Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

Rogers Ignite TV (IPTV) Discussions.

357K views 1K replies 88 participants last post by  rookie8155 
#1 ·
This thread is for Rogers new IPTV (Ignite TV) discussions:

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/about-rogers-iptv

I have been contacted recently regarding Ignite TV (IPTV). I would like to share the following information, which may provide a good summary for those who need to know some of the technical information. The Ignite CSR was very knowledgeable addressing my questions well.

1. Since I currently own 4 Rogers boxes, I wanted to run at least a couple of these in parallel with Ignite. This is not possible. You need to switch completely.

2. I have existing Internet and Home Phone (yes, I still have a home phone) but even those change somewhat and become part of the Ignite bundle.

3. Ignite does not run Navigatr firmware. It runs something different and has numerous “nice to have features” like searches that can include Netflix or YouTube. If you wish to see what the interface looks like, search the web for “YouTube Xfinity” which is the Comcast system. Or go to YouTube and search “Comcast Xfinity.” or use other similar search terms. Rogers is not identical, but similar. If you search the Rogers Website for “Ignite TV”, there are several additional links available.

4. There is one “Modem” that can be placed anywhere in the home (what we usually call the demarcation point). The various boxes that you would use for various TVs in your home are wireless (can also be wired to the modem, but the modem only has 2 Ethernet ports). The “modem” takes care of everything – TV, Home Phone, Internet, however it doesn’t have internal battery backup, so I would suggest a UPS for anyone considering Ignite. If there are issues with the wireless operation, Rogers will supply hardware to make things work (like a switch). A UPS may or may not keep the system up because the battery backup in the Rogers node near your home may be missing or useless. In this case, everything (including home phone) will be down. Most people have a cell phone, but be aware.

5. From the FAQs it looks like you can record up to 8 simultaneous recordings.

6. There is no Hard Drive to save your recordings. Your recordings are allocated to a space “in the cloud” (Rogers Servers?). You can record up to 200 hours before programming would automatically be deleted (oldest first). There also appears to be a one-year time limit, so no archiving beyond that. In the future there may be an option for more storage at additional cost, but this should be more than adequate for most families. It appears that you can download recordings to an app, so there is a bit of archiving possible that way.

7. All the TV set top boxes are 4K and the 4K channels are included at this time.

8. The remote has a voice command option (you press a button and talk into the remote). This allows you to search for programming, set recordings, etc. It also allows “voice guidance” (for visually impaired - see the YouTube Videos, etc.)

9. The FF and REW speeds should be similar to what we have with Navigatr on a NB3/9865, however, I would have to check myself to see how “responsive” the commands are when compared to the 9865, which is “instant” when it comes to pressing Play/Pause, etc. I know I could not put up with the slow response that I see when using VOD for example. I do not watch any live TV, only recordings, so the button presses must be acted on instantly. There is apparently a programmable “skip” feature, which allows you to skip forward various times (in say minutes). I don’t know the limitations of this skip feature, but perhaps we can get feedback once people have Ignite in their homes and use these functions.

10. The TV boxes only have HDMI out. If you wish to connect to an older devices without HDMI, you’ll need to purchase a converter.

There are way too many features for me to go into in this one post, the YouTube videos and searches of Rogers Website will provide lots of additional information for those interested.



Here's a summary of things that IgniteTV doesn't do.

  • TV Call Display
  • “on” Channel (goes to last channel instead)
  • No DD5.1 on cloud recordings (is available live and OD)
  • Time off? (extend recordings) Done Automatically
  • Latency/ping issues as discussed in the Rogers Forum
  • Emergency Alert doesn’t cancel
  • Recordings deleted after one year (without warning).
  • No Guest Mode on Modem/Router

