Expressvu in US

[goleafs86]

Hey,

Im from Canada and moving to upstate NY for school and won't have cable in my dorm and therefore was looking at getting Expressvu or StarChoice. I have have a couple of questions that hopefully you guys could help me answer:

1) Can I legally sign up for satellite at my house (in Canada), and set it the dish and receiver in the USA?

2) Does the satellite have to be mounted outside on the wall of the building? or can I leave it inside the room pointing out the window? (as I doubt I'd be allowed to drill the satellite into the outside wall) - is there any other way to set it up if I can't mount it on the wall?

If theres any other information you deem pertinent to know when setting up ExpressVu in the US, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

goleafs86

 

[goleafs86]

anyone?

 

[VO1ONE]

It would be considered a grey market subscription but I don't think you'll kick up any fuss from anyone. Relatives of mine have had Bell ExpressVu for the past 6 years in the states, no problem, using a Canadian address and even a US issued CC. The signal works well in pretty much the entire CONUS on BEV, and the further you get from Canada on SC, the less signal you get, I believe, but you wouldn't notice any difference in NY. Border people won't care as long as you tell them you plan on taking it back to Canada with you when you leave (i.e. establish that the item will not be permanently imported into the US). Plenty of RV's with sat systems from both sides of the border cross every day and they don't put up a fuss with them.

As far as getting BEV through a window, as long as the window is facing as close to the southwest as possible, you should be alright. The window cannot be tempered, either. I have successfully used an 18" dish in the back of a hatchback car shooting through the rear window and the defroster wires. I'd just park the car as close to the right direction I could (not much choice in some parking lots), and I'd get about 65-70% where if it was outside I'd get 86%

Let us know how you make out!

 

[goleafs86]

nice, okay, I will.

How did you secure the dish in the back of your car? (ie, since you can't drill into the wall of a house, how do I make the satellite sturdy?)

So stealing the signal is fully illegal, but paying for it is "gray"?

thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

It would be considered a grey market subscription but I don't think you'll kick up any fuss from anyone. Relatives of mine have had Bell ExpressVu for the past 6 years in the states, no problem, using a Canadian address and even a US issued CC. The signal works well in pretty much the entire CONUS on BEV, and the further you get from Canada on SC, the less signal you get, I believe, but you wouldn't notice any difference in NY. Border people won't care as long as you tell them you plan on taking it back to Canada with you when you leave (i.e. establish that the item will not be permanently imported into the US). Plenty of RV's with sat systems from both sides of the border cross every day and they don't put up a fuss with them.

ever since they lit up N3 (the old DTV3 satellite) if you get south of Tennessee or Oregon you can't get it.
In NY you'l be fine

As long as you use your Canuck address, you'll be fine. Just dont call the Bell 800 # from the US...you'll have issues with them then

 

[VO1ONE]

Well, I used the standard dish minus the mounting pole and stuff so the dish sat on the carpet and I used a pop can and crushed it with the dish's arm about a third of the way away from the reflector, until I got the right elevation, and I'd slide it for finer adjustment. Definitely not a pro setup, but it would stay put unless there was a riot and someone was flipping your car over! It worked great for me until I bought a new(er) car. I even tossed a blanket over the dish since it is transparent to the signal, that way I got less people staring at it. I used one of those rabbit wireless video senders with remote control repeater, and I could transmit the satellite box to a tv in someones house AND use the remote while the satellite box and rabbit ran off the inverter on the car battery. Friends nicknamed my car the satellite wagon. Ahh, the memories!

