I realized that my mum and grandma both have the big massive TV package from Roger’s, and that it was redundant for me to pay for the same channels, despite the fact that I never watch them alone.
I heard people go on and on about how great the digital channel offerings on broadcast TV are. With my new HD antenna, though, I’ve only found four channels here in Ottawa, along with a few fuzzy analog ones that aren’t nearly clear enough. It’s annoying.
Has anyone had better success? I read the news and watch movies on my iPad, the only thing I would like from the TV is to watch sports.
We’re thinking of doing the same. We don’t watch many TV shows, and those that we do watch are available online shortly after they air. We just connect our laptop to the TV and watch there. No commercials!
The only thing I’d miss is listening to the news as I’m getting ready for work in the morning. I guess I could just use news radio instead.
This American hasn’t had cable for a couple of years and does just fine with the internet. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything much except for way too many damn commercials.
They’re available illegally, which is not something I’m willing to do…even after the morality and legality argument, they tend to be of really terrible quality, and get laggy from everyone else trying to watch the feed. I’d miss sportscentre, which I think I can get for free on the TSN mobile app, but only if I have a 3g iPad (I don’t) which is on the Bell network (everything else is Roger’s). Besides that, there’s going to friends houses, or the bar behind my apartment.
The stupid thing is that hockey is pretty much the ONLY compelling reason I’d keep cable, and yet there’s NHL GameCenter LIVE. YET, Gamecenter live will not stream me any games that are a) broadcast on national TV, or b) on a cable channel in my local market, which pretty much covers any game I’d want to see…:dubious:
And no, I’m a console gamer, so I still have a TV. Also, both my laptop and my iPad have HDMI connections, so I can use my TV for computer content, as well!
I plug my Macbook Pro into my tv and watch Hulu and catch games on ESPN all the time. I have an Apple TV with Netflix, allowing me to rent via iTunes or watch unlimited streams via Netflix.
Don’t miss Cable at all, but still happily watch TV.
I got Netflix Canada, which is less cool, and I actually just recently found out that I CAN, in fact, watch Hulu on my Ipad through my flash cloud browser, which gets around the “U.S. only” region lock!
Still doesn’t help me watch CFL or the Senators, though.
A better cable package won’t help with watching the Senators…
If you just want to reduce the channels you have to the sports ones, does Rogers have an à la carte option? Videotron does in Québec; you can pay for 20 or 30 channels that you want (in addition to the basic cable channels) so you can just load up on the sports channels and drop the rest (well, fill up your 20 channels). It’s basically what we’ve done; TSN, RDS, RIS, TSN2, Rogers Sportsnet, NHL Network… we get most/all CFL games, all the Habs games, Sens games on some nights the Habs aren’t playing (shared market) and the regular national games.
If Rogers doesn’t offer that, is Videotron the provider in Gatineau-Hull? You could move…
the antenna makes a big difference with digital. with analog some people could live with a snowy picture, a poor signal could work. with digital you need a good signal to get anything. outdoor antennas or well placed indoor antennas may be needed.
you have a year for the transition to digital. digital broadcast tv is a far better picture than analog cable. stations will get digital going and tweak their signals. it took time for the transition in the USA to shake out.
I thought about just getting the basic cable package from Rogers…but then it wouldn’t be HD and it would look fuzzy and lame…y’know? Or do you have HD with yours?
I still have the FTA satellite for CBC, at any rate, I’m gonna see how many channels I can get when it stops raining.
And no, I’m not gonna move to Hull. Or cheer for the Habs! Icky icky gross!! There, now I’m gonna write a strongly worded letter to the Alouettes about the Fleur-de-Lys on their helmets. See what you’ve done?
Hey, the Habs are the only team that has a nationally available broadcast of every single game. And all but one pre-season game (the one against the Sens, oddly enough). I’m just sayin’!
While you’re at it over the fleur-de-lys, get all uptight about the accent on their jerseys too. I know if offends you that they are the Montréal Alouettes. How dare they?
We don’t have HD because we don’t have an HDTV. I’d like for that to change, but money and money seem to be the biggest hurdles at the moment.
Looking quickly, Videotron even has a 10 channel à la carte choice (and 15, 20, 25, 30 with or without the Movie Network)… here’s the list of available channels to pick any 10 from. RDS is available in HD as is Rogers Sportsnet and TSN. Basic cable has CBC in HD. It’s $21.29 for basic plus $17.26 for 10 additional channels. You can change your 10 channels once a month for free if you want to.
Can we send you the Hab fans who live here? I have no idea why, but there is a certain segment locally who (a) cheers for the Habs at hockey; and (b) cheers for the Saskatchewan Roughriders at football. No idea why, and we’d really like to get rid of them. Can we send them to you?
Hells no. We don’t want no stinking Roughrider fans! Get them to cheer for the Alouettes and we’ll take them.
The Habs have got to be one of the teams with the most fans in other markets; I’ve seen commentary where games against the Islanders, Panthers, Lightning and Senators feel more like Habs home games than road games. It even seemed like that against the Canucks when they played in Vancouver last year! I’m sure the Laffs, Pens, Red Wings, maybe a few others get similar draws, but the Habs are up there. And if you actually live in Québec, especially Montreal, being a Habs fan is just plain fun. It’s like the city is constantly partying! The fact that we can actually see our team play on TV has got to help!
Tabernouche, my Canada has NO diacritics, con sarn it!!! :mad:
Actually, CBC is in HD on BROADCAST TV, which is cooler still. I wish I could find a list of all the channels I’m supposed to get on broadcast TV so I could compare.
So looking at my Roger’s site, I can apparently get Sportsnet for free with an HD box, and then get the TSN package for an extra 10 bucks a month. For half what I’m paying now, I can get the full baseball AND hockey AND NFL package, too! :eek: But I probably won’t do that because I usually hang out with family to watch hockey, anyway…
Iunno, my Roger’s bill is just painful to open every month. Between the blackberry and the home phone and the cable internet and the cable TV, I could practically write away my paycheques to them right now.
