Reply from ntl: regarding RTE & widescreen

JDxtra

I sent ntl: an email regarding the quality of the Irish channels on their digital service (as I know they are just taking an anlogue feed).

I got this promising reply from them, and quite promptly too...

"We do currently digitise the analogue feed from RTE, however we are in discussions with RTE regarding taking a Digital feed from them which would also allow for widescreen format as it becomes available. We will pass on more info as we receive it. There is no specified date as of yet for these works."

Round Cable

I knew that the quality of the Irish channels on NTL is dire, honestly analouge is just as good, without the pixilation. So when the get their widescreen versions, we should see an improvment in picture quality also, very interesting.

chorus techy

An improvement in picture quality? What makes you say that?! They'll just crank up the compression on the digital feed from RTE!

JDxtra

And here's the reply from RTE on the subject...

"We understand that ntl currently digitise the analogue feed which we supply to them. This obviously results in some degradation in picture quality. However, RTE is currently in discussion with ntl regarding an upgrade to a digital feed which would not only improve picture quality but would also have the added benefit of relaying our recently launched widescreen services. Unfortunately, we cannot at present provide you with a commencement date for this upgrade but we would anticipate that it should be installed over the next few months."

...promising replies all round then. Good to see they are moving forward on this, and great to see proper replies from their support departments.

Round Cable

Interesting reply, I got a responce from RTÉ a few weeks ago, where they said they would go widescreen on digital cable too, however a few months sounds bad. 3, 4 or more?

TheGreatOne

Should improve the sound quality also, which is dire in my opinion compared to the rest of the digital line-up. I constantly find myself having to turn up the volume when I switch to RTE.

weehamster

Round Cable wrote:

Interesting reply, I got a responce from RTÉ a few weeks ago, where they said they would go widescreen on digital cable too, however a few months sounds bad. 3, 4 or more?

The only real digital feed (ie optical) RTE has is with TV3 for the Satellite uplink, so I presume they will need a new optical connection with NTL (or whatever the company will be call after the takeover) to have a high quality digital signal on the cable network, so this is probably why it will take a while.

chorus techy

It's a wonder they don't redigitise the digital stream from the satellite, like they do with many of the other digital channels

Mossy Monk

why oh why do they have to negotiate this. a few hundred thousand cable viewers pay the license fee also. i find it funny that Sky viewers in Northern Ireland will have superior RTÉ reception compared to those in NTL Digital land

JDxtra

Mossy Monk wrote:

why oh why do they have to negotiate this. a few hundred thousand cable viewers pay the license fee also. i find it funny that Sky viewers in Northern Ireland will have superior RTÉ reception compared to those in NTL Digital land

The negotiations are probably to do with who pays for putting the infastructure in place.

chorus techy wrote:

It's a wonder they don't redigitise the digital stream from the satellite, like they do with many of the other digital channels

Most of their feeds come via fibre from ntl: in the uk.

chorus techy

jdempsey wrote:

Most of their feeds come via fibre from ntl: in the uk.

I'm aware of that but it's still a ridiculous excuse not to provide fully digital versions of channels on ntl digital. I wonder will the fibre transmission pose problems when UPC take over ntl?

weehamster

I wonder will the fibre transmission pose problems when UPC take over ntl?

I bet you it will cause further delays in getting it set up. :rolleyes:

weehamster

It's a wonder they don't redigitise the digital stream from the satellite, like they do with many of the other digital channels

The quality of signal is not good enough to rebroadcast which is why a optical link is required.

Mossy Monk

weehamster wrote:

The quality of signal is not good enough to rebroadcast which is why a optical link is required.

what?????

most channels come from satellite. even NTL themselves uplink a lot of the channels to satellite

chorus techy

Yeah that would surprise me if it wasn't possible. It has to be possible, becaues if it was to weak to uncompress and then re-encode it would be too weak to watch on sky! And up until recently, ntl were re-digitising channels from a load of sky digiboxes before they got the fibre link put in. And as for chorus.......