NTL Digital TV + phone - Whats the cost?

[peterfelgate]

Without wishing to go over old ground and the near flame war ( ) of the Sky versus NTL debate, I have NTL broadband, analogue TV and telephone (all at the lowest cost option 'cos that's what suits me). I want to convert to digital TV and stay on the lowest cost TV and 'phone option. If I chose the base pack and the 3-2-1 telphone option, NTL's web site order form says it costs £19.50 a month, which I'm quite happy with. But if I select what I believe are the same options with the Product Picker, it claims this costs £28.50 a month, which I'm not. Can anyone clarify? Has anyone got this simple combination?

[Marge]

The digital base pack which includes the line rental is £19.50 per month. 3-2-1 telephone tariff costs nothing to subscribe to as you just pay for the calls as you make them.

and to the site

[bob_builder]

Digital Base Pack is £19.50 per month including 321 telephone line rental.

But note, that you will lose some channels you currently get on Analogue TV (as well as gain some) so you may need to subscribe to the Digital Family Pack at £29 per month (including 321 telephone line rental) to keep all of your current channels.

[peterfelgate]

Thanks. I'm only really interested in the basic terrestrial channels (as freeview is not available here and I have a lot of interference on UHF signals ...), but in digital format so I'm not worried about losing/gaining a few others! It was just clarification that the £19.50 option is available.....

PS I presume the output from the digital box is RGB on a SCART?

[bob_builder]

Originally Posted by peterfelgate

PS I presume the output from the digital box is RGB on a SCART?

You have the option of selecting RGB or Composite output on Scart as well as UHF on RF.

If you currently only have the five analogue terrestrial channels, then you won't lose anything and you will gain a fair bit (on the whole, comparing the base packs of Sky and NTL, NTL's is a lot better as it includes E4 and Sky Mix).

We have no cable, no freeview and precious little analogue at our gaff so we're subscribing to $ky base pack just to get some decent TV reception. It's cheap as chips, and looks it. I actually miss NTL!

[bob_builder]

Originally Posted by Chris T

If you currently only have the five analogue terrestrial channels, then you won't lose anything and you will gain a fair bit (on the whole, comparing the base packs of Sky and NTL, NTL's is a lot better as it includes E4 and Sky Mix).

We have no cable, no freeview and precious little analogue at our gaff so we're subscribing to $ky base pack just to get some decent TV reception. It's cheap as chips, and looks it. I actually miss NTL!

Too true, Sky One and E4 are the only thing stopping me ditching the NTL Base Pack for Freeview (we cannot have Sky as live in rented accomodation).

[peterfelgate]

Sorry for more questions, but it's mentioned in the posts that you have "the option" to select SCART or UHF. Is this selectable from the remote or by settings/switches on the box? Is it possible to have the RF output at the same time as the SCART RGB? Is there an RF bypass mode like on the analogue boxes? The reason for asking is that currently I feed the analogue box to a video recorder and then feed the RF output to a second remote TV whilst feeding the video output over SCART to the main TV - and I want to know if something similar can be done with the new box. I can't alter the existing wiring which only has a UHF cable connecting the two locations where the two TVs are. I'm not worried about the second TV having to use the channel selected on the cable box if I want to watch cable, as long as the main TV can still freely select channels; and I need also to know if the RF output to the second TV can be arranged whilst the main TV connects via SCART....

[quadplay]

In short, yes - you can use both at the same time! The choice between Composite or RGB is for the SCART connection, and is chosen in the Settings menu. The setup you describe above should be fine as the boxes have an RF output, but new digital STBs don't have an analogue pass-through, so you'll need a separate aerial (or a friendly installer who can split the cable) if you want to record a different analogue channel to the one you're watching on digital.

[peterfelgate]

OK, I think that's straightened it out in my mind; the problem about the recording of a separate channel might be as issue for me however....