Cutting the cord (Habs without cable tv)

[FormerLurker]

I'm in the Toronto area and I've been using the NHL center ice french add-on with Rogers for 5+ years. Last year I switched to Ignite TV and I often have problems recording games. I never watch the games live, usually start at least an hour delayed, so recording games is critical for me. With IgniteTV sometimes when I try to play back the recorded game, I just get the NHL center ice preview channel instead of the recorded content. Rogers technical support doesn't seem to care and closed the last ticket I opened even though they could reproduce the issue.

So now I'm looking for another way to watch the Habs. I have five requirements:

1. Service must be available in the GTA and provide all Habs games
2. Picture must be high quality
3. Service must be reliable (not something that may be shut down due to copyright infringement or system instability)
4. Service must be convenient (no hunting around looking for streams)
5. Service must provide PVR-like functionality so I can start watching late and pause/rewind. That's how I watch hockey and I need this feature.

Is there any solution out there that meets my needs? I'll save a bundle if I leave Rogers so I have a pretty big budget for this.

Thanks all!

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[davey999]

I would say TSN Direct, but not sure about the PVR functionality you are asking for.

 

[ahmedou]

Dit it. Life is better. Radio, streams and HF. $ is thankful toward me...

 

[FormerLurker]

Dit it. Life is better. Radio, streams and HF. $ is thankful toward me...

Thanks, but how did you do it? What service are you using, and will it satisfy my requirements?

 

[FormerLurker]

Dit it. Life is better. Radio, streams and HF. $ is thankful toward me...

Thanks I'll look into this.

 

[HBDay]

I'm in the Toronto area and I've been using the NHL center ice french add-on with Rogers for 5+ years. Last year I switched to Ignite TV and I often have problems recording games. I never watch the games live, usually start at least an hour delayed, so recording games is critical for me. With IgniteTV sometimes when I try to play back the recorded game, I just get the NHL center ice preview channel instead of the recorded content. Rogers technical support doesn't seem to care and closed the last ticket I opened even though they could reproduce the issue.

So now I'm looking for another way to watch the Habs. I have five requirements:

1. Service must be available in the GTA and provide all Habs games
2. Picture must be high quality
3. Service must be reliable (not something that may be shut down due to copyright infringement or system instability)
4. Service must be convenient (no hunting around looking for streams)
5. Service must provide PVR-like functionality so I can start watching late and pause/rewind. That's how I watch hockey and I need this feature.

Is there any solution out there that meets my needs? I'll save a bundle if I leave Rogers so I have a pretty big budget for this.

Thanks all!

My situation being the exact same, to the T for the past four years. I can tell you, there is nothing. I would have found it by now.

 

[JianYang]

There is nhl live where you can stream the game with the French package. It provides you with 60 habs games and 50 some Sens games.

It costs 60 bucks, but the 22 national games will be blacked out on that service. I think you should be able to access recorded games though, although I haven't used the service myself.

 

[The Real Timo]

So now I'm looking for another way to watch the Habs. I have five requirements:

1. Service must be available in the GTA and provide all Habs games
2. Picture must be high quality
3. Service must be reliable (not something that may be shut down due to copyright infringement or system instability)
4. Service must be convenient (no hunting around looking for streams)
5. Service must provide PVR-like functionality so I can start watching late and pause/rewind. That's how I watch hockey and I need this feature.

Thanks all!

NHL live. Live and on demand streams. I find quality sometimes better than Shaw cable (from a while a go). No lag, no commercials, rewind and fastforward as you please. Since you're in GTA you're not in the Habs region so you should get all the Habs games unless Habs play TO (there are ways around it too but apparently I was told not to discuss them here). This year it was $179 so not a terrible deal. You just need a decent internet package - I'd say anything 100MB and up will do just fine for you.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

NHL live + VPN ( which is legal )

easiest way to have 60 fps + 1440p+

 

[FormerLurker]

There is nhl live where you can stream the game with the French package. It provides you with 60 habs games and 50 some Sens games.

It costs 60 bucks, but the 22 national games will be blacked out on that service. I think you should be able to access recorded games though, although I haven't used the service myself.

Thanks, sounds promising. Do you know if it has PVR like functionality, i.e. can I start watching from the beginning well after the game starts? Is it available on Roku or some other kind of device so I can watch on my tv and pause/rewind with my remote control?

 

[mitchmagic]

reddit + caststreams

 

[mitchmagic]

Also a quick question, can you buy the French pass through NHL in Quebec and then use a VPN? It says it's not available in Quebec, but it seems like I can input my payment info.

 

[The Real Timo]

Also a quick question, can you buy the French pass through NHL in Quebec and then use a VPN? It says it's not available in Quebec, but it seems like I can input my payment info.

Gary Bettman will gladly take your money for you to find out the answer to your question.

I would assume that no, since that package probably just gives you access to RDS games based on your account, not IP address... not sure though

 

[Habs4Life]

IPTV is your best bet

 

[the]

X2 Iptv

 

[Kingbobert]

find a family member or friend with bell that has tsn/rds/SN in their package....work out a deal where you pay them x a month and they give you their log in to use on on rds/tsn/sn go
no DVR though...you will be hard pressed to find anything with that

 

[mitchmagic]

Yeah also Videotron has a streaming service where you can watch your package channels. My parents have videotron so I'll often stream through there. The player isn't super great and you can't use an extra monitor (which is absolutely bogus.)

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

IPTV is your best bet

Too many frequent deconnection IMO, its not 100% ready for uninterrupted 1080p streaming

 

[Kingbobert]

Yeah also Videotron has a streaming service where you can watch your package channels. My parents have videotron so I'll often stream through there. The player isn't super great and you can't use an extra monitor (which is absolutely bogus.)

you can log in to rds go with their videotron account...its much better

 

[Habs4Life]

Too many frequent deconnection IMO, its not 100% ready for uninterrupted 1080p streaming

No issues here at all, depends on the IPTV service and how good your box is and internet connection is... I watched games without any interruptions for $15 a month cant complain there is the odd issue, but overall way better then streaming online from some random website times 1000

Pro Tip: Also if you don't use a VPN, you will get more interruptions, once i turned my VPN on my service has been much better then before.

 

[Riggins]

This won't help you... but as a Habs fan in Vancouver without cable I do this:

- buy the $59.99 french NHL live package to watch the RDS feed
- use Sportsnet.ca for the national broadcasts and access through a family member's TV provider (Telus)

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Join The darkside

 

[GoodKiwi]

There's nothing that will satisfy your extensive requirements that I know of as an alternative to what you're currently using.

You can try switching TV providers and picking up NHL Centre Ice again to see if you're recording issue goes away.

 

[Toene]

Join The darkside

THIS!

 

[Tabarouette]

that's a lot of requirement

if you have that many non-negotiable requirement, you have to pay for them, and that is through overpriced cable

the closest thing to it might be NHL tv with a solid VPN.