SKY versus NTL
 

I have moved house and it is looking like we cant get Sky digital transferred due to some large trees blocking the signal :( If we cant I am going to get NTL as I dont want just the standard channels. I've never had NTL TV before but everyone I mention it to doesnt seem to have a good word to say about it. Does anyone on here have any experience with it - in regards to:

Channel choice (are there any channels I would of had with the full Sky pack - movies and sport - that I cant get with NTL)

Interactive side of things - red button on sky

Picture/sound quality

Price

Picture format - at my old house my widescreen TV and Sky used to match up perfectly so the picture changed automatically when I changed channels and resized itself perfectly - will NTL do the same? Also, can you set it up as a widescreen format in the menu system like you can with Sky?

Many thanks for any comments

Steve

NTL sucks - buy a chainsaw :D

NTL gives you broadband with the package and thats about it.

So what about pic quality, widescreen formats etc?

Cheers

It seems to be crystal clear for me. The thing is, Sky gives you extra channels but my TV is stuck on Sky One on Monday and Tuesdays anyway so I dont care much about the other channels.

Ive had NTL Analogue and then Digital for a few years now.

I think you can get just about the same channels that you can get on Sky - Sky movies, Sky Sports, etc. Whether the prices compare I couldnt tell you though.

Interactive is crap - most of the 'red button' stuff on TV is referring to Sky. The menus and NTL interactive stuff is ok but slow, slow, slow and sometimes unusable. Sometimes the remote just doesnt respond for a little while too (and it isnt the batteries :) )

Picture and quality is usually OK - sometimes gets a bit choppy or blocky (especially E4).

Price - see above, not sure. Probably more expensive if you want everything, but perhaps thats just because for me it would include phone and broadband so appears expensive. One good deal is that Premiership Plus is £1 per month, as opposed to the £5/£6 per match, or the cost it is on Sky (isnt their season ticket £40, £50 or even £60?)

I think the format is fine, and you can change it in the menu - I think the choices are 4:3, 4:3 Letterbox, and 16:9.


In a straight choice between the two, for just TV, Sky would win hands down.

However, I also have phone and broadband with them so it isnt a bad package really. I am also lucky in that even though I have had to call customer services several times, I havent had the horrors that some people have experienced!!

It beats just terrestrial TV but if there is anyway to get SKY working I would go for that. My parents have Sky and it is a lot better and the amount of times it has gone tits up is far less than my NTL set up.

John

We've got NTL, mainly for the broadband. When we first had it installed the kids had their own boxes in their rooms (yeah, I know, spoilt gits). The kids boxes have functioned without problems since day one, but the main unit never worked for more than 3 hours before crashing & took them 5 weeks & 4 boxes to sort out. The installers/service engineers are great. It's very hit & miss whether you get someone who knows what they are doing at the call centre, & it takes you a minimum of 20mins to speak to a human. The boxes don't appear to be the best engineered things, but then the same is also true of the sky ones that I have seen.
The picture quality is as you would expect from a digital signal without the pixellation you get with sky & freeview in bad weather, but about 5% appears to be chopped from the outside of the picture all round causing you to lose the bottom line of any subtitles. This must be an NTL thing as the picture is OK when you watch the freeview through the TV's own decoder.

God help u if anything goes wrong (and it will). NTL must have the worst customer service of any major company going. Avoid at all costs! As somebody has already said, buy a chainsaw.

James

I'll second all that!!

E4 always seems to be very blocky for me - as if the resolution has been reduced!!

Often locks up when you're trying to use the menu systems!!

Sky is far better, but NTL still beats terrestrial tv!!

NTL sucks ball$

My mate went from sky to cable and he's gutted.

Either chop the trees down or stick your dish on a big pole

SKY is much better, we have it at home, but i'm at uni at the moment and we can't get SKY, so we've gone for NTL, which to be perfectly honest is OK. We have a package, where by we pay £60 a month and get free 24-7 land line phone calls to GB, 600K broadband internet and family pack digital TV. It's a good package, but if you're just after TV, definately chop down the tree and get SKY.

Cheers for the replies guys.

