NTL/Sky Etc.

Marcais

I have NTL as a lot of you will, not happy at all with the MMDS siganals, went off today during the 2008 Euro Draw :mad: and many other times.

Qns:

Has anybody with a DVD Recorder managed to save the channels from NTL to the DVD recorder?

Anybody use Sky instead of NTL..my neighbour does (but he's got the full package at €60 p.m. and I know you caan't get Channel 4 etc. on some packages.

Anybody use any other system. I talked to Zintek of Greenhills Raod but didn't follow up...concerned about how hte wiring may look.

Heard of Freesat, I read in a paper her that it was available, but I thought that it was not available in Irealnd. In England they get nearly all the Channels NTL provide here for free using Freeview (most new TVs have the receiver built-in, but I dod not think this worked in Ireland) Believe it or not, we were supposed to get Freeview as part of The Good Friday Agreement!

Freesat is basically just a card that now only gives channel 4 , 5 and sky 3 on a sky digibox.
It used be needed for ITV aswell but this is now free to air.
If you get sky digital you can source a freesat card from a friend or relative in the UK for stg£25

You can then swap the card each time you want to watch ch4 or five.

There will be a 12 month contract if you get the sky digital package and when that time is up, the dish and equipment are yours so you can cancel the sub.
You will then be left with BBC1 , 2 UTV and literally 100's of other free channels.

The min cost for a sky sub with free instalation and free equipment is approx €21 a month so in the first year will spend €252 and then after that you can cancel the sub and its totally free.
They currently have an offer with the first 4 months free to new subscribers too so with that you might as well do their full package including 12 movie channels and all the sky sports channels-about €500

You will still have the basic channels including UTV and ch4 (if you get the card from a friend in the UK or on ebay) after you cancel their full package.
The sub will give you lots of channels that are not free

http://www.sky.com/skycom/article/0,,91069-1130664,00.html

If you have any more questions-dont hesitate to ask on the satelite board or on the cable/mmds board.

Hope that helps.

lastsaturday

on the same note, has anyone just plugged their tv into the NTL box on the wall? does anything come out? we aren't that keen on getting cable or sky (new years resolution) and are just looking for the 8 basic channels.

cheers,
Last

lastsaturday

Earthman wrote:

"Extremism is so easy.You've got your position and thats it.It doesn't take much thought.
And when you go far enough to the right,you meet the same idiots coming around from the left"

absolutley deady!! LOL!

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

Believe it or not, we were supposed to get Freeview as part of The Good Friday Agreement!

No thats not the case.
Take it from me both the politics mod and the satelite mod

The GFA only stipulated that TG4 should be made available in Northern Ireland.
It's now transmitting there and is on sky there.

lastsaturday

lastsaturday wrote:

on the same note, has anyone just plugged their tv into the NTL box on the wall? does anything come out? we aren't that keen on getting cable or sky (new years resolution) and are just looking for the 8 basic channels.

cheers,
Last

I'm not familiar with exactly where charlesland is-though I know Greystones sorta.
It should be possible to pick up HTV wales BBC one and TWO wales and S4C (mostly ch 4 programmes but with a lot of welsh from 7-9pm)

Unless you have a hill blocking your view to the sea.

You'd get the aerial installed for less than €300 I'd imagine a local tv dealer could advise.
CH4 and UTV from NI would not be possible from an aerial due to Bray head and Howth blocking it I'd imagine but HTV and S4C have mostly the same programmes.
HTV is the exact same primetime as UTV, in fact its been renamed ITV 1 wales in the last few years like all the ITV regions bar UTV and Grampian were.

Marcais

Thanks Earthman etc. re.The GFA

Freeview Style Digital TV service considered for Ireland

Addressing the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Ahern the Minister for Communication announced that he is considering a digital TV project for Ireland modelled on Britain's Freeview service run by the BBC and BSkyB. Customers pay £99 for a set-top box capable of receiving 30 channels. The service would mean that customers can pay a once-off fee of approximately €160, with no further payments and would make RTÉ 1, Network 2 and TG4 freely available to viewers throughout Northern Ireland."It is certainly a potential solution to our digital terrestrial television problems and it is in line with the broadcasting commitments in the Good Friday agreement," Mr Ahern said. (Source: Irish Times)


Seems NTL is NOT the way to go though!

