UPC Nagra3 MMDS Boxes, questions

Sponge Bob

Seeing as they swapped old boxes out last year for the newer Nagra3 jobbies does anyone know whether the newer ones also support

a) 720p/i
b) 1080p/i
c) HDMI out with HDCP
d) Mpeg4 also called H264/AVC

On either Chorus MMDS or NTL MMDS masts as appropriate.

Thanks

MisterAnarchy

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Seeing as they swapped old boxes out last year for the newer Nagra3 jobbies does anyone know whether the newer ones also support

a) 720p/i
b) 1080p/i
c) HDMI out with HDCP
d) Mpeg4 also called H264/AVC

On either Chorus MMDS or NTL MMDS masts as appropriate.

Thanks

No,No,No and No
The new MMDS boxes are primitive to say the least.

Sponge Bob

chorus or ntl area ??

You not gonna get HD on MMDS full stop. it just dosnt have the cappacity.

UPC have switched alot of MMDS customers to true cable. If thats not happening in your area i would switch to Sat definatly.

Sponge Bob

I am only enquiring because those geniuses in Comreg are thinking of introducing mpeg4 when UPC swapped a load of boxes out last year. If the new boxes are a straight line NO like Mister A said then Comreg are delusional....frankly. One can do mpeg4 SD or HD.

So humour me with facts please

MisterAnarchy

As far as I am aware the new Chorus MMDS boxes are Sagem ITD70
http://www.sagemcom.com/index.php?id=409&L=0

Kristopherus

Can you get a digital signal with that box? Got blurb in the post earlier this week from UPC addressed to The Resident, 100 Main St.( not my address, just an example) which promised all the lovely goodies that UPC could provide in my area, which is mmds only. I reckoned they must have updated their mmds system as they were now offering their services, so today I took the plunge & rang their CS. Have to say the lady I got talking to was brilliant. She confirmed that my area was mmds only. She also confirmed to me that I could get their Digital + and multi-room service. I asked her was she absolutely certain of that & she said she was. I then asked her if she would put her house on it & she confirmed she would. I the relayed my previous experience with Chorus/Ntl. I had ordered Family Sports Pack online & had arranged installation on 15th Feb. When no installer turned up I rang them only to be told that my order had been cancelled because the digital service was not available at my address. She replied that when you order online the transaction is handled in India. She also confirmed that whoever had handled my transaction had mixed up my house no. with that of a neighbour up the road !!!

Now, after all that, can anyone tell me if Digital + is available on mmds. By the way my house has direct line of sight with the UPC dish on the Eircom tower that is only 300 metres away, if that has any influence.

watty

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I am only enquiring because those geniuses in Comreg are thinking of introducing mpeg4 when UPC swapped a load of boxes out last year. If the new boxes are a straight line NO like Mister A said then Comreg are delusional....frankly. One can do mpeg4 SD or HD.

So humour me with facts please

Most of the MMDS is exChorus. It uses DVB-t and Analogue also some areas.

A fraction is ex NTL, and does indeed use DVB-c like cable and no Analogue

Where possible they are replacing MMDS with cable. This would reduce the ex NTL MMDS as it was mostly less Rural than Chorus MMDS.


UPC would have to replace gear at ALL the MMDS TX sites.

Since DVB-c isn't compatible with DVB-t, you can't swap over MPEG4 cable boxes in the majority Chorus MMDS areas at all, unless you do an entire Mast in one overnight! Not possible.

So they are stuck with DVB-t on the majority of MMDS.

The DVB-t uses a Sagem box that is very very basic.

I don't know of any economical box that UPC could deploy that would do MPEg4, DVB-c and DVB-t to allow distribution to DVB-t areas in advance of a mast change over to MPEG4 + DVB-c

They would have to simply upgrade the majority of MMDS (the ex Chorus part) to DVB-t MPEG4, which needs a different box to anything they use anywhere.

