Shaw Direct In US And Mexico

[crandle]

Just a comment on Shaw Direct (StarChoice). They are no longer supporting use of their system outside of Canada. They have adopted the Bell Expressvu business mode and are trying to limit use of their product to Canada only. Well, they have not re-aimed the satellites so the signal is still there for the taking, just don't expect any help from Customer Service. They have not yet taken to cutting you off if they find you are outside of Canada but that could be coming.

Use the DishPointer site to get a good idea of where to point your dish but do not count on them for skew settings. They use a different calibration for their angles and they do not work with the Shaw dish. I have pdf documents for all the setup information including azimuth, elevation and skew for Canada, USA and Mexico. If you want me to email you a copy, let me know.

DishPointer

[moisheh]

Linda: Unless you are being billed by Shaw the "dealer" is scamming Shaw. He is getting many subscriptions to Shaw with different names and addresses. Each one of these may have say 5 receivers. So if the subscription is say $85.00 plus about $5.00 for each extra receiver the total is $105.00. If he resells these at $60.00 each the total is $300.00. Nice profit.

Moisheh

[almcc]

I note that in the Yuma area there are still places advertising themselves as Shaw dealers as well.

[crandle]

deleted

[Linda_from_Cana]

I wonder about that too...exactly how do they do this? Where/how do they get the equipment...and how are the subscriptions handled...and paid by the customer to whom?? However, there are at least 3 companies that I know of personally who sell and install them. Obviously this isn't as big a mystery as I think it is.

[crandle]

That is interesting. I doubt if they are actually "Authorized" as Shaw has said that they will not support their system being used outside of Canada.

[Linda_from_Cana]

We get our Shaw direct just fine here in Zihuatanejo. We have also learned that you can buy and subscribe to Shaw here in Mexico- there seem to be several "authorized dealers" here in Zihua. The purchase price is higher than in Canada (for the receiver), but the same subscription is less per month.

[daveB110]

We use the same equipment that came with our home installation two years ago, with just another dish. No problems in the American southwest and northern Mexico in our experience, and likely much farther south. But if you upgraded to the signal that came from Shaw Direct's 3rd satellite, lifted in place a year ago, intended to give all high definition, I understand its foot print is much more limited, so you will not get those signals in warm winter climates. Recently I've been seeing several RV's get rooftop dish installations that use Shaw Direct dishes. With their destinations aimed for those warm winter climates, will they soon become useless - a pretty high price to pay for falling prey to outdated equipment. Has Shaw developed a cut-off date for ending any futher use of their popular signals that we get out of Canada?

[scorpion]

To add to "almcc's" comment. You can also download a program called Satfinder 5.0 from www.arachnoid.com/satfinder. This is a stand alone program that does not require internet access once you have it loaded on your computer. Works with zip codes in the US or lat and long coordinates anywhere else.

Scorp

[Tequila]

I am glad I never got addicted enough that I feel I need TV in Mexico. I find satellite radio is enough and I take movies for TV. It would be a bummer to get used to satelite TV then get cut off. I suspect the days of Canadian TV in Mexico or the US are numbered.

[almcc]

Just a further comment, some folks have had problems getting a signal in the US and assume that Shaw has cut them off. The problem that they are having is that the receiver they brought from home is set up for the new 3 sat LNB and their dish in their US location has the old LNB. The receiver programming is different and the receiver won't work with the old LNB. I went through this issue in Canada and Shaw re-programmed the receiver to work with the old LNB on the RV when I was on the road. Don't mix LNB's!

There also is a program on Datastormusers.com called DSlookangle that you can download and install on your computer that will give you the dish parameters for any satellite assuming you know the lat and long of your location. You don't need an internet connection to use it.

[crandle]

We get it all the way down to the Belize border. It is the only system that works down there.

[frank-2]

I received Shaw direct all winter in Texas and the Park that I was in had lots of Canadians who got it with no problem