Shaw Cable on the other hand, seems to have their guide together, and it has correct info for almost every show that I checked. Now if only they had the same quality to their HD content that Bell has, and switching would almost be a no brainer.

I am at the end of my Bell contract, and extremly frustrated by the guide, and very tempted to switch now. So my question to the readers of this site is: Have you been having issues with the program guide? If so, please add a comment below with the symptoms that you have been seeing. Bell does read this site, so perhaps somebody will see this and take action!

Rant over.

• HD logo on items in the PVR list.
• Grouping feature to group episodes of the same show together in the PVR window
• HD subtext on the HD channels in the Guide.
• Pressing the “Guide” button will now cycle through “All Sub”, “All Channels”, and “All HD”.

I’m sure that I have missed something here, so if you find something that I have missed, please leave a comment and I will update the list.

If you are noticing any bugs that have cropped up with the new firmware, try rebooting your receiever to see if it helps, as this will load the new fimware.  If you are still having problems, please post a comment below and I will do my best to help.

The limitation of a 40 hour guide was by far the largest complaint of ExpressVu 9200 HD PVR owners, and owners of Bell’s earlier PVR models. ExpressVu had been quietly updating the firmware of their receivers over the summer, and just flipped the 9 day guide switch sometime today.

With the addition of the 9 day guide comes 9200 firmware version 150. I have not noticed any new enhancements other than the longer guide, but the extra days of information will be really useful for planning PVR recording timers.

Also, with the start of the fall TV season, Bell ExpressVu has discontinued Bell TV Magazine, replacing it with the new SHOW magazine. The new format is a welcome change, and likely tied to the conversion to a 9-day guide. The old magazine, which was a useless paper schedule has been replaced with a very readable useful magazine. SHOW magazine will launch their new website on September 1st.

Not the kind of news that we normally look forward to (new HD channels) but its a a win-win for ExpressVu customers, considering that after two years we did not expect to see a 9 day guide until MPEG-4 gets launched.

If you have noticed any new features with your ExpressVu 9200, please leave a comment below. If you do not see the 9 day guide yet, please power cycle your ExpressVu receiver to download and/or activate the new firmware.

I’ve plotted the satellites below using the Google Maps API.

• 91West is the Satellite that carries most of the Standard definition programming
• 82West carries most of the HD programming as well as the multicultural channels
• 71West is due to launch sometime in 2009.

If you have any questions, please post a comment.

Its worth mentioning that ExpressVu has also stated that the Ethernet port, and the USB 2.0 ports on the two new recievers are to be disabled at launch, reserving them for “future use”.

With all of the uncertainty surrounding the new HD receivers, I’m glad I decided to rent my 9200. I won’t loose anything when the new receivers are finally released, and with the date pushed back, the new units will be available at the same time as my contract is up.

I’m still trying to “discover” all of the many changes, and I will post the updates as I discover them.

Here is a list that can get you started, if you notice anything new, please feel free to post below.

In summary, the unit feels a lot faster,  and more reliable. I also like the diagnostic changes, and the updates to the guide.

• Daylight Savings time fix (remember DST comes three weeks early starting this year).
• Picture in Picture (PIP) has been revamped to include “side by side” mode.
• The system information screen has been totally revamped, menu, 6-1-3
• The guide now shows more information, season, show number, and original air date. The same info is also shown on the PVR screen.
• The ability to rename events on the PVR.
• General bug fixes, HDMI audio sync, HD 30 second skip.

Rumour and speculation are rampant this week as news is starting to leak out that Bell ExpressVu will be releasing two new HD recievers sometime in April 2007. Just to be clear, this has not been confirmed, and my sources at Bell tell me that its “Very Likely”. Considering the enevitable upgrade to MPEG 4 later this year, it makes perfect sense that Bell would start to sell a new HD and HD PVR reciever.

The ViP-211 

The first rumoured unit is the Echostar ViP-211 HD Reciever. It is the relacement for the 61xx series of current HD recievers. Its nothing too spectacular, but it does have a smaller form factor than the current 61xx.

The ViP-622 DVR 

The second, and more exciting unit is the ViP-622 DVR, which is going to replace the 9200 / 9220 HD PVR. Aside from MPEG-4 support, this unit is not much of an upgrade, HD recording goes from 24hrs to 30 hours. Echostar did announce the ViP-622-1 at CES this year, which has a larger capacity drive, and support for adding additional external hard drives via the built in USB port. Hopefully, Bell will decide to use the 622-1. Pictured is the current ViP-622, which has been available to Dish Network subscribers in the states for almost a year.

I am very interested in these new recievers, and I hope to get my hands on the ViP-622-1 should be chose to release the model with the larger hard drive. If not, I will be waiting until MPEG-4 is ready, and let Bell upgrade me for free.

I should also point out, there is no word yet on what model number Bell will be using for these two new recievers yet.

If you have noticed anything different, please post a comment below.

Thanks.

So far, since I received the update a day ago, performance seems to have improved quite a bit. The menu’s appear to load faster, and the fast forward bug also appears to have been fixed.

If you were having problems with your 9220 / 9200 HD PVR, then check to see if you have version 145 installed. You can check this by doing the following:

1. press menu
2. press 6 (system setup)
3. press 1 (installation)
4. press 3 (system info)

Under Software Version, you should see V145MBJD-N

For the update to take affect, you will have to pull the power from the unit, wait about thirty seconds, and then plug the PVR back in. (firmware updates need a hard reboot).

Rumors abound that claim that Food TV HD, and HGTV HD will also launch soon, both of these are also Alliance Atlantis channels, and were granted their HD license ammendment on July 6th 2006.

For you Leafs nuts out there, Leafs TV HD is now available on Bell ExpressVu channel 848.  I do not subscribe to thi’m stis channel, so I cannot comment.

Personally, I’m still waiting for Bell to make HDnet available to subs.