I've been toying with the idea of setting up Shaw Direct at my home and am wondering how you would rate the package pricing and content versus comparable US services(Choice or Top 250), also what is the usual markup/charge you can expect from a broker. Is it a flat fee or are you paying a % of the cost to them. Thanks
Compare Shaw service with Direct or E*
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The good brokers charge a one team yearly fee to manage the account and a fee if you change programming. They will set up your cc with the provider so you get billed directly from the provider so there is no "markup". Some shady ones will have you pay them and they pay the provider. Basically they are making oodles of money off of you as they are account splitting.
Now note that alot of the channels that you are use to seeing are different in Canada. Just because they carry as example HGTV or Nickelodeon it is not the same as the US version. They have different laws about showing Canadian shows on them (they have to have X% a month be Canadian) and they dont have current seasons of shows in alot of cases.
I had it for hockey. This is before HNIC was on NHL Network US. While there were some cool channels on there (like HD nets both east and west for everyone) and TSN rocks the "other" channels would be a disappointment for folks looking for new episodes
Now note that alot of the channels that you are use to seeing are different in Canada. Just because they carry as example HGTV or Nickelodeon it is not the same as the US version. They have different laws about showing Canadian shows on them (they have to have X% a month be Canadian) and they dont have current seasons of shows in alot of cases.
I had it for hockey. This is before HNIC was on NHL Network US. While there were some cool channels on there (like HD nets both east and west for everyone) and TSN rocks the "other" channels would be a disappointment for folks looking for new episodes
Other considerations:
1) You will have a choice of major US Network Feeds (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and PBS) from either the Eastern (Detroit/Buffalo) or the Pacific Time Zones (Seattle/Spokane)
2) You will not be able to get your local stations via Shaw, unless you happen to live in one of the areas mentioned under (1)
3) You can get a wide variety of programming in French, if you care.
4) Although the Canadian channel may carry a program simultaneously with an American Channel (e.g. the Superbowl) the commercials you will see will be Canadian in place of what is shown in the US, again, if you care.
5) Shaw has an HDef receiver that seems to work well (the DSR-605), but their HDPVR offering (the DSR-630) seems to be fraught with problems, most of them relative to the recording capabilities. You can read about them here:
Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2 - Digital Forum
Note that, to date, there are 58 pages of discussion about the 630's problems......
6) Be aware that using subscribing to Shaw in the US is "grey-market". Thus, there is always an outside chance that circumstances beyond your control will result in the loss of your account, and hence your hardware investment. Read the sticky threads in this forum for more information, or do a search for "Freeway Support Services" in this forum to read some horror stories. But if you follow Iceberg's advice above, you can minimize the chances of this happening.
7) There is also an outside chance that, in the future, Shaw will launch satellites that whose beam will be limited to Canada and the northern US. If this ever happens, a lot of us will be in the dark, and, again, we will have no recourse for recovering our investment.
8) You will have to install and point your dish yourself, or find a tech in your area who is both willing and able to do it. In truth, you can do it yourself; it isn't that difficult.
9) The hardware (new and/or replacement parts) is only available in Canada or via the Internet. If you have it shipped to the US, you will pay a fairly hefty fee for the freight. I think the best option is to go with a certain company that will provide the hardware and also act as your broker. Send me a PM if you want more info.
10) I believe that for every SDef channel in your package, you will also get the HDef counterpart, if Shaw carries it, for no additonal cost.
1) You will have a choice of major US Network Feeds (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and PBS) from either the Eastern (Detroit/Buffalo) or the Pacific Time Zones (Seattle/Spokane)
2) You will not be able to get your local stations via Shaw, unless you happen to live in one of the areas mentioned under (1)
3) You can get a wide variety of programming in French, if you care.
4) Although the Canadian channel may carry a program simultaneously with an American Channel (e.g. the Superbowl) the commercials you will see will be Canadian in place of what is shown in the US, again, if you care.
