Sky or digital NTL ?

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permia

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Recently we bought a Sony Bravia 40" KDL-40W4000 TV (after 18 year old CRT finally demised). This is a full HD TV. A "free" Sony RDR HX780 DVD/HDD was included. This has 1 HDMI output & is upscaling. In addition I also have a LG DVD/HDD with SCART and a Sony VCR, again with SCART.

Currently on NTL analogue cable in Castleknock Dublin, which is surprisingly good picture. But now want to upgrade to digital.

Should I go for Sky or NTL digital ?

Given my excellent TV, I would like to take advantage of any available HD transmission. I think this would point towards Sky as NTL don’t currently have HD offerings. Also I want to have a signal to both DVD/HDDs and also if possible to the older VCR. How many and type of outputs does the Sky + HD box contain ? Does Sky box include a HDMI output ?
Is UTV/ITV available on Sky ?

Is it true that the NTL digital box has only one SCART output ? This probably wouldn’t be sufficient to provide adequate feed to DVDs, VCR ?

Regarding quality and customer service, how would you rate Sky versus NTL ? (Latter don’t have a good reputation and I experienced this myself in the past when they mistakenly billed me for a telephone service which I did not have. It took ages to sort it out !!).

Another factor for me is that I hope to soon upgrade from modem dial-up on Win 98 PC (!!) to wireless broadband and a Dell laptop. I know that NTL do combined digital TV/wireless broadband/phone packages that seem to be good value.

I think on balance I am leaning towards Sky because of their greater choice of available channels and HD.

What would you advise ?

Many thanks for your help.
 
I can't comment on NTL, but I've been with Sky for years and have had no problems with billing or anything like that. Their phone support for technical problems is actually reasonably decent, and when they say they will enter a note of an issue you have that you will need to call back on, they do write up the note, and the next person taking the call has a note of you discussion, so you can pick up where you left off.


I've recenly bought a Samsung LE40A656 (same lcd panel as your TV) and I find that the picture for DVD's run through SCART is absolutely excellent - I can't imagine hd upscaling would add much to the pot.

Unfortunately the Sky box is kaput at the moment (not too bad, it was 8 years old), but I'll be upgrading to Sky+ this week. I didn't go for Sky HD as at present I don't feel that €180 extra a year plus an extra €50 installation is worth it yet for the selection of channels you get. Maybe in a year or two I will upgrade. Since Sky was roughly equivalent to a DVD on the older tv, I expect Sky+ to be similar enough in standard to my DVD experience.

I'll get back to you at the weekend once I have Sky installed.
 
Hi all,

Many thanks so far for your positive replies.

Just regarding Sky signals to my 2 DVDs & 1 VCR, are there sufficient outputs/outlets (HDMI, SCART etc) on the Sky + HD box for potential independent recording of different programmes on each of these ?

For Sky (in just one room, not multi-room) is a permanent landline phone connnection required ?

On Sky are the main Irish & BBC Radio stations, such as BBC Radio 4 readily available ?

I appreciate your advice.
 
permia said:
For Sky (in just one room, not multi-room) is a permanent landline phone connnection required ?

On Sky are the main Irish & BBC Radio stations, such as BBC Radio 4 readily available ?
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You don't need a landline at all for sky, we had sky digital for 3 years with no phone line.

Yes, today FM, 2FM etc are there, assume BBC4 etc are there as well.
 
It's not necessarily true that you don't need a landline. Sky insist that you have a landline connected to your box at all times. They have no way of checking this though. Have a word with your installer and he should hook it up without taking the phone line to your landline connection. The guy that installed mine just gave me a rolled up line of telephone cable.

The installer will need it connected to activate the box. Though they can do this over the phone, i.e. mobile without the use of a landline, they prefer not to because they get questioned by the rep from sky.

No doubts in my mind what you should choose. Sky is a far superior package for both customer service value and quality of service. I don't have HD but I do have Sky+ and it really is the dog's.

I do think they are losing the run of themselves with the cost of the box now. 71 euro for full package not including channel upgrades is expensive imo. The thing is NTL will cost the same or a little more for the full package.

Just a couple of plus's for NTL since I've sang Sky's praises:

With NTL you don't have to find UTV in extra channels like you do with Sky. Since it's in extra channels, it means you can't sky+ any recording from it, you can't view what's past the following hour, and it's not listed in your standard EPG (electronic programme guide) i.e. you have to go to another menu to view it.

With NTL you don't have to pay extra for Setanta. With Sky you do. Might not be a big deal for you but I'm a football fan and Setanta have just under half the premier league games. Pain in the nads that I have to pay where NTL customers don't

With NTL you don't have to pay extra for multi room viewing. This is one of my biggest gripes with sky. I already pay for the signal, why charge me to watch two different channels in my house. It's an extra 15 euro, which I think is very expensive.

