Shaw Direct TV Communication for Canadians

[toban]

I know this has been talked about before so sorry to be repeating the subject. I do remember people saying they won't help you if you are in the USA. So, my question is:

For example,if you need a reboot even after you try to refresh over the computer, do you need to call them on a Canadian phone or would they know where you are calling from? I have a Verison Home Connect phone I use when I'm in the USA. I have my Canadian cell phone but I put it on vacation for the time I'm down there because of the cost of the plans for using it in the USA. Has anyone had a problem calling them with a USA phone or would I have to activate my Canadian cell phone just to make the call to them? I carry a new receiver with me in case I have a problem with the one I'm using. I would need to call them to activate it if I had to. I guess you could tell them you bought a new receiver and needed it activated?

Thanks in advance.

Toban

[toolttime]

toban wrote:
Thanks for the input from everyone. I have another question.

How do you hook up the 2nd receiver inside the MH with only one main lead for a signal? That's not to clear.

How do you wire in the second receiver with the first receiver so they both work but only one is producing the signal to the TV?

Does, this make sense?

Toban

I installed a HDMI high def wireless transmitter to get TV in bed room and out side tv. Works great

[almcc]

Tequila wrote:
Lots of Americans using gray market Shaw here in Mexico. Shaw works well all over Mexico, dish & direct work about as far south as Mazatlan only. I am wondering if that may be the reason they are stricter. Get a magicjack with a Canadian number on it.

Nope, it's because of the pressure from the US networks about the illegal re-broadcasting of the American programs into the US with Canadian commercials thrown in. I checked with the CRTC, no issues from their side

[Tequila]

Lots of Americans using gray market Shaw here in Mexico. Shaw works well all over Mexico, dish & direct work about as far south as Mazatlan only. I am wondering if that may be the reason they are stricter. Get a magicjack with a Canadian number on it.

[toban]

I am the original poster.

I took people's advice and activated my 2nd receiver. They are going to charge me $5.99/month for the 2nd receiver which will be just in the box ready to refresh if the other one quits. I wasn't aware of this but hey, I guess for $33.00 for the 5 months I'll just figure it's there if I need it and don't have to call them to activate a new receiver with serial numbers etc.

Toban

[joebedford]

I wondered how to deal with the 630 PVR needing 2 cables from the dish when the RV only has one feed. The answer is that I don't use the RV feed (for TV).

There isn't enough room on the tiny "media shelf" in my RV anyway.

So, my receivers and PS3 are in the basement of the RV. I run 3 cables from the dish to feed the two receivers (one is a 605 that uses one cable).

We will be having cable internet this winter - I use the satellite feed for that (can't use the cable input as it has a splitter in it).

FWIW, I also installed a phone receptacle in the utility cabinet because another place we like to stay has DSL internet.

[Lenny_K]

In regards to contacting Shaw for help I used Skype while in Arizona. They did ask where I was but I was hesitant to tell them because of everyone saying no support outside of Canada. Well I finally told them and had no problems with any of the techs except for one that said we shouldn't be using Shaw in the States but she helped me anyway.
Got a new PVR this year so hopefully the problems I experienced last year will be gone.

[almcc]

It sounds like you don't have a PVR, our 630's require 2 coax inputs from the LNB and our RV was pre-wired for Shaw, it has 4 coax lines on the roof that go to the auto dish, 2 of these go to the bedroom and 2 to the entertainment center.

The Shaw equipment doesn't work with splitters. If you have a second (non-spliter) feed in your RV (say for cable TV) you could use that to hook up the second Shaw receiver.

The other alternative could be to hook up the second receiver every couple of weeks or so so that it sees some current signals. I left our second receiver in the RV for a period of time this summer without using it(no power) and I had to do a refresh, I was able to do a refresh via the internet on my Shaw account without having to talk to them.

[toban]

I was just thinking, would a splitter work to hook up both receivers with one fed inside the MH to the TV and the other just on the other cable line keeping it alive per se stacked on top? I'm wondering if the splitter would be compatible? Or,one could run a second cable from the LNB but the question is how to store the receiver because now it's outside. I guess one could place it in a compartment in the basement somewhere safe and just leave it there hooked up.

Suggestions on my thoughts?

Toban

[toban]

Thanks for the input from everyone. I have another question.

How do you hook up the 2nd receiver inside the MH with only one main lead for a signal? That's not to clear.

How do you wire in the second receiver with the first receiver so they both work but only one is producing the signal to the TV?

Does, this make sense?

Toban

[joebedford]

I know you get good advice here but another resource you can use is digitalhome.ca

Covers this and many other interesting subjects.

[CardinalRule]

almcc wrote:
I don't think that you will have any problems contacting Shaw from the US. I had some detailed communications with them back a couple of years ago, I was trying to decide whether I should get an auto dish for the roof of our RV and I didn't want to invest $$ if Shaw was going to "range" their sats like Bell did, it would mean a waste of $$ as we use the RV mostly in the US over the winter. I did end up getting a Winegard dish set up for Shaw.

Shaw were very forthcoming and they know we use them while in the US.

You may want to consider activating your new receiver before you leave home, we did that after the last Shaw firmware upgrade on our old 630 PVR, it didn't work well after the upgrade, it still works but the remote is finicky. We use it as a second receiver in the RV. It may cost you $5.00 or so per month though

2 years ago Shaw had no problem with helping out Snowbirds. That all changed last year when the new bird became active. Now their policy is no Tech Support if in the US.
I agree with activating before heading South. If you need to use your spare you shouldn't have any problems with a US number. Use the prompts and put in your phone number you have registerd with them when asked.

[joebedford]

I agree with almcc. I carry two receivers and I keep them both plugged into the dish even if I'm not using the second one. However, I believe they are now more strict about location than they were a couple of years ago.

[almcc]

I don't think that you will have any problems contacting Shaw from the US. I had some detailed communications with them back a couple of years ago, I was trying to decide whether I should get an auto dish for the roof of our RV and I didn't want to invest $$ if Shaw was going to "range" their sats like Bell did, it would mean a waste of $$ as we use the RV mostly in the US over the winter. I did end up getting a Winegard dish set up for Shaw.

Shaw were very forthcoming and they know we use them while in the US.

You may want to consider activating your new receiver before you leave home, we did that after the last Shaw firmware upgrade on our old 630 PVR, it didn't work well after the upgrade, it still works but the remote is finicky. We use it as a second receiver in the RV. It may cost you $5.00 or so per month though

[Keily]

I contacted they last winter to get my receiver refreshed. I was on the chat page at Shaw's website. Told the tech what I needed and within a minute my receiver was activated, the tech asked if he could do anything else for me , I said no that is all I need, have a good day and that was it.

So if need be , use the chat service on line.

Hope this helps