Just got Bell's IPTV service installed today in midtown Toronto.

I am in a Single Family Home and one of about 50 beta Bell IPTV customers not located in a condo.

While the channel line-up has a way to before it can compete directly with Rogers or even Express Vu (ex. no CNN HD or otherwise). However the upgrade to my IP speed is out of this world (20 megs/sec!). Great picture on the Panny 700 and much faster surfing than on Rogers HD.

Also have Bell IP powering an HP DEC (z565), PS3 and Denon 3808 (all in the home theatre unit) although I haven't played with those toys yet.

So far no Interactive Services are available but I am told they will be adding channels and services in the weeks/months to come.

The receivers are quite sweet too arn't they.?

Bell TV customers still do not get CNN HD so that is no great surprise.

Fast channel changes are the norm to with iPTV.

Keep us informed of how it goes and what you like and dislike as time goes by, I for one would enjoy an update now and again.

Bell TV customers still do not get CNN HD so that is no great surprise.

Do we really need CNNHD? There are many other HD channels I would rather have before CNN

Keep us informed of how it goes and what you like and dislike as time goes by, I for one would enjoy an update now and again.
Ditto!
A friend had this service a few years ago in his condo, and I thought it was neat that 1 receiver controlled 3 tvs. The downside was they 2 other tvs that didn't have the receiver were fed with coax.

I am in a Single Family Home and one of about 50 beta Bell IPTV customers not located in a condo.

I guess it's a start!

Do you have fibre to the home or twisted pair?

I am in a Single Family Home and one of about 50 beta Bell IPTV customers not located in a condo.

Does this mean that Bell is actually going to implement IPTV in residential areas and not just condos? I thought they shelved plans to launch IPTV earlier this year, have they suddently changed their minds?! So what exactly is the channel lineup- the same as satellite? When is it expected to be made available to the general public- months, years??

50 homes is hardly anything to get excited about!

As discussed many times in other threads, FTTH in existing areas is really expensive

I don't think they are doing FTTH, I believe its FTTN but I could be mistaken?! As you mention, FTTH is quite expensive, Verizon FIOS is doing this in the US but AT&T is only implementing FTTN.

Just hoping for another provider to offer services in these parts, tired of the same old choices (Rogers/Cogeco, Bell or SC). Of course since Bell is the one who will be offering this service then it probably won't be much different then XVu but its something new. I believe Novus Entertainment from Vancouver received a license to launch their service in T.O., have not heard anything since- anyone have any info on that, are they still looking to expand?! Its intersting that the two largest provinces (population wise) are the only ones without any sort of IPTV service- makes no sense to me?!

50 homes may not be much but considering that a few months ago they were saying that IPTV had been mothballed, its interesting to see that they are now doing this beta test?! Of course nothing may come of this but I guess time will tell.

I never realised that Bell annouced it was being mothballed, i just thought it had been on hold due to technical issues.

There are many Condo's in T.O with iPTV and it appears to be running pretty well, from what I hear.

I became intrigued with the idea of iPTV, for I must admit that I wasn't even aware that such a service existed. So I did a few Google searches and Wikipedia to get upto speed on the subject and then sought out BEV to see whether they had anything about it on their web site. I was met with "iPTV service is not available yet. Please stay tuned for updates." Isn't that so typical of BEV ? :rolleyes:

I'd certainly appreciate any further details as to what is or can be included and at what cost, if anyone would care to volunteer such information. Thanks.

Bell have a Web Site for iPTV but I am not sure that it's link can be posted on here.

Things that are Okay to post anywhere on the forums

* Links to manufacturers sites
* Links to a product page on a manufacturers website
* Links to informative articles on other sites
* Links to news article on other sites
* Links to informative articles on news sites and magazine websites
* Links to informative information on blogs
* Links to Press release on sites like Canadian Newswire (although it is permissible to post the contents of a press release since its not copyright material)


Links that are Not allowed except in the Shopping forums

* Links to Retailers
* Links to Retailers product pages


Links NOT allowed anywhere

* Spam links such as check out this great website
* Links to competing forums (links to non-competing forums are okay)
* Classified links include ebay or other classified sites


Yep you can post it

Thank You for the clarification, Hugh.

http://entertainment.bell.ca/en/

Thank you Hugh for the clarification, and Pinza for the URL. I was able to receive some additional information from BEV's site, but right off the bat it would seem that it essentially means an increase in what both Satellite TV and Internet cost right now, for me anyway. I guess BEV must figure that you would be willing to pay extra just for being able to dispense with all your current receivers. I'll give them a call.

I'm located in Toronto and I've also been testing the service for the last few weeks. Its totally awesome!!! Couple of things to share with everyone...

1) You connect to the service using FTTN (Fibre to the node). In other words, the fibre terminates in the box at the end of your street and you connect between the box and your house using the existing copper telephone lines. You are provided with telephone, internet and TV over this single line. Once the copper enters your house, it goes into a small box which splits out the signal into telephone and internet. The internet portion goes into a box which them feeds your internet access and also feeds back into the coax cable in your house to distribute the TV feeds to all your TVs.

