Isnt Sky Digital just wonderful?

chernobyl

I think it is.
The wonderful graphics, the excellent sound, the hundreds of channels covering music, sport and after hours entertainment.

I just got my Sky bill today and it made me reminisce about the old days, watching RTE through a thick mist of fog and snow..or it could have been the smoke from the fire, i dont care either way.

I mean for perfect picture quality we only have to pay €20 a month and sure if you want the other goodies like the sport and movies, a small fee of €60 a month...what have ya got to complain about at all?

Sky for eva!

byte

Yeah, it's great. Dunno how I ever coped with just 3 Irish channels and 4 UK channels from a poor deflector system. All i need now is ITV and C4 (and C5) to make it perfect.

Mountjoy Mugger

Don't forget, you'll probably have to pay extra again for them...

cupthehand

Ah its only alrite,sky is definetly of the quantity over quality opinion.How many top quality channels are there really on it-the four "home" ones,Sky 1,UK Gold,Bravo,Paramount,BBC 1=2 and now I'm struggling....Sky News,Fox News MTV Base,Discovery and a few more of the documentary channels but I'm definetly out after that.The diversity is present but the quality is sadly lacking and to back this up....ALL the shopping, Dating, Txting and EMAP channels and the lack of good Quality European channels be these music,mainstream,sport etc....

SKY please give the customers what they really want.....

Mossy Monk

all those wonderful shopping channels, lovely god channels and of course channels such as BEN and the Dating Channel. how did i live without these. and then to top it off RTÉ is paid for twice in my household.

but seriously there is really only a handful of channels i watch on a regular basis and a few more which i will watch on a less regular basis and all come under the Sky World umbrella just give me Channel 4, five, BBC 4, News 24 and BBC Choice on my sub because i hate changing cards
:mad:

cupthehand

Your dead rite Mossy i was half thinking bout starting a poll of what channels people Really wanna see on the EPG

DMC

This thread gave me that idea too! But I though better of it for now, one poll at a time.

You can start one if you want cupthehand, by all means!

cupthehand

ya I spose one at a time is rite
but ill be putting my thoughts of a new poll to work very soon.....

sceptre

(can't vote as the answers don't suit me)

Am I happy to pay (again) for RTE? Hell no.

Is Sky just wonderful? I'm comparing it to my previous service from Chorus so hell yeah.

At the moment I'm as happy as a pig in muck - and will remain so until someone notices the dish on the side of what might be classified as a Georgian building (not that the local corpo has any interest in actual conservation mind you (ignoring the interior of the buildings) - just window dressing lip service from what I've heard - as one example look at the side of Henrietta St in Dublin that isn't a convent)

cupthehand

Sure post in any what channels YOU'D most like to see
I'll kick things off with a few...as i am a newbie to whole wide world of satellite i wouldn't be too familiar with a wide range of channels from the olde analogue days or from different satellites ala motorised stuff...heres what i know and want!


VIVA
MTV2 POP
Eurosport
Channel 5
BBC 3
BBC 4
BBC World
Channel 4
UTV
MAD Tv
RTL
SAT 1
The Music Factory (Europe)

plesae post others that you wanna see and they can all contribute to my poll
which will be landing shortly!

dougal

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
and UTV, C4, Five, BBC 5 live.

Then I'd be a HAPPY CAMPER!

GO ON SANTA GO ON GO ON GO ON!!!

chernobyl

Originally posted by cupthehand


VIVA
MTV2 POP
Eurosport
Channel 5
BBC 3
BBC 4
BBC World
Channel 4
UTV
MAD Tv
RTL
SAT 1
The Music Factory (Europe)

Most of the channels you want are utter tripe..repeat: tripe.
I would certainly welcome TMF and thats it.

koneko

a) I'm happy as larry too with my Sky Digital. Never a dull moment. Unless it's daytime TV. But still, fights on Ricki Lake/Jerry Springer/etc

b) I agree with chernobyl, except for the TMF part. I had it, for years. It's woeful. Some pop ****e over and over again, with even worse presenters.

Lennoxschips

I have the Dutch TMF - truly awful. MTV on a budget is best way I could describe it.

