TV Options For Your Canadian University Dorm Room

It’s back-to-school time, and across the country students are packing up their stuff to settle into a dorm room for the next ten months.  Having lived in a university dormitory for four years myself, I know that getting TV into your room is always top of mind on move-in day.  Until recently it was a futile effort in most schools, but this year things are different.

Over The Air

Starting September 1, the airwaves surrounding our country’s colleges and universities will be overflowing with free high-definition digital TV.  You’ll need an antenna to pull in these signals, and based on research I recommend the Terk HDTVa for your dorm-room window.

You can simply plug the antenna into a small HDTV and you’re good to go.  However, since you likely already have a laptop in the dorm room you might want to use that instead.  For a Windows laptop, I’d recommend going completely wireless with the HDHomerun3 tuner and a fast 802.11N wifi router.  Once you’ve got the tuner set up, you can use Windows Media Center (included in Windows 7) to watch Live TV or Record TV using the PVR functionality.  If you’re running a Mac, you can get the same tuner bundled with the EyeTV software which also lets you watch TV on your iPhone.  For a little less money, the Hauppauge 950Q is a well-regarded and tiny USB tuner.

See the table at the bottom of the article for what you can expect to receive from your dorm room at some of the schools around the country.

 

Internet TV

Most of the major Canadian networks make their primetime shows available on the Internet.  Quality isn’t nearly as good as you’ll get over the air but you can’t beat the convenience (assuming your dorm-room connection is fast enough for streaming video).  While you can go to each of their individual websites, I recommend using an app called Boxee. With Boxee, you get all of the shows nicely organized like an Internet PVR without all the clicking.  You can install Boxee on your laptop or if you can get a little Boxee Box to plug in to your TV.

 

Summing it all up…

When I was working in the dorms, the game was trying to steal cable from the lounge (which never worked BTW, at least not on my watch).  With the availability of Over-The-Air high definition TV and Internet TV there’s no reason to run afoul of your RA’s wire cutters any more.

The table below summarizes the channels you can expect to get with an indoor antenna at the more prominent (according to Macleans) schools across the country.  You can always check your exact address at tvfool.com to get a more detailed report.

	CBC	SRC	Global	CTV	CTV2	CITY	OMNI	Other
McGill								TVA, TQ, Metro, V, CBS, NBC, PBS
University of Toronto								TVO, OMNI2, SUN, CHCH, CW, CTS
University of BC								MeTV, KBCB, CHEK, PBS
University of Alberta								CTS,
Queen’s University								CBS, PBS, ABC
McMaster University				,				CHCH, CTS, TVO, OMNI2, SUN
Dalhousie University
University of Calgary								CTS
Western								SUN, OMNI2, CTS, TVO, CHCH
University of Saskatchewan
University of Ottawa								TQ, TVO, TVA, V, CHCH, SUN, CTS, OMNI2
Laval								TVA, TQ
University of Montreal								TVA, TQ, V, Metro, CBS, NBC, PBS
Sherbrooke								TVA, V
University of Manitoba								JoyTV
Simon Fraser University								MeTV,KBCB, PBS, JoyTV, CHEK
University of Victoria								MeTV, JoyTV, KBCB, PBS, CHEK
University of Waterloo								TVO
University of Guelph								TVO, CHCH
Memorial University								NTV
University of New Brunswick
Carleton								TQ, TVO, TVA, V, CHCH, SUN, CTS, OMNI2
University of Windsor								TVO, CBS, PBS, MyTV, ABC, Fox, NBC, WADL, CW, TCT, DTN
University of Regina
York University								TVO, OMNI2, SUN, CHCH, CW, CTS
Concordia University								TVA, TQ, V, Metro, CBS, NBC
UQAM								TVA, TQ, V, Metro, CBS, NBC
Mount Allison
Acadia University
University of Northern BC
University of Lethbridge								CTS
Wilfrid Laurier University								TVO
Trent University
St. Francis Xavier
Bishop’s University								TVA
University of PEI
University of Winnipeg								JoyTV
St Mary’s University
Lakehead University								TVO
University of Ontario Institute of Technology								TVO, OMNI2, SUN
Brock University								TVO, CHCH, CTS, CW, SUN
Laurentian University
St. Thomas University
Brandon University
Ryerson								TVO, OMNI2, SUN, CHCH, CW, CTS
Mount Saint Vincent
Universite de Moncton
Cape Breton University
Nipissing University								CBS, ABC, 3ABN