[Merged] New channels?

[Nanook]

Well, my sky digital has been playing-up for a few weeks now, (had it for about 4 years so it'd be £60 for an engineer call out) they also put up the price a few weeks ago, now ntl are adding Motors TV to the family pack I think I may well switch to ntl for my digi tv, already got 2 meg B/B & phone.
Would they want to replace my sacm with a feed from the tv digibox?

[Jules]

They may do but I am sure if you ask you can just have the box for your tele

[garyparson]

Originally Posted by Simon M

Gary is a small minded homophobic

Gary - One more attack on the Gay members of this site WILL result in an immediate suspension.

So you can 'Attack' me and call me things (see above comment) and that's ok? YOU can have an opinion about me but I can't share mine? What's the point of having a forum in the first place? Might as well just be a message board.

[shy_one]

Originally Posted by Nanook

Well, my sky digital has been playing-up for a few weeks now, (had it for about 4 years so it'd be £60 for an engineer call out) they also put up the price a few weeks ago, now ntl are adding Motors TV to the family pack I think I may well switch to ntl for my digi tv, already got 2 meg B/B & phone.
Would they want to replace my sacm with a feed from the tv digibox?

From your location - Nottinghamshire, you would probably be covered by the Nottingham area which has its feed from the Langley platform. AFAIK customers receiving Langley have SACM. It is Bromley platform which uses the cable modem in the STB for broadband.

Originally Posted by david.ewles

why do langly and bromley have different numbers?

They are two different platforms that arose from the merger between NTL (Langley) and Cable & Wireless Communications (Bromley) in 1999. Eventually when the renumbering goes ahead - end of this year? (as mentioned earlier in the thread), both platforms will have the same channel numbers. NTL is in the process of standardising its Digital TV on the Bromley platform.

I believe the Bromley platform is more technically advanced than the Langley platform.

Michael

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by garyparson

So you can 'Attack' me and call me things (see above comment) and that's ok? YOU can have an opinion about me but I can't share mine? What's the point of having a forum in the first place? Might as well just be a message board.

Don't like it ... I'll happily show you the Exit ...

[Tristan]

One True Numbering System for all digital platforms would undoubtedly be a good thing.

While I'm waiting for this to happen though, I'd settle for NTL adopting the same (usually very good*) numbering system as Telewest -- it would make sense to have one "digital cable" scheme, and would make the merger easier...


* Telewest last week decided to move Living TV, Living +1 and Living 2 to channels 110, 111 and 112 -- ahead of ITV2, ITV3 and Sky One. Whilst I can see why Telewest would be promoting the Flextech channels, it isn't half annoying when you're trying to flick....

[garyparson]

Originally Posted by Simon M

Don't like it ... I'll happily show you the Exit ...

That says it all.

[Jules]

Oh come on this is a thread about new channels being added. It is simple if you do not like what a channel shows don't tune in to it!

Live and let live as long as no one is being hurt

[Nanook]

Originally Posted by shy_one

From your location - Nottinghamshire, you would probably be covered by the Nottingham area which has its feed from the Langley platform. AFAIK customers receiving Langley have SACM. It is Bromley platform which uses the cable modem in the STB for broadband.


They are two different platforms that arose from the merger between NTL (Langley) and Cable & Wireless Communications (Bromley) in 1999. Eventually when the renumbering goes ahead - end of this year? (as mentioned earlier in the thread), both platforms will have the same channel numbers. NTL is in the process of standardising its Digital TV on the Bromley platform.

I believe the Bromley platform is more technically advanced than the Langley platform.

Michael

cheers

[ntlrocks]

Nanook, if you phone ntl: and describe you are thinking of leaving sky to go to ntl: television, there is currently an offer of free sky sports for a year!! (providing you take up the call plan Talk Unlimited Local which is £2 a month).

I suggest you enquire because thats a saving of £162 for the year.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by Simon M

Don't like it ... I'll happily show you the Exit ...

I would have thought the exit is the last thing Gary would want to see....

Originally Posted by shy_one

From your location - Nottinghamshire, you would probably be covered by the Nottingham area which has its feed from the Langley platform. AFAIK customers receiving Langley have SACM. It is Bromley platform which uses the cable modem in the STB for broadband.

Just for the record, customers in Bromley TV areas have been able to have SACMs for a good couple of years now. However, as yet, Langley customers cannot use 4010s or Samsungs for broadband.

Originally Posted by shy_one

They are two different platforms that arose from the merger between NTL (Langley) and Cable & Wireless Communications (Bromley) in 1999. Eventually when the renumbering goes ahead - end of this year? (as mentioned earlier in the thread), both platforms will have the same channel numbers. NTL is in the process of standardising its Digital TV on the Bromley platform.

It was actually the Cable & Wireless Consumer Corporation, which is why you still hear some NTL old-timers referring to it as "CoCo".

I would be very surprised to see renumbering before the end of the year, despite what NTL said in April. They've got to roll out 3.2 to every Bromley region first, and that has to be done pretty slowly, as it's likely to impact callcentres quite heavily. Then they'll have to mailshot every Bromley customer with a big "YOUR CHANNEL NUMBERS ARE CHANGING" leaflet, because changing the numbers can't be done by region like software downloads. Then they'll have to do the actual change, which is a very simple job, but will call callcentre meltdown the next day. And they've got to do this all before the end of November, because they freeze everything in December to minimise the risk of things going wrong over the peak Christmas period.

Of course, there's nothing to stop them re-jiggiing the Langley numbers over the next couple of months, but I would have thought they'd want to do the two platforms at roughly the same time, and in any case they've got VOD rollouts to be getting on with...

