In days gone past the one thread that was sure to spark fireworks was to ask the question, which is better StarChoice or ExpressVu?

A year ago, the general consensus among HD an PVR owners seemed to be ExpressVu had the edge primarily due to having a PVR and more HDTV channels.

For standard definition customers, Star Choice seemed to have an edge because it had more reliable equipment and pretty much offered everythign Bell did.

A lot has changed in the last year, with new channels and new hardware on both systems.

My question going into 2006 is which system do you think is superior and WHY - ExpressVu or Star Choice?

When posting lets please leave out the rhetoric and lets remember that one system may not be best for everyone so try and keep that in mind.

IMO. BEV technology is better. They have more programming. I was going to get the 530 when it first came out but it was lacking a lot.

I have heard a lot of great things about *C CS. So if that it most important to you then I think they win that hands down. BEV CS has improved ALOT over the last year though.

It was easy choice for me. Simply put one offers Centre Ice and the other doesn't. I used to have StarChoice and it drove me nuts with all the "blacked out" games I couldn't watch. Nice to see my Expressvu now has DiscoveryHD.

StarChoice!

Better equipment.
Free HD channels
Digital favorites package
24/7 costumer Service from reps you can understand!!!

I've owned both systems.

Expressvu For Now Because:

The joy that is the 9200 - A True Dual Tuner HD PVR that WORKS (irrating bugs do exist). I won't give up my HD PVR for a standard PVR or HD receiver.
I like having the option to order and watch MMM Retro, Much Vibe, Drive In Classics, SEX TV and other channels (even ethnics) not available through starchoice, though I only subscribe to 2 of these.
I find the PQ in SD and of course HD is stellar.I'd be tempted to switch to SC IF :

The DVR 530 is reported to be STABLE (most of the time) and gets updated to a true dual tuner PVR, to run both my TV's
When SC offers a rental option for new customers.
SC would offer all the channels I want .
I would get a good price on DHC "buy/sell or Ebay for my XVU receivers (and talk my wife into the switch!! LOL)SC would be cheaper for me on a monthly basis and now that they have TSN HD, the HD programming difference between the two providers is not a deal breaker for me any longer.

StarChoice!

Better equipment.
Free HD channels
Digital favorites package
24/7 costumer Service from reps you can understand!!!

I've owned both systems.

You sound more like a *C supporter than giving fair judgement.

1) Which equipment?

3) Dig. fav. package? BEV has same thing.....DIg. standard.
4) Bev has same thing except some have a thick accent.

So from what you listed. Free HD channels which if I reasearched some more may not be so free.......but I will give you that one and CSR which you can understand and I have to struggle a little 1/4 of the time.

I am in no way a BEV supporter. I hate the way they try and squeeze everything out of you. I like to see facts though.

I've had both

Best Customer Service: SC (best in class in Canada as independent study shows)

Most programming choice: Expressvu

Best hardware - PVR (SD + HD) Expressvu
Best hardware - receivers (SD + HD ) SC
Best hardware - dish/LNBF/multiswitches - SC
Least amount of rainfade - SC

Best PQ - HD - no appreciable difference
Best PQ - SD - SC most stations - especially noticable on TSN/Sportsnet with SD receivers

Best Movie packages - SC east (because SC has TCM)
Best sports package(s) - Expressvu
Best ethnic choices - Expressvu (no surprise here as typical Alberta based organizations believe Canada is 99.9% wasps)

Most HD - Expressvu
Best value HD package - Digital Favourites SC

Best treatment of existing customers who want to upgrade hardware/add more receivers - SC (NO contest here - that's why I left Expressvu)

Most likely to be in business 5 years from now under same ownership - neither

For a no frills customer (about 80% of tv watchers)
Starchoice is better IMO
Better customer service.
Free dish service for 2yrs
No contracts to sign.
No program minimums to maintain.
Summer or winter turn offs for farmer's or snowbirds.
Home away from home program, they will actually pay their installer to put a dish on your cottage or 2nd home. I had a bev customer tell me there was no way he was able to get a 2nd dish from bell for his RV.
Bell assumes everyone is out to steal their service (account sharing etc)
Now it is hard to even buy another receiver for the bedroom from Bell.
Starchoice has no charge HD channels - now at 13.
Starchoice has radio stations.
Starchoice has 24/7 customer service.

now if you want NHL CI or all the HD you can get, regardless of cost then either get Bell or DirecTv.

