Pertinent to this thread, Teksavvy just released their TV service in Toronto this week.

TV -  OTA (primary)  Apple TV (secondary)

Phone - Rogers family plan...  (me, wife and two biological units)

Internet - Cogeco...  but looking into TekSavy.

 

Looking at changing. Thinking digital antenna for tv. So I am actively watching this thread.

Check TV Fool...  enter your location by address or co-ordinates.  It will show you which OTA channels can be received at your location.

 http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

Radiowiz wrote:

I am 100% Rogers because they are being really good to me!
I also have IPTV service, (IPTV is not Rogers)
I can cancel my cable at any one given time, but then it means I won't get 
the deep discounts I've been enjoying lately.
Plus also, I enjoy rewinding live TV. 
IPTV does have catch up, but it does not rewind actual live TV.

 

sadly that's why i still have bell for tv and internet... too many discounts to ignore.  I bailed on the bell satellite as soon as fibe came along to my neighbourhood.  the dish was too temperamental, even in light rain it would cut out... never mind having to hang out the bedroom window to sweep snow off the dish once a month!  I'm a long-time Telus client for my phone.  great customer service.

Rogers TV cable (yes, we're a sports household).
Teksavvy DSL (400GB monthly quota).
Virgin Mobile for cell .. but for emergency only .. pay $100/yr, pay thru nose by minute, unused $ rollover to next year)
Bell Landline (i know, i know, no chirping : )) 

Leslieville Bill.  Tell me about Ooma.  I'e never heard of it.  For the record I use both Bell & Rogers.  In order to get a better package I use Rogers for everything except Bell Mobility.

John D wrote:

Leslieville Bill.  Tell me about Ooma.  I'e never heard of it.  For the record I use both Bell & Rogers.  In order to get a better package I use Rogers for everything except Bell Mobility.

We used Rogers Home phone and we have cell phones.  I couldn't justify spending $20+ on a "land line".  Ooma is similar to Vonage -- an IP phone service.  You plug their device, which you buy upfront, into your router and your regular home phone into the Ooma.  The free plan means you pay only for government fees and taxes (HST, 911 fee, etc.) which amounts to $4.85 a month.  Ooma for home is on sale for $110 right now.  If you want to port your home number it's $40 one time fee.  Here's the important part, they make their money by selling upgrades and the Premier service is the default.  You have to turn it off or you'll be billed for a year's service.  They tell you that and it is easy to do.  The service is fine.  Is it as good as my $20+ Rogers service no? -- but it's reliable and more than does the job.  No complaints.

They have an app which allows you to use your home number on a cell phone presumably using data.  I think this is a premium feature.  I have not tried it but it's an interesting idea.

https://ca.ooma.com/telo/home-phone-service/

Hope that helps.
 

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (April 13, 2019 11:16 am)

Radiowiz wrote:

Leslieville Bill wrote:

John D wrote:

Leslieville Bill.  Tell me about Ooma.  I'e never heard of it.  For the record I use both Bell & Rogers.  In order to get a better package I use Rogers for everything except Bell Mobility.

We used Rogers Home phone and we have cell phones.  I couldn't justify spending $20+ on a "land line".  Ooma is similar to Vonage -- an IP phone service.  You plug their device, which you buy upfront, into your router and your regular home phone into the Ooma.  The free plan means you pay only for government fees and taxes (HST, 911 fee, etc.) which amounts to $4.85 a month.  Ooma for home is on sale for $110 right now.  If you want to port your home number it's $40 one time fee.  Here's the important part, they make their money by selling upgrades and the Premier service is the default.  You have to turn it off or you'll be billed for a year's service.  They tell you that and it is easy to do.  The service is fine.  Is it as good as my $20+ Rogers service no? -- but it's reliable and more than does the job.  No complaints.

They have an app which allows you to use your home number on a cell phone presumably using data.  I think this is a premium feature.  I have not tried it but it's an interesting idea.

https://ca.ooma.com/telo/home-phone-service/

Hope that helps.
 

The magic number range is between * $200-$225 a month (including tax) for 4 services.
If you are spending more than that then you may as well bundle everything into Rogers like I did. 
(*price does not include sports pack, cable is select package, smart phone may have either a 5GB or 10GB data plan, depending on promotion at the time)
Rogers was good enough to give me the Popular package for the select price, but that might not be available to just anyone. 
They also threw in the 1GB internet for less than the 500u price. 
Bundling saves a lot! 
 

At vMedia, I will be getting their Grand Premium package which is similar to Rogers Premier (includes all TSNs, Sportnets -- yes SN360 and One -- and the Golf channel).  I have three TVs.  The cost of the vMedia Android box needed to run the service will be offset by the 4 month discount I get with the service.  The box has PVR capability.  My other two TVs will use their ROKU channel (but no PVR).  (I bought the ROKUs some time ago to get Netflix on those TVs.)  The price is $133 per month which includes Internet.  The free router has WIFI built in and has a speed of 150Mbps download speed.  Unlimited usage.  (This all starts May 1st so I have no opinion as to the quality of the service.)

As I mentioned, my home phone is free -- and will pay for itself in 10 months.

