OnDigital in trouble already
Jonathan Ian Statt
couldn't find anywhere with boxes in stock, and believe me I tried! Most
places still claim never to have received any and others say they had about
2 or 3 in which were all back ordered. John Lewis got 100 for all their
shops around the country of which there are 28 stores.
On Digital customer service believe the boxes are available in their 1000s
and are in every shop you can think of.
Well I pursued this a little further. C&W were due to show Shop and ITV2
from the 15th November on Cable...guess what, they can't get the boxes! ITV
and shop are furious because they are screening commercials and product
information that nobody can see but because they are committed to their
schedule cannot change.
In some ways this is laughable....and in some ways typically British...lots
of new programmes, lots of commercials, lots of money being spent running
these things and there can't be any return because nobody except a fortunate
few can get it.
The potential target market was enormous and the timing just before christmas
was perfect. Now they have gone and blown it.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if all that was left was the standard five
channels and all subscription based channels disappeared.
Jonathan Statt
Andrew Marre
them at the rate of 2,500 to 3,000 a day and shipping them as fast as they
can to shops. The situation WILL improve; we have other manufacturers like
Pace, Nokia and Toshiba coming onstream. As far as ITV2 goes, it is not
launched yet - it starts on 7 December.
The launch has been a tremendous success, but we are not a here today gone
tomorrow service - we have a licence for 24 years. We anticipate selling
tens of thousands of boxes this year - and hundreds of thousands next year.
This is a British first; we are proud of having achieved this in less than
eleven months from start to finish.
Jonathan Ian Statt <jona...@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> wrote in article
<72s8uf$of2$1...@beta.qmw.ac.uk>...
Jonathan Ian Statt
from C&W who are not known for getting things right. I should have explained
that I want to ditch cable as soon as I can because the outages, and picture
quality problems are just getting too much. I cannot get planning permission
for satellite so OnDigital looked like a good way to move.
Whilst I read what you are saying regarding production rates, I still cannot
help feeling that either the launch date was too soon or an oversight was
made regarding ensuring adequate supply of boxes for the launch.
Believe me, I hope OnDigital succeeds. I think its vital there is at least
some alternative to satellite and awful cable!
Nice to see an OnDigital presence here......
Jonathan Statt
Andrew Marre (Andrew...@ondigital.co.uk) wrote:
: We're sorry Mr Statt hasn't been able to get a box yet. Philips are making
Simon
people who are buying his service !
I bought Ondigital on the day of release and believe me it is very much off
!!
Not only can I not receive the full channel range but of those I can receive
none are watchable due to picture freezing and large/regular mosaic patterns
!! Great for a words first eh!
My Digibox is going back on Saturday as I have had Sky Digital installed
today with fantastic picture quality and no "issues" at all.....
Perhaps being a first is not the most important thing, perhaps even
achieving this in eleven months is not the most important thing - maybe
taking a little longer, refining the product and getting it right are !
Andrew Marre <Andrew...@ondigital.co.uk> wrote in message
news:01be1255$042c8820$0115010a@amarre...
|We're sorry Mr Statt hasn't been able to get a box yet. Philips are making
|them at the rate of 2,500 to 3,000 a day and shipping them as fast as they
|can to shops. The situation WILL improve; we have other manufacturers like
|Pace, Nokia and Toshiba coming onstream. As far as ITV2 goes, it is not
|launched yet - it starts on 7 December.
|
Ade
Paul Derrick wrote in message <36561c29...@news.demon.co.uk>...
>I think we should be grateful we have an OD representative
>contributing.
>
>Perhaps you should have pointed out that your reception problems are
>in fact due to a communal loft aerial which is obstructed by an
>adjacent building. Hardly the fault of OD!
>
>How have you got fantastic picture quality? When I spoke to you
>earlier today you said the viewing card would be with you in 2-3 days
>time! Does the OD card work in the DodgyBox or something?
>
Because you can get Sky news and QVC without a card dumb ass!
Ade
Bob Tomalski
>eleven months from start to finish.
I think Andrew makes a good point. I visited the ONdigital transmission
suite just a month before the switch-on date and it was a mess of
cables. Yet one month later, all the ONdigital-delivered channels are up
and running and the network centre is finished. I bet that meant many
late nights for many engineers.
And from information received via contacts within the
transmitter/antenna installation business, it is amazing that the backbone
for a new network has been installed in such a short period. From the
consumer's viewpoint its just a case of plugging in a set top box, but at
the 'other end' there has been massive effort in installing new power and
programme feeds to transmitting sites, new transmitters, combiners etc.
etc., It's a mammoth operation and a British 'First'. No other country in
the world has DTT yet.
Sure I have some whinges about digital terrestrial reception, but as with
all RF-receiving issues, there are many factors at work. I have a
suspicion that the 'bugs' in the Philips set top box don't help. I am
pursuing this, vigorously.
I think that the Philips box was rushed out to save ONdigital's bacon!
Were it not for this box, there would have been nothing at all to sell. I
just hope that Philips are going to sort out the bugs, hopefully via a
software update over-air (which I think is possible)
It looks like digital TV (both satellite and terrestrial) has the potential to
work very well, but there are teething troubles - which as 'early
adopters' I guess we expect?
My tests show the signal to be pretty robust. What I can't figure out,
therefore, is WHY digital TV looked so damn awful at The Live '98
exhibition at Earls Court and equally ropey at the ERT (trade) show at
the NEC earlier this year. I think that story needs to be
told....<grin>....Maybe Andrew will enlighten us?
--
Bob Tomalski - Technology Journalist & Broadcaster
b...@medianet.demon.co.uk * 10055...@compuserve.com
Bardo
see a representative of ONdigital taking the time to read and answer the
queries that consumers have. On thing I would ask, however, is that - as
you're obviously working in an official capacity - could you please add a
'signature' to all your messages so that we know who you are, what your
position is and that you work for ONdigital. This will not only reinforce
what you say but will also allows others to appreciate that you are
'official'.
Thanks
BTW - Keep up the good work!
Andrew Marre wrote in message <01be1255$042c8820$0115010a@amarre>...
>We're sorry Mr Statt hasn't been able to get a box yet. Philips are making
>them at the rate of 2,500 to 3,000 a day and shipping them as fast as they
>can to shops. The situation WILL improve; we have other manufacturers like
>Pace, Nokia and Toshiba coming onstream. As far as ITV2 goes, it is not
>launched yet - it starts on 7 December.
>
>The launch has been a tremendous success, but we are not a here today gone
>tomorrow service - we have a licence for 24 years. We anticipate selling
>tens of thousands of boxes this year - and hundreds of thousands next year.
>This is a British first; we are proud of having achieved this in less than
>eleven months from start to finish.
>