NTL:UK gets PVR

bk

NTL:UK is finally getting a PVR and just take a look at the mouth watering specs:

# MPEG-4 part 10/H.264 Decoding – Will support compression technology that benefits advanced high-definition and standard-definition services.
# Three Video Tuners – Will record three standard- or high- definition MPEG-4/H.264 programs at the same time.
# Internal SATA 160GB Hard Drive – Latest, future-friendly hard drive technology will support extremely high data throughputs.
# IP Multi-Room™ PVR Capability via second Ethernet port – Watch programs recorded on the hard drive in multiple rooms.
# Built-in Euro-DOCSIS 2.0 Cable Modem – Support for advanced 2-way applications such as Video-on-Demand and other interactive services, as well as high speed internet access to a computer connected to the set-top.
# USB 2.0 Connectivity – High-speed connectivity to external peripherals such as hard drives, will allow for expandability.
# Hard Disk Drive Reliability – Will leverage Scientific-Atlanta’s hardware and software design experience, gained over the development of five generations of PVR/DVR set-tops.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds25412.html
http://www.scientificatlanta.com/newscenter/releases/05Sep09-5.htm

All it seems to be missing is RJ11 ports for VoIP services.

Come on NTL:Ireland we want these babies.

I actually have a hacked US Tivo working with NTL and it works great, however three turners, MPEG-4 support and DOCSIS builtin (for VoD and interactive services) would be mind blowing.

RE*AC*TOR

christ i'd love one of them.

i wonder what are the chances of ntl:ireland adopting these...

more importantly... price?

paulm17781

I like that! I hate that I have a seperate digi-box and modem. Configurable (ability to use Blueface) VOIP ports would really make that great.

RicardoSmith

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

...i wonder what are the chances of ntl:ireland adopting these...

You mean from the company who couldn't fix the problem their phones going on fire?

Alun

Little chance of that since ntl: ireland and ntl: uk now have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The name "ntl: ireland" is now being used merely as a trading name by the current temporary owners, Morgan Stanley, until the powers that be decide whether UGC can take them over.

It would be nice though ...

Freddie59

RicardoSmith wrote:

You mean from the company who couldn't fix the problem their phones going on fire?

And the same company that (according to this post: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=315366) is on the verge of 8 Meg Broadband? Get over yerself buddy!:D

Mossy Monk

that looks very impressive. Sky will need to rethink the Sky+ if the following is what i think it is

# IP Multi-Room™ PVR Capability via second Ethernet port – Watch programs recorded on the hard drive in multiple rooms.

is that watching different recordings in each room?

Mossy Monk

Freddie59 wrote:

And the same company that (according to this post: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=315366) is on the verge of 8 Meg Broadband? Get over yerself buddy!:D

although 8 meg isnt a bad connection speed it is far from what ntl could offer imo. i have heard whispers of Telewest being able to go to 28meg in the UK if they wanted

Round Cable

Maybe they'll introduce interactive and VOD, first, I wouldn't hold my breath, maybe UPC will kick their asses into gear.

bk

NTL:Ireland are supposedly working on a PVR, so something like this wouldn't be too far fetched, in fact it would actually make a lot of sense.

The market is changing very quickly, a modern cable comapny is going to need to have the following services to compete and to drive users towards higher value services:

- Digital TV
- BB
- Interactive TV over the BB
- VoD
- A PVR
- VoIP over the BB.
- HD support in the future.

Really it is the BB that is central to all of this, so bringing out a combined box that supports all of these, even if they aren't currently available is a good idea. There would be no point in issung customers with new boxes with VoIP support this year, if next year your going to have to replace them again with HD boxes, etc.

I could see NTL:Ireland bringing out a second box with all the above features, but without the PVR functionality for people who don't want it or who need a second/third box.

RicardoSmith

Freddie59 wrote:

And the same company that (according to this post: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=315366) is on the verge of 8 Meg Broadband? Get over yerself buddy!:D

Well buddy if you read it on the web it MUST be true....:rolleyes: LOL

Myself, relatives and friends been NTL customers for many years. You won't find many who'll sing their praises. The people who usually harp on about NTL being great are people who have had them for a year or two on BB after years of being on dialup. A good test of a company is how it deals with problems, or don't in the case of NTL a lot of the time. They tell you nothing, you have drag information out of them. Look how they dropped the phone service in Ireland.

