[CLUG] [OT] Chorus Digital

[Ronan Kirby]

Folks,

Sorry for the off topic post, but I thought this might interest some
people:

Got Chorus Digital installed this morning. They use a Sagem ITD 4000
digital decoder
http://www.sagem.com/en/produits-en/terminaux-num-en/tv-itd4000-en.htm

It has about 106 channels, but once they programme your smart card you
will obviously only have what you pay for. The quality etc you would
expect, but it seems there are still a lot of outages due to continuing
roll out of the service.

The decoder has 2 scart sockets, one for your TV and one for the Video.
Its fairly limit in what you can do in it's menus, but all the operator
settings are there. There is an RS232 port on the back, but I've yet to
ascertain what can be done from there *grin*. There is also an RJ11 port
on the back, which is used to order Pay-Per-View events, and for the
Internet service.

The Internet service is not "always on". From what I can tell it
requests via the phone line, and sends back to you via the MMDS. I
didn't get it myself, as it meant using Chorus for my phone lines. Also,
you can't use it for your PC / LAN, its TV Browsing only. But seemingly
they will have a fully bi-directional via MMDS phone service soon, at
which point it will have a new decoder box, and possibly an interface
for your PC.

TV wise its fine. The odd channel has a little pixelisation. Full stereo
sound etc (how refreshing!).

I'll send any more relevant info I find on the box, as I get it.

- Ronan