Sky TV cancelled and fingers crossed..........

[dickymint]

that BT TV Ultra HD Box will satisfy!!

£5/month reduction on my Broadband cost (infinity 2) now £45/month
£10/month their top package including Sports (HD now included so another £6/month saving)
Line rental included.

Sly was costing nearly £80/month incuded Sly Sports. plus my BT broadband and line rental.

Question is will 45Mbs linespeed be ok or borderline?
Not having a 4K tv anybody know if the downscaling to 1080i is any good?
and in general what's your views on this setup?

[dickymint]

Lucas Ayde said:

The regular BT Box includes a twin-tuner, HD capable, Freeview PVR (Youview compatible).

Their pay channels are delivered via streaming and they have a catch-up service for them via their 'BT Player' which is on the box. You can also record the streamed shows to the box via the EPG.

Like all Youview boxes it has built in support for the catchup Players of the big broadcasters and the EPG goes back a week, letting you watch older shows directly from it.

Taking the online element into account, it's a pretty good deal for what it costs. Nowhere near as comprehensive as Sky, but nowhere near as expensive either. Until now they've thrown BT Sport in for free but from August they will charge if you want it.

My BT Sports in HD and HD Ultra is free for duration of my new contract 12months

[dickymint]

condor said:

LHRFlightman said:

Lucas Ayde said:

The regular BT Box includes a twin-tuner, HD capable, Freeview PVR (Youview compatible).

Their pay channels are delivered via streaming and they have a catch-up service for them via their 'BT Player' which is on the box. You can also record the streamed shows to the box via the EPG.

Like all Youview boxes it has built in support for the catchup Players of the big broadcasters and the EPG goes back a week, letting you watch older shows directly from it.

Taking the online element into account, it's a pretty good deal for what it costs. Nowhere near as comprehensive as Sky, but nowhere near as expensive either. Until now they've thrown BT Sport in for free but from August they will charge if you want it.

Thanks. Do you also need an aerial?

I'd also like to know if an aerial is needed ( or satellite dish for that matter).

Aerial is needed for the Freeview channels but obviously not for the streamed stuff.

But you could keep your Sly Box and dish (if you have them) for the free stuff.

Edited by dickymint on Wednesday 22 February 23:14

[dickymint]

Just plumbed it all in which took all of ten minutes

My existing loft aerial is pre-digital but still picks up 40 odd Freeview channels albeit not the best signal strength (could be due to storm Dorris?) so will be renewing it soon as I'm fairly certain Sly News should be available?

All the HD streamed channels are spot on and better than Sky! Sky was dropping out badly this morning due to the storm.

UHD is brilliant even though my TV isn't 4K, it downscales to 1080i at 50fps.

Will I miss Sky? Answer is yes for the short term. EPG and remote will take time to master though. I will miss Sly Sports but at the end of the day the exercise is all about saving a chunk of money. The choice of News channels is a negative and so is not being able to get At The Races channel

Was amazed how small the BT box is compared to Sly's monster HD box (which had to be re-booted regularly).

So there we have it I'm a happy chappy

[dickymint]

eybic said:

I'm seriously considering this option too. For £10 it's crazy not to imho. The only thing that concerns me is the EPG with being so used to the Sky one. Is there any way to record 2 things at once like with sky?

I also need to look into some sort of powerline adaptor for the box as apparently it doesn't have WiFi

Yes two channels can be recorded at once.

I opted to buy the BT Mini Connector kit for £20 and it's fine

[dickymint]

eybic said:

dickymint said:

Yes two channels can be recorded at once.

I opted to buy the BT Mini Connector kit for £20 and it's fine

Thank you. Does it have a socket on it? I'm not sure I have any spare sockets and apparently they shouldn't be plugged into an extension lead.

Yes thankfully they both do. And two Ethernet sockets on each.

[dickymint]

TheD said:

I spoke to Sky today to cancel and they offered me the basic package for £5.70 a month. I was just about to say no when I forgot if BT did F1.

Channel 4 Freeview have 10 of the 20 races this year.

PS. you don't get any of the other ten with Sky "basic package"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127633

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 23 February 22:04

[dickymint]

whoami said:

dickymint said:

TheD said:

I spoke to Sky today to cancel and they offered me the basic package for £5.70 a month. I was just about to say no when I forgot if BT did F1.

Channel 4 Freeview have 10 of the 20 races this year.

PS. you don't get any of the other ten with Sky "basic package"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127633

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 23 February 22:04

whoami said:

What broadband speed do you need for BT UHD?

As it happens I was watching the Spurs game in UHD and did some speed check readings (sad I know) .......

My average line speed over the last few weeks is 44.5Mbs
1) Test during the UHD match was 15.5Mbs
2) Test when switching to HD was 35Mbs

So I'm assuming you need a minimum of 20Mbs to watch UHD but then you'd struggle to log on to PH as well

BT apparently used to refuse to supply UHD boxes to customers below 40Mbs but some say that was just a ruse to get there customers to upgrade to Infinty 2

Edited to say: Now watching the news on Freeview and speed test is now back to 43.5Mbs

Hope this helps.

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 23 February 22:33

[dickymint]

Update:

Rang a local TV guy to sort out a new aerial but he couldn't come out until Tuesday so did a bit of Google research. Turns out there's no such thing as a"digital" aerial so looked into the optimum direction for my area.

Luckily mine is in the loft, so up I went. Turned out mine was facing about 100* out.
Using the iphone compass and a 10mm spanner that I found in an old bicycle repair kit thats been up there for a decade I got it as near as I could to 61* (could only achieve 50* because of rafter in the way).

Retuned and signal strength is now increased from 22 to 43 and all Freeview stuff particularly the HD channels Pin sharp and crystal clear

Didn't get any extra channels though but very happy with another £85 saved think I'll go back up and take it off the wall to align it more precisely.

I've read somewhere that the optimum signal strength for BT UHD box is 60 as above this it's too strong and needs to be attenuated?

Still annoyed I can't get Sly News though. Can anybody confirm that it is available on Freeview Channel 132?

[dickymint]

whoami said:

Yes, Sky News is on Freeview 132.

Thank you - thought I was going mad for a moment. Guessing either my signal strength is too weak or the transmitter I'm aiming at doesn't transmit that channel?