UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

KenH · 01-06-2013 1:24pm

Synode wrote: »

Yeh I think mine is set to N only. I'll change it now. Cheers.

I'm not getting anywhere near 100mb on wireless at home. Before I got the horizon box I was easily getting 60-80mb on wireless on my IMac and Win7 laptop. Now its only 12-20mb. Been trying to get UPC the last few evenings but no joy. Will give them a buzz today

Try changing the channel. I get 38mb out of 50mb on channel 12....which is about what I was getting previously. (if this messes up your wifi, you'll need to connect via ethernet to change it back).

KenH · 01-06-2013 2:01pm

These settings increased my wifi from 38mb to 52mb:

Click on Wireless tab and go to Advanced wireless settings. Change the Beacon interval to 75, RTS threshold to 2307 and fragmentation threshold to 2306. Save the settings.

Just in case: Original settings are: 100, 2347 and 2346.

who_me · 01-06-2013 3:18pm

Just got the box today, and yikes! It's EXTREMELY buggy.

I'm getting random error messages popping up saying the box can't show TV channels, and messages saying the box can't access its hard disk when trying to pause/rewind. (Pausing/rewinding almost never works) The apps no longer appear, were working earlier. Tried turning the box off and on again, no joy.

The interface is a bit weird too:
No channel list.
No way of browsing the channels via info-bar (as we had with the old box).
Remote keyboard doesn't always work (thought it might be the orientation, but it just seems to not work occasionally.
Apps are in the "Now on TV" menu for some weird reason.
You can change Wifi settings and exit without saving, so I had to go looking for the Apply Changes option.
In a searchbox, you can't enter text and press Enter to search, Enter just hits whatever button has the keyboard focus. Instead you have to hit down..down..down.. and then Enter.
Some things needlessly require extra clicks, like to select apps, you need to select the Apps option, then select it again.
The IP address of the box shown in the UI isn't the IP address of the router gateway (though the correct one isn't hard to guess)
Trying to enter uppercase text is painfully awkward.
The search is a little confusing. It limits the keywords you can search for (it doesn't allow you to type words it doesn't recognise), and browsing the results isn't the simplest.

On the plus side, the channel-switching and the Guide are nice and quick. The apps were great, when they worked.. The broadband/Wifi performance is outstanding! I'm getting ~50Mbps when downloading via Wifi; with the old router I might see that in speed tests, but would only get ~20Mbps in downloads even on Ethernet.

(Funnily enough, I had 3 different speeds yesterday, started on 120Mbps, upgraded to 150Mbps as per the recent price increases, downgraded to 100Mbps when switching to Horizon).

KenH · 01-06-2013 4:22pm

Not seeing the bugs. You didn't put the card in the back of the box right?

Channel list: Do you mean the guide? That has a button on the remote.

Browse channels: Press Menu and then down/up to get a preview of other channels.

Keyboard has to be facing up and it can be locked (from working) with a button on the same side.

Apps can be brought up for the channel...to show information related to the program you're watching.

Yeah, the UI designers love to press buttons.

who_me wrote: »

Just got the box today, and yikes! It's EXTREMELY buggy.

I'm getting random error messages popping up saying the box can't show TV channels, and messages saying the box can't access its hard disk when trying to pause/rewind. (Pausing/rewinding almost never works) The apps no longer appear, were working earlier. Tried turning the box off and on again, no joy.

The interface is a bit weird too:
No channel list.
No way of browsing the channels via info-bar (as we had with the old box).
Remote keyboard doesn't always work (thought it might be the orientation, but it just seems to not work occasionally.
Apps are in the "Now on TV" menu for some weird reason.
You can change Wifi settings and exit without saving, so I had to go looking for the Apply Changes option.
In a searchbox, you can't enter text and press Enter to search, Enter just hits whatever button has the keyboard focus. Instead you have to hit down..down..down.. and then Enter.
Some things needlessly require extra clicks, like to select apps, you need to select the Apps option, then select it again.
The IP address of the box shown in the UI isn't the IP address of the router gateway (though the correct one isn't hard to guess)
Trying to enter uppercase text is painfully awkward.
The search is a little confusing. It limits the keywords you can search for (it doesn't allow you to type words it doesn't recognise), and browsing the results isn't the simplest.

