Shaw’s DCT700 – In Depth Review

[lipdog]

is the DCT700 available? in saanich,victoria.bc thanks

[Shaw Guru]

Best to call into the local office and they can check your account and area to see if the product is available yet.

[Whitecapsfan]

The DCT 700 has been available in Victoria for the last month. I picked one up last weekend.

[Greg At Home]

Very informative forum... thx all!

Has anyone had success getting off the hook from the $1.99 per month per additional terminal charge that Shaw asks for?

I currently have 2 TVs, plus a PC with a Sabre dual tuner card on Windows Media Center. I currently have an all analog setup. So, for $55 each (Victoria, BC), I could pick up 4 of these, but shaw will end up charging me $6/mo just for the pleasure of buying and using their DCTs? Seems a bit over the top to me... certainly a barrier to moving into the digital world

My other question RE: DCT700; I understand that these have composite outputs in addition the standard coax output. My dual TV tuner card has 2 coax inputs, plus 2 s-video and 2 pairs of composite audio inputs... an inconvenient mismatch for the video transfer. Is there even such thing as a composite video to S-Video cable conversion available?

Thx!

[Dr.Dave]

Originally Posted by Greg At Home

Is there even such thing as a composite video to S-Video cable conversion available?

Don't all the Saber cards come with a composite to S-Video adaptor?

[Greg At Home]

Originally Posted by Dr.Dave

Don't all the Saber cards come with a composite to S-Video adaptor?

Thx for the response

My tuner card (Saber 2020) comes with 2 adapters to convert female RCA to RF type male adapter (as seen in the 2nd diagram here). According to the manual documentation, these are "NTSC to PAL antenna adaptors", which doesn't really apply to me in this case. Unfortunately, there was nothing for composite to S-video, and nothing of this description was outlined in the package contents.

I suppose I could just use the RF connections directly, but of course that will sacrifice the quality somewhat.

[Dr.Dave]

Sorry Greg, I was looking at the Saber DA-1N1-E Combo Analog/Digital TV Tuner Card that has it included.

You can try part no. 1511239 at the thesourcecc.ca or in store. It seems a little pricey, but at least there's one "source" (ha ha).

[Shaw Guru]

And to answer the other question about getting around the $1.99/month fee for each DCT. Unfortunately that is not likely to happen. I have seen it happen only a handful of times and it is almost always due to human error in putting the order through. Once someone else finds it they are supposed to correct it. Sorry.

[talldude123]

Does the $49 DCT 700 include the free PPV movies and the monthly credits?

[Shaw Guru]

Shaw hasn't done free PPV credits in a couple years and the monthly credits have been replaced with a 1 month free preview for new customers.

[talldude123]

that's too bad...if it was still in effect YOU would be losing money ($15 in PPV's, $100 in credits)

[TallGuyJG]

I have a choice of 2500 or 700 for roughly the same price. I am aware of most of the differences (eg. outputs) between them...

Does anyone know whether the DCT700 picture is better than the 2500 for basic cable? I live in Vancouver and, as I understand it, basic cable is analog, so tuned as such by the 2500 but converted to digital by the 700.

Regards

[talldude123]

Shaw Geru (or anybody that knows Shaw well), will Shaw deliver the DCT700 to your door for a small fee, instead of it being delivered to your home and added to your bill?

[Shaw Guru]

Originally Posted by talldude123

Shaw Geru (or anybody that knows Shaw well), will Shaw deliver the DCT700 to your door for a small fee, instead of it being delivered to your home and added to your bill?

Shaw does have a program to mail the DCT 700 if you choose to have that. Or if you have time you can pick it up free of charge at the local office in most cases. (If it is available in your area.)

[Shaw Guru]

Originally Posted by TallGuyJG

I have a choice of 2500 or 700 for roughly the same price. I am aware of most of the differences (eg. outputs) between them...

Does anyone know whether the DCT700 picture is better than the 2500 for basic cable? I live in Vancouver and, as I understand it, basic cable is analog, so tuned as such by the 2500 but converted to digital by the 700.

Regards

The DCT 700 actually does not convert the analogue signal to digital but actually receives a digital signal duplicate of the channel.
For example CBS send a digital signal to Shaw. They pass that on to the DCT 700 and it puts a digital quality signal on your TV. They also convert the digital signal to analogue to put out to all those customers in the cable plant who have an older DCT or no DCT at all.
Plus the DCT 700 is about 1/10th the size. If you are looking for S-Video and optical spdif out then go with the 2500 though.