Very OT: Moving from UK to Canada

[alenppc]

Welcome! :-D

I work for a British company here in Montreal, and we've got lots of Britons working in our office, some of them even moved here permanently. I guess they must like the winter. ;-)

All the problems regarding electronics (power converters etc) are easy to solve. The power up/down converters are usually sold in most electronic component shops and range from 50W to over 2000W with price ranges between $100 to $250 (CDN). Divide by 2 to obtain an equivalent in UKP.

All the PAL consoles (PS2/Xbox/GC/etc) work fine with power converters - we've got 100s of each (consoles and converters) at our office. Hardly any TV supports PAL unless you look for a specific multisystem one - or bring an lcd one with you.

Oh, and don't go to Futureshop to buy your PC, like most newcomers do. :-) You'll end up paying it twice as much. Since you are going to Vancouver I might recommend ncix.com as your one stop shop for all pc related stuff. Futureshop and occasionally HMV usually have some good deals on games and movies.
British comedies are outrageously expensive though. It is cheaper for me to buy them from the UK and pay the import duties rather than buying them here (I have a region free DVD player).

Hope this helps.

[alenppc]

Again, that's put my mind at ease.  I hope to take my LCD TV over so that should sort out the PAL problems.  What kind of company do you work in?  Sounds like a games company perhaps?

The company I work for offers mostly games functionality testing services plus general pc, console and mobile EU languages localization/translation and testing. Since I am fluent in a couple of languages, I work in the localization department. :-)

The prices of games in HMV there seemed quite high too. More than I was expecting anyway.

Sorry my fault, I should have been more specific. HMV is usually good for DVDs, they often have these "3 movies for $20" specials and sometimes you can find some very interesting titles for that price (i.e. not just those in the bargain bin).

Futureshop and Wal-mart are the best place for pc & console software but not hardware.

Any TV programmes that belong to the BBC are expensive on DVD in the UK too.  They can charge a stupid amount for a series that only has 6 episodes when you can pay the same for an American comedy with 24 episodes.  Typical rip off BBC!!

Well that depends on your point of view. IMHO 80% of  American TV programs are trash. There might be an average of 25 episodes per season but there's hardly any quality at all.

I certainly wouldn't miss the TV License. ;-)

I am willing to bet that you will. ;-) Here you don't pay the licence but you have to pay for cable. For instance, Rogers or Vidéotron charge anything from $30 to over $70 per month for cable service and offer you 70 channels of nothing! All you get is endless commercials with bits of tv shows sliced inbetween. I stopped paying for cable and generally watching TV a long time ago. I would certanly be willing to pay a TV lincence and have commercial-free high-quality stuff like the BBC rather than be forced to watch that crap on cable.

Much easier to rent/buy a DVD and watch it at your convenience, that's what I say.

A region free DVD player would certainly be a must for me I think too.

I admit I am not up to date with the latest plasma/lcd tv technology, however for standard NTSC TVs it is not enough to get a DVD player that can be unlocked or made region free. It has to be capable of converting PAL to NTSC otherwise you won't be able to see anything (except perhaps a rolling picture). I don't know what percentage of DVD players does this nowdays, but I suspect that a $39 player from wal-mart might not be up to the task. All of the European players do that out of the box but that's easy since the NTSC resolution is lower. The other way round is a bit more complicated.

Regarding power supply frequency issues that someone else mentioned in this thread, in 95% of the cases that should NOT be a problem. I used lots of different EU based equipment over the years, including PAL VCRs, 14" CRT TVs and lots more with a power converter and never had a problem. Generally speaking anything manufactured after 1995 should work fine. Modern TVs never sync to the power source frequency rate anyway and AFAIK haven't done that for at least a couple of decades. :-)

Oh btw, what's the company you are going to work for, if I might ask?

I hope for your sake it's not EA. ;-) From what I hear they might not be the best software developer to work for.
Relic/THQ on the other hand is an awesome company, I worked there on-site for two months.

If you want to bring along your GSM mobile phone, you can use it over here as long as it's unlocked and supports 850/1900 Mhz frequencies (1900 should be sufficient although you will not get the full coverage). Then just go to the nearest Rogers or Fido store and get a sim card for $25. Bell/Telus use proprietary CDMA standard so you won't be able to use them unless you buy one of their crappy phones.

Regarding Montral, in my opinion this is one of the most beautiful cities in North America, or at least the most European looking one. That's why I love it and I hope I will never have to move. Cheers! :cheers:

[alenppc]

STeADi wrote:

Is the company Babel by any chance.  I think that's who we once used.  Hmmm, I think that was the name. :-?

