Yes the end of an era in family entertainment for us.
Since 2001 we'd been cheating the system a bit by not only having a U.S. satellite company, Direct TV, but also owning and using a Canadian small dish provider, Bell ExpressVu (view). It was how we were able to watch and enjoy just about every program we watched at times that were the ultimate in convenience for us and our family.
It started when we bought our first home and moved to the Phelan area in the High Desert near Victorville California in fall 1989.
The first year we were living there we suffered through, and I DO mean suffered with 3 small kids, with 4 channels of very static filled fuzzy translator TV reception. Our property was down slope and lower than the ridge line to be able to watch "normal" L.A. station broadcast TV. At the L.A. county Fair that next year summer, Sears was then selling and installing the big ten foot yard dishes with all the promise of free, FREE, FREEE! as well as crystal clear programming you could see on the big dish. So it was sign us up!
Where the dish was placed it was kinda cool, made our place look like a NASA outpost a bit. But we loved being able to tune into all the "wild feeds" for many of the TV series we enjoyed watching, and many were sent out to the TV stations with only a few or no commercials! We liked that VERY much! We'd watch when home or record the feed and watch it later. Denver stations, Chicago, we also were able to watch many Canadian channels and networks from their coast to coast too. We'd watch the New Year's Ball drop live from New York not three hours later in California. So we'd be done by 9:30 PM not 12:30 AM!
The FREE disappeared pretty quick and more and more channels required subscriptions packages. Still OK, but a few years later big companies like HBO and the regular TV networks began going "digital" and one day all the Canadian channels were gone from the big dish as they all went digital at the same time. The 'small dish' became available and at the time to sign up and subscribe was considerably less expensive than the subscription costs to continue with the big dish so we got Direct TV and just used the big dish for the still available wild feeds and news broadcasts from direct to station field reporters at big news events.
But we missed our Canadian TV! Back then although a lot of US programing was shown for their residents, there was considerably more Canadian only content shown. Now much of what is on US TV is produced in Canada because it's less expensive for the film companies and TV networks.
So Stacy and I talked, there MUST be a way to get Canadian TV here! By this time we had the early version of the Internet, "Prodigy Internet" which was dial up to an area access phone number, years before broadband service! but it was still "magical" even for just a couple of hours a day!
On researching I got a phone number for a company that advertised on-line for Canadian satellite. I called and in talking to the owner, and telling him what we wanted, he said for a price, he'd set us up! That's how it started in the Spring of 2001.
We sent him money, $175.00, he sent us our first Canadian receiver complete with the dish. I installed it and set it up. He provided a Canadian address for our account so the Sat company wouldn't know and we watched to our hearts content, getting to watch a run of 8 PM to 11 PM shows from the East Coast at 5 PM to 8 Pm our time, we'd be done watching everything before our neighbors could even start watching them locally. Also the Canadian networks would show a mix of US network shows on one channel. We could see a CBS, Fox, and NBC show all on one channel and 3 hours earlier.
During the years we had to upgrade receivers twice, buying a replacement for a defective one on a trip to Canada while in Idaho and staying at our property as we were building on it.
Then we retired early and moved to Idaho and brought our Direct and Bell receivers with us. We needed new access cards a couple of years ago and we found out that our Canadian "address" had moved as he'd moved his company to another location in Calgary. It was a hassle to track him down and then he had decided to charge a stiff 'handling charge' to forward the re-sent access cards to us now in Idaho.
Still, the Canadian satellite was clearer in standard definition than the Direct TV had become with their changes. And the time shift was still worth it to us for the bit of hassle.
But the times, 'they're always a changin' and with HD TV and our new Samsung TV and Blu-Ray player over a year ago, the standard def TV just wasn't cutting it too much anymore. Bell was still way better than the pixilated Direct TV. When we spent those few days at Sandy's in California for our Germany trip, I was hooked on the idea of getting our TV hooked up to HD programming.
Well we recently talked again and decided that since another Canadian receiver is giving us reception grief maybe now would be the time to just go American over the hassle of getting another expensive replacement Canadian one. Besides I agreed, it would be just like the 1980's when you'd record shows and watch them later when on to late in the evening!
So we did. Upgraded to the HD-DVR from Direct TV and to be honest as I'd said so many of the shows are shown both here and there now so we'll still see what we want to! And the fact that the Canadian dollar is currently at our above the US dollar, the savings we had with the Canadian system is gone now, so it would save money for us to drop Bell.
I'm guessing it would still be true, but for years we were the ONLY people from the US that wanted a Canadian satellite system. He had waiting lists of Canadians wanting US satellite systems, he just had to wait and find his 'contacts' in the US that gave him addresses for his Canadian residents so they could have their Dish Network or Direct TV in Canada.
So the Canadian expires on July 21st, they can't just cut it off, they have to give you 30 days to see if you'll change your mind! We've already taken out the acting up receiver and with the DVR we actually are recording and watching more than we were. And I have to admit, I love the clarity of the HD picture!
When I called to cancel, and was very surprised that Bell NOW has a toll free phone number that works from the US, the call taker from Toronto thought I was kidding when I told him how we, his loyal customers have actually been 'illegally' using our service outside of Canada, we never used it in Canada once in all those years! He finally believed me yet still asked if I was sure we wanted to quit? I assured him that yes our time with Canadian satellite is at an end.
