Bell Fibe subscribers are being warned that TV shows and movies saved on their PVRs will start to vanish much faster beginning next month.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
If you’re a Bell customer who loves recording your favourite TV shows to watch later, your days of rewatching recordings of Murdoch Mysteries might be coming to an end. The service provider announced that as of May 1, PVR recordings will only last 60 days before being automatically deleted.
The change only affects Bell users with the 7802 PVR box, which stores recordings on the cloud. Bell is also limiting users to 320 hours of footage, after which old recordings will be deleted. In an email, Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Michelis said that most people watch their saved recordings within 60 days, so there will be a “minimal impact” for customers.
For those who are interested in being able to save their recordings for a longer term (who doesn’t like rewatching old Olympic ceremonies?), here’s how the PVR services for Canada’s other top cable providers compare:
Rogers/Shaw
Similar to Bell’s 7802 box, Rogers and Shaw’s’ Ignite TV stores recordings through the cloud, and cannot be directly saved onto the device itself. Ignite TV’s PVR service allows users to store 200 hours of recordings, which don’t expire for one year.
Telus
The Telus Optik TV PVR takes things in a different direction. The service allows users to save an unlimited amount of recordings to their home device, however, those recordings are only stored for 90 days.
VMedia
Users of VMedia’s PVR services are offered two options. First, through VCloud TV, viewers are able to watch shows, programs and games that aired up to seven days ago on certain channels. And second, with the VBox device, users can record any show and move it to an SD card or USB drive. These recordings aren’t time-sensitive, and your limit is the size of your storage device.
Cogeco
Cogeco’s EPICO Cloud PVR device allows users to save recordings for up to 365 days. Those recordings can be downloaded to a mobile device through Cogeco’s app, but they will still be deleted after reaching the 365-day limit.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said Telus customers can only save PVR recordings for 45 days. This has been corrected.