CBC-HD Missing on Bev

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You first need to understand just of DVB works.
And it's amazing that it works at all.

We know from FTA pirates that the transponder was broadcasting the signal, so even the statement as interpreted by AEV, 'down at the source' meaning at Bell, was grossly incorrect.
My interpretation for that could imply they were unable to uplink the signal to the satellite or the satellite was unable to send it back to earth.
Either of those and she would at least be correct.

Since it's not possible for Bev to control the firmware and modify the channel maps of an FTA box, due to them not owning or having access to the manufactures source code and it would be highly illegal if they were ever able to do so, they would be sued beyond belief for malicious damage of computer code. (They can of course changes their methods of transmission to foul up the coders.)

The other ingredient is a channel map, this basically instructs the set top to tune to a specified frequency, satellite and polarity and select the appropriate audio and Video PID's (Process ID's.) The table is defined in the DVB protocol and that's often adjusted when performing transponder maintenance and THEIR stbs are smart enough to add/subtract or relocate any given station transparently, so we never see this happen.

An FTA box does not follow this instruction, it uses it's own table generated from scanning the transponder and builds it locally.

So for what happened to happen, as I stated earlier, somebody caused the video/audio signals to become 'disconnected' in the STB and did so by removing the needed instructions and that portion of the map the defines the channel.

A human error, but one I think should have been caught within seconds at the uplink centre they so proudly display.

What I don't know is how long it would take to propagate the correction through the system, minutes to seconds I would think, so once again, Bev technical wasn't quite up to snuff.
 
Totally unacceptable, especially if this was caused by an ECM or such. I'm glad I got out before the ship goes down.
 
Anybody else lost CBC HD on Bell. I was wanting to watch the Canada-Austria soccer game. The channel is not even listed on my program guide anymore.
 
yea strange
indeed
ive just asked a neighbor who has rogers, and he is watching the game
and another neighbor piped up, that it IS working on his HD FTA box, on bell
down at the source
my arse!
 
I went through the usually frustrating experience of emailing BEV about the missing game...I was told "I understand your frustration in being unable to view the sports event that was blacked out in your area.

Sports fans are often frustrated by blackouts of sporting events. The right to broadcast specific games in particular markets depends entirely on contractual arrangements between the league or the sports club and individual broadcasters. Regretfully, the CRTC and Bell ExpressVu have no direct jurisdiction over sports organizations and are not involved in the process at all." Their responses can be very entertaining!
 
Actually, when I called Bell to find out the problem, the CS rep told me that CBC had blacked out the channel :rolleyes: ... so I immediately emailed CBC to complain.. I got the following response today:

Thank you for reporting this situation.

CBC network television operations confirms that the loss of the CBC HD feed on channel 802 through Bell ExpressVu yesterday evening was an external ExpressVu issue that was entirely unrelated to CBC. The CBC high definition feed was on the air through Shaw Cable, Star Choice and other service providers across the country. In addition, no problems affected the delivery or broadcast of the feed from the CBC HD transmitter in Vancouver last night.

The service representative you spoke with was obviously misinformed, as no
blackout was in effect and no such decision would apply in this situation. We
appreciate your interest
in CBC.

CBC Audience Relations

The obvious hoola is that it went down minutes before the kick-off of Canada's biggest game of the U-20 World Cup... a big deal to us soccer fans... people may have been singing a different tune about it's importance if it happened to be game 7 of the Stanley Cup...
 
I'm not trying to protect anybody....just confirming what the oiginal poster said

And why do you say not according to people on this board? Everyody that mentionned calling Bell about this said they got that answer
 
I wonder what CBC would have to say about their channel being "down at the source"? I would like to know how the CBC would define those 4 little words. It appears to put the blame on CBC and not Bell.
 
Very true.

With the recent news reported in the satellite piracy thread that many "international channels" are going down for satellite pirates, I wonder if ExpressVu felt that a disproportionate number of pirates would be watching soccer on their HD FTA receivers and this was a shot at them that caught legitimate subs?
 
I am not a Bell employee.

They piss me off with things all the time, I just can't understand why people are giving this thread more than 30 seconds of time. Obviously it is important to some, it just seems a huge waste of time to me. Has any provider guaranteed 100% up time? Geez, a channel went out (for whatever reason, I really don't care it is was "source" or not) for an hour but was available on another channel.
 
Agents were very well informed about the situation...

As soon as the channel went down there was a communication in Multi-Vu (our application that we us every call to make notes on account) that it was

Bell was telling us that the channel was "down at the source" and that was what we should tell the client. According to the different persons that posted on the thread, rep did what they had to.

We never suggested that CBC was down itself (maybe few reps did, but that was not what Bell had told us to say) and that's why we suggested that client watch the game on the SD feed. If we were suggesting that channel was down we woudn't have...

I understand you frustration when you suscribe to having to watch something in SD...but technical problems could happen with every compagny!

English is not my mother tongue, no but what does it haveith it? I understand speak it very well, just maybe once in while make some spelling errors. It doesn't chg m ability of assisting my customer the best I could
 
As footballer suggest to cancel your account to send a message, if that's what you want then,
There may be additional CHOICES this coming fall, with a little luck, you may be able to have your cake and eat it too.

All the programming you need without all the extra (Add things you don't like about your current provider here)
 
Considering the fact that nobody watches the CBC....it did get a few people's nickers in knots.
 
I phoned in and was given the song and dance that it's down at the source but if this was the case, the channel would still be there and it would say they are experiencing technical difficulties. Now that other s have reported it coming in on Rogers and Starchoice, it looks like they're feeding us more bull. Why can't they be honest and say they've screwed up, rather than me now imagining some conspiracy.
 
I don't think you undertand our POV. Where does the CBC HD feed originate? It comes from CBC Toronto (THE SOURCE), ExpressVu uplinks the feed to its satellite. Bell lied to the customers. If channel 198 was down, not that anybody would notice, it would be down at the source since Bell is the broadcaster. I know you were told to tell it was "down at the source", but it wasn't. How did *C, Shaw, Rogers subs see it if it was down at the source? Yes, I realize it is not your fault that the company you work for is a ticking time bomb.
 
Sesual Poet as I stated previously we were supposed to say that we regret that you are unable to view that channel, which is"Down at the source", OUR TECHNICIANS (meanning that problem comes from us, no?) areworking on it and issue should be resolved shortly

In the meantime if you want to see the game you can go to our SD version of that channel

Doesn't that means EXACTLY THE SAME AS YOU POSTED?
 
Yet here you are...

The issues people are having that are perpetuating this thread have little to do with the original issue, the channel being down. The issue is that customers were lied to. Again.

You can bet that Bell employees further up the food chain than AEV read this forum, and this is probably about the only 'interaction' these higher ups get with their customer base. This is about sending a message.
 
I think that Hugh's theory is probably correct. At least we know that they totally haven't given up on piracy. I wouldn't be surprised if BEV was/is testing a new type of ECM for Dish Network.
BTW: I really love CBC's email response. They don't seem to be a fan of Bell.
 
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