UPC Experiment
Well, I took the plunge again with UPC. We are on the verge of buying a Full HD LCD TV and I know that the analogue signal will look like sh*t on it - so we need digital. To clarify: I hate UPC but they are the only cable TV supplier in Amsterdam that also offer BBC1 and 2 - an absolute must for me (KPN's Digitenne doesn't).
So, for digital TV, UPC offers a normal digital package and an HD package - both available with and without a built in DVR harddisk recorder. I decided I'd like the recorder. So what are the prices?
The Royaal Digital package costs: € 13/month
The Royaal Digital HD package costs: € 22/month
That's a € 9/month difference - for what exactly?
Not for receiving everything in HD, no... the HD package is identical to the digital package except you can connect it to the TV with HDMI instead of scart, which makes no difference to the signal except for 4 extra HD channels.
I would have thought UPC would have made some kind of subsidy deal with the HD TV manufacturers to offer HD channels at an attractive price (rather than an exhorbitant one for diddly squat) to encourage people to spend their cash on new hardware and get addicted to UPC channels.
But then, UPC's way of conducting business is something that has always baffled me. When, oh when will they be faced with some true competition in the Amsterdam area. Please, OPTA, make 'em sweat!
September 26th, 2008 - 10:43
So the main difference besides the four channels is the decoder (which has HD and HDMI dor the HD package)?
Compared to Ziggo (an equally terrible company) I think it’s a fair deal. Cheaper, a few less channels but with a DVR.
It will be interesting to see if direct competition will result in lower prices, but for now I guess UPC wins…
September 26th, 2008 - 11:34
Well, yes. The ONLY difference is the 4 extra channels and the fact that there’s an HDMI connector (which only makes a difference for HD channels – right?).
September 28th, 2008 - 09:42
HDMI is digital, so it should (and does in my case) make SD channels sharper. So sharp in fact that you might be able to count the pixels on a large LCD TV. The fuzziness that analog adds to SD signals can be a good thing sometimes. Most televisions will however do post processing and on my LG most SD channels look great.
I don’t actually watch the extra channels very much, so I’m thinking of dropping them. During the summer, Nederland 1 was HD but you didn’t need the HD package for that. My guess is that when the regular channels make the jump to HD they will be included in the regular package. Eventually itt will all be HD, so the need for a separate package will disappear.