Pay-per-View

Mredmond

A little story:

Over Christmas I decided to order my first PPV event frm Chorus -(Manu. Vs Everton). I rang up, and for once, everything went smoothly. I tuned in at the appropriate time, watched the match. Man U. won. Everything hunky dorey so far.

Last Friday I rang again to order the game for Sunday,and they told me that because I have a trap, and not a set-top box, it would be impossible for me to order PPV events. Ever. I told them about the previous game and they said that they had a record of my order, and that a supervisor had later added a note to the effect that I would not receive the game. They didn;t bother to contact me, of course.
Anyway, the nice girl said (after some persuasion) that she would place the order, but that nothing would come of it.
Lo and behld, Sunday comes, and I see the Red Devils win again. All for no extra charge.
Is this an extra-ordinary coincidence? Twice?
Anybody?

jimbob

Try it every week .

LOL,
Give it to those Crappus crowd.
Every week.
mm

ShaneOC

What do you mean by a trap?

Mredmond

TRAP is a term I first heard in this context from the people at Cable Management Ireland (where I first paid my sub).

It refers to the type of decoding that happens for particular areas. I don't really know, but I think it all happens at the junction box out on the street. Certainly there is no physical device for this in my house, the cable from the road simply connects to the junction box at the side of my house, and hey presto!

My suspicion is that anyone who wants could connect up to the basic service from CHORUS in this way for absolutely nothing.
But who would want to?

Our man in Havana

Grabbing Students!

ShaneOC

Does that mean that you have all the channels available through both the TV and the video, i.e. can you watch one and record another. What part of the country are you in?

Why the hell if they can do this did they introduce the bloody STB's at all?

Do you know if you have stereo reception on the TV channels?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by ShaneOC
Why the hell if they can do this did they introduce the bloody STB's at all?

Here in NTL land, they supply a STB only if you want to watch PPV or subscription channels, otherwise for the basic analogue service, none is needed. I don't see why Chorus are encrypting all there channels in certain areas since this limits the usefullness of the service.

The one reason I haven't switched over to Sky is the ability to use multiple TVs/Videos in the house off the one subscription.

ShaneOC

I knew that that was the case with NTL (well Cablelink, but I presumed it was the same). However for Chorus to restrict certain areas to one channel at a time (and no video capabilities) and allow others full access is mad. Obviously we all know that indeed Chorus are quite mad, but this has just strengthened my belief in that fact.

I wonder if there is such a thing as a digital trap?

Answers on a €500 bill to me please.

_Kaiser_

I remember a similar setup at a friend's house years ago when they moved to Ashborne...they had all the Premium channels decoded before it hit the TV/video (so yes you could watch one and tape another)...he said it was down to something that for all the world looked like a cable joiner that linked the cable from the wall to one from his video.

Yup, and I have friends in Ashbourne too.
They talked nice:D to the cable guy who installed a "device" giving them free sky premier.
now like the rest of us they can watch the same films over and over and over.....................
mm

Mredmond

Does that mean that you have all the channels available through both the TV and the video, i.e. can you watch one and record another. What part of the country are you in?

In reply to ShaneOC;

Absolutely. Three TVs operating independently. Three Videos - ditto.

This causes the main stumbling that stops me getting SKY. Although CHORUS provide a crap service, its a crap service that I have some local flexibility with.

As was mentioned by someone else, the installation guy also did me a favour, providing me with, essentially, a 3-way splitter. As all the channels are already decoded (other than PPV), this works perfectly.

mr

ONireland

I've been calling for a device like this for a while. I refered to it as a "Wideband DVB DAC". It'd basically tune to one multiplex and decode all the channels into a series of UHF channel numbers. For example, in Northern Ireland tuning it to Mux 1 would have this effect:

BBC1 - CH21
BBC2 - CH22
BBC Choice - CH23
BBC Knowledge - CH24
BBC News 24 - CH25
BBC Parliament - CH26

They should be relatively cheap. I say £100 for a starter unit (can tune to two multiplexes), and there should be expansion modules available (like PCI cards for PCs) that's enable more Muxes to be tuned in. This way you could have this setup:

> Aerial
--> DVBDAC
----> TV1
----> TV2
----> TV3 etc...

