The only needed improvement I can think of (other than obviously mentioning DHC) would be mentioning that the same info the app provides for $1.99 is available for free at tvfool.
doomy, I don't get it.
Is there is an iPhone app that gives the same info for free ?
Does tvfool have an app that figures your location from the iPhone GPS and displays that for free ?

What I'm saying is that instead of using the app, one can go online to www.tvfool.com and type in their info to see what is available, as opposed to using an app that costs money.

The only negative thing about that article is this While there are personal video recorders (PVRs), they're not as easy to use as ones integrated with cable or satellite service That's simply not true if you're using a Tivo, yes you need to pay a fee for Tivo, but it is a great option (way better then what Rogers offers) and available to people using OTA

there is going to be a report on people switching to ota in ottawa on cbc news ottawa today at 6 pm!!

I don't know if anyone else caught it but this is what it said as I recorded it with my cm 7000:

By Marni Kagan

The report starts by indicating that they reported on the digital conversion 2 weeks ago and now are reporting that since then local electronics stores are struggling to keep up with the demand for the equipment necessary for over the air digital television, with people ready to ditch their cable or satellite service for digital OVER THE AIR television.


Case in point: Lisa Church, residing on a farm in Kars provides a personal account. She is outdoors most of the day but when she is indoors she enjoys her dozen or so over the air digital channels, half from the U.S., and is stunned at the quality programming and image, and cited a University BBQ show that she had never seen before as an example, and finds herself unable today to justify her former $75 per month satellite bill. In her words "I will never look back". We see her in her living room watching a crystal clear television (tube TV presumably with a converter box) showing the program guide. There are shots of her antenna, which is an omni-directional outdoor type, and her lovely farmhouse on an idyllic farm with horses.

Stephen Hum from Futureshop said "they are selling like hotcakes" and while he does not want to pressure people into buying, he tells customers that if they want an antenna or other accessories, buy it now because it will not be in tomorrow. At that time, they had only one antenna and one digital converter box in stock. They get about 50 requests a day for over the air equipment. The same can be said in stores accross Canada, where the interest in over the air digital television has far exceeded expectation.

CBC asked Rogers Cable for their comments, and they indicated that while it may be early, they have not seen a drop in subscriptions, and stood by the advantages of their services. Patricia Trott of Rogers Communications is cited as follows:"Digital cable offers a variety of options that watching trough a set top box does not, including a greater variety of content".

They then return to Lisa Church who says she gets all the variety she needs, and it is *free*

Available online at http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Local_News/Ottawa/1317910092/ID=2129875688

It starts at about 9:20 and runs for about 2 minutes.

and now are reporting that since then local electronics stores are struggling to keep up with the demand

Perhaps this will cause the CBC to rethink their plans to cut transmitters.

There was also a radio version of the report on Ottawa Monring this morning on Radio One 91.5, just after the 6:30 news.

I think this is extremely positive, particularly since we are really just a few weeks into the digital conversion.

My thoughts about there not being a noticeable drop in subscriptions according to Rogers reminded me of my own experience, as my spouse also pointed out, where I waited a little while before officially cancelling Videotron to make sure that everything was working to my satisfaction to avoid potential reconnection fees if OTA would for some reason not work out, so I wonder if a lot of people are doing something similar to that, and that cancellations will start rolling-in in the coming months.

Also, I read in the Globe and Mail and elsewhere that Rogers needs 30 days notice before cancelling a cable subscription, citing that it is some kind technical impossibility to make the effective cancellation date the date of your request, so maybe lots of people have actually already cancelled but Rogers isn't counting those cancellations until those 30 days are up...

I actually wrote a lenthy post about cancelling Videotron in an inappropriate thread in the French forum. I wonder if we should start a thread on our experiences when cancelling subscriptions because it was not easy or straightforward in my case (I was on hold for a very long time, passed to different people, had to keep repeating myself) and I could have used some forewarning about how long I would have been stuck on the phone and what to expect.

"Digital cable offers a variety of options that watching through a set top box does not, including a greater variety of content".

Whoa! Rogers dissing set-top boxes? Is this a hint they are going clearQAM?

Lisa is going to be blown away when she uses her savings to buy a nice new HDTV.

