# Cheapest way to get TSN HD



## jwootton (Dec 4, 2009)

Hi all, 

I've been paying my $90 Rogers bill for almost a year now and it seems far too expensive for what I use it for. What I really want to know if what is the cheapest option to get HD TSN. I have the VIP Package with some discount for the first 12 months which is just over $50, then $13 for the HD Box $7 for the varietés package (so that I get the Habs games on RDS, I'll be cancelling that soon as CBC shows all of the playoff games). then the digital services fee of $3 and the HDTV specialty channel package for $9 (this seems to be the only way to get HD TSN). Plus taxes takes up to $90. I tried getting basic cable and adding the specialty channel package, but i can't get TSN HD if I don't subscribe to the standard definitiion. So I upgraded to digital plus, but at the time it was cheaper to get the VIP package.

Anybody know a cheaper way to get HD TSN, I don't really care about anything else, the girlfriend likes TLC, but it's not a dealbreaker. I don't watch much tv, except for sports so $90 to get HD TSN seems ridiculous (soon to be $83 when I cancel RDS)

I am in Ontario, in Kitchener. There has to be a better way!


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

MyP2P.eu :: Free Live Sports on your PC, Live Football, MLB, NBA, NHL and more... > live sports


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

I'm with shaw direct (formerly starchoice) and i pay about $35 per month (taxes in).... but that's on a special promo (digital value bundle) that i'm not sure they offer anymore (maybe give them a call).

Anyways, i do have to pay an extra $5 per month for their HD sports bundle, and i also get a couple of extra soccer channels (but they're not HD). When i was shopping around they were the best deal out there.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

Adrian. said:


> MyP2P.eu :: Free Live Sports on your PC, Live Football, MLB, NBA, NHL and more... > live sports


This from the myp2p site:


> Beginner's Guide
> P2P, peer to peer, a fantastic technique to get video to thousands of viewers, simply and easy. You need to connect to a channel on a program, then it will start "buffering" , which means uploading/downloading untill the stream is good enough to watch. Below we will explain easily how it works. *So far all programs are for Windows only, it isn't suitable yet for Mac OSX / Apple *. Only Sopcast is available for Linux also.


???


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Watching any sort of sports on your computer sucks. Not near the quality of satellite or cable. Pay up and enjoy excellent HDTV or suck it up on your Apple. Your choice. Me? I'm watching it all on my 46" Samsung like I was in the stands. For $90 a month, it's a bargain.


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## bsenka (Jan 27, 2009)

SINC said:


> Watching any sort of sports on your computer sucks. Not near the quality of satellite or cable. Pay up and enjoy excellent HDTV or suck it up on your Apple. Your choice. Me? I'm watching it all on my 46" Samsung like I was in the stands. For $90 a month, it's a bargain.


I've seen some really clean sports feeds on Justin.tv. It's great for watching events that aren't being carried locally. (by "clean" I mean not true HD, but still better than standard definition on a tube TV. That having been said, I've seen plenty of nasty feeds too.

$90/mo for *TV* is no bargain. It's a flat out rip-off.


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## jimbotelecom (May 29, 2009)

jwootton said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I've been paying my $90 Rogers bill for almost a year now and it seems far too expensive for what I use it for. What I really want to know if what is the cheapest option to get HD TSN. I have the VIP Package with some discount for the first 12 months which is just over $50, then $13 for the HD Box $7 for the varietés package (so that I get the Habs games on RDS, I'll be cancelling that soon as CBC shows all of the playoff games). then the digital services fee of $3 and the HDTV specialty channel package for $9 (this seems to be the only way to get HD TSN). Plus taxes takes up to $90. I tried getting basic cable and adding the specialty channel package, but i can't get TSN HD if I don't subscribe to the standard definitiion. So I upgraded to digital plus, but at the time it was cheaper to get the VIP package.
> 
> ...


Move to Quebec where Videotron doesn't rip you off as much. Also Bell TV has an a la carte pricing menu in Quebec only. In other words after you pay for basic service you can pick the channels you want and not pay for the others.

I was in the same situation last summer and I disconnected the cable to save $1200 per year (the savings helped me purchase an iPad). We've been living off of a few HD channels using an antenna, but TSN and RDS are cable only services.

I'm a Habs fan too, so there is pain.

I wrote a letter to the CRTC complaining that Bell TV is discriminating by offering a la carte pricing in Quebec only. I want the same service and I am only minutes from the Quebec border. I have not yet received a reply. I strongly suggest you do the same.


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

rgray,

Most of them work with Macs. Pretty much just SOPCAST doesn't work.

SINC<

Many times, usually for big games, the stream will be much higher than standard cable tv. It looks just as good as HD on my 24" monitor! 

This site is key for anyone who doesn't watch the standard Canadian diet, American hand ball, baseball, hockey, golf. 

Rugby, cricket, football etc. are everyone on that site.


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## bsenka (Jan 27, 2009)

I haven't tried it myself, but I've seen articles describing workarounds to get Sopcast working in OS X using VLC and/or MPlayer.


