General : Analogue Cable Memories

[Dude111]

I remember hooking my VCR up to the cable network.. After this local channel went off the air (channel 4) I went ON THE AIR!!!!!!!

I showed movies and stuff,it was neat!! (That was before they used video filters so nothing could be seen when the channel went off air)

[RWCable]

Originally Posted by Dude111

I remember hooking my VCR up to the cable network.. After this local channel went off the air (channel 4) I went ON THE AIR!!!!!!!

I showed movies and stuff,it was neat!! (That was before they used video filters so nothing could be seen when the channel went off air)

Wow so you broadcast from your VCR???

[RichardCoulter]

I'm intrigued, how was this achieved?

[Dude111]

Well as you know a VCR outputs on channel 3 or 4 So I just hook the cable line up to the OUT TO TV jack on the VCR

I dunno how far it went but it was neat.......

[RWCable]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

2. Here's one I made earlier: https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...php?t=33640854

3. Assuming such a channel fits into the usual 8MHz slots, around 80. But it does vary depending on how the network was built.

---------- Post added at 13:29 ---------- Previous post was at 13:27 ----------


I don't think they were. Each headend had it's own satellite farm to receive the channels.

Just noticed the above link from 2018 is inaccessible for me. Not sure if it's been deleted. Has the thread been deleted here?

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by RWCable

Just noticed the above link from 2018 is inaccessible for me. Not sure if it's been deleted. Has the thread been deleted here?

It does seem to have gone. Other places that had analogue-only cable late were Londonderry, Westminster, Brackla, Washington and parts of north London (Camden-ish)

[Rillington]

Originally Posted by Mr K

I was with Bell Cablemedia originally, think that went to Cable and Wireless, then NTL, now VM. (someone need to looks into VMs monopoly these days....)

That was the 'route', so to speak, and there was one before then - Jones Cable, which then 'became' Bell Cablemedia in 1995 before C&W appeared in 1997 when they bought Bell, Nynex and Videotron.

And if you want some nostalgia from the very first days of cable, the promo video for Jones Cable from around 1994 has been uploaded to YouTube.

Originally Posted by Rillington

That was the 'route', so to speak, and there was one before then - Jones Cable, which then 'became' Bell Cablemedia in 1995 before C&W appeared in 1997 when they bought Bell, Nynex and Videotron.

And if you want some nostalgia from the very first days of cable, the promo video for Jones Cable from around 1994 has been uploaded to YouTube.

I was employee number 50 at Jones Cable (Leeds), implemented the Bytel Billing system at Watford & Leeds (then moved Peterborough & Norwich over), then sorted out Encom in Docklands - long, long time ago…

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I was employee number 50 at Jones Cable (Leeds), implemented the Bytel Billing system at Watford & Leeds (then moved Peterborough & Norwich over), then sorted out Encom in Docklands - long, long time ago…

Were you there when the talkies came in Hugh?

Originally Posted by Mr K

Were you there when the talkies came in Hugh?

Son, I was in uniform before you were in liquid form...

[Rillington]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I was employee number 50 at Jones Cable (Leeds), implemented the Bytel Billing system at Watford & Leeds (then moved Peterborough & Norwich over), then sorted out Encom in Docklands - long, long time ago…

And in what year did you become employee number 50?

---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr K

I was with Bell Cablemedia originally, think that went to Cable and Wireless, then NTL, now VM. (someone need to looks into VMs monopoly these days....)

The box was a Jerrold and incredibly hot - it provided central heating for the room ! Treated myself to cable in time for the 1996 Cricket World Cup !

Those old Jerrold boxes were the mainstay of analogue cable.

And it is worth underling that the 1996 Cricket World Cup almost ended up being shown exclusively on cable after Wire TV bought the rights to the event. however Wire stopped broadcasting nine months before the tournament was due to start and Sky picked up the live rights with the BBC showing highlights.

[Dude111]

Jerrold and Regency were basically the same boxs werent they??

I thought they were owned by the same people at first....

I liked the boxs that were a TUNER,in other words if HBO was on 44 and Cinemax was on 45,you could turn your TV dial to 3 (Instead of 2) and see Cinemax unscrambled on 44!! (IF IT WAS SCRAMBLED THE SAME WAY HBO WAS)

I did this at my relatives house...... PAY PER VIEW was on channel 17 and the channel below it was IN THE CLEAR (Not scrambled) so I brought my Regency box down and put the channel on 3 and my grandpas box on 16 and I got PPV in UNSCRAMBLED....... (The boxs output was channel 2 so putting it on 3 moved everyone down one channel (Usually channel 4 was too weak to really see anything but it did work))


I love analogue!!!

Originally Posted by Rillington

And in what year did you become employee number 50?

---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------



Those old Jerrold boxes were the mainstay of analogue cable.

And it is worth underling that the 1996 Cricket World Cup almost ended up being shown exclusively on cable after Wire TV bought the rights to the event. however Wire stopped broadcasting nine months before the tournament was due to start and Sky picked up the live rights with the BBC showing highlights.

January 1994 - based at Seacroft, Leeds, but they sent us down to Watford for about 6 months to implement Bytel there (got a lot of Hilton points that year…).

[Rillington]

So when did cable first become available in Leeds, and I guess it was people who were nearest to the Seacroft centre who were the first households to be able to get cable?

From about mid-94 I believe - my house was connected early/mid 95, and I live about 6 miles from where Jones Cables was sited.