Info and forum posts by 'PeteTh'

This user hasn't used our main site yet, so has no main account at present.

Joined on: Wednesday, 29th November 2000, 09:20, Last used: Wednesday, 29th November 2000, 09:20

Access Level: Mostly Harmless

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This user has posted a total of 12 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0.01 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: Stop subscribing to Sky and move to NTL phone ?

Thanks for your replies.

Yeh, I kind of knew the NTL Customer Service can be pretty bad, but I thought providing you can set things up yourself and they don`t go wrong, then you`re ok.

I was mainly tempted by the price, NTL are now doing special offers e.g

- Digital TV basic family pack & phone rental £13 (for first year, then reverts to std price of £26)
- Broadband £14.99
- No install charges for either and no set up fees !

so for £28 a month I could get the channels I want, telephone rental and broadband. I could also cancel my Sky sub (£37 for all channels, but I hardly ever watch Movies or Sport). After 1 year would revert to £41.

If I stay with Sky I could change to the more basic £16 package, and could then get ADSL for £27 which totals £43, but still have to pay BTs line rental and hefty ADSL set up charges.

My last BT Bill for a Qtr was £111.

I did a quick calculation using NTL Phone prices, call charges alone for last qtr would have been £77 and the line rental for NTL although included in the Digital TV package is about £9.99 per mth on its own, so a comparative NTL bill would be 77+30 = £107. So the phone charges seemed OK ?

In my heart I would like to keep Sky and one day get their Dolby Digital aswell, anyone know where you can get ADSL or Broadband more cheaply ?

Is ADSL better than cable broadband ?

Stop subscribing to Sky and move to NTL phone ?

If I stop subscribing to Sky, can I keep the Pace Digibox and Dish and just get the free channels for no monthly fee ?

Could I then still order Box Office movies ?

Also, If I instead sign up for NTL broadband / NTL phone / NTL basic digital TV, can I plug the NTL phone line into the Sky Digibox (Pace).

I would quite like to keep Sky for box office, because I think they will make Dolby Digital available to all at some point (maybe with a new digibox), whereas NTL don`t offer Dolby Digital. Anyone know if NTL plan to ?

How does the quality of NTL and Sky broadcasts compare ?

RE: Toshiba SD210E - urgent honest opinions!

I had the Scan too, and tried out a friends Toshiba 210E for a few days.

The picture is great and the sound, but the things missing for me were

- When playing MP3, it only shows Track Number !, you haven`t got a clue what you`re listening to.
- Only one scart. The scan had RGB pass through on scart 2.

I`m considering getting the Pioneer DV-545 (£229) instead, has MP3 names, 2 scarts and plays DVD writeables.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Pioneer ?

RE: Anyone have a Yamaha DSP E-800? I need some info.

It`s a 4-channel amp and DD/DTS processor, designed to be used with a hifi amp (which takes the front L/R preouts) leaving the E800 to decode and amplify the centre, rear L/R and sub.

I have one and it is great (use with Musical Fidedity amp). There are some favourable comments on the DVD Forum about it.

There is a review at http://www.dvdtimes.org.uk/reviews/hardware/yammy800.html

and What Hifi recommended it with 5* in this years annual awards.

RE: More Scan Woes?

What does the All-in-One IR extender do, it sounds like what I need, where can you get them. Couldn`t find any websites ?

RE: REASONS TO BY A SCAN.

see http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=211&Thread=15763

RE: Making the most of available RGB SCART and S-Video SCART inputs

Buy a Scan DVD Player, I`m serious, they have two scarts one which will loop through the RGB (yes RGB) providing the DVD Player is in standby mode.

So connect the Scan scart 1 to your TV RGB Scart and connect Ondigital to Scart 2 on the Scan.

By the way I have a Scan player and I am very pleased with it.

RE: Calling Nelley and other Scan users..

Can anyone confirm that playing R1 on Scan generally gives problems ? I have got R1 Fight Club and it play very badly, jerky and blocky.

RE: SCAN Bad playback, what can I do?

I`m a bit confused are we saying that the Scan always converts NTSC to PAL (which causes the bad playback) or can player be set to output NTSC for R1 where you have a NTSC capable telly ?

Scan2000 new Ver blocky playback

I have a new batch Scan 2000 bought, early Nov. The picture has been superb with Region 2 : Toy Story2 & The Fifth Element, but The Matrix Rg2 sometimes shows blocky large pixels (however plays the lobby scene & helicopter perfectly).

But worse of all is Region 1 The Fight Club (the only Region 1 DVD I own) which is very blocky with large pixels often. It doesn`t seem very smooth either.

I have tried adjusting `Picture format` in the secret menu (from to `Non-Flicker` to `Hi-Res`) to no avail.

I have firmware version 180 (i.e one upgrade applied)

I WAS really pleased with this player, any advice ?

RE: Latest on the Scan SC2000?

My Scan SC2000 (bought about 3 weeks ago) will output RGB to TV and it`s definitely RGB as my TV says so. I haven`t tried the pass through using the other scart, but the manual does say it will pass RGB signal through when in standby.

Scan Firmware Upgrade worked ?

I have received the Firmware upgrade from Nelley and upgraded my player, but I`m not sure if it has worked.

I thought it had until I viewed a CDR with MP3s, and found that the names are still truncated.

What I did was :-
- burnt the `TDVD-0000.ROM` file onto a CDR (left it as multi-session),
- put the disc in following the instructions
- saw some strange characters at the top of the screen which then moved a bit,
- the disc was then ejected.
- removed cdr
- Powered off (while tray open)
- powered on

I thought it had worked because I can see
Main Ver as 180 when I check the version

Also the old region code hack no longer works, but the new appears to, although I couldn`t confirm it had changed anything.

The macrovision hack also appears to work as I see
ADV7171 00000001
after applying.

Should I reload the disc ?


One other question, I see there are some new menu options when you go into the scecret menu to confirm the region code, using :-
open - setup - shuffle - step - next

Does anyone know what these do ?
I can only see Country Code of GB here and cannot see the region anywhere ?

Any thoughts ?