Sky and VoIP

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Kiwi2be

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63560 29-Jun-2010 22:23

I found a previous thread but it was closed due to being old so here is my question in a new topic.

Obviously I am a newbie, and not very tech savvy - my apologies in advance.

We have MySky and have enjoyed watching movies onDemand for the past few years. We disconnected our telecom landline and have been using VoIP for the past 12 months. onDemand still worked. Suddenly, 4 weeks ago, onDemand stopped working. Everyone is hooked up on the fact that the phone line has a disconnected signal (although MySky says it is connected to a phone line). The previous thread I read had half people saying they had to phone in to book movies, the other half said no problems without landline.

Which is it? I am confused and Sky has NO idea either. It's very frustraing and annoying for us all.

If you can help it's much appreciated.

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192 posts

Master Geek

#346530 29-Jun-2010 23:05

I can answer the land line plugged in/out for you but it's been awhile since I had this explained to me from a guy who worked at sky, it goes something like this...

The box has a number of credits ($'s) pre-loaded on to the box, when you watch a movie it takes a credit away from the box, you watch the movie and no land line is required. You can watch as many movies as long as there are credits on the box.

Once you use up all the credits, Sky need to add new bulk of credits on to the box, kind of like a prepay topup. A land is required for this. And then you can watch another load of movies hassle free.

Being on VoIP connection should have no difference as it all goes back to the PSTN / Telecom core network eventually, but depending on your service provider and back end configuration I may be wrong.

Worth getting Sky to do a troubleshooting / audit log on your connection and it may solve the problem. We had a similar issue where the MySky said signal detected, but Sky customer rep system said we didnt. They ran a system test over night and it started working.

Niel

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#346551 30-Jun-2010 06:11

I've been on XNet's VoIP for about 4 years now. The issue is that the modem signals gets digitised by the VoIP adapter at a rate too low to reconstruct the signal accurately again. Sky seems to be doing nothing about it, they have an interest in Vodafone to provide phone services "better" than VoIP, but MySky has a network port and can do bookings via the internet if Sky decides to use that feature.

My advice is just phone to book. Takes only 2 minutes. I've got a "cheat sheet" next to my phone with all the numbers/codes/shortcuts so I don't have to listen to the long questions.

You can never have enough Volvos!

sbiddle

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#346552 30-Jun-2010 06:38

Support of dialup modems in the VoIP world is a hit and miss affair.

Using a codec such as alaw or ulaw with all echo cancelling and jitter buffers disabled it will work over a good connection - providing your VoIP provider maintains the alaw or ulaw connection to the point of interconnect with the Telecom network and does not use a compressed codec such as G.729

The problem is that we live in a less than ideal world and there are no guarantees it will work. Sky are the ones who need to be delivering a solution and be providing IP connectibity for their boxes.

Kiwi2be

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#346556 30-Jun-2010 07:12

Ah, Scorpiworld I think you are on the money with the pre-loaded credits there. Why Sky doesn't know this though is beyond me?

I think the 'phone for a movie' system will be us. Does anyone know if you can use this system to organise a 24 hour to view movie, or just the one time viewing type movie?

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated

cyril7

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#346571 30-Jun-2010 08:44

Hi, phone in can be used for an PPV events, both movies and other bookable events. Also the credit (in any) is sitting on your card, not the box.

Cyril

vikey3

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#346599 30-Jun-2010 11:47

credit is on the card and 'yes' you need a phone line connected.
I have a voip connection which works well.

maverick

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WorldxChange

#346605 30-Jun-2010 12:03

"credit is on the card and 'yes' you need a phone line connected.
I have a voip connection which works well."

What Sky box and voip connection do you have, the issue is the different types of modems used in different devices and the reliability of connections, basically low speed modem services do not work well over high speed IP network

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

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hairy1

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#346614 30-Jun-2010 12:41

It is a bit of a dag really. A hi-tech box that can deliver high definition content, loads of whizz bang stuff, looks after itself, has the hardware built in to connect to a broadband connection but Sky can't activate it.

A lot of customers with Mysky are also the premium customers and probably have a higher penetration of VOIP services.

Sky is missing out on revenue by not sorting out the IP side of things. I for one don't buy PPV or on-demand content because I would have to use the phone and can't just "press" the button to do it.

Cheers, Matt.

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maverick

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WorldxChange

#346616 30-Jun-2010 12:46

We approached them several years ago about this ... They are not really interested they will go at their own pace, basically when it gets big enough on IP then they will worry about it.

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

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Niel

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#346686 30-Jun-2010 15:48

I've mentioned this a few times, I've had success with a number of modems over VFX by fitting an ADSL phone line filter between the VFX port and the modem. Too much to explain right now, but if you have a spare filter then try it. Connect the "phone" port of the filter, not the "modem" port. And it can go either way round. I have not done it on my Sky box, but it worked for a modem which I think was 19600 baud or maybe 33k, and also for a few EFTPOS terminals.

Every time we've booked a movie on channel 200+ it was viewable for 24h, not just 1 viewing.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Kiwi2be

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#346690 30-Jun-2010 15:56

Hey, thanks for the all the help guys, appreciate it. I'll report back when I hear back from the Sky peeps. They haven't yet tried connecting it to the VoIP box we have, could be an interesting exercise by the sounds of things!

sbiddle

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#346697 30-Jun-2010 16:24

Niel: I've mentioned this a few times, I've had success with a number of modems over VFX by fitting an ADSL phone line filter between the VFX port and the modem. Too much to explain right now, but if you have a spare filter then try it. Connect the "phone" port of the filter, not the "modem" port. And it can go either way round. I have not done it on my Sky box, but it worked for a modem which I think was 19600 baud or maybe 33k, and also for a few EFTPOS terminals.

Every time we've booked a movie on channel 200+ it was viewable for 24h, not just 1 viewing.

Most of the Linksys ATA's do have a "modem" and "fax" mode that's activated by the detection of CED or CNG tones. This mode disables the jitter buffer, echo canceller and forces the codec to alaw or ulaw. There are also codes that can be set in the ATA to force these modes.

The issue is really one of connectivity further up the chain - you can have an ATA that can support this but the reality is many VoIP providers use G729 for connectivity or backhaul because their is such a small reduction in MOS between G711 and G729 that most people wouldn't notice, and a significant reduction in bandwidth requirements.

Because G.729 is a compressed codec modem tones simply won't work - this is also the reason inband DTMF won't work over G.729 and uses SIP INFO instead.

Byrned

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#346865 1-Jul-2010 08:57

maverick: We approached them several years ago about this ... They are not really interested they will go at their own pace, basically when it gets big enough on IP then they will worry about it.

So essentially what you're saying is that if all GZers (plus all family, friends, donkeys, and goldfish) with MySky contact sky and complain we might get somewhere?

maverick

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WorldxChange

#346869 1-Jul-2010 09:04

They didn't listen for the SciFi channel ....

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Kiwi2be

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#346935 1-Jul-2010 11:32

Had the call from Sky and surprise, surprise it's a phone call for a movie and no onDemand ability

.

The guy I talked to has Woosh at his house and can't get these services either ... and Sky isn't interested at looking into it either apparently. 'Maybe in the future'. Yeah right!

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