NTL Digital & HD TV

BuyingorSelling

I currently have NTL digital and would like to get the best possible picture so am wondering has anyone got HD with NTL or is there an item of hardware that i can buy in Ireland or on the net to hook up to my NTL digibox to upgrade the signal to HD. Is Sky the only way you can access HD? Thanks cus after an hour reading the various forum im totally

thomasking22008

no you can't get all channel on HD channel on ntl only you need get sky hd box and freesat hd reciver

Solair

As the previous poster said, at present there's no HD service on UPC Digital cable (formerly NTL and Chorus). They've said they'll launch it 'soon' but they've said that about lots of things. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

UPC do have HDTV offerings in other markets though and I can't see any major reason why they shouldn't be able to get some HD content onto their Irish cable networks fairly soon. They're big enough to be able to access the content suppliers. While Sky might be tricky, they could easily get access to National Geographic HD, Discovery HD, they also own a few channels themselves too e.g. those Zone Reality etc

Also, I'm sure some deal could be done to get BBC HD carriage when it does eventually roll out properly.

Sky is the only commercial option at the moment in Ireland for HDTV and to be honest, it's not a lot to write home about. I'm very underwhelmed with the HD offerings on Sky Digital. They're not worth the extra fee per month. You'd honestly be better off buying yourself a bluray disk player and just watching DVDs in HD or, get a PS3 or something like that.

There simply isn't enough content (in my opinion) to make it worth while going with a subscription service.

FreeSat i.e. free to air satellite reception, has a few HD channels available. You could enquire with a satellite installer about the options a lot of good TV retailers still do that kind of thing.

Finally, terrestrial digital television is supposdely on its way later this year from RTE and Boxer TV. This will be broadcast over the air and uses MPEG4 technology to encode the channels. It has the potential to have HD content, but as yet, there's no firm idea of what's actually going to be on it. There's a strong possibility that they might have some HD content though to make themselves stand out from UPC (Chorus/NTL).

This system will replace existing analogue broadcasts completely within the next few years.

paulm17781

Probably no harm to write to UPC about it. They tend to not listen to customers but if they see people want HD, they may hurry up. I don't think there is much content about at the minute. I still want it though.

thomasking22008

i don't think so upc will never have HD channel cos they do not provide special box for upc HD i was talking to installer llast 2 month ago upc will never have HD channel on have to Sky HD box is only way to do it the way is cheaper than upc cable box

paulm17781

thomasking22008 wrote: »

i don't think so upc will never have HD channel cos they do not provide special box for upc HD i was talking to installer llast 2 month ago upc will never have HD channel on have to Sky HD box is only way to do it the way is cheaper than upc cable box

You're wrong.

They have HD in other markets and they will have to bring it here soon. They will release the HD box when they start offering it. Though I'd prefer them to do it sooner as it is a better box.

barnicles

Rd said 2009

ruprect

There are much better standard boxes out there which would give you a better picture, e.g. boxes with component out etc. Unfortunately UPC force you to use their cheap substandard boxes.

An analogy would be signing up to eircom broadband and then them forcing you to buy (indirectly or not) their laptop from the 90's to connect.

You spend €3000 on a good TV and then hook up a €50 bag of crap to it, not ideal. Like having a high spec PC except for 1 component, like tiny ram, slow processor, tiny HD- weakest link in the chain.