Fibe IPTV television service from Bell – How it works
12. Oct, 2009 
83 Comments
Bell Canada has finally launched their super cool IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service. As a technology guy, when a new product or service arrives, I feel it is my duty to sign up for it. This way, when friends, family members and colleagues ask me about it, I can continue to provide a valuable service. Plus… it helps to justify my obsession for cool things.
I wasted a lot of time searching the Internet (and Bell Canada’s website) for more technical information related to the service and I found a significant amount of outdated information and technical inaccuracies. Specifically, a number of people online are telling others that Bell’s IPTV service is television over the Internet. This is highly inaccurate since Bell has gone to great lengths to design the network in such a way that video and Internet do not interfere with each other.
The “last mile”, that is, the connection between Bell Canada and your house is not fibre-optic cable. Rather, it is a very fast version of DSL called VDSL2. Since television signals, especially high definition signals require lots of bandwidth, VDSL2 is key here. It’s also one of the reasons the Bell Entertainment Service is only available in selected serving areas. In many areas, the network does not yet exist, or the would be subscriber homes are too far away from the facilities.
Bell Entertainment Service high level network diagram
The red lines indicate the path of the television signal, while those in blue indicate regular Internet browsing. The grey cable from the Alcatel-Lucent Cellpipe modem/router is a regular POTS line (plain old telephone service) that connects to one of Bell’s many DSLAMs. From the remote networks, Bell has fibre-optic cable connecting them to their main facilities.
At the main facilities, Bell “splits” the VLANs (virtual lans) out depending whether it’s a television service or Internet service. These connections have a dedicated amount of bandwidth to ensure your television service is not impacted by downloads over the Internet.
Each television is connected to a Motorola VIP console. The main console is called a VIP1216 and it houses the hard drive used to pause, record, rewind and schedule recordings. If you have multiple television sets in your home, they will connect to VIP1200 consoles. Although the VIP1200s do not have a hard drive, they can still connect to the main console’s hard drive to watch recorded shows and schedule future television recordings.
My service hasn’t been installed yet, but I’ll be sure to provide a more thorough update once I’m up and running.
More Information:
- Jun 6: A year in review. Pros and Cons of Bell’s Entertainment Service.
- Oct 20: Our bandwidth test results are impressive.
- Bell Entertainment Service website.
- Bell IPTV User Guide.
Updates
JUN. 6 UPDATE: A year in review of the Bell Entertainment Service follow-up post. What I like, what I don’t like.
OCT. 19 UPDATE: My service is up and running and the service has impressed me so far. 22Meg Internet, plus HD TV and whole home PVR is pretty sweet. I’ll write a follow-up review soon. In the meantime, I wanted to provide a link to Bell’s IPTV user guide since a lot of people have been asking me for more detailed information, but Bell’s website seems to fall short.
OCT. 20 UPDATE: I wrote a follow-up post that describes the results of my Internet bandwidth tests while watching TV.
Jan. 18 UPDATE: Jon Simon, Management Support (IPTV) at Bell Canada has informed me that Bell will be (finally) adding CNN to its channel lineup next month.
Does the cost of the IPTV include your monthly internet service or are you paying for internet on top of the IPTV? Is there a built in web browser and can watch flash based video on sites like CTV?
Hi Mark. Yes, the monthly Internet service is included. You can schedule shows to record via the web, but I do not think you can watch them (that would be COOL).
Help me to find the, http://www.wearediabetic.org/rentersinsurances/bio renters insurance, %-],
I tried to order it in Burlington but it isn’t there yet. They said mid 2010. Send me an email or DM when you post your experience with it, I am interested to hear how it works out. Try and add some video to your post if you can, I would like to see it in action.
Hey Ben… I too would be interested to know your findings; would you be kind enough to let me know as well? That would be fabulous!
Thanks!… Laura
@Mark, once it’s all setup, why don’t you stop by for a coffee and bring your video camera with you? We can review the individual hardware components that are part of the solution, along with the actual video quality, on screen guide, fast channel switching, etc?
@Laura, lots more info to come… stay tuned to this post for future updates!
Sounds like a plan. I’ll be there!
Roger that Ben… and I’m obviously getting those updates from here anyway (duh!)
Hey all… just updated the post with the Bell IPTV user guide and will have more feedback soon. So far though, the service seems to be pretty sweet and the special pricing I got was extended for a full year (a promotion that Bell is offering during the early adopter/introductory phase).