We cant touch the trees as they arent in our garden :(

We had one guy come out last week who said he could get a signal if he put the dish on a pole, but he didnt have any poles with him so we'd have to re-arrange the appointment. The second guy who came out on Monday then said we wouldnt get a signal. We phoned Sky and they are sending out a proper Sky engineer (rather than a contractor) tomorrow, who will resolve it once and for all. Sounds like I should keep my fingers crossed we can get Sky to work!

Thanks,

Steve

Sky is truly awful. I replaced it with NTL.

The customer service from Sky is the worst I have ever experienced. I had numerous problems with them and their equipment. I had countless days off work, and sometimes the engineer didn't even show up. I cancelled it.

The customer service from NTL has been fairly good, but not great. I had a cable modem when they were available here in 1999. There were some teething problems but they all got sorted.

You don't get Motors TV on NTL :(

NTL service has been fine - nothing wrong in over 2 years (broadband extremly reliable as well). That said, I would be tempted by Sky (simply for Sky + if nothing else)

Chris

Go WHITE!!!!
 

I just switched from Telewest to SKY+ cos of Telewest’s awful customer service (to be honest it has improved in last 12m, but I SO haven’t forgiven them for the 3 week no telly delay when I moved house – I’d told them twice several weeks in advance) . Last straw was 4 mornings off work recently so they could fix the faults (ended up with 2 core telephone wire over the front lawn. BT had a right laugh and say they are paid per job… Then 3 different people came to pick up their box :) )

Took a day off work Friday for Sky and ended up with no SKY… ‘Ooohh cant go on the roof sir – you need a special heights team for that’. I told them I knew that and had told the guy when ordering as I knew it needed to point SE and was not going on the front aspect Chav style! Anyway they came back Monday, told me my chimney was too short (how RUDE!) and bolted it to the side of the house semi-Chav stylee for an extra £45…

My point? SKY+ is FABULOUS!!!! In the same league as freezers & microwaves when they were new. It does everything better than Telewest (even has Dolby digital 5.1 for the movies). Pic quality on some channels that you will NEVER watch is atrocious due to compression, but the good ones are good quality.

2 good things on Telewest is that all engineer visits were at least free [not so with Sky – YOU own the equipment] also you can check DETAIL in the EPG for other channels and other times whilst continuing to watch the programme you are on. SKY only gives you full info for what you are ALREADY watching unless you go to a separate full screen guide.

I would have a word with the trees mate or talk to a pole!

D

ARGHHH THE SKY+ BOX IS WHITE – WHITE GOODS FRIDGE COLOUR; STILL HORRIFIED

Quite simply NTL are utter ****e and well behind the times compared to Sky.
We had analogue then digi and finally moved to Sky+ about 6 months ago and theres no comparison. Sky rools NTL drools.

NTL BB not too bad though.

once you get SKY+ there is no comparison!
The ad says"its like having your own tv channel" and their not wrong

Used both and Sky has more channels for you *not* to watch, other than that I was quite happy with NTL, few teething probs but nothing I couldn't live with.

NTL was cheaper as well!

SKY everytime ;)

1. More channels
2. Cheaper
3. DONT need hands free when you phone NTL customer service WAITNG for 30 mins to answer :(

Sounds like there's still a lot to be said for the 4.5 terrestrial channels plus a TiVo then :(

Anyone who disses NTL's service doesn't live near me.

Whenever we've had a problem with either our digital boxes or our broadband usually within an hour of phoning the customer service centre we've had someone round installing a new box. The longest its taken to have an engineer round is three hours.
Beat that Sky

The best tech support is the support you don't need. I've not had a technician (I *hate* the way they're referred to as 'engineers') round to fix my terrestrial reception for years and years.

Digital TV is still in its infancy IMHO. I have four TVs, a VCR and a TiVo in my house. Do the likes of NTL or Sky really think I'm going to take out six subscriptions as well as buying six boxes? I don't mind buying the hardware (which will only get cheaper), but the way the subscriptions are done is a complete joke once you get past the one house, one TV model.

At this rate I'll downgrade to digital if and when the analogue transmissions are (eventually) switched off, and not a moment before.

We went from sky to NTL because we lost the picture every time it Rained :(
We could never get through on their help line either. NTL have been fine, slightly fewer channels and they are spread about all over but the picture is much better IMHO.

Thanks for the info everyone. Should find out this afternoon if we can have Sky or not.

Steve