Whole home PVR service

[Lensimms]

Outrageous I called rogers today to have the whole Home PVR service added to my TV. I was refused saying the next boxed that I am paying for are not able to handle this . Then came the big sales pitch....she said I need the Ignite system to get the service. that is outrageous and I have seen that aystem an the home of 2 friends who had it then cancelled. I am not interested. then I was told I'll have to get it in a year anyway ,everybody will. also outrageous. fortunately called Bell they told me they can set up my Tv with their services and not only that. do it for less than I pay now. forTV, Land line, and internet. so It looks like you will lose another customer I sure would like an explanation why you are willing to let that happen to a long time 79 year old customer like me. I have a smart Tv in my living room and I can record on it and play the recordings. I just wanted to get the same service on the Tv in my room, one of 3 in my home. Does this matter to you??????

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[mebe · Accepted solution]

Bell has a variety of tv box choices though. They also have their version of IPTV on an android box, which seems troubled. If you get some other regular Bell PVR, are you sure you'll like it? Seems risky for possibly just one more year of Rogers Legacy left.

[57]

@Lensimms : I have the following comments:

1. Although WHPVR was available to Rogers customers many years ago, it never really worked all that well.

2. Getting WHPVR added years ago was a pain and you had to find the CSR who was capable of doing it properly and often required a visit by a technician to install a filter so that your signals would not exit your home harming your neighbours signals.

3. Rogers is migrating everyone to IgniteTV and that should be completed around the end of 2023.

4. Rogers made the business decision not to add WHPVR to existing accounts and there are probably no CSRs around that are even capable since it's been years since it's been offered in earnest.

5. No new customers are being offered legacy digital cable (outside of the $25 basic package and some MDUs)

6. You therefore have the option to switch to IgniteTV which comes with WHPVR capability, or you can go to another service provider.

[Pauly]

Its very likely there was once a SOC code that was used to enable the Whole Home Person Video Recorder (WHPVR) feature in the past, but rogers may have removed that code from the system so no reps can add that feature to your equiptment.  No amount of complaining will be able to get this feature back, once they remove it from the billing system its gone, your stuck without it.  it was never really working reliably in the past to begin with so I would not bother trying to use it.

[-G-]

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@Lensimms wrote:

Outrageous I called rogers today to have the whole Home PVR service added to my TV. I was refused saying the next boxed that I am paying for are not able to handle this .

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As far as I know, existing Whole Home PVR installations on Digital TV are still operational, and it is also true that only certain set-top box hardware combinations will interoperate:  https://www.rogers.com/support/tv/view-recorded-program-using-whole-home-pvr

I actually had that activated on a new installation when I (briefly) switched from Fibe TV to Rogers Digital TV.  I can also confirm that it did not work very well at all.  It was slow, clunky and painful to use.  Bell did not have to worry about Rogers stealing their customers away with that gimic.

At the time, existing customers, without Whole Home PVR, had to pay something like a $200 installation fee and (I think) also had to pay an additional monthly service fee.  The installation tech basically installed a powered splitter with a MoCA POE filter to prevent the PVR traffic from leaking out of the home.  The tech also needed to ensure that all cable boxes had a good-enough signal to be able to establish a network between themselves.

I have no idea whether Rogers is able to activate new WHPVR installations today.

Then came the big sales pitch....she said I need the Ignite system to get the service. that is outrageous and I have seen that aystem an the home of 2 friends who had it then cancelled. I am not interested. then I was told I'll have to get it in a year anyway ,everybody will. also outrageous. fortunately called Bell they told me they can set up my Tv with their services and not only that. do it for less than I pay now.

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That does not surprise me.  Digital TV will not be around forever.  Rogers has committed themselves to Ignite TV and it does not make business or technical sense to maintain separate, duplicated infrastructure for both Digital TV and Ignite TV for any longer than they absolutely need to.  At some point, one of those services will be retired.

Switching from Rogers to Bell will be just as disruptive as switching from Digital TV to Ignite TV, or switching to any other service provider.  At the very least, see what kind of a deal Rogers can offer you for Ignite TV.  Also, once you switch from Digital TV to any other service, you will not be able to go back.

Digital TV with Whole Home PVR cannot compete with a good IPTV service.  It's not worth getting upset at Rogers for not allowing you to get WHPVR activated.  If you have any NextBox 2's in your home, you absolutely do not want WHPVR to get enabled.

Regardless of how you decide to proceed, I hope you will be at peace with whatever decision you make and enjoy whatever TV service you decide to go (or stay) with.