NTL cable reception

natman2007

Hi,
I have basic NTL,( ie bbc ,1,2 itv, C4, mtv,etc ). The sound on rte1 and 2 is in stereo and good picture. But when i go to sky one the sound is mono and picture is not good. I have snow all over the picture ( not so bad that it stops you watching ) and our TV is a widescreen yet i can never see the full "sky one" logo all i can see is the "one" nomatter what size ( super wide , 4:3,16:9,etc..) i force the tv into. Also on the left most side there is a band of snow from top to bottom.
Does anyone know is this ntls's problem? do i need to give them a ring to fix this?

Thanks:

zilog_jones

Due to limitations in analogue cable TV equipment on their side, only the Irish channels are stereo. They only transmit analogue channels in 4:3 (unless they're broken like BBC1 and Sky One in Limerick), and as you have noticed 16:9 programmes are just cropped so you're missing some of the picture. The only way around that is to upgrade to digital cable - it's only like €3 extra a month for the basic package?

natman2007

Thanks for the info, do you know if Digital from ntl is any good i have heard a lot of bad things about them/it. Like it just doesnt work som of the time and the quality is no where like its ment to be.
I would love to go for sky digital but with three tvs in the house the price is just a little too much.

zilog_jones

It can vary depending on where you live but in my experience it's no less reliable than analogue cable. You get a lot more channels (like More 4, BBC 3 & 4, etc.), and you can still get the analogue channels elsewhere in your house if you only get one box (it costs extra for more). The analogue channels outside the 4 Irish ones are all sourced from their digital service so they can't really be worse quality (unless you have a bad reception). For a fiver extra a month you can get the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) - very handy compared to any other VCR or DVD/HDD recorder - it's the next best thing to Sky+.

watty

You can use Sky PayTV for one room and legal free to Air set box for over 45 decent channels in all the other rooms (no free cable channels).

The analogue NTL near Blanchardstown seems to re-cropped and resampled. Much poorer than off Air analogue or Sky Digital

bk

For the most part NTL Digital is very good, works fine, few problems.

Picture Quality is very good, much better then analogue, but not quiet as good as Satellite.