MisterAnarchy

When I first had Sky Digital installed 18 months ago I thought it was fantastic.
Previously to this I had Chorus providing me with an atrocious service which consisted of 11 channels and cost 44 pounds !
The Sports channels had a nasty habit of disappearing each weekend and returning on Monday morning.
I was suspicious of an X-Files type conspiracy.
It was madness I know .
Now my opinions of SKY have changed.
The initial novelty of having so many channels is waring off as the trawl to find something interesting becomes tedious.
I mainly like Sport and Films with the odd cartoon thrown in.
During the summer the Sports channels were threadbare and now the film choice has degraded too.
I dont watch soaps or reality tv shows so I find SKY 1 complete trash.
Trying to find something decent before 6pm is quite difficult too.
I have thought about discontinuing my subscription and simply using the FTV card but my hand is being forced my 'family'.
I dont think I could ever go back to just 4 channels again.
Frankly I'd rather tear my hair out and eat it.
So I think I'll soldier on and hope that the programming will improve.

koneko

Definitely. That's the best way of describing it.

Really. *shudder*

cupthehand

Well ViVa and MTV2 POP are alot better that the cack thats on there at the moment and I heard from a "friend" that TMF is excellent.

chernobyl

Originally posted by cupthehand
Well ViVa and MTV2 POP are alot better that the cack thats on there at the moment and I heard from a "friend" that TMF is excellent.

This is a perspective thing [what is'nt?] but Viva can ram MTV up their a$$ and give each other head..they are both equally annoying.

I know one thing about TMF:
Every video on my PC that is "borderline" has been ripped from TMF9, i like their style.

oohh, and Sky has Lisa:



I think i will close the poll and everyone voted number one anyways.

DMC

And Men and Motors has Jo Guest.

And I cant find a safe image of her to put up!

SRB

TMF ain't what it used to be. I really liked the way it was before MTV got their hands on it.
The Belgium version is Free To Air at 16E, by the way, as is the UK version on Freeview.

watty

I think Digital Satellite is a good Idea
Don't like Sky

Got 2 Digiboxes because Digital Satellite is a good Idea
(Also a PC based 4 -LNB receviver too)

I happy to pay TV licence

NO I won't pay for RTE on Satellite, though my terrestrial is poor, except via higher licence fee and FTV Irish TV.

I want to be able to decide which Channels *MY* receivers get.

* Spoilt ballot paper*

Poll asks wrong questions.

chernobyl

Originally posted by watty

I want to be able to decide which Channels *MY* receivers get.

No TV provider, anywhere allows this.
Certainly you can watch Telepiu on a non T+ box and you can define what you wanna watch but you loose the interative touches and a non D+ box will not give you DD on the movies.

Just accept it.
You dont like the order of channels on Sky or you hate seeing Kevin's mug everytime you skip from FTV pr0n to Sky movies, then tough..else just use the favourites.

Originally posted by watty
* Spoilt ballot paper*

Poll asks wrong questions.

Questions are fine...you only complained.

watty

Most places you don't pay on Satellite for your own National Public Broadcaster.
Some like Netherlands you pay and Admin charge for NEd1, Ned2, Ned3 etc FTV card.

No one in Ireland seems to have ANY control over how much or which packages Sky has Irish TV in.

IMO we'd be better of if we hadn't fought the war of Independance and been Like Wales and Scotland.

OK a higher TV licence.

But at least a choice of 2 national FTV Digital TV systems instead of a choice of two PAy only systems
At least 5 decent National channels
Instead of 4 rapidly going downhill cheap 2nd rate clones of UK TV (TG4 slightly excepted)

I pay my TV licence because it is a TAX on TV. Not because RTE is a wonderful operation.

I'm not paying extra to have IRISH TV I should get free on my Digibox. So if it has a Sub at all (as it does now, it sticks on Knowledge pack).

On good Digital systems including my PC based system you can "block" unwanted material or Channels.

Sky's parental control os a joke.
Hope the rumoured fix is more than rumour.

RTE and TV3 are abdicating responsibily to provide a high quality national network on Digital OR Analog to Pay Only TV operators such as NTL, Chorus and Sky. RTE / National policy seems to reguard Digital Satellite as just another Cable medium. It isn't. You buy your box and can poit it at anything you like.