There are lots of criteria we can use to compare the 2 services, but the comparison is pretty much useless without common ranking system for these criteria. Here's how I see them ranked by importance (first is highest):

1. Programming Choice
2. Picture Quality.
3. Hardware reliablity.
4. Pricing.
5. Customer service.

SC may be a little ahead in 2, ahead in 4, and much ahead in 5, but for me they fail miserably in 1. As much as I'd like to like StarChoice, they don't carry half the channels that I watch regularly.
If you rank the criteria differently, or you happen to be satisfied with SC's programming, SC should be your choice.

On December 30th, I dropped by this A/V store in Terrace, BC, to find a satellite radio receiver for a friend. While I was there, I checked out their HD set up...it was an impressive system with about 20 TV's attached to a composite (Y, Pb, Pr) distribution system. All of the HD models were properly tuned to an HD source which was playing a football game on CBS. There was one problem...the signal was way over compressed. So I thought immediately that it was a cable feed. I asked the sales guy what we were watching and he said *C. I couldn't believe it! All of the talk about how amazing *C was compared to BEV and this is what I saw. So I didn't think much of it, I thought just maybe they were having an off day, until...

Then Friday, January 6, I stopped by Future Shop in Edmonton on 170th street. I was picking up a home kit for a Starmate Satellite Radio when I found their HD display. Both side by side, BEV and *C, I decided to check out an identical channel displaying on identical HD displays. I found PBSE, since they always seem to have something HD. The quality on BEV is much better than that of *C. You could easily see the compression on a still picture and the compression was horrid when a picture changed or was fast moving. I actually believed *C had better HD since everyone in the *C forum goes on and on about how much better *C is. Turns out, it was nothing more than consumer bias. As for free, no one cares! When it's that horrible in quality, you know why they have to give it away.

Maybe, just maybe *C has better SD channels, but BEV has better HD channels. The only winner in HD quality is OTA.

I never have seen any good HD on any Canadian satellite yet, I had both bell and star choice and the SD is better on star choice, for HD I am not sure, I would think Star Choice would be better if cacom is stil feeding the headends with the HD feeds.

OTA HD is great my big dish HD is also great, discovery HD is very good on the big dish, HBO and other movie channels look great also, much better than the upcoverted HD light on small dish, I have seen bell HD and chice HD at peoples houses never really saw any good picture yet.

I heard that Dish is going to be lowering the resolution on a lot of their HD content.

I have *c and I think the consensus is that *c has better picture quality than bev's.

With that said, the picture is not that great when there's lots of movement.
You can see jaggies all over the place as a result of the compression.

i dunno, sounds like a weird story to me. ive had both and to me the difference is obvious in favor of SC. im also fairly certain there was a thread on here with bitrates posted and SC was higher. i actually get distracted by artifacts/macroblocking watching movies on bev.

id be interested to see a current comparison measured with their PVRs or something. maybe some dsr530 and some 9200 owners around here would be willing to do a few tests.

I have *c and I think the consensus is that *c has better picture quality than bev's.

With that said, the picture is not that great when there's lots of movement.
You can see jaggies all over the place as a result of the compression.

Of course the consensus among 100 or so *C users is that *C is so amazing that BEV can't even come close! Please, save your bias for the *C forum. As my post stated, I found 2 seperate locations that had *C going and one that had BEV and *C side by side. Identical HD channel on identical displays confirms it. You are more than welcome to venture out and find out for yourself. But since you say eveyone says *C is better, then I guess it's true...no need to find out for yourself.

As for the SD channels. Yes, some channels are better. I've seen alot of compression in *C, it's there. BEV has a lot of compression in their channels. But if BEV's channels look like ****, it's because of CanCom, or *C. Remember, **** in = **** out. However, not all channels on BEV come from CanCom. They do a lot of their own signal gathering, which, in order to save space, are compressed to transport across country.

Of course the consensus among 100 or so *C users is that *C is so amazing that BEV can't even come close! Please, save your bias for the *C forum. As my post stated, I found 2 seperate locations that had *C going and one that had BEV and *C side by side. Identical HD channel on identical displays confirms it. You are more than welcome to venture out and find out for yourself. But since you say eveyone says *C is better, then I guess it's true...no need to find out for yourself.

