subtitles, teletext and interactive on ntl digital, when?

Caesar_Bojangle

When are we most likely to see interactive appear on ntl digital, i'm sick of having to change back to the normal terrestrial channels every time i want to check teletext. They keep insisting we will have it very shortly, at least if they were honest about it and said we aim to have it by say december 2003 i would be a little less annoyed, instead of all this bull about the very near future.

SkepticOne

It's not a two way network, so they would have to cut a deal with Eircom. Is there an analogue modem in the STBs?

Mountjoy Mugger

I posed this question some months ago and was informed it would happen before the end of this year...ex Chorus employees, perchance?

patrickmooney

Well I've only managed to see the digital subtitles working once....that was last christmas during a showing of Alice in Wonderland on Channel Four.....never seen them work since.

Lemo

Technically, a two-way network is not required for most interactive services (e.g. teletext and information services). For instance, Sky News on Sky Digital does not require the back-channel unless you're voting or sending mail. It's almost all done one-way.

ntl use Liberate middleware. It was originally designed only for two-way networks but there is a version for one-way. I asked some senior people in ntl if they would be including this version when it was clear that they were going to launch digital without a full two-way network in place about two years ago. They didn't know this version of Liberate existed! It was clear that the decisions were being made in the UK.

It's too late to do anything about it now without spending a lot of money so they're stuck.

watty

Basically NTL seriously cut back on Digital Plans. They are just doing the minimum of actually Digital TV at all. Without OTDR pressure there probabily wouldn't be ANY digital.

Have they rolled out *ANY* Digital MMDS yet?

Lemo

Don't hold your breath for digital MMDS. I'm sure they'd love to get rid of it and, again, it's only ODTR pressure that is making them pretend otherwise.

If DTT was sorted out, I'm sure MMDS would disappear. While some people have the wrong idea about DTT, including OnDigital and the proposed Irish DTT service, the early signs are that the new Freeview service in the UK will be very successful.

icdg

In fairness to NTL, I quite like Go Digital. Okay, so subtitles don't work. Okay, so its missing a few good channels - I wouldn't mind UK Gold (1 and 2), Trouble, Challenge TV, Fox News (if only to laugh at it), BBC Three and BBC Four. Other than those, there are not a lot of good channels that are missing. Lets' face it, there are hundreds of channels on Sky that no one watches! Other than the ones listed above, most of the important ones are on NTL, and we get BBC WORLD to boot!

Yes there is the lack of interactive services. Hopefully that will change.

As for digital MMDS, COMREG want the service rolled out by 1st June. Or else NTL will have to pay MMDS customers a rebate on their bills.

According to a thread a while back, NTL are going to introduce a new (rather cut down) STB with an analogue modem in it. The current ones have cable modems only.

Caesar_Bojangle

I was just glancing over that little green ntl booklet that came with my stb, on page 15 of the booklet its states

Teletext will not be available as part of ntls digital service. To access teletext please go to the 'traditional' channels using your TV remote control.