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English-language satellite TV here at lakeside


gregweeks

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Yes, I vote for Shaw Direct. I have had it for many years. This is Canadian TV, includes CNN and PBS and lots more. I do not think you can legitimately subscribe to this here. Me, I am happy to pay for legitimate, but if that is not available, I am happy to pay for something under the radar. Me, I would not live here if I could not get worldwide news in English, and then there is Downton Abbey. My only sin is subscribing to this;) My only sin (said as I adjust my halo).

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However if HD is very important to you, as you mentioned above, although Shaw Direct has some HD movies etc, DirecTV USA using a 2.4 meter dish and 3 LNBs has many more HD channels for HBO Showtime, etc than Shaw

If its important to get local TV network stations from Seattle, Spokane, and/or Detroit with the option of getting the Seattle and Detroit channels in HD Shaw Direct is your choice, Oh and if you are from the US and want US radio stations, Shaw Direct will provide you with a handful of Spokane Radio stations. Oh if you are from Canada you have all kinds of network TV stations from all kinds of locations in HD and many FM stations from most of the country,

These days you can get most of the Shaw Direct channels from two of their three satellites on a 26.5 inch by 36.5 inch elliptical dish. We do not get the channels from the new satellite Anik G-1 in Mexico.

With DirecTV, we can get most of the HD channels with an 8 foot dish, but almost non of the channels below channel 100. Those lower channels are local network channels from most all cities in the states.

Oh and if you want to listen to most any radio station from most anywhere you can get them streaming over the internet. Oh with good internet, something that is offered in some neighborhoods and using a smart TV you can get much TV as well by streaming that data. Sometimes a VPN etc is needed.

You also have local analog and digital Telecable (from Mexico) that has US networks Fox, CNN etc and many channels in HD.

Now that I have you thoroughly confused, if you are from Canada, you probably want Shaw Direct. If you are from the US, then it gets more confusing about what system you want

And if you are a techie you might be saying why should I subscribe to any old fashioned and expensive satellite system when I can stream these programs over the internet of much less money.

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Thanks for the info, everyone!

Does the business name "Ajijic Electronics CP Electronics" (in Guad) have a typo? I do like the idea of an overtly legitimate service (although going to Guadalajara for it is a downside). Thanks.

I also like the idea of having more HD movies than Shaw Direct provides.

While I'm deciding, I recently learned that I have to upgrade my smallish elliptical antenna to a 1.2 meter, such as I had a couple years ago, to get all of my activated channels.

By the way, the reason I dropped SKY is because none of the programs -- and I tested a lot -- had subtitles that I could turn on and off. My goal was to have spoken Spanish with Spanish subtitles. But there wasn't any.

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Yes Shaw has more than 40 HD channels. But DirecTV has more than 400, really. For example. lets just look between channels 500 and 599, they have over 60 HD channels, from HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, Movie channels, Sony Channels, PPV, etc they even have the Playboy channel in HD

Or between 100 and 200 where they have almost as many Cinema channels in HD.

Really, DirecTV US has many more HD channels.

And Gregweeks, if you are talking about the larger Shawdirect 75 E elliptical dish that is needed for a good signal in Mexico, it measures 26.5 inches tall by 36.5 wide.

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Yes Shaw has more than 40 HD channels. But DirecTV has more than 400, really. For example. lets just look between channels 500 and 599, they have over 60 HD channels, from HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, Movie channels, Sony Channels, PPV, etc they even have the Playboy channel in HD

Or between 100 and 200 where they have almost as many Cinema channels in HD.

Really, DirecTV US has many more HD channels.

And Pete, how much do you have to pay to have that kind of access? Most of my Shaw HD channels are included in the basic package.

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I'm like you Mike. When I signed up, up here in Seattle, they gave me all kinds of extra channels for next to nothing for the first year. Then after the first year, when I started getting a bill at about $169 per month. I kept paying for about 8 months and realized, I wasn't really watching that much and now my bill with only a few extras is less than $96 US per month. Today, maybe I get 150 HD channels or so. I haven't counted

We, my relatives from BC, and the land of no PST share a primitive cottage on Vancouver Island and I volunteered to pay the satellite bill. It used to be quite economical because of the exchange rate of 65 cents to the dollar. My Seattle B of A account is billed monthly. Today its still pretty good at 80 cents per dollar ($124 Canadian) We have had then Star Choice since 2000 which is before one could pick it up in Mexico. Up here, we need the E 60 elliptical dish which measures about 31.5 inches wide by 19 inches high

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Your DirecTV HD sounds pretty good for the price. Even though we cannot get that third Shaw satellite feed here, they really haven't added much in the way of HD anyway in the last couple of years. And I pay much more than you.

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And Pete, how much do you have to pay to have that kind of access? Most of my Shaw HD channels are included in the basic package.

I have had Shaw and currently have DirectTV. I liked Shaw, but it got expensive for what I wanted and I looked for alternatives.The basic package for Shaw is currently $73 CAN. plus any facilitator fees. It includes no premiums and FAR fewer HD channels than the package I have. Actually, it has far fewer channel period. I pay $85 US for my package and it includes all of the premium channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Encore, NFL Sunday ticket, etc. Obviously, there may be a price increase this year that I am not yet aware of. This is the only package you can get, so it is all or nothing. Honestly, there is no comparison with the rest of the HD channels as well. I have nothing against Shaw, but the programming is very meager compared to DirectTV. The most expensive Shaw package still doesn't come close to DirecTV's lineup and doesn't have the premium movie channels.

Lakeside, you can call Steve at 331-081-7437(cell) or 338-421-4720(land with voice mail) for more info. He reps for SatPro in Guad. Cost is the same thru Steve or directly with SatPro.

Tim

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I am grateful for what I can get here. I do not think I would be happy here if I could not get some US TV stations, of which I generally only watch (gasp!) CNN (further gasp) and PBS (I am a prisoner of PBS, and Shaw provides Fubbalo and Detroit (variously known as ugly people in bad suits--I mean, who would donate to these people? But I digress). (They also provide US west coast PBS stations but I go to bed early.) I want to be in contact with news of the world, and while all of us may laugh at the news channels, and think that here in paradise one does not have to have international news, I want the info. Every afternoon, I have cocktails with Charlie Rose. He has smart guests. Well, I have smart guests once in a while, but, with apologies to my very bright friends here, Charlie Rose offers exceptional guests.

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Does the Direct TV system provide both east and west feeds?

Each DirecTV receiver has it's own ID code, and that ID is associated with a DirecTV contract & home address back in the USA. Receivers with contracts issued in the LA area would receive LA local channels. Same for the New York/New Jersey DirecTV contract-receiver pairs.

This means it would be a rare receiver that could have dual active contracts for decoding DirecTV signals for the CONUS feeds for ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX local affiliates from both NY and LA. If you paid for 2 receivers (one with a NY/NJ contract and one with a LA contract), then you could get the local channels from both coasts.

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Exactly Because I am in Seattle, I can pick up the Seattle spot beam meant for Seattle and I'm guessing that diameter of this spot beam is several 100 miles. However if I were in Mexico I could not pick up that signal. Now as Tim mentioned there are East coast feeds from New York and West Coast from LA that are wide or Conus beams and if you brought a receiver from (registered in) one of those two cities it would pick up those channels meant for that city.

Now I noticed only one PBS channel on my DirecTV schedule (389) which appeared to be for these two cities. But I'm pretty sure one can't pit up in Central Mexico because, in my case at least it is an SD channel and I seem only to get mostly if not only HD channels when in Mexico.

Please, Tim, correct me if I am wrong

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