Question about NTL / Sky

Gavin W

Hi all, I wasn't sure whether to ask this in the Sky Digi forum or here, but opted for this as the most likely place.

I'm a subscriber to NTL's analogue and digital services but I'm strongly thinking of dropping NTL Digital and signing up to Sky. What I want to ask is this - would there be any technical problem with keeping NTL's analogue service as well as having Sky Digital?

I want to keep the analogue for the usual reasons (UTV and C4, multi-room viewing, ability to record one channel while watching another) but also have Sky Digi for picture quality and extra channels.

Someone told me they'd heard it couldn't be done because "the frequency of some Sky channels clash with some of NTL's" but this doesn't make much sense to me. How can a digital service conflict with an analogue?

Any help you can give is appreciated.

Cheers,
Gavin

DMC

Well, thats lies, Gavin W.

Analogue cable runs off VHF, whearas Sky can run on an RF channel on the UHF band, or via a scart lead. Many, many people in Dublin and in cable areas do have both running side by side.

Gavin W

Ah, that's what I thought, thanks. I think his information must have got a bit garbled somewhere along the line!

Gavin

BrianD

So you keep your NTl sub ... €204 pa and the n your Sky sub ... €720 pa = €924 pa on TV...why???
Suppose its a free country!!

PGB

I've been running Sky Digi aloneside NTL Analouge for about 2 years now with no problems at all.

Gavin W

Originally posted by BrianD
So you keep your NTl sub ... €204 pa and the n your Sky sub ... €720 pa = €924 pa on TV...why???

Er...no. I'll only be getting the regular €26.99 a month package from Sky, which comes to about €324 pa, on top of the €204 for NTL.

I've worked it out - it's only €4 a week more expensive than what we're currently paying for NTL analogue plus NTL Digital.

Calibos

Why are you getting Sky for?? Is it more channels, picture quality etc??

I'm just wondering because a few months ago I had to decide on NTL digital or SKY. I primarily wanted digital for picture quality because analogue cable didn't look great on my projector. I weighed up both options and followed the threads in both this and the satellite forum.

It seemed to me that the general consensus was that the picture from NTL digital was marginally better than SKY.

That Sky had more channels but was more expensive.

That most of the extra channels on sky were rubbish shopping channels etc with one or two notable exceptions.

That people in this forum slagged off NTL for their lack of interactive channels.

That the Satellite crowd slagged of SKY for their interactive red button appearing on their screen every 5 seconds. Giving out that interactive was interseting for the first week but that now they couldn't be bothered using it and that it was just a waste of bandwidth which could be used to improve picture quality on the other channels.

That people in this forum seemed to slag off NTL and say they were changing to Sky, but I soon discovered that the opposite also seemed to be true. ie the crowd in the satellite forum were always slagging off sky and saying they were cancelling their subs

That people were always complaining about NTL 'blackouts' but I've only had 3 since I signed up 3 months ago. ie Not a major problem.


So I signed up with NTL and haven't had cause for complaint. Make sure you weigh up all the arguements and options before you sign the contract and get that dish!!

Gavin W

Originally posted by Calibos
That people were always complaining about NTL 'blackouts' but I've only had 3 since I signed up 3 months ago. ie Not a major problem.

Ah, now here's my major bone of contention with NTL Digital. All I can say is you've been very lucky! For me it's a rare occasion when I can watch a half-hour programme without seeing *at least* one blackout, pause, or flicker in the picture. My aunt who lives up the road from me has the same problem, so whether it's a problem that's particularly bad here in Waterford or not I don't know.

LFCFan

I had NTL digital initially only because €ircon fcuked up the phoneline installations in my estate so couldn't get in Sky without a phone line. After the 7th time of having to put up with NTL going down I cancelled my contract after a lot of arguing and went with Sky Digital. Since then (about 8 months) Sky picture has been 100% perfect 100% of the time while NTL analogue(which I kept for the usual reasons) has gone down on too many occasions to keep count. So far not one complaint about Sky whereas I was bogged down with complaints about NTL. And there's also the matter of trying to get through to NTL. An hour and 23 minutes is my record whereas with Sky I have been through straight away everytime and everytime they've been helpful and curteous in contrast to the gobsh1tes I've had to deal with in NTL. Conclusion: NTL suck, Sky Rock!

watty

Remember if you cancel NTL you have NOTHING.

If you cancel sky (min 1 year) you still own all the kit:
60+ decent radio
Some good free TV (not all rubbish)
All 15 or so BBC TV (from June) and 12 or so BBC radio.

You can point it at Astra 19E or Hotbird 13E and get 100s free foriegn TV and Radio.


After 1 mnth you can down grade to minimum.

After 1 year you can cancel and reconnect instantly with a phone call for as little as a month.

If you move to non-cable area you lose NTL. Sky will even install a new dish for less than cost of dish and labout (60 euro?) or you can unbolt the old one and do a DIY install.


The Digibox will even work on a Camper, holiday home or Caravan as long as there is electricity and a dish. Some folks install a spare dish on holiday home and just plug in digibox.

LegacyUser

I watched NTL digital for about a year in my parents house before moving out and the service was a disgrace (Galway CIty). Practically every night, at least one channel would be a black screen, while others would suffer from frozen screen, distorted sound etc etc. Generally, it only happened on the channels that I thought were worth watching (Granada Plus, Paramount, H+L). I went for two weeks at one stage without Granada Plus, and was given the usual "technical fault" excuse when I eventually got through to NTL.

