Bell’s new HD PVR, The ExpressVu 9242
Last week, Bell ExpressVu quitely began shipping the new HD 9242 HD PVR to Bell stores. The new receiver, has been long expected because of ExpressVu’s impending shift to MPEG-4 over MPEG-2.
The new receiver, which has been rumored for several months now has finally shown up, and adds increased HD recording capacity (30 Hours, vs 24 hours on the 9200), its black! (unlike the silver unit in the picture) and it has an S-Video output for TV2.
Right now, there is no reason to upgrade your 9200 to the 9242 unless you are having technical problems, or you really need the extra 5 hours of HD recording capacity. Bell is not expected to begin rolling out MPEG-4 unil at least 2009.
If you have a 9242, I’d like to hear your impressions of the new unit in the comments below, likewise, if you have a question, please post a comment and I will do my best to answer it for you.
I called bell to request an upgrade to the new HD 9242 HD PVR. They were more than happy to send me one. However, they are requiring me to have a professional installation by a technician – and this costs $75. The agent said there was no way around this. I explained that in my years with bell I have connected 4 different 9200′s in my home successfully, without any trouble – and that it was somewhat insulting to say that they needed a technician to do it for me. He then said that he could give me a full free month of programming to offset the charge. I did not accept, and since my contract ends this month, I am considering alternate providers. Does anyone have a way around this $75 charge?
Brad, are you renting or did you buy your 9200?
Renting the 9200. Would like to continue renting so that I don’t have to dish out 599 every time a new receiver comes out.
Just wanted to give an update on this. I called Bell again today, and here is what they told me when I asked about upgrading to the 9242.
“The 9242 is currently sold out, and will not be available for upgrading customers that currently have an older model for at least a year.”… “We are not offering upgrades to anyone who currently has the 9200″ “You must purchase the 9242 if you wish to have it, but again, it is sold out at this time.”
So if this fellow knew what he was talking about, it looks like anyone who is renting must wait a while before we will see an upgrade!
Noble Apeman & friends:
Here’s my problem.
I already have working satellite service with Bell (with HD, and an HD TV). I only want to use one TV set. I got a 9242 (the whole package) to replace my old 6100 receiver, but I haven’t been able to find instructions on how to install it properly. I thought simply substituting the cables going into the old 6100, to corresponding slots at the back of the 9242 would do it (as the Bell store folks suggested), but this doesn’t work. On the two occasions I called Bell technical support, I have received conflicting advice about whether I need a second cable from my satellite dish.
I don’t want to bother you for a complicated answer, but am I missing something here? Shouldn’t I be able to set this up myself?
With thanks for your time and best wishes,
Sam from Canada
Can you direct me to some technical help. I am installing a 9242 with a friend and we canot get the receiver to down load the data from nimiq 1.
We are on the satellite, because I have a FTA receiver.
Thanks,
Hi James -
You need to be able to see both 91w and 82w in (Nimiq 1,2,3) order to use the 9242.
Hi Apeman,
I want to hook up a SONICVIEW SV-360 to my existing Expressview 9200.
Can I do that by running a cable to the off-air Antenna jack on the 9200?
Another alternative is to wire the SV-360 as my main receiver and then connect it to the 9200, but I’m not sure how to do that!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your response.
Just to let you know….if you call Bell and tell them you are thinking of going to Shaw…etc….they will put you through to their customer ‘retention’ dept… So they did with me… I finally received…a new HDPVR9242, 4 months free prgramming and a $300 credit on my account, as well as Free Installation…leaving me with a $675 credit card debt to be paid out instead of prgramming fees over the next 6 months or so.. If they tell you that you cannot get around install fees….they are LYING…they can give you anything…you just have to threaten to say NO…or I am going to Shaw..!! Try it..
By the way…I HATE Bell..and as soon as the soln to N3 is fixed….it will be my CNX Trio or a new Sonicview HD asap !!
9242 can you use a splitter to give you the 2 lines needed for it to operate?
dj – you will need an expressvu splitter, SW44 in order to give you two lines for both tuners. However, I *think* you may need two lines to input into the splitter, but I am not 100% sure. You may want to call Bell and ask them, I do not thing the 9242 will work very well without both inputs.
hey! I have the 9242 and it’s ok . Has issues if you only plug in one signal cable. and i don’t mean that you can’t record another channel during watching sometingh else, no. I mean that if you want to record a channel it never freaking works! it does not understand that you only have one signal cable on it and record on that, no just does NOT record. you have to acually stay there and hit the record button when the show starts. it’s not worth the investment. I’ve purchased this and now my only reason to have in the house is to figure out how to actually get all shows ou of the HD. there is a hard way that i’ve mannaged.. plug in your pc with TV card as 2nd tv (or first) and play the show while recording with pc pvr. this is what you need : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4146195&Sku=H56-2102 Enjoy!
Just had the 9242 installed, finally upgraded to HD-PVR, my problem is that I was running a second TV in the kitchen from the original receiver (doesn’t matter taht it has to be the same program), however when the tech installed the 9242, he told me I can no longer run the kitchen TV with a splicer like I had been doing. Is this correct, or can it still be done?
hi i called bell and wanted to upgrade my HD reciver to a new HD PVR,im renting them. she told me i needed a technician to install it for a charge of 75$, but when i asked her if i go out and buy my own HD PVR reciver she told me i can do it myself. i talked to someone from bell just the other day and he told me bell would mail it to me and that i can do it myself. I dont know what to belive?
Bell HD-PVR 9242
Here’s my issue. When I turn it on, all it does is make a sound as though the fan of blowing or a disk is spinning. It will not stop. i haven’t been able to use it for a month now.
the machine has rarely been used. I bought it 3 or so years ago and it is lucky to have seen 100 hours.
Piece of crap. BTW – I too am not a fan of Bell. Service and product is poor.
Cheers all.
Help.
Never had an issue until this past weekend with my 9242. Now all I get is the green light and noisy fan. Nothing around it so ventilation is good. Tried running a fan beside the vents as suggested on another site and no deal. Tried holding the reset button for 20 seconds and no luck there either. Would love to hear another suggestion. Thanks in advance for any help.
@James Felton
i have the the 9242 and i took the eye off they gave me and used a really old eye used my nfusion nova to line up the sats and then just plugged the cord in went to installation on the 9242 it scanned automatically then i did the check lnb test and all is well and im only using one eye for two receivers one cord each.
I have now encountered the exact same problem as Kris and Fred above. Is there anything I can do to resolve? I have called Bell and they have indicated that I need a replacement. I am planning on going through their Loyalty dept to see if they are willing to give me a replacement in order to keep me as a customer. If they are not, then I will look to see what the competitor has to offer. I’d just love to have my 9242 work properly!!