BBC2 & Living TV on NTL Analogue, Ballinteer Area

VERYinterested

During the summer, the above two channels were unwatchable. Called NTL they came out and replaced old cable from box on roof to box internally which they also replaced. Made no difference, engineer said that adjustment needed to be made at box out on the Main Road. Two months later, the problem was resolved although Living TV was still a bit ropey. Last Thursday week the problem returned. All other channels are fine, but these two are wrecking my head. Rang Support a few times and could not get through, e-mailed them and a week later got a failure message on the delivery of the mail. I persevered yesterday morning, on hold for 20 minutes, and got speaking to someone. Told them the problem, doesn't want to know about it being a problem out at the main road but wants to send an engineer. But wait she's having a problem with the Scheduling Software!! Can I call you back to schedule an appointment? Yes, of course you can! Still waiting for that call. :rolleyes:

stiofanD

Hey, I had the same problem with BBC2 a few months back. Got an engineer out too but he couldn't fix it. It eventually cleared up itself and was fine for a few months, but last week BBC2 went to sh*te again. Its like someone in NTL just flicked a switch an turned on something thats interfering with the signal!

BTW I'm in Ballyboden.

VERYinterested

I'm in Llewellyn estate, will you do me a favour and ring (1800 321 321) them and report it, otherwise they'll do nothing about it. It's not as if we're getting the service for free plus, they have a price rise in the pipeline :eek:

gashead

Possibly RTE transmissions from Three Rock causing interference. Might not be ntl/upc at fault.

bazzer

RTE from Three Rock doesn't cause any sort of interference to NTL channels.

You wont get much help from NTL these days. They are currently in the middle of re-organising themselves after being bought by the UPC Ireland Group. The customer service staff don't give a **** since a lot of them will be laid off soon due the merger with Chorus under this new deal.

Looks like you have three options:
- Persevere with calling NTL
- Make a complaint to the relevant regulator (ComReg) about NTL
- Switch to Sky.

watty

gashead wrote:

Possibly RTE transmissions from Three Rock causing interference. Might not be ntl/upc at fault.

If Terrestrial TX cause problems on cable (and it does) it IS the cable co fault for having "leaky bits".

It's a well known problem near Three rock and world wide. I think DAB causes promblems on dodgy segments.

VERYinterested

We got a callback yesterday from NTL to say that they'll be out on the 25th to view the fault that we reported on Dec 10th. Then the penny drops that that's Christmas day, cue aggressive backtracking by caller. "Eh, we don't work Christmas Day" I reminded her that it was she who called me to suggest the appointment and offered her the opportunity to revise the schedule, they are coming out "before the end of the week", it will be a total waste of time as it is a recurrence of a fault that first started last Spring. :rolleyes:

bronn

I live in Ballinteer, near Ticknock, and I’ve been having this exact problem with NTL since early this year too. BBC2, Channel4 and Living are almost unwatchable. BBC2 in particular. The list of excuses I’ve received from NTL varied from (checking my notebook);
1) Water in the cable.
2) RTE’s trial of digital radio.
3) Too many mobile phone masts in the area.
4) The neighbours broke the cable or I did. (The hell??)
5) Vandals kicked over a junction box in Kingston, Ballinteer.
6) They finally came out and said: We need to replace the cable and the only way to do it is to drop a big black cable right down the front of the house, drill a hole in the sitting room wall and run it through. Obviously, I said no.

It took me three months to get them to come out to the house to see what was wrong. Whatever it was, it rectified itself shortly after they visited. It was fine until last week and I just don’t have the heart to go through it all with them again. My NTL Digital service is crystal clear and works perfectly so if I want to watch BBC2 I just flick over to the digibox thingy. Blinkin nuisance if I'm taping something from BBC2 or Channel4 though.

Anyway, glad to know it’s not just me. My immediate neighbours all have Sky so I had no point of reference.

DingDong

bronn wrote:

I live in Ballinteer, near Ticknock, and I’ve been having this exact problem with NTL since early this year too. BBC2, Channel4 and Living are almost unwatchable. BBC2 in particular. The list of excuses I’ve received from NTL varied from (checking my notebook);
1) Water in the cable.
2) RTE’s trial of digital radio.
3) Too many mobile phone masts in the area.
4) The neighbours broke the cable or I did. (The hell??)
5) Vandals kicked over a junction box in Kingston, Ballinteer.
6) They finally came out and said: We need to replace the cable and the only way to do it is to drop a big black cable right down the front of the house, drill a hole in the sitting room wall and run it through. Obviously, I said no.

