Thinking Fibe, Questions..

[pshine]

We got a letter from Bell yesterday saying that as of Dec.13 our speed will be capped at Fibe 6. It said we were being given Fibe 16 until that time.... I did a few speed tests since we first got Fibe TV and we were always getting over 23Mbs on our line.
They said we could upgrade to Fibe 16 (for a price).
Oh well..... the honeymoon is over!

[torontodude]

Can recordings be password protected? Furthermore, can they be hidden in some way?

[Dr.Dave]

Recordings can't be hidden. Individual recording can't be password protected.

There are extensive parental controls that require a password to access content based on rating, channel, etc.

There is also a feature to mark a series as "Keep all episodes until I erase".

[Jam-ehz]

Well, 3 weeks ago Bell rang me up to let me know that Fibe was available (Woodbine/Danforth area), and it just coincided with our basement reno and upgrade from SDTV's so we decided to give it a go. Better to get them to run their cabling before the drywall goes up.

Seems like the same deal as most, 2 years PVR, $200 off installation, Fibe 12, etc.. we have home phone and our cell phones with bell as well, so I'm sure some more discounts will kick in as well.

Called Rogers to cancel, I explained where I'm going, and they pretty well said "Oh.. well, sorry to hear that. We'll send out your final bill for the remainder of the 30 days, have a nice day. Not a single attempt from the retention department to get me back, despite me looking to upgrade to HD and new internet. Easiest cancellation ever.

The installer was great, new line from across the street all the way in (DSLAM is at the end of my street), new coax everywhere through the basement and upstairs (drilling holes through concrete), poor bugger was here for over 8 hours straight.. heheh.. got my $59 installation's worth.

At the moment we just had a 26" LCD, and a 32" CRT. The picture was amazing on both, even the CRT.. way better than Rogers in terms of clarity.

This just pushed us into buying a 37" LCD last week to replace the 32", as the tube is starting to go (black dot in the middle of the screen). The guide interface is really great (takes up the whole screen!), everything's crystal clear, the Search function and PVR usage on any TV is priceless, and the internet is blazing at 1.5MB/s, even over wireless G and N.

And just in time to see the last 2 episodes of the Walking Dead in HD..

The only qualms are...
Channel setup is different than Rogers, which my wife is not impressed about, as we've been used to that for years.. Thankfully I can program a favourite channel list to represent the original Rogers 60 or so channels, and customize the main list to take out channels we'll never use. However, I do love that if you are watching a SD channel, just add a 1 to the beginning of the channel number to get its HD equivalent. Makes the transition so much easier.

I think the PVR is acting up, I've had to reboot it 3 times for different reasons..

• One day I told it to record a show, it says "Recording" but nothing shows up in the show list. Going to the guide, it tells me it "Will Record". Rebooting reveals the show, finally, recorded up to that point. This was just after I cancelled two recordings of the same show (one in SD, one in HD) so it might have gotten confused a bit.
• We were watching CTV news one night, and it froze. I could go to other channels and they worked, but going back to CTV froze that channel's screen. I could go into the guide, and it showed CTV playing in the PIP box it had. Rebooting fixed it.
• One night the audio and video started pausing/skipping every 5 seconds or so, regardless of the channel. Rebooting fixed it.

I called Bell, who advised me to keep an eye on it, and if more issues crop up they'll replace the PVR.

At least talking to the Bell rep has been pleasant, I'm sure they want to keep as many new customers happy while they boost the Fibe TV product around the neighbourhood. The installer told me that they're not as busy installing FibeTV as they'd like.

I for one am loving it, no regrets here. The provided remote is a great universal.. control my stereo for sound, TV for screen settings, all the while controlling the PVR. I have a programmable Harmony 550, but I've ended up using it very little lately.

[tgreg]

Originally Posted by Jam-ehz

I for one am loving it, no regrets here. The provided remote is a great universal.. control my stereo for sound, TV for screen settings, all the while controlling the PVR. I have a programmable Harmony 550, but I've ended up using it very little lately.

exact same experience here - I had planned on setting up my Harmony, but I like the Bell remote ... esp the +30 sec & -7 sec buttons!

[HoserHead]

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone has tried running a secondary fibetv receiver (not the main PVR) off a wireless bridge. I'd like to be able to use a TV in my bedroom with fibetv - currently it runs off a wireless RCA video broadcaster and the bell 9242's secondary tv port - but I don't have coax or ethernet running through my house. The wireless is 802.11n, of course.