We just switched our household from Rogers last month, primarily to get away from the Cisco owned PVR with the interface that’s so offensive it makes me angry. (Not only does it look like a turd, but it doesn’t work intuitively and is slow as molasses responding to your interactions, particularly the On Demand service.) A friend on Queen’s Quay has been on the Bell IPTV service for about a year now as an early beta tester and, not only had it been rock solid, but generally a great experience. I’d seen it and loved the generally pleasant interface.
So, a month in, the interface is still great, with the one exception of the inconsistent navigation between the Guide and channel browsing using the up and down keys. (Using the Guide, up goes to a lower numbered station (correct action); if you just use the navigator up goes to a higher numbered station (incorrect action; both methods should browse to a lower numbered station)).
In addition to that relatively minor interface issue, there are several serious issues I’ve found during this month of service that need to be fixed:
1. The service has not been reliable. We were down three Monday’s in a row, a Tuesday and a Friday for very extended outages that affected both TV and Internet. Connecting with my Queen’s Quay friend I found at that they too had been suffering some otherwise unfamiliar outages. It seems they have had some upstream issues. The service has since been solid since last Friday (9 days).
2. There are numerous HD TV stations (Newsworld, Sportsnet, etc) that are not yet available due to licensing issues (they’re working on it).
3. Due to the insane licensing restrictions Bell’s agreed to, if your service goes down (ie, you’re not connected) you cannot watch any of your recorded shows because they OS is pinging the network to grab an authorization key. Everyone on the service should be calling to complain about this.
4. The USB port on the rear does not yet support an external HD for extending the recorded storage capacity. As a result, you can only record about 20 HD programs. If they don’t resolve this soon, they’re going to get an earful. I believe they’re working on it.
5. There are no On Demand channels for shows that you’ve missed. On Rogers, you can watch HBO and TMN programming about 24 hours after it airs, for free. No such thing on the Bell service. When your PVR fails you, it’s nice to be able to catch up with the On Demand. Bell’s On Demand is pay to play movies. This would of course be mitigated if the service were reliable or you could connect a large HD so your storage didn’t run out in a matter of days.
The balance to all of this is, if you sign up before the end of the year it’s 50% off for your first year of service. Which would be more than a fair compromise if the service was generally reliable.
If you’re looking for more info, here’s the Bell IPTV website: http://entertainment.bell.ca
@Lee, when you said incredibly insightful on Twitter, you weren’t lying. :) Thanks for taking the time to chime in and let people know your experience with Bell’s service.
Thanks again Lee, really appreciate it!
Small correction. All references of “Alcatel” should read “Alcatel-Lucent”. “Alcatel” no longer exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_High_Speed_Digital_Subscriber_Line_2
Chris, thanks for the corrections. I’ll update the Alcatel-Lucent references in the post and the VDSL2 link as well. Will update the diagram when I have more time. Cheers, -B
Hi Ben,
I’ve recently purchased a Bell Aliant Fibre Op package (NB Canada). Have you had any problems with the VIP\1216 PVR? I have learned it’s a known issue that when it is hooked to the TV via HDMI, the TV picture can go black, (channel surfing can cause it). Then the PVR has to be rebooted. I understand that it does not do this with all TVs but with some. Mine is a Samsung 52″ and it does happen with it. Would you know if there are other STB/Receivers that are available for IP HDTV?
HI Jerry, thanks for stopping by.
I don’t think Bell gives you different options besides the VIP1216. I have my VIP1216 connected to a 32″ Samsung and it’s been working great over HDMI at 1080i with no video problems at all. I have had a few instances where audio has cut out for several seconds before returning, but I’ve heard that’s a problem with HDMI in general. I also have another console (VIP1200) connected to a 37″ LG using HDMI without problems either.
I know… I’m due for a bigger TV… I have my eyes on a new super thin Samsung LEDs 46″, but it’s not in the budget at the moment. :)
Ben – thanks for all the info & detail you’ve put into this post. I’ve been recommending this service left right and centre, mainly due to the super fast internet. I’m considering it for myself (if its available in my building), however I may want to ride out the 2 free HD PVRs I’m getting from Rogers a bit longer.
I’m really feeling the pinch of my ‘regular’ Bell (via Teksavvy) DSL service, and would love a bit more headroom. Although I understand there’s a 60gb/month cap on transfers, with a maximum overage charge of $30
@Lee – great, insightful comment. I’ve sent it to a few friends who I’ve told about the service – all good things to know. Hopefully Bell works out those kinks soon. Not sure that 20 HD shows max on the PVR would be enough, although I’m in the process of setting up a mac miniHTPC to automatically grab new shows via USENET.
