[Dr.Dave]

I wonder what bell tv is going to do Nimiq 4 also approaching end of live ??

Bell is dropping duplicate Standard Def channels, which Shaw did when F1R reached end of life - Bell offer to swap out old SD for HD receivers

Bell has 32 transponders per satellite, compared to 16 on G1 for Shaw, so they may be able to get away without too much extra compression.

 

[bigoranget]

I can almost guarantee you that Bell will decommission one of the satellites or they will reduce transponders at each location to preserve power. Nimiq 4 will reach its estimated life span next year.

 

[ExDilbert]

Bell has a third satellite at 73 but they signed its use over to Dish Network in the US shortly after launch. That should never have been allowed. The shortage of transponder that resulted caused significant disruption and loss of service to Canadian customers at the time. I doubt Bell has any room for more compression without swapping all customer receivers and impacting customers again.

 

[bigoranget]

As mentioned previously, Shaw Direct and Bell Satellite clearly don't have any long term plans to maintain operations. Even Anik G1 will reach it's expected lifespan by the end of the 2020s. Nimiq 4 and 6 also will reach it's end of life span in this decade too. No satellites have been ordered to replace any of these birds. That speaks volumes about the future of geosynchronous delivery of television signals.

 

[ExDilbert]

I'd have to agree. fibre optic cable and low orbit satellites seem to be the future of communications technologies. The big telcos in the US and Canada seem to be sitting on their thumbs waiting for government handouts to extend their fibre infrastructure. Meanwhile, private companies are planning on overbuilding low orbit satellite systems with investors' money. Geosynchronous satellites such as those used by Bell and Shaw will likely disappear from consumer services.

 

[tvmaster]

I'd have to agree. fibre optic cable and low orbit satellites seem to be the future of communications technologies. The big telcos in the US and Canada seem to be sitting on their thumbs waiting for government handouts to extend their fibre infrastructure. Meanwhile, private companies are planning on overbuilding low orbit satellite systems with investors' money. Geosynchronous satellites such as those used by Bell and Shaw will likely disappear from consumer services.

You think Dish & Direct TV will play that strategy as well?

 

[bigoranget]

It's been awhile since DISH Network has launched a satellite. I believe it was 2010. DirecTV has launched satellites as late as 2019.

 

[goalsgo]

It's been awhile since DISH Network has launched a satellite. I believe it was 2010. DirecTV has launched satellites as late as 2019.

I know we can't read too much into this but in the US both Dish and DirecTV are still actively hunting for new customers....

 

[bigoranget]

Actually I was incorrect, I know DISH and Echostar operate as two separate entities. One of these two entities launched satellites in 2015 and 2017. Aside from those, they do have an aging fleet for sure.

 

[ExDilbert]

DISH and DirecTV may merge. They applied once before but the application was rejected due to competition concerns. IPTV over low orbit satellites may change that. These companies both require a lot of satellite transponder space due to the requirement to carry local channels for each market. That's a lot of OTA stations.

The local station situation in the US the exact opposite of Canada where the CRTC allowed Bell and Shaw to decimate the local OTA market, with lineups that killed local advertising revenue and then by letting the big networks to buy them and then gut them or shut them down. Bell is saving transponder space by only carrying local stations in SD, basically making the only viable stations their big city flagships. Shaw may follow suit if Bell gets away with it. A few years ago, Shaw was ordered to carry all local stations in HD. The current CRTC administration seems to be more pro big business than the last one which seemed favour smaller competitors and consumers.

 

[bigoranget]

I actually don't think a DISH and DirecTV merger will happen with their satellite based services. The separate entity that runs DirecTV (70% AT&T and 30% TPG) also runs AT&T U-Verse and AT&T TV. Since the separate entity spinoff, they mainly market the AT&T TV product and only market DirecTV where broadband is not available. So that kind of tells you right there that over time DirecTV as a Satellite service is going to be phased out.

When you really think about it, Bell has been doing that in Canada for years. I remember seeing all kinds of Bell satellite dishes. They are quickly disappearing on urban areas and even half the ones you do see probably aren't in operation.

 

[tvmaster]

I know we can't read too much into this but in the US both Dish and DirecTV are still actively hunting for new customers....

In the U.S., RV’s and trailer parks keep satellite going more so than in Canada. Well, besides Bubbles and company.

 

[ExDilbert]

I remember seeing all kinds of Bell satellite dishes. They are quickly disappearing on urban areas and even half the ones you do see probably aren't in operation.

That's probably due to a combination of cord cutting and better services available over high speed internet using fibre and cable for both IPTV and streaming. Satellite TV had its heyday before high speed internet was widely available and the bandwidth was not available to support IPTV. When satellite TV launched in Canada, it was $15/mo, a deal designed to attract Canadians from cable in droves, and leave they did. Cable companies had to upgrade their cable systems to compete but that took a few years and residential fibre did not arrive until much later. When satellite was at its peak, it was because cable TV was more expensive and not as good, and high speed internet was still stuck at 1.5Mbps or less with ridiculously low data caps, even over cable. Then there was the piracy boom which accounted for quite a few dishes. Satellite started going downhill when internet service broke the sub-10Mbps DSL speed barrier and made things like video streaming and IPTV and possible.

 

[furrowflipper]

Shaw cold called me in early September and wanted to send me a free PVR830 to replace one of my 6 allowed receivers ... why would they want to do that. Are they up to something such as tracking where I take a receiver in the summer or winter or wherever . Corporations just don't do that .. I think something is up

 

[gzink]

Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 Owners Discussion Thread

On the 630, red rectangle on the left means you are recording, 2 red rectangles means you are recording 2 programs. Red dot on the right of the clock means you have lost sat signal on the channel you have on at the moment. Other channels may still work.

www.digitalhome.ca

 

[Bayguy]

Shaw cold called me in early September and wanted to send me a free PVR830 to replace one of my 6 allowed receivers ... why would they want to do that. Are they up to something such as tracking where I take a receiver in the summer or winter or wherever . Corporations just don't do that .. I think something is up

Furrowflipper did you not read any of this thread???? Your 600 rcvrs are going to stop working soon! You need to take the free 830!!

 

[tvmaster]

When your DSR630 is replaced with an 800 series unit, will you still be able to use the 630 as a strictly playback unit? I’d like to fill it with concert/music videos and scenic things, fireplace footage, etc., and just have it as a go-to source for playback only. Any reason why Shaw would could make that impossible?

 

[bpsmicro]

When your DSR630 is replaced with an 800 series unit, will you still be able to use the 630 as a strictly playback unit? I’d like to fill it with concert/music videos and scenic things, fireplace footage, etc., and just have it as a go-to source for playback only. Any reason why Shaw would could make that impossible?

Disconnect it from the satellite, and it should work fine as a playback box. When we were out of our house post-fire for a year, we rescued one of the 630s and ran it disconnected to watch all the old recordings, and it worked just fine. Disconnecting from the satellite means there's no way for SD to send a Kill Code (if they even wanted to).

 

[tvmaster]

Disconnect it from the satellite, and it should work fine as a playback box. When we were out of our house post-fire for a year, we rescued one of the 630s and ran it disconnected to watch all the old recordings, and it worked just fine. Disconnecting from the satellite means there's no way for SD to send a Kill Code (if they even wanted to).

which really would be kinda mean of them to do, seeing that it won’t be able to record the new format anyway. Thanks.

 

[ExDilbert]

They will deactivate the receiver when replaced with an 8xx receiver to prevent using it with MPEG4 channels until they are all shut down.