NTL Digital sucks
 

Thats all you can say, it's just ****, thats it.

First of all I wanted to see the Olympics boxing. But the stupid interactive button hasn't been setup here in Ireland. So I miss the vast majority of fights and fighters I would have liked to see.

Now I want to see two big professional fights, Cotto-Pinto and De La Hoya-Hopkins. They don't have it.

The only remotely useful thing its given a boxing fan, is Tyson-Williams. But that's so well known I can find it on the internet easily. On the other hand, a historic matchup between DLH-Hopkins and they dont show it. Most people are sure it will go the distance so Ive got to download possibly up to 500mb. Cotto-Pinto I probably will not even find a not-slow download.

NTL, besides the extra 100 or so channels including the fantastic interesting but total bull**** EWIN and God channels has been complete ****. All it is is extra channels, no interactive and hardly any of the PPVs Sky Box Office shows. What a waste of ****ing money.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Is there something we can help with or was this just a sudden desire for a good rant ?

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

stop subscribing to it then :shrug: , go and get sky instead ;)

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Bah, I was thinking of that at the time of reading this post :disturbd:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

I think it is a prelude to ditching NTL.

But I understand where they are coming from because recently I've felt the same about NTL Digital.At present I'm only watching about 1 or 2 programmes a week excluding the news. :erm:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

if ppl voted with their wallet , ntl would get the message soon enough :erm:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

on a positive note it is better than it used to be .

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Dont i have to pay for another box?

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

not unless you go for sky+ no , the box is free , g'tee for 1 year then you are on your own , i have had my sky box for 5 years + and it is still working ( kiss of death time i reckon :disturbd: ) , far superior imho , i am going to wait until nearer xmas as i reckon that there will be some sort of offer regarding sky+ :)

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Sky is tacky cheap sh1te, i had it for 1 week then told murdoch and his cronies to f**k the hell off, and went back to my ntl!, far suporier in my opinion, ntl has better picture quality, better and easyer software, the remote padding came off in one day on sky, ntl dosent make telephone calls at 12pm to tell them what i have been watching!, with ntl i get free interactive, tv email and tv games, sky costs per the minite for these services, Also ntl is £48 cheaper than $ky (£4 per month), plus you also get a telephone line included with ntl digi tv witch means another £9 per month saveing on top of that!.

-Chris

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Strange. Usually when you sign up for something, you are signing up, knowing what you are going to get and because you want it. They offer a service, you took it; if you dont like it, take your custom elsewhere :dozey:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

right o :rolleyes:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

[sarstic]Yes, sky told me streight away when i bought it that my digibox was going to spy on me and then tell sky what i have been watching at 12pm, they also told me the remote would fall apart in 24hours and that they were going to rip me off, yep, they told me that![/sarstic]

sky offered me something that was implyed would mow my lawn, hoover my carpet and make coffie every morning, seriously though, i was trying to have a nag at sky, not defend ntl...

same could be said about ntl...

-Chris

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

I think thats who he was talking about :erm:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Funny, I find the GUI very easy to use and picture quality as good as a DVD. Strange that most people complain about NTL having a bad picture :rolleyes:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

i reckon you need to lay off the beer my mate , or get your prescription checked , you are talking gibberish :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

:LOL:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Yes, that is a mystery, what with this being a cable discussion site and everything. Why I bet the only reason nobody comes here to complain about Sky's picture quality is because it's always perfect!

(For the record, NTL and Sky use 100% identical MPEG feels on about 90% of channels. If the boxes are both receiving the signal correctly, there will be absolutely no difference in the resultant picture. Some people have problems with signal levels on NTL (which they should call to get sorted); some people have problems when it rains, gusts or snows on Sky.)

Neither NTL nor Sky offer DVD quality, either. Both DVD and DTV use the same MPEG2 compression system, and DTV bitrates are much lower. That's just the fact of the matter.

