digital - NTL or SKY

LegacyUser

ok, ntl get v bad press on here, and i'm sure most of it is warrented.

never really hear complaints about sky digital.

i've just bought a gaf, and will be getting digital in.

i've rented for 5 years, 3 of those were with sky digital, and 2 with ntl digital.

customer service aside, the quality with sky is much better.

the operating system with sky is far better, also ntl crashes more.

sky though, is €20 more expensive a month than ntl (movie and sport package)


sky - 62.50
ntl - 43

i think i'll risk it and go with ntl, what think yee?

Colm80

How did you work that out that sky are €20 more than ntl. Did you forget to add your basic service to which is €19.50 which you need to get digital and then €10 for go digital and then €33.50 for sports & movies that brings you up to €63 Difference of 50 cents in favour of ntl. look how many more channels you get from sky for 50 cents less. Only problem i have with sky is the lack of UTV and Channel 4. And soon as they arrive on sky its good bye ntl or who ever owns them at that time.

Badabing

I have Ntl Digital for three years now and am very pleased with it, 1 or 2 mess ups with the the bills aside no complaints.

chorus techy

I had ntl - five replacement boxes, two re-installs, countless problems.
At present, Sky digital - 5 replaced LNB's, about to get a second box.

Neither is "better" than the other tbh. It depends on what you want from your service ie. price, quantity, quality, services etc.

Mossy Monk

i am very pleased with Sky
any time my reception messes up it is because of something my side

ntl on the other hand
they are useless, a lot of times the 4 UK terrestrials switch to 4:3 and always during The Bill on UTV the picture goes (anytime i find myself watching through ntl) so i watch that on ITV3 through satellite instead. getting a FTV card very soon so ntl isnt needed anymore. they are a joke of a company. i watch ntl in Waterford btw

beller b

Although SKY is €20 dearer you have to look at the whole package:
SKY = Much more choice
SKY= Interactive brilliant on news & sports
Sky = Much mor user friendly interface
Can't honestly think of antthing good to say re NTL honestly,, The sister has it & I find it crap!!

Round Cable

beller b wrote:

SKY = Much more choice
SKY= Interactive brilliant on news & sports
Sky = Much mor user friendly interface

While I agree with your first 2 points, the last one is a bit off, with NTL's browse you can get more info on programmes later on, without having to go into the guide, like Sky, I find the epg much better with NTL.

Mossy Monk

beller b wrote:

Although SKY is €20 dearer you have to look at the whole package:

if ntl provide analogue for free when you sign up to digital then yes. but seeing as they dont there is 50 cents in the difference

beller b

I suppose it depends what you're used to .. You are spot on with your Irish HDTV lol

beller b

Mossy Monk wrote:

if ntl provide analogue for free when you sign up to digital then yes. but seeing as they dont there is 50 cents in the difference

Agreed-- But you could also argue out the different packages versus each others.. ie Sport on SKY gives more than Sport on NTL etc.. Overall for whatever amount you spend ,IMHO, SKY is the better option

Marcopolo85

Mossy Monk wrote:

if ntl provide analogue for free when you sign up to digital then yes. but seeing as they dont there is 50 cents in the difference

How much do Sky and NTL charge for call-out if anything goes wrong?

chorus techy

Marcopolo85 wrote:

How much do Sky and NTL charge for call-out if anything goes wrong?

NTL provide free call-outs (that is, if you can put up with the hour+ wait to get through - that is if you DO actually get through) for the duration you subscribe. Sky will provide free call outs within the first 12 months (and also answer their phones almost immediately) and €65 per call out afterwards. But sky's customer care is hard to beat as the staff are generally very helpful, know what they are on about and generally FIX the fault!

weehamster

My gripe with sky (and I suppose NTL as they use the same channels) is not the money but how there is SO MUCH FOOKING ADS and Im paying to watch them. And to make it worse, they are mostly corordinated so when an ad appears, its in time with other channels showing their ads. AGGGHHHH, it so anoying. :mad:

In the rest of europe all Canal + packages (no matter what country) has NO ads during programmes and most dont have any at all (apart from the local channels) because it is a subscription service, so they arent allowed. The same is with Permiere in Germany, TPS france, TV Cabo Portugal. Even Sky Italia doesnt have ads during its programes.

But unfortually thats UK rules and there is nothing we can do, unless someone very rich takes Sky to the european court.

Capt'n Midnight

If you want broadband then NTL is the winner.
If you want the basic channels to be viewed on different TV's at the same time then again NTL is the winner.

SKY allows you to keep the equipment after a year when you could cancel and then go back on again for a month every so often so you don't have to sit through endless repeats.

JohnC.

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

If you want broadband then NTL is the winner.
If you want the basic channels to be viewed on different TV's at the same time then again NTL is the winner.

I'm an NTL subscriber and neither of those work for me. So they all depend on where you live and what type of service you have.

chorus techy

Kahless wrote:

I'm an NTL subscriber and neither of those work for me. So they all depend on where you live and what type of service you have.

If you have MMDS, then you will need one box per TV as both digital and analogue are encrypted or scrambled. But if you have cable, then ntl should have installed either a second ntl point on a splitter between the box and the ntl digital box.

NewDubliner

I think NTL's technical display & audio quality is poorer than Sky but the channel line-up is 'adequate' & useful, once you disregard the many space fillers.

A big eye-opener for me has been the many European FTA satellite channels, so much fewer advertisements & a better range of sports & political views.

Maybe just like food-labelling, TV channels should be obliged to to list how many repeats per week and how many minutes advertising per hour? A special label would be needed to indicate any channel owned by Ruport Murdoch.

Aquos76

A combination of both work out quite expensive per month. Ntl cable customers get good value their money with the multiroom viewing. Although the quality of their digital service at times needs to be improved, on a whole its adequate for whats needed.

Sky dont give a toss about Ireland and also the amount of trash which is put out on some of those FTA stations should be encrypted. Sky really need to sort out some software to combat this. As far as I Knew the min call out charge from sky is €110 and not €65 as was mentioned earlier.

I have both ntl and sky but I also have a digital satellite system which enables me to receive hundreds of more channels from all across europe, most of those are FTA also.

And as NewDubiner pointed out, european satellites are deffo worth looking into. Would highly recommend getting into this.