Originally Posted by shy_one

I believe the Bromley platform is more technically advanced than the Langley platform.

Michael

There was a time when this was true, but that was long ago. The last update to the Bromley platform was in June 2003; this release enabled "red button" ETV, but was/is painfully slow, and has some shocking bugs (such as the infamous "crackly sound" one) that should not have been allowed out of Beta test, let alone been used by hundreds of thousands of customers every day for over two years.

In the mean time, there have been two major software releases for Langley, and another couple of minor fix releases for Samsung boxes. VOD is being rolled out to a great many Langley regions, but not one single Bromley one to date, and with no prospect of it in the near future -- according to a poster on DS, the new 3.2 code used in York isn't VOD-ready.

Still, it's not all doom and gloom. At least Bromley is at last getting some attention, and hopefully by the end of the year our software will be on a par with our Langley cousins. Telewest have got VOD working (mostly) on their Pace boxes, so the code exists -- it's just a matter of NTL integrating it into their existing software.


Sorry that my 1001st post has ended up being a bit of a rant. It's just frustrating as a Bromley customer to see "the other half" always getting the attention. First the NTLWorld dial-up fiasco (free 24/7 to Langley customers, not available to those on Bromley); then the Bromley broadband fiaso (rolled out painfully slowly, a long time after it was available in every Langley region, and initially only through an STB); even today there's the issue of caller display (NTL last year made it available across the entire Celtic business area, and thus to all Langley customers -- but only about 50% of Bromley customers can get this most basic of phone features, with no prospect of this ever changing); then there's the fact that Bromley has been stuck with awful slow, pink, unstable, pink, buggy, pink, crackly, pink software for two-and-a-half years, whist Langley users have enjoyed updates and VOD galore.

I guess it's possible -- and perhaps understandable -- that there might be an institutional bias within NTL towards Langley. It was, after all, their "own" platform, before they were forced to start dealing with CWC's systems after the takeover. It's natural that the engineers would want to try out new features first on the platform they were most familiar with. It's just surprising -- and disappointing -- that this has persisted for so long, and will continue to do so into 2006.

[Rob2005]

I've got both a samsung box and a seperate cable modem. When I last had an engineer round he "eyed" the modem. but never took it away which I'm glad about. I've been having lots of problems with the tv service recently as said on other threads, picture blanking, stuttering etc. If ntl come around again and decide to remove my modem as I've got a samsung stb, will I be able to get the 10mb through the samsung?

PS: Just noticed that on the samsung, the ipeg version is 1.6.20. Has this changed as I thought it was 1.4 something the other day...?

PSS: Looking at the Telewest channel numbering sheme, it doesn't seem much better than us Bromely people. Wish this upgrade/channel renumumbering would hurry up, taking far too long...

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by Rob2005

I've got both a samsung box and a seperate cable modem. When I last had an engineer round he "eyed" the modem. but never took it away which I'm glad about. I've been having lots of problems with the tv service recently as said on other threads, picture blanking, stuttering etc. If ntl come around again and decide to remove my modem as I've got a samsung stb, will I be able to get the 10mb through the samsung?

PS: Just noticed that on the samsung, the ipeg version is 1.6.20. Has this changed as I thought it was 1.4 something the other day...?

PSS: Looking at the Telewest channel numbering sheme, it doesn't seem much better than us Bromely people. Wish this upgrade/channel renumumbering would hurry up, taking far too long...

The Samsung box is different from the Pace models, because the CM is completely separate from the TV bit. It's effectively a stand-alone cable modem taht happens to be built into the STB. What I mean is that yes, a Samsung could handle 10meg just as well as any other cable modem.

No idea about iEPG version numbers, but I'm 99% sure it won't have changed unless you've got the new Bromley 3.2 software -- and you'd definitly notice that!

Take it from me, the Telewest numbering system is 110% better. I've used both extensively. Three-digit channel numbers are A Good Thing. Channels arranged in groups by genre is A Good Thing. Having Living TV so far up the line-up is not -- but at least with the NTL favourites system you'd be able to change that.

[Rob2005]

Tristan - thanks for info about Samsung coping with the 10meg service. I don't have the Bromley update yet, I would indeed notice if it had been changed

I agree with your comments regarding the slowless of updates on the former Cable & Wireless platform aka "Bromley." Its completely unacceptable that we as paying customers have to put up with slow, buggy software while other customers on the "other" platfrom get the upgrades. I won't even go into the comments regarding the ntlworld fiasco - we'll be here all night if I start on that on that one.

Re channel remumbering, as I've said before here, I want to organise the channels how I want to organise them. Not like Sky's or ntl's, but by my preference. I want what channel I want in the position I want and on what channel number I want. ie Hallmark in position 6, and on channel 6. Why is it so difficult for ntl to allow this? It is meant to be an "i"epg they're using. Although its been rumored that the Liberate software is about to be ditched in favour of the Opentv software as used by Sky. So things might change then.

And as for new channels, sod Euronews. I want Foxnews back as I had on Sky. Missing those cuddly redneck presenters and "impartial fair and balanced" reporting

[Tristan]

And I still think that channel should keep their own numbers, but be rearrange-able, as they are now -- but we'll agree to disagree.

I've not heard any rumours of NTL going to OpenTV -- where did you hear it? I'd be astonished if it were true -- why would NTL go to the trouble of getting VOD to play well with Liberate if this were the case? It seems even more unlikely now, as SeaChange, the company supplying NTL and Telewest with VOD equipment, has recently bought out the company that produces the Liberate software.