Hi all:

I've been looking for a way to receive Canadian TV (i.e. CBC, CTV, Global, etc.) from my expatriate home about two hours south of the border.

Initially I was attracted to Bell ExpressVu, but since then I've learned that there are so many pitfalls and "gotchas" with respect to it that it isn't viable (I guess the "Bell" prefix should have clued me in :p).

So, now I'm thinking the best way to go is SC. In looking around on the web, I see many comments that SC is much less concerned about use in the US than BEV is. Is this true? Of course, neither can legitimately condone use in the US, but from what I have gathered, BEV has so many problems with piracy compared to SC that most of the problems with using BEV in the US are collateral damage from BEV's pursuit of pirates.

Anyhow, I'm just wondering if I'll have any problems with SC if I have a VoIP phone line with a Canadian number and a Canadian address to forward the bills to me.

Thanks in advance for the advice...

There shouldn't be a problem. Star Choice = great choice.

I subscribed to Sirius US system 3 years ago, used a truck stop for billing address and they debit credit card no mailouts required.

*C has auto pay by credit card and paper free billing so receiving statements by post is not necessary. And you don't need a phone line connected unless you want PPV order by the remote. There's also a Home Away From Home (http://www.starchoice.com/english/customercare/homeaway.asp) program but I don't know if a cabin in the US is eligible. The problem you might run into is getting defective equipment replaced especially important if you want the DVR530.

*C has auto pay by credit card and paper free billing so receiving statements by post is not necessary. And you don't need a phone line connected unless you want PPV order by the remote. There's also a Home Away From Home (http://www.starchoice.com/english/customercare/homeaway.asp) program but I don't know if a cabin in the US is eligible. The problem you might run into is getting defective equipment replaced especially important if you want the DVR530.
I was under the impression that using any US-based mechanism to pay was a problem, since it makes the job of any audit easier because if the $$ are coming from the US, then the customer is more likely to be in the US too. If a phone line is not needed to activate, do you need to call in using a Canadian number to activate?

Yes, they are US friendly, they just won't ship direct to there.

In fact I sat in their callcentre whiel an agent spoke to a U.S. located subscriber as they made arrangements to ship product to a Canadian friend for forwarding.

They can often provide look angles for many U.S. cities as well.

How's THAT for U.S. friendly.

You DON'T need a phone connected to activate, not to they do audits since they have no piracy problems, it's not needed.
A VoIP line generally works OK for PPV orders and a Canadian # is great.

I'm sure you can call a CDN regular #.
Perhaps one of the agents here will PM you the local (403) # of the switchboard or something.

I wouldn't worry of CC autopay either. Money is money.

Using an agent myself "just in case" there could be a problem. Think it paid off since I had to replace the DVR530 once and doubt I could have gotten it done otherwise.

Haven't connected the phone line to the receiver but I do have voip. No Canadian number at the moment. I've never really wanted to order any PPV anyway though.

Starchoice used to be awesome in the US since it was a way of getting national US HD network feeds via satellite. This is becoming less important since HD is becoming more prominent via OTA and both Dish Network and DirecTV are adding more and more HD local networks. It's still a nice way of getting both east coast AND west coast feeds but with a good DVR -- it's not really necessary for time shifting reasons. It does give a CW-HD station via WGN-HD which neither Dish or DirecTV have which is nice. It also used to give the only HD for Stargate Atlantis via "the Movie Network" but SCIFI-HD can do that now.

Starchoice does deliver Showcase-HD, CBC-HD, CTV-HD, and soon CITY-HD along with a lot of other Canadian only stations in standard def. There's some content you simply won't see in the US so its nice to still have Starchoice.

The starchoice DVR seems to be miles behind both the Dish Network and DirecTV DVR's. The DSR-530 really needs the ability to record using both tuners and name based search/record. It's behind even the local cable DVR's now in terms of functionality. At least the hard drive can now be swapped with a 750MB one though.

I'd like to know if anyone has any good agents/brokers for *C. Does it matter what number you call from for activation? It seems kind of obvious when the *C activation center sees a US number calling in for activation. They can turn _that_ much of a blind eye, can they?

Cheers,

One more question: Since I've heard so much about how poor the 530 DVR is, has anyone been able to wire-up a *C receiver to a third-party DVR (i.e. TiVo, etc.)?

Cheers,

Great company that encourages illegal behaviour, all in the name of making a buck......
It is illegal, from what I hear to have *choice in the USA

It is illegal, from what I hear to have *choice in the USA

You hear wrong. It is NOT illegal for Americans to receive out of country signals. (Unlike pinko Canada)

However, no Canadian provider has the programming rights to sell to an American.

