Kabel Deutschland Digital - English channels

Hey all,

I was wondering if anybody has this Kabel Deutschland Digital Home package?

I saw they offer a few interesting channels like Planete, AXN, History, Nat. Geo and such and was wondering how much of the programming was in english (apart form stuff like BBC prime)?

The monthly costs arnt too high and I was thinking about it as an alternative to a costly/bulky sat system setup.

Any personal opinion would be very appreciated.

Cheers
max

as far as i know none are in english or dual langauage transmission apart from prime and world

Gideon,
I heard that Nip/Tuck will be shown in dual-language (you can pick the audio track) on Premiere. Is that correct? And will any other series be shown in this way?
Cheers
Katrina

I saw the commercial and Nip/Tuc will be shown in both on premiere.

yes, and its good.

we also show desperate houswives and lost and i think supranos in english (but i think the supranos episodes are older) in english. alot of films have original language too. i'l have to check a magazine.

oh and the offer i posted before for a reduced subscription has been extended till the end of december!! (look under the classified -miscellaneous) so anybody still interested in getting it - i think pepper was pm me and i'll get the forms to you somehow.

yep you are right. But is it worth subscribing to Premiere to get BBC World, BBC Prime and Nip/Tuck in English?

Actually that is not fair, I think British/American sport is also broadcast in dual tone.

Satellite is the only real way to get English-language programming. You can get the BBC channels for free and if you wish you can also subscribe to Sky for endless channels

just note please

premiere does not include BBC world and prime - thats as far as i know kabel deutschland.

When you live in a listed building and your landlord says no sat (yeah I could sue him but heck, I can't be arsed) and you don't want sat then yes it is worth it.
For some of us the English language bit is a bonus, but not the only reason to get Premiere. I would still want to watch FC Bayern and getting Premiere from gideon and drinking beer from my own fridge is cheaper than going down the pub to watch it.
Katrina

Generally, if you can understand German, then Premiere is fine.
We watch all the footie games with English language commentary (provided there's an British team playing), and a lot of the films. You don't get as much Premier League as you get on Sky, but then again you get all the Champs League, and of course the Bundesliga. Then you get stuff like the Discovery Channel in German.
If you want to take out a subscription, btw, you could always be my "freund" that I "werben" - that way I get a digital camera to take piccies of any future Neuhausen boot-licking incidents

Thanks all for the great tips. Especially Owain Glyndwr for all the details about sat. However I was more interested in Kabel Deutschland Digital Home offering rather than Premiere. From what I understand they are two different companies. I called Kabel D and they said that with some of their channles a certain percentage is english. i.e English with german subs. But they cannot offer dual audio ala Sky Digital Italia/ Canal Plus as the cabel system doenst have enough bandwidth.
In any case I was just considering it as a cheap alternative to a sat system setup, seeing I already have normal analogue cabel.
I guess in the end it really isnt worht it if your looking for something better to watch on the telly.
cheers

max

Kabel Deutschland isn't bad. I subscribe, although they are so hopeless they haven't billed me in over a year so I am loathe to subscribe to these new packages. Basically you will get BBC Prime and BBC World in English language. I think you may also get NASN for the 9 euro a month package. This does not come through premiere, rather you need the digibox to be able to receive KD programming though. I have Premiere which is worth it for films and sports as much is in dual language, the KD offering for the price is a bonus and personally I find BBC Prime well worth it. You should check that you can receive digital cable in your building though - head to the KD site and there you can enter your address and find this out.

You do get other channels in English language but they look like utter shite so the BBC channels and NASN are the only ones of interest in my opinion.

Screw'em, you want English channels go with SKY

Personally I'd go with British "free-to-air" satellite. Unless you are a sports or movies freak, then BBC terrestrial programming is absolutely fine. A reasonable and varied mix of drama, news, kids, soap and comedy. ITV3 has now joined the line-up, and maybe the other ITVs soon if an earlier poster is correct. Cheaper equipment, one-off payment and no need to pay into Murdochs coffers every month, or worries you might get "caught"..

YL6

just had a look at BBC Primes schedule, that looks like about all the english tv i would ever need...

a question to those who already have it... are the episodes current? for example the office and parki?

The office is finished in UK anyway, so I am not sure what you mean by current. I think Parkinson is fairly current - but all programmes are shown weeks if not months after they are broadcast in the UK.

That's right - I think the second series of "Are You Being Served?" starts on BBC Prime next week. It's the one where Mr Peacock suddenly shouts "Are you free Mr Lucas?" and Mr Lucas answers back "I'm free Mr Peacock!" ... unmissable stuff (not)...

YL6

i'm going to defend the colleges at bbc prime. their programming is not aimed at ex-pats, but is much more aimed at the nations they broadcast in. this will mean that they are not allways going to be brand new and shiny. its more of a case of them spreading the gospel of british entertainment than spearheading an invasion.

It's actually more than simply spreading the gospel, it's a marketing vehicle for BBC Enterprises, the commercial arm of BBC. 90% of the material going out on BBC Prime is also available on videotape/DVD/CD. That's what they are pushing the non-British population to buy to provide additional BBC income...

It's also offerered cheaply to international cable and satellite networks, so usually becomes (as here) the token English language offering...

YL6

its called maximising your profit and dont knock it, bbc america also cofinanced the office - which resulted in the emmy award!
they own the rights to it all, thats why anything such as telletubbies which is already sold for the german market will not appear on prime. i wouldn't go to far with the marketing of merchandising. that is not a serious business (or at least the shows on prime are not) here in germany unless ts for the coproduced series on pro 7 (atualy co-financed is a better word)

Just tried to subscribe to it, but for some reason Kabel Deutschland told me that I can not get the EUR12 subscription since Kabel Munich is blocking them selling to certain areas in Munich. I tried to find Kabel Munich in the net and via the directory assistance, but this company does not exist and Kabel Deutschland has no contact info as well. Any idea what is going on here?

