A question about simsubs..

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merve04

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Is it just me or do people who not live in a city without HD OTA stations like CTV or Global dont get simsubs when watching US HD channels?? For example; Does the location ID have anything to do with getting CTV HD when watching Fox HD?
Seems to me it could kinda work like sports blackout.
Cause since getting EVU back,, I've noticed that most of my shows and I mean like 9 out 10 of my recordings are usally the NBC, CBS, FOX or ABC broadcast,, not a Global or CTV simsub.
 
I'm not an expert on CRTC rules. I think in principle the way you describe it is how it is supposed to work in practice... but unfortunately is not always in reality! The only time I have seen BEV go through the trouble of specifically simsubbing only those with a local HD signal was during the superbowl last year so that people outside of non-OTA cities got to see the commercials. They simply set up a separate channel that was hidden to those from cities with access to OTA-HD and people were told to tune there if they wanted to watch the un-simsubbed game. They can't simsub / unsimsub a unique channel based on your location but can alternately access / deny you specific channels that either are or are not simbsubbed.
 
The only way ExpressVu can perform simsubs, is to do them at the uplink. Every customer will see the sub this way. The exception is the SuperBowl, where this year they uplinked FoxE/W a second time and made it available to subscribers who are out of range of CTV Toronto/Vancouver HD.

Star Choice has VCO technology (virtual channel override) which is performed at the receiver level. The receiver is basically told to ignore the US feed and override it with the Cdn feed. This way, people only get simsubs if they can receive that channel OTA.
 
Well back when I got HD from bev,, this was March 07.. well I saw alot of simsubs,, i had to cancel my service in August. When I got Shaw.. well i was quite pleased that there were no simsubs.. Now that I'm back with bev,, i really dont notice much simsubs.. there the odd show that is,, i know American Idol was one of them.. but other then that.. most cases its Fox commerical, CBS commericals etc. So I thought bev found a way to simsub in the end only customers in the GTA and Metro Vancouver.
 
Bell will often start a show as a simsub and then switch back due to the normal US feed. This isn't necessary because they are having an issue, but because the source is. Also the west coast feeds I find are not usually substituted, so I always record them when I can .
 
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