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## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

I've always found that calling Rogers and flat out telling them that you feel you are paying too much is the best way get get things worked out. They always have some kind of discount promo that they can throw your way. There is just too much revenue involved for them to let you start shopping around 

Always works for me.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Go Telus TV, get the basic $28 package and then add the sports package for $11. That's $39. I would rent a box month to month to start as they don't have the best HD quality, there is a bit of noticeable artifacting available. If after a month you don't mind it, sign a two year contract to get your free HDPVR (three = HDPVR + one addtional regular box)


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## jwootton (Dec 4, 2009)

Thanks for that, I think I mentioned that I was in Ontario, just looked up Telus TV, looks good, but it's only available in BC and AB. Thanks though.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

Adrian. said:


> rgray,
> 
> Most of them work with Macs. Pretty much just SOPCAST doesn't work.


Can I trouble you to go into a bit of detail as to how you make this work - ie. required software, etc.? PM me if you prefer. I am particularly interested in F1...


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

rgray said:


> Can I trouble you to go into a bit of detail as to how you make this work - ie. required software, etc.? PM me if you prefer. I am particularly interested in F1...


Here is the list of shows for the Pachuca-Toluca game today:

MyP2P.eu :: CONCACAF Champions League - Pachuca vs. Toluca

Any stream that has Veetle, VLC, MediaPlayer or TVU will work on a Mac - with add ons. I have them all with no problem. You click on the link and it takes you to an external site. 

Here is an 800kb/s stream from Veetle:

Veetle

That is very good quality video, for free anyway.

Need anymore help? Note, when the game ends all the streams die. So you might come back and all those links are dead


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

jimbotelecom said:


> I was in the same situation last summer and I disconnected the cable to save $1200 per year (the savings helped me purchase an iPad). We've been living off of a few HD channels using an antenna, but TSN and RDS are cable only services.


Did the same thing two years ago - ditched cable completely, used a portion of the money saved to buy a few seasons of various shows we want to watch through Apple TV, and grab whatever we can OTA for those times you just want to watch TV for the sake of watching. I find it's rare I want to do that though, and it feels so odd sitting through commercials.


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## jimbotelecom (May 29, 2009)

I should mention that one of the advantages of OTA (over the air) HD is that you receive an uncompressed signal and that the quality id superior to any cable or satellite providers signal. I also purchased an eyetv device so that I capture stuff and record it. I then remove the ads and watch the content when I want.

Thanks to Adrian for his postings re. streaming sites. I'm planning on catching the habs game tonight.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

You guys doing OTA-TV - What are you using for antennae?


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## jimbotelecom (May 29, 2009)

rgray said:


> You guys doing OTA-TV - What are you using for antennae?


I'm using a simple rabbit ear antennae ($20 about 20 years ago) that i used to use for radio when I was in Toronto.
It pulls in CBC HD french and english. PBS from Watertown NY, is going to boost it's signal into Ottawa this summer. I may build a yagi type antennae this summer to see what else I can get.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

jimbotelecom said:


> I'm using a simple rabbit ear antennae ($20 about 20 years ago) that i used to use for radio when I was in Toronto.
> It pulls in CBC HD french and english. PBS from Watertown NY, is going to boost it's signal into Ottawa this summer. I may build a yagi type antennae this summer to see what else I can get.


Pardon my ignorance - "yagi" ???


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

I am interested in this over the air stuff too. My friend lives next to the CN tower and gets about 26 channels in full HD! I have about 15 skyscrapers blocking my view!

Anyway around this?


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

rgray said:


> Pardon my ignorance - "yagi" ???


.


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## jimbotelecom (May 29, 2009)

rgray said:


> Pardon my ignorance - "yagi" ???


YAGI ANTENNA DESIGN BASICS - Learn More About a Yagi (Beam) antenna!

Very effective for gaining signal.


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

jwootton said:


> Thanks for that, I think I mentioned that I was in Ontario, just looked up Telus TV, looks good, but it's only available in BC and AB. Thanks though.


have you looked into shaw direct? they're in ontario.

Shaw Direct - 100% Digital Satellite Television

and as far as OTA goes, it's good quality, but you're limited to the channels you can get (i.e you'll never be able to get tsn or sportsnet or any other specialty channel)


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## jwootton (Dec 4, 2009)

Thanks, I forgot about shaw, they seem like a pretty good option, better than rogers anyway, as long as the quality is good


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## jef (Dec 9, 2007)

I bought a small $30 dollar OTA antenna last summer and was very surprised when I picked up 12 HD stations from Toronto here in Burlington. I went back to the shop and bought another $30 dollar antenna, pointed that one toward Buffalo and now I get 26 HD stations plus a bunch of analog stations. Goodbye Cogeco cable!

The HD picture quality is better than cable, we get all the major networks (but not cable specialty stations) and have found that most of what we miss is available in one form or another on the internet. It was great to watch the Olympics in HD for free! I connected a Mac and EyeTV Hybrid to the TV and now we have a complete HD home system and can record and playback, fast forward etc - much better than the cable box we rented.

The other huge advantage in severing the contract with Cogeco was discovering Teksavvy for internet and telephone services. Cogeco kept cutting us off the internet for going over our 60GB cap due to watching streaming TV and video so I had to look for a better solution. Teksavvy has either a 200GB cap or unlimited - both are priced way better than Cogeco was - and they have better customer service.

Although the internet connection is provided through Bell, they do all the fighting with Bell on your behalf. I am so impressed with Tecksavvy customer service that I have just signed up to be a reseller. (There are other small internet/phone providers but after reading DSLReports and getting a feel for the services available, I am very happy with the result of my experiment - especially the reduction in monthly bills!

(I just became a Teksavvy reseller yesterday - I have helped switch so many friends and neighbors in the past year, it made sense to become more involved.)

Jef


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