[bobmac]

@bobmac There is no reason not to continue to use the current setup with the sw21 unless you get a dual tuner box.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried the live FibeTV app and it worked perfectly.

I will just hope that my 6131 continue to work and skip the replacements. If I lose the 6131 PVR functionality, I might just switch providers.

Bob

 

[Mike1204]

It's not a problem with anyone I know who has cottages.

I have been using Bell Satellite since 1997. When it first launched, they would sell you a second dish for your cottage. The cable companies complained that people could have two different locations and that started the must be connected to a phone line issue. I had to give codes on a telephone call about ten years ago but have not since.

 

[tojannaon]

[

I had a 3100 SD receiver, but never received an upgrade letter. I actually only found out about the upgrade through this site (thanks!). I eventually found the link hidden within the Bell website and went with the upgrade. I had no idea what the 6500 receiver looked like or its specs, as I couldn't find images online. To my pleasant surprise, it is less than half the size and a fraction of the weight of the old receiver. The user face is modern, and because of it's size and weight, I was able to Velcro it to the back of my OLED TV.
The only downside that I noticed is that it isn't available with a preinstalled Wi-Fi receiver. There is only one USB port meaning that you will need to choose between either having it with Wi-Fi or going with the PVR option (using an external hard drive). This unit is not UHF remote compatible.

As a side note, I actually prefer to use the FIBE TV app on my TV as it has become more user friendly, meaning you can now use your TV remote to directly change the channels, you can access your PVR recordings off any PVR receiver connected to Wi-Fi in your house, and access all the On Demand channels. Not recommended when watching hockey or sports as there is a much longer signal delay (you'll get notification of a goal on your phone and then about 20-30 seconds later you'll see it on your TV).

@MT-MTL

You stated:

"There is only one USB port meaning that you will need to choose between either having it with Wi-Fi or going with the PVR option (using an external hard drive)." Having been a Bell Satellite customer for decades, with a 9242 and an SD PVR and an SD receiver, I just went through the SD to HD migration and received a 6500 receiver. Since nobody at Bell seems to know definitively, can you please confirm that you can plug an external hard drive into the one USB port on the 6500 and it functions correctly as a PVR? If so, will it buffer live programming (pause and rewind etc.) without the program having to be recording at the time (like a 9242 can on both its tuners)?

On a second note, since all I really need is simple live buffering I have separately read that someone was able to use a 64GB USB stick on an 6400 as an external drive. Any knowledge that you can share as to whether a 6500 will also cope with that?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

 

[MT-MTL]

[


@MT-MTL

You stated:

"There is only one USB port meaning that you will need to choose between either having it with Wi-Fi or going with the PVR option (using an external hard drive)." Having been a Bell Satellite customer for decades, with a 9242 and an SD PVR and an SD receiver, I just went through the SD to HD migration and received a 6500 receiver. Since nobody at Bell seems to know definitively, can you please confirm that you can plug an external hard drive into the one USB port on the 6500 and it functions correctly as a PVR? If so, will it buffer live programming (pause and rewind etc.) without the program having to be recording at the time (like a 9242 can on both its tuners)?

On a second note, since all I really need is simple live buffering I have separately read that someone was able to use a 64GB USB stick on an 6400 as an external drive. Any knowledge that you can share as to whether a 6500 will also cope with that?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

Sorry for the delay, I'm only seeing your questions now. To be honest, I didn't try connecting an external hard drive as I've been using the FibeTV app, which gives you access to your recorded shows from any other PVR receiver in your home. This is similar to a whole home PVR. I used the USB port to connect a Wi-Fi receiver. In doing so you would have access to all the On Demand channels that you would see on the app.
As for using a USB stick, I'm not sure a 64GB would work, but I can definitely tell you that a 128GB will. I actually did that myself; the only issue that I had is that after some time it stopped working (died). I believe that the minimum for an actual hard drive would need to be 256GB.
Note that this receiver has only one tuner so I believe that you probably cannot pause one show while it records another. You would be able to pause and rewind the show that you are watching.

