Sky Digital v NTL

Cabra

I'm currently a Chorus NTL subscriber and I'm thinking about switching to Sky Digital - any thoughts on the pros and cons?

steveon

Pros
More channel choice
Better picture quality.

Cons
More expensive for multiroom viewing.

Cantona's Collars

Sky do an offer for NEW customers-10 euro p.m for one extra multiroom box and it's capped at 15 euro p.m for 'whole house multiroom'.One downer is that a landline is needed for multiroom with Sky.
Sky have better range of HD channels and the Sky+HD box is superior to the UPC(NTL) one imo.
If you take the HD pack with multiroom Sky give you both together for 20 euro p.m

Cabra

Tanx for the info

Zardoz

zerks wrote: »

Sky do an offer for NEW customers-10 euro p.m for one extra multiroom box and it's capped at 15 euro p.m for 'whole house multiroom'.

Is that just for the first year ?

Ranicand

Cabra wrote: »

I'm currently a Chorus NTL subscriber and I'm thinking about switching to Sky Digital - any thoughts on the pros and cons?

Bit rates and picture are about the same these days UPC have put the bit rate up.

Sky have more channels but most of these are rubbish.
Sky has more HD channels now this is a real advantage.

Sky has almost 40 HD channels UPC has 10.

All the channels I ever watched on Sky are on UPC in SD anyway.

Sky has HD Movies Sports and entertainment.

UPC is much cheaper on Multiroom and it has the advantage of really fast broadband and phone on the one bill.

Here is the UPC tv guide all the decent channels are there http://tv-guide.upc.ie/TV/

HD is the sticking point Sky are way ahead.

UPC are way ahead on value.

Sky do not offer broadband or phone here and they charge expensive rates for multiroom and you must connect these boxes to a phone line and Sky can not provide this.

UPC call outs and replacements are free Sky charge 100 euro per call out the last time I was with them.

Another thing the extra BBC and ITV channels are on the UPC EPG they are not on the SKY Ireland EPG so you can not record these channels.

If you want you Sky sports and Sky Movies HD go for Sky if you want value go for UPC.

Lastly it's your choice make an informed one get as much info as you can.

watty

The other option is to go FTA/Freesat and use UPC for Broadband.
Or have Sky for TV and UPC for Broadband.

When you cancel UPC you have no TV.

When you cancel Sky after a minimum Contract (usually 1 year) you still have all the free channels which is over 75% of viewing. Unlike UPC, you own all the Sky gear.

If you get SKY HD, you get a four outlet LNB on dish and can add 2 x Freesat/FTA receivers (from €60 once of cost) that get all the free channels (about 40 decent TV and 15 decent radio out of 200+ TV and 70+ Radio free).

Cabra

Someone mentioned to me at work today that there is a problem with some channels, but I rang Sky and asked them if I would have BBC 3, BBC 4, Channel 4, More 4 and Film 4 through the basic, variety and knowledge packages and they said I would - is the issue that you cant record from some of the channels?

St Senan

Cabra wrote: »

Someone mentioned to me at work today that there is a problem with some channels, but I rang Sky and asked them if I would have BBC 3, BBC 4, Channel 4, More 4 and Film 4 through the basic, variety and knowledge packages and they said I would - is the issue that you cant record from some of the channels?

Sky are telling you lies you wont receive UTV/Itv1, Itv2, Itv3, Itv4 BBC3, BBC4, and CH5/Five on any of there packages here in Ireland.
Although you can add them to other channels but you wont be able to pause or record them through Sky+

Heroditas

Sky have the interactive option.
You can tune in extra channels.
It's far easier to get through to their customer care team than it is with UPC

snaps

ESPN/Setanta are free with UPC/ntl

Cantona's Collars

Found that if you want to add the second Setanta channel to your upc package it's 16.99 p.m.:eek:

Ranicand

scaller wrote: »

Sky are telling you lies you wont receive UTV/Itv1, Itv2, Itv3, Itv4 BBC3, BBC4, and CH5/Five on any of there packages here in Ireland.
Although you can add them to other channels but you wont be able to pause or record them through Sky+

Or get any info bar now and next only.

Sky lie all the time.

I watch BBC 3 on UPC however I never watched it on Sky as I could not plan my viewing on it.

Cabra

Tanx all - decision made sticking with the devil I know....

Ranicand

Cabra wrote: »

Tanx all - decision made sticking with the devil I know....

If you don't have the HD box you should consider upgrading all the regular channels are upscaled too.

On Sky and UPC the bit rates are about the same now PQ really depends on the box your using.

Some of the Pace boxes Sky use are rubbish the dark Digital Plus box on UPC gives a rubbish picture too.