Whoa. This site is full of great surprises. I was googling Bell Entertainment and redirected here, read through the Network Diagram (above) then linked to Mark McKay’s youtube video, saw some really old photos from Toronto and painfully read through laurie jonkmans reply about the CIRA. Eughhh (too much coffee).
My question is simple though. I’m wondering how long it will take for Bell’s fibre network to become saturated, over subscribed and subsequently throttled as Bell’s current DSL service operates? I can guess the VLANs and QoS will prioritize the television content over general internet use? (which I think makes sense.. until there are so many subscribers that all users internet speeds start suffering). I don’t know the bandwidth on fibre to the BSLAM but it has to be very robust. Optimistically, one may hope that Bell is rolling out this service slowly and carefully as to avoid this from happening!
Anyways, my brother (401 / yonge) just had it installed and loves it. Without watching TV, he gets solid 30megabit down 7megabit up. Closest I had to that was living in UK with a company called Be Broadband adsl2+ 24megabit living 100m from the exchange.
Once again great site, lots of info here. Kudos Ben for a fun place to enjoy my Sunday Morning Coffee :)
Thanks for the reply Ben,
I am running my VIP1216 at 720p. Maybe that’s where the HDMI problem occurs. I had done some googling before and found that people who subscribed to fiber optic from AT&T (Uverse) as far back as 2007 also experieced the HDMI problem.
On another note; if 1080i is the highest setting for the VIP1216, which it seems to be, it will be difficult to get the full benefit of 1080p (True High def), don’t you think.
“On another note; if 1080i is the highest setting for the VIP1216, which it seems to be, it will be difficult to get the full benefit of 1080p (True High def), don’t you think.”
There is no cable/fibre provider on the planet pushing anything near 1080i right now. The implication that their HD content is anywhere near this resolution is deceptive. You get a far superior HD signal in Toronto using an antenna because the Bells and Rogers of the world are dramatically compressing their signals.
Hi Lee,
You may be right. The picture quality of a blue ray, seems to be much higher than anthing you can get from a broadcast.
@Jerry: Lee is right… although the tuner might be connected to the TV at 1080i, the signal itself is highly compressed to save bandwidth.
Hi-def broadcasts on BES use approx 7-9Mbps. In contrast, a Blu-ray movie can be as high as 48Mbps. You can see that Blu-ray has higher capacity and as a result, requires less compression and produces a higher quality picture.
Hi John, thanks for the kind words, they’re much appreciated. :) For more fun you can also check out my personal blog at http://www.benlucier.ca
Your ‘simple’ question actually isn’t that simple and is at the heart of the net neutrality debate. To answer the question, you’d have to have in depth knowledge regarding the engineering of Bell’s network. In theory, it’s completely possible to design a network to ensure it never becomes saturated. Unfortunately, this comes at great cost. Ultimately, it ends up being a combination of price/performance. On the plus side, with network convergence, Bell only needs to manage one network (voice/data) AND communications providers like Juniper, Cisco and others are constantly building faster and more efficient network switches and routers.
Thanks again for stopping by!
Thanks for the feedback Josh!
Ben;
Thanks for letting me know about Bell’s new Entertainment Service. I had to get it in oder to “keep up with the Joneses” and I have to say there is absolutely no disapointment yet.
The guys who showed up for the install were friendly and despite having a problems getting my port to “light up” they resolved it by moving me to a different Stinger. (Lucent…you have some explainin’ to doooooo”
I am achieving sustained download speeds of 21Mbps and upload speeds of 11 Mbps, even with a TV on and watching a High Def channel.
I am happy with the channel lineup thus far and have to say that altough I have not had any previous “PVR” experience their interface was a breeze to pickup and use. Like you were saying Ben, it would be nice if there was a way to “save the searches” it would go a long way in making things a bit quicker to navigate.
In order to maintain my frivolous entertainment costs, i have opted to cancell one of my DSL providers and cancel my Rogers cable…for less money I get over four times the bandwidth and 5 times more “watchable” TV channels….it was a no brainer.
That’s my 2 cents…
“I am happy with the channel lineup thus far and have to say that altough I have not had any previous “PVR” experience their interface was a breeze to pickup and use.”
I can assure you, the Rogers PVR is the equivalent of wading through quicksand compared to the Entertainment service’s walk on the beach. This is the primary reason that we switched. Dealing with the Rogers PVR interface on a daily basis was making that vein on my temple that no one is supposed to see permanently throb.
Lee;
I have heard that about the Rogers PVR. I tried quickly to have a go at setting up a recording at a buddies house and thought…”who designed this….chimps on crack?”
Seriously though…this service is the bomb! Hope it keeps getting better.