While I have seen some improvements, this year was the first year I've seriously thought of dropping the NTL TV. The programming is simply dire. The kids love the kids channels on digital, but compared to Sky, and Sky+ its simply not in the same league. If your a sports fan, well then you stopped reading as soon as you read N T L...;)

NTL PVR great. What you'll record I have no idea.

Freddie59

RicardoSmith wrote:

Well buddy if you read it on the web it MUST be true....:rolleyes: LOL

Myself, relatives and friends been NTL customers for many years. You won't find many who'll sing their praises. The people who usually harp on about NTL being great are people who have had them for a year or two on BB after years of being on dialup. A good test of a company is how it deals with problems, or don't in the case of NTL a lot of the time. They tell you nothing, you have drag information out of them. Look how they dropped the phone service in Ireland.

While I have seen some improvements, this year was the first year I've seriously thought of dropping the NTL TV. The programming is simply dire. The kids love the kids channels on digital, but compared to Sky, and Sky+ its simply not in the same league. If your a sports fan, well then you stopped reading as soon as you read N T L...;)

NTL PVR great. What you'll record I have no idea.

Well fella - all I can say is that these boards have their finger on the pulse when it comes to Cable/Satellite/Broadband - it's a fact of life which is backed up by results in the past (now that's if you actually read them and take the time to interpret them:eek: :rolleyes: ).

Sky Digital basic is €29 p/m approx (for a comprehensive package) - NTL digital is €10 per month. OK - you miss a few crap channels and the red button, but personally that's not an issue for me. I think their basic analogue's pretty good too. With four teens in my house, everyone's covered for €30 per month (I'm even thinking of going for the second box which has everything on it for €5 extra per month). All of us can then watch a good mix of what's available on both analogue and digital.:)

As I've said before it's a matter of personal taste. If you prefer Sky then go for it! I myself wouldn't outlay the extra cash.:D I'll see what the charge is for the PVR before I decide on it.

Mossy Monk

Freddie59 wrote:

Sky Digital basic is €29 p/m approx (for a comprehensive package) - NTL digital is €10 per month

woah there. do Sky force an analogue connection on you aswell? of course they don't
this €10 for digital tv with ntl is a load of bollocks imo

bk

Mossy Monk wrote:

woah there. do Sky force an analogue connection on you aswell? of course they don't
this €10 for digital tv with ntl is a load of bollocks imo

Force!!! The analogue connection is a great plus and it is the main reason why NTL:Ireland has the lowest churn rate in the industry in Europe (about 0.7% compared to 15% for Sky:UK and NTL:UK).

Lets see you get the Digital TV 150 channels in your primary TV and then you get 17 channel analogue in as many other rooms and VCR's as you like, This is very handy if you have kids or live in rented accomodation. In my house we make use of 5 different connections.

If you want an extra digital box it is only €5, compared to €15 from Sky.

With Sky you pay €30 for just one TV, you pay an extra €15 for each other room.
So if I was to get Sky it would cost me €90, with NTL it costs €30. BTW I couldn't even get this with Sky, with Sky you can only get a maximum of 4 connections without going for expensive commercial gear.

RicardoSmith wrote:

While I have seen some improvements, this year was the first year I've seriously thought of dropping the NTL TV. The programming is simply dire. The kids love the kids channels on digital, but compared to Sky, and Sky+ its simply not in the same league.

??? The NTL Digital TV lineup is almost exactly the same as Sky, sure Sky has more channels, but they are all just FTA shopping channels. All the major channels are on NTL, even UTV and C4 which aren't on Sky (UTV will be soon thorugh FTA), yet I can't think of a single major channel that is on Sky that isn't on NTL?

As for Sports and movies, the same Sky sports and movie channels are on NTL. You have a point about Sky+ and hopefully that will be rectified soon, however you are wrong about the channel lienup.

BTW cable has a brighter future when VoD becomes available on it. This is one place where Sky can't compete, this is why Sky has just bought a DSL BB company in the UK and is planning to do VoD over it.

Mossy Monk

bk wrote:

Force!!! The analogue connection is a great plus and it is the main reason why NTL:Ireland has the lowest churn rate in the industry in Europe (about 0.7% compared to 15% for Sky:UK and NTL:UK).