Naturally it should have the option of a CAM (Conditional Access Module). It'd be great to store in the meter box. It should also have a large character display for organising the channel lists, so gaps can be left for Analogue passthrough of non-digital channels.

Mredmond

Well, I've just attempted to place an order for the PPV match on Sunday. Usual stuff - they say I can't get it, I say Yeah I know, but will you place the order anyway, they say Yeah but it won't work.

Fingers crossed.

I'll post the outcome on Sunday.

Mredmond

Its probably of little interest at this stage, but I promised to post the outcome, so here it is: Another free pay per view match that Chorus said would be impossible has come through for me.

This can hardly be coincidence - that's 3 out of 3. Its not like I'm seeing these PPV matches every week, just the ones I've ordered, and been told cannot be processed.

I do have one other idea about all thism which seems a bit outlandish and will not be posted until I can gather some plausible evidence.

Anyone out there got any ideas as to how this can be happening?

mr.

yankinlk

You may or may not have read my thread below about a similar subject...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39717

It isnt the same scenario as yours, but I still am ordering their pay per view movies every month and I have yet to be charged for any. In my particular situation I believe the reason for getting them free is that I never hooked up the phone to the STB. Or rather when they installed they didn't bother, so why should I?

Genghis

I know someone in Navan who has the TRAP system you speak of. They have had Sky Premier ever since they moved in and never at any additional cost. I reckon Mredmond that your whole street has access to the matches you order!

The set-up in my estate beats all though - A new estate, cabled by the builders to every houseside, and at at least two points inside. What do chorus do? Erect a community sized MMDS receiver at one end of the estate and pump the raw signal through to all houses. The effect - everybody needs an STB and can only have one connection, with no simultaneous channels. In other words, the same difference as having MMDS rooftop aerial.

They then proceed to charge us the highest possible rates. EVERYTHING about Chorus aside, I would still be with them if I could have multi-channel on muti-TVs.

PacMan

Even today here in tipperary, Chorus MMDS has Sky Premier 1 free. Occasionally SKY sports channels are clear.
What is different about chorus MMDS, is that TV3 Sky news, and sky premier are off band, meaning that they can be stored in a dedicated tv channel as they are not scrambled. Often the racing Channel is free. I think its because it shares with MTV and the folks at chorus forget to scramble it the next day (Racing channel until 6pm then MTV)

Mredmond

I reckon Mredmond that your whole street has access to the matches you order!

I'd say you're about right, Genghis. Navan is where I am too - is it just here that Chorus operate these "Traps", I wonder?

For the record, I've no idea what a trap actually is or looks like - the cable just connects to the junction box at the side of my house (3 points) and I connect up each TV in the usual way. This is what they call the Trap system.


Now that I think of it, maybe I should order that season ticket for PPV matches....and maybe I should start charging the neighbours for it....and maybe I should set up a cable distribution company and.... Ahh F*ck it, No.

mr.

Mredmond

It's an old thread, but what the hell, Chorus cable just went out while I was waiting for the answer to a very interesting question on 15-to-1, so with nothing better to do...

My score is now 4 out of 4. I've even branched out into non ManU matches, and am consideing ordering the season ticket for whatever remains, although at some point, surely, someone is going to cotton on to this free pay-per-view. It's not like I'm hiding anything from them - I tell them, every time I order - that I'm getting this service. They keep saying I'm not. What can I do?

mr

jdf

Originally posted by Genghis


The set-up in my estate beats all though - A new estate, cabled by the builders to every houseside, and at at least two points inside. What do chorus do? Erect a community sized MMDS receiver at one end of the estate and pump the raw signal through to all houses. The effect - everybody needs an STB and can only have one connection, with no simultaneous channels. In other words, the same difference as having MMDS rooftop aerial.

They then proceed to charge us the highest possible rates. EVERYTHING about Chorus aside, I would still be with them if I could have multi-channel on muti-TVs.

I moved into my house 2 years ago this month. The setup is exactly as you describe. The same builder is building another scheme nearby and I saw the Chorus van installing the mmds receiver over the weekend.

I only subscribed for the first year and then only that long because I'd paid for the full year. They were useless. I have never experienced such lousy service as a cusromer anywhere, ever.