Wonder if you have experience running a webserver while using this service? Do you know if Bell allows that? Do you get a static IP with this service? I run a small webserver at home and I’d like to be able to continue to do so if I subscribe to this new service. I’d be soooo happy to dump my Rogers cable.
Hey guys,
Thanks for the great post Ben, and the other insightful comments from Lee et al.
I’m also in the Yonge/401 area and I’ve now been up on Bell Entertainment Service for almost a month now as well, having switched over from years of Rogers, and am definitely enjoying the experience thus far. The installation went very smoothly, and the only problems I had in that regard was a week later when Bell seemed to have some difficulty figuring out how to properly convert my dry loop back to a wet loop so I could switch back to a normal Bell phone line as well.
The speeds and video performance have been solid, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had no service outages. I’ve experienced some of the HDMI audio issues that are mentioned here with my equipment, however, suggesting that the HDMI performance of these Motorola boxes still isn’t up to spec. Even the techs said they recommend a component+optical connection.
My living room TV (Toshiba 62″ DLP) is connected via an H+K AVR-354, and I find that if I use the digital audio mode over HDMI, I get audio drop-outs that are frequent enough to be annoying, so I’ve just left it in normal “Stereo” mode for now. I’ve had the same problem in the past with my Apple TV over HDMI through that receiver, although oddly the Rogers 8300HD box never had any issues at all with it. Either way, the easy solution is just to run a toslink cable for the audio and be done with it. It’s an extra cable, but it’s not like the basic stuff coming out of the VIP1216 or the Apple TV needs the full bandwidth of a lossless HDMI audio stream. :) I’ve also had some issues with audio not coming up at all on the bedroom TV over HDMI, even in normal stereo mode. Again, the Apple TV has had the same problem with this TV in the past, so again an extra cable from the VIP1216 to the TV (simply RCA analog audio) is the easy solution here.
The HD picture quality on Bell seems to be slightly better than on Rogers, particularly on those channels like Discovery HD that push mostly 1080i programming. Admittedly, there might be placebo effect at work here, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Bell compresses the signal less than Rogers does, which would make sense considering that they have less to shove through the pipe.
Other than that, the PVR interface is great, especially when compared to those Scientific Atlanta boxes that Rogers gives out, which make huge sucking noises. The fact that I gave up a lifetime free rental promotion for an 8300HD from Rogers in order to switch over says volumes about what I think of that technology.
About the only disappointment I found was that the secondary PVRs don’t allow you to pause or rewind live TV. You can initiate recordings from the secondary units, and the entire recorded library from the primary hard drive is available and works just as well in both places (although skipping and ff/rew it lags a bit on the secondaries), it was a bit disappointing that live TV PVR functions aren’t available. Not a deal breaker by any means, since the rest of the PVR capabilities are so great, and I’ve heard that it’s coming in a firmware update in the spring anyway.
On the VDSL side, the Alcatel Cellpipe 7130 router does the job, but I’ve been disappointed with its poor uPNP support and as a result just bypassed it by establishing my own PPPoE connection directly from my Apple Time Capsule. I’m a bit concerned about QoS issues, since I’m not sure what layer the QoS for IPTV separation occurs at, but my Internet speeds have been consistently higher since taking that approach, and thus far I haven’t seen any noticeable problems on the IPTV side so far.
Ultimately, though, this is an amazing solution, and there is no doubt in my mind that the bar for entertainment has been raised. Rogers of course tried to talk me into staying with them, and I just told them flat out that they couldn’t compete with this if they tried. Even if Rogers could match the prices (which they couldn’t), they absolutely can’t match the technology, and there’s nothing that the folks in “retentions” at Rogers can do about that right now.
I’ve gotten somewhat used to the VIP1216. Overall I am fairly pleased with the fiberOP TV and Internet package. However I really must say that the VIP1216 is definitely inferior to the Bell Satelite PVR which I had for over two years. I have never once had a problem with it; HDMI worked perfectly. The interface is more moder/sophisticated in look and feel than the outdated microsoft interface of the VIP1216 and the whole sysem is much more user friendly allowing you to easily skip through commercials without the anoying (fast forward sound affects of the VIP). If Bell Aliant had a PVR that was comparable to the Bell satelite PVR, I would then say that the package is the best you can currently get.
@YDS: My websites are hosted at a proper data centre. I don’t think I’d want to use my service for webserving, but I don’t see any reason why a casual user couldn’t use the service for webserving.
Bell does not currently offer static IP addresses with any of their residential plans as far as I know. You can run a website with dynamic DNS, but if you host your own mail server you are completely out of luck. They block the SMTP port to all their clients to block spambots (I suppose).