"Digital cable offers a variety of options that watching through a set top box does not, including a greater variety of content".

Whoa! Rogers dissing set-top boxes? Is this a hint they are going clearQAM?


No way Rogers will go ClearQAM or Cablecard. They want the potential to sell you stuff that needas two-way cable, like VOD. Plus they need the ability to provide content through Switched Video.

I'm sure the quote was out of context, and referred either to an ATSC set-top box or an "over-te-top" internet-connected set-top-box, not adigital cable set top box.

Well, after a year of tweaking my OTA setup and testing various antenni, I called Rogers today to cancel my cable TV service. Post transition, I get all channels that our family requires and for some specialty shows there are other options; Netflix, the Intertubes etc... This week, Tribune and Tivo got their guide data/channel lineups straightened out, so we're set.

I made sure Rogers knew that I was going OTA and that was the main reason for cancelling. The CSR I was talking to handled everything very professionally, but countered my OTA statement with

"well, you know that you won't be able to get channels over the air anymore now that they've switched to digital?"

Wow:o,...Rogers is sure misinforming their CSRs as well as the public... I happily explained to this CSR that I already had my setup working very well, thank-you! They put me on hold and made me wait the obligatory 5 minutes and then came back with the retention offers, which I declined.

Thanks to this forum and all those who have shared so much knowledge with me, our family will be saving over $80/month now.

80 a month doesn't look as good as 960 a year! Good for you, bad for distributors misguiding their dropping clients. :)

I don't think Rogers wants their reps to know the truth. They'd rather they keep up with their scare tactic sales pitches in hopes of snagging a few customers who don't know about just how good OTA can be. A while back I had a Rogers rep come to my apartment door trying to get me to come back to them. I said "no thanks" and was going to leave it at that. He could see my TV on in the background with a crystal-clear picture, and rather snarkily said he hoped I was enjoying Bell. The look on his face when I said that I used OTA, and had saved many hundreds of dollars, was priceless. The worst misinformation I've heard (to be fair, this was not from a Bell or Rogers rep) came from someone who was convinced that OTA was television piracy and that I was "stealing" the signals.:eek:

Congratulation on you recent cord cutting action. You will not look back.

Canada's transition from old analog to spiffy new digital-TV signals went off with a Y2K-like anti-climax.

Nobody was ever quite sure how many Canadians would be left completely without a TV signal after Aug. 31. The broadcast regulator guessed it was around 31,000.

And there was uncertainty over how many people with old TVs would be completely befuddled over how to make their sets digital-ready.

But data from the Department of Canadian Heritage and from a satellite company tasked with helping out those now without TV suggests the transition went off without much consumer drama.http://ca.news.yahoo.com/digital-tv-transition-goes-off-without-much-drama-195708497.html

CHEK in Victoria just ran an episode of the GetConnected TV show that had an excellent segment on OTA. What was mentioned or shown on screen (some of it quite quickly though):

* Terk indoor antenna
* Channel Master outdoor antennas
* Indoor, attic, and roof top antenna installs (higher is better)
* TV Fools website (with results page showing Vancouver area reception)
* No monthly bill
* OTA is 100% legal
* Digital OTA is an upgrade over analog
* OTA HD is better quality than cable (showed antenna hooked up to large LCD)
* If you live close to the border, picking up US channels is possible
* Living in the city or with tall buildings and trees could be a problem
* OTA will not get you the sports or specialty channels

All in all for a short segment about 5 minutes long, GetConnected did a great job with a well balanced story, plus it is not surprising that it was a small independent station such as CHEK aired a positive show on OTA HD. Certainly better than the typical "sky is falling" segments ran by the BDU owned national networks, such as people could lose their OTA reception after September 1st 2011.

MoreDB, I assume this is the segment you are referring to.
http://blip.tv/getconnected-tv-show/get-free-hdtv-with-over-the-air-ota-tuner-and-antenna-5575400

Thats the one

MoreDB,

Yeah, that is a good show. I like that they recommended the HDHomeRun, but they attributed the product to a re-seller rather than SiliconDust. Oh, and they sort of recommended they you use the HDHomeRun via a wireless network connection which is a poor transport for a PC-based PVR (the HDHR uses UDP). Indeed, even SiliconDust recommends that you stick to a wired connection.