Although I’m not going to discuss exact pricing, it will vary with your package. For example, I currently have the grandfathered Ultimate VIP with Movies. In order to get something similar with Ignite TV, I’d be on the “Premiere” TV package, plus have to pay a bit more for some channels that are not in Premiere. I was provided with the option to have 500 mbps/unlimited Ignite Internet, along with a Home Phone package similar to what I currently have. Unfortunately, the price of all this was a lot more than I’m currently paying. I therefore declined to switch at this time. At this price point, I don’t believe that Rogers will get many “average customers” to switch. There are no appreciable "discounts" for Ignite. This price point appears to be for early adopters or people in the top 5%. It’s not a matter of “too little, too late” because the technology appears to be great, but I would say it’s “too expensive, too late.” This will be a tough sell for Rogers with many people looking at cord cutting or cord minimizing - not at increasing their bills.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I was also approached, yeah it looked good at first but my financial situation is tight due to me having 2 young kids and the added (expensive) expenses of daycare, baby sitting, interest rates going up, and extra curricular activities for my kids, etc. its very hard for a young family to spend more when we are already stretched to the max, I have not been able to put sufficient money aside into savings for a rainy day, and I have been known to be very good with my money so what does that tell you on how stretched I am, so I have decided to pass on this offer for now, even my parents thought about it but my dad is retired and on a fixed income, my mom barely gets enough hours in a week to make decent money, so yeah I was probably targeted due to my knowledge but they were not aware of my financial situation so im going to pass on this as well

As with anything, if the economy flourishes, people have more disposable income, but I think they maybe waited a little too long on this and a LOT of people I know are struggling financially in life and these people should be excluded from even thinking about signing up to such premium services until things get better
 
#3 ·
This caught me by surprise but it's nice to see Rogers rolling out IPTV. Some of the features can be found by going to https://www.rogers.com/consumer/support/tv/IgniteTV. The Rogers.com TV support page has an added box labelled "Filter by device:" which has an Ignite TV option that leads to the same page.

Ignite TV seems to have the ability to manage and watch recorded TV from the browser or app. I've got to wonder if changes made for Ignite TV created incompatibilities with the existing Rogers Anywhere TV service and forced Rogers to cancel those features. The timing makes it appear likely. When push comes to shove, a new service like Ignite TV might take precedence over legacy services in the minds of project managers.

I tried accessing Ignite TV through the login page. No go. It knows we don't have Ignite TV and won't even provide a preview. I found it interesting that accessing Ignite TV brought up links to Comcast.com, Xfinity.net and Cisco.com. Those are most likely for licensing. It finally lands on Rogers.com with a link to AdobeTM.com. Is Rogers still using Adobe Flash for Ignite TV?! I guess they haven't turned the corner as much as I'd hoped.

The Rogers.com Ignite TV login page has a message that says, "Don’t have Ignite TV yet? Learn more by visiting the Rogers website." Unfortunately it doesn't have a link and, apart from 57's link and the obscure and limited support information, there appears to be absolutely nothing about Ignite TV on the Rogers website. I guess Ignite TV is still not meant for widespread public adoption. This is an exciting new product. Whatever happened to building up product demand and anticipation with marketing? That's yet another gigantic fail on Rogers part.
 
#4 ·
Does anyone have any idea of what hardware, apart from the Xfinity TV box, is fully compatible with Ignite TV? I assume the Xfinity TV hardware will be rebranded with an Ignite TV logo. The ultimate goal would be to be able to use a HTPC or media device to replace the awful, overpriced NextBox hardware.

Can anyone share the prices for the new Ignite TV packages and bundles? My guess is that Rogers wants to bring their prices up to the same levels as comparable IPTV packages and bundles from Bell.
 
#5 ·
57, I am just curious about the pricing.
You mentioned it was quite a bit more expensive than what you are currently paying.
I would like to know how it is priced relative to Bell Fibe TV's pricing.
In other words, if they do not offer a more compelling service than Bell Fibe, and are priced higher, then they will lose before they even begin.
Can you provide a rough guestimate about how this is priced versus Bell Fibe's offerings ?
 
#6 ·
I will not provide my pricing information. You can get an idea of the cost by looking at the "list/regular (non-promo) prices" for the TV packages, plus the "list/regular price" for the Internet package - I believe it's 500 Ignite unlimited. That would be the rough total, perhaps a bit less. So, you're getting Home Phone (Deluxe, Canada LD only in my case) "for free" (roughly). I don't know how this compares with Bell, but you'd probably have to look at their regular pricing and not their promo (loss leader) pricing.

