ntl v Sky

[Brian O'D]

High-pressure conditions made BBC1 unwatchable on analoue cable last night, so i tuned to my skybox!

My question is, was the ntl digital feed dodgy too?

[JDxtra]

Why NTL don't relay the BBC feeds from Sky digital on anolgue cable?? Daft that they don't!

[Mike]

Many of the UHF deflector systems use "smuggled" Sky boxes for some/all the UK terrestrials.

You often notice this by
1) The dreaded "press red" logo
2) The widescreen/normal options being incorrectly set up
3) Lack of teletext
4) Improved recption (but no NICAM)
5) The (stupid) BBC2 digital programme variations

[Mosfet]

All of ntl cable feed to the headend in Tereure,Dublin is via the magic Sirus Fibre cable that runs across the Irish Sea,the fault with your cable last night was maybe Cross Modulation,due to change of temp(ohms),and long cable cascades:D

[3cx1500A7]

It seems strange that it is only BBC1&2 that are affected!The poor signal quality is identical to problems i had years ago during hi pressure conditions when i was recieving the Divis TX on my own aerial.

[Original Tyrone Gobshite!]

Why NTL don't relay the BBC feeds from Sky digital on anolgue cable?? Daft that they don't! Ceefax would be lost by doing this (and the stereo sound would then have to be encoded by NTL rather than just "transposed") and NTL would receive (I'd assume) loads of complaints from losing this serivce. It's a pain in the ass on Digital Satellite as it is but at least you have a digital text service to fall back on (not helpful when you're tucked up in bed though! need to invest in a TV link sometime...)

[Mike]

NTL also have fibre running between Dublin and Belfast (If theyre using fibre theyre probably using this one as they carry the NI regions)
I know that MMDS uses a network of 15GHz links sourced from a UHF off air feed based somewhere in (I think) Roscommon. Maybe cable is fed from MMDS (Id imagine high pressure would affect MMDS in a similar manner to UHF)

I lived in Dublin a few years ago and found cablelink supprisingly immune to tropospheric interference however CMI (Chorus) in Swords was pretty bad (also suffered aircraft flutter) and Westward cables in Limerick was disasterous

[TV Tree]

I remember an NTL technician telling me a while back that conditions at Divis were affecting the stations...but (seriously) what would an NTL technician know!

[Mosfet]

Cross Modulation is the problem I can insure you of this,it can be displayed as "hooting"(high levels +25dBm or more at your outlet box!)
A co-channel like effect caused by 56Mhz swamping 216Mhz,unequal loss thru cable at different frequencys which can happen when the Trunk cable cacades are too long.(more than six amps)I have seen cascades of 18 amps:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[3cx1500A7]

Mmmm,is this "cross modulation caused by high pressure,Mosfet?

[Mosfet]

Rapid Temperture change prehaps,;)

[Mikeyboy]

NTL analogue had been relaying BBC1 and 2 from digital in Galway earlier this year (avec la red dot in the corner), but there were a load of complaints from viewers about the lack of Ceefax, so they switched back to analogue around a month ago. Didn't notice any interference the last night

Last summer, there were problems with UTV and Channel 4 with the type of freeze frame interference in picture + sound that you get on a bad digital picture. Both channels used to knock off at the same time. Around midnight one Saturday night, the pictures went, and what came up on screen??? — the Chorus digital setup menu. On NTL!!! They denied the following week that they were relaying a chorus signal. Whatever engineer was on duty in NTL that night was flicking through the service menus, and eventually restored ITV and C4. Another classic NTL balls up.