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Looking to leave BEV for Star Choice

4K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  Montrealer 
#1 ·
I posted this in the Star Choice/BEV thread but thought I might get other input here.
As the title says I am looking to leave BEV for Star Choice. I have several questions.
My number one question is if the HD receiver, 505, has the same freezing problem BEV's 6100 has. I have had my 6100 for a year now. It has gone from useless to ok to somewhat useless in the year. Some nights it is unusable and others it is fine. Very annoying to watch an SD signal simply because your HD receiver can`t allow you to watch the program in HD.
Does Star Choice still not simsub in HD?
My rain fade is getting worse. I understand Star Choice's technology makes it less prone to rain fade. Is this true? I am in Toronto if this makes a difference.
Two people on my street have Star Choice and both have dish mounted on roof. This would make snow clearing impossible. My BEV dish is on side of house. IF dish can get line of sight I assume it can be mounted there. If not what do you do about snow if you can't get to dish to clean it?
If dish can be located at side can I use existing BEV wires for connection. While they are on the outside of the house they are run neatly and all TVs would be in same location. I need 1 HD receiver and 3 SD receivers if it makes any difference.
Lastly if I buy receivers from Best Buy or Futureshop do I still get free installation or must I buy from Star Choice to get this?
Thanks for any answers.
 
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#2 ·
This is not a good time to switch to *C. They are currently overwhelmed with service issues related to recent upgrades. A friend of mine picked up a 505 recently to ugprade to HD, but he hasn't been able to get through to *C to schedule a dish upgrade after waiting on hold for more than an hour three times in the last few weeks. If I were you, I would wait a few months to let things settle down. I'm sure others will disagree though. :cool:
 
#3 ·
What is the link between getting an install and customer service being busy?

Get the system, call at 2:36 am, or 3:41, or 4:07

Yes you can keep the cables, but will have to replace the rest.

-gmd
 
#4 ·
So you recommend waking up at 3am to be able to order *choice?
It's not a good sign, when you have new equipment that you have paid for, but can't arrange an installation
You should be able to use all of your existing cabling
In most cases, if you can get *choice, you should be able to get bell at the same location (*choice is at 110? I think, and Bell, 82 &91, or aimed a bit to the left)
Have a quick look at your current dish, and picture it aimed a few degrees south, if it looks clear, you should have no problems
Hopefully you don't have to wake up in the wee hours to get set up
 
#12 ·
So you recommend waking up at 3am to be able to order *choice?
The point is that you're not locked between Emily's 8-8 Eastern time schedule.

I had asked a question to "Jim" a few days ago, and Star Choice gave *me* a call last night. Now that's service.

Join the gang, I'm sure you'll love it!

-gmd
 
#7 ·
friend of mine picked up a 505 recently to ugprade to HD, but he hasn't been able to get through to *C to schedule a dish upgrade after waiting on hold for more than an hour three times in the last few weeks.
Turn on a movie and utilize your speaker phone. Especially for a dish upgrade. They must take like 2 minutes to book once your through and there is no call from that point thereafter (hopefully).
 
#8 ·
I have a 505, had it for about 5 months now, it has locked up 2 times, but both were before the new update and guide. And in both cases a reset of the receiver cured my problem. As for rain fade, I've had that problem, but I'm convinced it's because of a crappy install. I've had both BEV and now *Choice, and in my opinion *Choice is way better, for many reasons, but mostly because of the great customer service. Switch! you won't regret it.
 
#9 ·
TRUE, rain fade is less a factor on *C's linear polarization.
Form Toronto, the *C birds are more Westerly than the Bev birds.
The sit roughly over Central Canada at 107 and 111 degrees.
The standard eliptical dish will fit nicely over the Bell "J-Tube" mount and the cabling is re-usable as well.
The supplied LNB is a dual look with intrgrated switch and provides for 4 coax outputs, so your 1 HD and 3 SD receivers are NO PROBLEM.

Like the Bev 9200, *C DVR 530 needs 2 coax's, so keep that in mind if you think that might be in your future.

The dish can be mounted high or low, as long as you have a clear line of sight.

Part of the Bev rain fade may be technical at the satellite as they are currently struggling to maintain adequate power.
Conversely, the ANIK fleet used by *C is in good health.
In addition this time of year is Sun Transit season and all providers are likely to experience momentary outages.

As for wait times, well, the longer you wait to call them, the longer you'll be missing great products and services.

Historically Bev firmware has a tendency to go from bad to worse, while *C firmware starts off a little rough and evolves consistency in the right direction. Your 505 now has several versions behind it and is well on it's way to being a fine receiver, particularly witht he last round or 2 of new code sporting an new advanced interface.

Welcome aboard.
 
#11 ·
if you need more than 4 sat cables you would need a 4x8 switchbox available from SC.

You would run 4 cables from the satellite direct to the switchbox. It would be best to have the switchbox somewhere inside out of the weather, like your basement. I believe it also requires A/C power, so another reason for inside. From there you can send out up to 8 signals to your various receivers.

I think the cost is $99 but because you are not a SC customer yet, you may be able to get all of this included. Not sure on that one.
 
#13 ·
I see Starchoice has a Christmas sale on. I have decided to switch from BEV and I have a couple of questions. I had originally thought of a DSR for my Sony LCD TV. With the sale price I am tempted to go for the DVR. However this set is located in the bedroom. How noisey is it when recording and when not recording? IE will it affect sleeping. I also have seen a thread on sound drops from Detroit. Would I be better with the Buffalo feeds? My last question is does Starchoice offer RDSHD? Thank you for any replies.
 
#14 ·
"IE will it affect sleeping.¨
It depends how sensitive you are to noise, and blinking blue led lights at night. I personnally would not be able to have it in my bedroom because of the lights. Once in a while it gets a little noisier than other times. Also, since updates to the guide happen overnight, I have no clue if it will create more noise (my PVR is not in my bedroom).

SC offers RDSHD if you have a french/bilingual package. Not sure if it is part of the english packages.

Since HD is Detroit only (East), I chose Buffalo for the SD feed anyway, but I only watch one show on PBS Buffalo, so I can't comment on the sound drops.
 
#15 ·
The SD Detroit feeds are fine. The Buffalo feeds have extremely poor PQ. the Detriot HD feeds do have a few issues, but have noticeably improved since May. FOXEHD seems to be audio drop free now. PBS has been fixed. ABC (WXYZ) is having some audio issues where the background music is louder than the dialogue, but surely they will fix it. Detroit is a HUGE dma.
 
#16 ·
RDSHD is available as part of a French sports package on the English programming side - it's RDS+RDI for $4.99 a month, I believe. RDSHD is automatic once you have the SD version.

And RDSHD is free of charge for everyone until January 1, 2008 as a promo, so you can add it then I suppose.
 
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