5) Shaw has an HDef receiver that seems to work well (the DSR-605), but their HDPVR offering (the DSR-630) seems to be fraught with problems, most of them relative to the recording capabilities. You can read about them here:
Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2 - Digital Forum
Note that, to date, there are 58 pages of discussion about the 630's problems......
6) Be aware that using subscribing to Shaw in the US is "grey-market". Thus, there is always an outside chance that circumstances beyond your control will result in the loss of your account, and hence your hardware investment. Read the sticky threads in this forum for more information, or do a search for "Freeway Support Services" in this forum to read some horror stories. But if you follow Iceberg's advice above, you can minimize the chances of this happening.
7) There is also an outside chance that, in the future, Shaw will launch satellites that whose beam will be limited to Canada and the northern US. If this ever happens, a lot of us will be in the dark, and, again, we will have no recourse for recovering our investment.
8) You will have to install and point your dish yourself, or find a tech in your area who is both willing and able to do it. In truth, you can do it yourself; it isn't that difficult.
9) The hardware (new and/or replacement parts) is only available in Canada or via the Internet. If you have it shipped to the US, you will pay a fairly hefty fee for the freight. I think the best option is to go with a certain company that will provide the hardware and also act as your broker. Send me a PM if you want more info.
10) I believe that for every SDef channel in your package, you will also get the HDef counterpart, if Shaw carries it, for no additonal cost.
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Good points all - and a couple of things to expand on:
This actually only applies to the standard def feeds of the networks - both sets of nets are provided in HDef currently. Since I only have one receiver, and it's a 630, my choice of net is basically moot.
As an aside, this option is much more viable if the address you have on file with Shaw is in Quebec. Those customers have access to French-themed packages not available to other Canadians.
This is true - and somewhat oddly, as in the case above, you can get the HDef version of a channel but not its SDef version. For example, I do not have AMC in any of my bundles so do not receive it in SDef, but get it in HDef since it's in the HD Combo Pack.
This actually only applies to the standard def feeds of the networks - both sets of nets are provided in HDef currently. Since I only have one receiver, and it's a 630, my choice of net is basically moot.
As an aside, this option is much more viable if the address you have on file with Shaw is in Quebec. Those customers have access to French-themed packages not available to other Canadians.
This is true - and somewhat oddly, as in the case above, you can get the HDef version of a channel but not its SDef version. For example, I do not have AMC in any of my bundles so do not receive it in SDef, but get it in HDef since it's in the HD Combo Pack.
One of the biggest differences is in HD picture quality. Dish Network and DirecTV are in the minor leagues compared to Shaw, which boasts the highest DBS HD video bit rates for North America, even allowing for a rough 2:1 compression efficiency of H.264 versus MPEG-2 (Shaw still uses MPEG-2, whereas the US providers have mostly switched to H.264 for HD). After HD disappeared from 4DTV, we added Shaw primarily for this reason. We still have Dish Network, but only watch it for the channels missing on Shaw. That is a Shaw downside, because with higher rates per channel, you get fewer of them.
Movies are the second reason we added Shaw. While there are a lot fewer premium movie channels than with the US providers, the Canadian channels don't keep rerunning the same movies ad nauseam. You get them a few times and that's it. So the bottom line selection is fairly similar. Some of the premium movie channels are available only for the eastern provinces and some are only for the western provinces. We went with the western slate because they do not bombard you with channel logos and bugs. This is another real winner compared to many of the US premium movie channels. We also appreciate a much better selection of foreign and indie films with the Canadian premiums.
The Canadian channels do better on certain sports, but that depends on one's interests. The kids are diehard soccer fans, and with a fairly basic subscription we get a lot more choices, including GolTV (dropped off Dish Network). We also get the real BBC World News, which is simply unavailable on the US DBS providers. There are other plus and minus channels, but these are the ones we care about.
