TV channels and much confusion

BG2

Hi,

I moved up to Dublin a few years ago and always subscribed to a certain cable/digital company. I got rid of it a few months ago. I didn't realise that I could get channels regularly through one of those white cables (not sure if that's an aerial or what it is called). Post cable/digital company I could tune in three channels - channel 4, e4 and discovery.

I got a new TV a few weeks ago. I used the auto tune function and was really surprised to find I now had access to 17 channels - the Irish channels, English channels then a few such as MTV, Living etc.

However, since Friday I have had no channels. Nothing tunes in.

I'm really confused. Was I accessing those channels illegally before? Or is this something to do with the digital switchover thing? Where were the channels even coming from? Is it cable or aerial or are they the same? I've been trying to educate myself on it all for the last few days but I can't figure it out.

I know you don't need to get any channels in order to have a TV licence but considering I pay for one I'd like to figure out how I can actually watch some TV on it.

All advice much appreciated.

And apologies if this is completely wrong forum.

watty

Yes, the cable company had not disconnected the cable, so you got the analogue ones not encrypted. Later you got the Digital channels not encrypted. There are no free cable TV channels.

You need either an aerial (analogue and/or digital reception on same aerial) or Dish + satellite receiver for Free To Air TV channels. Pay TV via cable or Satellite is optional. See http://www.techtir.ie/saortv and http://www.techtir.ie/saortv/saorview.

A few TV receivers have a Satellite Tuner built in. You still need a dish.

Also some Digital TVs only have the 10+ year old near obsolte MPEG2 (freeview) rather than newer MPEG4 ("freeview HD" and Saorview), so though the TV picked up the Digital Cable un-encrypted channels, it may not work on an Aerial for Irish Digital TV.

Bazzer2

BG2,

It's possible you are in a cabled area which has only recently been upgraded by UPC. Previously you were picking up, either by leakage or an un-disconnected cable, the unencrypted analogue channels.

UPC have been re-cabling areas in Dublin with new cables, amplifiers and taps which virtually eliminate the possibility of leakage. I'm sure that, as they go round each dwelling to switch the drop cable over to the new tap, they mark off the dwelling on a list that which is entitled to be connected to the system.

When all houses have been completed, the old network is switched off and powered down, which might explain why you suddenly lost your channels.

marclt

I'm putting this into the correct section... it should be in the Cable section.

Continue discussions there...

icdg

While the digital service can be switched off after cancellation by UPC de-authorising your viewing card, there is no way for them to switch off the service other than sending a service agent out to physically cut the cable to your property.

UPC's predecesors (NTL, Cablelink, and RTÉ Relays) used to practically never do this, if the cancellation was the customer's decision. They had such a high penetration rate that if someone cancelled their service, they assumed the customer was moving out. They sent a Final Bill and then sent the next bill out to "The New Customer". Only if an account was cancelled due to non payment of the customer's bill did they bother to actually cut the cable.

Two things have made UPC change their policy. The first was the higher pentration of Sky which has meant for the first time UPC viewers are actually jumpring ship for a rival company (until 2001 or Sky's Irish customer base was a lot smaller and practically all either rural-based or pubs). The second was the dodgeyboxes, which during their pervailance lead to a lot of people cancelling their accounts. But they required an active cable connection to work.