UPC Digital Plus Vs Sky Plus

Ranicand · 26-02-2010 11:09PM

zilog_jones wrote: »

Ah I thought HD was €5 extra on top of Digital+. The website isn't very clear on what HD channels are available with what packages - before it used to list BBC HD only for Select Extra IIRC, but now lists nothing specific.

Thanks for the clarification

Your right the site does not make it very clear but this does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_UPC_Ireland

200motels · 27-02-2010 03:59PM

Ranicand wrote: »

Recording is almost the same but the box must be put into standby to record two channels at once.

Yes there is series link.

At one stage I would have said no the picture was much better on Sky but in the last year or so bit rates have gone up and it is now about the same as Sky.
Hd picture is very nice indeed.

Playing back a recording is missing one feature on Sky you can jump in at any time point by pressing say 20 to go 20mins in on UPC you must fast forward however I have found the fast forward is mush faster then on Sky.

As regards how stable the box is the Cisco HD box is the only one I would recommend the regular boxes are a bit unresponsive.

I am in an upgraded area ie one that offers Phone and HD is some other areas that have not been upgraded there may be less bandwidth.

In areas where there is HD I would say go for it if not I would stick with Sky.

Thanks for that.

mambo · 23-03-2010 08:33PM

Am considering upgrading from Analog to Digital+ or maybe Digital+ HD. I don't have a HD TV yet, but may get one soon, and comments here say the HD box is better anyway. Though you only get one HD channel (BBC HD) in the basic HD pack!

The UPC site is bit confusing.
http://www.upc.ie/television/digitalplus/ says Digital+ is €5 extra a month, but
http://www.upc.ie/television/valuepluspack/ says it's only €1 extra a month.
They are the same offering, no?!?

After Digital+ is installed, will I still be able to use the Analog service - I hopefully won't need to, but it would be nice just in case I need to record 3 programs simultaneously :-)

paulm17781 · 23-03-2010 08:36PM

Yes, the analogue is still there.

mambo · 23-03-2010 09:39PM

When setting programs to record on the UPC Digital+ box, will it adjust if the program starts early or late?

Or can you set it to record a couple of extra minutes at the beginning and end of the program, just in case?

Also, once a number of programs are recorded, does it display a list of program names for you to choose one to view, or just the channel name & time for each recording?

dunworth1 · 23-03-2010 10:40PM

mambo wrote: »

When setting programs to record on the UPC Digital+ box, will it adjust if the program starts early or late?

Or can you set it to record a couple of extra minutes at the beginning and end of the program, just in case?

Also, once a number of programs are recorded, does it display a list of program names for you to choose one to view, or just the channel name & time for each recording?

you can set it record a few min extra at the start and ending

it displays a list of program names and episode number

mambo · 24-03-2010 10:17AM

Thanks for the answers.

Sorry, some more questions...

On Digital+, how many days in advance can you set recordings?
Can you only set them through the EPG, and if so how many days forward into the future does it show?
And how many serparate recordings can you set at a time?

zilog_jones · 24-03-2010 01:55PM

mambo wrote: »

On Digital+, how many days in advance can you set recordings?
Can you only set them through the EPG, and if so how many days forward into the future does it show?

I think you can go up to 8 days ahead in the EPG, maybe it's further now. You can do series link, but the option is not always there (I think it's only some channels or something).
You can manually set a recording too, i.e. set channel, date, time, etc. yourself.
You can set a recording when viewing the now/next thing on a channel too.

UPC have recently added an online EPG to their website: http://tv-guide.upc.ie/TV/
This may suggest they will introduce remote recording at some stage... hopefully

And how many serparate recordings can you set at a time?

I don't know if there's a limit, I've never encountered any. You can do two simultaneous recpordings but you have to put the DVR in standby for them both to record.

mambo · 26-03-2010 11:15AM

Thanks for all the answers. I've thought up yet more questions... :-)

Once you've recorded a show, can you edit it (e.g. edit out ad breaks)?

Presumably the recordings are compressed on the disk. Can you choose compression levels, and what is the picture quality like when viewing recordings? (e.g. I don't watch football, but it can look particularly poor if over-compressed)

cgarvey · 26-03-2010 12:45PM

mambo wrote: »

Once you've recorded a show, can you edit it (e.g. edit out ad breaks)?

No (same as Sky)

mambo wrote: »

Can you choose compression levels

No (same as Sky)

mambo wrote: »

what is the picture quality like when viewing recordings?

I think the stream is recorded straight to disk in whatever bit rate the original broadcast was with (same as Sky, I think). So, in theory, an hour of RTE1 would take up more disk space than an hour of some crappy bitrate channel. Anyway I've never noticed any degradation of quality between the recorded and live broadcast version of a channel (on Sky or UPC).

mambo · 26-03-2010 12:48PM

>> Once you've recorded a show, can you edit it (e.g. edit out ad breaks)?
> No (same as Sky)

I hope you can at least fast-forward through the ads during playback?

Mountjoy Mugger · 26-03-2010 01:02PM

You sure can. I do it all the time with DS9

Fresh Pots · 26-03-2010 01:10PM

I hope you can at least fast-forward through the ads during playback?

Yes, you can fast forward, rewind and pause recordings.

zilog_jones · 26-03-2010 03:28PM

cgarvey wrote: »

I think the stream is recorded straight to disk in whatever bit rate the original broadcast was with (same as Sky, I think). So, in theory, an hour of RTE1 would take up more disk space than an hour of some crappy bitrate channel. Anyway I've never noticed any degradation of quality between the recorded and live broadcast version of a channel (on Sky or UPC).

I assume this is what happens too. Re-compressing possibly already re-compressed MPEG2 video would be terrible. This is what I don't like about standalone DVRs - in most cases you're going through a digital->analogue->digital conversion then re-compressing again.

I've never noticed any degredation in picutre/audio quality with recordings with the UPC DVR.

mambo · 29-03-2010 10:06AM

With Digital+ and/or Digital+ HD, I presume you can choose to watch in 4:3 aspect ratio or in 16:9 widescreen.

But do either support the "compromise" 14:9 format, which is useful on old 4:3 televisions?

superleedsdub · 29-03-2010 10:50PM

one thing to note:
for those of you interested in HD - UPC do not have access to Sky sports HD or SKY Movies HD......

Nashcol · 20-07-2012 03:31PM

I have a UPC box in another room to my tv and I can't change the channel with the remote , I bought a slx Omni link plus but there is no rf out connection ??????

Griffinx · 22-07-2012 01:11PM

Nashcol wrote: »

I have a UPC box in another room to my tv and I can't change the channel with the remote , I bought a slx Omni link plus but there is no rf out connection ??????

Yes,

I was wondering about sky tvlink feature too.. Is something similar available with upc, essentially extending the tv to another room.

Gx

icdg · 22-07-2012 09:42PM

We don't drag up old threads.

UPC Digital Plus Vs Sky Plus

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