BT Vision - Any good reviews!?!?!
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Ordered BT Vision earlier this week but wish I'd have known about this particular forum first! Looking through the pages it seems 70-80% of posts are very critical of the V-Box performance. Every other post describes boxes crashing/freezing etc.
Positive posts seem very few and far between. Bearing all this in mind is there anyone on here with a something good to say about BT Vision? Hope what I'm reading isn't typical of BT Vision but the sheer number of criticisms does give me some doubt.
I'd be really interested to know about any positive thoughts about the performance of the V-Box.
Anyone?
Positive posts seem very few and far between. Bearing all this in mind is there anyone on here with a something good to say about BT Vision? Hope what I'm reading isn't typical of BT Vision but the sheer number of criticisms does give me some doubt.
I'd be really interested to know about any positive thoughts about the performance of the V-Box.
Anyone?
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Do you know what.... In this instance I actually think the general consensus of all BT Vision owners (regardless of them being on this forum or not) is that it has a lot of problems, bugs and annoyances.
When it works it's the dog's boll*cks but when it doesn't it causes a a lot of headaches. Not sure what people who are not tech savvy and reading up on the box on the internet would do in these instances....
I only paid £30 for it so i'm not to bothered but if I paid £90 like most other people on this forum I would have been seriously angry.
It would be nice though, to hear from some of the happy ones just to boost flagging confidence after reading many tales of woe.
J
As a PVR, I find it excellent. Any missed recordings or ends of tv shows cut off have not been the fault of the V Box, but more due to programmes over-running/starting late, etc. I 99% get around this by manually adding addition recording time. Just like a Video Recorder.
But, the series record facility has been a real God send for me. No more rushing home from work to catch a show. Infact, it's probably true to say that the way I watch TV now has probably changed. I rarely watch anything now at the scheduled time, but catch up with it later.
I am a happy Vision user, Simple, but Happy.
Seriously Vision is not as bad as SKY+ was when that was released. I can state that catergorically as I am related to one of the largest independent Sky
Installers in the country. I am on my 4th SKY+ box.
Very similar problems to Vision now. Lock ups when hurried. Sky+ fails more recordings even now.
Lets not forget, Vision is free apart from the installation fee, unless of course you use On Demand.
Vision as a PVR is a far superior product I use SKY+ and Vision.
So if you don't want a free Freeview PVR send it back or don't get it in the first place. If not accept it for what it is. A new(Technology superior) FREE product. Give BT a break.
I agree. I’ve had sky+ since the early days. Anyone remember the 17 minute bug? The thing that was annoying about sky+ was it was plagued with problems yet you still had to pay £10 per month for it. The difference between then and now tho is people now have a choice. Hence many are ditching BT and moving over to sky+
You think so? I disagree. Global padding? The ability to see what you’ve already watched and what you’ve not yet watched? Being able to view more than 5 recordings on one page at a time? One touch delete?
I agree. Good point.
Not bad 2 out of three partially agreeing. Vision is not one touch delete. Mine always asks me to confirm. Sky + only asks if you have pressed blue button to keep the recording. In reality they have there different ways of doing things. Personally I prefer Vision.
Nobody is locked ino a contract with Vision, unlike Sky +. Bt Broadband excepted.
I use it primarily for Larry Sanders Show and many BBC 7 radio shows but during the football season I will use it to record Champions League/UEFA Cup games which will save annoying my good lady
Only slight criticism is that you cannot fast forward on an audio recording (BBC7). Not a problem though but would be nice to be able to cut out the scheitte at the start (continuity announcers etc)
That said, well posted anyway
PS
If any new user has had Vision installed and still does not have the recording option in the menu call the helpline and tell them that "MY ACCOUNT/SUBSCRIPTION NEEDS UPDATING/AUTHORISING" as that is exactly the problem I had. Two hubs/three vision boxes and from day one I said to the engineer and the call centre stafff that it looks like an account problem (Which it was)
Shortly after telling them, they checking this, the system works perfectly.
Anywhoooo folks,great wee system and I would, and have , recommended it . Plus I have a 160 Gig HDD to scavange in the future if it goesnipples up
In a few weeks I'll have a real idea of how it performs so I'll have to save my judgement until then but for £30 it won't be the end of the world if it plays up I suppose. :rolleyes:
This may sound daft, but what I can't get my head round is
Is this a product for the TV
or
Is this a product you watch on your PC
Can anybody help on BT Broadband.
I am with F2s as an ISP, who have just been sold by Pipex to Tiscali. I have no desire to remain with Tiscali, so am in the throws of getting my MAC and finding a new ISP. How good is BT Broadband?
