Had Homechoice a couple of months now. My first reaction was disappointment with the picture, compared to Sky. They assure me this will change when the upgrade to MPEG4 takes place. Does anyone have any knowledge about when this will happen? I'd initially heard from HC that it should be in September but no-one wants to commit to a date.
Right now I've got a regular CRT smallish TV (21") and you really notice the picture difference flicking from BBC1 on Sky to HC. I want to get a plasma TV, maybe even 50". Does anyone have any thoughts about whether their picture will be up to it, even after the MPEG4 upgrade?
Also, I get a "lip synch" delay between characters talking and when you hear the words. This doesn't always happen, and I've only ever seen it on the replay service, namely Eastenders, never live TV. HC say they've heard about this from other people too, they aren't sure why it happens. Had box replaced, line investigated, all fine. It's definitely an HC problem as terestrial & Sky are fine. Has anyone else had this or know why it happens? I'm not using BB or the phone whilst it happens (a question HC asked).

I've had the occaisional lip-sync problem on the VOD content. It doesn't happen all the time. Haven't worked out whether it is particular recordings that are affected, or whether it's a playback issue. Haven't seen it on live "broadcasts".

It hasn't bothered me much to be honest - although my DVD player suffers from the same problem, so maybe I've just got used to it!

Yes, I occasionally get lip synch problems, but only on the music VOD, so it doesn't really bother me. The picture quality isn't as good as Freeview, but is acceptable (similar to analogue cable). I think it's just because that this is new technology, and like all new things, will take a while to get just right.

Pitcure quality on the 'terrestrial' channels is very good here on a standard 21" 4:3 TV... though some of the other channels eg UK Gold & E4 have the odd pixellation problem.

Lip-sync is a problem on a very small minority of V.O.D. content (BBC News is sometimes off by a bit, and like you say a few of the music videos are out by a little). I must stress that the vast majority of content is absolutely fine in this respect.

I've not had a lip-sync problem on a broadcast channel, either.

Awaiting MPEG4 to make things even better

(It'd be nice if the music vids were broadcast in true widescreen too, but you can't have everything!)

Hmm. I'm surprised people seem so accepting about the lip-synch it drives me insane, as I end up watching the problem more than the programme! To me it's a fairly critical feature and I'm very surprised they've gone live with this.
I've only noticed it on Eastenders (VOD) but that's just about the only VOD programme I use. The HC person I spoke to said that they hoped it would disappear with MPEG4 but they didn't sound totally sure as they admitted they didn't know what was causing it. I too get the same problem on my DVD playback on my laptop...
Talking of MPEG4, the HC person said they believed it was happening by the end of September and promised a letter was going out to explain this. That was a month ago... I notice from other threads that other people have been told "end of the year". It would be nice to get a firmer date...
Also, I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the picture quality. Maybe I'm lucky with the Sky & analogue signals I get but all the HC channels look a pretty poor cousin compared to their counterparts from the other signals, especially in terms of clarity. Roll on that MPEG4 upgrade....

Well on top of these problems, sometimes the VOD seems to adjust the contrast right down, darkening the picture a lot. This only happens with VOD, usually at the start of replaying Eastender and often clears up suddenly for no reason half-way through or as soon as the repeat stops and you return to the menu. Anyone else get this or know anything about it?

This sounds like a problem with the copy-protection mechanism that some people were having a while back. Give customer services a call, they should be able to turn it off for you.

I've noticed a lot of lypsync issues especiall on the on demand stuff but also on the broadcast stuff. Also the quality is far inferior to sky/freeview or ntl. everytime i ask them about it they keep mentioning this mpeg 4 thing but as others have stated they won't say when, I'm going to give them another month to come up with a resoloution then i'm jacking the service in as it's substandard in my opinion

can they turn it off? really? so we could video VOD content?