As of August 2011, most, if not all, TV broadcasters had to switch to digital broadcasting, mandated by the CRTC.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/com100/2010/r100716.htm
Rogers continues to force people to switch to analogue
- Thread starter canada-man
- Start date
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/com100/2010/r100716.htm
Well, it is really about Rogers wants you to pay for every TV in the house. With analog, you could legally put a splitter/amplifier on and pay a single rate. Now you pay per TV. Rogers also wants to be the content provider, with their lousy hardware and high package/streaming rates.
With OTA and streaming availability, Rogers is a dinosaur distribution model. They are also incredibly expensive, with a lot of compression, and lousy service.
Doesn't matter OTA or over cable, a signal is a signal, and if your TV can't decode it, you're SoL. And, who would continue to pump an analog signal over the air or cable that could only be picked up by ever-diminishing numbers of folks?
But if you still have a pre-2009 TV, I have a digital-to-analog down-converter box I'll sell cheap. Bundled with a free, working Sony 28" CRT-TV. Costs somewhat more unbundled.
You're allowed more than one. My mom has 3 free ones (she has 4 TVs, but a digital one in her room).
Got rid of my cable 25 yrs ago and also never regretted it except not doing it sooner. If you have a newer tv (built in digital tuner) you can make your own antenna for pennies. You just need a RF converter I believe, which I found lying around the home. A couple of coat hangers from you local dry cleaners and scrap wood, just look up the steps on youtube. Any old antenna would also work, again assuming your tv has the built in digital tuner. I'm in the north end and get about 8 channels, all Cdn. Its a excellent way to cut costs if times are tough.
I hear this argument a lot. Lets look at it from a business perspective. The problem with allowing people to run their own cable and use their own dollar store splitters, there is a tremendous amount of service requests for cable lines that Rogers did not install. Up until about 5 years ago, Rogers technicians never charged the customer for technical service work done at the home. Now they only charge if it is a customer equipment issue.
The issue here is that people fuck up their own service then call Rogers to fix it then complain when they are charged for doing their own shit. Up until about 5 years ago, customers never got charged for this shit, as it was always at the techs discretion, and Rogers paid out huge. The free service work was being abused essentially.
This was actually a big problem. I have a lot of friends who are either contractors or Rogers inhouse technicians. They are rout8nely fixing shit some moron thought they could do. There is a lot to know about digital signals, how they travel on the coax network, what can cause issues and even bending radius.
If you sold something and the customer decided to modify or add to it, caused issues and then asked for the fix to be free, would you not come up with something they can't tamper with?
Well of course Rogers wants you to pay whatever you'll pay. We call that capitalism and think it a Good Thing. As long as you ignore what you promised in the contract—and it said no owner-provided splitters from the earliest days, 'cause they always wanted to charge per TV, and occasionally did—you could and still can 'legally' install your own splitters. Digital signals don't care any moire than analog did. Rogers and all the other cablecos have always been 'content providers'; what else are they pumping out of your end of their wires but content?
Back to splitters: Mine work fine, and my OTA signal's 100% digital. There's a tad of signal loss any time you mechanically join a cable, and more loss if the same signal now has to feed two outlets. With analog, weaker signals meant you got more 'ghosting' and 'snow' dancing on the screen, but some varying percentage of the picture was still kinda there in the fog. Think of painting with a roller. Digital signals go by the numbers; pixel x-dy-x gets input y-de-y exactly like the signal says or nuthin' at all, which is howcum digital pix don't ever ghost or snow. Think of a paintball gun. So use top quality splitters and as few as possible or you can drop the digital signal below that 'nuthin' at all' threshold, even though an analog signal on the same cables might still show a tolerable picture.
Actually an RF converter is a different device, I had one to pump the signal from my VIC-20 into the TV.
For decades now TVs have had only screw thread cable-style inputs, but antennas typically have a pair of wires as outputs. The device that joins the 300ohm paired wire to the 75ohm screw connection on the TV or cable is a 'balun' transformer, although most folks just refer to 300to75ohm converters.
My low-end ChannelMaster™ was only $60* and strapped nicely to a chain-link fence toprail from HomeDespot for a mounting pole. Signals can vary with weather, but just north of the Danforth I get 18 or so channels: all the Canadian and US networks, PBS, TVO, Omni, City, and US independents at 23, 29 and 51. A bonus is the Canadian 'pirate' channel Star-Ray on 15, showing hockey from the Ted Reeve Arena.
Which means I pay only for 'on-demand' viewing via the interweebs.
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*That included the balun, which was built into the antenna so the 75ohm coax run started there. Good on you for the DiY antenna construction, Pocket.
Um no that is violating the contract you signed
Plus every split lost quality (at least 3.5dbm even with an expensive splitter, worse for the cheap stuff)
You are correct, I should've have said a (uhf/vhf) transformer.
Also my homemade antenna is quite small, I used paper clips instead of the recommended coat hangers, and I have it set up pretty low to the ground; which is why I get only a few channels, but enough for my enjoyment.
I think a big issue is the way Rogers is controlling what you have in your private home. Their responsibility really is up to the box as it enters the house. If somebody messes up the cables in their house then bill them for that service request.
The idea that they did it out of the goodness of their heart is crap, and outlet fees, box rentals, or whatever is nickel-and-dimeing customers. Rogers is a business like any other and doesn't direct any part of its business to function with carrying losses. A great question for the people that believe different would be to ask them what proportion of customers had their cables messed up in their house. I'd bet it was a minority of customers - not anything significant like its being made out to be.
How else would Rogers pay for the Skydome or to cover hockey broadcasts?
The idea that they did it out of the goodness of their heart is crap, and outlet fees, box rentals, or whatever is nickel-and-dimeing customers. Rogers is a business like any other and doesn't direct any part of its business to function with carrying losses. A great question for the people that believe different would be to ask them what proportion of customers had their cables messed up in their house. I'd bet it was a minority of customers - not anything significant like its being made out to be.
How else would Rogers pay for the Skydome or to cover hockey broadcasts?
