satellite direct tv [Archive] - Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board

sphelps

01-12-2010, 02:22 PM

banditpowdercoat

01-12-2010, 02:50 PM

You allways have "issues" and outages, then need to go on internet, wait fro someone to crack a 'fix' so you can get the TV up again. I'ts alot better than it used to be for Pirating TV, but there's still work involved. I used to do it with Dish Network and Bell, but don't have the time to find cracks etc any more

sphelps

01-12-2010, 02:54 PM

Yes I've done the satellite thing as well but this is different. You watch everything through your PC and internet connection, no dish or receiver required. Plus it's 100% legal and other than the occasional lost internet connection you'll never be down.

The question is how well does it work and what kind of internet connection will be required? And is it possible to setup some kind of PVR?

banditpowdercoat

01-12-2010, 02:57 PM

Ohh, my internet would never be able to handle that. heck I can't even watch a YouTube vid. I'm really getting ticked off acctually. $45/mo for 100Kb/s speed Tops!

Delphinus

01-12-2010, 05:09 PM

I doubt you could totally eliminate your cable company because they might still have the better internet speeds. But yeah, eliminating the tv portion of the bill .. might be nice.

And it's not like you can't watch your actual TV anyhow. Just get a little PC on each TV and some PVR or media software and poof done.

I guess the real question is how legal is it? Is it a grey area, is it totally legit, or is it non-legit in the eyes of the RIAA or whatever?

Any links? I'd love to look into this more myself. It's time consumers started taking more control of things like this. Prices go up and up and up, service gets less and less, and incomes are getting more and more pinched (ie., no raises, or hours cut back due to economy or whatever).

Reefer Rob

01-12-2010, 05:28 PM

You have a reef aquarium and you have time for TV?

mike31154

01-12-2010, 05:40 PM

This sounds interesting. I too am getting a little miffed at the cable rates. The cable company is quick to provide info regarding your 'savings' when you bundle their services, but seems to be very slow when it comes to innovations that might cost them money. I get a real charge about their 'home' phone service now offered. As far as I'm concerned that should be free. I mean, there are plenty of applications available these days to do VOIP. These guys/gals running the show need a wakeup call. They want more and more for what they're pushing running through the same cable. I jumped on the digital TV bandwagon when I moved to Vernon, but most of the channels offered with the package I have now do not interest me. I don't want or need 300 channels, just a few select ones, without having to deal with all the different bundles available. Even then, the ones that are of interest, are 'extra' charge or 'on demand'. If I could choose the channels I watch, it would probably boil down to no more than 10. It shouldn't be that difficult with today's technology to allow a customer to do that and charge a fair price accordingly.

banditpowdercoat

01-12-2010, 06:13 PM

The problem with everything, and I think it should be illegal, is price upping. Take Call Display for instance. When it was offered to the public, it was about $2/month. Now, once everyone is hooked and can't live without Call Display, they up the rates to almost $10/mo. Don't tell me the technology required fpr CD has goten more expensive!.

And Satelite TV, the packages used to be Sports, Learning TV, Networks. Discovey and THC were in the same package. NOW, Shaw mixed them all up, AND won;t let you juist order Discovery alone. The popular channels are mixed with unpopular ones and you "have" to buy the package. it just infuriates me. But I can;t live without my Discovery LOL

Delphinus

01-12-2010, 07:05 PM

Found the link. I dunno, it seems pretty fishy to me.

- First of all anything with that "As Seen on TV" logo is something that.. um .. OK I don't really know where I'm going with this other than it puts it it all into the same category as K-Tel Mini-Pops, It Slices It Dices, and "Hi Anthony Sullivan here, you can get CASH for your unwanted gold!".

- When I clicked away from the link, I got an automated popup saying "Are you sure! A LIVE AGENT would like to offer you a discount!" .. instant turn-off.

- Here's the thing. Most network channels allow streaming of their shows anyhow. So it makes me wonder if it's just some kind of data concentration service. Thing is if they are circumventing geographical restrictions (ie., if you're in Canada, you can't just go to abc.com and watch Lost, you need to do it from ctv.ca) then they'll likely be forced to change their model sooner or later and I bet you're out the $50 at that point.

sphelps

01-12-2010, 08:02 PM

Yes essentially the "direct satellite" software is a kind of scam in the sense it's not exactly clear what it does and isn't exactly what it says it is. It's just a simple piece of software that is suppose to organize what are essentially links to live streams provided by TV networks. However I figure if they actually did a half decent job of it, it might still be worth $50 which really isn't much. I was curious if anyone has actually tried it, all the reviews online are obviously fake so it's hard to get a real feel for it. Either way I'm not saying this is the answer but I do believe the answer is related to the PC.

