Bev Testing MPEG4

  • Thread starter Thread starter SensualPoet
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Scott, some of us appreciate your insight. Unfortunately the moderators here let the trolls run wild and this is the result.

-Mike
 
Is upgrading the 6000's with a 8PSK not an option? I dont wanna have to fork out more money for a new box.
 
And from the same publication and date but a little closer to home due to the technology partnership Bev has with Echostar.
 
But 8PSK can affec picture quality if Bell make the move to go with 8PSK and stay with 3 HD channels / transponder. The bitrate will go higher for each channel (30 Mbits QPSK and around 38-40 Mbits for 8PSK).
 
Star Choice did this nicely: they silently upgraded (almost) everyone who had HD with an 8PSK capable receiver over a period of 18 months or so. A small numbr of HD customers had an older HD receiver and they offer them (and still do) an "upgrade" to a better unit for around $99 -- 66% off retail. Plus there are additional credits which reduce the price to half that. AND you can keep the existing unit which works fine for SD (and can be sold as an SD unit to someone else?).

So Star Choice is able to change the way they send HD signals and effectively add 50% capacity overnight. There is an inconvenience to a few thousand (out of 125,000) HD subscribers.

How will Bell handle an MPEG-4 transition? We don't know. Star Choice provides a great model. Bell has said they'll start selling MPEG-4 HD units in the fall. What will they do with the existing 200,000 or so current HD receiver/PVR owners? If they don't move to MPEG-4 for another 18 months or two years maybe many of those folks will have "self-migrated". Rental folks can be swapped out; purchase folks offered a sweet deal like Star Choice. It's a good model.

Let's see what happens once the new owners take charge next spring. In the meantime, enjoy the current platform and HD offerings.
 
Hi, majortom,

I am not looking for the transmitting frequency of the satellite. what I am looking for is the technical aspect of the transmission design.

Is Bell using 500Mz signal and if there is only 500mhz and each HD channel uses 10 mhz or more?? There would be only 50 channels??
 
You have that right.

The lame High Fidelity channels -- Rush, Oasis, Equator, Treasure -- even 18 months after launch have such useless, pathetic programming that Bell continues to avoid actually listing them in its "What's On" guide.

The reality is these channels show an appalling number of repeats, day in day out, month in month out ... some shows actually repeat every single day of the month across multiple channels at 4 in the morning to qualify as "Canadian Content".

How many times a day, or month, on Oasis, Equator and Treasure do you really want to watch "Alberta's Wild Rose"? Yet programs like this -- a single hour repeated 500+ times a year -- justifies "Canadian content" for Bell.

This is even worse than shipping the jobs to India -- plus all that private customer data like credit cards, buying habits, etc sent across the globe to nameless call centre reps coping with English and without Bell providing without real privacy guarantees (can you sue an Indian court to reclaim your identity theft?).

One hopes this isn't the "best" Canadian television providers can deliver nor the powers-that-be will stand for in the long run.
 
Mozza, I have it scanned but I wasn't aware we couldn't post images here. I'm willing to send it to you via email if you PM me but I'm not going to spend the time loading it to a website and then link to it, which is the only way I can see doing it, unless I'm missing something.
Bottom line is that I went down and signed up, no problems. Model 4700 receiver for 6412, 30 day return guarantee, 1 month free preview on all channels, no mandatory pkg to subscribe to after that, 3 year warranty on the unit.

I know I'm getting way off topic by now and this may all get deleted but the CSR also told me that 12 new HD channels were coming to Shaw this fall.
 
Speaking of ego...

... just the same, there is no indication presently that the BEV we know and love/hate is going anywhere anytime soon. They are doing testing for MPEG4, which means something new in the not-too-distant future.
 
Some of information is already available and confirmed by BEV:
- BEV will be launching their new MPEG-4 receivers by the end of this year
- HD and international channels will be the first once switching to MPEG-4
 
I would have to say I know a little more about them then he does. :)

Trust me on that.

The sky is not falling, you are not going to wake up tommorow and find your MPEG2 HD gone, ExppressVu is not going to switch everything over without having MPEG4 receivers available.

They are just testing at the moment, and it has not affected anyone. When they are ready to roll out to the public they will have upgrade plans in place. They do have room to put up MPEG4 channels, they are not as maxed out as some people may think. However I would not expect any new MPEG2 HD channels from ExpressVu. All new HD channels will be in MPEG4.
 
Thanks for the reply hugh...

Not the best news to hear, but that has nothing to do with the messenger!

Cheers!
 
But the FTA boxes decrypt the stream based on the current Rom 102/103 card encryption scheme. They can flip the switch to Rom 206 encryption and the Sonicview and DVB cards will show a lovely black screen.

As I said above though, it won't matter as the ViP211 and ViP622 (both Rom 206) are already hacked privately.
 
Then I hope they put up an MPEG4 channel, even if if to 'test' so anybody who buys a new receiver can verify their MPEG4 works before the unit goes out of warranty.

It would be a shame to buy a unit and then discover a few years later when MPEG4 launches that it didn't work.

Do you think Bev would cover that out of warranty situation?

At least for the most part, the other guys are happily replacing receivers well out of warranty, often at little to no charge, just because it's the right thing to do.

Black Box eh? Kinda has a pirate ring to it, he he.
Oh that was for Telephones, wait, Bell is in telephones!
And aren't most FTA units Black as well? ;)
 
Obviously you don't have no idea who I am. :)

I will admit I did make a mistake if I said September, as I was told it will happen this "fall" September is in the fall I guess. :)

And for the person who asked yes I do see external HD storage becoming available on the MPEG4 DVR, however I do not expect it at product launch.
 
I am hearing that there could be a MPEG4 recevier upgrade offer available on ExpressVu by September. (This upgrade is NOT expected to be free)

There will also be a package of new MPEG4 HD channels available at that time. Those who want these new channels will upgrade to MPEG4 receivers, those who dont want to upgrade will get the HD channels they get now in MPEG2.
 
Uggh, how many time have we been through this? There is a reason why BEV and *C are Canada only and E* and D* are USA only.
 
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