Kabel Deutschland

One piece of advice DON'T DO IT.

I was excited when I heard that they now had an english language package in addition to the german one. That is until I ordered the damn thing and set it up,

My english language package consisted of.

THe sailing channel. MMMh boats
The extreme sports channel. MMMh more boats and some surfing
Eurosport which is dual band anyway
BBC world. 24 hour debate.
Sky news
CNBC news
Another sports channel[/B]
An american sports channel
3 music channels which play back to back songs ( ok the songs are in english I will give them that.
BBC prime. Quite good, but not worth it for all the peripheral dross
Beate Uhse tv. Very Dodgy soft porn
Playboy tv. More Dodgy soft porn but with plastic bits.
And National Geographic, well, what they seem to have done is buy lots of old stuff from NG and use it for the german version with a voiceover. However then they see what stuff they have that was originally in english and put the correct soundtrack back over the top of it, ( with a 1 second delay ) or over the top of the german soundtrack over the top of the english soundtrack. Basically this hasnt worked for all the programmes and in the 2 days I had this damn box, the 'english NG channel' had 50% german only programmes.

The box is on the way back to them. I thought perhaps there was something wrong with the installation, but no, that was it, the customer service woman asked me if I knew what the problem was and just wasn't telling her.

The usual thing for here, good ideas done badly. I repeat, dont do it. you'll regret it.

The pros and cons to digital cable and the fancy new "english language packet" were discussed in length in a few topics - e.g. Dig-It-All Cable - The new cable TV offering.

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go, here we go, here we go...--

So I must be living under a rock because I thought that satellite and Premiere were the only way to get English channels and now a friend at work mentioned this and are quite happy for 9 euros a month.

They said you just buy the receiver (about 99 euros), order the card online then they post it, you hook it up and change it over to English somehow. Is that the case? Or does someone have to come out to your flat to do something?

As I understand it, it depends on where you live. As it's cable, they may have to do some work. Then again, you could be really lucky.

Yes it depends on area, but if your area has it and your home is cable-enabled, you just plug the digibox between the aerial socket and the set.

Can anyone please advise on this?

I checked with Dig-It-All and was told my area is unsuitable for digital cable, hence I need to get analog cable. I do not speak a word of German. Can anyone please advise how I can go about this??

Thanks!

Sarah

If your home or apartment does not already have a cable connection, then this will be expensive, as there is a one-time charge for the initial connection (which can run to €thousands, even if your street already has cable services). Satellite is the obvious way to go, especially if you want non-German channels.

The reason you couldn't GOOGLE Kabel Munich is due to your service provider being called KABEL FERNSEHER MUENCHEN also know as (KMS) KABEL & MEDIEN SERVICE http://www.kammler-kabeltv.de/kms.htm. If you need further assistance or are still interested then please go to Dig It All Cable Entertainment Ltd. or send us a PM

Just a piece of advice mate, you might want to read up on what you order before you actually order/purchase it. I don't really think you purchased the package due to your comments above, I mean come on...who would purchase an English package, set up the "Damn thing" as you like to put it, just to realize after skimming through the channels that you only had 13 of them and needless to say were disappointed. I try not to make assumptions but it seems to me that you're just out to put down a company for your mistakes. Just because Kabel Deutschland says they have English Channels (Even states in all of their advertisment how many programs in all of the languages that they have Eng.:13)doesn't mean they have everything out there that you might be able to find on Satallite. If you want over 300+ channels (just a rough guestimate) Than you might be better off ordering from Bav.Satallite.

Best of luck

Wo there buddy, I believe people have the right to choose which way to go (and Satellite might give you more options), but throwing out figures such as thousands of euro for a cable connection is not quite up to speed mate. I don't know who gave you your figures, but you were misinformed...the installation is free, and yes there is a one time fee for the activation of international programs on the cable connection...but not in the thousands, or even in the hundreds. The cable that runs into any house or apartment here is in most cases are left up to the Landlord, Home-Owners Association or the actuall owners. This mean is doesn't costs the tennants anything to have cable installed. Since it is not up to them on what Service Provider the house uses.

First and foremost, I am not your buddy. Further, satellite does have more options, and I am not mis-informed. At least, not as much as you would clearly like others to be.
Read my text:
i.e if you don't have that magic piece of wire coming into your home providing cable services, then someone has to put it there. They have to lay a wire from the street, at the very minimum. Typical costs range from €800-€10000 (or more), depending on where the cable comes from and how convenient the services are nearby. Clearly in an apartment block this cost can be shared by all residents so can become negligable, and in some cases is shared or even born by the cable company if they percieve the potential business is there...Even if the building owner pays, the rent or Nebenkosten will include the amortized cost somewhere. But of course, you are right. People do have a choice of where to go, just so long as they are adequately informed...

Did either of you actually try this? You should... The link at the top of my Google "Kabel Munich list is this one

Does anyone know...can you only get the Smartcard by ordering it from their online bit?

What "Smartcard"? For what? From whom?

For Kabel Deutschland natch Tis the thread.

Smartcard

We have the receiver and were told we could get the card at Saturn as well but seems you can't.

Distributors such as Saturn sell packages which include the receiver. If you already have a receiver you an order the card alone here. In this case the monthly cost is a little less...