Chorus UPC - DVR in Cork

jom1133

Does anyone know when the new DVR will be available in the Cork area? can't wait to get it - wanted to get Sky + but the apartment managment company won't let it !!

Irishdudedave

I rang them last week and they said that it would be available to cable customers in Cork the 2nd/3rd week of september.

conax

I heard September as well, but I have also heard the end of October. The PVR wont be available to MMDS users.

lucernarian

What's stopping a PVR being used with one-way MMDS systems?

Sky+ seems to work pretty well without the return path.

conax

its nothing to do with the return path, whaen I asked them if the PVR would be available to MMDS users they said not until they have taken off the anaolgue channels.

altered121

seems dvr is on ntl cable first then mmds then on to chorus cable then chorus mmds. info from upc in galway, they seem to be sure as well.

singularity

altered121 wrote:

seems dvr is on ntl cable first then mmds then on to chorus cable then chorus mmds. info from upc in galway, they seem to be sure as well.

I have Chorus cable in Limerick, and they told me that DVR would be available to me in October. If that's any help...

Solair

It's pretty simple - it's because it requires equipment to support the EPG and other functions to be installed at the head end.

The Dublin NTL head ends are seperate from the Cork ex Chorus head ends.
The equipment is not quite the same and is from different vendors. So, there would need to be slightly different set-up.

There also may be slight differences in how it will interact with the existing Sagem boxes used on the Cork cable network. So, I'd say they treat each rollout seperately.

While they may have the same channel line up now, the Cork and Dublin systems are not using the same gear, may have slightly different frequency plans etc etc.

I would suspect NTL MMDS is easier as it uses DVB-C (the digital cable standard). They should simply be able to use a cable box.
Chorus MMDS uses DVB-T, digital terrestrial TV standard, so may require a different box/different tuner in the box.
From an end users perspective, it won't matter at all. It's just a minor technical issue.

I'm sure the new UPC boxes will rollout on the Cork cable network (and other UPC cable nets) pretty fast, there's nothing big in terms of technical hurdles. But I assume that they'll want to roll it out and get any bugs solved in Dublin, then roll it out and solve any bugs in Cork.

It's pretty logical!

lucernarian

So the PVR will be available to MMDS users. Grand. I still probably won't get Chorus!!

Skyuser

Chorus customers get it in October. Thats what I read in the paper. Personally it doesn't hold a candle to SKY + / HD.