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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16087 Registered: May-04 | . Stream Direct TV? No place to put this so it goes here for anyone to comment. This showed up in my spam file and all I see when I enter "Stream Direct TV scam" or "Stream Direct reviews" are items that read like ads for the product and indeed they have more than a few tags that lead you directly to the home page of Stream Direct. Many of them have some guy saying, "Hi, I'm so and so and I want to honestly tell you whether Stream Direct is a rip off or the real thing", followed by a dozen tags which will lead you over to the site where you can download the software. There are pages and pages of these things from sites I've never heard (none from any reviews sites I have heard of) of and I see a company paying people to sit and enter "Stream Direct" over and over just to place these ad/reviews at the top of any search engine. The other image I get is walking down Fifth Ave in NYC and confronting a dozen guys on each block trying to "honestly" sell me a real Rolex watch for $100. My new TV has internet hook ups though the other two sets in the house do not. I'm not much for watching TV on a computer monitor but I'm tired of paying for a few hundred channels when I only watch maybe a half dozen with any regularity. . |
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Gold Member Username: KbearCanada Post Number: 1016 Registered: Dec-06 | I'd personally avoid after reading this thread: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/lounge/191950-stream-direct-tv-real-scam.html And while the site is rated as okay by McAfee, they do link to a site that isn't: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/streamdirecttv.com So in the States, you guys also have to pay for a whole bunch of channels you never watch? I always assumed that Americans had more options to tailor their cable than we did. I have to pay almost $70 per month to get the channels I want. I watch maybe 20% of the channels that I have, but I can't have that 20% without paying for the other 80%. I've always longed for the days that Canada would open up 100% to competition and we'd get some better cable options. If that means our telecom companies go out of business I wouldn't lose one second of sleep over it. But if you guys get the shaft as much as us, then what's the point? |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16090 Registered: May-04 | . Your perserverance is appreciated, Dan. It does seem as though they are offering a cheap watch and then they'll move on to another area of town. Yep, our satellite and cable services must have the politicians in their back pocket. My paid for package claims 250 channels plus audio channels that aren't officially in that package count. Of that 250 I probably will regularly watch at most ten of the channels and wouldn't really care if I missed content on half of those. I suppose the most frustrating thing is to be paying for all these channels plus the additional fees for "renting" two additional receivers and still not finding much to watch on most nights. I went for a DVR offer they made to allow recording of some things I can watch at later dates, but TV is mostly brain rot. Two video rental stores have gone under in my neighborhood and the remaining Blockbuster at times doesn't have any copies of a movie or only one which is out on perpetual loan. And, from what I read, the video stores are going away due to the increase in downloaded videos. This is looking more and more like the 1980's promise of computers eventually providing huge chunks of leisure time to humans while the machines did all the work. I keep reading about all the on line content that's available but I'm not finding it all that convenient to access or the content isn't what I'm content to view. Ala carte viewing doesn't look too promising. . |
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Gold Member Username: Stu_pittStamford, Connecticut USA Post Number: 4396 Registered: May-05 | I remember being promised jet packs and flying cars in the year 2000. Guess their figures were off a little bit. Cable companies suck. My provider has disputes with networks every other week it seems. Between cable, a DVR, internet and phone, I'm getting soaked for about $160 per month. Out of all those channels, we watch maybe a dozen at best. And that's being generous. I'd love to be able to pay per channel I watch, but you know those scumbags won't make that worthwhile. I tried the Netflix streaming service for a month or two. Didn't care for the selection of streamible stuff. We watched maybe 5 things, and they were pretty much watched for the sake of watching something on it. We used our Wii to stream the videos. We wouldn't have watched them on our computer. I don't have the desire to order DVDs and wait until they get here. I figure by the time they arrive, I won't be in the mood to watch them anyway. If you're interested in Netflix streaming, the new Apple TV will do that as well as a ton of other neat tricks. Not a bad device for $99. |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16091 Registered: May-04 | . Here's one