I currently have an NTL cable line for TV. Will I be able to use this to receive
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV I am afraid not. You may be able to by a cable digital decoder, however, to get the same channels, but it depends on where you live.
The good news is that you can probably continue to get channels 1 to 5 though the cable for the foreseeable future.
You need an actual TV aerial to receive Freeview.
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Sunday, 20 February 2011
Hi Brian,
I came across this press release, Virgin Media Cable Tv To Turn Off Milton Keynes Warns Local Tv Reception Installation Specialist .
Do you know anything about it, are virgin/bt really going to switch it off or just not upgrade the system to digital ? Milton
keynes cable was state of the art in its day, every new house was cabled & dishes/aerials were originally banned in cabled area's.
Mark Aberfan Aerials
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Mark Aberfan Aerials: Right, from memory there was a ban on TV aerials in Milton Keynes, or at least there used to be.
The system has belonged to various people, I think a BT subsidiary owned it at one point.
According the the MK Council's website - MK Council - GrowingMK -
"Virgin Media have said 'our ATV service in Milton Keynes will be unaffected by the national Digital Switchover programme. We will continue to provide the existing channels over the analogue platform as we have been doing so historically...' So, households should still get those five TV channels after switchover. "
From memory again, the system isn't the normal type of cable TV system you find in the UK, which were installed after the 1984 Cable Act, which have local headends with "star networks" of coax supplying each home. This allows for the necessary bidirectional communication for the digital (and indeed analogue) subscriber services.
The system in MK more like the old Rediffusion system, which is basically a big loop of coax with junctions. The only "conditional access" is if the home is physically connected to the "loop".
Thus, upgrading isn't just a case of new headends, but having to re-engineer the connection to each house, and I don't even think that any of the cable is the right type (it's aerial cable, not cable cable) and none of it was put in ducts.
This is from memory - the last time I stayed in Milton Keynes overnight was 1985. My schoolfriend and business partner Paul lived there, but he sadly died two years ago.
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Hi Brian,
Thank you for the info & sorry if it brought you any sad memories, I spent around a third of my life living there which is why I have a interest in the area.
Mark Aberfan Aerials
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Mark Aberfan Aerials: Everytime I go back I'm still amazed by how "done" the place is now.
Back in 1985 when I was there, "The Point" has just opened - the first multiplex Cinema in the UK. It was on it's own in a wasteland, but it's not now.
I was involved with MK Cable for a very brief period when BT owned it, along with the much more prestigious but equally low-tech Westmister Cable.
Don't worry, I marked the anniversary this week, and I'm sad because the memories are all good ones.
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Sunday, 27 March 2011
M
Mike B3:08 AM
Briantist - I think you may be a little out of date on the cable network in MK too! It was upgraded to a tree and branch system as used in the rest of the country post 1984.
Last post at this link explains it quite well..
Digital switchover - Cable - Digital Spy Forums as I understand it from council leadership, BT is playing silly buggars these days in preventing the network from being upgraded as it would provide them unwelcome competition in Virgin being able to steal tv, phone and broadband customers from BT Vision, BT broadband, and home phone.
Surely a case for the competition commission or Office of Fair Trading?
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Wednesday, 13 April 2011
M
Marie W12:32 PM
please can someone help me,,, i have an ordinary cable for channels 1 to 5 i am quite deaf so need subtitles but have lost them from BBC2 and channel 5 i dont know who to get in touch with or who might be able to help ,,,
with thanks
Marie
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M
Mike Dimmick3:54 PM
Marie W: There are a few cable providers in the UK. However, you're probably on the free service, of just the analogue channels only, that they were required to provide to anyone who stopped subscribing.
Check whether you're in one of the areas covered by Virgin at Local TV - Virgin Media coverage | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice . If so, try
Contact Us
.
Otherwise, if you're on the Isle of Wight it might be WightCable - see Contact Us . Around Irvine and Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland, or in Lancashire, it could be SmallWorld - try
Contact Us - Smallworld Cable TV, Fibre Optic Broadband and Phone
.
Most likely you're in a region where terrestrial analogue signals have just been switched off - perhaps Nottingham. They're probably now having to feed the analogue cable service using the outputs of some Freeview boxes - Freeview does not carry Teletext at all, subtitles are transmitted in a different way.
There's a thread at Analogue Cable Switch Off Starts - Cable Forum covering switch-off of analogue cable services - Virgin Media are migrating to all-digital cable service.
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Sunday, 17 July 2011
S
S Cairns2:48 PM
We live in Milton Keynes. When we moved here in 1999, the existing NTL cable agreement to the house we bought was transferred to us and we paid c. £2.99/mth for cable.
I have recently written to Virgin Media who bought NTL (I believe) to ask for a copy of the original agreement to ascertain exactly what it is that we are being charged for as all our tv is now thru Sky. Virgin appear to be struggling to provide me with this! Has anyone else experienced similar issues with Virgin Media in the MK area?
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S Cairns: The MKTV cable system is an oddity, and is different to all other cable systems in the UK, and is still an analogue system.
To quote from Wikipedia:
"Milton Keynes has one of the first Cable TV networks in the UK. However, the cable network is now ageing and in need of modernisation ... many residents have already opted for roof-top aerials and satellite dishes. All homes in the post-designation and/or post expansion areas of Milton Keynes are already on-net cable homes – but (as of Jan 2011) is analogue only. Virgin Media, which leases the cable network from BT until 2012, have yet to announce any plans for the service thereafter."
You can now receive a full digital service using an aerial from Sandy Heath, see Final switchover for Sandy Heath and Nottingham on 13th April in 2011 week 3 | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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Sunday, 2 September 2012
C
charles lowry12:32 PM
Harlow
In Harlow, I currently receive BBC1, BBC2, ITV London, C4, C5 and ITV Anglia analogue from Virgin via fibre optic to house. Before I have aerial (Freeview), dish (Freesat) or Virgin, I need to know whether with Freesat or Virgin I will still be able to record TV programmes on to DVD using a Sony Freeview DVR, as I have a friend who spends 8 months each year at sea, and I record TV programmes for him to watch when he's home.
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charles's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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