Final straw?

TUTV was the forgotten service when they axed live streaming. I said the Anytime service was poor but I never expected them to even lose the capacity they have now. Clearly teleshoppoing can pay more for a slot than TUTV as they could have long acquired space elsewhere.

TUTV is only of use if you want premium sport now. Plus BT Vision is now the fastest growing pay platform so I wonder why? more content?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.
What about all those people who have bought their boxes "in store" and have taken out a sub?
Not everyone has email or internet --- all of a sudden it will be bye bye G.O.L.D with no explanation .
Or do those who are not online get a letter through the post ?
Regards

Im not sure how many TopUp TV subscribers have Gold, Anytime or Picturebox which has become neglected and withered away, dying a long slow death. They have tended to market it for people wanting Sky Sports and ESPN in recent years. So im guessing it must be a very small part of their market now. Sure they will piss off a few subscribers who may well leave, but it no longer their target market.

I thought TopUp TV subscribers were used to a 3rd rate "service"

Thanks for the suggestion television User, the only problem with Freesat is the need for a dish etc which would mean setting one up and running wires etc. into the house. As I live with my parents and my mother is ill she wouldn't be able to cope with the stress even for a few hours or a day of this sort, one big reason for taking TUTV. As it stands I will stay with them for as long as the service continues and hope for the best.

I emailed UKTV a couple days ago to ask if GOLD was heading for freeview and still haven't heard back. Interesting as last time I emailed them to ask if there where any plans to do this I heard back the same day. Could be wishful thinking on my part but we'll see.

I too have been with TUTV more or less since the start and must admit as the service has changed it has not improved. I think the big problem was always leasing channels from Channel 5. As their relationship has appeared to go down hill we're the one's to suffer. Of course if Sky Sport disappear (Because can TUTV afford the channels without BT?) then that would free up space for additional anytime or getting GOLD back (Again wishful thinking as the sports side seems to be the only thing they care about and to heck with the rest of us. All their own fault with poor service and no real support)

Much as I like the plus 1 service idea and have used it I still wish this hadn't happened until the New Year as at least we would get some, hopefully, good old Christmas repeats on GOLD to replace the boring normal repeats we get on the main channels.

Thanks TopUpTV I subscribe to all of your channels and now I cannot watch GOLD ...... this is a load of crap, plus last night got home from pub and wanted to watch one of those crappy programmes that you had downloaded to my box called "favourites" and every single one of the providers was greyed out and i couldn't watch them. But before someone says that i had not paid my subs i could still watch sky sports and ESPN and card info says i am upto date till jan 2012.

So what the f**k is going on they have 48 hours to sort this out or they lose £55.99 from me.

l now see the issues that you're dealing with, TV Time Mike, so you really need a minimum disruption option that doesn't involve extensive works by workmen.

BT Vision http://www.btvision.bt.com/ might be an option but it's pay-TV though doing a phone/internet/TV bundle thing might bring the cost down.

ln terms of zero subscription options, a Frevview+ PVR http://freeview.co.uk/Freeview-Plus would make the best use of what's on Freeview, and assuming that you have broadband, an internet TV http://www.samsung.com/uk/internet-tv/ will give you extra viewing choice and the least cost option is to make use of the free content on sites like TVcathup http://www.tvcatchup.com/channels.html and Blinkbox http://www.blinkbox.com/TV on a PC/laptop.

Good luck anyways.

Is Sam on line cos still no favourites available now well pixxed off

Hi Keith

I've replied to your PM - but you will need to call customer services. This sounds like something has happened on your account, it's a bit odd, but it's not something that they could sort out without talking to you.

You could send me your details if you wanted to and I could get someone to call you, but I'm out for a lot of the day so that would probably hold things up for you.

They open at 9am.

Cheers
Sam

New software 7.07 arrived today --- NOW I CAN'T ACCESS ANY OF MY G.O.L.D PROGRAMMES THEY ARE ALL GREYED OUT.
Regards

Couple of observations today.... All EPG listings for Picturebox have been removed from the TUTV 14 day EPG so looks like thats about to leave the service. Also noticed this morning between 7am and 8am TUTV were using both tuners for content meaning the box was unavailable to watch Freeview unless the content download was cancelled. One tuner was in use for the Anytime stream and the other pulling kids tv from freeview from pick of the week. IMO this is a bad move. Granted most people are in their beds between 7am and 8am on a Sunday morning but many are not. To render the DTR unavailable for freeview viewing at anytime is crazy.

