[CP-PC]

A friend of mine has VM tv (2 set top boxes and a seperate modem)
the box on the outside wall has a 3 way splitter.... one line runs into the lounge, the second line runs into the loft and the 3rd line is not used (so only 2 outputs of the 3 way splitter are connected.

the line from the outside box runs straight into the back on the lounge set top box with no splitters involved

the second line runs from the outside wall box up into the lost and into a tv/fm splitter. the fm line has a terminal connector on (it doesnt go anywhere) the tv line runs into his bedroom where it hits another 2 way spliter that runs to the set top box in his bedroom and the modem also in his bedroom.

when i was on ntl they where broadcasting some radio channels and the basic 5 tv channels down there lines. so you could plug a radio into the FM output of the loft splitter and get good reception on the radio. (you could also get a filter and get the 5 tv channels aswell) but he asked me if he could still get the radio channels.

so my question is.... do virgin media still broadcast un-encrypted FM signals down there lines??? or have they stopped doing this now??

i know one way to find out is to try (or call VM and ask) but i was wondering if anyone is still doing this?? or knows anything about it as i havent done this for a few years now (i dont have vm so i cant check)

oh and the TV/FM splitter/filter has VC330 written on it if that helps.

[fredtheted]

I still have the FM radio split. It was one of my conditions when they took away my Samsung box and swapped it for my Virgin+ box.
Mind you they weren't very happy about doing it.

[mike7]

I still have the FM signal from the splitter on mine. Only drawback is that local radio is not available. Ive not checked recently but I used to get the soundtrack of a Sky movie channel and a German FM station playing 60's pop !

[CP-PC]

ok this looks good. i have been looking around and seen quite a few people saying that back in the "NTL" days they broadcast national radio and tv channels down the lines un-encrypted. quite a few people have been saying that the radio stations have been going down hill and quite a few have dropped off as VM dont see it as a priority and are providing it for free so they basicaly dont give a dam about it. im going round his this weekend so ill set up his radio and see what we can pick up and report back.

is anyone still using this or have it set up that can verify it??

[CP-PC]

ok quick update..... he can pick up radio 1 and a few other stations and wave 105. his tuner has RDS but its not picking up any radio station names for some reason. so there is still radio and tv channels being piped down VM lines and its un-encrypted (tv channels are bbc1,bbc2,itv1,channel4 and channel 5. so far the only radio stations he has verified are radio one (98.20mhz) wave 105 (105.20Mhz) and some other jazz/classical channels that he is not interested in. (probably bbc radio 2,3,4,5)