Chorus EPG a complete mess

PK - the king

I was flicking through the channels on me relatives chorus digital and realised how much of a total mess the channel lineups are. Unlike NTL or Sky, who group their channels in order of type, Chorus just have them shoved in any aul random fashion. I know that this was because they used to have Chorus Intro, 1, 2, 3, and other different packages available, and that channels were grouped by package, but you think they'd have re-arranged their EPG? Especially now that all the sky movies and the extra BBC's were added, the EPG makes no sense!

Also, why are the BBC 1, 2, UTV and CH4 not in Widescreen format, even though BBC 3, BBC 4 are?

channelsurfer

the reason they are not in widescreen per say is that the feed is taken from the terrestrial northern ireland signal which is only allowed.. they cannot broadcast the satellite bbc1 signal or itv digital signal because of the same reason itv is not on sky ireland.. as for the epg you can change it around yourself unlike skys epg so that you can pick your own lineup in any order. quite good i think.. could do with more channels though..

Go Figure!

Originally posted by channelsurfer
the reason they are not in widescreen per say is that the feed is taken from the terrestrial northern ireland signal which is only allowed.. they cannot broadcast the satellite bbc1 signal or itv digital signal because of the same reason itv is not on sky ireland..

How come NTL Digital can make these channels available in their Widescreen Formats and Chorus can't?

patrickmooney

I might be totally wrong here, but from what I know, NTL gets the feed from their UK network.

sirlinux

On last check depending on weather etc, chorus were taking the feed from either a consumer grade digibox and re encoding again through mpeg2 (and you wondered why the pic was so blocky), or else using an analog feed. In cmi days the infamous NTL microwave link was used to source BBC.

JTMan

It is not just the small channel lineup (about a quarter of the number of stations that ntl have?) that is a complete mess ... it is the whole company.

As someone who has used ntl, sky and chorus at some stage or another I have never seen a relatively worse service that chrous digital. lets hope they don't get refinanced and new management sort out the mess that is Chorus.

NeverHappy

Having just moved to a Chorus area, and still having access to NTL at my parents house, I'm disgusted. I chose Chorus because they had UTV/CH4 and the option of an MMDS analogue box for the bedroom. It also has SS xtra, the only plus.

EPG is awful.

-Cant roam through other channels without losing 80% of the vieable area.
-Can only see now/next.
-the lack of any thought into arrangement is crap.
-no way of setting favourites (that I can see)
-easy for the kids to knock off the channels, as the remote allows you to change frequency
-4 radio stations?
-the mmds box has no RTE/N2, it has only 12 channels, of which 5 are PPV(analogue Sky sports and movies). So I only get 7 channels. CRAP.

I could go on.

I never thought, and I mean never, that I would say this - Give me back NTL -aaagghh.

I will wait a while an switch to SKY.

On that note, I heard rumblings that sky uk are going to change their offering soon, something about free channelling, not sure.

NH

PK - the king

Originally posted by patrickmooney
I might be totally wrong here, but from what I know, NTL gets the feed from their UK network.

Yeah, that's absolutely correct. I forget that a lot of ntl's channels are sourced via a fibre optic link from mainland Wales to Dublin, under the Irish sea, which is why they appear via Widescreen. But can chorus not "piggyback" on the ntl digital signal for BBC 1 & 2 (1 & 2 are available on sky ireland, in widescreen)? Also, since BBC 3 & 4 are not available on sky in Ireland, why are these still in Widescreen on chorus? Surely, UTV is the same deal?

PK - the king

I had a feeling chorus were sourcing from ntl's analogue network. If you watch BBC 1 on digi & BBC 1 on analogue, the sound is perfectly synched. With ntl though, the fact that they must re-encode the fibre optic signal caused their digi to lag 3-5 seconds behind their analogue. Chorus doesn't - obviously because they just have a terrible setup!!! The BBC/ITV signals are absolutely awful - grainy & blocky.

Panzer81

I have to laugh at playboy and disney being next to one another.

PK - the king

Yeah, I know!!! What a stupid place to put it!!!