I genuinely don't think a day passed when there wasn't a problem with one of the channels. As for the EPG, when it did load, it was always desperately slow and frequently never had the correct listings. To try and move a few days forward in the listings was a waste of time - it never worked.

Anyway, in conclusion, as I've mentioned in another thread here (it's called something along the lines of 'Do NTL know what's happening with NTL?)- I rang NTL enquiring about getting digital in my own house, and after talking to an eejit who hadn't a clue what he was talking about, and who gave me false promises about UK Gold before admitting it wasn't definitely joining the channel line-up, I rang a Sky installer. He's coming on Friday.

Caesar_Bojangle

tbh it just comes down to two matters. Do you mind having a dish on your house? and Do you watch enough tv to justify spending the extra cash on sky digital?

LegacyUser

Do you have NTL digital Caesar? I think you wouldn't simplify the argument like that if you did. There's no comparison in the service (at least, I hope, I'm getting Sky on Friday!!!)

LFCFan

if you were to poll people who had used both services I can safely say that the vast majority if not all customers would say that Sky offer the best service even if you have to pay a few bob extra.

watty

And if later you on a budget you can pay Sky ZERO ZERO and still have:
TCM, Performance, Sky News, CNN, p-Rock, Classic FM TV, BBC TV from June, about 60 Radio as well as the other 70 junk Free channels..

I think that is cheaper than NTL.

Pity Boomerang isn't free anymore though.

Caesar_Bojangle

Originally posted by Buckfast
Do you have NTL digital Caesar? I think you wouldn't simplify the argument like that if you did. There's no comparison in the service (at least, I hope, I'm getting Sky on Friday!!!)

We had sky digital originally but we dont watch much tv in our household so it made sense to opt for ntl digital and save €35 a month doing so. Also the location of our minidish was in a stupid place, right above our front living room which annoyed the parents, as we assumed they'd place it higher up on the roof.

I meant i'd choose sky over ntl any day, just for the all round better service, frequent new additions of channels, interactive, the extra sky sports channel not available on ntl and less fuk ups like black outs.

Gavin W

Well I called NTL today (amazingly it only took a couple of minutes to get through!) to cancel my NTL Digital subscription and they're sending someone out on the 15th of May to take away the decoder... in the meantime I'm off to contact Sky!

Woohoo! Free at last!

LFCFan

Originally posted by Gavin W
they're sending someone out on the 15th of May to take away the decoder

I wouldn't hold my breath on that case. I'm still waiting for someone to come and take their decoder away 7 months after cancelling the service. I've rang them 3 times to come and take the damn thing away and still nothing. It's no wonder their in so much debt when they can't even be bothered to collect their own equipment.

watty

Originally posted by Caesar_Bojangle:
We had sky digital originally but we dont watch much tv in our household so it made sense to opt for ntl digital and save €35 a month doing so. Also the location of our minidish was in a stupid place, right above our front living room which annoyed the parents, as we assumed they'd place it higher up on the roof.

How can you save 35 Euro when a Sky family pack is 26 Euro (not even the cheapest sky pack, but 4 times as many channels and the next 4 euro cheaper pack) and NTL basic is about 15 Euro?

Or do NTL pay Sky users to change?
BTW you can DIY move a dish or get an installer to move it.

Also you still get some worthwhile TV /Radio if you pay Sky NOTHING. I'm confused.

If you don't watch much TV it make sense to not even pay NTL either.

I had Analog Cable 2 places in Limerick and one place in Dublin. I cancelled evertime on moving in as quality was so poor and made do with TV aerial lying on top of hedge in one house.

I did have Sky analog for a while using a S/H discarded receiver and waited for the first £45 subsidized offer for Digital. After a year we cancelled and just had the free channels for a year. Since last December we are on Family pack again.

Both the Pace and the older 2nd S/H Grundig box I got for 60 Euro have been trouble free. There has never been any problems other than the green button ceasing operation on the remote.

The only 2 reasons I can imagine for cable are:
1) You want just BBC/UTV on analog cheap and don't care about quality. (But the much higher quality Sky is only about 30 cents a day more for about 200 channels inc 60 perfect radio).

2) You want lots of channel but landlord won't let you have a dish (and no south east window to have it inside), so you get digital cable.

I don't know any MMDS (analog or Digital) or cable user in Limerick that hasn't had problems (cable cut during big match etc or a chorus fault).

Caesar_Bojangle

watty.

Initially when we had sky we were paying for the most expensive package. So when we switched over to ntl we were only paying like €15 for ntl digital and whatever extra it is for ntl terrestrial. Meaning now we save about €35(perhaps more, maybe less i really cant be arsed to check) a month, since we've switched over to ntl.

watty

OK, makes more sense, you are saving 11 Euro to have a dozen or so poor quality video / unreliable channels instead of 30 or so decent channels in perfect quality, reliably (I think we agree the other 200 channels on Sky arn't worth paying for).

Interestly the 38 channel Chorus Digital pack on MMDS has reduced in price from about 60 Euros to same price as Sky Family pack and has all the same "decent" channels as the ROI Family pack with addition of C4 and UTV. If I was desparate for C4 & UTV and didn't have "other means" on Satellite, Id go for that now. I presume in the big cities the Chorus Digital Cable lineup is the same price / channels. Chorus claims the Digital MMDS and Digital Cable packs are now same price and lineup.

Caesar_Bojangle

you are saving 11 Euro

nah, we're saving over €35 month, it wouldnt be worthwhile the hassle of switching over for just €11.