The Analog transmission network coverage quality is RUBBISH compared to UK. (It's alright cos everyone in Dublin has cable anyway and if people want quality and lots of channels they will happily pay a fortune each month the rest of their lifr to Sky -- such rubbish)

And as well as quality Analog network (except perhaps for "Five" which was meant to be Digital only anyway) the UK has a Choice of TWO alternate completely separate totally FREE DIGITAL NETWORKS.. Freeview DTT and FTV scheme for Digital Satellite.

RTE's excuse is that ROI is too small to administer such a scheme and there would be no demand -- If they had their way we would still all be on 405 line B&W with that philiosphy..

The government is at fault too for underfunding RTE and not raising TV licence TAX.

Meanwhile RICH people get as much quality picture as they want on Umpteen Digital Channels, and Irelands Rural Poor get 3 and half channels with poor transmission /reception quality and poor content, that half time is more relevent to Dubliners watching UK via cable anyway.

Yes the customer support, 60+ channel pricing and Quality of Sky's Pay service makes NTL and Chorus look sad and Chorus Analog MMDS and Cable in Limerick look very sick indeed.

Sky Animal Planet, NGC, Discovery etc approx: Euro 23
Chorus D-MMDS package with those above: Euro 38.38

So yes Sky is super ... IF YOU WANT SELECTION IN FAMILY PACK OR HIGHER.

Pay TV is NOT the sole option for Digital viewing in Ireland,. though unlike UK, most dealers I talk too beleive Ireland is heading to PAY ONLY TV. All the VAt to Sky leaves the State.

If Chorus or NTL did make money (unlikely as it seems at them moment, almost none of it stays here. None of it finances TV drama, documentary, Comedy or Film in this Country)

Do we want this?

Irulan

I agree with Watty.
Although you would still be selecting from the channels made available by SKY ,you should be able to select your own package.
Say of about 30 channels.SKY could charge per channel.
Dial tel No. *******
Dial 01 for SKY PREM 1
Dial 02 for SKY PREM 2
Dial 10 for SKY SPORTS 1
Dial 11 for SKY SPORTS 2
Dial 20 for MTV EUROPE
etc etc etc etc etc etc.
Isnt Sky Digital Just Wonderful?
Compared to what we had before Sky it is.
Im all for having lots of channels.But channels by choice.

chernobyl

Originally posted by watty
Meanwhile RICH people get as much quality picture as they want on Umpteen Digital Channels....yak yak yak

You certainly dont need to be rich to view Sky.
..why we pay for RTE on Sky has been explained so much i think the explanation is burned into my retina.

RTE cannot release a FTV card because its not the deal they did with Sky.

watty

FACT:
There is less user and parental control on UK or ROI Sky Digital than Freeview.

There is less user and parental control on UK or ROI Sky Digital than on any European SUBSCRIPTION Digital Satellite.

Italy, Netherlands, Germany , UK and others have the existing terrestrial and other "quality" (i.e. not shopping) channels FTA or FTV scheme on Digital Satellite as do others.

Ireland does not even have ANY control over Sky subscriptions sold in Ireland.

Ireland only controls Irish Uplink to Sky

Ireland has niether a good terrestrial analog network, any FTA Digital Terrestrial nor any FTA / FTV Digital Satellite.

We as a the second national Radio broadcaster in World history have almost a zero record of external services.

The Irish National Broadcasting strategy either doesn't exist or is a disaster.

I'm ex BBC *COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING*, ex Video Faclities Engineering, ex UK, USA, Switzerland and Middle east. I have lived also in Limerick / Dublin / Clare since 1983 mostly.

so do know a little about what I taking about.
RANT OVER

watty

Chernobyl:
I appreciate that you are a knowledgable and helpful person making a lot of contribution to the forum.

This is the Internet. If you make a poll someone is not going to like the questions.

Read my silly posts again and try and see what I am trying to say in my poor whinging manner

I'm MORE than happy to pay a TV licence.

Sky a reasonable, even "good" company for PAY TV

RTE's attitude to public or transmission quality complaints or Sky deal is not reasonable.

Digital Satellite works. The only "Sky" aspect about is their illegal NDS Videoguard monoploy. They won't sell a CAM for other boxes, nor MORE ILLEGALLY under EU law, they WILL NOT allow any digibox manufacturer to add features, ESCPECIALLY a CI slot for a non-Sky CAM.