[MCIBUS]

A few Questions

1) What are the demensions of the receiver and what colour is it(pics?)?

2) Are the receivers Dual tuner?(am aware they're HD)

3) If so to Q#3, do you need two coaxal cables to feed the receiver?

4) Is there a diagram showing how the receiveis hooked up from the receiver to where ever the conection is to the line from the Pole?

Tried searching but couldn't find the answer?

[Dr.Dave]

@MCIBUS

1. Pictures of the receivers are at http://fibetv.bell.ca/en/receivers/. A search of this forum for "dimensions" (spelled correctly) shows this:
   VIP1232 PVR - 12" x 11" x 2.75"
   VIP1200 STB - 10" x 8.5" x 2.2"
   
2. Fibe TV is IPTV and doesn't use tuners. It is similar to downloading several files on your computer. You can record and/or watch up to 4 channels at once (max of 2 HD at this time).
   
3. Fibe TV is connected to a special internet modem/router and can use either coax or Cat5 cables inside your home. Only one cable per box.
   
4. Fibe TV uses your existing telephone wiring.

[playmoremusic]

Hey MCIBUS

A few answers...

1)a) Motorola VIP 1232 HDPVR - 12"W x 11"D x 2.75"H

b) Motorola VIP 1200 HD - 10"W x 8.5"D x 2.2"H
The STB's have been re-branded by Bell and they look exactly like this(Click).

2)No

3)Here is a link for the "Fibe TV Reference Guide" you get from Bell after the install. There are detailed pictures of the front and back of the 1232 in said .pdf

4)Each STB gets connected to the modem supplied by bell which is attached to your phone line

I noticed that someone already answered as I was writing, but more information is always good, sorry about that Dr.Dave.

[MCIBUS]

Thanks guys.

I'm tring to make out but it looks a liitle confusing.

Do you get more then on r just one modem and is conected by phone line jack(like when you have BTV hooked up for PPV ordering) or does a cable run down to the modem?

So if the modem is in the basement is it conect to all the phone jacks there or do you need to runn cable from the modem to each receiver like if you where using Cablevision(Rogers) from a spliter?

Sotrry for the questions, but the way the show it in the PDF it doesn't show how its hooked up to each receiver?

[Dr.Dave]

MCIBUS, there are a number of variations for the installation of the modem/router and cabling. You only get one modem. If you have it installed in the basement, a coax cable could be connected to your existing coax cables if you are using Rogers or Bell Sat.

The phone line is split at the demarcation point where it enters the house using a filter so that the voice frequencies go to the existing phone jacks and the data frequencies go to the modem.

[playmoremusic]

MCIBUS

Each STB gets connected directly to the modem either through coax or cat5 cable.
There is one coax output and 5(could be 4,I'm not near the modem) cat5 outputs on the modem.
The only traditional phone line in use is the one that goes to the modem.

When they come for the install, they will go through the options and see what wiring you already have available and use it, or they will run new cable

If you only have coax in your home, they can split it.

The technicians that come to install FibeTV are surprisingly really good.

[MCIBUS]

Thanks guys

Now I get it.

From the phone jack(where line comes in from outside) gets wired into the modem and from there its connecting coax or what have you to each receiver.

If thats the case thats exactly what I wanted to know.

So basically if you have Cable or sat they use the same cable instead of connecting it to a cable spitter or SW44 switch they're just connect to the modem at one end and the Bell Fibe receiver at the other instead of a Rogers por BTV receiver.

If so then its pretty simple.

Thanks

Now only if Bell Fibe TV was available in Ottawa. Hopefully in two years, when my Rogers contract runs out.

[MCIBUS]

One thing?

Is it grey/black or silver?

In the Fibe TV Readers Guide it shows it Grey/Black.

In first link it shows them as silver?

So which is it?

[catechumen]

Originally Posted by tgreg

exact same experience here - I had planned on setting up my Harmony, but I like the Bell remote ... esp the +30 sec & -7 sec buttons!

I set up my Fibe TV with my harmony remotes and they work fantastic. I just programmed a couple of extra keys to handle the 30 second and 7 second skip forward and backwards. I also programmed two keys to do page up and page down in the guide. I'm using the Harmony 890.