It took me three months to get them to come out to the house to see what was wrong. Whatever it was, it rectified itself shortly after they visited. It was fine until last week and I just don’t have the heart to go through it all with them again. My NTL Digital service is crystal clear and works perfectly so if I want to watch BBC2 I just flick over to the digibox thingy. Blinkin nuisance if I'm taping something from BBC2 or Channel4 though.

Anyway, glad to know it’s not just me. My immediate neighbours all have Sky so I had no point of reference.

Is your existing cable old grey or brown(really bad screening on it) looking stuff is so that can let the RTE DAB signal leaks into the cable system mix with BBC2(both broadcasting on the same freq 224MHz) and you end up with a terrible picture. Also check if you have any cheap plastic splitter in place or the 1950's style push in outlet box's all this can cause it as well as bad connections.

You should of got them to run a temporary cable to make sure it was the drop into your house that is at fault or at least check the signal at the tap. If it is the drop thats at fault you could alway get an electrician to run it in for you.

Alot of the problem around Ballinteer with BBC2 is cause by the old network in place which is due for an upgrade as far as I know(probably be about 6 month). This is basically the only way there going to be able to sort it out.

bronn

Hi DingDong. We used to be on the MMDS until 1996 and then they changed us all to cable. So the drops were relatively new and were replaced again around 2000 for some reason. Can't remember what happened but a good few of us had to be relinked to a new junction box or something. The neighbours eventually all switched to Sky so I’m pretty sure we’re the last with NTL. When they came back to do that job in 2000 they upgraded all the Cablelink boxes in the house to NTL ones. For some reason, they replaced them again within the past two years and they all have this new cable connection thing. The cable into the telly has to be screwed into the NTL box on the wall.

Recently, when they came out to the house, they did run a temporary drop to see if it was a faulty cable and it definitely is. It was the aesthetics of a big black cable down the front of my house and a hole drilled trough the wall which put me off. I reckon we’re going to have to get them back and, as you suggested, get an electrician to do the job neatly. The lads who came out were nice enough and said it was the only thing that could be done, but when the problem went away I figured it’d be okay. Alas not! Thanks for the advice though.

DingDong

If you do get an electrician to do it make sure he uses good cable and connectors most of them tend to use crap. When you get NTL out ask them to give you some cable and I'm sure they will sort you.
Good Luck

VERYinterested

Well you can do all that expense and it might not make any difference! As stated they replaced the cable and box in my house last May, made no difference, problem went away around July and returned in the stormy conditions two/three weeks ago. Anyway they called yesterday and engineer says that it is widespread throughout the area. Offered the RTE testing as the excuse. I wonder if they will reduce all our bills to reflect the poor service?

DingDong

VERYinterested wrote:

Well you can do all that expense and it might not make any difference! As stated they replaced the cable and box in my house last May, made no difference, problem went away around July and returned in the stormy conditions two/three weeks ago. Anyway they called yesterday and engineer says that it is widespread throughout the area. Offered the RTE testing as the excuse. I wonder if they will reduce all our bills to reflect the poor service?

bronn already said they ran a temp drop and it was the problem for sure. The RTE DAB signal isn't an excuse either its the truth. Its just a coincidence the problem came back with the storms they began testing again at the same time . If you complain enough they might give you digital service for next to nothing or free. There won't be a quick fix to the BBC2 problem in Llewellyn as most of the cable is very old in the area.
good luck

duhdunno

Im out in Finglas and I'm also having terrible reception with BBC2 and Discovery. Discovery is actually worse and its practically unwatchable. Now the strange thing about the reception on BBC2 is if I'm watching it through the video its not too bad kinda get a funny slow motion/double image effect on moving images but if I'm watching BBC2 just through the TV its brutal. I'm on NTL analogue still im afraid. Llove to be able to afford SKY but not at the moment plus I invested in a 36" CRT TV about 3 yrs ago that I'm kinda stuck with now(nobody told me about HD).:( Channel4 doesnt be brilliant either.