The HD boxes from Sky or UPC are the way to go.

Tea_Bag

nobody mentioned the ease of use for sky? going through the EPG and in general, sky is soo much faster AND simpler than the UPC i used to have. UPC was laggy and slow to respond, and the box was noisy. it was so slow i went back to sky.

however, i use UPC broadband, and it fantastic, making me wish i was ok with UPC TV to cut down on bills.

Ranicand

Tea_Bag wrote: »

nobody mentioned the ease of use for sky? going through the EPG and in general, sky is soo much faster AND simpler than the UPC i used to have. UPC was laggy and slow to respond, and the box was noisy. it was so slow i went back to sky.

however, i use UPC broadband, and it fantastic, making me wish i was ok with UPC TV to cut down on bills.

UPC have just rolled out a new EPG however reactions are mixed.

It's better but it's still slow.:)

Tea_Bag

Ranicand wrote: »

UPC have just rolled out a new EPG however reactions are mixed.

It's better but it's still slow.:)

ugh i cant live with slow.

i WILL go back to UPC when it catches up to sky, but i think its got a long way to go tbh.

Barack Obama

Make sure you look at all the costs. Write down how much it will cost per month for each provider with the options you want (channel packages, multiroom, ets.). also, remember that Sky are hiking prices soon.

I recently dumped Sky because of costs.

Cantona's Collars

Sky for the main room and fta for the others-although Sky are doing a good deal for whole home multiroom,it's capped at 15 euro p.m for between 2 and 8 extra boxes.
The price hike is just 1 euro for non premium package and 3 euro for Sky World-for all the extra football they have this season coming 3 euro is ok,better than 12.99 for ESPN who are showing less games.
Also beware the hidden costs of UPC-a charge to upgrade and downgrade packages and a rip off of 5 euro a month for individual channels that are included in Sky's family pack.Just pick what you want to watch and pay for that,no need to go mad and get stuff that will never be looked at.

mollser

Tea_Bag wrote: »

nobody mentioned the ease of use for sky? going through the EPG and in general, sky is soo much faster AND simpler than the UPC i used to have. UPC was laggy and slow to respond, and the box was noisy. it was so slow i went back to sky. .

Funny, this is one of the things that really bugs me with sky - when just browsing through channels, UPC skips over the ones that you don't subscribe to. Sky on the other hand lands on everysingle one - not just the ones you don't subscribe to but the MANY junk/gameshow/shopping channels that are on there. I guess using Favourites is a way around this tho...

Tea_Bag

mollser wrote: »

Funny, this is one of the things that really bugs me with sky - when just browsing through channels, UPC skips over the ones that you don't subscribe to. Sky on the other hand lands on everysingle one - not just the ones you don't subscribe to but the MANY junk/gameshow/shopping channels that are on there. I guess using Favourites is a way around this tho...

yeah used to annoy me, but setting up favorites took 1 min and is really good for quick browsing the few channels you actually watch.

Calibos

zerks wrote: »

Sky for the main room and fta for the others-although Sky are doing a good deal for whole home multiroom,it's capped at 15 euro p.m for between 2 and 8 extra boxes....for 1 year after which it goes back to 15e for each multiroom box

Fixed that for you.

Cantona's Collars

Cheers for that but 99% of the time Sky leave it alone-if they do change the offer after a year just phone them and viola it will be reinstated,they'd rather get something from you than risking you cancelling and paying zilch.

Cantona's Collars

Saw an ad for UPC and how much you save per year compared to Sky-naughty the way they did it.The value+Hd Pack is 24.75 per month and claim to save you 159 euro a year,however the only Hd channel you get is BBC HD and thats FTA on Sky.The small print says it's compared to 2 mix and HD pack with Sky.You don't need HD Pack on Sky to get BBC HD.

"Enjoy all the sporting action this summer on BBC HD. Record the best of Digital TV using your new Digital+ HD box. This pack also includes Setanta Ireland. If sport isn’t your thing we’re sure you’ll find something to enjoy on one of the 90 other channels.
Switch to UPC and save €159 a year compared to Sky."
"Assumes analogue TV customers currently pay €24.75 a month. Savings compared to Sky’s 2 mix with HD."

Kristopherus

And Sky are no angels either in saying their 1 mix is cheaper than UPC. The dont mention the difference in the no.of channels you get. Very selective advertising by both imho. Pity there isn't another operator on the scene. Then we might have some semblance of competition.

Cantona's Collars

A 'Best Of' mix or similar on Sky would prove very popular with a range of channels from each mix put into a single bundle.Will never happen for obvious reasons.