Yep, that's the one. :-D

I won't comment on functionality (high turnover etc), but we localization guys know our job, that's for sure. ;-)
I don't think a single client was ever disappointed with our work which includes some very well known titles as well.

Hey I might even get to meet you in person if I ever happen to be working on-site for your company, you never know.

So is the only way to get TV through cable?  I would like to get broadband to keep in contact with people in the UK but I'm not interested in spending lots of money on cable TV.

As already mentioned in this thread, you can only get 5-6 channels over the air, but as far as I know there are no digital stations that broadcast that way, at least not in my area. It's not exactly popular as I think almost everyone subscribes to cable. But as far as I'm concerned cable and tv are a waste of time and money whichever way you look at it.

I wonder if anyone could provide me a link in fact for a suitable transformer from a Canadian website?  I've found the one in the link I posted further up the thread but I'd prefer to get one out there if possible.

When I bought mine years ago, I simply walked into the first electronics shop I came by and I bought it there. Other than that I'm not really into electronics stuff so I don't know a lot of stores. I suggest you try looking on electronic hobbyst related newsgroups, I found some really nice folks there who helped me repair my VCR a few years back.

The only store I know of in the Vancouver area (and that's because I bought Amiga DB23 connectors there) is RP Electronics, they also sell power converters. But I am sure there must be other stores in the area though.

Check it out: http://www.rpelectronics.com/

Click on "Catalog", "Electrical", then "Foreign Voltage Adapters". Also don't forget to set your currency to CAD.

Um, it's funny you should say that ;-) I have a friend who works there and he's been really happy there for a while now.  Hopefully I will be too.

Well let's just say that it works for some people but it doesn't for others. There isn't that much innovation going on at EA, everything is preset, they always play it safe, and they usually follow a very rigid, almost-military discipline, at least that's what I heard. But then again, that was mostly from people who left the company - so I don't know how objective those views were. I sincerely hope that you will like it there.

I was thinking of getting a phone whilst I was out there.  Do they do pay-as-you-go or do you have to have a fixed contract?

Fixed term contracts are way the most popular ones, and that's usually because the mobile providers offer huge discounts when you buy a phone. On the other hand there are lots of hidden fees, so it is not uncommon that you end up paying $60/month for a plan that is actually advertised at $25/month. They lock you into a 2 or 3 year contract, give you a free phone, then suck your blood. :-)

I have always been on prepaid for this reason, even though it means that I have to pay the full price when I want to buy a new phone and I have no international roaming possibilities (other than the USA), which is no big deal, as I usually buy a local prepaid sim card whenever I am visiting another country.

Virgin mobile here is using Bell's CDMA network (no sim cards) and their phone choice is unbelievably bad. Rogers however usually has the very same deals on pay as you go (such as $100, 365-days expiry cards) but they don't advertise them in order to keep as many people on monthly plans as possible. They also sell them only in Rogers stores, not at the reseller's. There are no hidden fees for prepaid other than the monthly 911 fee (50 cents).

It sounds like so many people are happy in Canada.  It's good to know :-)

Well you may or may not like it... Just like work, it doesn't work for everybody.
Vancouver is also a highly multicultural city, which I bet is going to be a bit unusual for someone coming from the UK. :-) But that's a good thing... no one will expect of you to live according to some pre-set standard or to abandon your culture or traditions as it happens in some (ehm) countries.

Even so, there are still some rules that you need to get used to, such as 2-weeks of paid leave/holiday per year, occasionally long working hours (especially in the software industry, but I'm sure it's the same in the UK as well), etc... not to mention the cold and the snow, but you won't have to worry too much about that as long as you live in BC :lol:

[alenppc]

Montreal is nice, but it sounds like you've never been to Quebec City then?

No, unfortunately I have never been there. To be honest with you my French sadly is not that good. Montreal is bilingual enough, so I have no problems from that point of view, but Quebec City is another story...

I do plan to improve my French in the future, which should not be too difficult as it would be my 4th language and I alredy have some base, but sadly with my long working hours I don't have as much time to do it. :cry:
Still I hope that I will be able to visit Quebec City in the future.

[alenppc]

Sure The Source or Radio Shack .  Circuit city bought most Radio shacks in

I had no idea RadioShack was coming back... I haven't seen one of their stores for quite some time. Are they going to be just like the old ones? I mean clones of "The Source" with very common and overpriced items you can easily buy elswhere for 1/2 price? Or is it actually going to be a real electronics store? Their website looks pretty useless.

Oh and Vancouver may not be that cold, but it rains and rains and rains...  :-D

That'll make him feel right at home. :lol: