Viewing NTL Digital on my PC/Mac?

kiswa

Hi everybody :-)

I think that this question has been asked by a couple of people before, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I want to view NTL Digital via a computer in order to build my own PVR-esque system using something like MythTV or XP MCE or Elgato's software. I can't find information on how NTL's system works, though. Is it a DVB-C network? Or something else?

There's some good DVB-C hardware for Macs (EyeTV 610 looks cool) and PCs, but, naturally, I ain't buying 'til I know it'll work. Another thing was the CAM stuff. Would I need this for the standard NTL Digital package? Or just for the extra stuff (Sky Movies, Sports, etc.)? I understand that this would require buying a CAM to connect to the DVB-C device. Will any of the available ones work OK?

If none of that hardware will work, I could hook up something to grab the video output from the box NTL provide, but that'd suck :-)

Cheers for any help!

Black Sky

Kiswa,
AFAIK for ntl digital, their stb's are tied to their network so you have to buy the stb from ntl and they use the cheapest stb's (lowest spec models, limited output ports) they can get in my opinion. Using a 3rd party box will not work, so that then leaves you having to take the audio and video output from their stb to your PC/MAC via scart or RF which makes the whole setup more painful.

The eyetv 10 looks good but no EPG for Ireland as far as i can see.

kiswa

Black Sky wrote:

Kiswa,
AFAIK for ntl digital, their stb's are tied to their network so you have to buy the stb from ntl and they use the cheapest stb's (lowest spec models, limited output ports) they can get in my opinion. Using a 3rd party box will not work, so that then leaves you having to take the audio and video output from their stb to your PC/MAC via scart or RF which makes the whole setup more painful.

The eyetv 10 looks good but no EPG for Ireland as far as i can see.

Hmmm, thanks for the information. I'm not giving up yet, though I looked up the Pace DC220 that people seem to be getting and it looks like a standard MPEG2/DVB-C device, which would (I think?) mean that I would just need to buy the correct type of CAM. It doesn't seem likely that NTL Ireland have the technical resources to dream up their own cable digital standards. Someone here must have looked into how their network works?

As for the EPG - that EyeTV 610 device comes with a subscription to TVTV (http://www.tvtv.co.uk) for Europeans. Looks like it provides listings for everything I'd be interested in. There's lots of guides available and various methods of grabbing the data into the system your using (MythTV or MCE or whatever).

The tax man

First off some of what you're going on about is way over my head.
Are you trying to get NTLs digital service without any of their equipment or are you looking to connect something between NTL equipment and your pc??
Whats this CAM you talk about?
If not using NTLs stuff,how are you going to get around the encryption used??
If you're trying to get stuff for free,talk about that stuff is againist the rules.
Forgive me if I'm wrong about trying to get NTL for free.
Care to explain in laymans terms

Mossy Monk

The tax man wrote:

Whats this CAM you talk about?

the CAM takes the viewing card to decrypt the signal

as for everything else in this thread, above my head too sorry

Alun

He's not trying to get anything for free as far as I can tell. All he wants is to take the viewing card out of an existing (possibly an extra second) STB, and put it into a DVB-C card in his PC instead of into the STB. Seems perfectly legal to me, although whether it would work I couldn't say. Do STB's (and therefore DVB-C cards) have any kind of serial number embedded in them? And can the ntl: network somehow check this?

soiaf

I remember reading about this ages ok, so I wouldn't guarantee my memory is right
The NTL card is 'bound' to a particular receiver, so you shouldn't be able to use it in a different box.
So, even if you had a DVB-C (which would be the right type) card and you had an appropriate CAM (based on whatever encryption NTL is using), it still wouldn't work as NTL would need to authorise the DVB-C as being the correct receiver (however they would do that).
As I think its unlikely they'll do that, I think you're out of luck.

kiswa

Thanks for the replies, folks. I've had a browse around and, basically, the only thing you can use to view NTL Digital is the single, sole, crappy device that NTL supply. The box you get and and the card you have are tied together. So; no Tivo, no PVR, no Windows Media Center, no nothing but that one device that NTL give you. It's the same in the UK, but at least they have digital terrestrial over there!

Damn, that really pisses me off. I mean, at least Sky supply their own PVR! Grrrr.

Lots of good techy info available on http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board, by the way.

icdg

Indeed its illegal to use equipment other than that supplied by a cable TV company to view a cable TV service.

NTL Ireland did not dream up their own standards. They imported them from NTL UK (its the same set up). This will cause problems when the company is demerged...

Black Sky

PVR with ntl is a diy jobbie, but good excuse to do a spot of PC building.
I'm messing with building a htpc at the moment with a Hauppauge 350 card and, maybe SageTV. just got a USB-UIRT to allow the PC change the ntl stb, but have't had a chance to try it out yet.
Recording F1 is the midde of the night is the way!!!!!

kiswa

Black Sky wrote:

PVR with ntl is a diy jobbie, but good excuse to do a spot of PC building.
I'm messing with building a htpc at the moment with a Hauppauge 350 card and, maybe SageTV. just got a USB-UIRT to allow the PC change the ntl stb, but have't had a chance to try it out yet.
Recording F1 is the midde of the night is the way!!!!!

Well, it's simple to get working with the standard NTL. There's tons of PC/Mac hardware that works a treat. I've used Media Center and MythTV (with an Hauppauge 250MCE card) and they both work fine once you've sorted out the EPG.

There's no proper solution for NTL Digital, though I don't consider grabbing the output from the box a proper solution

mcummins2

I had NTL MMDS Digital. I had the service stopped and restarted some months latter. Expecting to be turned baxk on in a matter of hours I was informed that the tech had to come to replace the box. When the tech came he told me that the set up was such that once the service was stopped that the box and card had to be replaced eventhough the same customer was reactivating the account.