2) You get a 20 Mbps pipe that is shared between TV and internet. The internet is blazing fast with download speeds of 20 Mbps and upload speeds at around 4-6 Mbps. Blows away Rogers.

3) The TV quality is outstanding. The whole platform is based on Microsoft technology and I think they use VDSL2 encoding for the video (which is quite leading edge). I compared Rogers HDTV and the HD channels I'm getting on Bell IPTV and there is no comparison. No pixelation and the quality it breathtaking. As mentioned, the channel changing time is very quick and the user interface on the box is very modern and slick. There are a few HDTV channels missing (i.e. CNN HD) but there are a number of extra HDTV channels that don't appear on Rogers.

4) There are some really nice things about the service. They give you a PVR for one of your TVs and they are going to release an update pretty soon that allows you to share it amongst all the TVs in your home and access it via a portal on the internet for remote programming. Also, every box has both SD and HDTV capabilities so you don't have to pay extra to have access to the HD channels.

Its been extremely stable and I haven't noticed any downsides so far. I'm very excited to be part of the pilot and I'm thrilled that Bell is stepping up to provide a really superior alternative to Rogers Cable TV. My understanding is they are targeting a full roll out of the service to the public at the end of this year.

Jagadis

Jagadis, you work for Bell?

There are a few HDTV channels missing (i.e. CNN HD)

What is the fascination about CNN HD.? It does NOT exist on ExpressVu so why would you expect it on iPTV.?

You connect to the service using FTTN (Fibre to the node). In other words, the fibre terminates in the box at the end of your street

Unless you are in one of the 50 individual homes testing iPTV, your Fiber will terminate in the Building, not down the street.

every box has both SD and HDTV capabilities

In other words each receiver is an HD receiver, all HD receivers also show SD shows.

I'm very excited to be part of the pilot

The iPTV system has been active and in use for well over 2 years now in Condo's in Toronto, you you are NOT what I would include as part of the "pilot" scheme.

As the major stumbling block to the roll out is being re-worked and made more stable, the iPTV system will become more and more common. Although with the huge number of building that have had a "backbone" installed this year, they will most likely not be in any major rush to implement widely until all the bugs are ironed out.

I know they don't provide CNN HD but is the regular CNN included? I also couldn't find CP24 in the channel lineup. I'm getting IPTV installed on Friday and I'm concerned that these 2 channels aren't included.

CNN isn't available yet (SD OR HD) but it will be shortly (according to the install guys). Every other 24 hour news station is there including CP24, Fox, CTVNN, etc. There are quite a few new/extra channels that are included that I haven't seen on competing services...so there is no shortage of content.

The service is really quite good and its exciting to try someone new out. Believe me...I'm a very fussy person and have not been a big supporter of Bell in the past. I decided to come back to Bell (after ripping everything Bell out of my house 2 years ago) just to try the new IPTV service. I'm one of the 50 who is testing this in their home.

J.

Thanks for the info Jagadis, very insightful!

Interesting comments about the service, especially since we are talking about Bell here?! I hope once the service is fully rolled out they offer some competitve packages (i.e. cheaper then Rogers or satellite) and I hope the packages are different then Bell TV. This is still in a test phase so don't go complaining about channels missing. Once the service is made available to the public, because right now its not, then the channel selection will increase. Actually they mention this on the website, that they will offer more channels and more packages by the end of the year.

The iPTV system has been active and in use for well over 2 years now in Condo's in Toronto, you you are NOT what I would include as part of the "pilot" scheme.

I think you are confused here, the service being discussed here is not the same as the one in condos. Bell TV for condos is only offered in large apartment complexes and well condos! This IPTV service is an alternative to cable and will be available to everyone- meaning in homes and apartments not just condos. Therefore since this is a different service then yes Jagadis IS part of a pilot project!

It seems people are jumping the gun here a little. This is a test project that is in beta mode, which means that they are currently testing the service and seeing how it works and identifying any problems. This is why it is only available in a few homes, they are the ones who have volunteered to test it out and see how the service works.

I noticed that they are actually charging you a monthly fee, why would I pay for something that is still in test mode?! When a new piece of software comes out you don't pay for it if its a beta release only when the final release comes out are you charged. I guess that is typical Bell, making you pay for something that might still have problems.

Does anyone know if you have to have Bell Internet service in order to subscribe to this or can you use any ISP??

PlayitSimple, I am NOT wrong, this is iPTV we are talking about, NOT VDSL. Bell TV for Condo's is VDSL.

There are to my knowledge several Condo's in Toronto with iPTV and they have had it for some considerable time I believe at least another 25 or so Condo's in Montreal have iPTV too.

Jagadis is part of a small trial area using iPTV in residential SFU's (Single Famaily Units).