NTL/Chorus Free digital recorder

ronbyrne2005

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=TECHNOLOGY-qqqs=themarket-qqqid=23159-qqqx=1.asp

oleras

Coan said that the set top box, made by Scientific Atlanta, will have enough space for eight hours’ worth of programming, or 160GB of data.

What are they broadcasting in, super duper hi def ?

watty

At NTL/UPC datarates, more like 8 days

watty

It will work on Chorus cable and NTL MMDS as well as NTL cable, but not yet on Chorus MMDS. At some future date UPC will convert the Chorus MMDS to NTL system area by area. But this requires replacement of ALL digital boxes in an area at the same time, so I'm not sure how they will do it.

who is this

oleras wrote:

What are they broadcasting in, super duper hi def ?

Could be using a lot of space for "on demand" (the type of on demand that gets downloaded overnight and periodically replaced). Although, if that's the case, I don't know why they'd say "8 hours or 160GB" (as if the 8 hours IS 160GB).

I really hope when and if, they launch on demand, that its TRUE on demand (i.e. it comes from UPC when you select it)

[Coan] said the company is in an advanced stage of integrating Chorus into NTL’s network.

Also interesting to note, this sounds like it's gonna be NTL all the way for integration between the two networks (set-top box standards and all).

watty

If it is on the disk already, that is higher quality than live IPTV.
On Cable they can do either. But Cached on Demand is less network traffic x 1000. On MMDS you can only do Cached.

who is this

watty wrote:

If it is on the disk already, that is higher quality than live IPTV.
On Cable they can do either. But Cached on Demand is less network traffic x 1000. On MMDS you can only do Cached.

Oh yeah. Forgot that MMDS was mentioned in it (which has to be either push-OD (cached) or near-OD (e.g. Sky Box Office) ). Cached on demand does give less traffic (since it'll use off-peak times to update) but true on demand could allow for wider selection of programming (and guarantees more room for PVR functions).

Solair

Chorus Digital MMDS is using DVB-T rahter than the cable standard DVB-C which is used on Chorus Digital Cable and NTL Digital Cable and MMDS.

They can do one of two things.
a) Replace all of the chorus MMDS decoders and modify the network slightly.
or b) Roll out PVRs for DVB-T that will be compatable with the Chorus MMDS infrastructure.

Channel line-up wise it wouldn't make a huge difference, just more of a case of needing slightly different boxes for the ex chorus MMDS areas.

I assume, they could run half the system on DVB-T and the other half on DVB-C providing a smaller number of channels mirrored on both systems. Then replace all the boxes, cut the DVB-T service off and then expand the number of channels. That would result in no loss of service to anyone and could be done in a cell-by-cell rollout.

They could even just mail out the boxes! It wouldn't exactly be a challenging self-install.
Alternatively, mail out the boxes. Ask people to install them and do the cut over. It would be potentially quite diruptive though as you can guarentee you'd have at least 30% of the customers going "wha?!"

Also, it's worth noting that Scientific Atlanta is now part of Cisco.

It's good to see that the UPC cable areas are now all going to be the same standard within a very short time though.
Chorus Cable was very disappointing.

_Kaiser_

Sounds like they're talking about a monthly sub for the box though like Sky do for the Sky+ features, or am I reading it wrong?

bk

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Sounds like they're talking about a monthly sub for the box though like Sky do for the Sky+ features, or am I reading it wrong?

No, that is how I read it also, but cheaper then Sky's €15 (I'm guessing €10).

watty

who is this wrote:

Oh yeah. Forgot that MMDS was mentioned in it (which has to be either push-OD (cached) or near-OD (e.g. Sky Box Office) ). Cached on demand does give less traffic (since it'll use off-peak times to update) but true on demand could allow for wider selection of programming (and guarantees more room for PVR functions).

Real time IPTV is data per user. Cached is 24x7 single broadcast.

Magent and Smart do realtime IPTV. They have LESS choice than NTL. And poorer quality often.

SteM

Whereas a DVR with our rival [Sky] costs almost €300 for the box and installation, we are coming into the market for free, while rental price will be less than €15 per month.”

If he's talking about Sky plus then I was under the imporession that was about €225 including installtion? Love the way he rounds up instead of down :rolleyes:

Re HD programming:

‘We believe Sky should provide us with the access to this content and it’s in their interest to do so,” he said. ‘‘If they choose to withhold that content that would be detrimental to Irish customers.

I don't understand this comment at all. Surely the best business decision for Sky would be NOT to provide this to UPC? Then it would be a selling point for Sky?

I was thinking of waiting for the new football season to see how much Sky HD was going for then, but I might and wait and see how the land lies in August now.

Solair

Sky make a considerable margin on those channels even on cable. It's usually in their interest to get them out to as many viewers as possible. Unlike in the UK, cable tv in Ireland has a huge % of the market and it's very influential.
Sky are unlikely not to provide it to UPC to be honest.

