[hugh]

Videotron today announced the launch of “illico web,” a new online service which will Videotron digital cable customers access to video content from 32 television channels including TVA, Radio-Canada, LCN, RDI, Meteomedia, Super Ecran and MusiquePlus.
Content from eight popular English language channels such as HBO Canada, The Movie Network, YTV and Treehouse Television will also be included.

The online video portal will be an exclusive service for Videotron customers who subscribe to both Videotron Digital TV and lnternet access service. The goal says Videotron is to allow subscribers to have access to content over multiple platforms.

"Digital technology lets content travel from one platform to another, making the walls between media increasingly porous," said Robert Depatie. "The big advantage for consumers is that they can see, hear, read and watch what they want, when they want. "

Other features of the service include support for remote programming of the customer's personal video recorder (PVR) and online access to the full TV schedule.

Videotron customers can access the new service at illicoweb.tv.

 

[hugh]

Channels available on illico web include:

Argent
artv
Canal D
Canal Vie
Evasion
Family
Galaxie
HBO Canada
Historia
Idees de ma maison
LCN
Meteomedia
Mpix
MusiMax
MusiquePlus
Playhouse Disney
Radio-Canada
RDI
Series+
Super Ecran
TFO
The Movie Network
The Weather Network
Treehouse
TV5
TVA
VOX
VRAK.TV
Yoopa
YTV
Zeste
Ztele

 

[Jake]

Any idea when and if it launched?

We are sorry, this Videotron site is currently unavailable due to maintenance.
Please try again later or contact us at the following numbers

I will try again in a few hours.

 

[hugh]

Launched today.

 

[WestAust]

The website is indeed functionnal, i managed to login to it earlier today to get a glimpse of what they offer

 

[Jake]

I finally was able to log in. First it said website was down then it said I needed to sub to extra cable channels. But now it is working correctly. I am watching The Pacific right now. Bitrate is 1.3Mbps so nothing to get too excited about. The concept will catch on only if they remove the requirement that you must also sub to the cable channel.

 

[ratovan]

I like what I see so far, but there are some major bugs. I tried recording something from the web guide and kept getting prompted that my PVR disk was full. it was only 40% full. There was however a conflict of timers, but even after resolving that it still insisted my pvr was full. However, I was able to see a list of everything I recorded and everything that was scheduled.

A good start, but maybe not quite ready yet.

 

[bouche]

Is this only available from your home connection? I just tried to connect at work and was informed that I need to subscribe to videotron.

Also, how can I remotely program my PVR? I've been dying for that functionality while not at home.

 

[Fonceur]

The concept will catch on only if they remove the requirement that you must also sub to the cable channel.

And why would they do that? It seems to me that the whole point is to save their subscription model and to give an incentive for people not to simply drop cable and go web/bit torrent only...

 

[InMontreal]

I tried recording something from the web guide and kept getting prompted that my PVR disk was full. it was only 40% full.

For the record, are you using an external hard disk drive?
I've read in another forum the same thing, the PVR full error message while in reality it's half-empty.

 

[Stefx73]

Illicoweb.tv - channel list issue

Hi
So I logged into this new illicoweb.tv service. Looks like this will be nice.

One glitch though.. when I check the tv guide, a lot of channels are greyed out but they're actually in my package. Anybody else getting that?
I'm not worried yet, this was launched recently and there'll be bugs to work out. Just checking if anyone else saw that or even found a solution so far.
Thanks

 

[Stefx73]

Is this only available from your home connection? I just tried to connect at work and was informed that I need to subscribe to videotron

I was able to connect from work (Bell DSL) and watch a channel.

It would be nice if RDS was in the list...

 

[Jake]

And why would they do that? It seems to me that the whole point is to save their subscription model and to give an incentive for people not to simply drop cable and go web/bit torrent only...

People are dropping their subs because of rising costs and tiering. I don't think this is going to save Videotron. If they offered a web-only TV package for $20/month (on top of cable) I would consider that. Also, with Videotron caps people are going to be eating up their 30GB quickly.

 

[bouche]

I just figured it out. I got a link for http://illicoweb.videotron.com/illicoweb/accueil.action?lang=en from customer service (chat) which I didn't see anywhere.

The remote recording seems to be working just fine, more than I ever expected from Videotron.

I am VERY impressed. Does rogers have this feature?

 

[ratovan]

I am not using an external drive. I conencted from work and had the same functionality, but there are definately performance issues with their guide interface. However, a step in the right direction.

 

[SonyWE610Owner]

8010 HD PVR Not currently supported

Maybe later?

 

[Stefx73]

Unfortunately the service does not work with the iPad due to its lack of flash support

 

[bouche]

Unfortunately the service does not work with the iPad due to its lack of flash support

On the other hand, videotron doesn't support the iPad due to their lack of support for HTML5 video.

 

[sch0343]

Flash vs html5
And the winner is?

 

[bouche]

anything that doesn't require a plugin is a win.