I’m thinking about getting MOD (Media on Demand), which is for digital television reception. It’s like cable TV, but the access is via broadband internet (ADSL or FTTB) instead of via 75-ohm coaxial cable. Also, with MOD, all of the video is digital, but even though it’s digital, it’s not High Definition. Most MOD channels only have 240 lines (480i) or 480 lines (480p). Only a few channels are HD (720 lines or 1080 lines).
I have a few questions about MOD:
How many channels are in English (For example, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Travel and Living, BBC, CNN, HBO, etc.)?
Is the video resolution better than with cable TV? (With cable TV, the video looks very blurry on flat screen HDTV’s because all channels only have 240 lines (480i).)
Since the access is via the internet, does it make computer access to the internet much slower every time someone turns on a TV?
Pretty sure this is what we have (apparently it’s the “cheapskate-landlord” basic package)…
Internet is 1000MB/s but our current router is crap (100MB/s via ethernet, WiFi limited to 54MB/s due to my laptop’s 802.11g). Doesn’t seem affected by TV usage, but it does have occasional sloooow times.
The TV stations are primarily Taiwanese & not very entertaining. There are also a handful of Hakka or Aboriginal channels. Oh, and the 24-hour Hello Kitty kids’ network
English options: BBC, Al-Jazeera English (actually quite a good news channel), an Australian channel & a few other limited options - a Fox one, some Crime network or something… Also French, Deutsche Welle, & a Korean station. These may all require separate licenses/fees. Ours disappeared for a while & were only available via some “all channels” sub-menu w/an annoying pop-up every few minutes. We had to harass the landlord to fix it.
They don’t appear to offer Discovery, Nat’l Geographic, etc, but that could simply be because we don’t know how to work the system that well. I’m pretty sure if there were porn we would’ve found it by now
For English-language programming, cable seems better, but certainly more expensive. We rarely watch TV anyway - I just download any shows I want to watch.
MOD has no CNN, but it has Al-Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, TV5, plus several other Korean and Vietnamente channels.
No Travel and Living. No HBO.
It has National Geographic and Discovery as separate channels apart from the rest, as independent programs you can watch at your leisure without sticking to the schedule.
Same with TV series, you can select each program you want to watch, at a separate movie menu.
It’s got classic movies in English as part of TV deal. You can also choose to have FOXCrime -more CSI!- or FOX -Family Guy.
Seems resolution varies according to the size of your TV set. However, it is now broadcasting in High Resolution.
No change in speed -they have separate “boxes”.
There are three packages. Mosaic comes and goes.
Pleasae notice certain horror movies also require password as if they were porn.
Sjhuz01, your problem was that after a certain trial period, you had to start paying for certain channels. You can select the channels or packages you want from the menu, but now we have to pay let’s say, for FOX. Furthermore, they do have the annoying habit of shifting stuff around…
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2. Seems resolution varies according to the size of your TV set. However, it is now broadcasting in High Resolution.[/quote]
That’s not what the people at the Zhonghua Telecom (CHT) office told me. They told me that only a few channels are in HD (720p or 1080p). All of the other channels are only 480i or 480p.
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4. There are three packages. Mosaic comes and goes.[/quote]
When you say “three packages”, I assume that you mean three channels, right?
What do you mean “mosaic comes and goes”? Do you mean that certain shows are censored with mosaics but other shows are not censored at all? Or do you mean that every show is censored, but only certain parts of the body are covered with mosaics?
Yep, there are 6 ETA channels, supposedly all in High Definition. Also, movies on High Def are more expensive.
I get a pretty nice signal, but someone had said it was not as clear in theirs, so I dunno. At least, it is much, much better than cable.
Nope, three packages. One has 4 channels, other one 3, and another 3 plus a movie channel. All different. Only one Western. One package is embedded in the Extra Special Package . My translation.
The “adult” movies are all protected by a password. And I mean AFAIK no consistency if mosaic shown or not shown.
The packages in general are a bit confusing. You can get a basic free package that covers most local channels, from then odd just add or take. I am still trying to figure out teh TV series, for example, as they wrote the names in Chinese. I can see Mad Men there, Californication, Kill Time, plus a few I’ve caught when I’m watching, like CSI reruns. :s
Yeah, I’m w/ DD on this one. I used it for like 5 minutes and then never plugged it back in. It’s really crap, IMHO.