On the plus side, the channel-switching and the Guide are nice and quick. The apps were great, when they worked.. The broadband/Wifi performance is outstanding! I'm getting ~50Mbps when downloading via Wifi; with the old router I might see that in speed tests, but would only get ~20Mbps in downloads even on Ethernet.

(Funnily enough, I had 3 different speeds yesterday, started on 120Mbps, upgraded to 150Mbps as per the recent price increases, downgraded to 100Mbps when switching to Horizon).

Hootanany · 01-06-2013 9:15pm

Gone beyond a joke now have to turn off the box every Time it freezes it happens quite a lot 3/4 times a day looking for my subriction back now.

01-06-2013 9:19pm

Anyone lose sound on the Disney Channel? No sound on horizon but on my other box its fine.

patrykeith · 01-06-2013 9:41pm

Hootanany wrote: »

Gone beyond a joke now have to turn off the box every Time it freezes it happens quite a lot 3/4 times a day looking for my subriction back now.

Im in the same situation . Told I was getting new box. When guy from upc came he didnt have box and said he didnt know much about horizon. He was sound but not up to date. Still turning off box 3/4 times a day

bob11 · 03-06-2013 12:54pm

Anyone else having problems with series link on Horizon?

I just notices that last night's "the fall" wasn't recorded even though it was on series link and the first 3 episodes were recorded ...

When I check my planned events, only 1 series linked show is left, when I had about 6 planned to be recorded ..

A bit of a pain to say the least ..

paulboland · 03-06-2013 9:35pm

Horizon on demand bbc favourites and more uk favourites
not working
error code 8010
rest of demand working anyone else getting this

kippy · 03-06-2013 9:48pm

Was away for a couple of days.
When I got back the time was wrong on the box, turns out the box had "hung" at 16:04 either today or yesterday...... required a reset using the button on the back of the box.

Later on in the evening, when an ondemand program finished box was unresponsive requireing another restart (this may have been a remote control issue) but appears to be hanging again.

Added to the other "hanging" issues requiring a restart mentioned earlier in this thread does not bode well for me to be honest.
Gonna call UPC to report the issues I've had in the next couple of days.

Sinemo · 03-06-2013 10:08pm

paulboland wrote: »

Horizon on demand bbc favourites and more uk favourites
not working
error code 8010
rest of demand working anyone else getting this

I got this error and rang UPC. They said they had to remove all the BBC/ UK on demand boxsets and will put them back up in the next week or so....

paulboland · 03-06-2013 10:16pm

Sinemo wrote: »

I got this error and rang UPC. They said they had to remove all the BBC/ UK on demand boxsets and will put them back up in the next week or so....

Thanks for info

paulboland · 03-06-2013 10:50pm

youtube videos in hd today lot of lagging and video stopping
is it the horizon router or is it just problem with youtue server itself

patrickc · 03-06-2013 10:53pm

Sinemo wrote: »

I got this error and rang UPC. They said they had to remove all the BBC/ UK on demand boxsets and will put them back up in the next week or so....

they didnt know anything about the above when I rang today, they said the horizon team would call me tomorrow on it, and it may be a hard drive issue.

we'll see what they say when they call tomorrow

seanie27 · 04-06-2013 10:06am

Record function on Horizon app now working for me on the Horizon box. Great news. Not sure if already discussed. Apologies if so.

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 10:22am

Just looked I still cant set a program to be recorded via the online Tv Guide

grindle · 04-06-2013 10:28am

paulboland wrote: »

youtube videos in hd today lot of lagging and video stopping
is it the horizon router or is it just problem with youtue server itself

It's a problem with the way the majority of ISPs treat the main YT servers, staggering when under load.

Google "how to make YouTube load faster windows" and one of the top results should give information on how to blacklist that address in the command-line and it serves from the alternatives (much faster).

seanie27 · 04-06-2013 10:35am

ChrisSmets wrote: »

Just looked I still cant set a program to be recorded via the online Tv Guide

I'm using the app on my iphone. Working fine. haven't tried the PC web site online guide yet.

