NTL or SKY - Help please!

[themelon]

Originally Posted by yorkieand

NTL every time for me. Personally I will never have dealings with sky again. In 1996 when cable first became available where I live I ditched the old analogue Sky that I'd had more or less since they'd launched. I rang Sky, told them I was changing to cable and they were fine! At the time with all the new customers cable were signing up (including many who refused to have the old white 60" dishes on their houses) Sky were probably gaining vast amounts of extra revenue from the cable companys.
SIX years later (September 2002) I received a letter from a debt collection agency saying they had taken over an old debt from Sky and that I owed them £60. This was two months subscription to Sky, and was due because I originally cancelled with them (Sky) by phone and not in writing. If I didn't pay within 30 days I would be taken to court. I did not even know I owed Sky two months money and had not received one single letter from them in all that time to say that I did. I contacted Sky who said it was no longer anything to do with them! My next port of call was the Citizens Advice Bureau. After phone calls between them and the debt collection agency I agreed to pay one month (£30) and the matter would be settled. My late father told me at the time to pay them nothing, but I didn't want to risk court. The C.A.B advised me not to have any further dealings with Sky and I never will. If they had told me that the cancellation had to be in writing in 1996 and that I would have to pay two further months I would have delayed the installation of cable accordingly. Instead they said nothing for six years and I received (for the only time in my life) a letter from a debt collection agency. I know people will say I should have referred back to the original contract, but I'd had Sky for years and had moved house twice and doubt whether I still had it.
It's strange though how despite what happened Sky regularly send me advertising mail trying to entice me back!

Likewise I had many similar issues with Sky,

Poor Install, appalling picture quality and pathetic customer service being some of the touch points. Thankfully I am now well away from that never had a problem with ntl, the tv has been off 2 times in 3 years, I remeber previously it was common to lose the picture during rain/wind/snow we though this was a normal feature!

Would never go back and dread the day I move outside a cable area. Still looks like Homechoice may soon be a viable alternative or BT Freeview/VOD Service.

Sky are definateley the biggest bunch of cowboys I have ever had the misfortune to deal with!
__________________

Originally Posted by Sherlock614

It is?? What are other peep's views on the picture quality front?

Don't want to make a mistake here - AARRgghh so many pros and cons its a case of



Now i don't know what to do again

nonsense! its luck of the draw really, if you get poor picture quality on ntl its not been set up correctly.

There shouldnt really be any difference between the picture quality on different broadcast mediums.

The main factor with DTT and DSAT is weather, heavy rain/snow and very thick cloud can cause problems, with ntl its poor set up or a poor local network.

My picture quality is certainally equal or better to that which I had on Sky.

[Sherlock614]

Yeh I currently have a lot of problems weather related also, loss of picture is a normality unfortunately.

[Sherlock614]

**Edit:

Having read other threads on this subject, it seems the expectancy is the same clarity as SKY.

I am going to cancel the engineer visit from SKY today and order up an NTL install, pending some fine tuned questions for NTL CS.

I'll repost once it's all done. Fact is, if I don't do it, I'll never know.

Many thanks for all help once again!

[cnewton2k]

has to be sky

Customer services and tech support is great and puts NThell to shame.

Had sky+ for over a year and had no problems @ all always fantastic, plus the fact the you can watch movies with 5.1.

NTL are no where near sky, and plus the fact that they have just bought a easynet i think things are gonna get a hell of a lot better.

Originally Posted by Sherlock614

It is?? What are other peep's views on the picture quality front?

Don't want to make a mistake here - AARRgghh so many pros and cons its a case of



Now i don't know what to do again

In my opinion it is, it seems simple to me, get them both installed, then use the 7 days to make your mind up, ditch the one that does'nt rock your boat!
__________________

Originally Posted by themelon

Likewise I had many similar issues with Sky,

Poor Install, appalling picture quality and pathetic customer service being some of the touch points. Thankfully I am now well away from that never had a problem with ntl, the tv has been off 2 times in 3 years, I remeber previously it was common to lose the picture during rain/wind/snow we though this was a normal feature!

