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[QCK]

These channels were just added yesterday to the Ontario Value Pack:

• OWN (currently VIVA and will chnage to OWN Mar. 1st apparently)
• MovieTime
• Showcase Diva
• Action

 

[nusatman]

These channels were just added yesterday to the Ontario Value Pack:

• OWN (currently VIVA and will change to OWN Mar. 1st apparently)
• MovieTime
• Showcase Diva
• Action

I'm seriously going to give it some thought...thanks for the info

 

[pendragon]

I'm actually going to have to disagree with you on this one. There are definitely places where the limitations of the MPEG2 encoding really come through on Shaw -- especially when it comes to macroblocking on fast motion. The TSN SportsCentre intro is the most obvious example that I can think of off the top of my head.

I'll take your word for this as I have no interest whatsoever in sports. However a lot of what Dish Network and DirecTV do, and what Shaw doesn't do, ends up significantly lowering screen resolution. You pick your poison.

While I don't have DirecTV for comparison, I have measured some of the Dish Network HD sports channels running at twice the bit rate as Dish Network HD premium movie channels. Pity I can understand why they would allocate more bandwidth in this manner, but it does serve to drop their movie channels to absurdly low bit rates and horrible softening.

There are a few twists that come into play. At least on Dish the resolutions of many HD channels are based on non-square pixels - in other words 1440x1080 vs. the 1920x1080 that Shaw runs. This helps lower bit rates and attendant motion distortions for Dish, but it does increase horizontal softening. Furthermore, a number of US sports channels are produced in 720p, not 1080i. Again this helps motion, but hurts overall resolution. From a strict comparison point of view, it's fair to point out that Canadian channel sports feeds of events produced by the US networks likely undergo at least 1-2 extra generations of processing/recompression/rescaling. That can't help. All of these can lead to apples to oranges comparisons. Regardless, the bottom line is how the result appears to you on your screen.

With sports, people tend to tolerate softer pictures over motion artifacts. Unfortunately this is not strictly the case for movies, where a more detailed picture can add a lot to my enjoyment. This is where Shaw has excelled, although they too are dropping bit rates to squeeze in more channels. I will be curious to see what they allocate as they shift to H.264.

 

[nusatman]

These channels were just added yesterday to the Ontario Value Pack:

• OWN (currently VIVA and will chnage to OWN Mar. 1st apparently)
• MovieTime
• Showcase Diva
• Action

I had called Shaw about the package and they told me I couldn't add the West nets. Is that correct, or do I need to speak to another CSR to get the right answer?

 

[QCK]

I had called Shaw about the package and they told me I couldn't add the West nets. Is that correct, or do I need to speak to another CSR to get the right answer?

You get the West nets in HD no matter what package you have. It is probaly true they do not want you to have the West nets in SD, but they should be able to add any pack to your subscription.

 

[nusatman]

You get the West nets in HD no matter what package you have. It is probaly true they do not want you to have the West nets in SD, but they should be able to add any pack to your subscription.

That's what i thought, I called at night too, maybe I'll try during the morning hours, I've had better luck then in other things I've called about. I would think if you're paying for it anyways what difference does it make.

 

[QCK]

That's what i thought, I called at night too, maybe I'll try during the morning hours, I've had better luck then in other things I've called about. I would think if you're paying for it anyways what difference does it make.

I'm not sure if you are clear on this, but you do not need to pay anything to get both East and West nets in HD. No matter what package you have you will get them for free. The only reason you would buy the West feeds is if you must have to have them in SD as well.

 

[catamount]

QCK is right on about the HD feeds. I've had this package for a year. I do not believe you can purchase the west coast SD feeds. I think that was in one of my original emails from shaw direct. That's part of the price you pay for getting this package instead of digital favorites.

Catamount