i will be moving to Canada (in Alberta) to work semi-permanently as a nurse. i want to ask about digital tv specially a freeview or sky tv equivalent in Canada where i can watch tv in both SD or HD but im not fuzzy as regards the latter.

Basic cable is absolutely abysmal. You get a limited number of channels showing a multitude of CSI re-runs and infomercials.
You can upgrade your cable package to receive a load of different channels/packages etc, much like Sky, but we still quite often find there's not much on unless you subscribe to everything.
However, obviously everyone has their own opinion on good/bad TV.

There's a satellite package, Star Choice, which is supposed to offer more choice, but I've never had it so cant really comment.

We're with Shaw. The customer service has been first class -perhaps because they dont tie you down to a minimum contract, so they try their best to keep you. Eg. they made a balls up with my bill recently, and I was double charged for the movie package we receive. When I called up to query it, it was corrected and they gave us the movie package free for 6 months.

You will be fuzzy if you watch the SD channels here - they are DREADFUL! Majority of them are not even widescreen! You definitely need HD, I don't even watch any of the hundreds of SD channels we have because they are so awful!

We have shaw and runs through the HD TV.

One things also to look at is running iplayer via the laptop onto the TV.
Works brilliant for uk news etc

After awhile you forget what your missing
Good look on your move.

Jxx

We have Starchoice. I don't have the impression it offers more choice than others. We took it as, at the time we came to NB from Quebec, the kids really needed French TV and I wanted the footie channels that there were back then. Starchoice offers a bilingual package that met those requirements at a price that was quite a bit less than taking the cheapest alternative and adding French and footie.

What is nice is getting the networks all across Canada's time zones. When there is something you want to watch, there's a nice choice of times throughout the evening. I imagine you can do that with other companies too.

i want to watch England World Cup games and the most important Champions League. does Shaw and Star Choice offer that? (SD or HD and on 16:9 widescreen)

and would it be generally cheaper if i get a bundle of digital tv-mobile phone-internet?

and is there normally a tie-up of 12 months contract to these things? or can you cancel it anytime?

I may have come up with a solution,
Buy a sling box. you can now get them with Freeview and DVR built in, Connect it to my mums broadband line in the UK and connect laptop to 40inch lcd in Canada
Dont know if it would be legal, but should work. That way you can watch freeview in Canada. You can also connect a DVD player to slingbox or even sky box as I believe they have a few inputs also in HD aswell.
Chris

ive just been watching a video on youtube about slingbox and it looks like a good piece of kit

would a sling box be practical than buying a digital/cable tv subscription in Canada?

To use a Slingbox on a long term basis you'd need to pay out for an unlimited broadband connection in the UK with a minimum of 512kbps upload speed, preferably 2mbps (that's UPLOAD, not the download speed). You'll then also need an unlimited broadband the Canadian end too.
An alternative is to just figure out how to watch things like iPlayer/ITV catchup/Channel4OD etc in Canada and rely on torrents for other programmes.

im currently paying direct debit for my broadband+landline package with TalkTalk and my contract is continous and i have no plans to stop it here in the UK. if that's the case i would just need to buy a broadband pack in Canada am i right?

and with the Slingbox you can watch ANY Freeview channels (SD or HD) on your laptop anywhere in the world is that right?

my other question would be is it tricky if i want to connect it to my TV? or is it easy?

Not sure what TalkTalk's upload speed is like, ADSL (and indeed most consumer Internet connections) are designed for downloading rather than uploading.
In theory you can watch your TV anywhere, even on mobiles (if you are uber-rich), just need an Internet connection. I'd be highly suprised if you could get enough upload bandwidth to be able to watch HD though.
I've heard mixed reviews of the Slingbox in terms of picture quality, it's all about the bandwidth.
Connecting the laptop should be easy though as long as you have a PC input into the TV.

TalkTalk? Hmm I don't think they'll like the amount of upstream you'll be doing on their line. The only true unlimited providers left in the UK are bethere.co.uk and virgin cable.

The option you guys are talking about will cost a fortune - Slingbox + BT line + UK Broadband subscription + Canadian Broadband subscription.

Not than much, one off fee for Slingbox,, pick a used one up on ebay maybe?. my mum pays £20 a month for braodband now, get here changed to bethere unlimited with 1.3mbps upload and she be saving £2.50, no subscription required for the freeview service and we would have broadband in Canada so no extra expense there. I dont know if its legal though as we would be picking up BBC without a tv licence or would it be covered under my mums address as that is where the signal is from?

Is there anything outside of BBC/ITV/C4 actually worth watching on Freeview though? You can watch any of those channels online (either live or mostly) without the expense of the Slingbox or broadband connection at the UK end.