When I was at a friend’s house in Hsin Chu, we were switching between the Golf Channel and some Serie A and it kept lagging. 2 people were surfing on the internet at the same time so at his house at least, there’s not enough bandwidth to support uninterrupted signals.
Either it’s too early to launch in the market or their execution of the project isn’t very good.
Well, they just changed the boxes because of that problem with the lagging. And yes, MOD is not everybody’s cup of tea, but I welcome NOT having CNN as my only option for TV news.
MOD, at this stage, cannot replace local cable -unfortunately. As I’ve said before, I watch little TV. What I get from cable, I mostly recorded and watched later at my leisure. In that sense, MOD works when you watch what you want when you want it, and provides a bit more options.
The truth, guys, is that most TV here is meant for local market, hence we find it… lacking. Face it, they have 100 channels in the average cable, but we may watch 10: CNN, 3 NG, Discovery and T&L, 7 movies and series channels. If we couldn’t download stuff, well, TV would even be more boring.
And don’t get me started on Hig Def. The plans for local cable channels are not even set yet…
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MOD, at this stage, cannot replace local cable -unfortunately. As I’ve said before, I watch little TV. What I get from cable, I mostly recorded and watched later at my leisure.[/quote]
Do you have one of those USB/coax recording devices and then save it to a HDD? I was at Guang Hua and considered getting one from Aver because my friend recommended that brand.
I think those are a good way to setup your own TiVo/DVR a fraction of the cost. From the back of the packaging it seems they have a scheduling feature as well. I was only hesitant to select one because I wasn’t sure if the UI is in English or Chinese.
News? Who watches CNN when you can stream the fake news directly from Comedy Central?
Mine’s playing up. The on/off doesn’t seem to work, and when I switch it on/off at the back, it kind of rboots and then shows a message that I can’t decipher with a countdown starting at 12 seconds, and then the same message without the countdown.
In order to have the video from the HDMI jack, then you have to put the black switch (which is the center of the back side of the set-top box) in the bottom position. The top position is for using Composite Video output (yellow RCA jack) or S-Video output (DIN-4 jack). The middle position is for using Component Video output (red, green, and blue RCA jacks).
[quote=“sjhuz01”]Pretty sure this is what we have (apparently it’s the “cheapskate-landlord” basic package)…
Internet is 1000MB/s but our current router is crap (100MB/s via ethernet, WiFi limited to 54MB/s due to my laptop’s 802.11g). Doesn’t seem affected by TV usage, but it does have occasional sloooow times. [/quote]
You are incorrect about your ADSL speeds… You cannot possibly have 1000MB/s and your network card may support 100mbs and wife 54mb/s but not 100MBS or 54MBS
Mostly the fastest home service is hinets 10mb 2mb lines. If you want to see what speed your adsl is go to www.speedtest.net and run a speed test.
I have this but get more than the 2mb upload offered.
MOD really requires you to have FTTB to get the best usage.
[quote=“Mark Nagel”]In order to have the video from the HDMI jack, then you have to put the black switch (which is the center of the back side of the set-top box) in the bottom position. The top position is for using Composite Video output (yellow RCA jack) or S-Video output (DIN-4 jack). The middle position is for using Component Video output (red, green, and blue RCA jacks).
CHT is trying to sell me MOD for months (together with VDSL, for the same price that I pay current 8M/640K ADSL).
Numerous calls and letters, its almost harassment.
I must be the only one in my building in Hsinchu that hasn’t switched to VDSL yet.
I totally don’t recommend MOD + VDSL1 (in Taiwan).
I work in the DSL business and the way CHT deploys IPTV and VDSL is probably the worst on the planet I’ve seen so far (same goes for cable though).
Best (mature) Internet here seems to be ADSL + fixed IP without MOD.
I made several experiments with this german news stream.
In VDSL (at a friends place in Taichung) it always got stuck.
At my home (Hsinchu) it always got stuck (dynamic IP).
It always works when using ADSL + fixed IP (same line).
If you need other news than CNN just download podcasts with itunes.
. My translation.
