new to bell from starchoice

  • Thread starter Thread starter inview11
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inview11

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i think i made a mistake
was long time subscriber to *choice hd...got fed up with the amount of small hd channels...
got bell....horrible hd pic compared to starchoice...
why does bell have to simsub?....it is a joke...first night i had bell hd i wanted to watch the first episode of Life on Mars
missed the first two minutes because channel had effing ER on and didnt switch over..
starchoice NEVER NEVER NEVER simsubbed...i will tell u this..i was pissed..
and bell will hear from me everyday about this...
i need a very good answer as to why bell simsubs and starchoice never did..
i think i made a horrible decision
 
No idea what channel you watched for Life On Mars but mine recorded perfectly, I never missed anything.

Pretty annoying that the guide said Episode #2 but hey thats not unusual.

I think to base your oppinion of Bell being so inferior on missing 2 minutes of a show is crazy. Just wait a few weeks, then you can really start complaining......lol
 
I have no problems at all. Are you having a receiver problem.

I came from Starchoice, and I just loved their customer service. But, their hardware (PVR) was a piece of Motorola junk. In fact, they gave me a 100% refund after 3 years for my PVR.

Bell has better hardware, but their customer service is not in the same league. IF you get someone on the phone who cares, then it is pretty good. The problem is if they assume that everyone using their product would not have the technical ability to use a toaster.
 
thanks for the feed back...but, why do they have to simsub?
that i do not understand at all
 
inview11,

The CRTC requires Bell (and cable companies) to simsub, at the request of Canadian broadcasters. This is ostensibly to protect the advertising rights of the Canadian broadcasters. (i.e. CTV pays for the Canadian rights to some NBC show, so CTV feels they should be protected from the American broadcast when they broadcast the show at the same time). I don't know why StarChoice doesn't simsub - can anyone clarify this?

Bell does "over-simsub" though - technically, if I'm located in Ottawa, a show on an american station should only be simsubed if the canadian station broadcasts over-the-air *in my market*. Bell doesn't have the technical capacity to do region-specific simsubs, so it happens nation-wide, even if you don't have an over-the-air broadcaster in your region showing the program.

If you see faults in the simsubs (as you mention in your first post), that is Bell's fault (no matter what Bell tells you). There is a thread in this forum to log such incidents, and you can also complain to the CRTC, who will follow up with Bell. If you talk to Bell on the phone, they'll tell you they have nothing to do with it - this is only partly true - the decision to simsub lies with the broadcasters, who request that Bell do it, but any technical faults are Bell's problem, and if they can't do it reliably they're not supposed to do it at all.

Hope this helps. See also the "I Hate the CRTC" thread if you just want to rant about it. :-)
 
*C DOES simsub, they just have a totally better method.

Star Choice has VCO (virtual channel override) technology. This means that simsubs can be performed at the receiver level. Basically, only people that can receive the Cdn signal in question by OTA get simsubbed. It also means that many people, based on where you live, recevie very few or no simsubs at all.

Bell on the other hand has not VCO technology, so when they simsub it is done at the broadcast centre, ie everybody gets simsubbed, whether it applies to them or not. Most of the time, either a Tornoto or Vancouver feed it used for the sub.

I had bell for 2 years, and simsubs was one of the biggest reasons I switched back to *C. They just can't get them right.
 
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