whtv digital television is the champ

i've only had my whtv hdpvr for a week, now, but i thought i'd chime in and flesh-out andrew's review (WHTV Digital Television is a Contender) a bit:

the set-top-box and its software are middle-of-the-road, imho. while the search works waaay better than expressVu's ever did, the software can sometimes take forever to respond - so long (for example) that you're unsure whether you fully pressed the 'guide' button and, when you press more deliberately a second time, the guide just flashes on the screen becuase, of course, the first press was good, which opened the guide, and so was the second, which closes it again....ugh.

i'm also unimpressed with having to manually go thru each channel and, if i don't subscribe to it, add it to my 'skipped' list in order to pare down the size of the program listings. with b.e.v's listings, the 'guide' button toggles the display of the channels to which you aren't subscribed.

another annoyance is that the core channels are duplicated on their old-school-cable channel numbers, and you can't add just those numbers to your skip list. i realize it would be convenient for those upgrading to not have to re-memorize channels, but it's still annoying....for me...

and i don't know if this is par for the course with PVRs, since this is my first one, but when you're quietly sitting in the living room reading, the clicking of that hard drive - even if it's off - sure gets irritating.

oh. and a little more documentation would be nice, so i could maybe figure out what that thing is that comes up when you press 'menu'.....and why i can't customize it....or if i can, how...

although i didn't experience any jaggies with my satellite hd in high-action sequences, i do agree that cable's quality far surpasses that of satellite. high winds, rain, snow, even heavy cloud without precipitation, and (ahem!) neighbouring trees are no problem.

cable's also simpler and less expensive than satellite for start-up. the receivers are comparable in price, and installation of a dish is included in your satellite receiver purchase, but since bell doesn't have an authorized installer in the horse, you'll have to save your receipts and apply for a $99 credit on your account. if you want hd in the north, you'll also have to shell out for a second dish plus installation - good luck getting bell to reimburse you for that - as much as they tell you that you only need one dish, look around - in copper ridge especially - and you can tell who has bell hd service by the number of circular dishes on their roof-tops.

oh - and if you get satellite, don't move. if you do move, take you're dish(es) with you! even tho bell tells you to leave 'em behind for the next guy and they'll give you a new one (only one, of course), that offer is not valid here because they have no authorized installer. at least if you take your dishes with you you'll only be dinged for any installation costs over and above $99 (which, again, you have to apply for credit to your account) and not $150 per replacement dish as well.

one thing i will give expressVu credit for is their programming and their monthly charges. i love my nhl centre ice package, they have lots of channels in lots of timezones and lots of hd channels (um...all of them, i think...). and you can't beat their price - even if you were to get whtv's discount for their complete package for 110 bucks, you'd pay a few dollars less per month for bell's (almost) 'the works' and still get way more channels - time-shifted national networks, specialty and hd channels.

so what's all this blathering boil down to?

if you want access to pretty much every channel available in north america AND money (and your time) are no object with respect to setup costs or hassles when moving, AND you have an unobstructed view to the southern horizon (no trees, mountains, etc) that's also sheltered from our strong southerly winds AND you don't mind not being able to watch tv when it's pouring rain outside and there's nothing better to do, then satellite is for you!

if, on the other hand, you're a relatively normal television viewer, you really can't go wrong with whtv's digital cable service. you can't beat the easy setup, local tech guys/gals who actually know what they're talking about, and weather-resistant transmission. they may be lacking in content right now, but they're still fledglings in digital services compared to other national providers. in time, as long as the demand is there, i'm sure they'll be getting more and more channels. (psst!....glenn!.... centre ice, please!) i just wish whtv had had hd programming back when i first got my hdtv a couple years ago - i could have saved myself a lot of money and stress.

(think howard cosell:)
<ding!, ding!> WINnah....by technical knock-out...and STILL heavyweight champeen of the WOILD....

Comments

[Andrew M Robulack]

Yeah, I didn't go into the hardware aspect of WHTV's service in my column, mostly due to space (I was already 400 words over my limit!) but I agree: the Motorola boxes are pretty lame. The hard drive is much noisier than the Bell PVR and the interface needs a lot of work. That said, in the US Comcast has converted all their Motorola cable boxes to a TIVO platform, and this is technically possible to do to WHTV's, according to Glenn at WHTV. With all of those USB 2 and Firewirds output ports, I'd expect that within 12-24 months we'll have the ability to transfer television programs off these Motorola devices to our PCs and iPods. That would rock, and is not possible with Bell's hardware.