5 Mbit/s = ADSL
20 Mbit/s = VDSL
Yep. Understood.
Any idea how the FTTH (Fibre To The Home) initiative that was approved by voters in Zurich last year progressing?
Thanks for the info!
I'm a touch puzzled by this. I've worked for Bluewin for the last 2 years testing their IPTV services, set-top boxes and routers. Bluewin TV works over both ISDN and analog, both ADSL and VDSL. This gives a possible 4 combinations.
Swisscom also supply the A/VDSL routers, and you can only use one of theirs! These have 4 Ethernet ports and WiFi. You'll get one of 4 types, depending on which combination of the above you have. They look like regular Linksys routers, but I promise you the firmware is different!
With A/VDSL, the MAXIMUM data rates depend on the distance you are from the exchange - the further you are, the lower the top speeds. Top speeds may only be available within 7-800m! This is also why many have mentioned that low-quality house phone wiring has to be replaced. I strongly advise the SFr 95 installation service, because DSL lives or dies on the quality of the house wiring. It'll most likely sort of work, but long after it's installed, you'll be wondering why you're getting low data rates and pixellated pictures. Even off-the-shelf extension phone cables are to be avoided - BT found these to be a huge problem in the UK. If you must extend, use ONLY 2 wire cables, not 4 wire! These are unfortunately hard to find.
If your phone socket is far from your TV, thr SFr 95 tech should install wiring, either an Ethernet cable or a 2-wire phone cable, depending on where you want the router. Connecting the STB by WiFi is not, as far as I know, supported and I don't recommend it - most WiFi is just not fast enough. Resist any suggestions to use WifI like this. I've also seen Bluewin use a 1mm Pof cable (plastic optical fibre) with 2 adaptors to connect 2 Ethernet segments - very successful and easy to hide. Made by Siemens under the "Gigaset" brand.
There is a slight, theoretical difference in speeds between the DSL available with analogue and ISDN, because 2 conversations can be carried out at once on an ISDN line, there's a bit less bandwidth left over for DSL. In practice, this is almost un-noticeable.
Whatever DSL package you buy and however fast the super VDSL line is (I've seen 22megs!), note that your computer will NEVER see more than the max you signed for, and quite often less.This is because the special firmware in the routers separates out TV traffic and PC traffic, and allows the PC only to have access to the bandwidth you've paid for. More importantly, all the rest of that lovely bandwidth is given over to TV.
Note that because of this, heavy PC activity NEVER affects TV or vice-versa. If you have line problems and degaded DSL speed, you're likely to see picture problems before noticing your PC is slow (macroblocking or freezes).
So how much bandwidth does TV need?
Standard def TV needs about 6 meg over IPTV. Heavily compressed channels like Proi7 and Sat1 need a bit less, and you can sometimes see pixellation. Sports channels can also be bad (watch the crowds as the picture pans rapidly) as all that movement has to be encoded in real-time and that's a challenge technically. So bad quality might not always be BWTV's fault. HD needs a lot more - about 11 meg, plus a bit for the optional Dolby digital AC3 surround sound, and multiple soundtrack languages, when they appear. BWTV currently allows a max of 1SD and 1HD channel, so that's about 18 meg, add in your PC's demands and things are getting a bit tight! If BWTV won't offer you HD it's because either that phone line is too long and they can't get the data down it fast enough or that the required VDSL stuff is not installed at the local exchange - something that's becoming rapidly rarer as they frantically change it all.
Finally, a few here have mentioned pixellation, especially with LCD TVs. My long experiences with many TVs show the best results are if you have a 1368 x 720 TV connected using either HDMI or Component. Tube TVs can be good but most are getting old and are pretty crap with no HD resolutions either. The TV and BWTV STB should be set to 720p HD EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO HD CHANNELS FROM BWTV! This is because using other than 720p forces the cheap conversion circuits in the TV to rescale to the TV's native resolution, with consequent loss of quality and visible pixellation. The converters in the BWTV box are far better quality than most TVs. I've no experience of 1080p TV's, but the BWTV box only outputs 1080i so you may wish to experiment. Your mileage may vary, as they say.
Whilst setting up, use the very high quality material available on HD Suisse. With HDMI and a correctly set up STB and TV, these pictures are jaw-droppingly good over IPTV. Then you'll start to realise how dependant BWTV is on the quality of the source material. As we say "The wider you open the window, the more muck blows in!"
During testing, I gained a great liking for Samsung LCDs. They make fair PC monitors as well (VGA analogue input) and I always used one as a second extended desktop on my laptop, switching TV inputs for testing.
Surprisingly component can be better quality than HDMI, particularly for HD but the latter is easier to use. The STB has various wrinkles with HD over component so you should probably only go that way if you have to. Incidentally, I've never yet seen any copy-protection issues whilst using component, even on HD.