If anyone had enough money and inclination the Digibox as is would be found to be illegal in court. Switzerland banned it on it's monopolistic feature. But Sky have awfully rich laywers. Wonder how the US case against them (NDS/SSSL specifically probabily) is doing?

chernobyl

confession time: this thread was purely bait for the fish but unfortunately the fish seem to enjoy handing €60 large to sky a month [well 99% of em..go figure], so this thread went belly up.

Originally posted by watty
Chernobyl:
I appreciate that you are a knowledgable and helpful person making a lot of contribution to the forum.

ahhh, its debatable what contribution i make if any at all.

Originally posted by watty
Sky a reasonable, even "good" company for PAY TV

I can say from experience they are the best but limitations stand in my way from experiencing the whole pie, i can just waffle in Itallian and my German is only slightly better but beyond that its gibberish so i have seen D+ and Premiere and neither are great and you either be one of two kinds of a fool to recieve these channels 1) piracy 2) pay through the nose for a ligit card.

RTE's attitude to public or transmission quality complaints or Sky deal is not reasonable.

Originally posted by watty
The only "Sky" aspect about is their illegal NDS Videoguard monoploy. They won't sell a CAM for other boxes,

Ofcourse they wont...why the fuk would they want to.
In order to use Sky you must have a box running the Sky Digibox OS and although pretty much every STB on the market is a clone of a clone there are marked differences.

Ozzie

I have Sky over a year now.... I have grown to hate it.. repeats of trash, crap and ****e! I have grown to hate myself even more for being stupid enough to fork out €60 every month for it. E.G., UK Gold (Repeats); UK Gold +1 (Repeats an hour later); UK Gold 2 (Repeats slightly rearranged). And thats one of the better channels!

You got to admire Murdoch though. Next time you're driving, count the digital satellite dishes you see. It won't take long to get to a hundred. Each one potentially (and most are) netting the €60 a month. That's €72,000 a year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Add to that the advertising revenue - €€€€€€€€€€€€€ £££££££££££££££ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. It's all the same to Murdoch!!!

I am on the verge of ditching the whole thing. From talking to people, I don't think I'm alone. The only alternative down here is Chorus. It's not great but at least I'll have UTV and C4 again. The FTA option sounds good, but dodgy. I fear it's just a matter of time until it won't be an option.

Oz

Ozzie

Anyway, why can't we pay for the EXACT channels we want, eg:

RTE + TV3 €4 per month
BBC €3
Sky One €1
Sky Sports €15
Each Discovery 50c
etc.....


or better still... Imagine a really Good Network that had all the good US programmes, a big movie premiere on a wednesday and Saturday, a big live match on a Sunday and Tuesday, etc... It would be Sky without the repeats and junk! It would have the rights to prgramming, movies and sport that sky have, bu presented them in a decent, non-sensational manner.

Maybe not.....

Lennoxschips

Market economics!

Murdoch will sell as low quality TV as possible for as high a price as possible.

watty

I don't think there is any way to stop UK FTV working Ireland.

I have 15 ..25 years Design experince and Security experience and qualification in realms of Communications Engineering (Microwave to ISDN), Embeded OS, Embedded HW, PC Windows programming, NT Networking/ Security since 1994.

I have designed everything from RF equipment, pocket information system, ISDN Exchange equipment to remote test equipment for POTS lines (analog phone).


I could be wrong though.

And I expect the goal posts to move. Cancelled sub card likely to be no use, but FTV card where you have access to application address will always work.
LOGIC.
(must get my pointy ears trimmed again soon)

DMC

Watty, I know I have explained this before, but now is as good a time to explain the situation again.

The reason we don't have an FTV system here, is because we have a cable system that doesn't offer a FTA method.

RTÉ's appearance on Sky is in a similar way that the cable co's retransmit RTÉ. IF you want to watch RTÉ via another method other than aerial, you have to pay a service provider, NTL or Chorus, and now Sky.

Cut the cable, no RTE via cable. It's still there on the aerial.

Sky are only playing by the existing rules here. That's why there will never be RTÉ FTA cards.

If it happened, the cable co's will be up in arms, go to court, indefinatly block RTÉ from Sky Digital from unfair business practices.

Different rules. We are in a different jurisdiction!