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/tv#/packages

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/internet?setLanguage=en

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/home-phone?setLanguage=en

The package comes with one "modem" and one TV box. Extra boxes are $10/mo. Installation is $150 (not wave-able)
Channels outside the list in the TV packages are separate. For example, TMN/HBO is about $20/mo, Can/US timeshifting is about $6/mo, etc.

One additional note. I wasn't sure whether the CSR was offering it just to me, or because I would be on "Premiere", but he stated that I could "swap" any "regular priced" channels contained in my package for another "regular priced" channels outside the package. Again, this may not be available to all.
 
#7 ·
It looks like the internet + Premier TV bundle starts at $205. That's the same as the current non-discounted prices for non-IPTV packages. As already mentioned the are no discounts, even for people who already have them. The minimum internet available is 500Mbps unlimited which could push up some peoples' cost significantly. Didn't ask if Ignite TV could be purchased separately but the internet plan requirement gives me the impression that it cannot.

Add to that,
1. Extra Ignite TV boxes at $10/mo. (One is included in the price.) That's more reasonable than NextBox rentals.
2. A few channels and theme packs that are missing from current standard packaging, such as US superstations.
3. Premium channels such as TMN/HBO, Superchannel, Hollywood Suite, etc.

One nice feature is the ability to pick channels. For example, the standard bundles appear to include a selection or swap of up to 80 channels of your choosing. That's a lot different from the current fixed bundle of channels with a choice of one bonus channel. Don't know which channels are on the list (or missing from the list) for selection.
 
#9 ·
The thing that bothers me is being forced to pay for the high end internet package to get TV. Bell tried something similar with Fibe but stopped after a couple of years. It's very anti-competitive and probably aimed at TPIAs. I wonder what the CRTC would have to say if enough people filed complaints.
 
#10 ·
Bell has not stopped doing that. They will allow customer to have Bell Fibe TV on it’s own now but no discounts or free hardware rental so basically forcing customers to take a bundle. Sooner or later customer will realize that it is a trap.
All these services from Bell and Rogers are steps backwards. The future should be streaming with no strings attached like in Europe.
I am not sure if every country offers it but in some of European countries they have many streaming services with individual channels or packages even sports and news.
No need for fancy hardware and any internet will do. Even US is behind Europeans when it comes to streaming options.
 
#11 ·
New customer offers, bundle discounts and free rentals are the trap. It's usually cheaper in the long run to shop for internet, phone and TV separately. TPIAs for internet, VoIP for phone and satellite TV with purchased hardware are often quite a bit cheaper than bundles. Third party wireless phone and owned hardware is usually a lot cheaper as well. The only reason I am with Rogers for internet and TV is because they offer discounts that match cheaper competitors. If the discounts stop, I'm gone. I've ditched both Shaw and Bell in the past when they stopped being competitive. I've ditched Rogers, Teksavvy and others for substandard service. I'm close to ditching Rogers again over their lousy NextBox TV hardware.

I'm certainly not paying what Rogers is asking for Ignite TV, especially since it's unproven. It could turn out to be a quagmire, especially in cities outside the GTA where there are fewer Rogers employees to participate in the preliminary testing phase. Their cable internet and HDTV services were both atrociously unreliable when introduced here. The tech people in Toronto could only say it was fine there so it must be my equipment. The field tech people they sent out would rarely arrive when there was an issue. The internet service is rock solid now but that is a fairly recent occurrence. I have no reason to believe that Ignite TV will be any better or even as good as the current service. They need to prove that it works well and it's worth it before I lay out large sums for installation and internet upgrades I don't need.
 
#12 ·
Following a period of employee trials, national carrier Rogers has officially begun to roll out its Ignite TV IPTV platform. According to a Rogers customer service representative who spoke with MobileSyrup over the phone, the carrier began rolling out the service to subscribers in Ontario two days ago.
While a Rogers spokesperson told MobileSyrup that the carrier isn’t publicly advertising pricing, the Rogers customer service representative said that subscribers can choose from eight different Ignite TV packages that specifically include use of the new IPTV platform.