Anyways I'm off that idea and onto something else. I got a program called TED which stands for torrent episode downloader. Now this likely isn't 100% legal but in all fairness it's not that bad when you consider what's considered right and wrong these days. Plus if more people take this approach and ditch the cable companies they will be forced to lower there prices to attract more business. So it's a simple program if you're familiar with the torrent world and it simply allows you to set a schedule of your favorite shows and automatically downloads them once they become available, you can even set it to download HD quality only.

TED is a completely free program and if it works as good as it's suppose to I don't see the need for cable TV. You might end up watching your shows a day after everyone else but that's a small price to pay.

The main purpose of this thread is to see what others do for alternatives to the cable company. I'm personally sick of the system, even the fact you have to pay extra for HD in the same channels you already have and pay for. Then on top of that you have to pay additional HD fees for each additional TV. Then when you finally get around to watching something good it craps out on you and you miss part of all of the show. So exactly what are we paying for??

Delphinus

01-12-2010, 08:12 PM

I find that between having two small kids, the reef tanks, the basement/280g build going on, I watch *extremely* little TV anymore anyhow, but this is what I do (ie. watch my shows off a PC - it's just that my TV is hooked up to a PC running as a PVR).

I agree that the future of TV involves watching shows on your computer. Sites like youtube with "channels" are further pushing things in that direction. This nice thing is you can run your TV off a PC now anyhow, so it's not like your watching TV in some chintzy format or a little 2"x3" window or something.

My PVR was starting to have issues though in the last year (5 year old computer now, no wait, 6 years, which seems to be about the life expectancy of any of my PCs.. not sure if that's average or not, but .. well whatever). So every once in a while it would miss a show for whatever reason. In those cases I would find the missed episode by other means. Which generally meant I would watch the show in 1080 HD, and already without commercials. The quality of the "watching" was far superior. It really made me question whether I want to sink a couple hundred or more into replacing the hardware when the end result will be a step backwards in quality.

bvlester

01-12-2010, 08:40 PM

OK so I'm curious if anyone else is sick of paying a high cable bill these days because apparently you can download software for a one time fee to have access to 3500 channels. Basically you watch TV through your computer with an internet connection.

The software that seems to be top rated is called "Satellite Direct TV" and costs around $50.

Has anyone tried this method of eliminating the cable company?

why don't you surch free to air satellite it is not piriting the signal you get the signal from the originating satilites as do shaw bell MTS Telus and they charge you for the programing. I know a bunch of people in Winnipeg that do this free to air satellite. If you get the right reciever it updates the programing within the hour others not so fast I can't remember which one was the best to get. I'll try and reach one of the guys I know there and fine out I've been wanting to do this also, but other things keep comming up.

Bill

sphelps

01-12-2010, 09:02 PM

why don't you surch free to air satellite it is not piriting the signal you get the signal from the originating satilites as do shaw bell MTS Telus and they charge you for the programing. I know a bunch of people in Winnipeg that do this free to air satellite. If you get the right reciever it updates the programing within the hour others not so fast I can't remember which one was the best to get. I'll try and reach one of the guys I know there and fine out I've been wanting to do this also, but other things keep comming up.

Bill
I'm fully aware of the FTA scene but when it comes down to it there's nothing of real interest on the actual FTA satellites, to get the good stuff you gotta hack the non-FTA satellites which is not only impossible at this time but a hassle and simply a temporary fix. Soon enough this won't be possible anymore and it's certainly not worth the investment. Not to mention the equipment required which includes a motor to change satellites and you can't always get a clear shot if you have large trees around.

The future of TV is in the web, well as far as I'm concerned anyway.

banditpowdercoat

01-12-2010, 09:33 PM

I don't think the Web will be the future of TV, not for a long time. There are so many still that can barely watch a Youtube vid. Myself included. Our big "High Speed" is about 100Kb/s and I don;t live out in the stix either.

bvlester

01-12-2010, 11:53 PM

FTA you can get HBO and all the other chanels I know guys in Winnipeg that do. You are right it is a hasel because you have to beable to recieve bothe vertical and hor izontal signals and you need to beable to change satalites. It is not like years ago where you only got the chanels the were not scrambled The new recievers unscramble the signals for you your just have to have the right menue program for the satalite you are tuned to. In the long run TV is internet based MTS has proven it with there VDSL TV. Telus has yet to make there VDSL work properly, I think they are trying to reinvent the wheel on this one. MOTAROLA owns the company that MTS uses for their equipment and whould hapaly sell it to Telus and train people on how to install it. 1 box for a entire home where as Telus they have to run a line to and have a controler box at each TV as does Shaw for the digital TV that is.

Bill

PoonTang

01-13-2010, 12:03 AM