Ntl - Go Digital When

infomat

Recently NTL announced their Go DIGITAL package and that it would be available in the near future. As soon as I heard this I phoned to apply and was told that the service would be available within weeks in Dublin 1. I was told to contact them after two weeks ... this morning I phoned only to be told that the service was not yet available and that it could be late 2002 before I can get it.

Has anyone managed to get this service?

Kix

I spoke to two people from NTL today. The first was a lady on their national helpline number. She wasn't at all sure that they were rolling out the service anywhere but Dublin in the near future.

There's two possibilities here;

1. She was a technical person rather than a sales person and just didn't know the details of the rollout.
2. She knows that they are restricting the rollout but that information hasn't been made public yet.

I'm going to be unusually optimistic here and say I think that it's '1', since the info about the release is all over the website and the last time I phoned Galway (on the 28/08) I was told that the service was already live but just not available to the public yet, that they were "still testing it".

Talking directly to the Galway office I was told that they were expecting now to launch next week (I was originally told the 18/09). The nice woman on the phone, who seemed to believe what she was telling me, said that they haven't received any brochures or registration forms yet.

Perhaps someone can tell me - if the digital service was broadcasting, would you be able to find the transmissions by tuning your analogue set? You couldn't watch them of course but then again they wouldn't look like plain static either. That way one could verify that the service is actually on-line. I suppose it depends what frequency they're being sent down the cable at.

K

Charles Slane

I remember seeing patterns a few months ago on NTL in Dublin which I'm pretty sure were digital tests. As you say, not quite plain static but definitely something there. It looked like repeating patterns scrolling down screen. I'd say they should be visible somewhere if the digital service has started, although it's possible that they're beyond a regular TV's tuning range.

Hope this helps.

mike65

Here in Waterford there is what's described as a Digital
Test Channel on 440 khz/hz (whichever!)

While a promo "card" for the new service is displayed
in the evenings on the Cabletext channel promising more
details soon, how soon is my question....

Mike.

Kix

I was reading somone on the IOFFL forum this morning (I've lost the link, sorry) and they said that they had been told (by NTL) "possibly no NTL Digital till next year".

Follows hard upon our broadband woes. :mad:

Don't you just wish sometimes that this tragic little country of ours would just slide into the sea and save us all the embarassment....

K

Charles Slane

Ireland sliding into the sea is a little extreme and would most likely cause havoc with our TV reception devices (although apparently you get a great reception of Atlantis TV a mile below the coast of Achill - current highest rated show - The Green Planet, hosted by David Attenbubble).

Joking aside - it almost appears as if NTL's announcement of their digital service was just to keep Etain Doyle off their backs.

NIBBS

Hard to know what's going on with those ntl people, they seem to have a new policy of just telling people they can get services that aren't available and advertising things that may never come.......

Don't know if anyone say the story in the UK the other day, but NTL are constantly breaking the advertising rules and have 10 complaints against them, there's not too much that can be done about this bar the complaints - but it's always a bad sign that a company has absolutely no regard for having some accuracy in their ad's. The complaints are about advertising services that are not available.

Kix

Maybe Jessica can put us in the frame. She generally knows what's going on.

Jessica! We need you honey!

K

infomat

Originally posted by Charles Slane

Joking aside - it almost appears as if NTL's announcement of their digital service was just to keep Etain Doyle off their backs.

Yes, that would appear to be the case.

Jessica

ohh i heard my name being mentioned here .. kix how can i help?

let me start at the start :

Kix the person you were talking to probably had no idea what they were talking about and probably should have admitted that to you and passed you on to someone else who did know what they were talking about.

Galway and Waterford digital service should be available some time really soon
if you are looking for brochures on the digital service, just ring ntl and someone can send them out for you.

as for what mike65 was saying i don't think that this would be possible - i don't really understand, but here is my logic on it anyway.

how can you see a digital signal coming through if you need a set top box to encrypt it ? although i do know that you can see sky sports etc but doesn't digital go out on higher frequencies that more than likely an tv on its own would not be able to pick. to be honest i thought that it would have been higher than 440 - although i could be wrong - strangely enough it can happen.

hope i shed a little light here! but i am sure that you guys will tell me if i am talking crap!

mike65

QUOTE
"as for what mike65 was saying i don't think that this would be possible - i don't really understand, but here is my logic on it anyway.

how can you see a digital signal coming through if you need a set top box to encrypt it ? although i do know that you can see sky sports etc but doesn't digital go out on higher frequencies that more than likely an tv on its own would not be able to pick. to be honest i thought that it would have been higher than 440 - although i could be wrong - strangely enough it can happen."
END QUOTE


I should have said Mhz not Khz or Hz, as for how I can see
a digital channel on an analogue system - good question,
I suspect they just put up an analogue test card
and called it digital just to suggest they were actually
doing something! Would'nt put past them.

Mike.