Seeking reassurance
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Hi, I'm new here and found this great forum as I trawled the net looking for alternatives now that Sky have told me I can't get a signal.
I've stumbled across Tiscali TV and it seems almost too good to be true. I know nothing about IPTV other than a few sketchy things I've just read, and have more questions than answers. This forum has answered more questions than anything else I've seen.
There are two things I would like reassurance with. Firstly, will I be able to use my existing Hard Disk Recorder to record one programme, while I am watching another? Secondly, is picture quality as good as Sky and other transmitted services that need a dish or aerial?
Thanks in advance.
I've stumbled across Tiscali TV and it seems almost too good to be true. I know nothing about IPTV other than a few sketchy things I've just read, and have more questions than answers. This forum has answered more questions than anything else I've seen.
There are two things I would like reassurance with. Firstly, will I be able to use my existing Hard Disk Recorder to record one programme, while I am watching another? Secondly, is picture quality as good as Sky and other transmitted services that need a dish or aerial?
Thanks in advance.
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There are two new posters asking related questions so I’ll copy and paste this same response in both.
I had TTV (Tiscali TV) installed last week as a replacement for Sky TV. We’re existing Tiscali customers originally on 2mb broadband but upgraded to 8mb with the variety pack plus the entertainment extra plus the kids pack. This is effectively the same channels I’m getting from Sky and although I’ve lost a lot of +1 channels I have gained VOD (Video on demand) channels including HBO. Swings and roundabout I suppose. My wife likes to watch Living TV which is not available from Tiscali but her response is “it’s just one channel, there’s plenty of others”.
The total cost comes £36.99. This includes line rental and free anytime calls to 01 and 02 numbers along with certain overseas calls. £36.99 sounds a lot but after factoring the line rental, existing broadband, free calls and dropping Sky TV it works out cheaper than I was paying before.
Anyway enough prattling about. The STB (set top box) is a Telsey FS6 and the router is a Thomson Speed touch 585(v6) wireless router. The router connects to the BT line by a filter and a co-ax cable and connects to the STB by an Ethernet cable. This is how you receive your Tiscali TV. The STB also has an aerial in so that you can receive local news and also other freeview channels. Don’t worry about having to do any of this yourself as the Engineer sets it all up for you and makes sure that your PC/laptop communicates wirelessly with the router. A wireless adaptor for a PC was not required as all ours were built in so I can’t confirm if one would have been included. Tiscali may be able to answer that one. Presently our household has 3 Nintendo DS, one Nintendo Wii, one Xbox360, two Vista laptops, one IMac and one XP laptop, numerous children, one hell of an electricity bill and enough flashing leds to put Blackpool illuminations to shame. That said the router copes well with the demands and no picture quality issues either. The Xbox is located in the attic room with the router on the ground floor so range shouldn’t be a problem.
The STB has two SCART sockets and one HDMI (from memory here, don’t quote me as these are the only ones I need to use) Configure the video output to SCART RGB. One SCART goes to the TV and the other goes to my DVD/Hard Disk Recorder. I can record the channel that is on the STB but can’t watch another at the same time unless I use my TV’s built in tuner. Apparently there is a new box coming out which seems to act as a dual tuner PVR but this box of mine does not.
I mentioned HDMI, when I configured the video output to HDMI, I found that you only get audio from the SCART so I couldn’t record any picture on the recorder. I also found that there was no great picture quality difference between the two types of output.
As for a comparison between Sky (via a dish) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) down a phone line, well there is a time lag between the two pictures with Sky leading IPTV by no more than a second, say. Picture quality is not much to chose either way, depends what you watch I suppose. I’ve had no loss of signal or break up due to weather (bear in mind I’ve only had it a week) and no loss of quality due to internet use.
Other things to bear in mind before deciding either way.
1 I live close to my exchange, which adopted Tiscali TV quite recently. So I may be one of the few people round here with TTV actually installed. This could have an effect on future picture quality as more people adopt I just don’t know.
2 Sky has more actual channels, +1, Living etc., but Tiscali has VOD and so called classic American series like TJ Hooker, Charlie’s Angels and Hart to Hart. (No I don’t watch them, never did either, but they’re there if you like that sort of thing)
3 The STB has RF in and RF out but no, I think the term is, modulation. Whatever, you can’t send the RF output down a co-ax to another TV, whereas you can with Sky.
