Considering replacing Sky with NTL mmds digital

Dr. Nick

.....coz I'm moving to west Cork soon from the north-east, so my wife will miss UTV n CH4 from our aerial pointed to Fermanagh.

- How much for the basic package?
- What are the pros n cons?
- Are there alternatives? (I want to keep Sky Sports and a few other Sky channels i currently have)
- What's the connection fee?
- Are NTL as bad as everyone (seems to) say?

Bottom line - I'm losing UTV and CH4 (I don't mind too much btw, it's the missus ) so what are the options?

thanks in advance.

icdg

Okay, first things first - in Cork it is not NTL, but Chorus you will need to consider for digital MMDS. (And for the first time, I will say consider yourself lucky it is Chorus rather than NTL. NTL Digital MMDS is VERY basic...)

Chorus Digital MMDS is EUR 28, which is about the same price as the Sky Family Pack. You will get most of the major entertainment channels from the Sky Family Pack such as E4, Bravo, Paramount, UK Gold, Living TV, and Granada Plus. But with only thirty-odd channels you may find the service limited in comparision with Sky.

The connection fee is EUR 50.

You will be able to get UTV and Channel 4 on Chorus. The only other alternative is Sky, which as you mention does not cover UTV and Channel 4.

You may if you're lucky be able to pick up UTV and Channel 4 off-air via a deflector, but that depends on where you are going to live.

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by icdg
Okay, first things first - in Cork it is not NTL, but Chorus you will need to consider for digital MMDS. (And for the first time, I will say consider yourself lucky it is Chorus rather than NTL. NTL Digital MMDS is VERY basic...)

Chorus Digital MMDS is EUR 28, which is about the same price as the Sky Family Pack. You will get most of the major entertainment channels from the Sky Family Pack such as E4, Bravo, Paramount, UK Gold, Living TV, and Granada Plus. But with only thirty-odd channels you may find the service limited in comparision with Sky.

The connection fee is EUR 50.

You will be able to get UTV and Channel 4 on Chorus. The only other alternative is Sky, which as you mention does not cover UTV and Channel 4.

You may if you're lucky be able to pick up UTV and Channel 4 off-air via a deflector, but that depends on where you are going to live.

thanks for that. i put up a question about deflectors in the terrestial section, and one about changing my sky package on the satellite one (new contract is best i think)

all options remain open at this point.

thanks again.

watty

Keep Sky till after you get connected to Chorus and then only cancel sub.

* Sky do VERY cheap reinstall with new Dish and LNB

* You still get lots of decent channels on Sky not on Chorus, EVEN WITHOUT a subscription (i.e. Watch/Record EIGHT BBC TV, TCM, Performance, Extreme Sports etc on a different TV/VHS to one on UTV/Chorus)

* You still have TV while you wait for Chorus or wait for Chorus to fix.


Remember all the Sky gear is yours from day1.
UTV will be FTA very likely on Staellite before you pay a year of Chorus.

For pay TV if there is a Chorus problem you can get the payt channels turned back on in minutes for a minimum of 1 month.


So you can have your cake and eat it.

Repower your Sky box at mains with card wrong way up to see which channels you still get with no Sub. (Ignore error messages, press guide and select BBC1 at 101 to start with).

Dr. Nick

Rang chorus and got a non-interested fecker who couldn't have cared less about my enquiry before telling me that chorus mmds wasn't available in the town i'm moving to.

think i'll stick with sky and wait for utv/c4.....all i'd heard about chorus confirmed in one phonecall.

watty

If you can get a UK (inc NI) address a Sky card that does UTV/C4/Five is possible. Not as easy or cheap as it was, but possible.

Alternately if getting a Sky sub *AT ALL*, get it at the UK address and ITV (all regions), C4 and Five replace RTE1, Net2, TV3, TG4 (which ought to be OK from Spur Hill nr Bishopstown) and still work if you later cancel.

If further west, you might need a relay station (UHF only all channels) or Mullaganish (VHF and UHF aerials).