Starter package with 500Mbps internet: $164.99
Starter package with 1Gbps internet: $179.99
Select package with 500Mbps internet: $174.99
Select package with 1Gbps internet: $189.99
Popular package with 500Mbps internet: $189.99
Popular package with 1Gbps internet: $204.99
Premium package with 500Mbps internet: $204.99
Premium package with 1Gbps internet: $219.99

Each package also comes with home phone service that provides subscribers with unlimited Canada-wide calling. While users don’t need home phone services to use Ignite TV, opting out of home phone service doesn’t save any money upfront. Additionally, if subscribers decide they want to include home phone service at a later date, they’ll be charged an additional $49.99.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/06/07/...e-tv-iptv-platform-to-subscribers-in-ontario/
 
#13 ·
Premium package with 500Mbps internet: $204.99
That matches what I was told. The channel swap feature could be advantageous. The Premium package has 80 channels that can be swapped. Don't know how many swap channels the Popular and Select packages provide. It might be possible to save $15 or $30 with those and swap in enough channels to prevent purchasing the full Premium package. Current conventional packages are $25 and $50 cheaper so it looks like Rogers has taken that into account.

So here is a possible scenario. Customer switches from the Premium TV package to Popular or Select for a $15-$30 saving and swaps channels to effectively maintain current TV viewing habits. Customer also drops the current land line and switches to Rogers phone for another $35-$50 saving. Customer takes a $20-$50 hit on the extra cost of the upgraded internet (based on the 3 next lower priced internet plans.) Depending on current internet, phone and new TV packages, the total saving is $0-$60 which might match current package discounts.
 
#14 ·
Pricing:
I was offered, switching from Bell, savings of $85/month for 24 months. Net $120/month for Popular TV, 150 download, home phone with local calling only. $15 activation.
 
#18 ·
A few questions off the top of my head, in case anyone knows. I presume Rogers has to come out and install the service vs. a self install? If you are upgrading from the legacy (traditional) Rogers equipment to IPTV, is Rogers taking the old equipment back? What if you own that equipment? How many IPTV terminals/receivers can you have on one account? Is it rental only or can you buy? Is the new remote IR or RF? Does it work with the legacy remotes? Also, I presume legacy hardware (i.e. Nextbox) will continue to be supported and updated or will it be like SARA with legacy support only?
 
#19 ·
@alebowgm : Please check out post 1 of this thread since some of your questions are addressed there.

1. Yes they come out. No self-install at this time.
2. Yes, they take the equipment back if rented. You can sell it on Kijiji if you own it.
3. Don't know about the number, but I suspect it's a lot.
4. Rental only - $10/mo per box beyond the first.
5. Don't know about the remote being IR or RF, but it also has voice commands.
6. Probably won't work with the legacy remotes (1056, etc).
7. Nextboxes will continue to be supported until everyone is forced onto IPTV - perhaps in a few years. I don't expect any "updates" other than perhaps firmware if there are issues. Rogers is focused on IPTV. I don't know about SARA and how long they'll continue to support it.
 
#20 ·
Some would say that Rogers has already withdrawn support for NextBox. Despite promoting ownership through a rent to own campaign, they won't repair owned equipment. Firmware updates are trivial at best, chaotic at times, without a significant number of bug fixes or improvements for some time. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of outstanding bugs that will probably never be fixed, many of which have been there since the NextBox was introduced. The NextBox hardware rights have been sold off to a holding company that likely has little expertise in the field and probably no interest in improving the product.

At least Ignite TV is using Comcast X1 equipment and software. Unlike the NextBox, the Comcast X1 platform is owned and developed by a major player in the North American cable market that will continue to support the software and hardware for their own systems for years to come. They also have significantly more capital to support ongoing development of the product than Rogers.

It's like Rogers took a page out of Bell's playbook but almost 20 years too late. Bell licensed Dish Network technology for their satellite TV service and has reaped significant benefits over the years. Among those are having the first PVR in Canada, the first HD PVR in Canada, a reliable source of affordable technology and equipment and financial benefits. For once, maybe Rogers has made a good decision regarding their digital TV equipment. Let's hope they don't screw it up again.
 
#21 ·
We have a Nextbox and an ancient 8300 PVR not even HD. We have 100Mbps internet.
Reading all the above I think it is high time the 8300 had an 'accident' and was replaced by a new
Nextbox before one is forced into the new system. Perhaps one will be able to delay Ignite for a few years.