 

[ExDilbert]

USB flash drives have some disadvantages compared to a hard drive or SSD. In general, those are smaller capacity, shorter usable lifespan and slower write speed. Some high end USB flash drive minimize these shortcomings but they tend to be very expensive so it's probably better to just use an external USB hard drive or SSD.

 

[tojannaon]

Sorry for the delay, I'm only seeing your questions now. To be honest, I didn't try connecting an external hard drive as I've been using the FibeTV app, which gives you access to your recorded shows from any other PVR receiver in your home. This is similar to a whole home PVR. I used the USB port to connect a Wi-Fi receiver. In doing so you would have access to all the On Demand channels that you would see on the app.
As for using a USB stick, I'm not sure a 64GB would work, but I can definitely tell you that a 128GB will. I actually did that myself; the only issue that I had is that after some time it stopped working (died). I believe that the minimum for an actual hard drive would need to be 256GB.
Note that this receiver has only one tuner so I believe that you probably cannot pause one show while it records another. You would be able to pause and rewind the show that you are watching.

Thanks for getting back to me. In the interim I had tried this myself and unfortunately discovered that the 6500, in fact, does not support PVR functionality. I tried this by inserting a new 64GB USB stick and rather than the 6500 coming up with the traditional "This drive needs to be formatted..." dialogue it immediately errors out saying that the unit does not support the USB drive detected. Just to make sure that it wasn't the USB stick, I then installed it in my 9242, got the "needs to be formatted" prompt, did the format and was able to write to and read from the drive successfully. I did the same in my 9500. So, it would appear that this functionality was not included in the 6500 after all and the Bell web pages that list the 6400 as eligible for external PVR functionality without mentioning the 6500 appear to be accurate, and not just stale pages. Hopefully this will help others in the future.

 

[reidw]

I believe that the CRTC told Rogers could not shut down analog TV in areas that still had more than 10% of its customers that still used it. That's what led to the digital adapters as customers with those no longer counted as analog customers. Shutting down analog was good for Rogers and its customers as it opened a lot of bandwidth for more digital channels and other services. Shutting down Digital TV is not as big a win as it benefits Rogers the most with little gain, if any, for customers. If Rogers migrated to DOCSIS 4, they could double the total usable bandwidth on their system and dramatically improve internet services. Instead, they want to penalize Digital TV customers for a fraction of the gain DOCSIS 4 would provide.

To the mods: Could we please get these OT Rogers war stories out of here? This is after all a Bell forum.

 

[Dr.Dave]

Telesat Corporation (TSAT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript says that the contract with Bell for Nimiq 4 comes up for renewal in October, 2023 (15-year anniversary) and Bell plans to renew all the DTH capacity at a materially lower price.

It sounds like there is no urgent need to move channels from Nimiq 4 to Nimiq 6 and remove the SD channels, although Bell may choose to remove them anyway. There was no mention of the current expected life of Nimiq 4, beyond the initial 15 years.

 

[noah12]

Thanks for the info

 

[Tigerpaws]

Thanks for getting back to me. In the interim I had tried this myself and unfortunately discovered that the 6500, in fact, does not support PVR functionality. I tried this by inserting a new 64GB USB stick and rather than the 6500 coming up with the traditional "This drive needs to be formatted..." dialogue it immediately errors out saying that the unit does not support the USB drive detected. Just to make sure that it wasn't the USB stick, I then installed it in my 9242, got the "needs to be formatted" prompt, did the format and was able to write to and read from the drive successfully. I did the same in my 9500. So, it would appear that this functionality was not included in the 6500 after all and the Bell web pages that list the 6400 as eligible for external PVR functionality without mentioning the 6500 appear to be accurate, and not just stale pages. Hopefully this will help others in the future.

