Star Choice in Elliot Lake, Ontario P5A-1C4

[Tembo]

Anyone in the Northern Ontario area care to help with some tips please?

We're moving next month to Elliot Lake and are convinced that *C is the way to go. As far as channels are concerned the only bad mark against them is that EURO NEWS is not carried.

We are planning initially on a 505 - but can we specify that we MUST have a 75cm dish rather than a 60cm one? We need a good solid HD signal and the larger dish can make a difference that far north.

Similarly is there any way to ensure that we don't get stuck with an old or refurbised receiver?

In Elliot Lake about 85% of all dishes we saw were BEVs, and none had the dual LNBs.

Does anyone know if there's a reason for this - or is BEV just marketed more successfully?

Thanks everyone for any help or suggestions.

[satellite]

Bell has more subscribers, plain and simple. How many of them are active, paying accounts is up for debate. People can use Bell dishes with Dish Network (US) receivers as well.

You can get a DSR505A receiver for $179 which is an ex-Voom receiver (a US satellite company) and may or may not have been active with them. If you want a brand new receiver, get the DSR505 for $229.

The dish size depends on what is required in the area, as far as I know Star Choice has specific regions where the 75 cm dish is required and areas where the 60 cm dish is required. You'd have to call them to see what would be provided in Elliot Lake, you usually can't request a specific size - the installers get stock of whatever is required in the area.

I wouldn't worry too much about the dish size - they will provide whatever is required to get good signal in the area.

[ARR]

Originally Posted by satellite

...You can get a DSR505A receiver for $179 which is an ex-Voom receiver (a US satellite company) and may or may not have been active with them. If you want a brand new receiver, get the DSR505 for $229.

It's my understanding that the "A" model just means they were manufactured with Voom firmware and front panels and the Unit Address #'s added to the Voom database, but were never shipped to Voom Customers.
Instead they were diverted to a re-birthing centre were the front panels got changed for StarChoice ones (Voom ones didn't use the clock display and had their logo screened on it), flashed with StarChoice firmware and repackaged in the proper boxes with new remotes and manuals.

While they are ex-Voom, they are not 'used' in the normal sense.

I can't see any real difference and saving a few bucks is OK with me.

They are, for all intensive purposes NEW receivers that just got re-branded at the last moment. No big deal.

Probably about the same difference as an Echostar Technologies receiver coming off the line as a DishNet Receiver and then being told to report to ExpressVu for duty and needing a new box, manual and faceplate and firmware tweak.

[bigb]

Hey,

I was speaking with a Technical rep at *C about the505a when my 505 last locked up. I was interested in them to start replacing some of my older legacy receivers. Anyway, I has told by her that there are actually 4 batches of 505's. 1 - Voom 550's that had been delivered to Voom by Motorola but never sent to customers. 2 - Voom 550's that Motorola still had in their warehouse and were never delivered to Voom. 3 - Voom 550's that had been sent out to retail and customers and may or may not have been activated on a Voom customer account. 4 - StarChoice 505's that were manufactured by Motorola to be Star Choice receivers, not converted Voom 550's.

That being said, the current 505 consists of groups 1 and 2, the current 505a is group 3. Once all of these are depleted, then they will move into group 4. This will probably be sometime off I would imagine.

[satellite]

It should also be noted that both the 505 and 505A have the same 1 year manufacturers warranty.

[Tembo]

Originally Posted by satellite

Bell has more subscribers, plain and simple. How many of them are active, paying accounts is up for debate. People can use Bell dishes with Dish Network (US) receivers as well.

You can get a DSR505A receiver for $179 which is an ex-Voom receiver (a US satellite company) and may or may not have been active with them. If you want a brand new receiver, get the DSR505 for $229.

The dish size depends on what is required in the area, as far as I know Star Choice has specific regions where the 75 cm dish is required and areas where the 60 cm dish is required. You'd have to call them to see what would be provided in Elliot Lake, you usually can't request a specific size - the installers get stock of whatever is required in the area.

I wouldn't worry too much about the dish size - they will provide whatever is required to get good signal in the area.

Thanks for the replies folks!

Satellite, my question regarding the dish was really to try finding out what *C is providing in the area. Surely in marginal weather a larger dish could pull in a signal that the smaller one won't.

Guess as a paying customer I just feel it should be my decision as to whether I want a bigger dish.

That's why I dumped Look-TV back in the 90s when they put on such a great display with their Hummers and nice high-gain yagis and then offered only the cra**y diamond antennas.

[satellite]

Originally Posted by Tembo

Satellite, my question regarding the dish was really to try finding out what *C is providing in the area. Surely in marginal weather a larger dish could pull in a signal that the smaller one won't.

Call Star Choice and they can tell you for sure that is provided in the area.
In theory, YES, the larger dish will pull in a signal the smaller one won't. However, the question is whether the weather actually gets that bad - I can't see it getting that bad in Northern Ontario.