Can't think of any more right now.



(I could just get one of those dodgy boxes and have it all, but then I'd lose sky+ and I think quality of signal is far superior on sky)
 
Is it not just Setanta Ireland you get free with NTL? I believe you have to pay for Setanta Sports 1 and 2.

Also we had no landline at all in the house and I gave my mobile the main house number to Sky so unless they are idiots they knew I had no phone line connected.....
 
I have dealt with both of these companies over the years and without a doubt Sky is your only option.

NTL have a very poor service and their customer care is nothing short of terrible in fact to add the work "care" is a bit of a joke really.

In comparison, I have never had a customer service problem with Sky and I find their product excellent!
 
FLANDERS` said:
Is it not just Setanta Ireland you get free with NTL? I believe you have to pay for Setanta Sports 1 and 2.
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You are most likely correct on the Setanta Ireland thing. I don't have NTL but just assumed because they had Setanta. It's definitely free on the dodgy box ;)

FLANDERS` said:
Also we had no landline at all in the house and I gave my mobile the main house number to Sky so unless they are idiots they knew I had no phone line connected.....
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Again, I did say not necessarily true. I'm surprised that Sky took a mobile no. The engineer that I had out with me on my first installation told the rep the phone line was inactive (it wasn't connected at the time). Rep gave grief about connecting. When I moved, the engineer was unhappy about my request for connecting without tacking the phone wire around the house but agreed.

It may just depend on who you get.
 
Yeah, its annoying though that they try to push a landline on you....I want to watch TV damn it!!

Yes we have the box and I can confirm it is indeed free!
 
Sky only need a landline when you are using Multiroom and you must keep the phone line plugged in at all times. AFAIK, this is so that people living close together, e.g. in neighbouring apartments, can't just go buy a subscription between them!

Sky can monitor this (anyone with mulitroom may notice that if your phoneline is not plugged in, you will get a message on screen every now and then telling you this). Also, if they cannot detect that a phone line is plugged in, they may possibly charge you for 2 seperate subscriptions - this happened to my parents. There is no comeback on it as it states in the small print of your contract that the phoneline is required.

Lastly, a normal Sky / Sky+ subscription does not require a phone line, however there is a "No Landline" fee of €37.50 charged on installation for anyone who does not have a landline.
 
DubShelley said:
Sky only need a landline when you are using Multiroom and you must keep the phone line plugged in at all times. AFAIK, this is so that people living close together, e.g. in neighbouring apartments, can't just go buy a subscription between them!
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Do sky not offer this now? We got a flier (from Sky) recently saying if you had 5 apartments you all could get sky with only one dish with some new package or other...

DubShelley said:
Lastly, a normal Sky / Sky+ subscription does not require a phone line, however there is a "No Landline" fee of €37.50 charged on installation for anyone who does not have a landline.
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I was not charged this fee
 
FLANDERS` said:
Do sky not offer this now? We got a flier (from Sky) recently saying if you had 5 apartments you all could get sky with only one dish with some new package or other...
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In that situation, each apartment pays the full subscription price, with multi-room you are basically getting a second subscription at a reduced price.
 
FLANDERS` said:
Do sky not offer this now? We got a flier (from Sky) recently saying if you had 5 apartments you all could get sky with only one dish with some new package or other...



I was not charged this fee
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Lucky you! It's fairly standard but I think it can be waived at the discretion of Sky. We are in an apartment running Sky through a Shared Dish so only one specific agent (Simply TV) can install it and they will not waive the fee.
 
FLANDERS` said:
Do sky not offer this now? We got a flier (from Sky) recently saying if you had 5 apartments you all could get sky with only one dish with some new package or other...

It's not the same thing - that's called a "Shared Dish" and everyone connected to it pays a normal subscription fee, it just means that you don't all have a seperate dish.

Multiroom is where you have Sky installed but want to have it in another room as well and be able to watch different things. This just costs an extra €15 a month (actually I think it's currently on promotion at €7.50 for new subscribers).
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Hi all,

Great to get your advice. We have decided to go for Sky HD, to be installed next Friday ! I'm really looking forward to the almost 30 HD channels they say will be available.

Many thanks.
 
permia said:
I'm really looking forward to the almost 30 HD channels they say will be available.
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I didn't know Sky had that number of HD channels, for some reason I thought it was only about seven. What are the HD channels?
 
Hi.
HD Channels apparently include: BBCs, Sky Arts, Discovery, National Geographic, History, Luxe, FX, Rush, Biography, Crime & Investigation, Real Lives, Sky 1, Eurosport, plus many of their movies
 
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