Lets see you get the Digital TV 150 channels in your primary TV and then you get 17 channel analogue in as many other rooms and VCR's as you like, This is very handy if you have kids or live in rented accomodation. In my house we make use of 5 different connections.

thats all nice and bubbly, really it is
but the digital tv for only a tenner is still bollocks. should i decide to get ntl will they allow me to get just the digital tv for €10? of course they wont, analogue must be taken aswell. so the digital tv with ntl costs €10 plus whatever the analogue rate is (€20 or so?)

bk

Mossy Monk wrote:

thats all nice and bubbly, really it is
but the digital tv for only a tenner is still bollocks. should i decide to get ntl will they allow me to get just the digital tv for €10? of course they wont, analogue must be taken aswell. so the digital tv with ntl costs €10 plus whatever the analogue rate is (€20 or so?)

Actually I did, I got the analogue free for 12 months

Of course I also signed up for BB, so perhaps it was a special deal, but I was very happy, however I do see your point.

I should say there is a fair reason why you most also take the analogue service. Since the analogue servcie isn't encrypted, if you get Digital or BB, they have no way of stopping you from also using their analogue service. If they didn't make it a minimum requirement, then everyone would just get Digital and still use analogue but not pay for it.

Even at €30 (Analogue + Digital) it is still much better value then Sky IMO.

Freddie59

Mossy Monk wrote:

thats all nice and bubbly, really it is
but the digital tv for only a tenner is still bollocks. should i decide to get ntl will they allow me to get just the digital tv for €10? of course they wont, analogue must be taken aswell. so the digital tv with ntl costs €10 plus whatever the analogue rate is (€20 or so?)

Mossy, Mossy!! OK you're a Sky fan. We get it. But I'm an NTL fan. I haven't castigated Sky - they have a wonderful system. It's just too expensive (as bk has pointed out rather eloquently) in my opinion.

It's all about personal preferences. But I don't like Sky's rates or their repair charges :eek: so NTL is great for me.:D I hope their PVR is good (reason for this thread) - I might even go for it!:)

Mossy Monk

Freddie59 wrote:

OK you're a Sky fan

Sky fan? what are you on about. i am simply pointing out that it costs more than €10 to have digital tv with NTL. where is the difficulty in seeing that? how that makes me look like i love Sky is beyond me. both NTL and Sky have their good and bad points

GerardKeating

Freddie59 wrote:

Sky Digital basic is €29 p/m approx (for a comprehensive package) - NTL digital is €10 per month.

It is false and misleading to state that NTL digital is €10 per month.

NTL digital costs €29.50 per month, this is made up of the basic charge of €19.50 per month, plus a €10 suppliment for "Go Digital".

Both packages are basically the same price, the trade off (assuming you have the option to chose between them) is the Analogue service in exchance for a few more +1's and a load of shopping channels.

Ohh, and Sky have Halmark and FX.

paulm17781

Sky have better sound too. I still prefer NTL though, sweet 3mb cable BB, agghhhhh

GerardKeating

paulm17781 wrote:

Sky have better sound too. I still prefer NTL though, sweet 3mb cable BB, agghhhhh

Same here,

NTL+Blueface = Rat Free Zone

Guy:Incognito

Picture quality onsky is much better. I have a couple of extra boxes with ntl but id go back to sky if they offered the same deal. I want trouble (the channel) and interactive (for ss xtra on cl matchdays)

Rainy

I agree with Mossy Monk. Sky seems to provide a much better service. I don't have first hand experience yet but everyone I talked to seems to rave about Sky. The quality and service seem much better and I hear that UTV is available from today. BK, how do you know so much?

bk

Rainy wrote:

I agree with Mossy Monk. Sky seems to provide a much better service. I don't have first hand experience yet but everyone I talked to seems to rave about Sky. The quality and service seem much better and I hear that UTV is available from today. BK, how do you know so much?

Yes, there are pros and cons to both:

Sky Pros
- Better picture and sound quality
- Better EPG, 1 week versus 2 days
- Better remote (bigger and easier to use)
- Better User Interface, The Sky UI and boxes are much better, faster and easier to use then NTLs.
- Far more channels.
- Sky interactive services, no NTL equivalent.
- Sky News Interactive is excellent.
- Sky+ PVR

Sky Cons
- No Channel 4, it does have UTV and ITV channels as of today.
- BBC and ITV channels aren't on Irish EPG and therefore aren't available to Sky+
- Requires external dish, my not be possible in rental accomodation or apartments.
- Expensive for multi room viewing, €15 for each extra box.
- Sky+ PVR is expensive €15
- Video on Demand services not possible.
- BB not possible.

NTL Pros
- Has C4
- NTL BB is best BB service in Ireland
- Cheap for multiroom viewing, free analogue for as many TV's as you like or extra Digital box including all channels on primary box (including sport and movies) for just €5.