It may just pay me to go down the BT route for Vision and Broadband and watch the football as well, and cancel Sky completely.
Any positive thoughts?
Many thanks
At the most basic level it is a Freeview PVR - i.e. a box that sits under your TV and allows you to watch Freeview broadcasts via your aerial and also allows you to record them to the built in Hard Drive. You can get similar products from makers like Humax too.
What makes BT Vision different is that as well as being able to watch and record Freeview, you also have access to a whole load of On Demand programming too. These are programmes that are stored on BT's servers, and through your BT broadband connection you can stream these programmes to your BT Vision box and watch them on the TV in realtime (as well as pause / ffwd / rewind).
The On Demand side of things is completely optional - you don't have to watch any of it if you don't want to and just use the BT Vision box as a Freeview PVR. Considering it only costs a £30 setup fee (and possibly not even that depending on what BT offer you) this makes it an absolute steal since similar products (without the On Demand options of BT Vision) cost upwards of £100-200 - and as a PVR BT Vision is actually pretty high end and has features that many other PVR's don't (e.g. HDMI out, Series Linking).
The catch of course is that you have to sign up to BT Total Broadband (for a minimum of 12 months), but if you are considering moving ISP anyway that may not be such a bad thing. I had a few initial teething problems with my migration, but overall things have been ok since then - and when things are working both the broadband and BT Vision are very good. On the few occasions I have had to call BT Broadband/Vision support the people I have spoken to (mostly their Indian call centre, but occasionally people in the UK) have been polite, and despite having to work to a script, do eventually get there in the end. Just be sure to check out 0800 alternatives to the 0845 numbers they give you!
I have Sky currently, not freeview and do not have an aerial.
Will it work through the sky dish?
I suppose my one thought is not wanting to sign up for broadband for a long time incase BT are crap. I don't want to keep on changing ISP. A pain in the a*se.
Les
i can say i wouldn't change to another isp....price wise i always have believed you get what you pay for.
Vbox wise i have had the same problems as everybody else but not frequent and am happy that BT will sort them out.
So BT wins out.
The only drawback is that Vision takes 1.75mb of the bandwith and with 3 other PC's being used a lot, then broadband will run like a dog.
Plus, I would probably have to buy an aerial, which i don't want,unless anybody has experience of using the sky dish to recieve. Anybody :-)
Othewise it looks like I will have to use that programme called Sopcast.
Vision only consumes bandwidth when viewing VOD. Normal freeview viewing doesn't use any.
You _do_ need an aerial if you want to view freeview. I don't believe you need one to view VOD but then you wouldn't want to watch only VOD, would you?
If so yes :-)
I don't really need Freeview, as I already have the Sky dish and box, and by cancelling with Sky, I have freeview. If that makes sense.
It's 1.5 Mb/s and only when using VoD leaving 512 Kb/s for Internet use which would be OK for browsing as long you don't all hit enter at once.
The Sky dish won't work. It is for DVB-S reception and Freeview is DVB-T - completely different.
My wife has to do a fair amount of translation work on external servers so it might not be a good idea.
Its a shame the Sky dish can't be used.
if you use the option of your own router make sure your on the unlimited bb choice sicne for soem reason there system doesnt recognise htat he vision usage is not your pc data usage /
also if yor going for a new bb supplier +net , orange or sky are probably a better place to look as things stand right now with speed probelms and capacity managment issues with bt as an isp.
was fortunate enough to avoid most of the problems that plagued it.
as a catchup service - v.good.
picture quality is good IMO.
as a PVR - i find it's great.
Constant reboots, backend server issues and poor VOD.
But if you are an early adopter this is what you expect.
However as much as it pains me to say it (i deal with BT at a corporate level and believe me the service is no better even when paying thousands a year) the vision guys and support have took the knocks from us and now supply a really good product. Yes you need to reboot occasionally - it's a computer at the end of the day and ALL computers need a reboot every now and then.
It has changed the way i 'watch' tv as in i don't watch it scheduled, I record or vod at my conveniance.
So much so that my BT broadband speed is pretty poor and my contract is due for renewal. Vision is going to make me stay with BT pure and simple. Without it I would be switching suppliers but i would miss this service too much.
Having said that i'm still going to try and get a new vbox out of them even though at this point in time the difference is pretty much cosmetic. Vbox 1 has aged badly on the looks department. :-)
Yup agreed, it does look a bit plain, other boxes that use the CE platform all have LED matrix screens fitted. and do other bits n bobs.
I'd like to have the usb keyboard working.