Ok Just set a bunch of stuff to record via the web site and via the app.

We wait and see.

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 11:07am

seanie27 wrote: »

I'm using the app on my iphone. Working fine. haven't tried the PC web site online guide yet.

Go figure 2 years into it and they have YET to release an app for the dominant mobile phone OS... Been getting kickbacks from the Holy Hill (Apple Ireland's HQ) crowd Upc? Seriously tho, if it hadn't been for the sky nonsense of having to have an active phoneline I would have gone back to Sky as they do have an android app.

lynchie · 04-06-2013 11:13am

kippy wrote: »

Was away for a couple of days.
When I got back the time was wrong on the box, turns out the box had "hung" at 16:04 either today or yesterday...... required a reset using the button on the back of the box.

Later on in the evening, when an ondemand program finished box was unresponsive requireing another restart (this may have been a remote control issue) but appears to be hanging again.

Added to the other "hanging" issues requiring a restart mentioned earlier in this thread does not bode well for me to be honest.
Gonna call UPC to report the issues I've had in the next couple of days.

Had the same issue. Box hung at 05:20 on Monday morning. Internet was still working fine but tv was not working. Only solution was to power cycle it. Happened again last night at 19:45 while watching a tv show the signal went dead and box and remote were unresponsive yet internet / phone still working.

Synode · 04-06-2013 11:28am

ChrisSmets wrote: »

Go figure 2 years into it and they have YET to release an app for the dominant mobile phone OS...

I'd have thought IOS is by far the more dominant market in Ireland.

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 11:46am

Synode wrote: »

I'd have thought IOS is by far the more dominant market in Ireland.

Couldnt find exact figures for Ireland but worldwide Android has about 55% of the market in hands and iOS about 35% and the rest is badu/BB/WPOS/Nokia's old os.

Synode · 04-06-2013 11:48am

Yes but in Ireland I'd say iOS is ahead (probably not for much longer though)

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 11:50am

Synode wrote: »

Yes but in Ireland I'd say iOS is way ahead

Couple years ago for sure but these days (down here in Cork) I see more and more Samsung mobe's and HTC's... If not now soon our Google Uberlords will dominate the mobe's market...

seanie27 · 04-06-2013 12:20pm

Ok all the recordings set via the app and the web site have worked fine.
Android app on the way sometime during the summer I heard from a poster on this thread... I think. My understanding is that it's easier/quicker to roll out the ios version (particuallry with launch version) first than having to contend with the headache of android's slightly more involved coding or whatever. Not an expert here just repeating what i've read. netherlands, Swiss and german UPC app launch was also on Ios so ireland just following the trend.

goose06 · 04-06-2013 12:35pm

seanie27 wrote: »

Ok all the recordings set via the app and the web site have worked fine.
Android app on the way sometime during the summer I heard from a poster on this thread... I think. My understanding is that it's easier/quicker to roll out the ios version (particuallry with launch version) first than having to contend with the headache of android's slightly more involved coding or whatever. Not an expert here just repeating what i've read. netherlands, Swiss and german UPC app launch was also on Ios so ireland just following the trend.

Iphones have standardised Hardware & OS. Android devices are all different from different companies so it's a hell of a lot harder to Develope & QA apps for android devices

seanie27 · 04-06-2013 1:16pm

goose06 wrote: »

Iphones have standardised Hardware & OS. Android devices are all different from different companies so it's a hell of a lot harder to Develope & QA apps for android devices

Much more eloquently put.

who_me · 04-06-2013 1:30pm

KenH wrote: »

Not seeing the bugs. You didn't put the card in the back of the box right?

Channel list: Do you mean the guide? That has a button on the remote.

Browse channels: Press Menu and then down/up to get a preview of other channels.

Keyboard has to be facing up and it can be locked (from working) with a button on the same side.

Apps can be brought up for the channel...to show information related to the program you're watching.

Yeah, the UI designers love to press buttons.

I didn't know about pressing up & down in the Menu to preview other channels, thanks! As for the Guide, no I meant just a popup channel list (the HD UPC box didn't have one, older boxes did) which is a lot faster to appear and select from than the Guide.