Apologies for rambling on, the numerous spelling and grammar mistakes, but it’s a bit quiet at work at the mo’. I miss my lost Sky channels but at least it’s now a freesat box, on the other hand there’s a lot of VOD to get through and with catch up I can watch that episode of Holby that missed last night.
Your reply contains some good news and some bad news. It's great that I will still be able to connect an aerial. I was concerned that if our phone line went down we'd have no TV. Obviously, from what you've said, we'd still be able to get regular Freeview stuff. However, it's disappointing that we can only record the channel the STB is set to. That means that I will almost certainly be better off waiting until the new dual box is available.
Off to scratch my head a bit more ....
Thanks again.
OK I have had HC/Tiscali TV for 3 years without problems but the recent amazingly unacceptable customer service / technical support is unacceptable to me.
This is a copy of an email I just sent to tiscali. It deffo highlights some of the problems and grumbles I have with them. They should be ashamed. I would NEVER sign up if I knew I would get this kind of customer service:
Dear the customer services manager / Technical support advisor
The date is currently Wednesday 24th October and it is 22.31 hrs. I dialled the tiscali tv technical support line (0845 6783333) at 21.50 hrs this evening. It is now 22.32 hrs and I have been on hold for 42 minutes (hearing Pavarotti singing and the message "Thank you for holding, we apaologise for the delay in connecting you, we will transfer you to a customer care representative (even though I selected technical support) as soon as they become available, thank you for you're patience" re-played to me every 15 seconds!!!
Anyway moving on from you're abysmal customer service by phone.. on Sunday ( 21st Oct) I noticed problems in my service, The television service kept breaking up, the picture kept scrambling, the set-top-box kept flashing orange and blue quickly and I even experienced the message "Service Notification Please turn your set top box off and on. If this problem persists please call Customer Care. STBC connection down" also the internet service seemed to cut-off and stopped working. When I picked up the telephone handset a very loud "cracking noise" could be heard, so much so that I couldn't even make a call.
The problems I described persisted and Tiscali informed me they would send an engineer which arrived today (24th Oct at 11am). He inspected the box and replaced it. I explained the difficulties I had been having, even though they were not being experienced whist he was present. He informed me that it was probably down the the line and therefor BT's responsibility, however I have no dealings with BT and pay all my fee's to you, Tiscali, therefor in my opinion it is you who need to fix the problem.
The problem is still very much the same, I am hearing the same crackling noise on my telephone line when I pick up my handset. And my internet/TV service is breaking up too. It is unacceptable. If this is BT's responsibility, get them to fix it ASAP! I have been a Homechoice/Tiscali TV customer for over three years now and this shoddy service is not acceptable to me.
The TV/Internet disruption only occurs when the disruption to my line occurs, because I can hear the crackling on the line, this gives me the suspicion it is a telephone line problem. Even so I would expect this to be fixed very very soon.
Also I should add the time is now 2247hrs. I have now been on hold for 57 minutes!!!! IS THIS ACCEPTABLE???? I do not think so..... I am SO CLOSE to cancelling my entire TISCALI service and going back to BT and SKY because of this terrible service. It is unbelievable 57 minutes being on hold! I am still hearing Pavarotti and the message being repeated "Thank you for holding, we apaologise for the delay in connecting you, we will transfer you to a customer care representative (even though I selected technical support) as soon as they become available, thank you for you're patience" do you value you're customers Tiscali TV? If you do sort this out ASAP and tell me why the hell I have been fobbed off for the past 57 minutes that I have been on hold (by the way who is going to foot the bill for this call)? I am going to hang up very soon!
Yours
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Doesn't Customer services close at 2200? Are you still on the phone?
General rule of thumb is that if the line isn't working (ie no phone service) then call BT and report a fault - that way at least they can work on it as well as Tiscali and it will usually get fixed in due course.
That said I'm glad I'm not using TTV any more. My new ISP has freephone 24/7 technical support. It's great!
Considering Customer Services closes at 8pm. Only Technical Support is open til 10pm!!! LOL.
I have never had problems with Tiscali or Homechoice in the few years that I have been with them. They have always been helpful to me, and even when we moved they were extremely helpful!!!
You are always going to have problems with Call Centres no matter which service you sign up to, whether it be Sky, BT Vision or Virgin Media. I have been lucky as I had no end of problems with Virgin Media (Telewest it was when I was a customer) but I haven't had any bad experiences with Tiscali.
so how did you go on with bt....
Also it is totally outrageous that I took a day off work without pay to wait for an engineer that never showed up. Its not acceptable