BT Vision

[elster]

I am making cutbacks in my life. Just little ones and one is SKY+ Multiroom. Costing me the earth.

I am considering BT Vision.

But the BT site doesn't really go into detail about what is entailed, what it does, or how it works.

Can anyone help?

[VladD]

You get a wrireless router for your internet and the BT Vision box uses the internet connection to provide you with TV. You don't get as many channels as Sky, but you can pause live TV and do series record etc. There's also a selection of on-demand programmes, but most of them you have to pay for (but only 99p for most of them).

On the downside, it can be a bit jerky every now and again, but overall I'd say it was OK.

However, freesat has to be worth a look.

[elster]

VladD said:

You get a wrireless router for your internet and the BT Vision box uses the internet connection to provide you with TV. You don't get as many channels as Sky, but you can pause live TV and do series record etc. There's also a selection of on-demand programmes, but most of them you have to pay for (but only 99p for most of them).

On the downside, it can be a bit jerky every now and again, but overall I'd say it was OK.

However, freesat has to be worth a look.

So with a 512 connection its not an option then?

[cjs]

BT vision is a freeview box, you get all the Freeview channels. It can also get interactive on demand TV down your BB connection.

You could get a Sky Freesat card (about £10) for each box. You then get all the Free To Air stuff. That's if Sky let you keep the boxes when you cancel your subscription!



ETA. The BT Vision box is also a recorder similar to your Sky+. You can record the Freeview channels.

Edited by cjs on Monday 11th August 15:26

[VladD]

512, I'd say it was dubious. I think BT have an online line checker or something that can tell you your best potential speed. Either that or just give BT a ring and they can check it for you.

[ofcorsa]

I really love our BT vision, As were on the top ADSL package anyway we only paid £30 for signing up. Were not massive TV watchers but its nice to watch things when you want and without adverts.

[andrew_huxtable]

i`m gonna get flamed for this but tiscali tv is actually very good, they give you a wireless router and the box gets most of the channel signals via IPTV, you can also get sky sports and setanta sports, BUT be warned tiscali`s customer service is terrible. Its really, really bad! i did have to wait 9 weeks for them to switch on setanta sports, plus they also dont allways make up a bill for you each month, but its cheap as chips and offers much more than bt vision

[elster]

andrew_huxtable said:

i`m gonna get flamed for this but tiscali tv is actually very good, they give you a wireless router and the box gets most of the channel signals via IPTV, you can also get sky sports and setanta sports, BUT be warned tiscali`s customer service is terrible. Its really, really bad! i did have to wait 9 weeks for them to switch on setanta sports, plus they also dont allways make up a bill for you each month, but its cheap as chips and offers much more than bt vision

Its taken me a year to get rid of pipex. No way am I going back to their service. They also cut my phone off when I was trying to cancel everything. Morons! They also charged me for telephone and broadband, then sent me abill for a years subscription to broadband after 12 months. Trying to claim I hadn't paid for internet, just phone. Took me months to prove I was right.

So definitely not them.

BT vision says it has setanta sports. But I can't find a definite list of channels anywhere other than the free ones.

[SS HSV]

Let's not forget good old iPlayer from the BBC, gives you ability to watch older Beeb programs upto a month after they were released.

Not a set top box, or satellite/DVR etc but free software which I thought is worth a mention if you are cutting back.

[tamore]

elster said:

VladD said:

You get a wrireless router for your internet and the BT Vision box uses the internet connection to provide you with TV. You don't get as many channels as Sky, but you can pause live TV and do series record etc. There's also a selection of on-demand programmes, but most of them you have to pay for (but only 99p for most of them).

On the downside, it can be a bit jerky every now and again, but overall I'd say it was OK.

However, freesat has to be worth a look.

So with a 512 connection its not an option then?

forget it on a half meg connection. we had about 2.5 meg downstream speed with homechoice, and it was pretty hit and miss. would be an excellent service if you live near an exchange though.

[rfn]

Personally, I'd be inclined to just get a Humax PVR.

Works the same as a Sky+ Box, can pause/rewind live TV, record two things at once etc. Just with Freeview channels rather than Sky.

I've got a Thomson PVR and it's brilliant, can't live without it now.

I'd rather not rely on BT customer service should the Vision box break (not least because I ordered one three times and each time they cancelled my order without telling me (finally found out it was because my line wasn't quick enough - nice of them to tell me, eh!)

[cjs]

elster said:

andrew_huxtable said:

i`m gonna get flamed for this but tiscali tv is actually very good, they give you a wireless router and the box gets most of the channel signals via IPTV, you can also get sky sports and setanta sports, BUT be warned tiscali`s customer service is terrible. Its really, really bad! i did have to wait 9 weeks for them to switch on setanta sports, plus they also dont allways make up a bill for you each month, but its cheap as chips and offers much more than bt vision

Its taken me a year to get rid of pipex. No way am I going back to their service. They also cut my phone off when I was trying to cancel everything. Morons! They also charged me for telephone and broadband, then sent me abill for a years subscription to broadband after 12 months. Trying to claim I hadn't paid for internet, just phone. Took me months to prove I was right.

So definitely not them.

BT vision says it has setanta sports. But I can't find a definite list of channels anywhere other than the free ones.

All the info is here

http://www.btvision.bt.com/vision/index.htm

You get all Freeview Channels, same as you get on any freeview box or DTV. Setanta is available on Freeview via a Top Up TV subscription, BT give it free with their package.

[cs02rm0]

rfn said:

Personally, I'd be inclined to just get a Humax PVR.

+1

[fredd1e]

From memory BT vision requires min of 2.5Mbs internet download so 512 isnt going to cut it.
Also you dont get an option to see some of the channels on Sky such as sky1 sci-fi, eurosport .
This list is changing as I think Sky3 is now available.
Pay per view movies are on a par with sky and may be slightly better than basic sky as they can show at 1080i so look better on an HD screen. I've tryed an upscale comparision of sky (non-HD) and BT and the BT vision is subjectively better (less corruption). I've no idea what Sky HD is like as never seen it. Note to see BT vision at 1080i you need an hdmi connector.

The vision box also gets the "normal" channels over the TV aerial (ie like and set top digital box) if your in a poor reception area (for digital) or have a crap aerial then its not going to pick up a decent signal so will look crap if it displays at all.
I think but could be wrong only the pay per view content is downloaded from internet.

[skeggysteve]

Mate at work did exactly what you are considering to save money.

After 6 weeks, hours on the phone to BT and 3 engineer visits he went back to Sky.

He had an 'up to 8meg service' that they eventually got to 5meg and the TV side of the service still wouldn't work well.