Chorus Ananlogue / Digital upgrade opinion sought...

bungeecork

Howdy All, We had Chorus (then CMC) installed around 20 years ago by 3 smelly guys in a dirty van. They ran the cable through the attic and pulled up 1/4 of the lagging there and left it rolled in a heap. They did a fairly non-neat job in a generally aggressive manner and my Mom needed a glass of something strong after they left The 2nd cable box was since moved upstairs by a lazy teenager (me, now a lazy 30+) and reception has degraded over the years as (I guess) the cables have aged. The remote control buttons hardly work on one remote and don't work at all on the other. Anyway, the point of all this is that my elderly parents are now afraid of calling Chorus in case they send any more aggressive "technicians" to the house.

So - I'm currently visiting with my folks and saw the Chorus bill and nearly fell off my chair. Euro 98.97 for 3 months seems a bit steep. I wanted to give them a Sky installation as a pressie but they don't want it (they've seen it at my brothers and don't want it / don't like it). So I'm thinking my choices are
1) an upgrade to Chorus Digital or
2) a reinstallation of Chorus analogue (including new cables and a separate cable for the bedroom cable box rather than my sticky tape extension from the 80's and shiny new remotes). The Chorus website seems intentionally vague, so here are my questions;
* am I crazy for thinking about an analogue reinstall?
* would Chorus even do Analogue installation / reinstallation these days?
* in Cork City is Chorus Digital delivered by cable or is it off-air (several strange new antennas on Cork rooftops since my last visit, are they for Chorus Digital)?
* does anyone know if their technicians are Chorus employees or lowest price contractors using false addresses?
I remember being bare-faced lied to by Chorus (when they were CMC), I remember their nasty tactics when distributing cable boxes, friends still living in Cork have nothing but stories of woe in dealing with Chorus customer service. But I wont be the customer here. I just want a fair deal for my parents. I would really appreciate any suggestions or recent Chorus (Cork City) experiences that you may have to offer. Thanks...

heffo999

As someone in the know you are probally better off getting upgraded to Chorus digital.When a new upgrade is done you will receive a new cable to that point.The decoder is very easy to us even if your parents are a little bit older.Things have moved on a lot since Cork Multi Channel and the company are upgrading the whole cable system in the city with all the southside done bar parts of Mahon/Blackrock/Grange which will be done in the next month or so and all the northside bar parts of mayfield.Even if your area is not upgraded yet you can receive Digital no problem.Also the contractors Chorus use now are professional and good at ther jobs and are held accountable for their actions
I hope this is of some use.

watty

The analog transmissions are often now very poor and could end anytime.

Why not get a FTA satellite system? Under 200 Euro and simple to operate. NOTHING per month to pay?

What do you folks dislike about Sky?

* Too many channels?
* No noise or herring bones on pictures?

From a living room point of view Chorus Digital is similar to Sky Digital, except less channels, poorer service. It does have C4, but there are ways to have that on a Satellite box too. Sky Subscription and FTA satellite do not have C4 and Five.


There is a Digital version of MMDS. Chorus, not the customer decides if they deliver by cable or MMDS dish. Basically unless the cable goes past your house it is MMDS dish.

A basic 2 mix pack Variety & Knowledge pack is 22 Euro a month.

All BBC & ITV and 70 radio plus CNN, Euronews and others is free, even with no sub.

The new owner may sort out Chorus/NTL, but that might be 3 months to 1 year away.

I costs about 100 Euro to 150 Euro to get a FTA non-Sky installed.

see ICDGopedia for details on FTA channels. Or www.lyngsat.com , Europe Frequencies, 28E

bungeecork

Thanks Watty: If it was my home and the installation was for me then I'd put in a FTA satellite and maybe even a motorised dish for sure. If the folks don't warm to somethig on their own they just plain wont like it. They hate babysitting at my brothers house (he has Sky) 'cause they hate sitting in the back room watching the portable - and they just wont use the Sky TV. What can I say, they're my folks!

