Digital TV Cost Cutting Article - Discuss What You've Been Offered

huskydog

i was offered the same, £99 + free installation, not good enough!! so i have cancelled. just wondered, who said they were doing it for £49 for subscribers with over 3yrs in? was it sky cos the swines didnt offer me that and ive been with them for over 12 years. really missing sky 1 !!!! I'm leaving it for a couple of weeks and then my husband is going to sign up as 'new' customer with a 'recommend a friend' voucher, but we would have paid £49 to avoid the hassle of cancelling.

BexTech

There's only a couple of programmes on Sky One worth watching, you can download them.

vix2000

huskydog wrote: »

i was offered the same, £99 + free installation, not good enough!! so i have cancelled. just wondered, who said they were doing it for £49 for subscribers with over 3yrs in? was it sky cos the swines didnt offer me that and ive been with them for over 12 years. really missing sky 1 !!!! I'm leaving it for a couple of weeks and then my husband is going to sign up as 'new' customer with a 'recommend a friend' voucher, but we would have paid £49 to avoid the hassle of cancelling.

Exactly the same situation!!!! Getting a bit mean I think. Am going to try recommend a friend through quidco so get free sky+ and £130 if I'm lucky.

kizzyw

Phoned Sky today as ive only been getting a dozen or so channels.No sat signal etc.Guy on phone asked what number came up when no sat signal showed,25 i said so took me through diagnostics test press this type that turn off etc.Guess what :mad: Still no sat signal, message number now 29 and not one bl##dy channel can i get and to top it all its gonna cost me £65 for an engineer..I want to cancel close account and sod the 30 days notice Why should i pay for a service im not flipping getting,hubs says call someone from local paper but im livid.:mad:
Any advice???

rayhool

Just ring up and cancel telling them your system isn't working they may offer a half price engineer visit but stick to your guns and they will offer you a free engineer visit!

kizzyw

Thanks,after 3 phone calls,Sky are coming tomorrow to either repair or replace the box for free:j So pleased,i had aready decided to cancel on principle so a nice surprise:D

photome

I already have a Virgin box in bedroom on XL package (cheap on an offer).

I can get a V+ box in my lounge for £75 and keep my original box for £5 extra a month.

Seems like a good deal to me ??!!

Anyone know if teletext is available through V+ (the Delhi call centre say it is, but i have heard it isnt). I cant get it through my original virgin box.

I did ask on the tech board and only got one reply

BexTech

photome wrote: »

I already have a Virgin box in bedroom on XL package (cheap on an offer).

I can get a V+ box in my lounge for £75 and keep my original box for £5 extra a month.

Seems like a good deal to me ??!!

Anyone know if teletext is available through V+ (the Delhi call centre say it is, but i have heard it isnt). I cant get it through my original virgin box.

I did ask on the tech board and only got one reply

Cable hasn't got around to "digital teletext" yet, even though it's been around on digital satellite from almost the start. There is some limited Red Button access, but nothing like on satellite.

The old style Teletext that you get by pressing your TV's text button is available on some channels, however not available via the HDMI connection.

The way old style teletext works is that the data is sent separate on digital and not within the picture as it is on analogue, the Digital Box then has to take that data and reinsert it back into the picture so the TV's Teletext decoder can pick it up. This is possible over SCART connection or aerial connection, however HDMI spec does not allow / offer this, so you'll not get Teletext this way through the V+ and will have to use SCART connector.

At the moment Virgin have had to disable the SCART connections when HDMI is enabled due to the box having trouble outputting both SCART and HDMI at the same time. So if have a HDTV and connect via HDMI, you have to go through the menus and switch to SCART if you want to view Teletext on your TV, and then go back to HDMI when you want to view TV in a better quality format.

Some subtitles are DVB subtitles, so the 'Blue' Button on the Mini Guide will work for them, some are old style Teletext (VBI) (PAGE 888) and in HDMI mode you won't get them, Virgin are in the process in writing a routine to convert the VBI (Teletext) subtitle into DVB subtitles on-the-fly on the box, so 'Blue' button access to them will work.

I'm sure if they wanted they could write a Teletext routine for the box, to read the Teletext data and produce the text using the cable box instead of the TV, however with analogue shutting down and the BBC dropping old style teletext once analogue is switched of, they probably don't see the point. ITV are likely to drop old-style teletext too soon.

photome

BexTech wrote: »

Cable hasn't got around to "digital teletext" yet, even though it's been around on digital satellite from almost the start. There is some limited Red Button access, but nothing like on satellite.

The old style Teletext that you get by pressing your TV's text button is available on some channels, however not available via the HDMI connection.

The way old style teletext works is that the data is sent separate on digital and not within the picture as it is on analogue, the Digital Box then has to take that data and reinsert it back into the picture so the TV's Teletext decoder can pick it up. This is possible over SCART connection or aerial connection, however HDMI spec does not allow / offer this, so you'll not get Teletext this way through the V+ and will have to use SCART connector.

At the moment Virgin have had to disable the SCART connections when HDMI is enabled due to the box having trouble outputting both SCART and HDMI at the same time. So if have a HDTV and connect via HDMI, you have to go through the menus and switch to SCART if you want to view Teletext on your TV, and then go back to HDMI when you want to view TV in a better quality format.

Some subtitles are DVB subtitles, so the 'Blue' Button on the Mini Guide will work for them, some are old style Teletext (VBI) (PAGE 888) and in HDMI mode you won't get them, Virgin are in the process in writing a routine to convert the VBI (Teletext) subtitle into DVB subtitles on-the-fly on the box, so 'Blue' button access to them will work.

I'm sure if they wanted they could write a Teletext routine for the box, to read the Teletext data and produce the text using the cable box instead of the TV, however with analogue shutting down and the BBC dropping old style teletext once analogue is switched of, they probably don't see the point. ITV are likely to drop old-style teletext too soon.

Thanks for reply...still confused though.. I guess I didnt mean the old style teletext but the digital text I get on my sky box (used as a freesat box). I dont have HDMI connection on TV (I dont think) it is a CRT TV with scart sockets. If I am reading your reply right it looks like I will have limited digital text.

BexTech

photome wrote: »

Thanks for reply...still confused though.. I guess I didnt mean the old style teletext but the digital text I get on my sky box (used as a freesat box). I dont have HDMI connection on TV (I dont think) it is a CRT TV with scart sockets. If I am reading your reply right it looks like I will have limited digital text.

Yes, very limited digital text, so limited there is none.

HDMI is for High Definition.

If you have a box for Freesat, keep that and have the V+ box for subscription TV - this is what we do, though I also have a Hi-Def satellite receiver and another satellite receiver both used for multi-satellite set-up. But for your needs just having both the Sky Freesat box and the V+ box connected to your main TV in the lounge is the way to go.