This service looks GREAT and I would absolutely LOVE to get it, *if* you don’t have to use Bell Internet with it. It is technically simple to do – they already split the TV and Internet streams. They can just connect the VPI/VCI from their DSLAM to a reseller router the exact same way they do now with 3rd party DSL providers, but I don’t know if they will offer that option despite the fact that they can, and if they do not, I will very sadly not be getting this service.
Ben: Thanks for the posts. They were very helpful to me. Based on this and other info, I had the service installed last week. I am very pleased with the results. I am getting similar internet speeds download, but you may wish to try some other servers. I suspect the speedtest.net toronto server may have an incoming bottleneck of about 7-8 Mbps, which we max out. If you try the chicago or montreal servers, you may find, like me, that you are capable of upload speeds closer to 11.5 Mbps. I am also very pleased with the HD and SD quality. The system is using H.264 compression which can achieve in 7-8 Mbps the same quality as MPEG2 in 15-20 Mbps, so like others I am seeing a lot fewer compression artifacts compared to Rogers or Expresview. We have 3 extra boxes installed, and the family loves the whole home PVR ease of use. It can record 2 HD and 2 SD shows simultaneously, so the 160Gbyte drive is a tad small for all this capability (hopefully addressed in a future update).
Does this service work with VOIP services like voip.ms. I have a Linksys PAP2T + WRT54GL with Tomato providing the QoS. I am presently on Rogers Extreme. I’m wondering if this Bell Entertainment Service will prevent the use of VOIP.
Thanks for the info!
There’s no reason I can see that it would prevent the use of VoIP, as you’d have bandwidth to spare (so QoS is not critical) and Bell is not doing anything to specifically block VoIP. I’ve got a Vonage line running on a Linksys RTP300 behind the Bell Entertainment Service and it works fine.
Generally, the modem/router supplied by Bell will need to be the front-end device as it establishes the virtual WAN connection over VDSL to support the IPTV network and likely performs some of its own QoS in the process for the IPTV streams (which are much more data-intensive than a VOIP stream). The Bell router can establish the VDSL/PPPoE connection for your Internet access as well and just hand out IP addresses via DHCP to your wired and wireless devices, or you can establish your own direct PPPoE connection through the Bell modem/router from another PPPoE-capable device, such as the WRT54GL or even your computer.
In my configuration, my Linksys RTP300 is behind an Apple Time Capsule which is handling the PPPoE connection through the Bell modem/router as it provides better NAT traversal support for things like Back-to-my-Mac than the Cellpipe 7130 that Bell gave me. Basically, the Bell Cellpipe 7130 is what’s connected to the DSL line (phone jack), and then from there I have a standard TV coax cable running to my two Bell Entertainment set-top boxes and an RJ-45 (Ethernet) cable running to the WAN port on my Time Capsule. I simply configured the Time Capsule for PPPoE with my Bell login credentials rather than setting it to acquire an IP address from the Cellpipe, and it essentially establishes its own connection and gets its own public IP address.
Thanks Ben. Ordered :)
HI I was told that Bell is coming out in mid 2010 in province of quebec with satelitte tv without the use or need of a dish all built in receiver, somewhat like videotron offers usung their illico terminals however the programing would be the same as the present which is now requiring a dish,can you give me any info,
thanks
Ben,
Nice to see you have BES as well. I just had it installed yesterday afternoon, it’s truly incredible. A few notes.
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Business/Products/TV%20Video%20Distribution/Set-tops/IP%20Set-tops/VIP1216/_Documents/Static%20Files/VIP1216specsheet_021508_e.pdf
Looks like it can run Linux if you want with something called KreaTV. All this technology came out in early 2007 so we’re almost 3 years behind the curve, but it’s good to know Bell is innovating. Rogers will definitely have something out in 2010 if I had to bet on it. They almost have to with this type of performance even when Bull ups the price to 100%.
Video: MPEG2, MPEG4 (H.264), VC-1 (Microsofts implentation to compete with H.264 I think)
Audio: MPEG1, MPEG3, AAC LC, HE-AAC
Remember you are all beta testing BES whether you know it or not so expect problems. You’re at the forefront of the TV of the future.
Alex, thanks for the additional information. Regarding #2, have you seen my follow-up post with my speedtest results? I figured the consoles were running Windows CE, that explains the occasional requirement to power them off and on to reset them (Motorola should consider putting a CTRL-ALT-DELETE key on the remotes). ;)
Seriously though, it’s been a fantastic service and I’ve had very little to complain about. We were prepared for a beta product to begin with anyway, but with no contract, zero setup, we prepared ourselves. I’ve been turning my whole neighbourhood onto the service!