for ya. For years I had a HD satellite receiver from Dish Network. I also have an existing roof antenna that I have used for my local digital/HD channels by running it through the Dish receiver's "off air antenna" input. The receiver accepted the digital information provided by the station and simply folded everything into my main menu on the Dish receiver. The hook up made it convenient to go between Dish and local channels without any additonal switching. This worked very well for several years and it saved me the $60 per year charge from Dish if they supplied the (otherwise free) locals - actually, they only supplied less than half the locals as the switch to "digital" here in Dallas provided several alternate channels for additional broadcast by local providers. In other words, Dish was going to charge for something I could get for free and they were only going to provide about 1/3 of the actual content available after taking my money. Eventually that receiver failed and, when I replaced it, the new replacement receiver was no longer capable of accepting the HD antenna input for local digital channels. I called Dish to check this out and their answer was there was no problem. They were now providing the locals channels - 1/3 of them - at no additional cost. Well, OK, I thought, I can watch the other alternate channels on another TV and this makes it simpler to access local channels without paying for the additional service. "No charge for locals?", I asked. "None." Well, ... OK, I thought ... until the service assistant completed her sentence, "We're providing local channels at no charge to all of our customers but we had to increased our package prices across the board for the service." "So you're telling me you are giving me something for free but then you're telling me you're still charging me for that product?" "Oh, no. You see ... " That call went downhill from there. . |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16092 Registered: May-04 | . I have had all the "Come back - we miss you" offers from Netflix. It's been several years since I've used their mail service and that was simply to get DVD's of the old "Homicide" TV series (which they sent in reverse order so I saw the last shows first and the first shows last). Shows like that are a different experience when you watch them without commercial breaks - and a really different experience when the character who was shot in one episode comes back to life in the next shipment which has earlier shows when that character was still alive. I can't remember ever borrowing a film from them though. When I bought the new TV last year I went with the model that has internet capability thinking that might put me ahead of the game by at least a few centimeters. I just don't think there is such a thing as being ahead in this game unless you are pirating channels. I went through the main menu of movies I could download from Netflix and didn't see much that made me want to give them even the trial offer. I admit my problem is I'm not taken with most action movies and generally pass up most of the rentals when there is more than one weapon on the front cover or the view of the weapon is larger than the view of the actors. I am long passed the romantic comedy genre they are pumping out today. That leaves very few things from Netflix where you can find a character or story line based film. I also checked out the Sundance Channel on Demand but they haven't closed the deal yet. As of right now, the TV is in another room away from the computer and I've not convinced myself I want to go through all that's needed to watch a downloadable film about, say, "Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize" on the big TV. And I definitely don't want to sit in front of my computer to watch it. But then, I also don't get the idea of watching a movie on the 1 1/2" screen on my mobile phone either. . |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 14309 Registered: Feb-05 | I remember being promised A la carte packages from cable and satellite providers. We were supposed to pay only for what we want. The companies quickly figured a way out of providing anything that even looked like true A la carte packages. Like Jan said I have hundreds of channels and watch less than 10 regularly. TNT, PBS, The Food Network, whatever channel football is on, a local channel for news and by far the most watched channel HGTV. For that we pay for hundreds... We haven't done any streaming TV yet. Perhaps one day. |
