NTL Digital MMDS service in Galway

Gwynston

Has anyone had the new MMDS digital service installed by NTL yet? I live in rural county Galway and had letters from NTL months ago promising they were going to be changing everyone's set-top boxes during the 1st half of the year.

Well, last week I gave up waiting for them to call me to arrange the upgrade (as they promised they were going to) and phoned them instead. They said "No problem, is next week OK for you?" :eek:

So it seems, all it takes is a prod to make them get around to it. Has anyone already got the service? What's the quality like?

I'm getting so fed up of the sh*te picture quality of the analogue signal. (I was getting better pictures off the deflector when I was living in Loughrea!) I'm also hoping that the sound is stereo (with built-in Dolby ProLogic encoding, where provided at source) and that it will be a 16x9 feed to take advantage of my new widescreen TV. Is this the case?

I'm very tempted to ditch NTL completely and get Sky Digital, but I would miss ITV and C4 too much

LegacyUser

One of the guys I work with got MMD digital in Galway about three weeks ago, they basically just changed his decoder.

He said the picture quality (it was freezing up) was dodgy for a couple of days, but then it cleared up, and he's happy enough with it.

I had cable digital in Galway city for around two years before moving out of my parents house, and the picture and sound were constantly fcuked (pardon my dyslexic french), and then they never bother to add the new channels that customers in Dublin get (they must be missing nearly 20 at this stage).

I got Sky Digital in my own house around two months ago (free install and 1st ,month free — long story) and am delighted with it. Granted, there's a load of muck on and some of the channels are trash, but the few excellent ones (I'm on the E29 a month package) I always have something to watch to keep me out of the pub on the weekday evenings.

Gwynston

Thanks for the reply.
Knowing NTL's low standards, I am expecting an intermittant service (as I'm already used to), but am desperate for decent picture quality. Since getting a 100Hz widescreen TV, pictures look even grainier now with analogue

Where does your collegue live? I'm a couple of miles from Claregalway. Could you find out from him about whether the sound is stereo (with Dolby ProLogic?) and whether there are more 16x9 broadcasts now?

I moved over from England a couple of years ago, so my biggest priority is to get the 4 UK channels. That's the only reason I'm persevering with NTL - I'm not bothered too much about the extra channels. Although, NTL never did get our subscription right - we've only been paying for the basic package for the past 18 months, but have been receiving Sky Premier and Sky Sports 1, 2 & 3 for free (all in glorious 4x3 and mono though :mad: )

I would like to get Sky, but would miss ITV and C4.......

LegacyUser

He lives near Menlo ... I asked him about the stereo sound and 16:9 and he gave me a confused look. LOL.

I have a feeling the channels are in stereo, dunno about the pic format though, knowing NTL, they'll have it cut arseways with part of the screen missing.

As for UTV and C4, I know what you mean. A friend in the north that promised me an FTV card has let me down, but I still have basic NTL cable in the house (I pay for Sky, my gf pays for NTL ... handy!!!)

Galway

What side of Claregalway are you?My parentslive the tuam side and have a clear view of tonabrucky mast from chimney.Still on analogue with new SONY 100 hz 28 " set.With the auto pic function on the pics seem fine.Doubt they willnotice much diff with digitalwhen box is changed.

I live further towards tuam and brought my digibox bakc 2.5 years ago, kept family pack sub going and used friends add, so I have all UK terrestrials crystal clear using 80 cm dish and .7lnb not the crap minidish and lnb sky supply. I use free to air receiver on 1m motorised dish and can get BBC in clear since 10/7 now on that.

Gwynston

I'm also on the Tuam side. A mile from Lachtgeorge down the side road from Terry Brennan's Tavern towards Corandulla.

Sorry - I'm not sure what you're saying is coming off the tonabrucky mast. Are you talking about the NTL MMDS signal?

I guess we should be alright where we are. We have a two storey house and the mesh dish-shaped antenna is on top of a 6-foot pole which is mounted under the eaves. So it's about two-storey chimney height.

I'm just not happy with the picture quality. We watch RTE1 & N2 off a VHF aeriel in the loft and that's fine. However, we have to watch TV3 from the NTL feed because the installer didn't think we would get a very good TV3 signal there, so told me not to bother with a UHF aeriel.

TV3 picture quality is as bad as the UK channels, and is prone to NTL's occasional signal loss, and even digital artifacts in unusual weather conditions. Ironic, considering it's an analogue service :rolleyes:

Anyone know what feed NTL use for TV3 in their Galway transmissions?