Thanks heffo999: So if the cable upgrade has been done - Chorus Digital is via cable and if not it's by that square mesh dish-style antenna, yes?

watty

Well if they don't like it, they'll hate Chorus Digital.

Is there something scary about your brothers set up (10 remote controllers and complexity of changing channel?).

The analog MMDS and analog Cable will be gone soon and then no channel changing on the TV, only by set top box.

If the cable goes past their house its cable. If it is even 3 houses away, then its MMDS Digital.

bungeecork

Nothing scarey other than it's different from theirs. They are used to a cable box already (Chorus Analog in Cork City is scrambled and all users need a cable box to descramble it). Don't try to figure them out, they're just my folks and I love 'em Odd as anything where technology is concerned.

So the analogue cable already passes the house, they have analogue cable TV. Our semi-detached neighbours have a a wire-mesh-dish thingy on the roof, similar to some other homes in our area, all of which the analog cable passes by. So I'm curious to know if early adopters of digital - who already had analogue - needed a dish but now that the cable has been "upgraded" they don't. Maybe the dishes are for something else. I asked my neighbours what their dish was for. They didn't believe me that they had one 'til I took them outside to the street and showed them their own chimney!

Antenna

heffo999 wrote:

Things have moved on a lot since Cork Multi Channel and the company are upgrading the whole cable system in the city with all the southside done bar parts of Mahon/Blackrock/Grange which will be done in the next month or so and all the northside bar parts of mayfield.

Why have they not installed cable in new housing estates in the city in recent years, (considering cable has a lot more potential capability than MMDS) ??

bungeecork wrote:

I'm curious to know if early adopters of digital - who already had analogue - needed a dish but now that the cable has been "upgraded" they don't

It seems to be the case that they had to use MMDS for digital in many cabled areas, the cable network must not be good enough in those areas for digital? This is the case with friends of mine in Wilton, they had Chorus analogue via cable, but when they got digital an MMDS aerial had to be installed on the house.

bungeecork

Thanks everyone. I'll see if I can arrange an install of Digital on the understanding that if another dish is required (after they "measure the cable signal" as Chorus just put it on the phone) then we cancel the installation (folks don't want another dish on the roof!) Does anyone know how the Chorus Digital channels are arranged for the FTA channels? (ie is RTE1 on channel 14 and RTE 2 on channel 8 etc.)

watty

Digital MMDS uses the same roof gear as Analog MMDS, Just a different box. There is only one channel on TV (RF modulator) or SCART. It's really just like Sky digital except fewer channels, BBC & ITV from analog 4:3 feeds converted to Digital rather than Digital directly.

The box is very similar (identical?) to Chorus Digital Cable (Sagem?).

Someone that has it please help out "bungeecork".

If you want "multiroom" they offer to feed the ANALOG MMDS signal also! So you have the existing analog box too.

Freddie59

bungeecork wrote:

Howdy All, We had Chorus (then CMC) installed around 20 years ago by 3 smelly guys in a dirty van. They ran the cable through the attic and pulled up 1/4 of the lagging there and left it rolled in a heap. They did a fairly non-neat job in a generally aggressive manner and my Mom needed a glass of something strong after they left The 2nd cable box was since moved upstairs by a lazy teenager (me, now a lazy 30+) and reception has degraded over the years as (I guess) the cables have aged. The remote control buttons hardly work on one remote and don't work at all on the other. Anyway, the point of all this is that my elderly parents are now afraid of calling Chorus in case they send any more aggressive "technicians" to the house.