It's one of those things that could end up as a serious competition authority issue if Sky start to refuse cable operators access to channels. Sky's likely to remain less attractive in cable areas for one simple reason : the dish!

Also, the arrangement of UK terrestrial channels is still far superior on cable. Sky still doesn't have ITV, BBC3,4, News23, Cbeebees, etc on the EPG and has BBC1,2 and Channel 4 in a weird position on the EPG. If they had any sense they'd re-arrange the Irish EPG to give it more of a "cable feel"

watty

Nat Geo, Discovery, History are not Sky Channels.

BBC HD is not Sky.

So that leaves Movies, Occasional stuff amongst the upsampled on the 1% viewed Sky1, Sky Sport HD and an Sky part owned Arts channel I forget the name of.

So really in terms of stuff that is valuable in HD, Sky only supply Sky Sports.

watty

Though All the ITV, all BBC etc are freely available on Satellite with or without a Sky box and are on Sky EPG if you cancel an Irish sub.

On the Sky box you can create your own custom EPG from channels on the EPG.

loyatemu

any idea when this is going to happen? The guy on the radio last month said "next month" ie. now. Now they're saying in the next 3 months...

bk

SteM wrote:

I don't understand this comment at all. Surely the best business decision for Sky would be NOT to provide this to UPC? Then it would be a selling point for Sky?

In the UK where Sky One and News have been pulled from Virgin Media (NTL and Telewest cable), Sky sports and Movies are still available. Basically Sky makes far too much money from subs for these that they wouldn't ever dream of pulling them.

The only thing that mightn't make it is Sky One HD, if Sky look for too much money for it.

nicelives

loyatemu wrote:

any idea when this is going to happen? The guy on the radio last month said "next month" ie. now. Now they're saying in the next 3 months...

I'd be interested in real dates too, was actively looking into getting Sky+ as I'm missing loads on TV these days and now with Sky Anytime on demand service.

I know the cost of the box will be free but in terms of monthly rental, as a Sky Movies subscriber it would only cost me a couple of quid extra to have Sky+ per month, are ntl/chorus/upc going to discount monthly rental if I already subscribe to premium services?

I know it's already been brought up but are they going to improve their EPG, otherwise a DVR isn't going to be that useful if you can only plan hours ahead rather than days or series tracking as with Sky+.

Just wondering if it's worth hanging on to cable and waiting.

JDxtra

loyatemu wrote:

any idea when this is going to happen? The guy on the radio last month said "next month" ie. now. Now they're saying in the next 3 months...

Hey, another deadline broken. This one is nearly worth an email to Mark @ NTL. I might even include the recording of him on Today FM saying the service would be available now. What a sham... not surprised though.

All they are doing is trying to stall Dublin subscribers thinking about moving to Sky.

Sponge Bob

JDxtra wrote:

All they are doing is trying to stall Dublin subscribers thinking about moving to Sky.

I think thats basically correct , yes. They are not quite ready to do Dublin .

I understand the service will be rolled out first of all in Galway and within the next two months and that 10mbit BB will additionally be on offer .

It will all come through a single scientifiic atlanta box (STB/ BB modem and PVR), I suspect its this gizmo here

rogue-entity

Sponge Bob wrote:

I understand the service will be rolled out first of all in Galway and within the next two months and that 10mbit BB will additionally be on offer .

It will all come through a single scientifiic atlanta box (STB/ BB modem and PVR), I suspect its this gizmo here

You would think they would do Waterford first, it has the best network infrastructure out of all three "ntl" networks, what with the fibre backend and all.

I hope thats not what UPC plan on using, that is one ugly mother..

Rosser

Sponge Bob wrote:

It will all come through a single scientifiic atlanta box (STB/ BB modem and PVR), I suspect its this gizmo here

IT's an ugly box in comparison to the Pace Sky+ box but if it's made by a Cisco owned company you'd think it might be handy enough.

rogue-entity

Rosser wrote:

IT's an ugly box in comparison to the Pace Sky+ box but if it's made by a Cisco owned company you'd think it might be handy enough.

You would think that, but Cisco also own Linksys, and Linksys decided to replace Linux on their routers with VxWorks (same thing the NTL boxes run), and that software just cannot handle multiple connections very well, my WRT54G (v7) crashes and reboots if I use BitTorrent.

Still, the only thing that is going to bother me is this. NTL Analogue on two points, the full digital subscription (regular channels + sports + movies) and one of these PVRs as a multiroom option is going to cost quite a bit more then it would cost for us to get Sky, with the full whack, and multiroom, with a plusbox.

snaps

should be interesting to see what happens. Im looking forward to it as I would love to get all services from one provider. Sometimes i dont know if im coming or going. Would would be great would to have access to all premiership matches even like buying a season ticket for one team. I have an ART setup just so I can watch any match i want (eg Im a spurs fan) Instead of some of the tripe Sky make us watch. I think im clutching at straws here, but I know for one UPC has a good selection of sport what with setanta free on it!