Hiya

I've answered a couple of PMs on this, but just to reiterate that there are no changes being made to the Picturebox service. Bellboy - I'll ask someone to checkout the EPG issue tomorrow.

We will try and schedule the pick of the week recordings so that they don't clash with TV Favourites downloads, but that won't always be possible. So, your box will then ask you to decide between the two recordings or viewing live TV.

Cheers
Sam

Thanks for the info Sam..... Thought it was a bit strange as both www.topuptv.com and www.picturebox.tv were still retailing for TUTV customers.

Re Pick of The Week tuner contention..... Could all be avoided if content was coming from TUTV's own streams!!

Obviously TV favorites content wasn't bringing in the subs to make a business case for aquiring additional broadcast space and FIVE have forced the situation by taking back their capacity. Never the less I find it all very disappointing as the Anytime concept was a good idea and could have been made to work if the will/investment was there.

Looks like the money is all in live sport alas.

Or from Channel 5+1 after 6/12/11! Plus ITV3, 5* & 5 USA all on Mux A / SDN.

I also thought originally that PictureBox was closing down but it seems more likely that it's changing streams, which might explain the EPG.

Worse version of firmware yet.. getting sound loss, crashes, missed recordings...

why they have broadcast 7.07 as public (parents box picked up without forced) when its bugged to hell is beyond me.. just shows what a cowboy outfit topup is... but I guess all the time they have suckers to pay for a poor service they will continue!

Thank you again Television User. But to be honest we don't use the internet at home and don't have broadband etc. to be honest I think we could get it but I'm not that big an IT upto date person so TUTV seemed the dummies choice (easy to use and deal with) shame it's turned us into mugs!

But thank you again. I suspect that when (it doesn't seem much of an if anymore) TUTV goes off the air, gets bought out or whatever we'll need to look into it.

If any one is interested I had a reply from UKTV confirming what channels are freeview at this time and stating that they have no plans, at this time, to move GOLD freeview.

Well if they do could they please, please, please either put it on 6pm to 12 midnight without timesharing Yesterday or if they have to timeshare couldn't they do it with DAVE and run both 6pm to 12 midnight as most viewers I am sure are watching both of an evening ratehr than morning.

Yo never know hoping for it may make it true.

Good point ray.... If they stuck to mux a then only one tuner would be needed..... although the choice of content from these providers might be the final nail in the coffin of TUTV LOL

Not seeing any of these issues on my box PKC..... 7.07 appears stable to me.

I think you will find TopUpTv are trying another version of software later this week.

Are you a subscriber or not.. We are not, but find recording fail when the box is updating something (red circle on lcd flash comes on)

Friday we had 7 failed recordings.

Box has crashed and locked out more than 3 times.. (they need to add a disk check option, as crashes could cause bad disk blocks, which could be causing crashing).

Managed to get 3 records on epg at same time (Photos sent to Sam B).. reply was if 2 channels are on same mux you should be able to record more than 2 channels!

Email says they have reverted back to 7.04 (as this is now on update stream).. so 7.07 must have issues!

pkc
I just hope my boxes don't pick up the next "7.07a" as if this has problems I will not be able to revert to a working version as I already have 7.07 as the second image.
Interesting that your parent's box picked it up without being forced.

Regards

That's a very welcome improvement. When using a guard time and recording two successive programmes on the same channel, it's been very annoying that the box hasn't realised that it should be possible to record a programme on another channel that overlaps both of them.

You've misunderstood.

Its impossible to record 3 programmes with 2 tuners at the same time.. (2 on same mux, still needs two tuners..)

Yeah I am puzzled about that also.. Coz I thought the box had to be told (be it by remote signal or forced) that there is firmware ready...

It goes into the bank 'not' being used, so that wont be an issue.

You can't overwrite firmware that's in use.