Would never go back and dread the day I move outside a cable area. Still looks like Homechoice may soon be a viable alternative or BT Freeview/VOD Service.

Sky are definateley the biggest bunch of cowboys I have ever had the misfortune to deal with!
__________________



nonsense! its luck of the draw really, if you get poor picture quality on ntl its not been set up correctly.

There shouldnt really be any difference between the picture quality on different broadcast mediums.

The main factor with DTT and DSAT is weather, heavy rain/snow and very thick cloud can cause problems, with ntl its poor set up or a poor local network.

My picture quality is certainally equal or better to that which I had on Sky.

Well my friend I am saying in my experience, and that is all I can go by, having had ntl television before ditching it for sky plus, so I am able to compare the two,sky blows it out the water picture quality wise, a point also picked up by my brother who has ntl tv services.
An ntl poorly installed system? what are you suggesting?

[fudge]

I had sky tv for 3 years and never had any probs. with them even in bad weather my picture was good. But last feb. i decided to give ntl a go with there 3 for £30 as i was looking at the time for a new internet provider, and the 3 for £30 is much cheaper then the sky / bt /tiscali service i had.

My first impression was ive made a big misstake due to the engineer not turning up untill late pm even though i had an am booked. Then the next day engineer had to come back again am booked turned up pm.
But after 2 weeks of complaining and haveing a manager come to my home to sort out the many probs. i had, i havent looked back.
The internet is brilliant in fact the best ive had ,
The tv , well it serves me for what i need apart from not geting the tele text service
And the phone , not much different to bt apart from my bills being cheaper.
I did however get many more channels with sky but many of them were channels i never watched so that did not bother me.

[Sherlock614]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

In my opinion it is, it seems simple to me, get them both installed, then use the 7 days to make your mind up, ditch the one that does'nt rock your boat!

Is this possible to do? I already have SKY and they are waiting on my decision now.


Originally Posted by iommi

Customer services and tech support is great and puts NThell to shame.

I was quite shocked the other day to ring SKY and get through to.... Indian Tech Support - I thought i had dialled NTL by mistake... Not a lot of difference between the two now it seems.


I have now taken the plunge and ordered DTV from NTL. Only £11 per month (permanently) as I already have BB and Phone with them. Not a bad deal in my opinion.

[simpsonsFAN]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

sky blows it out the water picture quality wise, a point also picked up by my brother who has ntl tv services.

Fraid not, they both use the exact same bitrate MPEG stream, ntl dont recompress the signal at any point or introduce any loss of picture quality.

...Should have gone to specsavers

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

An ntl poorly installed system? what are you suggesting?

Im thinking... set top box set to composite in the settings menu, low quality budget scart lead, and possibly only set to 4:3 on a widescreen tele in the boxs settings menu.
-Chris

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by simpsonsFAN

Fraid not, they both use the exact same bitrate MPEG stream, ntl dont recompress the signal at any point or introduce any loss of picture quality.

...Should have gone to specsavers

Both having the same bitrate doesn't mean that they will both have the same picture quality. I got rid of NTL DTV because I could never get an acceptable pictue for more than a few days at a time. I was getting a lot of dithering and freezing on NTL, particularly in hot weather. Several engineer visits and box changes didn't cure the problems. Sky DTV which I had at the same time was always rock steady even during rain, snow and very windy conditions. Only ever lost the signal once in five years with Sky and that was a really heavy snow build up on the dish which waas quickly removed and normal service resumed. Bitrate is only one of the factors in picture quality.

