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Old 26-02-2004, 18:37
winskil
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Just in case any other of HC's subscribers lurk on here, I just wondered what people thought of the new live TV stuff.

After getting the new STB last month I'd completely forgotten about this all until the leaflet dropped through my door today. Now the other half can hog the Sky box and watch CSI etc while I can watch BBC3 or N24. Hoorah.

I thought they were supposed to be adding the ability to pause the live TV as well... or is that still to come?
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Old 27-02-2004, 09:41
andygrif
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Ahh! You're the one who subscribes are you?

Seriously though, this sounds like an interesting development....could you tell us more please?
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Old 27-02-2004, 12:06
Inkblot
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There was a big article about it in the Independent a few weeks ago (available on their web site but I think it's pay-per-view!). Looked very interesting but no sign of any information from HomeChoice yet - presumably they are contacting existing subscribers but not accepting new customers yet.
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Old 27-02-2004, 13:49
SSJGB
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The new service is very very good indeed! Tried it for the first time last night! NTL etc could take a leaf out of homechoices book I can tell you!

TV channels - discovery / eurosport + all BBC, ITV, 4 & 5 channels, news channels! + more to come UK Gold etc

VOD Channels (as before) film, music, kids, news, entertainment etc etc enter

Brill - pat on the back Homechoice

www.homechoice.co.uk for more details!
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Old 27-02-2004, 15:05
Inkblot
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Originally posted by SSJGB
www.homechoice.co.uk for more details!
Oops! It's only a couple of days since I last looked at their web site and there was no information about the new service. Now it's all there - will have to read up on it.
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Old 29-02-2004, 22:39
winskil
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I think the website is also promoting some kind of sign up deal during March.. The only snag being that the area is currently limited to north west london.
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Old 01-03-2004, 17:57
spikej
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Is there any plans to make it avaiable throughout the country, or does it depend on an independant infrastructure (i.e. not using existing BT wires)

Stu
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Old 04-03-2004, 18:40
moleman
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Hi, i dont usually visit these parts of the forum much but I came across the homechoice relaunch.

I was a customer a few years back, only really using it for the ISDN speed service@ £18 ! (512 ADSL was £50 then). I had the TV installed as well but only the free stuff was viewable or pay-films.

My main gripes were:
Internet -
1. No IP (not even a dynamic public one)
2. Slow upload / high ping (avg 90-100)
3. No ethernet (it was through a serial cable)

Television-
1. Poor quality (looked like mpegs from the internet)
2. Poor implimentation of widescreen

I know these issues are all resolved in the new roll out however I am unsure about the quality of the pictures for the television both on-demand or live, If anyone knows more about this it may convince me to get it again (although the new rollout is not in east london yet). @ £35 for 1mb internet and on-demand TV I can be tempted !!!

Questions: -

* Is the tv pictures comparable to DVD? I will settle for divx/xvid etc quality.

* Have they moved to broadcast quality mpeg4?

* Have they improved the content (If they had more SCi FI new or old on demand they would make a fortune)

* Do they store the live broadcasts? It doesnt seem they have PVR features.

* Do they still have the latency problem for internet?
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Old 08-03-2004, 16:44
nickgold
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I had it a few years ago but now it isn't availible in our area.
how weird looks good though
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Old 08-03-2004, 17:27
dronkula
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The problem with poor old Homechoice is really that they started up about 3 years too early.

It's not until now that the BT network is starting to get upgraded and things like LLU which enables other companies to offer a competitive service to BT that Homechoice can really work properly.

The new service basically means that they've ripped up the old network and started from scratch. The new service also needs more bandwidth than the old one and at the moment only NW London has been upgraded for Homechoice. This is why it's no longer available elsewhere (like SE London).

Now that they've started to sort out the service, and with the introduction of full TV channels I suspect this is going to be the year when Homechoice finally starts to look like a good service. If I understand their network as well, there's no limit at all to the number of channels they can have as they only send 1 channel down the wire to you at once (unlike cable where they send all of them to you even if you're not watching).

So, if they can start to sign up a lot more channels then there's no reason why they couldn't eventually have a broad a channel range as Sky - except that I suspect Sky wont allow them to have their premium stuff without a fight...
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Old 08-04-2004, 18:23
ozsat
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Does HomeChoice run a fixed channel line-up system with EPG numbers like other cable services?

If so, does anybody know the line-up?
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Old 11-04-2004, 21:48
xfilex
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No it does not offer EPG. For now it offers limited digital channels, but soon more are going to be avaliable to customers in a video on demand way which is much better then sky+ where you have to record what you want, unlike Homechoice where everything is always there when you want. Now to the EPG the Homechoice EPG is far superior to the one from Sky and cable, there is no need for numbers as you have the channel logo there. Its the most advanced Tv service on the Planet no joke mate it has no rival even in the U.S I hope you found this info useful for more go to www.homechoice.co.uk or corporat site at www.videonetworks.com
Originally Posted by ozsat
Does HomeChoice run a fixed channel line-up system with EPG numbers like other cable services?

If so, does anybody know the line-up?
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Old 11-04-2004, 22:00
ozsat
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So are you able to setup a record via HomeChoice at a given time - then arrange a channel change for another programme record later?
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Old 12-04-2004, 02:21
Techguy
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Originally Posted by ozsat
So are you able to setup a record via HomeChoice at a given time - then arrange a channel change for another programme record later?
er.. you don't need to do any of that with homechoice because all the progs are already there on the server which records or caches the content as it's broadcast.. so you don't have to! So for sky+ to compete with that, it would need as many tuners as the number of channels sky carries which ain't gonna happen!! Granted cable's VOD and network pvr features will give services like Homechoice a run for it's money... but notice how sky (via DSAT) doesn't even enter the loop in this On demand world of the future!
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Old 12-04-2004, 08:41
ozsat
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So if I came in at 11pm, I could then choose to watch Coronation St and EastEnders from earlier in the evening - even though I had not recorded it?
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Old 12-04-2004, 14:00
Techguy
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Originally Posted by ozsat
So if I came in at 11pm, I could then choose to watch Coronation St and EastEnders from earlier in the evening - even though I had not recorded it?
exactly right. If you want a demo on how it all works go to www.homechoice.co.uk
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Old 12-04-2004, 19:52
ozsat
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Sounds like having TiVo on all channels!
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Old 13-04-2004, 10:08
dronkula
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Interesting!

Just looked back at their website again and I'm pretty sure that since I last looked (at the start of March) they only covered NW London - they've now expanded to South West London in a month.

Could they be aggressively rolling out across the whole city quickly this year?
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Old 18-04-2004, 11:34
Techguy
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Originally Posted by dronkula
Interesting!

Just looked back at their website again and I'm pretty sure that since I last looked (at the start of March) they only covered NW London - they've now expanded to South West London in a month.

Could they be aggressively rolling out across the whole city quickly this year?
yes your right. they're moved their old network onto wholesale components of the local loop in London. This will allow them to roll out more more Londoners. On the old system (they had to pay BT for their Videostream product) they had lto incur hefty charges per customer to BT.. but since then the local loop unbundling situation has moved in their favour.
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