If it is "legal" , why are people talking about

"I'd like to know if anyone has any good agents/brokers for *C. Does it matter what number you call from for activation?"
Why not call in on your US phone number if it is allowed?

"agent spoke to a U.S. located subscriber as they made arrangements to ship product to a Canadian friend for forwarding."
Why not ship it to his US address?

"used a truck stop for billing address and they debit credit card no mailouts required."
Why not just use your US address?

If it all on the up and up, then why all the games with fake address, fake phone numbers, etc.....
Just curious, as I thought it was illegal, just as it is illegal here , in commie Canada to have a foreign tv provider

Shear Force had it right. It's legal for the person in the US but it's not legal for Starchoice to knowingly do it. So if a broker is used as the middle guy, Starchoice does nothing wrong; the US guy has done nothing illegal. The status of the broker is gray.

The legality issue has been discussed before, see the following post/thread.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=584617#post584617

In Canada a few years back it became illegal (black market) to receive US Sat in Canada. In the US, there is no such law, therefore it's grey market, not black.

Note that the service provider will/may (depending on provider) shut you down once they know your location.

Ooops if I was wrong, however after reading that thread, I'm still not convinced that it is "allowed" . It is against company policy, yet a blind eye is turned.
This was posted in that thread, along with other posts that state it is not illegal, so...
"Moving to the US and therefore ILLEGALLY installing a Bell ExpressVu dish in DishNet territory makes the customer a "felon" in the US and Canada"
Legal or illegal, it still seems fraudulent to give "fake addresses,phone numbers" in order to receive a service
If it is illegal for Starchoice to allow this, then bells should be going on when a broker calls in (Do you use a broker for your tv service???)
If everything was on the up and up, one would think a Canuck living in the US, would give his US address, not a fake address, when setting up his Starchoice system

There are also Americans who subscribe to *C and BEV due to programming choices - hockey for example. These people have to do the same thing as Expat Canadians.

Since this is a "gray" and not a "black" area, discussions are allowed on this forum.

Ooops if I was wrong, however after reading that thread, I'm still not convinced that it is "allowed" . It is against company policy, yet a blind eye is turned.
This was posted in that thread, along with other posts that state it is not illegal, so...
"Moving to the US and therefore ILLEGALLY installing a Bell ExpressVu dish in DishNet territory makes the customer a "felon" in the US and Canada"
Legal or illegal, it still seems fraudulent to give "fake addresses,phone numbers" in order to receive a service
If it is illegal for Starchoice to allow this, then bells should be going on when a broker calls in (Do you use a broker for your tv service???)
If everything was on the up and up, one would think a Canuck living in the US, would give his US address, not a fake address, when setting up his Starchoice system
For the reasons you note, it is a "gray" area. It is not illegal, however. I personally have no ethical issues with paying Star Choice each month to receive the service. Many of us used to receive Canadian programming from C-band back in the day. I would prefer not to have to provide a "false" address (of Canadian relatives) to get the programming, but that's the way the game has to be played these days.

I'm a *C subscriber from the US... My wife is Canadian, so we just used her parents address in BC. We've had no problems whatsoever with them, and pay with a US credit card. When I put the original equipment order in, I used a company in Quebec that shipped everything to us in Arizona. We later upgraded one of the receivers to a DSR-505 -- which was shipped to my in-laws that then brought with them when the visited a couple weeks later.

TiVo works great with *C. You have to put in a Canadian postal code so it can get the guide data. My only complaint is nitpicky -- we also have local cable service in AZ, while TiVo will let you have both Sat and Cable channels, I can't get guide data for the local cable since you can only put in one postal code. We did have some problems with changing channels on the DSR-505 where we'd have to reboot the DSR-505 every 1-2 weeks (it would be fine, then have problems the the reboot fixed). But the new firmware and guide design rolled out last summer solved that problem -- we haven't had the wrong show recorded on the TiVo since.

One other note on the TiVo and the 505 -- the 505 provides simultaneous output, so the TiVo records all the channels in SD. For the HD channels, it letterboxes the channels -- and zooming them in gives decent picture quality on our HD set (obviously not HD, but its good enough for me for now). We also have the 505 hooked up to the TV directly, so we can switch live TV into HD when needed (although the TiVo still has control -- so if the TiVo is recording you have to decide if you want to watch what the TiVo is recording or watch something else live...) You could solve that issue by having an extra box for live TV and a dedicated box for the TiVo...

When Tivo was introduced in Canada, wasn't there mention that it was not compatible with satellite?

I don't know which TiVo was introduced in Canada...

The Series 3 and HD TiVos are not compatible with Sat since they are cable or OTA only. They can only record from their internal tuners.

Series 2 TiVos will work with StarChoice... They can record from the RCA or S-video inputs as well as the internal (SD only) tuner.