The tax man

What kind of cable setup do you have in your house? Is it just a straight cable run from outside to the outlet box on a wall and then just one lead to your TV/VCR?

duhdunno

Yep. its the cable and box thats been there since the dawn of time and a cable straight into the back of the VCR. Dont know what to do about Sky HD and me oul telly

The tax man

Cable and connections may need to be checked out if they're fairly old. That means trying to book a service call.:rolleyes:

aphex™

Discovery is bad because its the first channel on the cable, lowest frequency in VHF. They added it again at another (better) frequency i think. Try looking for it on the tv.

The tax man

The higher frequency(408mhz) hasn't had the same channel as 48mhz for years now. No point trying to retune.Sort out the bad earths and screening issues and Discovery will be fine.

stiofanD

duhdunno wrote:

...Love to be able to afford SKY but not at the moment plus I invested in a 36" CRT TV about 3 yrs ago that I'm kinda stuck with now(nobody told me about HD).:( Channel4 doesnt be brilliant either.

With the recent NTL price rise and the imminent €2 charge if you don't pay by direct debit, the basic Sky package is actually cheaper than NTL analogue. Since you can now get all the UK terrestrial channels on Sky now, I'm seriously thinking about ditching NTL

Lochaber

got NTL around last year for the same problem in Grangebrook and they said that the problem was the DAB thing however they couldn't fix it until the cable was upgraded down the line, which is also apparently why we can't get BB. Have been receiving leaflets telling us that the upgrade will be happening in the few months for about 9 months now... you'd never know, it might happen...

VERYinterested

Recently Living TV has been watchable and one day a fortnight ago, the BBC 2 signal was perfect but had reverted to poor signal by next morning. Makes me wonder why they won't poperly check the signal instead of just blaming DAB. That lazeness pees me off. Did DAB go off the air for a day, thus allowing BBC2 to air correctly? Not likely, more likely is a dodgy connection in the area. Llewellyn estate was re-wired about 5 years ago for the record.

DingDong

More than likely the DAB testing did go off the air for a day. They may have re-wired some of the distribution cable(not all) but the trunk cable is the same old crap, although a new fibre optic cable was put in to feed the area from Ballintyre. There still could be a few bad old link which need replacing too . Your problem with Living Tv is kinda another story (but probably still related just to poor signal levels) thats right at the top of the frequency range 408Mhz. Some of Llewellyn has never had that strong a signal on these higher frequencies that why people have problems with dtv on some of the road in Llewellyn. Pm me your address or road and I'll try find out a bit more for you if you like.

VERYinterested

It's Llewellyn Court, between numbers 1 and 27 Couldn't figure out how to PM!!

DingDong

The court had a dodgy underground cable feeding(on the left handside as far as I remember). It Cause a problem with a couple of the QAM's on DTV, It was ment to be replaced but its possible it wasn't. If I find out more I'll let you know

Pat Gleeson

duhdunno wrote:

I'm on NTL analogue still im afraid. Llove to be able to afford SKY but not at the moment plus I invested in a 36" CRT TV about 3 yrs ago that I'm kinda stuck with now(nobody told me about HD).:( Channel4 doesnt be brilliant either.

Even standard Sky would be better. You have all the UK terrestrials in widescreen now available for not much more.

No need to ditch a perfectly good TV.

VERYinterested

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to say that NTL are currently updating the cable in the Llewellyn estate where I live, this will enable us to get phone internet and digital tv, I presume it will also improve the analogue signal and allow us to watch BBC 2 again!

The tax man

VERYinterested wrote:

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to say that NTL are currently updating the cable in the Llewellyn estate where I live, this will enable us to get phone internet and digital tv, I presume it will also improve the analogue signal and allow us to watch BBC 2 again!

Yes it will. At what stage of upgrade are they at atm. Have they put a new cable across your house yet??

Dec McC

I'm in Celbridge. I got changed over from chorus to NTL last week and Living TV is unwatchable. Ch 4 and Discovery are no where to be seen. Should i be able to get E4, if so i cant get it either. All my stations were perfect before the change over but now only a couple are clear.

DingDong

Their only at the stage of informing people that they will be replacing the cable in area.

The tax man

Dec McC wrote:

I'm in Celbridge. I got changed over from chorus to NTL last week and Living TV is unwatchable. Ch 4 and Discovery are no where to be seen. Should i be able to get E4, if so i cant get it either. All my stations were perfect before the change over but now only a couple are clear.

