Possible Shaw Direct Replacement??

As you know by now, we are starting to lose channels at a more rapid pace. The Anik F2 we are getting are signals from here in Mexico has lost three of its four thrusters and is almost out of fuel. The symptoms we are seeing is a wobble in the direction that the transponders are moving around witin a 24 hr. period. In this area of Mexico, it results in a loss of signal from late evening until early morning. This will continue to get worse until around the end of 2023 when we probably won't get any signals even during the day. Shaw has announced they will move the remaining channels off of F2 by no later than February 2024. Mike Merriman at Ajijic Electronics is offering an alternate satellite TV service from a company called Kiwisat. It is based in Miami and Puerto Rico. Their web site gives very little information about the channel lineup or technical information. Does anyone here have the service yet??

While what Ezzie posted is correct...  Shaw is switching to a new satellite BUT your loss of channels MAY be caused by another problem

Shaw is upgrading their network and if you have an old model 600 series receiver (HDDSR 600, HDDSR 605 or HDPVR 63) you will be gradually loosing channels. You will need to buy a model 800 series receiver.  This may be problematic in Mexico.....I don't know.

See this Shaw Direct web page for details.....  SHAW NETWORK UPGRADE

There is no reason to buy any new Shaw Direct equipment at this time because come February 2024, we will not be able to get ANY signals here. So it won't matter if you have an 800 series receiver anyway - it simply won't work. All of your Shaw equipment will be worthless unless you can sell it to someone in Canada or the northern US. The sole remaining Anik satellite, the ANIK G1 does not radiat any signals this far south.

My Shaw person got out a few months ago, so I migrated to BahiaTV. Having said that, I've been hearing that Shaw will not send signals to Mexico for one reason or another real soon for 15 years now.

Flame away.

The past 2 days Shaw has reformatted our hard drive and we lost everything. Has this happened to anyone else?

miendo wrote:The past 2 days Shaw has reformatted our hard drive and we lost everything. Has this happened to anyone else?

Your Shaw connection is attached to your computer? Mmmm. Mine came from the dish on the roof, through a cable into my Shaw box and then to the TV. My computer stayed safely on the table in the other room.

What she means is likely she has a DVR such as a Shaw 630 which has an internal hard drive to record live broadcasts for viewing later.  Something happened and the hard drive automatically reformatted.  Possible cause bad sectors.

The Shaw receiver is a stand alone 830 dvr/pvr run thru the dish on the roof and cables. Maybe the hard drive is dying, but we were amazed that shaw would reboot then say they were going to reformat. This notice came on the tv screen while the receiver was going thru its reset.

I have a number of folks Im assisting with moving off shaw
Say what you will here
PM me if you have a need

This discussion was meant to be about possible replacements for DTH television satellite service, not a discussion about IPTV alternatives. Some of us don't have sufficient internet bandwidth available to us, nor the technical know how nor interest in using streaming video services. As I research this topic more, the Kiwisat option is looking very promising. Now all we need is someone Lakeside to set up as a dealer for Kiwisat and support a customer base here. I am encouraged by the knowledge that Ajijic Electronics is working on it.

Ezzie wrote:This discussion was meant to be about possible replacements for DTH television satellite service, not a discussion about IPTV alternatives.  Some of us don't have sufficient internet bandwidth available to us, nor the technical know how nor interest in using streaming video services.  As I research this topic more, the Kiwisat option is looking very promising.  Now all we need is someone Lakeside to set up as a dealer for Kiwisat and support a customer base here.  I am encouraged by the knowledge that Ajijic Electronics is working on it.

The internet bandwidth isn't as great as many think:

To stream videos in standard definition, at least 3 Mbps is recommended.

To stream video on one device in HD, at least 7 Mbps is recommended.

To stream 4K content, at least 25 Mbps is recommended.

However streaming versus satellite is a personal choice, as well as an economical one...

... and recall that all ISP internet rates are 'UP TO".... some number. "Rarely" does one get that top banana number and rarely is it consistent all day long (and especially at night when everyone and his brother is streaming!).