Ben,
You should get a commission from Bell, for goodness sakes. Why didn’t they do that for this roll out? Would you pay 2x the price if the service continues to improve and is more stable? That’s the real question, isn’t it? If so, they’ve effectively upsold you from Rogers crappy service and successfully as well. Since Rogers Internet+CableTV can be had for less than $100.
In my case, the answer is “in a heartbeat.” As far as I’m concerned, the Bell service is a bargain even at the normal price, and I have no intention of getting rid of it after the promotional term is over, although admittedly I might scale back down from my current “Super” package as I don’t really need all of those extra channels.
Consider that with Bell even at the $99/month normal price you’re getting Internet service with speeds of 20-25mbps down and 8mbps up, which is $70/month by itself on Rogers (with only 1mbps up) without even including cable channels. The most basic digital cable package is $30/month, which means that the closest equivalent service from Rogers would run you $100/month. On the high-end of the scale, the $165/month “Super” package has a closest equivalent of $70/month for Internet + $96.47/month for the cable services, or $166.47/month for all of it together. Obviously the channel lineups and features aren’t *exactly* the same (Rogers includes timeshifting on all of their packages, while it’s $2/month extra on Bell), but you get the general idea.
(Interestingly, Rogers has *just* lowered their Internet prices in the past couple of weeks — the 25mbps service used to be $95/month, and their 50mbps service was $149/month).
While the basic prices seem close, it’s important to keep in mind this doesn’t include the “hidden” cost of the actual set-top boxes. On Rogers, you either need to purchase the HD boxes separately or rent them. Purchase is $250 for a non-PVR or $500 for a PVR, although they can sometimes be found on sale. Rental is $13/month for a non-PVR or $25/month for a PVR. Rogers includes no boxes for free, while Bell includes the core PVR receiver for free and charges $5/month for additional secondary boxes, which provide you with shared PVR capabilities on all terminals — something Rogers has no equivalent to. A second HD box on Rogers would cost you an additional $13/month for no PVR capabilities or an additional $25/month for a separate PVR.
Paying less than $100 for Rogers Internet+CableTV will not get you anything even close to the Bell Entertainment Service. For around $100/month you could either get: basic digital cable, an HD PVR rental and 10mbps Internet service; or standard digital cable (no HD or PVR capabilities) with 25mbps/1mbps Internet service. This is basically the full price of the most basic Bell Entertainment Service package which provides HD PVR capabilities and 25mbps/8mbps Internet service.
So even on a price-based comparison alone, without getting into the additional features and capabilities, the Rogers service is *still* more expensive. About the only place where Rogers could even be considered equal in cost is for those users who don’t really need ultra-high-speed Internet, and even then you’re only talking about roughly equivalent pricing between the two services.
Anyone else having trouble with their iPod Touch and connecting to the Alcatel Lucent Bell Entertainment wifi gateway? I get really errant behaviour. Somtimes the connection seems to just connect and then disconnect in the Settings control panel in the iPod, never actually connecting. Sometimes it connects but then is assigned a weird 169.x.x.x IP address that does not work. I am using WPA-TKIP security, so am wondering if that’s what it is…
Alex
169.x.x.x is IPv4 link-local. It generally means the device is configured for DHCP and tried to get an address from a DHCP server but didn’t hear from any so it gave up. If you are sure there is a working DHCP server on the network then it probably means you have a ‘physical’ connectivity issue – wireless security settings that don’t match on the router and client for example.
I’ve switch to WPA2PSK as a security scheme with AES as the security mechanism rather than TKIP. So far so good — will report back if the problem is still recurring.
WPA-TKIP seems to work funny on this router with iPod touch 2nd gen 32GB — that’s for sure.
Folks,
I’ve started a specific Bell Entertainment bulletin board at
http://bellent.currentinternet.com
Share your reviews, ideas, requests there — let’s grab the attention of Bell and help them shape the service in the years to come.
CNN coming to the Bell Entertainment Service next month. :)
For folks having stability and reliability issues with their BES set top boxes, there is a potential fix for the problem here… Short story: the alcatel lucent VDSL modem is only good at serving HD and SD streams, but it sucks as a wifi/ethernet home network router…
Possible solution: http://bellent.currentinternet.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21#p73
Thanks Alex, that’s good to know. One of the first things I did when the Bell guys left my house was turn off wireless since I have 4 other APs in my house (3 Apple Airport Expresses and a D-LINK N Router)
Yes, I did much the same as well. My primary router is a Time Capsule, and I’m basically just using the Bell-supplied equipment as a DSL modem rather than a router — my Time Capsule establishes its own PPPOE connection.
