Chorus Lineup?

dkane

Hi,
Im considering getting Chorus MMDS inslalled but their website is very sketchy as to what channels they provide. All they really say is that with the analogue service you get 15 channels and with the digital service 60. Could someone let me know what channels are actually available before I make up my mind?
Cheers,
Daniel

chorus techy

The 60 channel lark is a load of BS. All the channels on the digital service on their website - www.chorus.ie (yes, there is not anywhere near 60 channels there, but they ARE all of the channels available!)

As for analogue, you get TV3, BBC 1 & 2, UTV, Ch4, Sky News, Sky One, Sky Movies 1 (many people get this even if they do not sub to movies!), a mix between Nick and MTV, and a few other channels that seem to differ from region to region.

dkane

Ok, thanks for that. With regards to the analogue setup, how much does the basic package cost per month? how much extra is Sky Sports, and do you get Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3? I live in Meath if that help or changes anything.

Cheers,
Daniel

icdg

There are twelve channels only on analogue MMDS in Ireland, so no you won't get the full range of Sky Sports channels. Last time I checked, only Sky Sports 1 was offered.

The channel line-up may have changed by now - certainly is a long time since I last watched Chorus. But the line up certainly used to be BBC ONE, BBC TWO, ITV1, Channel 4, Sky One, Sky News, Eurosport/Nickelodeon, Home and Leisure/Trouble/Discovery/Chorus Sports (yes, all on one channel!), and TV3.

One more point to note - with analogue MMDS, you're going to be relying on your terrestrial aerial for RTÉ and TG4.

Solair

Is there a better line up on Chorus digital cable? I know a few areas do have that at this stage.

Any one have any ideas / details ?

or is it a crappy mirror of the MMDS service?

chorus techy

Chorus cable was MEANT to have a better lineup but I don't think its anything spectacular from the MMDS service - usually it is just a mirror of it.

Once UPC Direct merge the two companies, I'd say chorus and NTL could end up having the same Cable lineup and same MMDS lineup - and possibly a good lot more channels too, especially for cable.

icdg

The fear of course being that NTL customers will be "downgraded" to the Chorus service. We do have a decent number of channels now on NTL, it would be disappointing for it to drop under UPC, although I doubt it will happen. Hopefully it will be Chorus customers gaining from the superior NTL digital service.

chorus techy

I'd imagine they would upgrade NTL customers aswell as giving chorus all the channels NTL has at the moment, plus any new channels NTL gets. It would be stupid to cut the cable lineup, as the capacity is there for extra channels, just the cable networks need huge investments, which UPC have said they are supposedly going to do. If UPC cut their analogue lineup through cable (which is quite possible) they could have the same amount of channels as NTL UK, plus more because the network is less complicated and there is only three regions whereas UK has loads.

celticfc

Chorus line-up available here on theAirwaves.net

Solair

To be fair to chorus, they do have a decent line up on MMDS considering that you can't really squeeze any more channels into that bandwidth.

However, it seems a bit stupid to mirror the MMDS service on cable considering they could get in a lot more channels. I assume it's something to do with their tight funding and financial mess.

At least with Chorus and NTL Ireland merged they'd have more purchasing power and would be able to do a single all-ireland deal with various content providers to get a decent line-up.

Do NTL and Chorus' digital platforms both use OpenTV ? If so, I'm guessing they could all be easily moved to a single UPC EPG system.

----

My own personal view would be that UPC and the state should do a deal where by UPC shutdown both the Chorus and NTL MMDS network and migrate all the customers over to a mirrored service on DVB-T.

DVB-T would get an instant audience and someone to market it.

RTE, TV3, TG4 and any other public service stuff could be carried on the network for free. The rest could be subscription from UPC and perhaps other commercial multiplexes could be auctioned off for X years.

UPC would gain by having access to a better, more modern network.

Then we could finally move away from analogue PAL broadcasting and get proper digital terrestrial like the rest of Europe.

As it is MMDS is basically digital terrestrial "irish style" at 2.4ghz.

chorus techy

Solair wrote:

To be fair to chorus, they do have a decent line up on MMDS considering that you can't really squeeze any more channels into that bandwidth.

The bandwidth is there, its just being stupidly hogged by the 12 or so analogue channels which they carry alongside digital areas of the country too. If they cut all these analogue channels, its quite possible the chorus MMDS digital lineup would be in excess of 100 channels, and they could probably up the bitrates on many of their existing channels at the same time.

JohnC.

chorus techy wrote:

The bandwidth is there, its just being stupidly hogged by the 12 or so analogue channels which they carry alongside digital areas of the country too. If they cut all these analogue channels, its quite possible the chorus MMDS digital lineup would be in excess of 100 channels, and they could probably up the bitrates on many of their existing channels at the same time.

NTL Digital MMDS has been slowly but steadily increasing its channel line up since they dropped the analogue service. If NTL and Chorus were merged, I would imagine Chorus having to drop analogue MMDS if they are to mirror NTL MMDS.