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Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Canada Post Number: 3459 Registered: Jun-07 | Dan- I deal with Telecom companies in the US every day in my line of work and I will tell you one thing they are all brutal. High prices for crap internet and TV packages with brutal support. Although we only have a few here (like the US use to before they were all broke up into hundreds of little garbage companies) we pay far less for much more. Cogeco cable is my favorite, Bell I hate. lol. If you can off the DSL stuff and into the Cable as quickly as possible you will be far better off. Stu/Jan- I agree on the Netflix issue. Everything is old and outdated as far as material and you need unlimited internet packaging to fully benefit from it which will cost you more than a full HD Cable TV package. Netflix is horrible IMO. Stu - They do suck. When the large Telecommunication companies all sold and broke up in the U.S. they all were forced to use Proxy limits/servers as base internet and TV packages. Meaning there is hundreds of companies using every one elses services and just re-branding it all. This means disputes up the ying yang and horrific service/support from whoever you are suppose to be dealing with. On the opposite end of that spectrum you have Bell Canada here which own over 75 percent of all lines and telecommunication efforts and if your with them in any way you will get smoked in monthly prices and their support is all over in India. Nothing wrong with India, but when you cant understand what the guy on the other end is telling you it becomes frustrating for anybody. And on top of that because they are so big you are simply treated like another number. I guess nobody can really win. They all suck. My best luck by far is with Cogeco cable which are all local support and much better packaging. Not to mention their VOIP phone is outstanding now. |
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Gold Member Username: KbearCanada Post Number: 1019 Registered: Dec-06 | Most people I've talked to about Netflix in Canada are actually pretty positive about it. $8 per month - how can anyone complain? If you watch two or three movies then you've gotten your money's worth. I use Teksavvy for Internet. It's DSL and they have to use Bell's lines, but I don't deal with Bell myself (Teksavvy does for me) and it's worked well enough. Teksavvy now offers cable, but as long as DSL works well I won't bother changing it. For $32 per month I've got a 300GB limit, which I think would be more than enough to watch a few movies with Netflix. I haven't signed up yet, but that only because they are still new here and need to expand their movie and TV lineup. But if the lineup is weak in the U.S. after all these years then maybe that'll never happen. To me though, for $8 per month, if the lineup is there, it's a no-brainer. |
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Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Canada Post Number: 3460 Registered: Jun-07 | Depends on what you use netflix for. If you just stream a few movies here and there it wont totally eat away you internet limit. Its the poor people who bought into NetFlix TV. Wah! lol. 300gb would be gone within a week easy with only a few hours of HD TV a day. If your careful I suppose it could work. TekSavvy have good support indeed and I like how they offer both DSL and Cable (They use Cogeco for cable) so they can reach a larger market. They run two or three separate proxy servers. Smart. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 2273 Registered: Oct-07 | I was a DishNetwork customer when you could BUY your own receiver. No monthly rental. I think NetFlix steps on the feed enough (compresses) that you don't have to worry about capping the 300GB limit. Here in SoCal? The limits are SMALLER and the number of choices more limited. Also, for the time being, NetFlix is 'only' 720p. I'd be into Cable for 50$/month for enough speed for movies. Over DSL? My 3MB service rarely crests 2.5 and is usually around 2 or less...and depends on whose bandwidth meter you 'trust'. Our wonderful Congress had the chance to make cable/small dish on an Ala Carte basis but couldn't pull the trigger. I know, Jan, just the facts. I'll see if I can find the 'facts' on the proposed law. As it is, I'll bet the majority of people only view 20 channels TOPS. Not counting the gratuitous hd/sd double feeds, I have over 100 channels. The alway put something you WANT into the next package up so to get what you want you also get 3 more shopping channels, the Volleyball Network and the 'Weird Science' channel. I DO love all the available music channels and regularly cycle thru the 8 channels I have memorized. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 2274 Registered: Oct-07 | http://www.howcableshouldbe.com/ And from the Time Capsule http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-11-29-alacarte-sell_x.htm |
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Gold Member Username: DakulisSpokane, Washington United States Post Number: 1247 Registered: May-05 | I've got an internet TV, Netflix which we use in jumps and starts with the online queue, maybe 3-4 movies one week and none for a couple weeks. The mailed DVDs are actually much better than they used to be. We return one and in 2 days or less we have the new DVD. Don't ask about my cable, TV, internet package, it's horrible, expensive and the service is ridiculous and that's on a good day. Dave |
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Gold Member Username: KbearCanada Post Number: 1020 Registered: Dec-06 | Nick, for just $8 more per month you can get an unlimited GB cap with TekSavvy. |
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Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Canada Post Number: 3462 Registered: Jun-07 | That is a really good deal Dan. |