Back in October, 2020, Rogers rejigged their Stingray music channels (they removed a ton of channels and added some) and reassigned channel numbers, filling channels 370 - 409, inclusive. Looks like things may be changing again. When I look at my subscribed channels, there are now a number of gaps. For example, channel 381 (Classic Rock) still exists in the "All Channels" view... but when I try to tune to that channel, it opens Classic Rock in the Stingray app.
What can I say... I have mixed feelings about this change. With an actual Stingray Music channel, you can record it, listen to music while you are browsing the Guide, and you can rewind to listen to a favourite song again. The Stingray app is also huge step backwards for those with accessibility challenges.
On the plus side, it is nice to see a timeline for the current song.
I don't think that we have access to any new channels or content.
From a competitive standpoint, I think the Fibe TV implementation better. I don't know whether anything has changed over the last few years but when I was a subscriber, you could tune to a Stingray channel normally and you then had the option to open that channel in the Stingray app.
@CommunityHelps -- Please pass this feedback on to the Ignite product team.
***Edited Labels***
First impression - I do not like this. When I'm using my guide to set up my future recordings each evening, I always have channel 387 (Stingray Oldies) on in the background so I can listen to music while scanning the guide. As far as I can tell, I cannot do that with the App.
I just tried tuning to 387 and it went to the app. As far as I can tell, there are only 15 Stingray music channels left that are not on the app and I'm assuming those will be gone soon. I guess my background music when doing my guide programming on the box/TV is now gone. Although in some instances the IgniteTV app works well for some programming, it doesn't work well for me when "scanning" through the channels like I do on the TV.
This is probably driven by 2 things.
1. It probably uses less bandwidth.
2. Lots of people now "watch TV" on devices, instead of sitting down in front of a TV. I've researched some stats on this and the numbers are huge. I often get a similar response from CSRs or other people when I point out the differences between watching/recording on a STB connected to a TV, vs an app on a phone or tablet.
It's like complaining about Home Phone service these days - most people just look at you funny because they use cell phones and don't realize that sometimes there are advantages and features with Home Phones, like free e-mail voicemail recordings that are sent to you via e-mail so that you can access them for free, anywhere in the world. The fact that it's a lot less expensive, etc. I do have a cell phone, but due to the way I use it for certain apps, only real emergencies, GPS functionality, occasional text, but mostly iMessage, which is free on WiFi, it has cost me an average of about $5/mo for about 13 years on a PAYGo (prepaid) plan.
@57 wrote:
This is probably driven by 2 things.
1. It probably uses less bandwidth.
2. Lots of people now "watch TV" on devices, instead of sitting down in front of a TV. I've researched some stats on this and the numbers are huge. I often get a similar response from CSRs or other people when I point out the differences between watching/recording on a STB connected to a TV, vs an app on a phone or tablet.
I don't think that those are the primary drivers for this change.
There are a few reasons for the switch to the Stingray app:
One big consideration is cost. With a conventional channel, you need to generate an audio/video stream, encode it, then stream it. Those amount to actual costs to the business. The channels also take up space in the Guide; not a big deal for a platform that supports 4-digit channel numbers but the X1 platform (I believe) only supports up to 3-digit channel numbers.
Through an app, you can deliver Stingray as an audio stream along with some meta data and render it using Web technologies. Technically, you have the ability to deliver a higher-quality audio stream than you could with a conventional TV channel. You can also tie current/recently played music to social media (if the underlying platform supports it) or enable users to purchase that music, again if the app and the underlying platform supports that integration.
@intruder1500 : It looks like your post was moved to this existing thread on this topic. Please check out the earlier posts. It's not a display change. It's the fact that the previous music channels are now only available through the Stingray app.
P.S. It states at the bottom of the screen that you're being taken to a third party app when you key in the channel - for example - 388.
P.P.S. There are some advantages to the app, like the timeline and the fact that you can skip ahead a song, etc.
Not sure if this should go here or not, but...
I have been happily using my Stingray app on my iPad for a while now without issue. Yesterday, the app wouldn't play and it asked me to login. I did this using the "Rogers" option and by "listening" to my "TV" on the iPad. I got in and it started playing, however, I noticed a blue "create account" box at the top right of my iPad app screen - this is new and I have not bothered with it yet.
I went to my Mac Mini M2 computer and tried to listen on my (Chrome) browser, like I used to and it also wouldn't play, so I logged in using the iPad app and the camera to "read" the QR code on the web screen. Again, something I haven't done, probably in years.
I then looked at my various settings for blocked artists/tracks, favourite artists, etc and it was all blank. Anyone else notice these changes? I wonder whether this has anything to do with Rogers moving all the Stingray channels (formerly available on the TV as channels) to the App on the STB?
My profile (on the iPad, and TV/STB) is shown as "Stingray Profile 1" (which is probably the default) and I honestly don't remember if that's what it was before.
I blocked a couple of tracks on my iPad and those "transferred" to the Web version. I don't think I can see blocked tracks/artists, or block tracks/artists, on the TV/STB app version, unless I missed it.
@57 wrote:
Not sure if this should go here or not, but...
I have been happily using my Stingray app on my iPad for a while now without issue. Yesterday, the app wouldn't play and it asked me to login. I did this using the "Rogers" option and by "listening" to my "TV" on the iPad. I got in and it started playing, however, I noticed a blue "create account" box at the top right of my iPad app screen - this is new and I have not bothered with it yet.
I also got the Stingray app on my iPhone activated by "listening" to my TV. It detected that I was a Rogers customer and I also have a "Create Account" button on my home page.
I have not had to reactivate the Stingray iOS app since Ignite TV went app-only. However, I wondered what we would have to do if/when it came time to "renew" the activation on our devices and whether or not the "listen" process would work with the Ignite Stingray app since it seemed like the Ignite channel streamed different songs at a given time than the Ignite app did... and I thought that this was perhaps why Rogers kept a few Stingray channels around.
@-G- wrote:I have not had to reactivate the Stingray iOS app since Ignite TV went app-only. However, I wondered what we would have to do if/when it came time to "renew" the activation on our devices and whether or not the "listen" process would work with the Ignite Stingray app since it seemed like the Ignite channel streamed different songs at a given time than the Ignite app did... and I thought that this was perhaps why Rogers kept a few Stingray channels around.
I used the app on my TV/STB (Greatest Hits "channel"). I'm guessing there is some sort of inaudible "audio watermark" that accompanies any channel/app signal, although I could be way off and it simply recognizes the music.
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