Looks like you can pick Frreview up near the border, and our government are working on something. They couldn't pour sh!t out of a welly with out the instructions written on the sole, so if anybody's waiting on this...buy a radio!

Freeview proving popular in Ireland
Sunday, April 18 2004, 09:55 BST -- by Neil Wilkes

Freeview has proved to be a surprise hit in Ireland, even though the service is designed for the UK.

According to the Irish Times today, around 100,000 boxes have been sold to Irish viewers living near the Northern Ireland border, where reception can be picked up from the Belfast and Newry transmitters.

The viewing base in the Republic is around half of the 200,000 who receive the service officially in Northern Ireland itself.

The availability of Freeview to those on the fringe could impact upon plans by the Irish goverment to launch a ten-channel DTT offering. Industry sources told the newspaper that it had already had a "significant" effect on the takeup of the service from cable operator Chorus in the region.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds14235.html

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

Thanks Earthman etc. re.The GFA

Freeview Style Digital TV service considered for Ireland

Addressing the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Ahern the Minister for Communication announced that he is considering a digital TV project for Ireland modelled on Britain's Freeview service run by the BBC and BSkyB. Customers pay £99 for a set-top box capable of receiving 30 channels. The service would mean that customers can pay a once-off fee of approximately €160, with no further payments and would make RTÉ 1, Network 2 and TG4 freely available to viewers throughout Northern Ireland."It is certainly a potential solution to our digital terrestrial television problems and it is in line with the broadcasting commitments in the Good Friday agreement," Mr Ahern said. (Source: Irish Times)


Seems NTL is NOT the way to go though!

Looks like you can pick Frreview up near the border, and our government are working on something. They couldn't pour sh!t out of a welly with out the instructions written on the sole, so if anybody's waiting on this...buy a radio!

Freeview proving popular in Ireland
Sunday, April 18 2004, 09:55 BST -- by Neil Wilkes

Freeview has proved to be a surprise hit in Ireland, even though the service is designed for the UK.

According to the Irish Times today, around 100,000 boxes have been sold to Irish viewers living near the Northern Ireland border, where reception can be picked up from the Belfast and Newry transmitters.

The viewing base in the Republic is around half of the 200,000 who receive the service officially in Northern Ireland itself.

The availability of Freeview to those on the fringe could impact upon plans by the Irish goverment to launch a ten-channel DTT offering. Industry sources told the newspaper that it had already had a "significant" effect on the takeup of the service from cable operator Chorus in the region.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds14235.html

I have my doubts on that figure.
But that said I can receive freeview here in Arklow from the presely transmitter in Wales as can much of Wexford.
Greystones would be unlikely though
Freeview is DTT (digital terrestrial TV ) received via your roof top aerial as opposed to freesat which is satelite.
There are threads here about it.

It was so nearly going to happen about 3 years ago but fell through due to the usual ineptitude.

loyatemu

re - DVD recorder and NTL
it does work but you have to run a SCART cable out of the NTL decoder into the recorder and you can't watch one channel and record another at the same time.

re - plugging directly into the NTL box onthe wall.
It doesn't work, there's no analogue signal on the MMDS service

Marcais

loyatemu wrote:

re - DVD recorder and NTL
it does work but you have to run a SCART cable out of the NTL decoder into the recorder and you can't watch one channel and record another at the same time.

That's sh!t then!! I assume it would not be the case with Sky? i.e. you could record one channel and watch another.

Eoin

Marcais wrote:

That's sh!t then!! I assume it would not be the case with Sky? i.e. you could record one channel and watch another.

That's Sky+ you are referring to - it's excellent. I posted something similar about this on the Home Entertainment forum, the upshot seems to be that the digital company pretty much have to provide a box themselves that can integrate into the digital TV menus etc.

If you get the full package you can get sky plus free which is a super super gadget.
You buy the box I think for €100 or a bit more maybe if you take multi room too which though means buying a 2nd box too.
All expensive but once off expenses.
The multiroom is an extra 15 euro a month though but rumourd to go down to 5 euro soon
Still it adds up cost wise when you add these extras.
They are the dogs bollíx though
If you can afford it, I'd get it and the full sub-the greatest recording gadgetry yok you will ever see for now.
Go to the sky.com site and see and do a search on the satelite forum.

Marcais

eoin_s wrote:

That's Sky+ you are referring to - it's excellent. I posted something similar about this on the Home Entertainment forum, the upshot seems to be that the digital company pretty much have to provide a box themselves that can integrate into the digital TV menus etc.