Anyways, the Canadian government has done much more than the US to spell out what's legal and what's not, particularly because the CRTC feels that the US DTH services threaten the survival of home grown Canadian programming and our own DTH services. BEV and SC are not licenced to provide service to US residents, but their signals certainly go there and if your paying for it, then you aren't doing anything wrong. I'm sure DirecTV and Dish don't feel like some BEV and SC customers in the states here and there are threatening their survival, nor is the FCC going to worry about the percentage of American content on these services either. What the FCC is somewhat worried about is the reception of local network stations which are not in your market. The local TV stations pressured the FCC to come up with legislation that would require the DTH providers to force subscribers who wanted local network programming to only be able to get it from their local market stations. At first, there was just NY and LA network stations on there because the other 1000+ stations in the country were showing pretty much the same thing, minus the local news and commercials. The local stations felt they were losing revenue to satellite providers since their commercials weren't being seen by people in their market since they were watching a local station often thousands of km's away. So now only people who live in the absolute middle of nowhere can get the national network feeds on DTH and DTV and E* are scrambling to add every single markets local stations to new spot beam satellites they've had to launch and spend millions of dollars on just for that, so that Oprah can be transmitted on 600 different channels at once. Anyways, there are NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, WB, PAX, UPN and PBS affiliate stations on Free to Air Ku band which can be picked up by anyone legally with a $100 box and a 30" dish. This falls under an exemption the FCC made for BUD owners although I wouldn't call a 30" dish a BUD, and coincidentally almost a decade ago the FCC didn't either since the satellite providers, including Primestar at this time which used up to a 36" oval dish, spearheaded legislation requiring localities to allow dishes up to 36" to be installed regardless of local zoning regulations which had previously prohibited any satellite dish being installed in certain areas.

Sorry for deviating from the original topic, but I wouldn't worry about it. BEV's boxes are identical to Dish networks and it would be very hard for anyone to figure out what you were doing even if they wanted to. Enjoy your BEV along with the thousands of others doing the same in the states!

 

[VO1ONE]

ever since they lit up N3 (the old DTV3 satellite) if you get south of Tennessee or Oregon you can't get it.
In NY you'l be fine

As long as you use your Canuck address, you'll be fine. Just dont call the Bell 800 # from the US...you'll have issues with them then

So they actually changed DirecTV 3's footprint when they moved it to 91? Well I guess they'd have to adjust it somewhat to cover Newfoundland because we never really did have a good signal out of DirecTV. Half of the transponders when it did work, and that was on a 1m dish. Now with 1R/2/4S at 101, it's next to impossible. Also, I've felt that Nimiq 2 had worse coverage of the states than Nimiq 1 had. Not all transponders went to DirecTV 3, but it won't matter for NY anyways.

By the way, you cannot call the Bell 800 # from the US even if you wanted to. Well, you CAN but it's not easy. You can call a friend in Canada with 3 way calling, and that will work of course, or you could try getting a hold of a Bell operator and convincing him/her to place the call for you, or you can call Bell's offices (long distance number) and they will connect you to customer care, but only during standard office hours when they are there to do it for you. I've had luck calling Canadian toll free numbers from the states by using my Rogers GSM cell phone. I'd set my phone up to call forward to the toll free number I wanted to call, then I would dial my own phone number, and voila, it worked. But, unfortunately I had to pay roaming plus long distance which is like $1.29/min or something crazy like that. If you have Rogers $90/mo no roaming no long distance in anywhere in north america plan then of course you wouldn't pay this, but I like my $25/mo plan better! At least I know I can call a Canadian 800 # from the states if I ever had to, like to vote for Canadian Idol or something LOL...

 

[HokieEngineer]

The satellite in a car story made me laugh! What a great idea!!! Especially with the wireless feed. We always bring my dish setup to tailgates (inverter, dish on tripod, etc).

We used to live in an apartment with no private balcony and wouldnt let us use the public one for dish. We ended up finding some woods nearby, and installed a 18' 6x6 post to mount it on. We then buried the coax to our apartment, and ran it up the wall with all the other wires so it looked legit.

Most likely your dorm window wont let you get the signal, however if you are good with building things, I would suggest a rig supported from the inside, with heavy duty sliding rails (they are meant to be used for kitchen cabinets and stuff). Mount the dish to the rails, and slide it out the window whenever you want to watch tv. We did this until the post in the woods idea came about. You only need to aim it once, as long as you dont bump it!

I would also suggest becoming good friends with your RA.

 

[Mr Tony]

So they actually changed DirecTV 3's footprint when they moved it to 91? Well I guess they'd have to adjust it somewhat to cover Newfoundland because we never really did have a good signal out of DirecTV. Half of the transponders when it did work, and that was on a 1m dish. Now with 1R/2/4S at 101, it's next to impossible. Also, I've felt that Nimiq 2 had worse coverage of the states than Nimiq 1 had. Not all transponders went to DirecTV 3, but it won't matter for NY anyways.