Oddly enough, most of the issues mentioned no longer occur after the initial day or two. No "can't access hard drive" or problems with the Apps not appearing.

Quite a few new issues I noticed though:
The last two days, the box powered on but with no video or audio. Had to reboot to get them back.
A few freezes, requiring reboots.
Signal breaks up or freezes completely, switching channels always fixes it.
Reminders never work.
Radio channels listed but can't be 'viewed'.
The Daily Motion app is extremely buggy, pretty much unusuable.

I think the main usability thing that I find annoying is exiting out of the menus, it's a little inconsistent:
Hitting the 'Live TV' button exists you out of the menus, except if you're in the Apps section or Channel Menu, then it merely changes channel without exiting the menu.
Hitting 'Back' repeatedly exits you out of the menus, except if you're in the On Demand section where you get stuck in a menu loop.
Hitting 'Back' to get out of the Channel Menu (the menu that appears if you hit Back) often takes you to the Guide rather than back to the TV.

It's a pity there isn't one button that will always take you back to watching the current channel, 100% of the time.

Tazzer · 04-06-2013 1:37pm

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/upc-plans-major-software-update-for-horizon-box--943374

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/horizon-hit-by-fresh-woes-caused-by-software-update--947166

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/upc-to-offer-customers-alternative-to-horizon-box--938914

All relates to Holland, but wonder is the box the same one that we have.

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 2:48pm

Tazzer wrote: »

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/upc-plans-major-software-update-for-horizon-box--943374

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/horizon-hit-by-fresh-woes-caused-by-software-update--947166

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/upc-to-offer-customers-alternative-to-horizon-box--938914

All relates to Holland, but wonder is the box the same one that we have.

The first link talks about the remote we already have... So maybe we already have the advanced version... Dont know anyone in the Netherlands who i can ask for some pics...

patrickmooney · 04-06-2013 3:18pm

Anyone else notice new apps appearing including AA/Picasa and Google Maps.

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 3:39pm

might check tonite but tbh i dont really care for the apps

Synode · 04-06-2013 3:43pm

A Netflix app would be great.

Meesared · 04-06-2013 3:50pm

Synode wrote: »

A Netflix app would be great.

Would be nice, but it won't happen, would compete with UPC's own On Demand service.

kippy · 04-06-2013 3:52pm

Meesared wrote: »

Would be nice, but it won't happen, would compete with UPC's own On Demand service.

Would it really?
I don't think it does to be honest.........

One could argue that Youtube does the same.........

Meesared · 04-06-2013 3:54pm

kippy wrote: »

Would it really?
I don't think it does to be honest.........

One could argue that Youtube does the same.........

YouTube isn't supposed to have full TV shows. That's why its there.

kippy · 04-06-2013 4:01pm

Meesared wrote: »

YouTube isn't supposed to have full TV shows. That's why its there.

Yeah, but it does......it has tonnes of kids shows as well that are all on their "on demand" menu..........

Netflix is an additional cost per month. (I realise you need a specific subscription for UPC on demand but it is essentially included in the cost). It doesn't in my opinion provide a competitor to UPC as you have essentially paid UPC once you can see the netflix app there. If you want to pay more than that is your problem.

If UPC are that concerned about competing products I would suggest that they would have shown far more imputus in blocking torrents on their networks, than they have had.

I wouldnt be surprised if netflix appeared there at some point.

Meesared · 04-06-2013 4:13pm

kippy wrote: »

Yeah, but it does......it has tonnes of kids shows as well that are all on their "on demand" menu..........

Netflix is an additional cost per month. (I realise you need a specific subscription for UPC on demand but it is essentially included in the cost). It doesn't in my opinion provide a competitor to UPC as you have essentially paid UPC once you can see the netflix app there. If you want to pay more than that is your problem.

If UPC are that concerned about competing products I would suggest that they would have shown far more imputus in blocking torrents on their networks, than they have had.

I wouldnt be surprised if netflix appeared there at some point.

Still can't see it happening, can't argue it wouldn't be nice though.

ian_mul · 04-06-2013 4:26pm

Sorry if this has already been discussed but the thread is very long and I don't have time to go through it all.