In the future:
- Can offer BB speeds over 100mbit/s
- VoD services such as catch up TV and movie and match rentals (not possible on Sky).
- Phone services possible.
- Superior (to Sky) interactive services over BB.

NTL Cons
- See Sky Pros above, however many of the cons could be solved with better boxes that include PVR, MPEG4 HD, BB, etc. like what NTL:UK are doing.

For myself, I live in a rented house so Sky is out of the question. However even if I could it is too expensive, I have 5 TV connections in my house, two analogue and 3 digital, this costs only €20 per month (I get analogue free, total of €40 otherwise), the same would cost about €90 from Sky and it wouldn't even be possible (Sky only sell quad LNBs).

paulm17781

I have to say I prefer the NTL GUI, easier to read.

rogue-entity

Sky is far better value then NTHell, what are you on about!
On Sky you can get up to 200 channels, not including the shopping channels, god knows how they could afford to be on Sky's EPG.

We have NTL digital, it has 80 channels, sure you can get 17 analogue stations in different rooms, but the best channels are on the digital package. The only exceptions are Sky One, CH4 and the Discovery channel, the rest I could not give a damn about. As soon as Sky carries UTV/ITV and CH4 on its EPG, or CH4 goes FTA, then NTL are done for. A FTA receiver in each room guarentees the stations, and a decent arial will pick up the irish channels. A sky sub will give me the movie channels and other useful stations for a total cost of €45/pm and that includes Sky+ so all that is needed is a few extra multiroom boxes for an additional cost of €6 (AFAIK that is the new multiroom price).

Need I say more, oh, yeah, NTL digital has a terrible quality with some channels never working or glitching now and then cos NTL are too cheap to fit a few boosters.

bk

rogue-entity wrote:

Sky is far better value then NTHell, what are you on about!
On Sky you can get up to 200 channels, not including the shopping channels, god knows how they could afford to be on Sky's EPG.

I have to disagree, if Sky drops the price of Multiroom then it will be a harder decision, but at the moment it still costs €15 per box for multiroom, (the €6 thing is just a rumour, nothing on the Sky site yet).

I have 3 digital connections and 2 anaolgue in my house, it costs, €40, the same from Sky would be €90 at the moment and in fact is impossible as Sky can only do 4 connections.

It is likely BBC/ITV/C4 will remain off the Sky EPG, thus making it pretty crippled in Ireland IMO.

When C4 goes FTA, it will have a much more detrimental effect on Sky then it will on cable IMO. It is widely rumoured that BBC and ITV and probably C4 in the future are building a FTA platform with their own EPG, FTA Receivers, PVR's, HD, branding and with heavy advertising it will be a major threat to Sky. In the long term NTL will move into value added services that satellite can't do like BB, phone, VoD, advanced interactivity.

Having watched a couple of episodes of Rome on Comcast in the US using VoD, I know just how amazing and addictive this technology can be. That of course is assuming that UPC makes the investment in Ireland in order to improve the network. If not then you are right they will lose market share to Sky and Freesat, but they haven't yet.

Freddie59

rogue-entity wrote:

Sky is far better value then NTHell, what are you on about!
On Sky you can get up to 200 channels, not including the shopping channels, god knows how they could afford to be on Sky's EPG.

We have NTL digital, it has 80 channels, sure you can get 17 analogue stations in different rooms, but the best channels are on the digital package. The only exceptions are Sky One, CH4 and the Discovery channel, the rest I could not give a damn about. As soon as Sky carries UTV/ITV and CH4 on its EPG, or CH4 goes FTA, then NTL are done for. A FTA receiver in each room guarentees the stations, and a decent arial will pick up the irish channels. A sky sub will give me the movie channels and other useful stations for a total cost of €45/pm and that includes Sky+ so all that is needed is a few extra multiroom boxes for an additional cost of €6 (AFAIK that is the new multiroom price).

Need I say more, oh, yeah, NTL digital has a terrible quality with some channels never working or glitching now and then cos NTL are too cheap to fit a few boosters.