No, I meant just recording of Sky to a DVD recorder. Sky+ is a great piece of kit, but can't save from it to DVD (disc).

I want to record from the TV while watching something else ant the ability to tune the stations into the DVD recorder...I didn't think it was going to be a problem at all!

eoin_s

eoin_s wrote:

That's Sky+ you are referring to - it's excellent. I posted something similar about this on the Home Entertainment forum, the upshot seems to be that the digital company pretty much have to provide a box themselves that can integrate into the digital TV menus etc.

yes its a sky digital box with a hard drive.
Either 80 gigs or 160gigs.
Though I've put a 250 gig in mine which means you can record 24hrs of programmes on it and probably more.

If anyone is new to sky I recommend that they start with sky plus especially when theres 4 months of the full package free(240 euro or more) and about €200 sub on the box with the hard drive.

You can live pause which is brilliant
Imagine pausing a live programme to answer the phone and coming back a half hour later and continuing on from where you stopped off...

oh read the site,I'd rave on about it too long

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

No, I meant just recording of Sky to a DVD recorder. Sky+ is a great piece of kit, but can't save from it to DVD.

Yes you can.
Just connect your dvd recorder to the sky plus box and away you go!

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

I want to record from the TV while watching something else ant the ability to tune the stations into the DVD recorder...I didn't think it was going to be a problem at all!

A video sender would sort you out.
Another once off €100 , you can get them in peats.

Jaysus I have to go now

Marcais

Ok...without buying Sky+....i.e. just getting Sky basic package, can I record from Sky (with the video sender) to my LG 7500 DVD recorder with hard drive (don't want to buy Sky plus and a hard drive DVD recorder)

and surely they make these DVD recorders knowing that a lot of people are not receiving analogue signals, and might want to tune the staions into the DVD recorder and watch other channels while recording?! i.e. why do I need avideo sender?

yes you can record to a dvd recorder with just a sky box +ordinary sub

No only one channell is outputted from the sky box at the time.

All the video sender will do is send your one sky channel around the house to be tuned in on any tv in the house.

The sky box is the same as the ntl mmds in that respect except you have way more channels and better quality picture and sound in my opinion.

The idea of having a second box is to have the video sender hooked to that one so at least you have the option of someone else watching another channel in another room.
You could also tune that in on your DVD recorder.

Theres no cheap way out of it really unless you can get cable, in which case NTL will provide an extra socket or as many as you want and digital for a fiver a month per extra decoder ie 2 decoders 10 Euro iirc

Marcais

so I can't record to DVD recorder and watch a different channel on the same TV if I have digital broadcasts, I can only do this with an analog signal...is that correct?

I do actually have an additional NTL box in the dining room, but it seems ridiculous that you have to go to another TV if you want to record on another one. If I had known this, I would have my DVD recorder in the dining room, but it's not set-up for that.

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

so I can't record to DVD recorder and watch a different channel on the same TV if I have digital broadcasts, I can only do this with an analog signal...is that correct?

Yup thats correct.First time i came across that was with cork multichannell (now chorus).I thought it was ridiculous then as I do now-but its standard practice with digital cable or satelite transmissions.

I do actually have an additional NTL box in the dining room, but it seems ridiculous that you have to go to another TV if you want to record on another one. If I had known this, I would have my DVD recorder in the dining room, but it's not set-up for that.

Well you'd get over that problem with a digisender-only get a good one-NOT the philips!

loyatemu

standard sky decoder (ie not Sky+) behaves the same way as the NTL decoder. Basically standard TVs, VCRs and DVD recorders can only tune in analogue channels. Everything else has to come in via SCART.

NTL MMDS and Sky are both digital only, no analogue. So if you want to watch one channel and record another you need 2 decoders (extra €10 per month with NTL, whatever multi-room costs with Sky). I imagine Sky+ has a second decoder built in.

Ru

I have had NTL MMDS for 2 months and I am far from impressed. The picture regularly freezes and becomes pixilated. The sound also jumps every 30 minutes or so.

