I thought I'd better introduce myself.
I work for Tiscali in many capacities. Part of my roll is to monitor the DS Tiscali TV forum and feedback or answer any queries as and when I can.
I can't offer a regular support slot here but I will be in here most days at some point or other to see what is going on.
It would be inappropriate of me to ask for anyone's details in here to offer further support if needed. If you do want our help, (and we need your details), you will need to register on the Tiscali Forums and post your request in the Tiscali TV forum. Please read the rules before doing so. The Tiscali TV forum is not a chat room, we will not tolerate thread high jacking so start your own thread.
(I say this here cause I know no one reads the rules ) The Tiscali Forum signup takes a few days to authenticate.
I will not detract from the great discussions that happen in here, and will try to contribute when I can.

PS - go easy on me this is not a license to a free for all
PPS - I can't offer support via PM either.

Hello, thanks for providing this service - it sounds very useful. Are we allowed to ask you questions about Tiscali? If so I have a few that I'd be grateful for help with:

-Is Tiscali planning to get the rights to send the channels it gets via freeview (eg +1s) over IPTV as well? I live in London but my freeview reception is terrible, so Tiscali has always been an attractive option for me. However I am getting concerned that they are now relying on freeview to deliver many of the channels, so that those without it are penalised. I think it is IPTV delivery that makes Tiscali unique.

-Further to the above, will it every be possible (with enough bandwidth) to send more than one channel at a time via IPTV? This would be needed if the PVR would be of use to me (to record an IPTV channel whilst watching another).

-Will we ever see subtitles, teletext and red button services on Tiscali?

-When will Homechoice customers be able to swap over to the new (cheaper) Tiscali bundles, and if we do will we still get the free catch-up service on 4OD?

-When will HC customers be offered the new box?

-Will ITV ever license ITV replay again?

-When HD comes, will it be really expensive?

That's all I can think of for now! If you are able to answer any of them, that would be really great. Cheers.

Just one question from me. Any plans in the works for an ADSL2+ rollout in the London area?

Just one question from me, how big is the VOD service?

I would also love to hear the answers to the above... and I wish Tiscali would add Living TV to the line up and add the new WB TV VOD channel that Virgin and BT Vision now carry.

I am a long-time Homechoice customer. When last I tried, I was refused membership of the Tiscali forums because my email address is Homechoice.co.uk.

Is this an oversight by Tiscali, or am I deliberately barred? I did email them a month or two ago asking this question but have received no reply.

Thanks for your presence

parthena

This is not an oversight, but just one of the phases of integration that hasn't finnished yet. In the mean time, you can sign up for a pay-as-you-go (dial-up) mail account on the Tiscali website. You can then register on the Tiscali forums.

Thanks for the info. I just checked my emails and found Tiscali's reply (it was August, doesn't time fly!):

Unfortunately your registration at Tiscali Forums did not meet our membership requirements. Therefore your registration was denied.

This was probably due to the inclusion of words that may be classed as offensive [ ] or your registration was not created using one of the following email addresses; Tiscali.co.uk, lineone.net, ukgateway.co.uk or screaming.net.

I was ever so miffed to see that other email addresses were OK but not Homechoice.

parthena

I called Tiscali to ask about the migration from Homechoice to Tiscali and the new Set Top Boxes. I was told that ex-Homechoice customers wouldn't have to pay anything but I'm seeing reports of £30 installation and/or £50 for the STB.
Could you tell us definitively if Homechoice customers will have to pay for the new STB and if yes, how much?
Thanks
Ems

lineone.net, ukgateway.co.uk or screaming.net - these are all tiscali email address which is why they are accepted. In time, the HC address will join this list.

Hi,
Here are some answers to the above questions. Whilst I felt it important to try to answer these, I cannot answer any similar questions as this is not what I'm here for.


Tiscali picks up freeview channels in addition to ADSL channels, not instead of them, for instance Dave channel is actually received via DSL not DTT as on Freeview.


We are always looking to improve products, and when new technologies come along we will assess how these can help our TV customers


We are always looking to improve the service and are aware that this would be of interest to customers.


Customers will be invited to do this between January and March 2008. 4oD catch up is available to all customers


Existing set top boxes will work with the Tiscali bundles. Once on the Tiscali bundles customers will be able to upgrade to Tiscali + (the pvr) like any other Tiscali customer


This is really a question for ITV as they control that service and currently it isn’t available anywhere.


I have no information on HD products or pricing but I’m sure it will be competitively priced if it’s launched


Tiscali are looking to deploy ADSL2+ where and when possible. More information should be available in the new year.


I think that about covers the majority of questions, as I said earlier, I can't field any more so please don't ask them.

Regards

Brett

Thanks very much Brett

Hi Brett, Thanks for your answers, could you answer my question please the one which asks how big is the VOD library,

Well, I guess it's about }---this big---{

Not realy sure what you want me to tell you, it has loads of content and it changes.
On the website it (www.tiscalitv.co.uk) says:
# Over 350 on demand programmes to watch whenever you want, such as Dr Who, Friends, Spooks, Panorama, Casualty and more.
# Instant access to over 1,000 movies on demand including favourite classics and the latest blockbusters.

Does this help?

I'll answer the question from a customer point of view.....

.....the VOD content is very very big and very impressive.

Yes thanks, pitty there wasn't more detail about how much content their is on offer, such as a bigger list of whats available

Edit: do you have any pictures of the menu's, I would like to see how they look please

I had no idea there was a WB ondemand channel. What shows does it carry?

I would also like Living, but perfer the whole VOD, thats the future rather than static TV watching.

Thanks Glenyb

VOD channels include:

C1
Movies now
VMX music channels
4oD
Take 2
Screen Gems
Discovery Lifestyle
Discovery Factual
Film 4 oD
Picture Box
Scamp
SCreenies
Bollywood on demand movies and music
The adult channels

programmes within those VOD channels at the moment include, Sex and the City, The Catherine Tate Show, Father Ted, Little Britain, Malcolm in the Middle, Life on Mars, Red Dwarf, Waking the Dead, Peep Show, Queers as Folk, Studio 60, Ugly Betty, Ali G , Green Wing, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angeles, the Monkees, Bewitched plus many many more!

Hello MK_Brett, could you post the Bit-Rates of the channels that are streamed over the phone-lines, thanks.

bumping the question

Thanks very much MK_Brett for giving me more information on my questions. I appreciate that you can't answer loads of new ones on top of that, but I think you have mostly covered what I wanted to know.

No, all I can say is arround 2.5 - 3 MB depending on whether you're watching VOD or broadcast channels. (VOD is lower than broadcast)

Thank You , as the saying goes "you (thats me) learn something new every day"

Do most channels on Tiscali TV run 24 hours? Also, will Virgin 1 become 24 hours?