My cell phone at Fido costs $40 for a 4GB plan with a "bring your own phone" plan.  My wife's is plan is $65 for 2GB but she is paying off an iPhone 7 she got this year.

That totals to $238 a month (taxes not included).

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (April 14, 2019 7:27 am)

Leslieville Bill wrote:

That totals to $238 a month (taxes not included).

Because you've added your wife into it, that might actually be a good deal. 
Don't forget to wifi as much as you can (but not for banking info etc in public places, lol)
I use my own Rogers internet wifi to keep my data usage down when I'm at home.
I also ALWAYS keep my data off on my phone when not in use so Rogers can't say I used more than I did.

 

Broodcaster wrote:

Leslieville Bill   I want to cut the cable and get a new cell phone provider too. Can I call you to chat about your experience?

If you have been with Rogers for a while, have a chat with their loyalty department. You might get an amazing deal that is not offered in the Rogers stores.

We use:

Bell Satellite for our TV -- currently subscribe to the "better" package
Freedom Mobile for our Cell phones
voip.ms and freephoneline.ca (fongo) for my voip needs
Teksavvy for Internet (60mbit unlimited plan on cable)

Love Teksavvy but their TV offering is too new to switch over to.  I require PVR capability and they're just not there yet.

Been a Bell satellite subscriber for over 10 years.  The only problem is that the technology is getting long on the tooth and with an impending move, it's time to look to alternatives.  As it turns out, the house we're just about to go firm on (pending the requisite home inspection) already has a satellite dish mounted (so I could stay with that) but the current owner is also a FIBE customer.  Folks on RedFlagDeals say that Bell is very anxious to wean folks off the dish and is willing to make some very attractive deals, especially if the house is serviced by fibre.  (Won't know about that until I speak with the current owner later this week.) 
 

Leslieville Bill wrote:

Someone asked me to report on how the switch to vMedia went so I am doing an update, one week in:

Rogers put up virtually no fight when I said I wanted to cancel.  They offered me some packages but nothing that could come close to vMedia on price. I was surprised not to be transferred over to some customer retention person.

So I have Cable 150 and vMedia Grand Premium which is about the same as Roger's 150U and Premier cable.  I pay almost $50 less a month.  Incentives from vMedia pay for the hardware outlays.

It was easy to setup.  Rogers transferred to Vmedia happened overnight.  No technician came.  It was just a remote transfer and the hardware came in the mail.  Internet from vMedia uses Rogers backbone and is perfectly fine.  I see no difference in the service.  

Overall, the TV if fine.  Perhaps the picture is a tiny bit worse than Rogers but no big deal.  There are a number of things you need to adjust to which I'll mention below.  I have three TVs.  Two use Roku and one uses the Vmedia Vbox (Android based).

Within Roku you add a vMedia "channel" which is really an app.    On those two Roku devices, the display is fine in 1080p.  Using WIFI, I've never had the picture stop or stutter.  Since Roku remotes have no numbers you have to scroll through the channel guide to get what you want.  It can take some time when you have 70 channels.  [As an aside -- unlike Rogers, vMedia has no duplicate channels.]  Both Roku boxes support Anytime TV which lets you scroll back up to a week and watch programs on certain channels -- mostly network TV.  Vmedia on Roku cannot record programs.

Now the Android box.  It functions like an Android tablet but with a special app for vMedia.  It works fine on WIFI, however, I chose to use an Ethernet cable because I had a port in my wall nearby.  One immediate issue I had was the volume dropping from time to time.  It took a while to figure out the problem but I did it.  The Android box defaults to 4K but vMedia is a maximum of 1080p.  Once I forced the box to use 1080p and made a couple of small adjustments on my 4K TV setup, the problem stopped.  Good, since that would have been a show stopper.  The remote is very basic but can be supplemented with an Android tablet app.  Note, you cannot stop and pause live TV.

Recording on the vBox is a issue but I think I'll live with it.  First, the recording function is VERY simple.  Either you record one show or record all airings of a show.  That's fine if I want to record Modern Family which airs once a week on ABC but there's an issue with, say, Blue Jays in 30.  The day after a Jays game that show airs multiple times so you get multiple copies and have to delete them.  Also, there is no preview when you fast forward through a recorded show and it does not remember where you were if you left a recorded show part way through.  It does show the time so you can start from the beginning and fast forward to where you left off.  Whether these are deal breakers really depends on how much recorded TV you watch and how sensitive you are to price.

My initial reaction is to keep going with vMedia.

Rogers is still offering Digital TV

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/tv#/packages
 

Leslieville Bill wrote:

I pulled the plug on vMedia today.  The recording function often did not work despite reformatting different media.  As of Thursday, I am back with Rogers but with Ignite and 500U Internet.

I had a strong feeling you'd be back with Rogers in a short time. 

TV - nothing fancy indoor antenna, Netflix, MLBTV, my sister's Bell login, the Pirate Bay

Internet - Cogeco. $60 a month, 40 down and unlimited.

Phone - Freedom. $40 a month unlimited text, talk and data across Canada.

 

Last edited by Scraps (May 14, 2019 12:46 pm)