It's Official: MTS HD is now available

[hugh]

The following comes from a press release just issued.

To receive MTS HDTV service, customers must sign up with MTS TV, have an HDTV capable television, and purchase an RG3000 HD Residential Gateway for $349 plus taxes and $99 installation fee from MTS.

For only $4.99 per month customers can receive access to up to seven HD Channels including: CBC HD from Toronto (CBLT); ABC HD from Seattle (KOMO); CBS HD from Seattle (KIRO); FOX HD from Seattle (KCPQ); NBC HD from Seattle (KING); PBS HD from Seattle (KCTS); and Rogers Sportsnet HD.

As a special offer, MTS will waive the monthly service fee for customers who make a two year commitment to HDTV service.

In addition to enjoying the amazing picture and sound of HDTV, MTS TV customers can also enjoy great MTS Bundle savings. MTS High Speed Internet, MTS TV and MTS Mobility services can be bundled in any combination for savings of $10 or $15 a month.

[hugh]

Channel Linup
The following was posted by tofurky in the old MTS HD thread and I reproduce here since folks will be asking.

51-CBC HD (CBLT)
52-ABC HD (KOMO)
53-CBS HD (KIRO)
54-FOX HD (KCPQ)
55-NBC HD (KING)
56- PBS HD (KCTS)
58 - Sportsnet HD

Frequently Asked Questions from MTS

Will I get a separate MTS High Definition TV bill?

No, the monthly charge will be added to your regular MTS bill.

How will Standard Definition programs appear on my High Definition TV?

How Standard Definition channels appear on your High Definition TV will be determined by how you adjust your settings on your HD Television. You may have the option of converting (stretching) the standard definition picture into widescreen format or viewing the program with black bars on each side of the program.

What types of outputs are available on the RG3000 High Definition Set Top Box?

The RG3000 High Definition Set Top Box has multiple outputs including: Component (YPbPr), Composite (CVBS), S-Video, Coaxial, and AC-3 Optical Audio.


Can I watch regular standard definition shows through my RG3000 Set Top Box?

Yes, both High Definition channels and Standard Definition channels can be viewed through the RG3000 High Definition Set Top Box. Changing channels between the two will be the same as changing between two Standard Definition channels.

How do I access On Demand Services through my MTS High Definition TV?

To access MTS On Demand Services such as MTS Video On Demand, MTS Weather On Demand, MTS Games On Demand, etc., you must switch to your Standard Definition set top box. Access to MTS On Demand Services using your RG3000 High Definition set top box will be available in the coming months.

Using your original TV remote control (not the MTS TV remote control), switch to the appropriate Video Source for the Standard Definition Set Top Box. If your Standard Definition Set Top Box is connected to your television set via a coaxial cable, you must switch to channel 4, 8, or 11. If your Standard Definition Set Top Box is connected to your television via S-Video or Composite (RCA) cable, you must switch to the Video input where it is connected.

The video input may have different labels depending on your TV set, but some common ones include: Video 1, Video 2, or AUX Your High Definition Set Top Box should be connected to your television set via Component cables. The Component input may have different labels depending on your TV set, but some common ones include: Video 1, Video 2, Component 1, Component 2, or AUX.

[Dr.Dave]

For anyone that's interested, news release link: mts.ca/news

More info at: mts.ca/hdtv

Installation is $99

[sctb1]

Why are most of the feeds from Seattle? Looking at the guide, primtime shows don't start until 10PM.

[Dr.Dave]

I believe MTSTV gets their content from Cancom (Shaw) and that's probably why they offer the same channel lineup as Shaw. I suspect they will probably add more HD channels later but didn't want to hold up the HD rollout while those negotiations took place.

BTW Hugh added the info from my previous post, making it redundant.

[Derfel]

Well, that's not very competitive. Maybe I will be going Shaw after all... *sigh*

[magnet]

Umm, Cancom doesn't have KOMO... They have to be getting it from Bell.

[Derfel]

Well, I've already called Shaw and they sound ready to deal on the box and installation. Sweet.

EDIT: Nevermind, they aren't even willing to come close to dealing now that they've taken a look at the MTS package. Not competitive at all.

I'm going to wait and see if they release a better box soon with PVR and/or HDMI. No sense going with this and having to buy a better box later. Besides, the Seattle feeds is about the dumbest thing ever.

[Hairball]

One thing that concerns me , is the STB is MPEG 2 . What kind of bit rates can they send down VDSL?

[Derfel]

Well, they're using a separate phone line to send the HDTV signal... and my current line runs 20mbit, and they only allow one HD stream at a time, so...

[hugh]

Longer term, I think the restriction on number of televisions and only one HD stream is going to really limit the growth of MTS TV and IPTV.

A lot of homeowners have more than 2 tv sets and those are the homes subscribing to lots of channels!

Umm, Cancom doesn't have KOMO... They have to be getting it from Bell.

Good catch.

I am surprised by the lack of Discovery HD, TSN HD and TMN HD.

To me those three are pretty critical. You can do without CTV, CBC, Global but movies (TMN), sports (TSN) and nature (discovery) seem to be important for many of the folks around here.

[Derfel]

I didn't even NOTICE the lack of TSN HD. Wow, now it becomes totally worthless. Way to go MTS - work on releasing HDTV, and then completely bullocks it up. This isn't at all a competitive package, not against Shaw, BEV or Starchoice. I'm really disappointed, and am looking at migrating to another provider in the next week or so now.

[Dr.Dave]

Originally Posted by hugh

Longer term, I think the restriction on number of televisions and only one HD stream is going to really limit the growth of MTS TV and IPTV.

A lot of homeowners have more than 2 tv sets and those are the homes subscribing to lots of channels!

Right now they can do 1 HD on 1 pair and 3 standard digital channels and internet on the second pair. That would cover most people's needs for the mid-term. Longer term VDSL2 and better MPEG4 compression will allow more HD streams.

[canuck999999]

Wow, there offering is a little underwhelming, on top of that the HD box that they are using does MPEG 2 instead of MPEG 4, which wouldn't be a horrible problem if they had a lot more bandwidth to play with. Also the timeshifted only channels is not cool as a standard offering, as an option it wouldn't be a problem.
In saying that, does anyone here have the service and if so does it look any good ?

[hugh]

canuck, check the earlier thread on MTS HD. A couple of folks had and were quite complimentary.

Right now they can do 1 HD on 1 pair and 3 standard digital channels and internet on the second pair. That would cover most people's needs for the mid-term

Thanks for the input. So you could have 1 HD and 3 SD channels at one time. So if each TV was using one channel then you could have four televisions.

If that's the case, can we assume that a dual tuner HD PVR is out of the question?