The Mysteries of Chorus Analogue Cable

Niall1234

1. Why do everybody outside of County Cork, only get 13 channels ?
2. How can they get away with turning Eurosport over to Premiership Plus eventhough people are paying for Eurosport ?
3. Why they can't show MTV outside of Cork ?
4. How they get away with the ridiculous advertising. "Unmisable channels such as Chorus Sports and MGM Movies" (Funnilly enough I can do without these channels for the 200+ extra you get on sky digital.)
5. The constant bad picture.
6. The constant interference on certain channels (namely Discovery) when the modulation seems to change once a minute (rendering the channel unwatchable)
7. The swtiching of BBC, ITV and C4 from analogue to digital feeds, rendering teletex unusuable at different times.

Just bizarre.

Scobie

Niall1234 wrote:

1. Why do everybody outside of County Cork, only get 13 channels ?
2. How can they get away with turning Eurosport over to Premiership Plus eventhough people are paying for Eurosport ?
3. Why they can't show MTV outside of Cork ?
4. How they get away with the ridiculous advertising. "Unmisable channels such as Chorus Sports and MGM Movies" (Funnilly enough I can do without these channels for the 200+ extra you get on sky digital.)
5. The constant bad picture.
6. The constant interference on certain channels (namely Discovery) when the modulation seems to change once a minute (rendering the channel unwatchable)
7. The swtiching of BBC, ITV and C4 from analogue to digital feeds, rendering teletex unusuable at different times.

Just bizarre.

1. I am outside Cork and get 15 channels.
2. Agree.
3. They do. I have it.
4. I don't get the local chorus channel.
5. Yes the reception is bad. Because of circumstances I have no other choice at the moment. I can't wait to ditch them.
6. I don't have Discovery - MTV instead.
7. Yes. Very annoying. Have contacted them about this and they put it down to essential maintenance.

Niall1234

Hmm. Interesting. I was wrong btw, 15 channels alright.

1. RTE 1
2. RTE 2
3. BBC 1
4. BBC 2
5. UTV
6. C4
7. Sky Sports 1
8. Sky Movies
9. Eurosport
10. Sky One
11. Sky News.
12. Discovery Home and Leisure/ Discovery Channel/Local Channel.
13. TV3.
14. TG4.
15. Sky Sports 2

We used to have MTV like 10 years ago but it got cut off for some reason.
Dunno would I take MTV now though. No music at all.

watty

Any time I had it because it was already there I ditched it. Four decent channels via Aerial sitting on hedge was better.

On a friends apartment block in Limerick they arn't allowed a dish on wall or balcony. So everyone puts them on the roof. Can't be seen from the road.


So out of 15 channels:
One needs a FTV card (C4)
Four are better quality via an aerial (RTE, TV3 , TG4)
Four are Free To air without a Sub. on Satellite.
One is free To Air for German Version (Eurosport)
Four or Five can only be got on A pay Satellite Sub.

Essentially you pay Chorus for four channels.

The Basic 22 Euro Sky has Two mix packs out of six and has about 29 Pay channels and also WITHOUT ANY SKY Sub:

FIVE ITV + all regions free.
Eight BBC + 3 other Nation BBC2 and all BBC1 regions
70 Radio channels
A bunch of Pop Music free
A bunch of News channels free
A bunch of mediocre channels free
A bunch of Religious channels
Various Ethnic.
Loads of Shopping channels.

Chorus needs to offer EVERY analog subscriber about 60 Channels Digital at same price or they will lose Analog MMDS & Cable to Free Satellite (All the gear less than years sub to Chorus).

Or include cable based Broadband/ phone services cheap too.

Add a 100 Euro motor and over 1000 TV and over 1000 Radio, Delete most and just keep the 20 to 100 you really want.

Solair

As I'm sure you know Chorus was formed from umpteen different mergers of smaller cable companies. They had big plans to roll out a pretty comprehensive digital package using the Chorus Digital brand but, due to serious financial difficulties it never quite happened as planned.

The existing analogue line ups are the legacy of the older cable companies. Each network uses different technologies and has different bandwidth. They also have seperate headends on analogue (although some of the channels may be sourced from the chorus digital feed)

Basically you can't generalise about Chorus Analogue. It's not a uniform product.

Hopefully, after UPC merges the assets of NTL Ireland and Chorus and starts pouring some money in things will improve drastically!

I'm not holding my breath though. The cable industry in Ireland has been full of a lot of empty promises.

Niall1234

Hmm. Just looking at price today.

3 months for CHorus Analogue (without Sky Sports or Sky Movies) is €81 for 3 months.
Sky Digital with the entire family pack is only €90 for 3 months.


I really do not know how Chorus are getting away with this.

Freddie59

Niall1234 wrote:

Hmm. Just looking at price today.

