Which is better/and why and what does Hommchoice offer that is different to/cheaper than Sky/Cable?

Good question - I suppose that by being xDSL driven and their pricing being not a great deal more than than the raw ADSL line if you want ADSL and basic backage of digital TV then it isn't outrageous. I suppose someone needs to do a complete set of comparisons with all the options to try to compare as close as possible live for like offerings (I suspect it will be hard to do so - but I look forward to seeing what people think ).

All of them do look great, but none of them are better than each other.

i think getting sky family and 2mb is cheaper. i just saw someone say they have a 1 gb per a day bandwidth limit for broadband

sky family 19.5 + 2mb 35 = 54.5

HC 27.5 + 2mb 15 = 42.5

but with sky you get more channels + on adsl it unlimited

It's a toss-up really, it all boils down to whether that's worth an extra 8 quid a month to you or not. TBH I can't imagine what I'd do with more than 1Gb per day.......

Sky family 19.50 + BT line rental 10.50 + BT 512k 27.99 = 57.99
ntl family 16.50 + ntl line rental 9.50 + ntl 750k 24.99 = 50.99
HC tv + 512k 27.50 + 3 tv bundles 23.00 = 50.50

All those comparisons are roughly the same - HC has less channels than Sky/Cable but a plus is VOD and ntl broadband is faster than BT and HC.

BTW If you need a BT line for HC then add 10.50 to the price:

50.50 + 10.50 = 61.00

No, that's wrong.

BT line rental = 10.50
HC basic 512k pack = 27.50
Add-on TV packs = 10 for ALL 3 (if you really need them!)

Total = 48.00

Where did you get the 61 quid figure from???

I added on the individual figues for each TV Bundle - I didn't know you could get them all for 10.00 pounds. BTW ntl family pack = 19.50 so...

ntl family pack 19.50 + line rental 9.50 + 750k BB 24.99 = 53.99

So ntl is cheaper than Sky/BT but more than HC. Although you get more channels and higher BB speen on ntl.

...but upgrade to the 1Mbps HomeChoice package and you're looking at £55.50/month. I'd call that a tossup.

Ah, but thats a 12 month only offer. The actual family pack price is £29.00pm

Wrong!

ntl Family pack is 19.50 per month, phone line rental is 9.50 per month, add these together and get the total price of 29.00 per month. If you look the the post you quoted me on I have put the line rental and Family pack seperately, so read before you assume.

The Family Pack has always been priced at £xx with "free line rental" - currently it's £29. So anyone seeing it advertised at £19.50 would naturally assume that was the price they would pay, not £19.50 + £9.50 line rental.

We discussed this issue in the ntl forum, where it was pointed out that the ntl web site allows you to order the Family Pack for £19.50 but won't let you go any further enless you also order a phone package for a minimum price of £9.50. So the "free line rental" isn't as free as they'd like us to think.

does the sky by wire cost extra on top of the normal bundle, or does it come included?

i am in an area of london (se11) where ntl does not do broadband, so i can only get it via a bt phone line. additionally i am a tennant and my new landlords doesn't want a sky dish bolted onto the side of his house.

i'm only really interested in getting the sky sports channels on top of the standard freeview selection, along with broadband so my option are thus:

bt phone line + broadband provider (2mb) + ntl tv (which is rubbish)

bt phone line + homechoice (tv and 2mb broadband combined)

what do you lot reckon? i think the homechoice has got to be cheaper, especially as the installation is only £1!

i also looked at bulldog, but i don't think they do their 4mb and phone bundle in my area

incidentally, when the engineer when he came to install my ntl tv and phone about 10 months ago in my old flat, he said off the record ntl will never upgrade my area in the forseeable future as its not cost effective for them.

Sky Sports costs extra - something like £23 (!) on top of the regular package price.

In the past 4 years I have subscribed to ON digital, homechoice and SKY this is what I think about them:

ON digital (pre pay for a year)
Year subscribed: 2000
Good points: TV through an arial
Bad points: Bad reciption quality, not many good channels
Did not continue subscription due to no good channels and bad recption


Homechoice
Year subscribed: 2001 - 2003
Good points: Interactive, compititions you can enter for free (I won 2 of them), good picture, Movies and music videos and programs on demand, broadband internet avalible and video like controls (play, rewind etc.)
Bad points: No TV channels (there is now), they didn't use the connection asmuch as they did and no games
My subscription stopped because homechoice closed for a year and has not come back to my area forme to re scribe to it. I still have the old box, they said I could keep it.


SKY
Year subscribed: from 2003 (still subscribing)
Good points: lots of channels
Bad points: not enough epg space for channels (the channels should be from 1001 to 9999 I think) and you have to pay to go online


The bestest one has been homechoice

Interesting assessment - since from all accounts, the service they're offering now is substantially better than what they had last year.

This may not be for much longer, NTL is becomeing a partial LLU player and undoubtedly want to offer triple play like Homechoice, a takeover or merger or something is quite possible, This may have to become Sky vs. Land. Then it is simpler depending on what you want to watch. Land if u want BB, SKy if TV is more important to you.

Roll on the day when all three are an option!

If I could have homechoice I probably would have it over cable. And if it had the interactive it would beat sky hands down.

On the whole homechioce has all the channels I would want and fast broadband, so that's enough for me.