Initially I was routing my Internet connection through the Bell VDSL router and simply using the Time Capsule as a wireless access point, but in the end I found the UPNP implementation on the Bell router to be rather shoddy, particularly when it came to Apple-related services such as iChat and Back to my Mac. At that point, I decided to just switch back to using the Time Capsule as the primary router, and everything has been working just great since. On the rare occasion that i need to configure or check something on the Bell router I simply plug an Ethernet cable into it directly, but the rest of the time everything else runs through my Time Capsule.
I’m having similar issues with the UPNP and Back to my Mac. I’ve got both my old Rogers connection and the Fibe 25 here (just switching over) and my Back to my Mac works flawlessly on the Wiress through Rogers, but I switch to the Bell Network and I can’t make any connections at all. I’ve gone in to the Alcatel setup, UPNP is enabled too. The wireless is disabled in the Alcatel device, and I’m using the provided Cisco AP but it’s not a router, the routing is happening at the moment through the Alcatel box with no success of Back to My Mac.
How do you disable the routing aspect of the Alcatel box (7130) and use it purely as a DSL modem?
The simplest way to do this is just to configure your Bell Internet account as a PPPoE account directly on your other router or on your Mac itself. As with most DSL routers, the Alcatel device should simply pass the PPPoE connection directly through as if it were just a “dumb” PPPoE modem.
At that point, you can actually go into the Alcatel box’s configuration and disable its Internet VLAN PPPoE connection entirely if you like (being sure to leave the Bell IPTV one enabled), although there doesn’t seem to be any harm in leaving it enabled also, as Bell/Sympatico doesn’t seem to care if you have more than one active PPPoE connection.
I’ve tried, no luck, the airport simply says there is no PPPoE server found.
That’s interesting as it’s working fine in my case. My router is the Cellpipe 7130 in the out-of-the-box configuration and the PPPoE connection from my Time Capsule works through it without any problems and in the past I’ve had it connected directly from my iMac as well.
In case it’s not obvious the WAN port on the Airport needs to be connected via Ethernet to one of the LAN ports on the router, but otherwise it should pretty much just work once you’ve entered your PPPoE credentials into the Airport.
If you’re using a router other than the 7130 then that might be another issue.
That’s what I’ve done. Cable from the Airport WAN port to one of the ports on the back of the 7130. I then setup PPPoE in the Airport, and it always complains about not being able to find a PPPoE server. I’ve factory reset the 7130, read that somewhere trying some other things, that didn’t change anything. So I’m back to my airport acting as a bridge, but I still have the uPNP issues of the 7130 which is a deal breaker for me, I need that.
Which port on the 7130 are you plugging the Airport into? Is your 7130 still making a PPPoE connection?
Sounds basically like what I’ve done, and as I said it “just worked” in my case. I’m connected to port 1 on the 7130, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t matter, as I’ve been plugged into other ports, and in fact even had two separate PPPoE connections going at the same time — one from my iMac and one from my Time Capsule.
At first I just left the 7130 with a normal PPPoE connection established as I couldn’t be bothered disabling it. I later set it to “manual” and disconnected it and it didn’t really make a difference either way. A couple of weeks ago some Bell techs came by and swapped out my 7130 due to problems getting the latest firmware to download onto it. The new one passed through the PPPoE connection in the same manner with the “stock” out-of-the-box configuration.
What model of Airport base station are you using? Does it have the latest firmware? What’s the firmware version on your 7130?
Just got it installed yesterday, the firmware is “1.0.3.6-STINGER”. What’s interesting is at the moment I have the Airport in bridge mode, and I can make a PPPoE connection from my MacBook no problem. So it would appear it’s not the 7130, it does pass the PPPoE connection through.
Is it possible for customers to use VOIP and connect it to the IRD? What is the difference / similarity of VOIP and the standard telephone connection?
Just checked with BELL IPTV and it is not available in downtown TO (proper). Got an answer that they are upgrading constantly! Gee I heard that when I was looking for BESS VDSL those many years ago too. Wonder if it’s a pipe dream!
