NTL Multiroom queries

kippy

Hi all,
Some newbie questions here which the NTL site doesnt seem to answer.
I will soon be moving into new four bed house.
Ideally, this is what I would like to achive at the cheapest cost (from my research so far the NTL options seem the cheapest)
There is a TV point in every room, including the living room and kitchen.
I would like to have Sky Sports as well as the standard package. I would also like all the channels available in every room however not having the sky sports available in all rooms would not be an issue.
From what I can see so far-for sky sports you need the digital package and as such a digital decoder for each seperate TV that you want to pipe too. Is this a correct assumption or is there a way I can work around this?
I also intend to use NTL for broadband and then use a blueface package on top of this. Keeping the whole cost down is obviously the main aim.

Thanks in advance,
Kippy

bk

Ok it sounds like you want to connect 6 rooms (4 bedrooms, living room, kitchen).

You have a couple of different options.

Living Room (or whatever primary TV watching room you choose):
NTL Digital (120 chanels) + sport = €54pm

You can then split the analogue TV signal from this box to each of the other 5 rooms, this will give you the basic 17 analogue channels for free. You'll have to do this yourself our NTL will charge for the extra points, but it is easy to do. Make sure to use a high quality splitters and cable or the pq will suck.

You can optionally get a digital mirror sub. This will give you a digital decoder, with everything that is on the first box (120 channels + sport in your case) in a second room for just €5pm.

So to connect all 6 rooms with 120 channel digital TV and sport would cost €79pm

Of course you can pick and choose which rooms have Digital and which have analogue, to save a few bob.

BTW NTL are currently giving the analogue service free for the first 12 months if you sign up to BB and are a new customer. So take €20 off all the above estimates for the first 12 months (€54 -> €34, €79 -> €59).

Dodge

bk wrote:

You can then split the analogue TV signal from this box to each of the other 5 rooms, this will give you the basic 17 analogue channels for free. You'll have to do this yourself our NTL will charge for the extra points, but it is easy to do. Make sure to use a high quality splitters and cable or the pq will suck.

We do this. Make sure the original signal is taking from you video and you can also watch the Digital through that (second scart lead from digibox into video). Video channel should be tune-able (?!) on other tvs. it'll be controlled by the main one and obviously whatever they're watching will be viewable only

kippy

Cheers guys,
Much appreciated.
One thing to clear up.....
If I get a second digital decoder you mentioned an increase in cosr of a fiver a month for that but also a secondary fee for another subscription to digital.
Surely I would not have to pay this fee.....

bk

kippy wrote:

Cheers guys,
Much appreciated.
One thing to clear up.....
If I get a second digital decoder you mentioned an increase in cosr of a fiver a month for that but also a secondary fee for another subscription to digital.
Surely I would not have to pay this fee.....

No there is only one cost of a fiver.

Basically how it breaks down:
- Analogue: €20 (Might be free for 12 months if you sign up for BB, you need to ask), you most get analogue to get digital.
- First Digital Box (120 Channel): €10
- Sport on first box: €24
- Each additional box (mirrors whatever you have on the first box including sport): €5

kippy

Cheers BK,
Thats exactly what I needed to know,
Kippy

MartMax

i just rang NTL sales office, installation is €25 and as we all know it is €5 extra per each STB. the installation fee covers the wiring and all the digging works. i'm wondering how much work is it since i don't have a point in my apartment.

a bit off topic, anyone has done this before?

Blaster99

Despite bk's claims of the opposite, they will also charge you 2.something per room for the analogue service. If you install it yourself this does not apply (but you're more than likely in breach of contract but who cares) but if you add digital to any of those other rooms, it will be €5 + €2.whatever.

bk

Blaster99 wrote:

Despite bk's claims of the opposite, they will also charge you 2.something per room for the analogue service. If you install it yourself this does not apply (but you're more than likely in breach of contract but who cares) but if you add digital to any of those other rooms, it will be €5 + €2.whatever.

That is simply not true, I've got my last NTL bill right here. They installed two extra NTL points for me, for my digital and I'm not charged anything extra for the points (well obviously the €5 for each mirror sub).

If for whatever reason you have digital and are still being charged €2 for the point, then ring, complain and they will remove that charge straight away.

MartMax

well, do they normal drill the wall and floors or just stick around long cables into the house, especial apartment?

rogue-entity

You are charged for the extra points, at least in Waterford anyway.
We have 6tvs. 2 Downstairs and 5 upstairs. The two downstairs are fed as follows. Cable enters the house and is split, one end runs to another splitter to feed the downstairs TV points. On runs upstairs and is split again to feed three of the upstairs TVs. These three upstairs dont have points, just the "raw" cable runs straight into the TV (installed this way by an NTL subcontractor, and NTL is aware of it). The quality upstairs was appaling, so we got a second run straight from the master tap outside to my room upstairs, and from that point in my room the output is split and feeds my TV and a TV in the room next door.

NTL charge us, 20/mnth for the Analogue service + 1 TV point. 3/month for the second point downstairs and 6/mnth for the one point in my room which is actualy supplying 2 TVs. I could always ring NTL and tell them that we no longer want the TV "point" in the second room and just run a cable to that TV just like before and we would then have that "point" for free, like we should have anyway.

We have digital in one room downstairs only and it costs us ~65/mnth.

To the best of my knowledge NTL only charge for the sockets. Anything after that is your property and you can run what ever you want from it AFAIK. So I dont believe NTL should be charging us for that extra point we are not using. But since I dont pay the NTL bill, my Dad does, and I have told him this, I wont be losing any sleep over it.

bk

mart_max wrote:

well, do they normal drill the wall and floors or just stick around long cables into the house, especial apartment?

It depends on what is needed and best for your situation. My setup is a 3 bed, two storey semi, with only downstairs connected. I wanted to get Digital in two of the bedrooms upstairs, so they ran a cable from the NTL cabinet on the outside of the house up behind a drain pipe (you can't see the cable) to the roof, into the attic, along the attic to the two bedrooms, they then drilled a hole in the attic roof and dropped the cable into each of the bedrooms.

Dodge

3 bed semi. When we moved in tv point was already in living room. (drilled hole in wall)

When we were getting broadband in a room upstairs, they drilled a new hole in that room. As they were doing it they spotted a tv in the room and asked did we have that connected. We said no (having removed the dodgy connection the previous evening) and they installed a brand new tv point upstairs. It appears on our bill but its down as costing nothing. Am lokking into getting digital set up there too, so grateful for all the views here

Alun

Same kind of thing happene to us. We moved into our house that had one point in the living room and one in three of the four bedrooms which had been put in by the previous owner. When we took over the ntl: account, they appeared on our bill as an extra charge. I rang them, explained that we didn't want or need them and anyway we hadn't actually asked for them to be installed in the first place. They now appear on the bill with a zero charge.

MartMax

was on the phone with ntl sales earlier, offer is still running €25 for installation and €5 extra a month per additional box wt all channels in the first box... unfortunately, there high demands, next available appointment is at the end of may! :eek:

Freddie59

Blaster99 wrote:

Despite bk's claims of the opposite, they will also charge you 2.something per room for the analogue service.

No they won't - bk is correct.:)