I've been having issues connecting my Apple devices wirelessly to my MAC mini and also won't allow me to Air Print. Does anyone know of a resolution to this problem or if the horizon box supports Bonjour?

So_Fresh · 04-06-2013 4:41pm

Is it possible to stream content from netflix on the horizon box?

ChrisSmets · 04-06-2013 4:44pm

- If you could install a n/f app on it perhaps but as this is not the case nope

who_me · 04-06-2013 4:51pm

patrickmooney wrote: »

Anyone else notice new apps appearing including AA/Picasa and Google Maps.

Just got my box on Friday, and those apps were there, didn't realise they were new. Picasa works ok, but is fairly buggy. Lots of images appear in the thumbnails, but can't be previewed.

I don't really get the point of the Google Maps app as it is. You can search for your street and thus set your home location; and search for directions. But there's no way - that I could see, of panning around/zooming/street view as you have in the website or mobile apps.

I really like the apps, especially WikiTivia. Quite handy popping that up while watching a movie, if you want to read about it, or missed the beginning. And it looks like more will be added. My only minor qualm is they could make it a bit quicker to get to the apps, as it stands it takes at least 5 button presses to get to any app.

cronolly · 04-06-2013 10:21pm

ian_mul wrote: »

Sorry if this has already been discussed but the thread is very long and I don't have time to go through it all.

I've been having issues connecting my Apple devices wirelessly to my MAC mini and also won't allow me to Air Print. Does anyone know of a resolution to this problem or if the horizon box supports Bonjour?

I have the same problem. AirPlay printer can't be found by devices anymore. It worked fine on old setup. Not sure if it is supported.

ChrisSmets · 05-06-2013 6:33am

the old upc modem didnt support wireless printing...

who_me · 05-06-2013 11:10am

Noticed the Horizon has the same problem I had with my previous HD box. If I turn if off, and turn in on again a short while later, it'll turn on perfectly.

But when it's left off overnight, then some time in the wee hours of the morning the box boots up, does something, and shuts off again. After that, the box won't turn on properly - the old HD box would just show video flickering on and off (unable to sync with the AV receiver?), while the new Horizon box just shows a blank screen (actually slightly green!?!)

JoeyJJ · 05-06-2013 12:25pm

Last couple of times I used the media player, the box frooze and needed a reboot, right pain in the ass that.

05-06-2013 2:04pm

ChrisSmets wrote: »

the old upc modem didnt support wireless printing...

I have been using a wireless HP 7200 printer for months with no issues.

paulboland · 05-06-2013 2:13pm

JoeyJJ wrote: »

Last couple of times I used the media player, the box frooze and needed a reboot, right pain in the ass that.

make sure you did not do scan of devices library
if you did you will have to do a factory reset with important part DONT keep previous settings
then after setup finishes go to library devices and search in the devices folders best way
its a known problem with horizon box it will freeze if you when setting up home network you say yes to scan and add to library

factory reset don't keep any settings
Playing videos from your computer will still work and any external hard drives you have connected to your computer
windows media player library streaming works great
Use windows media player library add folders files etc to windows media player library and set to auto allow devices that's on your computer
DONT EVER ADD TO LIBRARY ON HORIZON
and to make it play all formats install on your computer shark007 codecs 32bit and if your pc is 64bit
install shark007 32bit first you must install 32bit first
then install 64bit add on
works great

MrVestek · 05-06-2013 3:42pm

goose06 wrote: »

Iphones have standardised Hardware & OS. Android devices are all different from different companies so it's a hell of a lot harder to Develope & QA apps for android devices

As a former Android dev, this isn't true. The Android OS as of version 4 is quite capable of scaling apps for different devices. Besides all you're doing is implementing basic DRM with streaming, even the lowest end device clocked at 600mhz could achieve that.

paulboland · 05-06-2013 5:13pm

Horizon wireless 5GHZ
Its disabled
With no option to turn on
Does any UPC Rep know if there are any plans to enable this as its bit of a waste not having this usable
Some customers will have wireless 5ghz on pc built in or from wireless usb dongle
iPhone 5 has both 2.4 and 5 GHZ
Most new wireless have both and would give customer a choice how there devices are wireless connected

UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

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