We've just had a bloke knock on the door, from Shaw, offering their new promotion.

For $79.99 a month you get:
- Digital phone service, including caller ID, free long distance calls in North America
- Digital cable, including 1 HD PVR and 1 Standard cable box
- all the channels in their Digital TV package
- High speed internet, with upgrade to the speed booster

For an extra $9 a month, we added the HD channel bundle.
This goes up to $116 after 12 months...
My normal bill with Telus is about $135, and I dont get any HD channels.

I signed up on the spot, and it all gets installed in 2 weeks.

For those who have bundles through Telus/Bell etc, you might want to keep an eye out for these guys if they come round....

You tied in for a minimum period?

I will check what I'm paying with Shaw - your deal sounds cheaper.

Nope Shaw dont do contracts - its their big thing.

I am going to check this too as even full price it is nearly half what I pay

Yep, no contracts. After a year, it reverts back to $116, which is still cheaper than what I'm paying Telus, plus I get faster internet and more channels.

Are you renting the PVR/DVR or buying it for that price? With the phone it does sound a pretty good deal. Though having to wait two weeks is a bit much.

Sounds like a deal to me - I pay about $100 for internet and TV with the basic HD package with Shaw, no phone, no equipment rental.

The $116 long term sounds like it would be the same "deal" as mine since the phone costs $20.

I would assume renting at those rates.

I upgraded to HD last fall and Shaw offered me an HD PVR and the extra HD chanels free for six months and the option to purchase the PVR at the end of the six months for $250 which at that time was about 50% off their regular price.

I'm with Rogers on a bundle plan (no Shaw here) but I have heard from some people that these door to door deals can bite you in the end. Did you get proof that these guys were Shaw employees or are they a 3rd party re-seller? If it is all it purports to be, sounds like you have a deal.

The huge costs here are depressing me in anticipation to my move

If you want any decent football coverage you can add $15 pm for Satanta. Then there's various other extra channels like BBC Canada at $2.95 each.

It's often cheaper just to buy a separate hard drive and plug it into a satellite or cable receiver, to create your own PVR. The Bell guy that installed my system recommended that route. I got a 1.5 t/byte hard drive for $100 from Future Shop, and it works perfectly.

Are you sure that is correct? $116 sounds way too cheap for all of that. We pay $94.50 (I think) for digital phone and internet with them). We switched our cable provider to Star Choice from Shaw 2 years ago. I think it was 6 months or so later that Shaw purchased Star Choice.

I am just jealous of course

How do you do that? Would it work with the basic Shaw Cable BOx?

It's just a straightforward USB connection. Works great with Bell's satellite receivers (the receiver recognised the connection had been made, so there was no configuration required), and my neighbour uses one with his Telus cable TV service. Sorry, I don't know about Shaw.

I thought digital phone cost in the region of $55 a month.