My dear man/lady - everyone is entitled to their opinion. No need to get all infantile! Yes - Sky is a superb platform - no doubt about it.........but it costs. As one who has NTL I personally think the on-screen guide is very tastefully and simply laid out. You say tomato - I say tomato!!:D

PS I assume you have some technical training or are working in the trade, given your in-depth analysis of the 'glitches'.:o

Sparky

you can have eight digiboxes in a house if you wanted, only that at the moment sky only allow either 4 digiboxes or 2 sky plus boxes or 1 sky plus and 2 digiboxes per household.
If they changed this and reduced the multiroom price, and got a manufacturer that has a octo lnb for a minidish then more people would move to sky.
And knowing sky this will happen, just look at their results for takeup of multiroom over the last year.
Personally i prefer sky as their picture quality is the best, especially on a huge plasma screen.
The only reason some people i knew went with ntl was it was easier, as they had a tv connection already and they didnt want a dish, thats all.
The only reason we have ntl digital in our house aswell as sky is that the dish is full, with a sky plus box, a box for the bedroom, and sitting room, we got the ntl box as its really small for the kitchen as a ntl point was already there.

Charlie

Sparky_S wrote:

you can have eight digiboxes in a house if you wanted, only that at the moment sky only allow either 4 digiboxes or 2 sky plus boxes or 1 sky plus and 2 digiboxes per household.
If they changed this and reduced the multiroom price, and got a manufacturer that has a octo lnb for a minidish then more people would move to sky.
And knowing sky this will happen, just look at their results for takeup of multiroom over the last year.
Personally i prefer sky as their picture quality is the best, especially on a huge plasma screen.
The only reason some people i knew went with ntl was it was easier, as they had a tv connection already and they didnt want a dish, thats all.
The only reason we have ntl digital in our house aswell as sky is that the dish is full, with a sky plus box, a box for the bedroom, and sitting room, we got the ntl box as its really small for the kitchen as a ntl point was already there.

Sparky, do you have a sky + box and two standard sky digibox's in your house. If so do sky charge a premium for the third digbox or do they just require another €30 a month for two multiroom subscriptions? This is the setup we are looking to change to in our house and i need a bit of info on it.

Sparky

charlie mchugh wrote:

Sparky, do you have a sky + box and two standard sky digibox's in your house. If so do sky charge a premium for the third digbox or do they just require another €30 a month for two multiroom subscriptions? This is the setup we are looking to change to in our house and i need a bit of info on it.

no just 15 extra as the third receiver is the UK FTA receiver, but if it was to be changed to a full sub box it would be 30 per month extra.
our sky plus sub is free because we have sky world, which is good because its mirrored on the multiroom card.

Charlie

Sparky_S wrote:

no just 15 extra as the third receiver is the UK FTA receiver, but if it was to be changed to a full sub box it would be 30 per month extra.
our sky plus sub is free because we have sky world, which is good because its mirrored on the multiroom card.

Do you know if they would cahrge me a premium for the second standard box, i.e. €99 plus the extra €15 a month or are they willing to give you a free box for every multiroom sub you sign up for?

Sparky

charlie mchugh wrote:

Do you know if they would cahrge me a premium for the second standard box, i.e. €99 plus the extra €15 a month or are they willing to give you a free box for every multiroom sub you sign up for?

no afaik they charge you for the purchase of a second box.
we had our old panny box used as the multiroom box after the sky plus was being put in, so we didnt get charged.
the FTA box is just a pace i bought off ebay.

Are you just a normal sub, like do you have sky plus?
Because im thinking if you have the premium channels (sky sports or movies will do) and say you want multiroom, it might be better but will be dearer if say you got the sky plus in and used your existing box for the multiroom, the great thing is once you have the premium channels you dont pay any extra for sky+ per month.

Rainy

You can get Sky now for only 10.75 a month compared to NTL for 29.50. Sky just seems so much better for lots of reasons, the picture quality, sound & reliability. Why would you pay for NTL when all it seems to do is show a fuzzy reception and thats on a good day? Why does Chorus never feature in this debate? Is Chorus digital available nationwide?

bk

Rainy wrote:

You can get Sky now for only 10.75 a month compared to NTL for 29.50.

What? the Cheapest Sky package is €20 odd and it has far less channels then NTL.
You need to get Sky Family Pack for €30 to get the same variety of channels as is available on NTL Digital.

The €30 for NTL includes the analogue TV service which allows you to add extra TV's/VCR's for no extra cost. It costs an extra €15 to get extra TV/VCR points with Sky, if you want extra digital points with NTL it costs only €5.

I agree, Sky has a slightly better PQ and SQ then NTL, but for most people NTL is good enough and better then what they had and therefore better value for money then Sky.

BTW While NTL Digital's PQ isn't as good as Sky, it certainly isn't "fuzzy".

Also NTL's BB service is superb, better then any other on the market.

As for Chorus, no one discusses them as everyone knows that they are crap.

BTW Chorus and NTL will be merging very soon.