HomeChoice are now offering Sky Movies and Sky Sports, under the name 'Sky By Wire'. No prices mentioned on the website yet, but this could hopefully pave the way for more Sky channels.

Interesting that they now offer 9 Sky movie channels in addition to the per-24 hour on demand films, and the unlimited on-demand film subscriptions.

Saw this yesterday on my HC stb, looks like you get the odd numbered sky movie channels and all the sky sports channels.

rang customer services and it sounds quite pricey.

looking forward to sky one if it comes along.

So Red_g00ner - how much?

You have to compare it to what Sky charge themselves for these channels delivered by Satellite.

The premium for the VOD material over a simple ADSL line isn't that great even with prices dropping rapidly as they are at the moment.

Sorry can't remember now. i'm sure Customer Services will tell you. Numbers on the back of the remote.

i really dont understnad why peopl are on this service, it has no advantages over sky or ntl, I work for NTL i know we can provide por service sometimes, but this Homechoice thingy looks a load of rubbish, I actually have sky (only because I dont live in a cabled area), and sky is fantastic, i know you get BB thrpown in the package with homechocie but the packages for tv are crap.

someone tell me why

that your opinion. l do not agree with you. l think it is an excellent service.

I found l was paying over £100 pounds for internet and tv with telewest. this kind of money each month forces you into watching tv.

for £40 a month a get a good selection of channels + 2500 music videos + hours of VOD programming and replay service on BBC and C4.

l also now spend less time watching TV

It is a curious service and for the right sort of person it is good value.

I know when I had it (years ago) it was good value just for the broadband portion the rest efectively was free and I did use it from time to time suficently to make it seem like good value.

The whole true VOD service is a facinating idea - like having a Sky+ box with ensless amounts of disk space.

There new TV offerings I have not seen but it might make sense for someone who doesn't want a great deal of TV and lives in London but is neither Cabled or Satelite enabled it sudely becomes a real option.

It offers video on demand - that's a pretty huge advantage right there. In fact it's fundamental.

It's also worth noting that there are (or used to be, anyway) huge swathes of London that have absolutely abysmal cable infrastructure (e.g. Videotron), so broadband Internet and TV services via cable are rather limited in those areas. There may also be any number of reasons why Sky isn't an option, or doesn't suit. This also helps HomeChoice in London, I expect.

I, and I'm sure many other users chose HC because it's a service that fits my needs exactly and is extremely competitively priced.

I don't need a hundred and one TV channels. I only ever tended to watch the terrestrial channels, E4 and the music channels on Telewest. HC covers this and more, and the V:MX service is superb. The on-demand film library is also excellent.

..and it saves me about 7 quid a month over TW. I'd be mad not to use HC!

are vod movies free or charged, are the On demand music channels free?

Movies are charged (3.50 for new releases, 2 quid otherwise) as per cable, but there's a much greater selection to choose from.

The V:MX music channels are 5 pounds a month (for the 'Music' add-on package), but even so this cost was included in my "7 quid cheaper" comparison.

HomeChoice is the best television service I have ever seen. I have access to SKY, Freeview and have seen the NTL service, and for me, HomeChoice beats them all hands down.

Not only is the selection of services and channels excellent, it's just damn sexy! Have you seen the remote control? The STB?

...and the payroll?


Just kidding.

I haven't seen the service yet but I do agree that it looks very promising indeed. If Pipex give me just one reason to leave them, I'm going to homechoice.

I've got HomeChoice for a number of reasons. For starters I chose to leave Pipex when I moved flat because they offered no hassle free move service and were quite unhelpful on the phone, and didn't seem keen to retain me. Secondly, I live in an ex-Videotron area so only the basic ntl digital service available (no interactive, no broadband). In fact even if I wanted their digital service I couldn't have it because I live in an apartment block, and ntl are not willing to upgrade the cabling to make this possible. Additionally Top-Up TV is not practical as DTT has to be received with a set top aerial which is patchy at best (no communal aerial, 1-5 comes through the ntl wiring). Also no Sky as nobody is willing to pay for the communal dish and wiring.

So for a realistic digital pay TV service, HomeChoice is my only option. And I have to say I'm enjoying it: all of the channels on there are worthwhile (no junk or useless shopping channels), good VOD stuff, V:MX is excellent and the internet service seems to be up to scratch.

It's also nice how everything about the service, from channel idents to the STB and remote is designed by their in-house design studio so it's all rather stylish and consistant.

I'm sure if I was a big sports fan I wouldn't be so happy considering how much Sky Sports costs! Also it's not a service for people with channel number envy (ie. people who think more channels must mean it's better)

I do fly the flag for them.... but I am not on their payroll. I don't even subscribe - my flatmate does...

so how do they install it, is it a dish, cable, what does it entail

They used to send round an enginner who plugged in a box into your phone line and into your TV and configured it to maker sure the TV service worked. It is just ADSL you need a BT phone line connected to one of the exchanges they work on - no dish, no aerial, no cable.

Has anyone got any comments about the digital picture quality for homechoice, especially the quality of the Sky Sports channels which I remember being abysmal on terrestrial in the days of On Digital...?

I've just had a re-install after moving house, and AlanJ is right they just plug it in and away you go.

Is HomeChoice cable or terrestrial, or something else?

Something else - In a good way.,

HomeChoice is TV on demand through your phone line.

IT operates on unbundled phone lines so they can offer their own DSL operating at speeds of 6Mbps or higher.

The TV signal and internet are combined to provide a faster than average internet with a more flexible TV service than anyone else offers.

You can skip programmes on their own Video on Demand Music, Entertainment, Documentary, Film and Active channels or just watch traditional broadcast channels (They offer a good range but don't currently carry some big names like Sky One, Living, Bravo)

Sky Movies and Sports are available although the cost ofr these seems high - but remember you're getting Internet too.

One of the great benefits is that the service is totally controlled by HomeChoice at their end - the box is mostly dumb so product upgrades can be rolled out easier than on a system where the box needs intelligence or decoding hardware.

If you're happy with the channels and your line is compatible and you're in the service area I think it's a great service - when they get a couple more channels I'll happily dump sky - until then it's a great internet service with the added benefit of VOD TV!

Cable - phone cable, that is. HC delivers via ADSL. More here.

(Funny, M_at has beaten me by a matters of seconds

I type quick

Well, I've got both Sky and HC so I'd have a different opinion to you on HC being for people without sky. Without getting emotive, my logic goes something like this...
I want 1Mb broadband... which is, what, 25 quid minimum for a half decent service (HC's internet has been rock solid for the 4 years I've been a customer). So I pay an extra £10 to get the basic VOD package. With a canny bit of wiring both my Sky and HC are available in several rooms, so that £10 for the tv bit of HC could be seen as instead of a 2nd sky box.

But for me, the great thing is the replay. At the moment it's not every programme on every channel but it's a damn good start. Like a TiVO that you dont even have to remember to set!

It all adds up, but I've been keeping a track on how much we've been using the Sky film channels recently and I reckon that for my household we'd save money by dropping the Sky films sub and just "renting" the movies we want on HC or sub'ing to their film channel.

Just one example but what I'm saying is that I believe they are complimenetary not simply one being better than the other. It also depends what you want to watch.

Plus visitors always ask what the big blue light is on the bookshelf above the TV!