3 months for CHorus Analogue (without Sky Sports or Sky Movies) is €81 for 3 months.
Sky Digital with the entire family pack is only €90 for 3 months.


I really do not know how Chorus are getting away with this.

Hi there. I'm with NTL and currently have the following setup:

Basic cable (17 channels) €20 per month
Baisc digital (over 100 TV & radio channels) €10 per moth.

Comes to same price as Sky Family pack (but I can use the analogue in different rooms) If I want I can get another digital box for €5 per month.

I also have NTL Broadband (1 Meg) for €25 per month.

Lastly, Blueface phone €10 per month for unlimited calls to Irish landlines 24 hours a day.

So for €65 per month I am covered for all TV, broadband, and phone requirements.:)

And no phone line rental.:D

bungeecork

Does anyone with analogue in Cork City have audio on RTE2 that's twice a loud as any other channel?

And why - really, could anyone tell me why, is E4 on channel 3 and TV3 on channel 4? Why on earth, on earth!, are the channels arranged like that?

Just venting now, but years ago when Chorus in Cork was known as "Multi-Channel", they actually censored an item on Tomorrows World about the latest in cable TV. They blanked the screens on BBC1 until the item was over. Grrr! I'm STILL bummed over that, and it happenned in the 80's !! Must learn to let go.

watty

Freddie59 wrote:

Hi there. I'm with NTL and currently have the following setup:

Basic cable (17 channels) €20 per month
Baisc digital (over 100 TV & radio channels) €10 per moth.

Comes to same price as Sky Family pack (but I can use the analogue in different rooms) If I want I can get another digital box for €5 per month.

<snip>

Really 30 Euro NTL compared with under 22 Euro Sky.

Sky Family pack is gone. You pick 2, 4 or 6 mix packs from
Knowledge
Variety
Pop/Music
Kids
Lifestyle
News.

Then Sports and/or Movies and various other premium channels (Playboy, Setanta, Disney ) can be added to the 2, 4 or 6 packs.

Most folks regard the Variety + Knowledge as a good basic package of about 29 pay channels for just under 22 Euro.

All the BBC (8+ variations) and All ITV(4+ variations), Men & Motors, 70 Radio and 10 to 30 other channels (depending on taste) are really free. You get them even if you don't subscribe. Rugby on S4C~Digitdol.

Sky3 now works on an Irish cancelled viewing card. SkyNews, Euronews, CNN, BBC News24, 5 Pop channels, 4 Kiddy channels, Extreme Sports, Reality TV all free, no sub needed.

I have one Sky box with 2 mix packs and 3 other Digital Satellite receivers on FTA channels all free, nothing per month
(
2nd Sky Box: Free Sky channels over 30 decent out of 200 TV, 70 Radio
FTA Motorised Box: About 1500 TV and 1300 Radio from 20 Satellites
FTA Satellite Card in PC: About 800 TV and 700 Radio from 4 Satellites.
)

Antenna

bungeecork wrote:

And why - really, could anyone tell me why, is E4 on channel 3 and TV3 on channel 4? Why on earth, on earth!, are the channels arranged like that?

It was the case several years ago, that RTE 1 was on '1' and NET2 was on '4'
on Cork cable decoders.

The reasoning behind this was that the cable RTE1/NET2 frequencies would be roughly** the same as the off-air Mullaghanish band III broadcasts, and that any noticeable 'ghosts' (due to leakage/ingress) of the same TV channel would be less objectionable than a different channel .

The channel frequency relationship on the analogue boxes is set in stone , i.e. 1 = 176MHz

When TV3 started it was put on number 6 (216MHz)
However shortly after TV3 started, TV3 seemingly did a secret deal with some (including Cork) cable companies (much to RTE's anger) to the effect the the positions of NET2 and TV3 would be swapped!!!!
so TV3 moved from 6 to 4, and vice versa with the then Network 2


(** not exactly the same due to Cork cable using 8MHz harmonic related carrier frequencies i.e. 1 = 176MHz , 2= 184MHz, 3= 192MHz ,4= 200MHz etc )

Freddie59

watty wrote:

Really 30 Euro NTL compared with under 22 Euro Sky.
Sky Family pack is gone.

Thanks for that Watty. I forgot that the Sky Family pack was in or around the same as the NTL €10 per month one (as opposed to €30). So you get less channels for the €22.:)

And I am also up by €24 per month (no phone line rental).

And I have all my monthly landline calls for just €10.

You're dead right of course - if it's just TV the system you point out probably can't be beaten. But if you want convenience and cost effectiveness then I'll be staying put personally!;)

watty

Less channels than what when you include the FTA?

Eircom line rental is the killer. I'm getting rid of that 27 Euro a month waste as soon as my Digiweb Wireless phone is connected. The 3m BB on it is fine.

If you want phone, BB and pay TV and can get Digital cable it is good value. For basic TV alone, no.