Despite whatever you might be told by sales representatives or even the installation engineer, the Telsey FS6 Set Top Box provided by Tiscali does not support a HDMI cable connection to your TV .

I was assured by both that I could use a HDMI connection, and a visit to Telsey's own site confirmed that the STB can support this connection. The socket is present and a label on the underside of the box states "HDMI" in large letters.

I therefore purchased an HDMI cable - how do they justify such prices!

Needless to say, the connection doesn't work. I did not expect HD quality, but simply wanted to allow other a/v equipment to be connected to the scart ports on my TV.

Tech support have responded : "....we are unable to provide you with a set top box that can have an HDMI port."

I presume that this means that the new PVR box (available at an extra £50) also does not support HDMI connection.

The fact that Tiscali's software disables the HDMI socket seems analagous to buying a Ford Focus only to find that the retailer has decided to remove a ratio from the gearbox.

Otherwise, Tiscali seem to have a excellent product at a very good price. Why some sales staff found it necessary to mislead me is a mystery.

Unfortunately some people don't listen during training. I will feed this back to the sales team managers.

One quick point though (for everyone), try to stop thinking of this as a Telsey box and think of it as a Tiscali TV box. The data on the Telsey site relates to a Telsey STB, this this is not the stb we are using. Yes they make it for us, but to our specs. Yes, there is HDMI and Optical ports, but this is more likely because it's more expensive to have these removed than anything (manufacturing is a funny game).

I am slightly confused by this.
I have had my Telsey SF6 (Tiscali TV box) connected by only an HDMI lead to my plasma TV since I recieved the box back in September. It is not HDMI quality, however for some reason I do think it slightly better than when I swop it to a scart connection. This may well be just wishful thinking. However, there is no question that it works fine on my box. Now if I could have just one month where I get a correct bill and don't need to ring up, I will be happy.

Incidently, I do need to change the settings in the set up menu from scart to HDMI output.

This is quite correct, HDMI output option is available in the settings menu. Although I appreciate the contribution MK Brett has on this forum, it would be helpful if we have a Tiscali employee on here that actually uses Tiscali TV making them aware of our issues and not a Virgin Media subscriber(as in MK Brett's case).

fishywik: If you look at the Hello thread MK Brett is a Tiscali employee!

Thanks ched999uk

I am connected via hdmi with the same Telsey box installed this week. One thing is there doesn't seem to be any way to set the defintion/resolution. My tv shows the resolution as 1080i, maybe if your tv isn't compatable with this mode.

I am more confused than ever.

MK_Brett tells me that me that HDMI output is not available, yet Cookiemonster and Simplesi say that they have it working. I have the menu option to enable the HMDI connection yet it reverts to scart when the HDMI option is chosen.

In another thread, MK_Brett says the optical audio connection is not enabled, yet Simplesi has it working!

Go 0n MK_Brett - give Simplesi a job!

HDMI and Optical ports are not spec'd for TTV. I mentioned earlier, they are there and why. This does not mean they won't work. Just that we don't support them. HDMI does not show in HD because we do not have HD content.

This is strange as in the TV set up menu of the Tiscali TV software there is an option for HDMI, and this setting works (although it took me a while to realise that on my TV I had to manually tune to AV4 after I select HDMI, thought it would switch automatically).

Why would Tiscali add a HDMI option to there software when they dont support it, seems strange to me!

I understand that MK Brett is a Tiscali employee both from the Hello thread and the Tiscali forums on Tiscali's website. If you read my post again, my point is that MK Brett is an employee who subscribes to Virgin for TV, not Tiscali. Therefore MK Brett is not as familiar with the equipment as an employee who actually uses the service at home would be.

Fair point.
It would be great to have a Tiscali employee that has a very in depth knowledge of the TTV boxes. But at least we have a very helpful Tiscali TV employee that does actually post and help on the forums. I dont think that I have actually seen many other companies publically allow staff to assist on forums. I think its great to have MK Brett post here and long may he continue. I also think he will learn lots from the people posting on here that can be passed on to Tech support and maybe even get some idea of what people want from TTV long term, new features etc.

I know where you're coming from, but let me just say, I went to Virgin before TTV existed. I worked for VNL (Homechoice) before Tiscali, and my choice was limited to what was available in my area. HC was not available in my exchange, and at the time was a long way off the plan. Virgin was the best move from Orange (yuk) that was available, and I haven't looked back. I am looking to get TTV as soon as I can, but, and again it won't help, I don't have anything that uses HDMI or Optical. I am just a poor boy and my story's seldom told.. ops, I digress.
On the other hand, I still use the service every day as it's all around me at work .

It must be nice to see TTV at work,I've had it 2 weeks and aint seen a thing,it still don't work.

I would like to reiterate that I do value your input to this forum Brett. I appreciate TTV is very young and hopefully you will get it at home soon. I really hope that TTV is a national success as it is an excellent package in my opinion: Loads of VOD, fewer linear channels than Virgin/Sky but all ones I actually watch, a good picture quality on my 32" LCD, and very attractive pricing. I hope you get to a stage of being able to advertise the product soon and get those all important subscriber numbers up!

Keep up the good work Brett, it is nice to have you here

fishywik: Well said.