Sky's EPG, whilst comprehensive, has one niggling problem. I have to use it in the first place. On NTL all I have to do is find the programme on the Now&Next bar (or whatever it's called now) and press i. That's pretty much impossible to do on satellite, ever. And the buttons are the wrong way round on the Search and Scan bar. Use the left and right keys to scroll up and down a list? Sky's software people must have nodded off in UI Design 101.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

well i like ntl:'s guide, and want to say well done on the interactive service for last night of the proms, it rules. im a music student at a-level and alot of the pieces i have/have to , study are available only on interactive. It is very fast to use, well done

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

True, the STB doesn't phone NTL. I am pretty sure it just sends the info back up the cable.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Spy on you, yeah right, that's a real worry ... :rolleyes:

What exactly have you been watching that you care so much if anyone knows, Teletubbies perhaps ... :dozey:

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

well TV is TV, there is nothing incriminating watching programs. so they can spy all they want. If you shouldnt be watching something (if its illegal) then it wouldnt be broadcast anyway.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

In theory (as others have said) the picture quality should be the same, but what I've seen on NTL digital, it's not quite up to Sky picture, two of my friends have recently canceled NTL and getting Sky installed because of the picture & the constant crashing of the software.
The main reason I ditched NTL was of the picture quality compared to my parents Sky, and they didn't keep having to reset the box...

What is this "remote padding"? Maybe you should be more careful, I've had the same Sky box & remote for 5 years.

NTL doesn't need to, it's connected directly back to them via a cable 24/7 so can tell them what you are watching immediately!!!! But Sky does not dial up to tell them what you have been watching, it only dials up to send them what PPV you have watched, and for any pay interactive.

Most of the interactive is free on Sky, all the BBCi stuff is, it only dials for non-free stuff, like games, but thats a pay once (usually 50p) and play as much as you like, not per minute.
My Sky box isn't even connect to the phone line & I can get most of the interactive stuff.

Prices all depend on what packeges you get, I pay a total of £29 for my Sky + NTL phone line

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

I was a NTL cable customer for 4 years, but just got tired of the box crashing and lack of interactive services. I now have Sky+. Its like changing for using a ZX81 to being given a state of the art PC. I have no axe to grind.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

If anyone wants to log what I am watching, I don't really care. What I watch is of interest to me, but would be of no interest to 99.9% of the population. I suspect it's the same for everyone else.

BTW, I know that wasn't directed at me, was just trying to back up your point.

Maybe he/she means that sticky cling film/acetate type stuff you get on some remote controls (which, in my experience, comes off anyway).

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

he probably means the button numbers and writing on the buttons of the remote....as my friends sky remote, you cant even see the numbers or words anymore

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Sky's Digi-Box software DOES crash from time-to-time, but it's easy to reset it and doesn't take long. All you need to do is switch it off at the wall for about 30 seconds, switch it on, leave it for 10 seconds, then it will be back on without a problem.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

why was my post quoted then?
-Chris

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

yes, but that dosent involve dialing preimum rate numbers does it?!, and i doubt ntl's software is advanced enough to spy on me, it needs rebooting every other week.

-Chris

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

AFAIK Sky doesn't dial a premium rate number. In fact, AFAIK, it doesn't dial at all unless downloading software, using interactive or booking PPV. Surely if the box dialled a Premium Rate number for any reason, Sky are required by law to notify you?

Actually, I am fairly certain I read an article on Digital Spy that suggested that the NTL box does log what you watch and send that info back to NTL. Although I am sure one of the NTL bods on here will correct me if I am wrong.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

The picture quality depends as much on the quality of the decoder hardware built into the STB as the quality of the signal. If you watch a DVD on a cheap DVD player, then on an expensive DVD player you will see what I mean.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Er, here is the post I think you are referring to:

Where was your post quoted?

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

Sky do not download sofware via the telephone connection. If Sky want the box to call home it is done via a freephone number. Sky only uses telephone numbers that you have to pay for after warning you of the charge. There are charges for some of the interactive content on Sky, just as there is on NTL, but the main use of interactive on Sky is for multi screen events such as the Champions League and these are provided free for subscribers to the relevant channels.

My own view on which platform provides the best DTV service is that Sky has always given me a far better picture quality than NTL and that is based on simultaneously having both systems for a couple of years. NTL was always having picture break up, pixallation and freezing which despite many engineering calls and box swaps was never cured. Eventually dropped NTL DTV and replaced that with Sky+ which is television as it should be.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

No, it doesn't. There wouldn't be a lot of point, as the box doesn't know who is watching it - or even whether the TV is switched on.

See http://www.barb.co.uk/about.cfm?flag=about if you want to know how viewing figures are obtained.

Re: NTL Digital sucks
 

All well and good, but I was making a point that Sky boxes don't call sky unless necessary. When I mentioned interactive (admittedly I should have made this clear) I was referring to the various online games which do cause the box to call sky. I wasn't saying there are no free interactive services on Sky.

I did say I could be wrong, or the article I read could be wrong.