[PhotoJim]

Access is a cooperatively-owned cable television provider in Saskatchewan. It was founded as Cable Regina and launched service in 1978. Over the past few years it has purchased independent cable operators in smaller Saskatchewan communities such as Yorkton, Estevan, and Weyburn and expanded the offerings there, hence the name change. It also provides high-speed Internet service and is deploying VOIP over the next few months.

Access uses Motorola DCT equipment in Regina and most of its smaller communities. The original box deployed was the 1000, which is still provided as a rental unit. The 2000 was sold as the standard box for a time. The 2500 is now the entry-level box (functionally the same as the 2000 with a few minor improvements). The 5100 was deployed as the first HDTV-compatible decoder but is no longer sold. The 6412 is the current top-end box, offering HDTV, 120-gigabyte PVR capability, and a second tuner which will permit recording of two programs while watching a previously recorded one (or recording one while watching a live broadcast). Currently the second tuner is not deployed but I understand Access is working on this as we speak.

Access' web site discusses the various offerings better than I probably can (http://www.accesscomm.ca) but basic analog cable is $19.95 per month, full analog cable (60 channels) is $39.95, basic cable plus basic Internet access (via cablemodem) is $29.95 and full digital cable (over 110 channels depending on packages chosen) plus full high speed Internet (5M/1M) is $99.95 per month. There are a lot of possibilities between these packages.

Access' Internet offerings provide static IP addresses, which are useful if you want to create your own web, ftp or email server.

Jim

 

[painter]

Just a heads up that the Rose bowl parade (according to the guide) is to be televised in HD. This would be something really good to record to show off your 6412 to friends that come a calling for some New Years cheer . Ithink all these floats will look great in HD so hopefully the guide is right and I for one will surely be recording it.

 

[painter]

Is anyone watching the Touranament of roses Parade in high definition on abc wow what a picture, the detail (especially on closeups) and colour are awesome. I'am also recording it (on my 6412) to show off to family when they come over later. I'am very impressed and I'm sure they will be also. Happy New Year everyone and enjoy the parade.

 

[Neild]

Is anyone watching the Touranament of roses Parade in high definition on abc wow what a picture, the detail (especially on closeups) and colour are awesome. I'am also recording it (on my 6412) to show off to family when they come over later. I'am very impressed and I'm sure they will be also. Happy New Year everyone and enjoy the parade.

What setup are you viewing on? I find HD ABC looks best on sets that are biased to 720p.

 

[painter]

I'am viewing on a Hitachi 57t500 Ultravision, with cable box set to 1080i and tv is naturally 1080i. I don't necessarily think it has to be viewed on a 720 set to really look good because I also find that Monday Night Football and Fox football also broadcast in 720p look awesome on this set. It takes a few minor tweaks, but I've hardly seen any that look better. IMHO the colour on any lcd or dlp would have a hard time beating this 57t500, but I honestly did find that an lcd might be a touch clearer ( not much though ) than mine. That was a Sony 50we610 but the $1800 difference in cost couldn't be justified in the end. My cousin has the new JVC dila and as far as I'm concerned mine is better (and his was $2000 more). So I have no problem with a 720p signal going into my 1080i set and coming out looking very good . On my 6412 I actually have two games recorded one in 1080i (cbs) and the other an original 720p broadcast signal (abc), both from Indianapolis and it's very hard to tell the difference. I've kept both of them for reference because they both look very good.

 

[Neild]

I agree with you totally, RPTV's are still a great choice especially for the price. We're selling ours though, it's really a matter of size & renovations and when all is said and done we'll have a flat panel screen. I find the RPTV's are very forgiving with the SD signals and yet still look great at the HDTV resolutions.

 

[technut]

Is Access using the Blue Guide on the 6412, or have they upgraded to the i-Guide yet?
http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/Tan_Blue_iGuide.pdf

I'm guessing Blue Guide, since you say the second tuner isn't enabled yet.

 

[Neild]

Is Access using the Blue Guide on the 6412, or have they upgraded to the i-Guide yet?
http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/Tan_Blue_iGuide.pdf

I'm guessing Blue Guide, since you say the second tuner isn't enabled yet.

It's Blue Guide. They've told me the new guide is still in the experimental stage and nobody has it yet. Are you saying you have it?

Looking at the i-guide at first it looked great, with the inset TV picture there. But is that a freeze frame or live picture? I notice in the document the image appears to be static.

The appearance looks OK too and I'm glad they stayed with dark blue instead of going back to the tans. The program guide blocks appear to be solid colors now instead of that weird chiseled/embossed thing they had going.

I especially like that they aren't wasting half the screen space with pointless and static ads anymor.

Something looks bad is the program guide looks to be reduced to only 4 channels per screen. That's not a good thing at least to my taste. I like to page through them and cutting it down from 6 lines to 4 won't help. How about making it adjustable there, guide company?

The progress bar is a great thing I've been looking for however the document seems to say it is for VOD titles only (?) I don't see why they can't put a progress bar or counter or something on recorded materials.

Lastly I didn't see any enhancements to the ergonomics of the pause-live/record functions. Hopefully some of the most obvious and needed ones are there but not mentioned. It's crazy that you can be watching a program live from 8 to 8:15, the prior 15 minutes are all happily in the buffer. You should be able to hit 'record' and then have it save the prior 15 minutes and just start appending.

Also you should be able to leave pause-live going as you channel flip. Resetting the pause-live buffer

Lastly, how about a pause for when you are doing live in person recordings? This would just stop the recording of the program to be resumed when you press the resume key.

I'm not asking for Avid video editing type features here, just some smoother integration of the pause live & library functions.

 

[technut]

Hey, hey! I just asked one simple question (thanks for the answer) and look what you hit me with!

I suggest you look through the Shaw forum here and this older i-Guide thread. Shaw has had i-Guide on all their DCTs for many months now, including the 6208. They are just about to introduce the 6412 and I assume that will also have the i-Guide. Comcast in the USA has been using i-Guide on their 6214's for over a month now (with BOTH tuners working!).

To briefly answer a few of your questions: the inset picture is live; you can pick from several colour schemes; the number of guide lines you get depends on whether there is currently an ad at the bottom of the screen.

Keep an eye on the Shaw forum as we start to receive our 6412's this month.