You need to retune those 3 channels. If it's the same in Celbridge as other upgraded areas NTL have dropped the channels on Band1 and moved them onto the UHF band.
Living TV shouldn't have been affected so that sounds like there's a problem somewhere.Is it a straight cable run from outside to your TV or is it split along the way for other TV's??

Their only at the stage of informing people that they will be replacing the cable in area.

Ah right a few more weeks of ****e BBC2 so long as they don't run into major way-leave issues. Upgrade went fairly quick for me in Rathfarnham.

SPDUB

The tax man wrote:

??
Ah right a few more weeks of ****e BBC2 so long as they don't run into major way-leave issues. Upgrade went fairly quick for me in Rathfarnham.

Upgrade which happened at 430pm today has still left BBC2 fairly bad here in D12 (because of DAB) but now have perfect Ch4 ,E4 and Discovery

DingDong

SPDUB wrote:

Upgrade which happened at 430pm today has still left BBC2 fairly bad here in D12 (because of DAB) but now have perfect Ch4 ,E4 and Discovery

If your switched over you should be alright. Its possible your drop is faulty or outlet box. Plug your ntl connection direct into the tv from the outlet see if that helps.

lucernarian

Can anyone tell what the exact frequency of BBC2 is on cable??

DingDong

224Mhz

VERYinterested

The tax man wrote:

Yes it will. At what stage of upgrade are they at atm. Have they put a new cable across your house yet??

We got a letter about two weeks ago saying that the work will be carried out soon and that a card would be dropped through the door when work was commencing. That card arrived on Monday and work has commenced on surrounding roads, I had a quick scout around this evening. They are moving back the old cable and box to make way for the new cable without disrupting the service. The new cable is being added and it is in situ on some of the houses. So hopefully things are going to plan, but the work has definitely started.

SPDUB

DingDong wrote:

If your switched over you should be alright. Its possible your drop is faulty or outlet box. Plug your ntl connection direct into the tv from the outlet see if that helps.

Already have tried that but that reduces the interference to a watchable level but it is still noticeable .Combined with comments I have heard people in this part of D12 make about "the interference" on BBC2 I think a lot of the problem is to do with being relatively close to Three Rock

DingDong

SPDUB wrote:

Already have tried that but that reduces the interference to a watchable level but it is still noticeable .Combined with comments I have heard people in this part of D12 make about "the interference" on BBC2 I think a lot of the problem is to do with being relatively close to Three Rock

If the system is insulated properly it shouldnt matter how close you are to the transmitter. Put in for a service call and they should be able to sort you out or find the fault.

The tax man

SPDUB wrote:

Already have tried that but that reduces the interference to a watchable level but it is still noticeable .Combined with comments I have heard people in this part of D12 make about "the interference" on BBC2 I think a lot of the problem is to do with being relatively close to Three Rock

I'd be closer to Three Rock then yourself and my BBC2 is perfect on the upgraded system. As Ding Dong said put in for a service call. Dodgy drop or connections will cause the interference to continue.

stiofanD

For what its worth guys, I had exactly the same problems as the rest of you. Once the cable was replaced in the area, I re-tuned C4 and Discovery to the higher frequencies and these channels were much improved.

However, BBC2 was still sh!te, so I got an NTL engineer out. He tested the signal at the box on the wall and it was fine, so he replaced the fly-lead from the box on the wall to the TV and now BBC2 is perfect!! Turns out it was the cheap co-ax cable that I had bought in Power City or where-ever that was at fault. It didn't have the proper shielding and was allowing the DAB signal to interfere.

VERYinterested

They replaced all the cable in my house last May 12 months, from the box on the roof and from the box in the house to the tv and it didn't make any odds, here's hoping that when the new cable from house to house is installed, things will improve. After starting the job last week, I haven't seen any sign of them since.

lucernarian

Did you try replacing the fly leads?

VERYinterested

All leads were replaced. The reason we can't watch BBC 2 is because of DAB Radio and our close proximity to Three Rock and old leaky cable within the estate. DAB went off air a couple of times for a few hours and the BBC 2 reception was perfect, once DAB came back, the BBC 2 reception deteriorated. They are slowly getting through the estate with the main cable replacement, so here's hoping!