Richard

I'm an ex C&W customer in Manchester.

The Pace 4000 box uses a Cable modem, so you can still have broadband access, only difference is the drop line is not a twisted cable, so you may have to change the dropline from your network card to the Cable Modem, but these only cost a couple of pounds anyways.

The RC5000 fully works with the Pace 4000 box.

Also, i didn't tell NTL that i was buying a Tivo, i just told them my Pace 1000 had an intermittent sound fault, and asked the engineer for the Pace 4000 box, which he did.

Paul.

Thanks Paul/Dragon

Might as well give it a go then!

I'll post how I get on as I would expect NTL uses different policies per region if the broadband fiasco is anything to go on......

Hi all. I've got the 2Mb sbc ru940, and intend to get cable from NTL in Manchester. (Can't have a dish on the building) I checked a couple of friends recently-installed boxes, and they were the ditv1000. A mate of mine used to do the installs for NTL, and he hadn't heard of the problem, so I'm not entirely hopeful. I'll let you know what happens...

Dan, the 2MB Pronto won't be able to control the DiTV1000 STB as it's an IRDA only STB.

Ok, just for final clarification...

I was going to buy the Marantz RC5000 remote and as i understand, it won't work with my Telewest Active Digital Pace box (around 1 year old).
Do i need to suddenly discover a fault with my box and as for a Pace4000 box as a replacement? Or can i simply ask for one, does it cost anything? As a valued customer with a £70+ bill every month, would they happily oblige or will they screw me for more money?

Cheers

Guy,
yeah I know, that's why I'm not entirely hopeful! I'll be trying for a 4000 model. Then again, I'm thinking of replacing the VCR with a Tivo anyway, so I could control the 1000 via that. (At least that's what I understood from earlier in this thread).

Richard, what cable are you using for the broadband then? I was thinking of using normal Cat 5 UTP, but if the 4000 doesn't use twisted pair then I guess not.

Am I to understnad that the 4000 will work with the 5000i? Thought there were threads earlier that said it wouldnt??

Ian

IanDM

It depends who your cable supplier is as to whether the Pace 4000 works with the RC5000.

As far as i know, all NTL customers (including me in Manchester) Pace 4000 boxes work with RC5000

Most Telewest customers Pace 4000 don't work with the RC5000, this is caused by a software upgrade to the 4000, which is being phased through the country, but it appears to affect most areas on Telewest.

The Pace 1000 will not work with any RC5000 on any cable supplier.

Hope this clarifys, if any details i have given are wrong, please correct, but this is as far as i understand it from following this thread for the last 18 months.

Paul.

Contacted NTL again today and they said that the 4000 will not work with my Pronto, it uses the same IRDA codes as the 1000. They also said it depends on the 'network you on' as to whether it will work or not.

I am ex C&W Manchester area. Surely it doesn't go down to 'Post Code' level does it?

Kevo

I've got the Pace 4000 on NTL (ex C&W in Manchester), and i can assure you it works fully with the RC5000 as it uses standard IR as well as IRDA, unlike the Pace 1000 box that only used IRDA.

Paul.

This message was edited by dragon on 04/08/02 13:56.59.

I've just called NTL to see if I can get a replacement box for my DITV 1000 (I'm one of the original posters on this thread!), and had to threaten to cancel my subscription to both TV and broadband before I got anywhere at all, which isn't very far.

Their policy is not to replace boxes unless faulty, and not working with universal remotes or Tivo systems without an adaptor is not a fault in their opinion.

So, a dispute has been lodged, and I should get a call from 2nd line retention soon, who basically have a bit more power to negotiate with the customer to resolve issues that may result in the customer cancelling their subscription.

They tried to fob me off with these responses:

1. They don't have any 4000's in stock (I can wait);
2. They don't supply boxes that work with universal remotes (oh yes they do);
3. They will charge me £50 callout to replace my box if a fault cannot be found (hmm!);
4. I might not get a 4000 as a replacement if the engineer replaces the box

Make of this what you will. I will post any further communications with NTL.

Steve

PS I went over to Tivo to solve the problems of channel changing, but I would still like to be able to control all the extra functionality of the box through pronto

Hi guys,
I asked someone who used to install the boxes for NTL (also in Manchester) and he said the box model you get is merely luck, as the engineers are just given a few dozen of the latest batch to work with, no matter what model number. Maybe those people that actually asked for a 4000 just got lucky anyway. Mine's still not installed yet, will wait and see...

According to a Pace engineer the 1000 and 2000 STB's can also be programed to receive standard IR commands via a remote receiver plugged into the rear of the STB, but this has not been implimented as NTL (& presumably Telewest) did not request it, as they pay for the programming

Hi,

Something's not right here. I have a Pace DI4000-T box from Telewest. I was very annoyed in October when I had Telewest install cable and the box only to find that they have not provided any facility for programming the box (ie, if you are away for a few days, you can only record programmes on one channel; there is no provision for having the channel change automatically). Fortunately my JVC VCR has the "satellite controller" facility: an IR device that you put in front of your set top box, which changes the channel whenever recording starts. The code for the Pace was not in the JVC list, but after patiently trying some codes, I found one that worked! So since October I have had IR control over my Pace box! So there's something wrong about the conventional wisdom here, and what Vic from Pace has told us, right?

The bad news for me is that a few weeks ago, this stopped working. The JVC is till sending the same IR codes, but now they don't change the box!

Any ideas for how I might get things back to how they were? Or does anyone have an idea for how I can change channels while away? I have an IR transmitter and receiver connected to my PC (part of the slink-e system provided by www.nirvis.com), but when I try to learn the codes, I have the familiar problems: what is recorded is not suffficient. Same for the IR learning program on my Ipaq.

Thanks,

Ron

This is due to the roll out of a new STB program, you should see minor changes in the display colours etc. this upgraded program excludes the stadard IR coding present in the previous version. I think this is mentioned in previous pages of this forum.