Tired Of Paying For TV Channels

[NG]

I don't know why people complain about not getting sports without paying. There are plenty of sports you can get with OTA in beautiful HD unless you live in the boonies.

I guess it's a question of perspective. OTA sports is mainly weekends and some stuff like the CFL or rugby is mostly/entirely only on cable.

Plus some want a lot of sports...I don't but if the situation was reversed and there was only sitcoms on weekends (and it wasn't possible to get season/series sets on DVD) then I don't know if OTA would work for me.

The upside is, at least on my old provider, a bunch of sports channels (TSN, TSN2 and I think most/all of the Sportsnets) are on digital basic so for those who want a lot of sports saving cash by downgrading to digital basic is an option.

[Nettles]

It's sad how ridiculously unaffordable hockey can be in this country (discounting streaming cos it sucks for hockey and downloads are delayed plus take time). Rogers doesn't have TSN in their basic cable package so you have to pay basic + $10 and the price of NHL Gamecentre is like $200+....just ridiculous.

[NG]

It's sad how ridiculously unaffordable hockey can be in this country (discounting streaming cos it sucks for hockey and downloads are delayed plus take time). Rogers doesn't have TSN in their basic cable package so you have to pay basic + $10

That blows. It is/was on Cogeco last time I saw Digital Basic. Guess Cogeco isn't a complete turd for everything.

and the price of NHL Gamecentre is like $200+....just ridiculous.

Yowsers. At that price I'd be inclined to head out the a bar for any games I'd want to see that were only on Gamecentre.

Thank goodness I hate sports...even watching it sounds expensive as hell.

[PwrSurge]

I've only done a *small* amount of reading on this but I think that, if you're not too far north, a 36" dish can enable you to pull in some (most?) FTA bands so a BUD (those Big Ugly Dishes) may not be necessary.

Now that OTA is catching on more I'm wondering if the next phase of that will be the expansion of FTA.

Yes, assuming you are not too far up north, a 36" dish with a quality LNBF along with an HD FTA receiver that supports DVB-S2 is all you need to receive all of KU band which currently has over 280 full time channels available with 84 in English. In addition to these channels, there are many "wild feeds" which are temporary channels that come and go and are mostly used to broadcast live sports and news reports.
For a bit more channels, a 48" dish will allow you to receive some of the stronger C-band channels in addition to Ku-band and is still wall mountable for people who have limited yard space. To receive the majority of C-band channels, at least a 72 inch (1.8 meter) dish is required.

If space is an issue, you can still receive most Ku-band with a dish as small as 31 inches in diameter but you might have issues receiving some of the weaker Ku band channels so we recommend at least a 36" dish.

[Ottomaddox]

Yes, assuming you are not too far up north, a 36" dish with a quality LNBF along with an HD FTA receiver that supports DVB-S2 is all you need to receive all of KU band which currently has over 280 full time channels available with 84 in English.

I gotta say, the situation for 'real' FTA (don't bother correcting me, we all know exactly what the term FTA used to mean in satellite circles) is pretty depressing in North America, and I never see it getting any better.

Yes, you can get 84 channels in english. You'll need a dish 36" with a motor to get them, but really, out of those 84, how many are worth watching? There's alot of religious programming. Are even all the major networks represented?
I'm looking at http://www.ftalist.com/english.php & http://channels.drsat.ca/ and apart from PBS & NBC stations, there ain't much there, especially when you consider the cost. Let's be honest and say that the FTA is closer to a hobby rather than a realistic viewing option for most people.

[NG]

I gotta say, the situation for 'real' FTA (don't bother correcting me, we all know exactly what the term FTA used to mean in satellite circles) is pretty depressing in North America, and I never see it getting any better.

Yes, you can get 84 channels in english. You'll need a dish 36" with a motor to get them, but really, out of those 84, how many are worth watching? There's alot of religious programming. Are even all the major networks represented?
I'm looking at http://www.ftalist.com/english.php & http://channels.drsat.ca/ and apart from PBS & NBC stations, there ain't much there, especially when you consider the cost. Let's be honest and say that the FTA is closer to a hobby rather than a realistic viewing option for most people.

Major channels is subjective. Yes only NBC and PBS are there from the 'big five' networks however there's other stations like MSNBC and AJE. If you like sports apparently there's lots of good wild feeds and if you're a news junkie with the PBS World sub-channel along with MSNBC and AJE that's a pretty decent selection for free every month after install.

There's also a couple other sub-channels like RetroTV and PBJ (kids shows) and, although I get why the nets don't want to go on FTA since they've got a vested interest in the cable channels, I could see some of the dozens of sub-channels operating now in the US adding their signal to FTA since why not get the signal out there any way they can?

I do agree on the prices. Install is one thing and I would be willing to pay fair market value on that since I'd want it done right but with all the old FTA receivers booting around there from when they could be hacked I'm surprised sites like Dr. Sat don't "de-flash" them back to real FTA terminals and sell them at a discount for example to reduce the overall costs.

My apt is at the right angle to pull in sat signals (I've seen Star Choice and Bell dishes mounted on balconies) but since I'm on the ground floor I'm not sure it'd work for me but, even if it did, with only a handful of good channels on FTA right now (and no sort of "pick 5" option on the Dr. Sat site for HITS TV) it has made me pass on the service.

If I lived in the boonies tho and couldn't pull in a dozen OTA DTV channels I may consider the five or so FTA channels I'm interested in worth it - or if I wanted sports and was willing to play with wild feeds.

[NG]

http://channels.drsat.ca/ and apart from PBS & NBC stations, there ain't much there, especially when you consider the cost. Let's be honest and say that the FTA is closer to a hobby rather than a realistic viewing option for most people.