I rang to complain and the person I talked to said she was sending out a technician. She also said she was boosting the signal to my house. This I know for a fact is impossible from a call centre and if it was possible why would she need to send out an engineer. Anyway the guy came out and played around for a while. Now I’ve been involved with that industry (home AV) for over 8 years and the sh1t that came out of his mouth actually impressed me. Not because they were words with multiple syllables but because of the sheer ingenuity of them. I’m not saying he was making things up, I’m saying I’ve been involved in the same industry for 8 years (3 of which were with an engineer) and I’ve never heard half of the “technical” jargon before. They are obviously trained to confuse people so they are impressed and think that they are in professional hands.


Oh, by the way, the picture and sound is no better………….maybe the call centre can “boost” my signal a bit more.

lastsaturday

howzit going lads,

been busy moving in and am looking to do the whole thing with the TV, phone and broadband.. has anyone got chorus in Greystones? any other packages worth looking at?

Btw: magnet doesn't compete very well i'm afraid..

loyatemu

chorus is not available in Charlesland but their service in the rest of Greystones is rubbish anyway. You have 3 choices - NTL, SKY, or an aerial.

Ru

Ru wrote:

Oh, by the way, the picture and sound is no better………….maybe the call centre can “boost” my signal a bit more.

Heh thats almost as good as the sky installer telling the customer that their signal would be as good in a few months because of all the other dishes going up and taking the signal...
Theres only enough signal to go around you see :rolleyes:

You'd better turn off your car radio so-you're stealing my signal

You could go for free to air satelite and a simple combi VHF - UHF aerial on your roof for RTÉ/TV3
The free to air will get you UTV BBC1 and 2,BBC 3,4 and ITV 2,3 and ITV4 along with loads of other slightly more boring channels.

That should cost maybe €500 at most ( including getting a guy to set up the satelite and put up the aerials for you ) but there would be no monthly sub after that.

Try http://www.daltontvsystems.com/

or better still http://www.satellite.ie/ and compare prices locally.
You might well get it all done for less than that.

lastsaturday

loyatemu wrote:

chorus is not available in Charlesland but their service in the rest of Greystones is rubbish anyway. You have 3 choices - NTL, SKY, or an aerial.

great..
i was just onto NTL now. they want a box installed in every room, because the cheap feckers didn't bother their holes to lay cable, when the estate went in. Instead we all connect up to a big aerial in the shopping centre or somewhere. I want digital HDTV, not a bloody aerial.. :mad:

i spent a fortune on redesigning my kitchen for a minimalist look and now i need a box on the wall to watch tv.. the whole point of adding the high level tv plug, was to keep it clean and simple.. i wont go with them on principal now.

sky dish, here i come and an all-in-one wifi a/v sender from the lounge to the kitchen instead.

matt-dublin

Just a quick question about the MMDS..

I am wondering is the digital singnal the same on MMDS as it would be on the older analogue lines?

loyatemu

lastsaturday wrote:

great..
i was just onto NTL now. they want a box installed in every room, because the cheap feckers didn't bother their holes to lay cable, when the estate went in. Instead we all connect up to a big aerial in the shopping centre or somewhere. I want digital HDTV, not a bloody aerial..

to be fair - the estate is cabled. It's just not linked into the rest of their system hence they use an MMDS link. Alternative would have been to dig up the road all the way from Bray to connect into the NTL network there.

loyatemu

loyatemu wrote:

to be fair - the estate is cabled. It's just not linked into the rest of their system hence they use an MMDS link. Alternative would have been to dig up the road all the way from Bray to connect into the NTL network there.

No that wouldnt be the only alternative.
They could have installed a mini cable system for the houses by setting up a local hub for their cable service and taking the feed from a sturdy reliable larger mmds mast located somewhere in the estate.
Thats been done in many estates country wide.

You would then have had an analog system that you could plug your Tv into like any other NTL cable set up and you could tune the channels in on your TV as normal.

NTL have gone for the cheaper system of course.

By the way as NTL are one and the same company now as chorus,all they need do is hook into the Greystones town cable system either.

lastsaturday

Earthman wrote:

NTL have gone for the cheaper system of course.

no, they've gone for the one which generates the most revenue for them. €5 a month per extra tv point... multiply that by say one thousand odd tv points and then by 12 months..

nice little earner.

loyatemu

lastsaturday wrote:

no, they've gone for the one which generates the most revenue for them. €5 a month per extra tv point... multiply that by say one thousand odd tv points and then by 12 months..

nice little earner.

€10 extra is what I was told

could have been a poor decision by NTL to go for the cheaper option then. If you look at all the satellite dishes going up in Charlesland, each one is a lost customer for NTL.