Movies are the second reason we added Shaw. While there are a lot fewer premium movie channels than with the US providers, the Canadian channels don't keep rerunning the same movies ad nauseam. You get them a few times and that's it. So the bottom line selection is fairly similar. Some of the premium movie channels are available only for the eastern provinces and some are only for the western provinces. We went with the western slate because they do not bombard you with channel logos and bugs. This is another real winner compared to many of the US premium movie channels. We also appreciate a much better selection of foreign and indie films with the Canadian premiums.
The Canadian channels do better on certain sports, but that depends on one's interests. The kids are diehard soccer fans, and with a fairly basic subscription we get a lot more choices, including GolTV (dropped off Dish Network). We also get the real BBC World News, which is simply unavailable on the US DBS providers. There are other plus and minus channels, but these are the ones we care about.
actually they dropped most of Buffalo except for PBS. Fox is from Rochester NY. ALso this spring Shaw is removing Spokane from the options
not all but most
one other reason why we have Canadian Sat is that children's programming carries virtually no advertising
Thanks everyone for all the information about the service. The next question I have is about programing, if I wanted to maximize my sports viewing(also crazy about futbol) is the silver level the lowest package you can get to pick the sports bundles or is there something better on the french side of the programing?
I have the Tout-en-français package. This package provides all the available French Channels that Shaw offers, plus a few token English Channels.
The only sports stations that it includes that are NOT available in the English packages are RDS and RIS. RDS carries sports 24-7, most notably all the Canadiens games from a partial presentation of exhibitions games, to ALL regular season games, both home and away. They follow the playoffs right to the end, even if Montreal gets eliminated. In addition, the also present other NHL games on Montreal's "off-nights". RIS is mostly sports NEWS, but they occasionally carry NHL games, as well. I really don't recall seeing much futbol on either of these two stations.
SRC (the French version of CBC) carries some futbol, but you would get at least one SRC station with the English Package.
If I wanted to add TSN and TSN2 to my package, it would be an additional charge.
All that being said, I don't think you can sinificantly improve your position for sports by subscribing to a French package unless you are a Montreal hockey fan.
If you have at least English essentials you can add those two stations for $4 a month
You are correct you get SRC Montreal on all English packages. TVA from there too
If you setup your location in Ontario or the maritimes you can get Digital Value Pack and the Extra value pack combined which they end up calling the Ontario Value Package for $40.98/month although I heard it will be $42.98 in March. From there you can add anything you wish. I have the HD combo package, the movie package, Leafs TV and the NHLCI package with it. This saves me over $20.00 a month compared to what I had before and the only loss are a few main channels and some of the western locals.
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It depends on the package. Some have both. I have Digital Favorites, and get both coasts US networks, in SD and HD.
It depends where Shaw thinks you are. If you are within the market of a Canadian station they carry, the station can opt for sim-sub and have the signal of the US channel switched for theirs. Being Shaw does it at the receiver, they can do it by station and location, and if you don't have carried locals, you do not get sim-subs.
I live in a location where I get no sim-subs.
On a side note, if you register in a city that has a CFL team (go Bombers 
) home games could be blacked out. If you address is 50 miles or more outside the city you will not get blacked out.
) home games could be blacked out. If you address is 50 miles or more outside the city you will not get blacked out.
Yes, I did it through the "contact us" section on their website. Choose the billing option. If you have been a good customer there should be no problem.
Contact Us Online - Contact Us - Shaw Direct
One note is that if you do get this package any further changes while you have this package must be done by that same "contact us" page or by calling, you cannot change programming online with this package like you can with other packages.
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.
If you compare the SportsCentre intro on TSN/Shaw to the SportsCenter into on ESPN/DirecTV, the ESPN/DirecTV feed wins hands down. I've also noticed macroblocking on the Rogers SportsNet feeds of hockey games when the cameras are panning to follow the puck. I see some of that on DirecTV as well (namely the FOX SportsNet feeds), but the MSG feed for the Rangers when they're playing at the Garden is a thing of beauty -- even the panning shots are completely fluid without macroblocking.
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