I found this forum because I’m trying to see if everyone is happy with the service or if it’s just me. I’ve had Bell IPTV installed back in October 2009. I’m located in Scarborough. As far as the internet component is concerned, it’s been pretty good. We have two computers and usually speedtest.net says 8-9 Mbps as Ben and Michael both mentioned. I think I had to reset it a couple of times for no apparent reason but other than that I’m satisfied with it. We only have one TV, and it’s pretty much never on. I love the PVR. A week ago though, for no apparent reason, it stopped working. When I called tech support, I was told to reset it. After that it worked again, except that all the shows that were set to record the series were gone. Very, very annoying. However, I have to say that my chief complaint is that they were falsely advertising the capabilities when I first signed up. Back in October, they boasted that you can remotely control your PVR through a website and view photos on your computer on the TV. Well, that website has NEVER worked. At that time, I called customer service and all they could say was, in a more polite way than I’m putting it, “what do you expect for getting a discount for 50% off. It’s purely experimental”. I was also assured that it will be working soon. Well, now 4 months later, they have removed that feature from their main sales website altogether. So I guess their “experiment” never worked. I’m tempted to switch back to Bell satillite (or even Rogers), but since I’ll be moving to a new town soon (and I’m sure they don’t have Bell IPTV there) I figure I’ll just put up with it. For sure if I didn’t have the 50% discount I would switch. I was getting more (and better) channels and better reliability for about $20/month. Just my thoughts.
I’ve never had the web recording working either, and when a tech visited a couple of weeks ago to swap out my modem (for an unrelated reason), they told me that the service wasn’t available yet as the Bell Entertainment Service is still technically “in beta.” I hadn’t noticed that it’s actually disappeared from their web site — that strikes me as a bad sign.
However, it’s interesting that Bell appears to have launched this capability for their normal “Bell TV” satellite service, even including an iPhone application designed for managing recordings (see http://www.bell.ca/rpvr). It looks to be a completely different system from what IPTV was advertising, and not surprisingly it doesn’t seem to work with the IPTV service — it just prompts for a “Bell TV” account number when you log into your profile and my IPTV account number doesn’t work. I’m hoping that maybe the reason they’ve gotten rid of the old entertainment portal that IPTV was using is so they can integrate it into this new Remote PVR service instead.
So it seems that Bell’s new “Remote PVR” service is actually a licensed version of Sling Media’s Sling Guide service ()http://www.slingmedia.com/go/slingguide). All the better if this truly is what they’re planning to move IPTV over to.
Hi,
We have Bell ExpressVu with a VIP1216 Motorola on which we have recorded a television interview with my daughter.
How can I copy it to my computer or a CD? I notice that there is a USB port in the front of the VIP1216 and one at the back. If I were to connect to the computer with a USB cable will it work?
Please advise.
Thank you.
Hani,
Without ‘modding’ your PVR, there’s no way to get the content off the VIP1216. Even if you could, the video content is encrypted as well.
Motorola/Microsoft have gone to great lengths to make sure us consumers can’t take video content away from the devices.
As for the USB ports, I don’t believe they’re active, although I understand they’ll be used for storage expansion at a later date.
-Ben
Hey,
I just had the VIP1216 installed with Bell Aliant. I’m finding it impossible to control the aspect ratio of SD widescreen broadcasts on my 16:9 HDTV.
1)When the TV Type (on the STB) is set to 16:9 and SD Channel Display is set to 480i/p it outputs the 4:3 image anamorphically, so Zoom functions on the TV aren’t useful (they result in a distorted image)
2)The Zoom button on the remote doesn’t work. It does nothing!
Am I doing something wrong? Any help appreciated :)
John,
There is a way to do this, but only a channel at a time and it doesn’t appear to stick so you have to toggle each time.
Check this website for Canadian IPTV users who are using this platform that Bell Entertainment also uses.
http://bellent.currentinternet.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=106&p=330&hilit=zoom&sid=d586a3b0a77d45cc020295c55d7cf5e2#p330
hey, thanks for that. Yep, I’ve seen that button, but it does nothing on my remote. The button’s not physically broken, as a light on the STB flashes when I push it (so it’s being detected), but nothing at all happens. Time to contact tech support me-thinks :)
http://enterprise.alcatel-lucent.com/private/active_docs/Datasheet_OA5305_EN_Feb10_EPG3310091014.pdf
this firm whare up date oh is there yea have to have the cell pipe 7130 I updated mine lol
I was reading something on your page yes they hid it I unlocked mine:)
but I’m useing my Own Router / Modem as well TP-Link TD-W8960N Mine works perfectly fine but all your gonna get is a 6 megFibe Internet down load for the fibe TV it’s not worth I restore My Fibe 25.7 back to where it was had went back to the bell satilite it kept crapping out the fibe tv its not worth it sorrt tested it and retested once you enter your phone number wit fibe tv thats it all your phone calls to 310-bell go automaticly to fibeTV billing Department I put a stop to yesturday fibe tv cannot touch our regular phone service with Robo messages bell this important and should be addressed,