Hmm...I just checked that link for both the C and KU bands...lots more stuff there - anybody know how big of dish I'd need to get both bands if I'm very close to the US border?

[PwrSurge]

I gotta say, the situation for 'real' FTA (don't bother correcting me, we all know exactly what the term FTA used to mean in satellite circles) is pretty depressing in North America, and I never see it getting any better.

Yes, you can get 84 channels in english. You'll need a dish 36" with a motor to get them, but really, out of those 84, how many are worth watching? There's alot of religious programming. Are even all the major networks represented?
I'm looking at http://www.ftalist.com/english.php & http://channels.drsat.ca/ and apart from PBS & NBC stations, there ain't much there, especially when you consider the cost. Let's be honest and say that the FTA is closer to a hobby rather than a realistic viewing option for most people.

Granted, the channel selection is a bit limited with a Ku band only system but there's a lot more available on C-band FTA. A 1.2m dish will allow you to receive some of the stronger C-band channels in addition to all of Ku-band, including all major US networks. Please note that you should not use ftalist.com as a reference as it is rather incomplete and does NOT include any C-band FTA channels, only Ku-band. The channels database at http://channels.drsat.ca is updated on a weekly basis so it is very current.

[PwrSurge]

Hmm...I just checked that link for both the C and KU bands...lots more stuff there - anybody know how big of dish I'd need to get both bands if I'm very close to the US border?

Yes, there's a lot more channels available on C-band FTA. A 1.8 meter dish is required to receive the majority (i.e. 95%) of C-band channels. However. you may receive about 25% of C-band channels with a dish as small as 1.2 meters which includes the US networks on 99W.

[wwedx]

Hulu Plus and Netflix are the way to go

[BobTheSnake]

Yeah. It's hard to get rid of cable when you need french content. (6 year old daughter and GF).

[PwrSurge]

Yeah. It's hard to get rid of cable when you need french content. (6 year old daughter and GF).

There's a handful of free French Canadian channels available on C-band FTA which are listed at the link below if you have the space for a 1.8 meter dish. Other than that, you should be able to receive at least Radio Canada using an outdoor antenna and possibly some other french channels if you are close enough to the Quebec border.


http://channels.drsat.ca/cfm/drsat/c...d=1&sourceid=1

[TWD09]

Global, CTV, CityTV and CBC all broadcast OTA HD, some of them even use the CN Tower so reception should be pretty good in the GTA. Get a decent digital OTA antenna and a Netflix account and you have access to lots of digital HD content for only $8 a month.

Exactly. In the GTA, US channels such as FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, CW can be received.

[alanbrenton]

Agreed..

and with FireFoxes modify headers plugin, you can watch most US networks streaming content.

Can't watch FOX anymore for some reason.

How do I do that with Firefox? I'll try to look that up and see what I can find.

Buy a Boxee Box. Subscribe to unblockus.com. Jack up your internet service, cancel your TV service.

Checking http://unblock-us.com/ now, there's a free trial offer. I guess if I will be paying for MLPPP, I might as well pay for a good US VPN service so I can start watching Hulu and making use of Google Music.

Unfortunately, Hulu is only available to US residents ( customers with US range of IP's). Of course there are many methods to circumvent that obstacle.

Netflix.ca leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to a large variety of shows/entertainment and therefore Netflix.com is a much better option.

The only concern regarding the streaming of video files on a regular basis is your bandwidth cap. If you are a customer of Rogers/Bell internet service, I would be cautions on the level of actual bandwidth usage as many people get stuck paying exuberant overage charges. If you are using the service of one of the ISP resellers than I would not look back at all.

You need to subscribe to a quality VPN service with US based IP which will allow you to access above services (and many more). Once you have completed this task, you'll wonder why you ever paid for overpriced Bell service.

As far as the need to still be able to watch local tv, I would recommend OTA service (once you have the hardware) which is completely free.

If you need any more specific info, feel free to pm me and we'll go from there. Cheers.

Which US VPN's would you recommend? Any reason to use VPN in other countries if we are used to American programming (whatever that is )

Witopia and StrongVPN seemed to the ones getting the most mentions when I was looking into it a few years ago when I was setting US Netflix up. If you search the forum there are long threads about US Netflix and various VPN alternatives, as well as unblock-us.com (formerly usvideo.ca), which is technically not a VPN but does get you around the regional restrictions on Netflix/Hulu/etc.

I went with Witopia since it was slightly cheaper and had a "money back" guarantee, and while I do experience the occasional slowdown I'm generally pretty happy with their service. Only complaint I have with them is that they schedule their weekly maintenance downtime on a weekend afternoon.

Their prices have gone up since the last time I renewed though and are now roughly in line with what StrongVPN charges so I may try switching over when my 1-year renewal is up.



Does the "switch VPN to watch .com content" trick work 100% of the time, or do you get occasionally have issues with it? I have a virtual CC I use to register/pay for US Netflix, which works flawlessly but does increase the hassle/cost ever-so-slightly (since I have to recharge the card on a regular schedule and also pay a charging free/****** exchange rate)

Will look at Witopia too. Why is it for StrongVPN, that

http://strongvpn.com/packages_canada.shtml

The USA-UK Special PPTP ($55/year) or the USA-UK Special Open or PPTP ($85/year) are cheaper than the Lite Open or PPTP ($10/month) and Lite PPTP ($7/month)?

What are all these, I'm only familiar with the OpenVPN?

PPTP/L2TP/SSTP or OpenVPN (SSL) type servers.

And which server types are useful when trying to watch Hulu or using Google Music?