Some points not mentioned explicitly. If all the internet is wifi do rogers provide free adapters...capable of 500 Mbps...which suggests the have to be USB3. My main pcs can certainly manage 1Gbps as can my router ( just to one port at a time) buy I have not heard of a reliable 1Gbps wifi system yet...

And what about Ethernet. I live near to a major Uni and I purposely have wired connections to the machines that do banking and other financial transaction


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#22 ·
Haven't seen any specs on the router being used but I doubt the internet is wifi only. Even if it is, a compatible AC router could be placed near it to achieve at least 300Mbps throughput to feed the wired network.

If all the internet is wifi do rogers provide free adapters...capable of 500 Mbps...which suggests the have to be USB3.
PCs can use PCIe wifi cards which will usually outperform USB wifi adapters. Many other devices have wifi built in. Individual devices will typically make a 300Mbps, 150Mbps or slower link and real throughput will typically be less than half the link speed. Some newer devices might make a 600Mbps link with maximum 300Mbps throughput under ideal conditions. To get anything near 500Mbps or 1Gbps real throughput over wifi, identical routers must be used under ideal conditions.
 
#23 ·
You are correct. A PCIE card in a desktop can provide all the bandwidth needed for nearly anything!

802.11ac may theoretically get close to 500 Mbps but I think not in practice especially if it has to provide signal the length of even a small house like mine...with its solid lathe and plaster.
Now if the demarc device can be placed in the middle of the house on Rogers coax which is already in place and has an Ethernet port, just one will do, it will be placed close enough for my tvs and computers...
I wonder if their built in router will have a bridge mode for the internet connections even if the tv boxes are WiFi.

As an aside I wonder if the " WiFi will curdle your brain people" will be up in arms with this....they have been quiet recently.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#24 ·
Another concern I have is the router. The tendency these days is for ISPs to lock them down in order to make extra features like TV and phone work. Rogers is talking about adding lots of extra features to Ignite which could motivate them to lock it down even more. Rogers seems to be keeping quiet about what modem is provided and it may be proprietary to the X1 system. Until someone posts some details, we won't know about its capabilities.
 
#25 ·
That would be very annoying. Now I have a 'naked' Ethernet wire coming out of the modem with V4 and V6 at 100Mbps+ I really don't want any more stuff from Rogers...except a bit more speed but I don't need that. The reliability of my Internet connection must be in the 99.99% range if not better so I don't want an ISP controlled router in the system.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#26 ·
Based on what I'm reading here, this sounds like a total fiasco in the making.

From the price standpoint, I'm not sure that many people will be interested. And that may be a very important factor. Maybe Rogers will start forcing customers to switch, but that may be a risky game to play. Why not have high speed Internet only, in that case, and just use the ever growing online services (Netflix, Amazon, CraveTV, even sports channels).

Also, what are the real technical advantages of IPTV versus the old fashioned cable? I just don't see too many. I apologize if I'm missing something, since I admit that I don't know much about IPTV technology. Is the picture and sound quality supposed to be vastly superior to cable? To me, that is the most important question, speaking about TV.

The idea of storing your recordings on a cloud of some kind is not very appealing to me, especially if there will be a time limit of how long the recordings can last.

I just don't see too many WOW factors, especially with these projected prices.
 
#27 ·
I see it as Rogers using pricing to prevent quick adoption by a lot of users. The service currently appeals to early adopters who are renting NextBox equipment. The equipment we own would cost over $60/mo to rent. The purchase cost was amortized years ago. As long as it keeps working or cheap used replacements are available it's a cost effective option. Renting Ignite TV equipment would represent a significant cost increase in addition to the service cost increase.

A slow rollout is to Rogers advantage as it will allow them to scale the system up and iron out major bugs in an orderly fashion. I say that with some hesitation as Rogers has not worked out nearly enough bugs in the NextBox hardware and development support appears to be approaching end of life as far as Rogers is concerned.

As long as Rogers can keep churning existing NextBox equipment as rentals, they will keep promoting them. Renting out 5 year old equipment at prices that return their original cost in about two years is a profitable business plan. When that stops becoming cost effective due to equipment shortages and high failure rates, they will start actively promoting Ignite TV equipment to new customers.
 
Top