People in Newfoundland have no problems with N3....now, people in the US...different story. I'm OK in MN (as we are farther north than Toronto)

By the way, you cannot call the Bell 800 # from the US even if you wanted to. Well, you CAN but it's not easy. You can call a friend in Canada with 3 way calling, and that will work of course, or you could try getting a hold of a Bell operator and convincing him/her to place the call for you, or you can call Bell's offices (long distance number) and they will connect you to customer care, but only during standard office hours when they are there to do it for you. I've had luck calling Canadian toll free numbers from the states by using my Rogers GSM cell phone. I'd set my phone up to call forward to the toll free number I wanted to call, then I would dial my own phone number, and voila, it worked. But, unfortunately I had to pay roaming plus long distance which is like $1.29/min or something crazy like that. If you have Rogers $90/mo no roaming no long distance in anywhere in north america plan then of course you wouldn't pay this, but I like my $25/mo plan better! At least I know I can call a Canadian 800 # from the states if I ever had to, like to vote for Canadian Idol or something LOL...

I just use a broker

 

[goleafs86]

haha, wow, thanks for all the replies

im going down soon, got a dish (20') and receiver that somone had lying around, I'd like to get an 18' as I have little room, is it worth it? wheres the best place to buy a dish by itself?

hopefully Ill get a clear line of sight from my window

any other hints / tips would be appreciated

thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

If all you want is the stuff on 91, an 18" dish will work fine

The 20 would only be needed if you need the stuff on N2

 

[goleafs86]

k, N2 is the french sh*t right? dont need that, so where can I buy a BEV compatable dish just by itself (ir, no receiver)?

thanks

 

[Claude Greiner]

This will work with the 3100 and 5100/5800 BEV Receivers...
http://www.dishstore.net/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=114

 

[Mr Tony]

k, N2 is the french sh*t right? dont need that, so where can I buy a BEV compatable dish just by itself (ir, no receiver)?

thanks

N2 has HD, some channels (the mostyly music package) and the ethnic (non english, non french) channels

 

[Mr Tony]

This will work with the 3100 and 5100/5800 BEV Receivers...
http://www.dishstore.net/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=114

Claude
Most of the Evu receivers arent DishPro compatible

 

[VO1ONE]

I just use a broker

Hahaha, the heck if I'd pay some broker $50/year to borrow his address. You can make ExpressVu programming changes online now, and that's free. Calling during business hours to do it yourself over the phone costs you a long distance phone call, which could be free depending on your long distance plan. I guess if a broker had a toll free number, you could save your 50 cents and call him to make the changes for you. I've noticed brokers only include one programming change per year for free, then they charge $20 after that! What a rip off! Anyone want to use my address and have me make programming changes for them? I'l give you a discount rate of $45/yr and only $15 (+ 15% HST!) per programming change! Cha-Ching!

Here's a list of all the channels on Nimiq 2, so you can decide if you want any of those channels or not. I watch Much More Retro off of it myself, and listen to some of the Galaxie stations, but besides that 91 is where I get the most of my programming.
http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/expressvu2.html

Oh, and as for supporting the extra LNB? I saved myself from buying a Dish 500 system and I bought an SW21 switch and duct taped a single LNB (which someone gave me for free!) to the side of the LNB for 91 and voila! I made my own Dish 500! Works great and cost me like $12.

 

[Mr Tony]

nope
I'll stick with my broker....

I have no qualms with it....I usually don't change my programming so it doesnt bother me about the programming change

 

[Derwin0]

Can't the broker just provide you with the login and password allowing you to make programming changes directly without the fee?

 

[Mr Tony]

no
that's how they make their money

again..I don't change my plan so it doesn't bother me.

 

[VO1ONE]

The $50/yr alone would be enough to bother me. But, apparently a lot of people find value in it and I guess more power to the dealers who can find people who will pay them that. Talk about a way to just sit at home and let the cheques come in the mail. This must be what they're talking about in all those email spams and TV infomercials about being able to "work" from home by being a couch potato all day and have the money flow in with no investment. Give me $19.95 and I'll tell you, too, how you can make lotsa money in the grey market satellite broker business! I won't tell you how it's the post office's general delivery address that I'm using that you could have just done yourself. I'll hook you up with Dish, Voom, DirecTV, ExpressVu, StarChoice, SkyAngel, Bowl 300 Bowling Radio, you name it !sadroll