As for the SD channels. Yes, some channels are better. I've seen alot of compression in *C, it's there. BEV has a lot of compression in their channels. But if BEV's channels look like ****, it's because of CanCom, or *C. Remember, **** in = **** out. However, not all channels on BEV come from CanCom. They do a lot of their own signal gathering, which, in order to save space, are compressed to transport across country.

So you were just checking them out hey?????
An unbiased opinion.........ok

Guess you made your mind up in July, and only now decided to post?:rolleyes:

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=233217&postcount=21

Well I can speak from my experience.....

Iv'e had both and am currently with Bell.


I also read about how great *C is over Bell in regards to picture quailty....but when I received my *C I was not really impressed.

I found most of the channels to be the same....but some were worst on *C...I remember CKVR and The Weather Channel to be a couple that looked "fussy" on *C.

Also the PPV on *C (the few they had) were of lower quailty....you could see alot of "blocking" during picture shifts.

I find Bell to have a great HD picture....at least on my setup. I've also had the DSR530 HD PVR and that unit at least when I had it was a POS.

Bell offers HD PPV and has a much larger HD channel base then *C....of course you have to pay $10.00 per month but as they say..you get what you pay for...

I'm glad I'm back with Bell.


My .02 cents.

Cheers
Rob.

So you were just checking them out hey?????
An unbiased opinion.........ok

Guess you made your mind up in July, and only now decided to post?:rolleyes:

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=233217&postcount=21

Of course I was checking them out...what else did you think I was doing? I suggest you do the same.

this topic would be mute if bell announced that they were going to buy shaw.. who owns *C now wouldn't it...

My question going into 2006 is which system do you think is superior and WHY - ExpressVu or Star Choice?

....A few things have changed....some have remained the same. StarChoice still has many advantages over ExpressVu...

....1st Generation signal quality on many channels with StarChoice vs 2nd Generation signal quality with ExpressVu.

....No extra charge for HD channels on StarChoice....vs $10month+ taxes on ExpressVu

....Small market locals available to all subs on StarChoice...not available to all subs on ExpressVu

....StarChoice has Corus Max Trax audio channels, 7 US FM including www.kzzu.com + tons of Canadian FM's like www.cfox.com that are not on ExpressVu!

....StarChoice offers sets of US nets from four cities (U pick & switch as U like) vs two (no pick) on ExpressVu!

....Watch local news from all four US nets cities with StarChoice (Spokane & Buffalo in SD....Seattle & Detroit in HD) vs two cities (Seattle & Boston SD & HD) on ExpressVu!

....Instant programming changes- switch 'em up 24/7 365 while you are on the phone with StarChoice....ExpressVu won't let you downgrade until the next billing cycle & doesn't offer 24/7 service.

....Once a year free vacation disconnect with StarChoice...Not available with ExpressVu.

.....No contracts with StarChoice vs a one or two year contract with ExpressVu.

....StarChoice CSR's understand & speak English.....LOL...Not available with ExpressVu!

....StarChoice has Jenny....Advantage StarChoice!

....Much newer, problem free satellites with better footprints with StarChoice= less rain fade! vs ExpressVu's older wounded satellite fleet!

....StarChoice uplinks from multiple locations vs one uplink with ExpressVu. All ExpressVu subs have lost programming due to heavy rain at the uplink in Toronto!

....No HD sim-subs with StarChoice vs HD sim-subs for all with BEV!

....Many StarChoice subs have zero SD sim-subs vs SD sim-subs for all with ExpressVu!

....TSN sim-subs US nets programming on ExpressVu....This doesn't happen with StarChoice!

....TSN included in essentials with StarChoice....not with ExpressVu!

....MSNBC available on StarChoice...Not available on ExpressVu!

....Turner Classic Movies available on StarChoice....Not available on ExpressVu!

....Bloomberg TV available on StarChoice....Not available on ExpressVu!

....Hustler TV available on StarChoice....Not available on ExpressVu!

....StarChoice's DSR505 HD receiver cost's $100-150 less than ExpressVu's 6120 HD receiver.

....StarChoice's HD receivers have a handy LED clock....a very useful feature BTW.....No ExpressVu receivers have this feature.