Chorus Cable splitter?

breadbrain

Hello all,

Usually i can find an answer to my questions on here somewhere but im stumped today. Just moved into an apartment and have been receiving the usual poverty 1,2 tv3 and tg4 from the aerial socket in the wall to an old chorus box no problems. Today however the man from chorus came and installed there broadband package, as i was busy doing other things i didn't pay to much attention until he left and saw what he has done.

Basically he took out the old antennae socket and replaced it with the chorus one so now i only have the option of internet and no television or television and no internet, i rang chorus and was told basically buy a some rabbit ears, i didn't spend good money on a decent television to just stick on a pair of rabbit ears i explained to them.

Anyway what i want to know (sorry to rant on) is since the new chorus cable connector is one of those screw on ones can i buy a splitter for them so i can feed one cable to the modem and one to the tv box (an old chorus box using a screw on connector also). as it is i have to unplug the modem to watch tv and vice versa which is a pain in the hole.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

pa990

tell them that the install wasn't satisfactory.
and that they should remove their equipment or fix the problem.
Put it in writing also

lucernarian

How exactly were you getting the 4 irish channels? Was it a cable connected to a small plastic chorus box mounted on the wall, or was it a socket which was fed by a TV aerial?

Did you have the cable plugged into the TV directly or was there a chorus set-top-box which the cable was connected to?

If you only paid for internet access from chorus, and you split the cable to connect to a TV aswell, you could be committing a criminal offence. I believe it's a crime to knowingly access/use Chorus subscription services without a subscription or authorisation from UPC.

If UPC did disconnect your terrestrial TV antenna, I'd mail them a request to repair the damage or else reimburse you the cost of arranging your own repairs by an aerial/sat installer. Send them a price estimate for the cost of work from an aerial installer. Point out their liability in this matter and if they ignore it, perhaps legal advice or a claim in the small claims court for the cost of someone else repairing it, is the way forward.

Antenna

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

How exactly were you getting the 4 irish channels? Was it a cable connected to a small plastic chorus box mounted on the wall, or was it a socket which was fed by a TV aerial?

Did you have the cable plugged into the TV directly or was there a chorus set-top-box which the cable was connected to?

If you only paid for internet access from chorus, and you split the cable to connect to a TV aswell, you could be committing a criminal offence. I believe it's a crime to knowingly access/use Chorus subscription services without a subscription or authorisation from UPC.

.

This no doubt is in Cork city which has an 'all digital' cable service.
The 4 Irish national channels are still available analogue on the cable, but nothing else.
The cable may still be live to an ex-subscriber premises -allowing reception of the 4 national channels in analog (which can be got with an aerial anyway).
The STB mentioned is surely an old analogue descrambler which is defunct. I doubt they would want it back! The 4 channels (in Band III on cable) could of course also have been tuned in on the TV's own tuner (if STB not used) provided its not a UK origin UHF-only TV.

lucernarian

But in that case, is it ok for a customer to split a cable for TV use when a TV sub isn't paid for? Even if it's just the 4 Irish channels? It seems from reading the original post that the old cable itself is now being used for the modem, without any separate TV point being provided whether there was an old decoder/descrambler box or not

HappyHarry

breadbrain wrote: »

Anyway what i want to know (sorry to rant on) is since the new chorus cable connector is one of those screw on ones can i buy a splitter for them so i can feed one cable to the modem and one to the tv box.

The screw type connector is called F Type.
You are looking for a 2 way splitter similar to this http://www.tvtrade.ie/passive-2-way-tv-splitters.html

As posted by others you should not be altering UPCs setup to gain access to services you aren't paying for.

pizzahead77

But do UPC not charge a bit extra (about €8) for a broadband only package to cover the cost of the analogue TV stations that they can't turn off on the cable?

Solair

You can't subscribe to analogue-only television in Cork the service does not exist.

UPC still carry those 4 analogue channels to convenience customers who want to watch RTE/TV3/TG4 on spare TVs etc. I don't think Cork Multichannel ever bothered physically disconnecting people from the cable network as they've always operated an encrypted service (well since the 1980s anyway). So, they could disconnect you remotely just like digital cable or sky can. If you'd no subscription, you just got RTE and occasionally an information channel advertising their services.

You are paying for a broadband / phone subscription which means you have a legitimately paid for cable service. I don't think anyone could argue that plugging your TV in to that socket is stealing anything. They're only providing the same 4 channels that you could get with an antenna anyway.

Also, to be perfectly honest, if you have a good quality analogue antenna signal with a small set-top UHF antenna, you'd be far better off using it.

The RTE/TV3/TG4 analogue feed on the Cork City Cable network is digitally sourced, does not contain teletext or NICAM stereo and it's very strange quality. You'll get a much nicer signal straight off air.

If you have a digital tuner that supports MPEG4 in your TV, you might even pick up RTE's digital services straight off air in Cork without much fuss.

Otherwise, if you want to get a few decent channels, add UPC's basic digital pack. It's not very expensive and you can usually bundle it with broadband/phone making it pretty cheap compared to sky + a phoneline/bb etc

You'll get way better signal quality, on-screen programme guide etc etc. If you go for "Digital +" you'll also get service similar to Sky+ (rewind, record, series link etc)

watty

Solair wrote: »

... if you have a good quality analogue antenna signal with a small set-top UHF antenna [Edit: or set-top aerial in attic], you'd be far better off using it.

The RTE/TV3/TG4 analogue feed on the Cork City Cable network is digitally sourced, does not contain teletext or NICAM stereo and it's very strange quality. You'll get a much nicer signal straight off air.

Agreed.