My understanding was that the hard drive must be externally powered. Tried a portable hard drive with a y splitter cable but did not work. Gave up on the exercise. After reading about the Dish Wally receiver which is a copy of the 6500 it appears that the satellite provider has to unlock/activate the pvr functionality if you plug in any type of storage device into the USB. Dish charges a $40 fee.

Wally DISH Receiver with 1TB DVR Upgrade Expansion Bundle

DISH Network RV Mobile

www.dishformyrv.com

Explains why bell conveniently is silent on the topic in their online manuals while they are trying to swap out sd receivers and migrate ppl to their more expensive whole home platform.

 

[ExDilbert]

External 3.5" drives will always require external power. External 2.5" drives may be powered by the USB port under certain conditions. That depends on the type of USB port which can be determined by the colour of the USB port. Black is USB2. Blue or red is USB3.

USB2 ports provide 0.5A (2.5W) which is insufficient to power an external drive unless the port is designed to provide extra power or the drive is designed to use very little power. Drives consume significantly more power while writing so a drive may seem to work but encounter errors while recording. That applies to both SSD and Hard drives. Most external USB2 drives have a connection for external power. If one wasn't provided, generic 5V 1A-2A power block used by many small devices can often be substituted. It may be possible to power an external 2.5" drive using a special USB Y cable that combines power from two USB2 ports.

USB3 ports provide 0.9A (4.5W) and should be able to power an external 2.5" drive. Most 2.5" external USB3 drives lack external power connectors.

 

[Tigerpaws]

Tried the y splitter to power the drive but did not work. Wondering if anyone with a 6500 has successfully got it to work as a pvr and what equipment they used. The more I think the more I believe it is software blocked by Bell.

 

[TvCritic]

Dear Customer,​ In the coming months, we will no longer support standard definition (SD) receivers. In order to avoid losing service on your TV with an SD receiver, you can upgrade to a high definition (HD) receiver. There is no additional charge for this replacement.1 Your existing HD receivers are unaffected.​ You can visit MyBell today to upgrade your SD receiver as soon as possible.​ ​ Thank you for choosing Bell.​

1The new receiver is provided on a rental basis and therefore must be returned to Bell in the case of service termination to avoid non-return fees This is the email received as of april 27th 2023​

 

[Smokin Joe]

We got my buddy upgraded today and at first they wanted to give him a 6500 for his 5900 but we pushed back and we were on hold for a few minutes and she came back and agreed to swap it out for a 9500 so that’s better. He will let me know when it shows up and I’ll go over and hook it up with his other receivers. The 9500 will become his main receiver and I’ll move his 9242 to another room.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TMAN1]

Does anyone have any idea when Bell will be discontinuing SD channels? If and when this happens, what will happen in the case where only 91 sat is attainable?

 

[noah12]

Our management has cascaded only that Bell will be removing all SD satellites at the end of 2023 so they do recommend customers to reach out if they have Active SD receivers on their account and we can migrate it to 6500 for free.

That is the info I got

 

[Dr.Dave]

Telesat Corporation (TSAT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript says that the contract with Bell for Nimiq 4 comes up for renewal in October, 2023 (15-year anniversary) and Bell plans to renew all the DTH capacity at a materially lower price.

Telesat confirmed that Bell renewed all the DTH capacity on Nimiq 4 for two more years with an option to extend for another year. https://www.telesat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Final-051123-Telesat-Q1-2023-Transcript.pdf

 

[ExDilbert]

I've got to wonder, why only 2 years with a 1 year option? Do they know something we don't?

 

[Dr.Dave]

I've got to wonder, why only 2 years with a 1 year option? Do they know something we don't?

It's public knowledge that the life expectancy of Nimiq 4 was 15 years at launch and that was 15 years ago. What isn't public knowledge is how much excess propellant they have left.

 

[ExDilbert]

If Nimiq 4 fails, then what? Nimiq 5, which is newer, was licensed and launched for Bell but the entire satellite was sub-leased to Dish. It's starting to look like geosynchronous TV may be shut down in a few years, either by decision or satellite attrition.