NTL/UPS analogue picture degraded?

mike65

I might be imagining this but I feel the analogue picture quality is slowly going downhill. RTE1 is particularly poor but they all have an increasingly 'misty' look. Maybe its the quality of digital making me more critical but I'd almost suspect a plot to get people to subscribe to digi.

Mike.

Aquos76

mike65 wrote:

I might be imagining this but I feel the analogue picture quality is slowly going downhill. RTE1 is particularly poor but they all have an increasingly 'misty' look. Maybe its the quality of digital making me more critical but I'd almost suspect a plot to get people to subscribe to digi.

Mike.

Your spot on Mike, it is a plot.The way ntl look at things is that if they can manage to get all there customers switched over to digital by continuing to offer 6 months free basic digital, then when people ring up and complain about their anoluge reception, the CS people will say that it must be ok if you digital channels are fine.

gerryo

Aquos76 wrote:

Your spot on Mike, it is a plot.The way ntl look at things is that if they can manage to get all there customers switched over to digital by continuing to offer 6 months free basic digital, then when people ring up and complain about their anoluge reception, the CS people will say that it must be ok if you digital channels are fine.

I am amazed no one complains more about the great digital rip-off, where the picture quality might be better (encoding artifacts notwithstanding) but customers have to purchase extra boxes for multi room viewing.

A money spinner if ever there was one.
Since cable customers can't purchase their own equipment like satellite users can, why not have multiple decoders in the main box, outputted over RF with some sort of remote control of channel changing via the co-ax.

Provide at least the same facilities as Sky+ & you might keep customers happier when your customer service is poor.

Mossy Monk

gerryo wrote:

Provide at least the same facilities as Sky+ & you might keep customers happier when your customer service is poor.

if you are not happy with ntl, then why don't you cancel?

no wonder companies provide **** service when people pay and put up with it

Mountjoy Mugger

Mossy Monk wrote:

if you are not happy with ntl, then why don't you cancel?

no wonder companies provide **** service when people pay and put up with it

Lots of people have no choice but to put up with the ***** service, especially if they live in apartment complexes that won't allow dishes, and they want a little more than RTE etc.

Are you saying there's an alternative?

Freddie59

Aquos76 wrote:

Your spot on Mike, it is a plot.The way ntl look at things is that if they can manage to get all there customers switched over to digital by continuing to offer 6 months free basic digital, then when people ring up and complain about their anoluge reception, the CS people will say that it must be ok if you digital channels are fine.

Have a look at post #16 in this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054998456

gerryo

Mossy Monk wrote:

if you are not happy with ntl, then why don't you cancel?

no wonder companies provide **** service when people pay and put up with it

I never said I was unhappy with ntl, how did you reach that conclusion?

If it was really **** service, I'd be long gone.

I simply mentioned (as part of the general discussion on analog picture degradation) how there was no real outcry from consumers re the transition from analog to digital; going from having all channels available simultaneously to having only one available to view (decoded).

I was pointing out how Sky attempt to address this with Sky+, where as NTL offer an extra box at reduced cost.

I also point out that this increases revenues for NTL, the customer loses multiview capability (analog) & has to buy it back when they go digital.

Ok, there are a few extra channels, but with one box, you can only watch one at a time.

I knew this before I signed up for NTL, but how many customers did not?

Mossy Monk

gerryo wrote:

I never said I was unhappy with ntl, how did you reach that conclusion?

i never said you were. i said if you were

gerryo

Mossy Monk wrote:

i never said you were. i said if you were

Yes - you did

I'm still really interested to hear your opinion on which part of my post implied I may be unhappy with NTL. I never mentioned NTL, I never said I was an NTL customer (I am btw), I did quote Aquos76 who does mention NTL.

I did mention the great digital rip-off, you can't blame NTL for that

Antenna

mike65 wrote:

. RTE1 is particularly poor but they all have an increasingly 'misty' look.

I receive perfect terrestrial (analogue) reception, not via cable.

A lot of the non-live output on RTE TV looks appalling due to lossy digital compression recording. I don't know how it is tolerated? Standards are not that low in the UK.
On many (non-live) RTE shows - for example scene of an audience clapping or lip movement (of someone speaking) look so unnatural.

Oireachtas Report is just one example of a programme which looks awful (picture quality wise).


If there is another stage of lossy compression-decompression by a multichannel provider, the cascaded effect makes matters worse