So - I'm currently visiting with my folks and saw the Chorus bill and nearly fell off my chair. Euro 98.97 for 3 months seems a bit steep. I wanted to give them a Sky installation as a pressie but they don't want it (they've seen it at my brothers and don't want it / don't like it). So I'm thinking my choices are
1) an upgrade to Chorus Digital or
2) a reinstallation of Chorus analogue (including new cables and a separate cable for the bedroom cable box rather than my sticky tape extension from the 80's and shiny new remotes). The Chorus website seems intentionally vague, so here are my questions;
* am I crazy for thinking about an analogue reinstall?
* would Chorus even do Analogue installation / reinstallation these days?
* in Cork City is Chorus Digital delivered by cable or is it off-air (several strange new antennas on Cork rooftops since my last visit, are they for Chorus Digital)?
* does anyone know if their technicians are Chorus employees or lowest price contractors using false addresses?
I remember being bare-faced lied to by Chorus (when they were CMC), I remember their nasty tactics when distributing cable boxes, friends still living in Cork have nothing but stories of woe in dealing with Chorus customer service. But I wont be the customer here. I just want a fair deal for my parents. I would really appreciate any suggestions or recent Chorus (Cork City) experiences that you may have to offer. Thanks...

AFAIK Chorus were NEVER CMC in Cork (and that would actually have been CMI - Cable Management Ireland). They were originally Irish Multichannel - then when taken over by Princes Holdings (who owned Limerick) and the subsequent buyouts of CMI and others they then became Chorus.:)

paulm17781

I'm not certain. An ex of mine from Cork refered to them as multichannel many times though.

bungeecork

They came to life and traded for many years as "Cork Multi-Channel" (CMC).

Freddie59

bungeecork wrote:

They came to life and traded for many years as "Cork Multi-Channel" (CMC).

Ah - I see now.:)

ribenaro

As a previous Analogue customer and a current Digitial one maybe I can shed a bit of light

The wire mesh aerial is for the analogue signal. It comes through a set box in my area. I upgraded to digital and had a metal aerial installed instead to pick up the digital signal, which I have to say is perfect. It's ever so slightly different for your folks to use but far easier than Sky. My folks have analogue and I couldn't imagine them ever mastering the remote for Sky. They're hard pressed to master Chorus, you're folks don't sound much better than mine

It only costs an extra €2 or so to upgrade to digital and would be a much better option for them. If you pay by direct debit it might be €1 less a month. I think it works out at €27.99 pm for one connection and €10 extra for a second connection whereas analogue is €23.99 for one connection and €6 for the extra connection. They are advertising a second digital connection at €5 pm now but my bill 2 weeks ago was still at €10. Be warned that you will be charged €50 installation fee when you upgrade. Sometimes they have an offer for free installation so keep an eye out.

bungeecork

Thanks Ribenaro. I wonder about the dish though, my next-door neighbours used to be on analogue cable, just like us/my folks, but now they have a mesh dish (and they don't remember why )
I ordered the digital yesterday and it's being installed this Wednesday. They operator told me of their special offer for new digital connections of a second box for €5. I'll be a bit miffed if that turns out to be just for a few months and then jumps up to €10.

I wonder how they'll handle the end of analogue when all the current upgrades are finished.

watty

They will eventually turn off analog.

bungeecork

Thanks all for your comments. The analogy was removed and replaced with shiny new cables today. The installer was a perfect gent, had a clean van and clean tools. The shabby CMC installation was totally removed and replaced with the current Chorus equipment.

56 channels on the basic, but nothing very exciting over the old analogue choice (the "Trouble" channel, woohoo!)

3-5 second delay changing channel, but still better than that huge power surge on analogue.

Tell you what though - the reception is perfect, but the digital quality is $h1t3 on some channels. On tonight's BB eviction the camera flashes were highly pixelated. On Everybody Loves Raymond (Paramount Comedy), the compression/pixelation (what is the right word here) was annoyingly obvious.

Is this the glorious future? Perfect reception for a bad picture

watty

Well you were advised to have Satellite, but some channels on it are poor too.
This is why I think apart from maybe 10 channels HDTV is not going to be as big a thing as 405Line B&W to 625Line coulour, and no advantage at all on a 26"/28" or less TV.