing ceremonies and every hockey game (men and women), plus events from the figure skating, speed skating (short and long-track), ski jumping and freestyle ski venues. By the Beijing 2008 Games, it's expected that every event will be available to widescreen viewers."

(http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Columnists/Brodie_Rob/2006/01/27/1413839-sun.html)

Can't wait to see the actual amount of HD content that will be aired on CBC. Should be nice!

Has anyone noticed NBC's incessent Olympic promos? They seem to be offering alot in HD this year too.

Question regarding the Super Bowl: Will the US broadcast be simsub free? :p

I am assuming yes.

Certainly on the HD feeds at least.

Al B.

I recently changed from Shaw Digital (no HD) to Starchoice DSR530 on my JVC DILA. I still have both right now so I was able to do a comparison of the SD channels, and the SD channels are actually better on SC than Shaw.

As for HD on SC, I was completely blown away by the amazing quality of the HD broadcasts. I can't watch enough sports in HD, this is where HD really shines. I was never a big NFL fan until I starting watching it in HD, now I watch every Sunday.

TSN broadcasts are simulcast on the HD channel even if they are not in HD... and yes there is a BIG "TSNHD" banner on the bottowm corner of the screen, this only means that the channel is their HD channel and not necessarily the broadcast. If it's in 4:3 it's not HD.

I pretty much only watch shows that are in HD now unless there's something on SD that I really want to see. I use the DVR on the 530 a lot and the picture quality is just as good as the original broadcast.

Make sure you check the settings as mentioned by Satellite, as that would make a big difference. Good luck!

I suspect that the Superbowl will not be simsubbed on the HD channel because it is Global that usually broadcasts the game and since *C does not offer Global HD they could not possibly override the HD broadcast. The same can not be said for the SD broadcast though. I am crossing my fingers that this will be the case.