Samsung Box
 

Hi im changing from Sky+ to ntl now that you dont need there Phone line as well ( getting fed up with picture break ups on sky) . What's the likelyhood of me getting a Samsung box, living in the solent reigon. If its slim is there any way i can help myself encourage the engineer to get me one. The reason i asked was due to the fact about 3 years ago i had ntl and had nothing but problems with the recycled pace boxes and the samsung ones are most importaintly new and silver (shallow I know) but the rest of the tv dvd ect is silver and i woudl have to paint a black box as it just wouldnt go in my room :LOL:
Thanks
robert

Re: Samsung Box
 

No guarantees, you'll get whatever the Tech has in his van. I'm sure if he has one, he'll give you it if you ask nicely!

Browneggsandham :)

Re: Samsung Box
 

Is thgere any dates set for the new samsung boxes in the glasgow area ?

Re: Samsung Box
 

Just ask nicely if they have got one they will give it to you.

Re: Samsung Box
 

i think most egineers will have at least 1 samsung box on them, like other have said, smile and offer a cup of tea, im sure u will get one

will u be taking up ntl broadband, i think if u want 1.5mb Broadband via ya STB you need a samsung.

Re: Samsung Box
 

When you say that you don't need a phone line, do you mean that you don't need to get a phone installed with ntl digital tv? :confused:

Just that in this thread, people still seem to be under the impression that even if you don't get the phone installed, you'll still be paying for it. :shrug:

If that's not what you meant, I do apologise.

Re: Samsung Box
 

They won't have one. Samsung boxes aren't available in Glasgow yet. I don't know when they will be, but it isn't imminent.

Re: Samsung Box
 

Depends who this post was addressed to. The OP is in Hampshire.

Re: Samsung Box
 

That's nothing like right or true I'm afraid.

Re: Samsung Box
 

:welcome:


Erm, are you sure you no longer have to have an ntl phone line if you want ntl DTV?

Where did you see that?


http://www.home.ntl.com/icat/television

Re: Samsung Box
 

I actually asked ntl themselves, I wouldnt transfer if I had to pay for the phone. I like BT as I have caller display and you cant get that in the solent reigon.

Re: Samsung Box
 

Your chance of getting a samsung is high but please if you get a pace do not paint it silver you will only end up with a bill for the box, and I for one would rather have a black box that does not match than a bill for about £100+

Re: Samsung Box
 

only if you get caught ;) :D :D :D

seriously i wouldnt recomend it either :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd:

Re: Samsung Box
 

Hi

Well, I've just been given a Samsung box because my old Pace one broke (crashed completely, leaving 88:88 on the display), and although the Samsung seems otherwise good, it does the letterboxing differently to the Pace one.

I have a 4:3 TV and set the STB to 4:3 letterboxing so as to see the widescreen image when available. In this setting, the Samsung box crops quite a bit of the side of the image, and thus has a narrower black band at top and bottom. The image size seems similar to 14:9, or perhaps a bit wider. It becomes obvious when watching a widescreen programme on E4, as the logo is cut in half.

This seems like a backwards step, and I would really like to be able to see the 16:9 image without having to buy a widescreen TV. Does anyone know if the new Samsungs all do this, or if something is wrong with my box or the way it is set up? CS didn't seem to have heard of this, and offered to send out an engineer. Should I go for that?

Re: Samsung Box
 

Welcome to the site :)

I'm pretty sure this is a bug in the current Samsung software on Langley. If it is, it should be fixed in the next code release (which is "coming soon").

Re: Samsung Box
 

I *think* Brighton is Bromley Tristan.....

Re: Samsung Box
 

It is indeed....

Re: Samsung Box
 

The Samsung box is behaving correctly. See the diagrams on page 17 of http://www.dtg.org.uk/publications/books/afd.pdf. The Samsung is behaving as shown in the second line. The older Pace boxes aren't capable of doing this, so have to use the 'best compromise' shown in the first line.

If the programme has true widescreen content, with important stuff going on at the edges of the pictures (usually in a widescreen movie), the Samsung box will use the mode shown in the first line on page 19, and you will get a 16:9 letterbox.

Re: Samsung Box
 

the cropping of the picture with samsung stb is an going fault across the bromley region a software download is due to resolve ther issue but knowing ntl that will be later rather than sooner, i have the displeasure of working in the faults department and as with most things in the company most of the info is witheld from first line staff meaning it is near imposible to give cmrs the full answer they require.

Re: Samsung Box
 

Thanks, Tristan.

I'm on the Bromley (ex C&W) platform, but I guess what you say may apply here too.

One really cool thing about the Samsung box is the new remote you get. You can program it to send signals to your TV too, so even with my ?1993 JVC TV, when I press the volume control on the STB remote it changes the TV volume, and the mute button mutes the TV. You can access teletext too via the STB remote, on the occasional channel that has it, and put the TV in and out of standby mode.
__________________

Thanks for these other replies, too! From what I can make of the PDF file you linked to, Spiderplant, it looks as if the box is designed to make a 14:9 letterbox for transmissions where this is regarded as safe. I see that Trisha now on Five is showing in a 16:9 letterbox, but the BBC channels, including the supposedly widescreen News24, seem to show in 14:9 all the time.

I must say I prefer 16:9, and if the box is behaving correctly, I'd like to have the option of choosing that ratio as a default for widescreen, no matter what safe area code is transmitted.

Re: Samsung Box
 

The problem that Tristan is referring to definitely is a Langley-only problem. If you had it, you'd loose a great slice off the RHS of the picture.

Yep. I find News24 annoying on a WSTV because of all the dead picture area.
With some modern 4:3 TVs you can set the STB to widescreen, then tell the TV it has a 16:9 source, which might give the effect you want.

Re: Samsung Box
 

All STBs can have this new remote control now. There are two versions available, a grey one for Bromley Pace boxes and a purple one for Langley Pace and Samsung boxes.

Re: Samsung Box
 

We had the Samsung box fitted as a Pace replacement a couple of weeks ago. I've been thinking it's much better and more reliable, but the last few days we've noticed the picture seems to have slipped off the right of the screen as you say (really noticeable when text is on screen). If we switch to channels 1 to 5, then switch to just viewing through the aerial you can see how much is missing.

I guess I won't need to report it then if there's a bug fix in the pipeline, although how long, any idea, as it's really annoying?

I've rebooted the box, and it seems to have righted itself for now, but the reason we got the Samsung box was because of having to continually reboot the Pace box, I was hoping those days were gone. :)

Re: Samsung Box
 

Sorry, I don't know when the fix will be implemented.

You can often make the fault go away by changing channel - as long as you pick the right channel! ITV1 and ITV2 are likely candidates. If that doesn't work, tune to any 4:3 channel (e.g. Sky News), then reboot.

Re: Samsung Box
 

They are had mine a good few months its excellent, and was fitted by one of NTLs best engineers no complaints

Re: Samsung Box
 

Who was that then :)

Browneggsandham :p:

Re: Samsung Box
 

Cheers, I'll bear that in mind if / when it does it again. We did try changing channel, but it didn't do anything. The soft reboot (ok, left, right) seemed to sort it, although you shouldn't really have to be doing this. If they know there's a fault, and it can be fixed with just a software update down the cable, and no engineer visit, why don't they do it asap?

The engineer did know about this fault, as I remember him mentioning it as one of the few faults the box has, he told us how to do the soft reboot in case it happened, although it had been ok at first.