CousinIain

HI Guys,
Just got the new MMDS digital installed and am horrified to find that the box is a really terrible scaled down one. With regard to the digital sound, after talking to NTL I was told that the sound would be digital, but I have a TV capable of receiving nicam digital stereo sound (which I get fine on the RTE seperate feed) but my NTL box refuses to give me stereo signal. SO....I rang NTL and inquired to see if I am getting a stereo signal to be told that the signal they send is not nicam but another type of stereo signal which may register as mono on my TV but is actually stereo. Now pardon me if I'm a bit backward here, but when my TV says it's giving me mono sound output, I'm inclined to believe that both speakers are making the same noise, which if I'm not mistaken is not stereo. Otherwise, my teletext is now gone on all but the RTEs from the other aeriel, and I dont have interactive either. NTL say that these are planned to come online but it could be christmas. Since I'm on a roll I'd also like to take this opportunity co whinge about the lack of channels, I know they go on about number of frequencies available but seriously, I wish I'd held out for Sky Digital, as the BBCs are now transmitting for free on the digital so it looks the way to go. I believe if we all stop using NTL, maybe they'll go out of business and then the next company to step into their boots might just offer a decent service to the people down the country.

celticfc

Originally posted by CousinIain
Otherwise, my teletext is now gone on all but the RTEs from the other aeriel, and I dont have interactive either. NTL say that these are planned to come online but it could be christmas.

Did ye notice they just said christmas, did they give a year at all????

On NTL digital cable we've been promised interactive for a couple of years and still no sign.

Gwynston

Originally posted by CousinIain
the signal they send is not nicam but another type of stereo signal which may register as mono on my TV but is actually stereo.

WTF
What is that supposed to mean???
So exactly what systems will pick up this "other type of stereo"?

my teletext is now gone on all but the RTEs from the other aeriel, and I dont have interactive either.

Hmmm, that's not good either.... :mad:

I'll see if I can pin the installer down with these issues when I've got him trapped in my house on Saturday. I'll certainly be insisting on some kind of "proper" explanation for the sound signal.

bkehoe

Use the Scart output on the NTL box (assuming it has one) instead. Your tv is probably expecting a Nicam signal - you dont get this with sky or freeview either, just stereo through the scart lead as it'd be too expensive to put a nicam encoder in your box.

DMC

Originally posted by Gwynston
I'll see if I can pin the installer down with these issues when I've got him trapped in my house on Saturday. I'll certainly be insisting on some kind of "proper" explanation for the sound signal.

Or, on the other hand, you still have time to cancel, especially after CousinIain's report!:D

Galway

I'm also on the Tuam side. A mile from Lachtgeorge down the side road from Terry Brennan's Tavern towards Corandulla.

Sorry - I'm not sure what you're saying is coming off the tonabrucky mast. Are you talking about the NTL MMDS signal?

I guess we should be alright where we are. We have a two storey house and the mesh dish-shaped antenna is on top of a 6-foot pole which is mounted under the eaves. So it's about two-storey chimney height.

I'm just not happy with the picture quality. We watch RTE1 & N2 off a VHF aeriel in the loft and that's fine. However, we have to watch TV3 from the NTL feed because the installer didn't think we would get a very good TV3 signal there, so told me not to bother with a UHF aeriel.

TV3 picture quality is as bad as the UK channels, and is prone to NTL's occasional signal loss, and even digital artifacts in unusual weather conditions. Ironic, considering it's an analogue service

Anyone know what feed NTL use for TV3 in their Galway transmissions?

I'm also on the Tuam side. A mile from Lachtgeorge down the side road from Terry Brennan's Tavern towards Corandulla.




well my parents live just off that same road as you and are in bungalow,so I can't believe the MMDS is that bad where u are.
The installer has fobbed you about TV 3,get a proper installerto put in a group C/D UHF aerial (10 element should be fine) as Maghera comes booming in on all channels where you are. He should also externally mount the VHF band 3 aerial for RTE1 and Net 2 and combine with the UHF one .Without a UHF aerial u wont be getting TG 4 properly either. You willsee a marked improvement on the UHF channels(TV3 and TG4), Btw ,what make of 100 hertz set have u got?

Also,what side of road are you going towards Corrandulla from Loughgeorge? Are you past the Bawmore School roadon the right before the bend? Just curious!

Galway

YEs.I forgot! All the Irish terrestrial signals are sourced by NTL from Maghera as that is the only place they can get clean signals from at Tonabrucky. As their transmit site is so high, the spectrum is full with adjacent UHF channels,so an installer riend of mine tells me. Irish UHF terrestrial signals come in from Castlebar,Cairn Hill (Longford), Truskmore, and deflector signals from Balla, Loughrea and God knows where else.

The UK terrestrials are picked on An MMDS link from Chorus at Keeper Hill, in Tipp. I think.They are beamed down to Keeper Hill from a receive site near the border. We think it is a freeview DTT signal from Divis cos some of the stuff appears in widescreen and there is never any co-channel interference now in hot weather(whats that? lol).Hope thats of interest.

Gwynston

I live just past the Bawnmore school junction. About 300 yards further towards Corandulla on the left - yellow 2-storey.