It's Hyperband (Higher than BandIII VHF) so regular UHF tuner MPEG4 french boxes won't work. They would have to order an MPEG4 DVB-t box with Hyperband tuner (300 to 400MHz approx).

It doesn't need to be HD.

They could use their HD MPEG4 cable boxes on the much smaller ex NTL MMDS area and when every one has one, then swap to MPEG4 SD and save 1/2 the spectrum. But if they went to that expense they would rather have more spectrum to do HD

The MPEG 4 HD boxes they use will do SD and MMDS DVB-c MPEG2, but that is only smaller ex NTL area.

It's not economic to change either system to HD without some added value (such as keeping existing spectrum).

If they used MPEG4 on existing spectrum they could have 150 regular channels + 10 HD channels instead of current 120 channels, even that is hardly economical as you have to swap all the boxes before you can change.

whowantstwoknow

From your great response, if one is a subscriber of their MMDS in an ex-chorus rural area and UPC are saying their are switching to digital, doesnt that really preclude HD content in the future? I rang UPC about the switch seeing if they were coming out we could switch to a + box, but they said that wont be possible. So am thinking it might just be better to jump to Sky....

Thanks

W.

steveon

MMDS is already in Digital but doesnt have the bandwith to give too many more channels within its current capability. If you are living rural then it would be better for you to probably switch to sky, or add a free to air hd system if you only want BBC and Itv hd which are fta channels...as you will be waiting a long time for UPC to be able to provide this service unless they bring in their already established satellite service to ireland sometime in the distant future...

jadegreen

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

From your great response, if one is a subscriber of their MMDS in an ex-chorus rural area and UPC are saying their are switching to digital, doesn't that really preclude HD content in the future? I rang UPC about the switch seeing if they were coming out we could switch to a + box, but they said that wont be possible. So am thinking it might just be better to jump to Sky....

Thanks

W.

I don't understand any of this, my question is if MMDS end in 2016 where does that leave me? have all 3 (phone ,broadband and t.v.)
with U.P.C. and as i live in an apartment block that does not allow satellite dish. whats going to happen, the phone and broadband can be solved reasonably easily but not so the t.v. issue anyone have any light to shed on this or advice:eek:
thanks, a;; suggestions ( re t.v. and continue service ) welcome
Jade

steveon

jadegreen wrote: »

I don't understand any of this, my question is if MMDS end in 2016 where does that leave me? have all 3 (phone ,broadband and t.v.)
with U.P.C. and as i live in an apartment block that does not allow satellite dish. whats going to happen, the phone and broadband can be solved reasonably easily but not so the t.v. issue anyone have any light to shed on this or advice:eek:
thanks, a;; suggestions ( re t.v. and continue service ) welcome
Jade

Mmds is.mostly in rural areas if you have telephone and broadband from them then tou are on cable and unaffected.

People on Mmds will loose their tv system once its switched off, its ancient technology using too much bandwidth... And most would be better served with a sat and terrestrial aerial or switching to sky, as you no longer require a phoneline for multiroon.

7upfree

jadegreen wrote: »

I don't understand any of this, my question is if MMDS end in 2016 where does that leave me? have all 3 (phone ,broadband and t.v.)
with U.P.C. and as i live in an apartment block that does not allow satellite dish. whats going to happen, the phone and broadband can be solved reasonably easily but not so the t.v. issue anyone have any light to shed on this or advice:eek:
thanks, a;; suggestions ( re t.v. and continue service ) welcome
Jade

If you've got all through then you're on cable - not MMDS.

The Cush

7upfree wrote: »

If you've got all through then you're on cable - not MMDS.

Discussed here on boards previously, some smaller cable setups which provided all 3 services had their TV fed into the cable system via MMDS. In these setups I assume an alternative TV feed will be provided by UPC.

icdg

MMDS switch off is a worthwhile topic of discussion, but we won't start it by opening a five year old thread whose original topic has been overtaken by events