Telewest active digital

[bigbigt0]

Hi I've just ordered this I was wondering what are the inputs and outputs on the set top box, does it have optical audio out?

TIA

bigt

 

[mookie]

lo again bigt
we got telewest active digital, and to say the least, it sucks donkeys. nowhere near as good as sky didgi. this morning there were 7 fucked channels. it locks up, gets pixelated, the refresh time on the tv guide is about 3 years, the interactive doesnt work, the volume doesnt work, the digital text doesnt work. give it another few months and hope its at some usable state. coz atm its only JUST bearable.

beginning to lose faith in telewest....

EDIT
oh yeah, the the connections there is an rj45 port but thats for other shit, dont know what yet, the guys tht installed were fuckin clueless.
what looks like a printer port and an rs232, which i beleive is for the IR keyboard.

------------------
mookie@barrysworld.co.uk
ICQ:17129916 www.go-frag.com




[This message has been edited by mookie (edited 01 July 2000).]

 

[bigbigt0]

Oh well, s'pose I save money on that dts amp i wanted ;/

I hope it's at least as good as analogue, particulally sky sports 2 on saturday am

bigt

Good to see you m8

/EDIT damn beer



[This message has been edited by bigt (edited 01 July 2000).]

 

[bigbigt0]

stu-, is it a bit like surfunlimeted, good when it's good? It'll do for now, prolly move again soon so I may get sky digi then.

bigt

BTW I don't realy know anything about digital sound, just circumstantiol stuff so DTS is only for DVDs? Are the digital programs in Dolby Diigital then (or is that DD)? ATYM I have my NICAM vcr connected to my POS venturer (who? ) dolby pro-logic hi-fi with a scart to double audio(l&r).

 

[stu]

We were having a conversation about TW Active Digital in #quake2.uk yesterday. I thought all the 'issues' I had with mine were just me being unlucky... seems that EVERYONE has them. It's shite, basically.

The box locks up regularly, on some occasions it actually crashes (you need to unplug the thing from the mains for it to 'reboot', switching it on and off doesn't do anything, and then you have to wait for about 5 minutes for it to reinitialise). The sound and/or picture disappears randomly, or the picture just freezes, seems to happen most if you change channels.

The TV Guide is utter shite, it's like it's coming down a 9,600 modem rather than a cable line, can take a good 30 seconds to update 5 channels' worth of info. Similarly, the "TV on Demand" schedule (ie what's on the PPV channels) takes a good 60-120 seconds to update, during which you can't do anything, the whole thing just freezes. And none of the interactive stuff is live yet - it's been "COMING SOON" for months. Half of the controls on the remote (eg volume switch) don't work, and the interface is like it's been designed by a monkey on crack.

I'm probably going to switch back to analogue, tbh, it's that bad.

Connections: there's shiteloads round the back, even a USB iirc - not sure that any of them work though. It's just a standard "digital services" box that PACE make, so presumably TW will have to switch on all the stuff.

 

[stu]

btw, why would you want optical digital? Apart from the fact it's a bit pants (electrical dig is far better), if your question is "are digital transmissions encoded in DD/DTS?" (the only reason I can think of for you wanting a digital output, to go to an offboard amp/processor), the answer is "no".

 

[old.Comatosed]

Everyone I've spoken to with Active Digital has said much the same.

Had Sky Digital for 6 months odd myself and have to say its superb. Certainly never locked up and guide/programme info is instant. Maybe 2 or 3 times since it was installed the info has been "unavailable" for an hour or so but thats it.

 

[bigbigt0]

Oh well, looks like I'm in for a few months of annoyance Ta for clearing things up re digital sound.

I still get disconnected from SU alot, pings are around 200 tho which is nice but there is nowt worse than getting into a game of CS then being disconnected, also my alt-tab crashes HL/CS

 

[stu]

nah bigt. The problems with Surf Unlimited were down to things outside of their control (LINX routers etc). It's back to normal (ie fucking excellent) now.

Active Digital is just WANK.

"Digital" tv has nothing to do with "Digital" sound - it's a bit confusing.

Digital telly (both Cable and Sky) just give you improved broadcast quality, really. I believe SOME programs are filmed in Dolby Pro Logic (which is an Analogue technology), but they are few and far between. The image quality IS vastly improved, certainly over analogue Sky, but tbh my TV watching is down to incidental stuff, where image quality really doesn't matter, so the annoyances of Active Digital push me towards going back to analogue.

Digital sound, on the other hand, is a whole different thing. You generally only get it on DVDs, it provides you with a 5.1 (ie six channel) output: two fronts (left and right), a centre for dialogue, two rears, and a sub for bass. The sound quality on a decent setup really is something, certainly far ahead even of Pro Logic. Dolby Digital is the most mainstream format, but you can also get DTS. DTS is slightly improved, but both hardware and software for it are rarer, and tend to be more expensive.

 

[stu]

Wierd, I get 140 with a lovely smooth line in Q2. Mind, the pings in CS are shitty all round, so that could account for it.