Previously there was a link from the Homechoice site to a package comparison and phone number checker for Tiscali TV on the Tiscali website. Now the Homechoice site just asks you to ring the sales team. Isn't this a remarkable lack of publicity on Tiscali's part for a Tiscali-branded service that was supposed to have been launched in March? Do they think the service is not yet good enough to let loose on the general public and Tiscali bb customers? Are they waiting till they launch the PVR? What is going on?

Maybe they're trying to come up with a better name for the service than "Tiscali TV."

Homechoice has a nice ring to it, they might consider calling it that...

They could be waiting for a number of things: the next-generation set top box, roll-out in areas outside London, development of new services, etc, etc. That said, it does seem to be taking rather a long time...

I am currently trialing a new set top box, for the next 3 months!

All I can say is its big, its ugly, and the power supply unit is like a tank! Also the modem is no longer built into the box either!

No new TV services or HD tests or PVR facility as yet either. All that's new is the box!

Any chance of pictures?

No pictures of my set up but here is the link to the set top box makers

http://www.telsey.com/products/produ...pid=892&fid=13

any charnce you can take a few pic's for us back and front and post them up somewhere with a link?
we would be greatfull

tw

I am not surprised there are no new services, they should be making sure the new set top box works in the field with existing services before adding anything new, that's just good practise. Maybe this one has the capability for new services and they will trial these soon too.

it's still on the tiscali main site

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/br...ode=ZZ-NL-11EE

I see the STB supports Opera. As this is a trial, we shouldn't assume it will be selected. However.. its Italian, like Tiscali.

Edit:

Italian company Telsey S.p.A. designs, develops and manufacturers IPTV set-top boxes. IPTV providers Telecom Italia, Fastweb and Tiscali have all used Telsey's line of products in their rollouts. Telsey's WAVES Product Family offers support for High Definition TV, MPEG4, Digital Terrestrial integration and PVR capabilities.

http://www.tvover.net/IPTV+Products+Solutions.aspx

Any chance of unscrewing the casing and seeing if there is a hard drive inside? Does it have any other connections, I am assuming component or HDMI for HD? Also anything like a USB for getting that precious PVR content off the box?

Looking at the Telsey link any sign of an RF in for analogue/digital aerial signal? Any Telsey identifier code on the chassis?

The HDD has to be attached externally by USB. Messy but might be user upgradable and.. big.

Yuck. External modem. External Hard Drive. Its going to be wire-tastic.

Part of Homechoice's appeal lies in the compact and good-looking box. Extra features may gain them subscribers, but a messy heap of wires and ugly boxes will certainly lose them some!

I guess one advantage is that if I can disconnect that hard drive I should be able to read and access the content on my PC. Even if some bright spark needs to write a piece of software to make it 'readable'.

I assume then that when tiscali/homechoice get around to replacing these boxes they will be supplying the modems too. if not i'll keep my old one thanks. i dont use the TV service so certainly dont need some ugly brute of a thing.

currently my stb sits tucked away under my computer desk.

since the takeover by tiscali, the website is a mess, CS dont have a clue ( though they never did). my bill has been incorrect every month ( im supposed to be on line rental and anytime calls as part of my package, something ive had for over a year with HC, yet for the past 2 months theres been no line rental or calls on my package, yet i still have a working phone so who knows whos paying for the calls and rental! )

BB service has also been lousy with 7 outages in the past 2 months , 3 of which were for pretty much a full day, and speed wise i used to get a stable 7.6meg connection , now im lucky if i get 6.5megs despite several calls, and at one point i struggles to get above 2 meg due to them capping my service for no apparant reason.

so far the tiscali takeover has been nothing new, same old excuses, same old lousy service, in fact if anything its got worse, i just woner whats going to be the next thing that takes a drop in service, because so far its been pretty rubbish

Why on earth do you put up with such a poor service?

I've had maybe 3-4 one hour outages over several years. I've never had capping either. You must be very close to the exchange to get 7.6meg.

i still have the service because unlike others im in an area where homechoice is the only option ( apart from sky which is truely awful).

as for close to the exchage im around 100 yards away and when i first went to 8 meg on homechoice i was actually getting 8.1 meg ( homechoice actually have 2 attenuation settings low is around 7.4 meg, high is at 8.6 meg) and though im currenty on the higher one gradually my line speed has decreased bit by bit until its got to the stage where i dont get above 7 meg

I thought it was impossible to get above 7.2Mbit because of the 10% overhead on a 8meg line?

With such a short run and an obviously good line, the service should be more reliable than it is. Why are you getting so many problems?

I can't answer for him, but am also close to the exchange and am often down for several days at a time, at least every month. They've clearly got some DSLAM problems which aren't easily fixed. Each time the fault has to be raised to BT and it takes at least a day, usually three to get fixed. It's totally shoddy...

i suspect half the problems if not all with the line speed is the switch over to tiscali. im wondering if the conention ratio has changed which would affect speeds.

also to be noted is the 10% overhead is the reason hc have a higher cap of 8.6 though this can cause instability. a problem i never had until HC switched to Tiscali.

All i know is that since the switch the service and quality has taken a down turn over hc, which in the 3 years or more i was with them really only suffered from lousy tech and customer support but BB service wise i couldnt fault.

I think you can still sign up for tiscali tv here:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/nm...tering/tv.html