[quadplay]

Originally Posted by Rillington

Basically, everything on Sky works whereas on ntl it does not. After all, have you heard of STB's changing channels on their own with Sky? Na didn't think so.

No, but I have heard of Sky boxes rebooting themselves, going into standby, locking up, and PVRs that randomly lose recordings - or just don't record programmes in the first place. All digital TV services have their bugs - it's the nature of computers and software that things will go wrong occasionally. Learn to live with it or go back to analogue. I'm not saying it should be this way, but that's life.

Also, Sky produces an EPG which works and goes seven days in advance. Also, you can programme boxes to change channels so you can video record (or get Sky+ to do it for you). On ntl you can't.

Yes you can. Select a program from the guide, set a reminder, and set it to Autotune via the diary. Easy. In fact, in the blue software (CR3 for Langley/BU2 for Bromley), the default is to automatically tune to reminders.

On ntl, you can get more information about programmes in the future and on different channels by pressing the i or Browse button from the Miniguide. On Sky's "Search & Scan Banner", pressing the i button gets you information about the programme you're watching right now, whatever you've highlighted.

Oh, and that's before we even thnk of the fact that Sky offers far more channels for far less than ntl.

Most of the channels available via the Astra 2 range of digital satellites that aren't available on ntl are either shopping channels (big whoop) or FTA channels that have nothing to do with Sky. It has also already been confirmed that a number of new channels are launching on ntl next month, so that will reduce the discepancy even further.

As for the "far less" bit, the price of the ntl Family Pack (excluding phone line) is exactly the same as the price of the Sky Family Pack. The cost of basic phone line rental is the same as BT.

Need I go on...?

No, I really don't think you do. If you don't like the service, don't use it. Simple.
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Sorry, neglected to answer the OP's questions!

Originally Posted by AdamD

I often wonder this

When I visited my brother and he showed me how fast his SkyTV service was, I was amazed
Opening the equivalent of our "Tv Guide" button, was instant, where as on NTL it sits a "Processing...." (or please wait? can't remember which) for what seems like 30 seconds or more sometimes

I would've thought Fiber optic/digital would be superior in speed compared to satellite TV

Very little of the speed of the service is related to the speed of the delivery method. In fact, the bandwidth available per transport stream is very similar on ntl to Sky (in many cases, the same). The reason the software differs in speed is due to a number of factors, including the architecture the software runs on. My parents have had Sky digital since 1998 - and the current Sky software on that original Pace box runs much slower than the current ntl software on my original Pace box.

ntl's software is based on middleware called Liberate. This is mainly JavaScript and HTML based which means that whilst it makes it easier to display web pages on the TV screen, the software is interpreted instead of pre-compiled. This is intrinsically slower. Sky's STBs are based on middleware called OpenTV, which is compiled but, like any computing platform, has its own issues. Swings and roundabouts really.

The good news is that there is currently a major programme of development underway within ntl to improve the speed and usability of the digital TV service, which should hopefully come to fruition in the near future.