Start now offers TV to their Internet customers

[Jason]

Start (our Internet provider) announced many moons ago that they were getting into offering cable TV as an add-on to their Internet service. At the time, I used their availability checker but it wasn't available in Peterborough, or at least not at our address. But now it's here! The service comes with a tv box that is also a 50-hour PVR and a remote. Note you must have Start internet to get this service.

They have a lite package that is $20/month (+$10/month tv box rental or $125 to buy outright). There is a Premium ($50) and Ultimate package ($90) as well. You can buy individual channels ($3 each), too, but you do need a base package. And there are add-on theme packs for $10.

I was also assured that you don't even need a TV (we don't have one). You can watch the channels on other media devices or on a computer by using their app, yeah, probably a Windows app (sorry!).

The one thing I've really missed TV for is election coverage and some programming that Netflix doesn't carry. You can watch election coverage online but I find the CBC website is kind of choppy for watching live video, which is the one I prefer to watch. Without the PVR, I wouldn't have considered trying out the service. I am not going back to watching commercials again but I can probably deal with skipping past them. There are some channels that can't be recorded but it seems to be just a few of the specialty channels.

Full info here.

Channel lineup by package and features

[Jason]

Despite nobody ever commenting on this post, I figured at least a few people read it so wanted to comment on it. I'm not keeping the service as there doesn't seem to be much interesting programming on the basic cable tier. However, the service worked fine.

Though we don't have a smart TV, I was able to configure the tiny cable box they sent, which you can tell runs on Custom android, using a monitor with HDMI input. Linked the Bluetooth remote (batteries included) to it and configured it to use my home wireless. But there is an Ethernet port, and an included network cable, if you prefer that. There is also a couple of USB ports on it and what looked to be a port for an SD card. I didn't try any of that out, though.

Tried out recording programs and watching live, but ugh, commercials suck. What I did sometimes was wait until a program was about 20 minutes in and then start it from the beginning and then use the convenient 30-second skip to go past them. This way it was kind of live without having to watch commercials. This seems to work because it automatically stores recent programs, not sure how far back that goes. So there is an option for watching missed programs where you choose what you want to watch, even episodes of popular programs and it gets them. Maybe it's retrieving them from a centralized server, though. Watched a few Big Bang episodes this way.

Anyway, didn't seem to be worth keeping, at least right now.

Update: Forgot to mention that if you have a Smart TV, you can leave it plugged in and sound will come out the speakers (which won't happen with a regular monitor with HDMI). If you don't, like us, then you can use an Android app on your tablet or phone to access the box wirelessly or use one of the many Android emulators for PCs. I tested it mostly doing the latter, on Windows. I used BlueStacks. There are Android emulators for Linux, as well.

[ssfc72]

Thanks for posting the info, Jason!  It is good to know that this service exists..

[fox]

So if I understand this correctly, the package fee is for TV service alone? If so, I looked at the TV package for $50/mo, and I think I have at least as much with Bell, though my TV is part of a package. My Bell package appears to be more flexible, as it includes 10 channels that I can change on the spot. Note - I'm not shilling for Bell, but I'm surprised that a small competing company isn't providing more for the money.

[Jason]

So if I understand this correctly, the package fee is for TV service alone?

Yes, that's correct. And you have to have Internet service with Start to access it as well. I wasn't posting it as a particular deal. That's why I didn't list in Marketplace. It was just to let Start users know that they could now get TV with Start now if they wanted to because I'm not sure that Start is telling their users.

Also, while it's not apparent on the Start website, you can choose the basic $20/month package and get individual channels for $3/month if I remember what the rep told me correctly. So you could get the same deal you're getting with Bell. I'm not sure what you get discounted for having bought your internet, tv and phone bundle but on the Bell website, it's $25 for basic TV + $20 for 10 channels of your choosing if you bought it alone (+$20/month PVR rental or $599 to buy it outright). But to be fair, you do get some specialty networks as part of the basic bundle.