NTL Digital Picture Quality
 

Hi,

I thought I'd post a positive thread about NTL :)

As the rain is tipping down here at the moment I was looking at BBC1 and thinking how nice it was that the picture was solid, when we had Sky and it tipped down we often got interference.

It got me thinking, the picture quality seems much 'cleaner' than Sky's was, whites are whiter etc and artefacts seem much less noticable on fast moving images than Sky as well, but then I thought that NTL got their channels from a Sky feed - so I am actually looking at the same feed as I was before when I had a little dish ?

Does someone techy know if NTL's picture is of better quality than Sky's (Bitrates etc I suppose)

cheers

Ian

Re: NTL Digital Picture Quality
 

personally i always found sky to be better than ntl , but at the end of the day a crap install on either system will cause problems :(

Re: NTL Digital Picture Quality
 

I'm not sure, I'm pretty sure NTL do some of the uplinking (sending the data to the Sky sat) as well though.

Even if it comes from the sky sat, they are using monster size dishes so they pick up far more data and weather drop outs are far less likely.

Re: NTL Digital Picture Quality
 

ntl broadcast uplink the majority of Sky Digital Channels from their broadcast site.

I suppose ntl get the channel before it is subject to passing through the airwaves, as I believe it uses the fibre backbone initially to the uplink site the DTT Feeds, these are sent from the channel provider for the DTT Channels on ntl like BBC, ITV, CH4, CH5, Hits, TMF, UKTV etc. Other channels have a different set up but ntl broadcast uplink most of the UK satellite channels.

I definately too find ntl picture quality far superior to anything I ever experienced on Sky its much crisper and cleaner.

It is true about a poor install affecting both systems, unfortunately for obvious reasons a lot of 'free' or £1 installs are done on the cheap. the dish is whacked up anywhere where it can 'kind of' get a signal leaving it open to the effects of weather and looking damn ugly in the process 'as long as Sky can save a bit of cabling I suppose!'. If I ever had Sky again (ie moving out of a cable area or ntl upsetting me big style) I would rather spend £150 on a Independant, get a choice of box (not crappy Amstrad) make sure the dish was hidden from my view and gaurded from the elements while maintaining a good signal.

Luckily on ntl I have had two installs both done very well, the installers asked where I wanted cables routing, gave a choice of colours for inside and out, Brown, White and black, they even had to run them right around the house to reach the living room and have done it very neatly.

I say ntl should use some underhand tactics as no doubt Sky would, and turn off some of the channels on Sky at random interval ;) :D

Re: NTL Digital Picture Quality
 

I had both Sky and NTL DTV side by side for a couple of years and to be honest there was nothing to choose between the two for most of the time as far as picture quality went. I eventually dropped NTL because there were frequent times when picture quality really deteriorated with a lot of freezing, dithering and blanking. I had several engineer visits and box swaps in order to try to rectify the problems. but none of these worked for long.

It is true that quality of installation is a big factor in getting the best quality picture and that is down to the customer as much as anyone. I don't think that the price you pay for the installation has any bearing on the quality of it. Both NTL and Sky have had free installation and I have never had a problem with either of them. Some installers will ask what you want and where whilst others have to be prompted. You are the customer and you tell the installer exactly what you want and what you are not prepared to accept. I have never found an installer that wouldn't go along with my requests although it was tough going with one NTL crew. You mustn't be badgered into having an installation that isn't what you want and you should make sure that picture quality is up to scratch before you sign the installers satisfaction sheet.