Interesting info about the UHF signal round there. When we first moved in, I only had a UK-bought TV which doesn't tune VHF, so I had to go the NTL route for two reasons: 1) The NTL Pace box tuner outputs the VHF stations converted to a UHF channel, and 2) I figured this was the only way to get TV3 and TG4, since we apparently couldn't get UHF aerial reception locally.

Now that we have the new TV (Sony 32" FX66 flat widescreen) with a built-in VHF tuner, we get RTE1 & N2 OK straight off the aerial in the loft. (And in fact I can feed the SCART output signal from this TV and feed it into the VCR which has an RF output to the old UK TV in the other room, which can now watch the RTE channels tuned by the Sony, while the Sony is actually displaying another channel from the SCART input from the NTL box!)

If NTL send the same local installer as last time (who I think was from Corandulla himself, so you'd think he'd know about the local UHF signal), I should be able to throw him a bit of cash and have him fit a UHF aerial. Then we're only relying on NTL for the UK channels, and as soon as ITV & C4 become available on Sky, I can ditch NTL at last!

MMDS picture quality is not bad really, but not nearly as good as RTE1 & N2 (and of course not a patch on DVDs with the new TV!). I think the 100Hz processing magnifies any signal graininess, especially when the 4:3 pictures are zoomed to fit the widescreen more. It's not a problem with clean signals.

In addition, there is interference on TV3 - narrow diagonal bands. Must be overlapping channels somewhere......

Originally posted by DMC
Or, on the other hand, you still have time to cancel, especially after CousinIain's report!:D

Well, it's a free upgrade, so I'll see how much better (!) it is. Of course, I will probably also lose the free Sky Premier and Sports 1,2&3 we've been getting for the past 18 months! I'm hoping the installer will just set up the same selection we're getting at the moment without having access to our account info, so he won't know what we're actually supposed to be getting

Galway

any contacts stilli in UK? You could buy a digibox outright there and then subscribe to sky by credit card or through UK bank account. Getting them to ring to ahve card activated. Digibox Uk channels would then do justice to your new set (SONY was best choice btw).

Gwynston

Yep, that's certainly an option if I can get the Irish channels on terrestrial aerial OK. It would also mean buying a minidish though - and having to install the whole lot

Galway

i would go for that if u can but u need a UK contact whose address you can use and it must be paid by credit card monthly or sterling account. Not that dear to get installer to put digibox in and dish etc, they are doing it all the time for the Irish digiboxes!

You will have better pic quality plus all the BBC1 and ITV1 regions, ITV 2 (wow!) Ch 4 and 5 plus BBC news 24,BBC 2 london, Wales,Scot and NI,BBC 3 and4, CBBC and Cbeebies for the kids, plus all the national BBC radio stations and a load of the commercial ones too. Not to mention all the normal Sky stuff. The only thing is you will have to get a non contract non subsidised box from the UK. I pay £18,.50 per month for all this.

Gwynston

Well, I have in-laws living in Berkshire, and I even still have a UK bank account, so this would be no problem. I'd need to buy a digibox AND a minidish (where do I get one of those from?), and pay for install, so it would be a few hundred quid up front.

I'll consider it after I've found out just how bad NTL's digital MMDS service is ......

Galway

All you would need to do is buy the box outright, about £200,apply for sky card using their address once your dish is up put it into the box and call them to activate it. What Satellite magazine (available in Eason's) has adverts from UK dealers that will sell and send a new non subsidy digibox. Then as I said apply for the card and ge the dish put in.

Gwynston

Well the NTL technician came as promised on Saturday, and it was the same guy who lives locally who set us up with MMDS initially last year. This meant I was able to discuss stuff with him and and got a bit of extra wiring done for free. He also sold me a UHF aerial for peanuts, so I can have a play with that in my own time and see if I can pick up TV3 and TG4 - in which case, buying a digibox and applying for a UK Sky account would be a solution for me to pick up the UK channels.

As for the MMDS digital setup - I was quite impressed! :eek: The new Pace STB and remote are at least a bit more aesthetic than the stone-age brick they replaced. The NTL programme listings and info is quite good - this was a bonus for me because I wasn't aware we'd get this as a nice alternative to teletext (which I mostly just used to look up TV listings). And most importantly, picture quality is good and sound is in stereo!

As has been mentioned, the stereo sound is not Nicam, but "some other kind of stereo". My TV's on screen display certainly displays the stereo symbol (but not the "Nicam" label which shows up on RTE1's aerial-received pictures), and when I fed audio into my surround amp, it was able to generate Dolby ProLogic surround sound from the signal.

As a bonus, the analogue MMDS signal is still also coming through, so by splitting the RF output and Scart output I can have two differnet TVs in the house watching different channels (as long as one of them is an unencrypted one). This is a bonus when I want to watch Champions League and the wife wants to watch Corrie on the other channel....! Also, I can still get teletext on the analogue channels - even if they are not decrypted.

So, I'm happy enough with the improved service for now. Let's just wait and see how reliable it proves to be.....