The Gopher

I couldnt live on the 8 channels and I would recommend getting sky-but TBH there is alot of sh1te on it.When I got skydigital about 2 years ago there were maybe a dozen shopping channels.There must be 30-50 now.And I have been having probs with my search and scan banner being slow to come with the info lately and i believe that it is overloaded because of the sheer number of channels it now has.
Fair is fair-I dont want sky to dump every channel I dont like.For example I dont watch the chinese channels and the other asian channels and so on but at least there are people for whom these channels are useful.
But who the f`uck is really watching shopping channel epg number 651 or whatever?What is it-probably something like Simply Lawnmowers plus one hour. How about 24/7 curtain shop extra?Or maybe it is Inflatable Bed Retail Network.
Whatever it is there are currently only two people in the british isles watching the channel.Do I really deserve to have a congested search and scan banner just so some american televangelists can sell over the phone baptisms 24/7,safe in the knowledge that the British public doesnt know they spent a few years inside stateside for stealing charity money or whatever.Nobody watches these channels!What are they doing there?
My most watched channels are probably
Sky 1,though mainly for the simpsons.Find most of the rest of their stuff rubbish.Detest the way they like to bill themselves as some sort of tits and arse channel-either show me proper porn or show me none.But dont insult me with yer crappy docus like American Sex.
UK Gold for the comic classics like only fools and horses.
E4 for Oz and the Sopranos.
Being a hip hop fan MTV Base and Kiss.Also partial to a little Kerrang and MTV2 when bored-also like some of the documentarys on VH1.MTV UK suck arse though.
Sky News,Fox and Euronews are the favourite news ones.Not interested in finance and I find CNN bland.Fox news is very entertaining.
Also Discovery History Biography and UK Horizons.
And when I am feeling a bit silly Nickelodeon:D
But I really do think the standards have slipped a little since i first got sky.The way sky 1 often shows ancient simpsons eps is a disgrace.

Still I wouldnt be able to stand putting up with the 8 channels I used to be stuck with.

cupthehand

and what becomes of it alll...yet another ****e channel on the way...FTN launching 15th Jan
and what is it but jst a re-hash of of a few of the UK channels clumped together(Bravo,Living,Trouble etc..)
Like anyone really wants yet another time-waster on the EPG

byte

I read elsewhere that the new viewing cards will allow you to remove channels from EPG, though I find this hard to believe

There are a load of rubbish channels but at least there's something for everyone (except a tech channel)

I would watch Sky1, UKgold, UKhorizons, MTV UK & IRL, MTV|2, MTV Dance, VH1, VH1classic, Kerrang!, Q, Planet Rock, BBC R1, BBC 6Music, E4, Discovery channels, NatGeo, etc. Despise the shopping channels, though I find auction tv very funny!:D

lawhec

Originally posted by cupthehand
and what becomes of it alll...yet another ****e channel on the way...FTN launching 15th Jan
and what is it but jst a re-hash of of a few of the UK channels clumped together(Bravo,Living,Trouble etc..)
Like anyone really wants yet another time-waster on the EPG

The only reason FTN is being launched is to do with Flecthtech's deal with Freeview. I didn't even know it was being launched on Digital Satellite! And until it launches why openly dismiss it? Certainly Reality TV has been a welcome addition for viewing in this house for the past month.

At the last count there was..... 36 shopping channels, and this doesn't even inclue some channels that allow their downtime to be used for infomercials, this includes Sky Sports!

It's all really horses for courses. If you find a lot of the channels crap (and quite frankly there are few who don't) start organising your favourites list.

cupthehand

At this stage you'd be pusehed to find twenty favourites to add to the list!
But why must we get a "new" channel that is simply made up of others?
Reality TV wasn't a bad addition at all to the EPG and it is in fact on my favourites list!
What we need are 2-3 brand spanking new channels to spice things up a bit at least E! should go some way towards that but did I hear somewhere that it will only be broadcasting for six hours a day?

sceptre

Originally posted by irishbyte
Despise the shopping channels, though I find auction tv very funny!:D

Ah, another idiot:)

I too sometimes enjoy watching bid-up TV. Find it funny as hell.

cupthehand

Blast anyways just as I suspected The HITS its in fact worse than the current crop of music channels
I actually didnt think it would be so bad
then again I always was a dreamer.............