Bell Expressvu: Channel surf/display abnormalities

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shingdaz

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So I just recenetly subscribed to Bell Satelite services, after skimming around the available channels I found/realized that from channels 50-150 they are all almost all the same CTV-E CTV-W CBC etc...> and a bunch of other non essential programs.

Question #1: Is there a reason why Bell has up to 100 channels that arn't local channel lineups? Meaning they are all the same channel except they are broadcasts from E-W Canada? This seems pretty dull surfing through all these channels that I don't even watch, and they are all the same things ie~ news???

Question #2: Is there a reason why while surfing channels every now and then you fall into this screen that asks you to "click OK" to subscribe or download somthing?? It really waste's my time having to STOP my surfing to say " no thanks?" That would be similar to having to pull over to the side of the road while driving on the highway to tell a Salesman your not interested in purchasing his product....then start back up the highway again...then have to do it all over again after a couple miles? It really wastes my time. Why don't they just put these channels all together seperatly from us to locate when we want to use them?


Question #3: Why doesn't Bell expressvu order all their subscription channels in a manner that would be more interesting?...you know add space channel, then FIne TV viewing, then somthing like TVO, then somthing like ESPN, then somthing like TLC etc etc...not CTV-E then next channel is CTV-W...then next channel CBC-W then on and on with the bland channels???...



Bottom Line: Bell Should order their channel line-ups (local and other specialty channels) in a way so that we can surf them in a comfortable way, without having to jump to warp speed to the next line-up, it really sucks now cause I have to skip over 100 channels to get to one that is the least bit interesting such as TLC or Space??...it feels as if the channels provided where hardwired into the satelites by an amatuer or engineer who didn't recon the fact the Humans would be watching the provided signals?...and that as long as there was a signal present it wouldn't matter in what order the signal where sent out?

I have a 2 year contract with Bell> I will be adressing this issue with them...if they don't consider re-arranging their channel line-up order, then I will not renew my subscription and w ill use another service provider.

I do admit that the SD signals and PQ are slightly improved over SDA signals.
 
Me either. If you "lock" the channels, then "hide locked channels" you never see them in the guide.

Channels are grouped by type for the most part. 100 - DV & french locals, 200 - english locals, 300 - movies/ppv, 400 - sports, 500 news / learning, 700 -foreign, 800 - HD - 900 - music

You can also disable enhanced tv services and lock the interactive channels to avoid at least a few of the popups.
 
1) Becuase they are a national satellite provider with a national focus so need to provide locals from across the country. Actually the example you use (news) is largely why they do this. For example, if they didn't offer local news from Calgary stations the folks from Calagary may be more inclined to choose another provider. Consider us fortunate to get these stations... with satellite in the USA unless things changed in the last few years you typically are only allowed to receive your in-market locals. You can only get out of market if you can demonstrate to the provider that you cannot get a reasonable over the air signal where you live. I'd rather have them than not.

2) As someone suggested try setting up a favourites list with only your favourite channels... and of course exclude the interactive TV ones.

3) Good question and a topic that Bell has been criticized on for some time. The bundling choices of channels is a sore spot with many of its customers.
 
I guess not :) Everything below 199 is locked and does not display in my guide. This does though bring up the point as to why english locals start at 200 according to the info, yet 199 (NTV) is under 200.
 
I don't watch anything below 199 either..

The secret to hassle free surfing is to use the 'favorites' function on your receiver. This lets you tailor the stations that are displayed on the guide... By default, the guide is set to "All Channels". In this mode, you see all channels which includes a lot of stuff you aren't subscribed to and a lot more that you simply aren't interested in.

If you press the 'Guide' button again while the guide grid is showing, the guide display will switch to "All Subscribed". Now you can only see the channels you are subscribed to. There will still be a lot of things you aren't at all interested in.

You can set up four more 'custom' guide displays. You can toggle through these displays by pressing the guide button until you find the one you want. You can program these custom displays to contain contain only the channels you like to watch.

In my case, I have four custom guide displays, as follows:

'Main' - Contains ALL the channels I actually watch. Everything of no interest is excluded.
'News' - Contains only the news channels (CBC, CTV, BBC, HNN etc)
'Movies' - Contains all the dedicated movie channels I subscribe to.
'Hi Def' - Contains only the HD channels I subscribe to.

So... If I want to browse through the HD channels only, I press the 'Guide' button until this display comes up. If there is a major news story happening, I switch to the 'News' guide and browse through the news channels to find one with the coverage I like.
 
OK, so this thread actually got my wife and I thinking of which channels we actually DO watch, not the opposite.

Thanks to the OP, we just cut out 2 Theme Packs, that contained channels we have not watched for many months.

Thanks to the OP, for making me look at what we use and ultimately saving us a few dollars as well......lol
 
Glad that worked out for you. In my case if I was to drop 2 theme packs (since I don't watch them) my bill would go up!!!

5 themes = $20
3 themes = $24

LOL
 
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