I mentioned surround sound above. Digital surround sound is only available from either the optical (TOS) or orange digital co-ax connectors on the STB. If you have inputs for these on your HiFi, RUN to the shop (or the BWTV cardboard box) for the cables and connect it NOW! You're in for a treat! Additionally, what most folks don't realise is that just about every Hollywood film produced in the last 30 years has Dolby (Analogue) Pro-Logic surround sound encoded into the stereo soundtrack. Whilst not as good as digital, this can also produce very good surround sound if connected to a suitably good A/V amplifier. If you haven't upgraded your A/V amp for a few years and don't have digital surround sound you only need the regular stereo leads for Dolby Pro-Logic analogue surround.
One thing I forgot to mention is that 5.1 surround sound is not currently available via HDMI. The HDMI spec calls for this to be supported, but the Microsoft Windows PE software running in the Bluewin TV set-top box does not currently support this, so if you want 5.1 surround, you must connect as I mention in the previous paragraph. This is disappointing for those who have the latest HDMI equipped a/v amps, but there it is. At the time I left there was no indication when, if ever, this would be fixed.
For the true pointy-heads amongst you, Bluewin IPTV is an implementation of Microsoft IPTV. The system uses hundreds of servers mostly running Windows Server 2003 and pretty much the only non-MS bit are the Satellite receivers, decoders and encoders used at the head ends.
And no, I'm not remotely interested in discussing the merits or otherwise of MS software, particularly versus Linux or Mac. If posts in that direction are added to this thread I may consider simply removing it, it's just too boring. I'm not at all blind to MS' failings, but someone else with a lot of money made the decision and I just go and make it all work, and that's how I pay my bills! This post is just for information, warts and all.
I hope this clears up a few questions.
Enjoy.
RS
Excellent info! Thanks!
Hi everyone,
I've been guided here to ask for some advice on cablecom/swisscom, as we have been knocked back for a sat dish. We are a non-technical couple , who want some English TV, recording capability, maybe HD, good internet connectivity (which the company will pay for), and phone (ditto). Our building is only a few years old, connected to cablecom, and in between Zurich and Zug. Which would offer the better product?
Thanks in anticipation.
Hi neighbor,
First question, what does "knocked back for a sat dish" suppose to mean..? Second question (actually statement) Isn't Mettmenstetten connected to Wasserwerke Zug ( WWZ ) and not Cablecom..?
Hi Mate, Sorry I was in Inverness speak there. We asked about having a dish installed professionally, they first said maybe, but then said no. We get the keys on the 25th, and according to the agent the building is wired for cablecom?
Goose family - read this btw: Major Satellite Dish headache
Your rental agent might be right, I just checked out the WWZ site and no mention of Mettmenstetten being on their system which is strange because every village around them is..
Thanks again for the info Lob, the link was very informative, and I'm emailing the agent on it next.
Do you know the phone number of the previous tenant? If so: you can go to the following website to check whether your phone line can be used for Bluewin TV: http://www.swisscom.ch/res/tv/voraus...?languageId=en
(click on "accessibility").
Unfortunately, Bluewin TV isn't available everywhere. It doesn't matter how new your house / apartment is - the only thing that counts is the distance to the next VDSL node.
peter
I live up the road from Metmenstetten and we don't have cablecom available locally, but another provider. But we decided not to get this installed into the house.
Have VDSL and satellites.
VDSL (providing DSL Max 20 Mbit/s) is INDEPENDENT of ISDN or Analogue.
Must admit, I am not sure why anyone would want to use ISDN anymore as there are few benefits. Unless you need 2 telephone numbers i.e. fax and phone it is useful, most of the other advantages have gone now.
If anyone is interested, I have several ISDN modems going cheap, some are still boxed.
I bought a small usb stick which picks up digital TV.
I didnt get alot of choice with channels, and it would vary depending on where you were I imagine as it would be subject to reception, but basically I was getting free digital TV (well for the cost of the USB stick which was about $120 CHF)
btw, I just had VDSL installed yesterday and the engineer recommended using Satellite if I can rather than BWTV.
We switched from BW-TV to satellite because of the dismal image quality and the frequent technical problems we experienced with BW-TV. However, as Premiere is now switching their encryption system we might run into trouble with our Technisat HD recorder and the Alphycrypt card we use to (legally) decrypt Premiere :-(
peter
By the way, Bluewin TV "on-demand" films are since the beginning of April mostly available with dual channel sound (i.e. in English) Prices from CHF3.50 - 6.50 /film so comparable with rental but more convenient.
very cool indeed, that was one of the things I hated about BW-TV, only dubbed on-demand content.
I unplugged my Bluewin at the mains by mistake last night
It says it would take several minutes to restart.
It sat there with the green light flashing and it hasn't budged since.
I cannot read the manual as it is in German --> http://www.swisscom.ch/res/tv/tips_tricks/index.htm
Anybody experienced the same problem and knows what to do?
Otherwise I will ask my work colleagues for help ;-) and let you know.
Also just to iterate, the service and quality are excellent.
Thanks, Padwar
call the BluewinTV helpline.
0800 081 081
Monday - Saturday:08.00 - 22.00 hour
Sunday:09.00 - 22.00 hour