[djstevie]

I had NTL tv for 7 years, firstly analogue before moving to digital. I was constantly fed up with the box freezing and it took forever to change a channel and the channels were all over the place, not very well organised. Anyway i kept the NTL broadband and the phone line and ditched the DTV for Sky + about a year ago. I wonder why the heck i hadnt made the move sooner. The box is lightning fast, channels well organised, and i have had NO break up of signal or picture quality even in heavy rain and i have only had to reboot the box once in almost a year. With NTL rebooting the box was sometimes a daily job. My box i had with NTL was a Pace one, i hear the new Samsung boxes are very good and quicker but in my area they still seem to be using pace boxes. My m8 still has NTL tv and the other day i was round at his and wanted to see how the tv was now that VOD etc has been rolled out. After 5 minutes of messing about with the control the box produced an error code and froze. Ended up lobbing the remote to one side in frustration lol.

Im a BIG football fan as well and i wonder how the heck i managed without the interactive sky sports which isnt available on NTL.

At the end of the day i know people have problems with both Sky and NTL.

Its what suits you at the end of the day, but my advice would be dont move to NTL for tv. After experiencing Sky you'll wonder why the heck you moved to IMHO an inferior service.

[Sherlock614]

I still have the option to cancel (install is on the 16th), and I am still digging for as much info as possible. I made it the 16th for this very reason - just to make sure I am really sure before commiting.

I haven't given SKY a cancelation date either and was going to make the date slightly after the install (for comparison purposes more than anything).

Biggest problem is the 12 month contract that I will be entering into with NTL for their DTV service. I thought this might have been waived considering I have already been with them for over 3 years but it isn't

Doesn't make sense to me... It's not like I have missed a payment as I never have and I said the same to CS.

Umm can anyone detect hesitancy from me on this decision??

Yep its still there!

Originally Posted by simpsonsFAN

Fraid not, they both use the exact same bitrate MPEG stream, ntl dont recompress the signal at any point or introduce any loss of picture quality.

...Should have gone to specsavers Im thinking... set top box set to composite in the settings menu, low quality budget scart lead, and possibly only set to 4:3 on a widescreen tele in the boxs settings menu.
-Chris

How can you say " fraid not "? as if you are the authoritive knowledge, I am saying " in my opinion " and above all your techy spiel that is all that matters, how do you know how much ntl compress the signal? they could do to accomodate more features.

As for the scart cable, how about qed? is that low budget ?

[ntl.wotcha]

At this point in time if i was a new install I'd go sky+ without a shadow of a doubt.

If/when NTL get a PVR going, it would swing back to NTL.

But then there's HD.... so it could swing back to Sky again....

Originally Posted by Sherlock614

I still have the option to cancel (install is on the 16th), and I am still digging for as much info as possible. I made it the 16th for this very reason - just to make sure I am really sure before commiting.

I haven't given SKY a cancelation date either and was going to make the date slightly after the install (for comparison purposes more than anything).

Biggest problem is the 12 month contract that I will be entering into with NTL for their DTV service. I thought this might have been waived considering I have already been with them for over 3 years but it isn't

Doesn't make sense to me... It's not like I have missed a payment as I never have and I said the same to CS.

Umm can anyone detect hesitancy from me on this decision??

Yep its still there!

As I suggested, as far as I know, and someone may correct me, but take both for 7 days and make your mind up, cancel the one not to your taste, if sky are offering a free engineer visit give it a try.

[simpsonsFAN]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

I am saying " in my opinion " and above all your techy spiel that is all that matters.

I am telling you that the signal that reaches your NTL set top box is exactly the same as would be recived with a satalite reciver or freeview set top box, if you *could* dump the raw digital video to your hard drive and look at the ones and zeros there would be *no* inconsistancys. Therefore, if you are saying that one platform gives a "better picture" than another - you must have something incorrectly configured at your end.

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

How can you say " fraid not "? as if you are the authoritive knowledge

Im telling you how it works and you are dismissing it, possibly because your paying more for sky than you would be with NTL for an equivalant service and are still trying to find ways to justifiy it to your self - its a mind thing

-Chris