Tad
Since 2001 we'd been cheating the system a bit by not only having a U.S. satellite company, Direct TV, but also owning and using a Canadian small dish provider, Bell ExpressVu (view). It was how we were able to watch and enjoy just about every program we watched at times that were the ultimate in convenience for us and our family.
It started when we bought our first home and moved to the Phelan area in the High Desert near Victorville California in fall 1989.
The first year we were living there we suffered through, and I DO mean suffered with 3 small kids, with 4 channels of very static filled fuzzy translator TV reception. Our property was down slope and lower than the ridge line to be able to watch "normal" L.A. station broadcast TV. At the L.A. county Fair that next year summer, Sears was then selling and installing the big ten foot yard dishes with all the promise of free, FREE, FREEE! as well as crystal clear programming you could see on the big dish. So it was sign us up!
Where the dish was placed it was kinda cool, made our place look like a NASA outpost a bit. But we loved being able to tune into all the "wild feeds" for many of the TV series we enjoyed watching, and many were sent out to the TV stations with only a few or no commercials! We liked that VERY much! We'd watch when home or record the feed and watch it later. Denver stations, Chicago, we also were able to watch many Canadian channels and networks from their coast to coast too. We'd watch the New Year's Ball drop live from New York not three hours later in California. So we'd be done by 9:30 PM not 12:30 AM!
The FREE disappeared pretty quick and more and more channels required subscriptions packages. Still OK, but a few years later big companies like HBO and the regular TV networks began going "digital" and one day all the Canadian channels were gone from the big dish as they all went digital at the same time. The 'small dish' became available and at the time to sign up and subscribe was considerably less expensive than the subscription costs to continue with the big dish so we got Direct TV and just used the big dish for the still available wild feeds and news broadcasts from direct to station field reporters at big news events.
But we missed our Canadian TV! Back then although a lot of US programing was shown for their residents, there was considerably more Canadian only content shown. Now much of what is on US TV is produced in Canada because it's less expensive for the film companies and TV networks.
So Stacy and I talked, there MUST be a way to get Canadian TV here! By this time we had the early version of the Internet, "Prodigy Internet" which was dial up to an area access phone number, years before broadband service! but it was still "magical" even for just a couple of hours a day!
On researching I got a phone number for a company that advertised on-line for Canadian satellite. I called and in talking to the owner, and telling him what we wanted, he said for a price, he'd set us up! That's how it started in the Spring of 2001.
We sent him money, $175.00, he sent us our first Canadian receiver complete with the dish. I installed it and set it up. He provided a Canadian address for our account so the Sat company wouldn't know and we watched to our hearts content, getting to watch a run of 8 PM to 11 PM shows from the East Coast at 5 PM to 8 Pm our time, we'd be done watching everything before our neighbors could even start watching them locally. Also the Canadian networks would show a mix of US network shows on one channel. We could see a CBS, Fox, and NBC show all on one channel and 3 hours earlier.
During the years we had to upgrade receivers twice, buying a replacement for a defective one on a trip to Canada while in Idaho and staying at our property as we were building on it.
Then we retired early and moved to Idaho and brought our Direct and Bell receivers with us. We needed new access cards a couple of years ago and we found out that our Canadian "address" had moved as he'd moved his company to another location in Calgary. It was a hassle to track him down and then he had decided to charge a stiff 'handling charge' to forward the re-sent access cards to us now in Idaho.
Still, the Canadian satellite was clearer in standard definition than the Direct TV had become with their changes. And the time shift was still worth it to us for the bit of hassle.
But the times, 'they're always a changin' and with HD TV and our new Samsung TV and Blu-Ray player over a year ago, the standard def TV just wasn't cutting it too much anymore. Bell was still way better than the pixilated Direct TV. When we spent those few days at Sandy's in California for our Germany trip, I was hooked on the idea of getting our TV hooked up to HD programming.
Well we recently talked again and decided that since another Canadian receiver is giving us reception grief maybe now would be the time to just go American over the hassle of getting another expensive replacement Canadian one. Besides I agreed, it would be just like the 1980's when you'd record shows and watch them later when on to late in the evening!
So we did. Upgraded to the HD-DVR from Direct TV and to be honest as I'd said so many of the shows are shown both here and there now so we'll still see what we want to! And the fact that the Canadian dollar is currently at our above the US dollar, the savings we had with the Canadian system is gone now, so it would save money for us to drop Bell.
I'm guessing it would still be true, but for years we were the ONLY people from the US that wanted a Canadian satellite system. He had waiting lists of Canadians wanting US satellite systems, he just had to wait and find his 'contacts' in the US that gave him addresses for his Canadian residents so they could have their Dish Network or Direct TV in Canada.
So the Canadian expires on July 21st, they can't just cut it off, they have to give you 30 days to see if you'll change your mind! We've already taken out the acting up receiver and with the DVR we actually are recording and watching more than we were. And I have to admit, I love the clarity of the HD picture!
When I called to cancel, and was very surprised that Bell NOW has a toll free phone number that works from the US, the call taker from Toronto thought I was kidding when I told him how we, his loyal customers have actually been 'illegally' using our service outside of Canada, we never used it in Canada once in all those years! He finally believed me yet still asked if I was sure we wanted to quit? I assured him that yes our time with Canadian satellite is at an end.
Tad
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