Thursday, October 30, 2014

StarChoice Moves And Final Plans

Yes, I know it is now Shaw Direct but I still call it StarChoice.

We normally move the bedroom PVR between the house and the motorhome bedroom every year. Norma has it loaded with movies and programs to watch when we are not hooked up to the dish. This year we decided to change out the non-PVR receiver in the front of the motorhome for the PVR from the TV room in the house as well. This will give us two recorders for the winter, his and hers.

This means an additional RG-6 TV cable had to be added going from the electrical bay in the rear bin to the overhead area in the front of the motorhome. I drilled some holes and got underneath the motorhome with my flashlight, coil of cable and package of tie wraps. I quickly discovered that the motorhome must have sunk into the driveway because I could not fit underneath! I drove the right side up onto blocks and that gave me room to work. The rest of the work involved running the cable along the frame and whatever else I could use, keeping it away from the exhaust and slides while keeping it protected as much as possible. It was dark and the ground was wet so it was an uncomfortable hours' work but I got it done with only one cut finger and a washer load of dirty clothes. The only part left is the inside work, running the cable up the wall and into the entertainment center, adding the final connector. That will be tomorrow's project.

I also have to call about our medical insurance. I am going to get a couple of quotes this year. We have been very happy with the company we have always used, Desjardins, but with the costs going up so rapidly, I want a comparison.

We were looking at leaving on the 5th but Brooks does not get home from Alberta until the 7th so we will leave Campbell River on the morning of the 8th and spend the night at the ferry dock in downtown Victoria. Brooks and LindaLee will meet us there for the evening and then spend the night at LindaLee's parents. The ferry leaves at 10:00 AM the next morning.

From there we will head down the Olympic Peninsula, through Washington and into Oregon. If the weather is halfway decent we might drive down the Oregon Coast. I love the coast but if there is going to be stormy weather anywhere, that is where it will be. We are not in a hurry and I have a taste for fresh crab!

7 comments:

  1. Soon real soon and your will be on the way.
    We don't even have one PVR, but then we don't watch much tv anyway.

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  2. If you have Blue Cross as part of your normal medical package, give them a call as we've found them to be the cheapest the past two years. We go one more than George as we don't even have a TV! John

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  3. Email from Al:

    Just a heads up about Shaw Direct and the 630 PVR if you have one.

    Our older 630 had "indigestion" when the new guide (which is actually a complete firmware update) was downloaded and installed.

    The 630 worked fine with the old guide, the new firmware caused the remote to have issues (I had to punch channel numbers quickly to choose channels) and the guide only loaded 24 hours of shows and it started from no data each time the 630 was turned on (even though it was connected to power all the time). Maybe a coincidence but the Shaw techs seem to know about it and especially the issue with the remote. Two re-installs of the firmware didn't solve the problem.

    Shaw will exchange it for a refurbished 630 and I will take them up on the offer but I ended up buying a new one as a second PVR as we don't have time for the exchange before we head south (and I want to watch all those recorded programs before the exchange as I will lose them).

    I asked Shaw to re-install the old guide, they won't do that because of the advantages of the new guide that they get!

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    Replies
    1. I had problems with the 630 in the TV room around this time as well. It would re-boot very often, sometimes 3 or 4 times per hour. Playback of recorded programs was also very jerky. After jumping through all the hoops with customer service (soft reset, factory reset, plug it into a different outlet) they relented and sent me an exchange unit that has worked well for the last week or two. We do carry a very old SD receiver as a spare in case one quits working.

      I could not get them to admit the problems were a result of the new software update and guide change although we all know that was the problem..

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  4. First commercial crab opening is November 15th. And that's Central CA. Good drive anyway. Crab being sold now is frozen holdover.

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  5. Just for the record I was down to DPS last week and Star Choice was alive and well there. A few of the newer channels were missing though, so I guess they are on the new bird that has a more Canadian focused footprint.

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