How is Bell TV quality in Montreal? (rain fade, signal strength, outages...)

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Alrighty, I've read a lot about Bell TV and I'm learning more about rain fade and outages.

What I'm trying to learn is how reliable the service is. Videotron is very reliable (based on my usage, with is 4-6 hours per day). But Videotron has no HD selection, which is why I want Bell. Bell is cheaper too.

Besides the description of signal strength and rain fade and all that jazz, all of the anecdotal information is based on Bell TV out of Toronto or out west.

Either nobody from Montreal is posting or nobody in Montreal has any problems.

Being in Montreal, this leaves the question - how is Bell TV in Montreal?
 
Do a search for "rain fade" and/or "snow fade". The latter is probably more applicable to Montreal. Plenty of previous threads on the topic.

There is nothing really that specific about locations, unless you're in a location that has specific concerns - say Vancouver/rain, so Montreal may not be any worse than any place else - the snow there is usually pretty dry and not sticky/wet like it is more in southern Ontario.
 
Have had Bell TV for ages (in Montreal).

Rain fade or snow issues affect TV viewing for me maybe 4 to 6 times a year for about 30 minutes on average.

No biggie.

HD selection is way better than Videotron, but HD picture quality on Bell is not all it's cracked up to be.

Better than SD, but still a far cry from true 1080 HD.
 
If the Dish is aimed correctly, there is almost no rain fade at all.

I believe this has been blown out of all proportion by the Cable TV Companies as a reason to avoid Satelitte services.

If there is a downside, it is the fact that Bell TV only have the 1 Uplink Station, which is in Toronto, so if there is a major storm over that part of Canada, then the rest of Canada looses signals for a few minutes. This did happen during 2009 on a few occasions.
 
I'm on the West Island and have no complaints. May lose the signal a couple of times for a few minutes during a heavy thunderstorm in the summer, but that's about it. Lost it once when we had really heavy, sticky snow on the dish but not a big deal. Been wiith Bell for 5 years.
 
I live in an apartment building and may not have access to the roof on a regular basis. When there is sticky snow do you have to clean the dish or will it go away on its own? And if it does go away on its own, how long does it take?
 
That would depend - if you got a dump of heavy snow and then it got cold, it could be days/weeks before the snow disappeared. People mostly put dishes where they can get at them if snow collects (although I can see your problem)
 
Pinza, FYI my setup gets betwen 90% and 100% signal strength on sunny days.

I think if it rains really hard or the snow is really sticky, you will experience rain fade or full signal loss no matter how good your dish setup is.

It is the nature of the satellite beast.

Like I said, 4 to 6 times a year for about 20-30 minutes on average... no biggie.

A small price to pay for way more HD selection than our friends at Videotron.

On a seperate note, I have heard that Bell TV now supplies satellite dishes with an OTA HD antenna on it (which allows you to catch Canadian and US HD locals through your Bell TV HD receiver).

In Montreal, this would mean getting CFCF-12 in HD (CTV feed) as well as the Quebec City Global Channel 44 feed in HD, and all the nothern New York (Burlington, Plattsburgh feeds) in HD.

Can someone confirm to me that this is true, and what is required to obtain one from Bell?
 
I can confirm that this is UNTRUE. There may well be a few Installers offering an OTA Antenna mounted to the 20" Dish for $$$$ but it is NOT anything to do with Bell TV at all. Why would they even consider it, they do not currently offer an HD receiver that has an OTA Tuner in them anyway.



I never said NEVER.....



That is just great and what happens on a nice Sunny day in Montreal, when a huge thunderstorm rolls over Toronto's Uplink Station.? You loose Signals, that what. If the signal cannot get from Toronto to the Sat, you can be 100% sure you will not get a picture, even though the Signal Strength shows 100%.

This does happen, but infrequently.
 
Both my 6100 and 9242 have the SCAN LOCALS option to scan for local digital channels...

Would this not be why I am hearing that some people are opting for a 20 inch Bell dish with Antenna attached??

Appreciate insight from anyone who is familiar with this.
 
Who are the "some people" do you know them personally.?

I know of 1 Installer in Southern Ontario, who is a Sub Contractor, offering this Antenna as a PAID option, an extra $75 I believe. But as I said in another post, this is nothing to do with Bell TV. I will go as far as to say that when, not if, Bell TV find out who he is, he may find himself looking for another Job. Bell TV do not want any Installer taking money off customers for anything.



This are both OLD receivers. The current 2 bell HD receivers do NOT have an OTA Tuner.
 
Well in my opinion, it is too bad that Bell does not look into such an antenna / dish combo.

Personally, as a Bell sub, I would love to be able to get the closest US locals through my receiver (yes my receivers are older models but the OTA option is there to be used!).

I am in Montreal, but only have one option for East US locals (Boston). I would much rather have Plattsburgh NY or Burlington Vermont locals. At least in these cases we would get news and weather reports that are closer to where we live (not to mention US commercials for the SuperBowl through OTA).

I don't know these people who have such combos personally, I think I had read it a few times in some forum. I would have to investigate to find the posts again.

Thanks for the info.
 
Just get yourself a cheap OTA antenna and hook it up to your receivers, it will be much better than the ones that attach to the Dish. The other advantage is that you can run a new line for the OTA, no need for Diplexing etc. That is how my 9200, 9242 are working and the PQ is amazing.
 
What brand of OTA antenna are you using?

What area are you in? Decent amount of US / CDN locals?
 
Southern Ontario, I get 15 HD Channels, with the Antenna at almost Ground level, one day I will climb my 60' tower and drag it up there with me.....lol Then I should get more US stations.

Not sure of the make but I know it was only about $15....
 
15 HD channels, nice. I am in the western tip of Montreal and unfortunately the US towers are over 80 miles away, so we are lucky to get any US HD at all without going up 60 feet :)

Do you know how far away you are from the US towers (Buffalo I would imagine...)?
 
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