Horizon TV- Awful?

SteM · 22-09-2014 10:43am

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Doing it continually when you're not even a user of the product anymore is!!!!

I have horizon at home until they pick the box up on 4th October so I am a user until then.

SteM · 22-09-2014 10:45am

former legend wrote: »

Where did I use the term? I'm just pointing out that you don't get balance on internet forums.

Attributing arguments to other people that they did not make, well that's a sure sign of a keyboard warrior.

Then why even quote my original post, why not just reply in general?

SteM · 22-09-2014 10:47am

beauf wrote: »

What are you paying in total for BB, Phone and TV

For UPC only before VS UPC+Sky now.

Before:
My €88 for Horizon, phone and broadband. No sports or movies.

Now:
€44 for UPC w/ BB + Phone
€43 for Sky w/ movies and sport

beauf · 22-09-2014 11:26am

You got a terrible deal on the Horizon package. I get BB/Phone/TV for 50 ish.

What Modem are you using for the UPC now. I got a TC7200 included in mine to bypass the Horizon box. Though I didn't find that great either, so I just use my old WiFi Router.

icdg · 22-09-2014 11:29am

stop sniping at each other and stay on topic please

SteM · 22-09-2014 11:36am

beauf wrote: »

You got a terrible deal on the Horizon package. I get BB/Phone/TV for 50 ish.

What Modem are you using for the UPC now. I got a TC7200 included in mine to bypass the Horizon box. Though I didn't find that great either, so I just use my old WiFi Router.

I got the only deal they would offer me and I was one of the original Horizon trialists.

The wi-fii on the box was poor and eventually gave up the ghost so a few months so they sent me out a router - I think it's a cisco but I'd have to check - and the signal on that is rock solid. Night and day between that and wi-fi on the Horizon box.

Again, for a new product the wi-fi is so poor it's incredible. As someone that works from home occasionally the wi-fi would drop 4 or 5 times during day cutting off my VPN access. The new router rarely drops the signal in the same way - maybe once every few days I choose to work from home.

beauf · 22-09-2014 11:46am

Mines faster than the old Atlanta modem. But it drops out far more often. Nearly prefer the old set up.

I find the difference in pricing annoying. Shouldn't have to barter prices for these services. No reason why someone should be paying twice someone else for exactly the same thing. Mine has discounts from when they changed the contracts, we could negotiate them then.

If they want me to pay full price next year, I won't be doing it. I might go BB only and Free TV.

It far too much hassle and grief for something that be simple. I'd nearly downgrade just not to have the hassle of dealing with them.

mfceiling · 22-09-2014 10:53pm

ps200306 wrote: »

I agree with this. Spent a dozen years with Eircom broadband and Sky TV before switching to UPC a couple of years ago. Upgraded to Horizon a year ago. It would take more than a few niggles to make me forget what a desperate experience Eircom was. Yes, the UPC TV functionality has a few glitches, and the wireless broadband coverage is poor (fixed with a network extender). But it's fairly flawless 120 Mb broadband (compared to a maximum of 2.5 that Eircom could provide even when I was paying for 8), and I've got HD TV which Sky wanted extra per month for. It's not cheap and it's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than anything I've ever had.

Surely when you buy/rent a service it should be fit for purpose.

We are repeatedly told that "Horizon" is the last word in television/broadband that you can get, yet you had to buy a network extender (paid for by you) to get the Horizon box to complete the task it claims it can do.

I can't get a wireless signal when i move about 12 - 15 metres from my Horizon box. The last UPC router i had worked fine throughout my last house. When my wife rang to get Horizon installed she was given a spiel on the phone about how Horizon was the best piece of technology for tv/broadband that is on the market. Now she has realised that it's not anything close to what it claims.

If you bought a new car and then had to buy a separate steering wheel would you be happy? I doubt it...

ps200306 · 22-09-2014 11:25pm

mfceiling wrote: »

Surely when you buy/rent a service it should be fit for purpose.

We are repeatedly told that "Horizon" is the last word in television/broadband that you can get, yet you had to buy a network extender (paid for by you) to get the Horizon box to complete the task it claims it can do.

I can't get a wireless signal when i move about 12 - 15 metres from my Horizon box. The last UPC router i had worked fine throughout my last house. When my wife rang to get Horizon installed she was given a spiel on the phone about how Horizon was the best piece of technology for tv/broadband that is on the market. Now she has realised that it's not anything close to what it claims.

If you bought a new car and then had to buy a separate steering wheel would you be happy? I doubt it...

Listen, the rhetorical questions are pointless. I've said above that the wireless situation is RUBBISH. So, should I go back to Eircom, to whom I paid €25 line rental plus €48 broadband per month for a decade for 0.5 Mbps "broadband", eventually topping out at 2.5 Mb on an allegedly 8 Mb line which they wouldn't even look at, except to say that I must have a problem with my house wiring (which I didn't). *That* sort of intransigence is a showstopper. Seventy lids for a powerline adapter to cure wireless problems is a minor inconvenience by comparison. I wouldn't take Eircom back if it was free. I now get 55 Mbps over WiFi and 120 Mbps over ethernet. It took Eircom a decade to give a x5 speed increase. UPC gave me another x50 on day one.

And while I'm at it, I've been using various "broadbands" at a rural location for a decade too. How about €1,500 installation cost and €120/month for 0.5 Mbps Ku-band satellite? Or three years with packet radio from a local cowboy provider that never worked and was more off than on, finishing with a rancorous dispute via ComReg? Or cellular data that works ok when you purchase a data add-on but silently reverts to €190/gigabyte when you run out? Or non-starters Eircom, who ADSL-enabled the local exchange and then wouldn't replace the run of decades-old wire up the boreen so anyone could get it!

Broadband provision in Ireland is a minefield. If you don't know that, you've been living somewhere else. UPC has its problems. It is also the most nearly flawless system I've ever used. There is no contradiction in those two statements.

dohboy · 24-09-2014 1:16am

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I switched from Eircom and Sky to UPC a couple of weeks ago, mainly for the broadband. I was a bit concerned about some of the negative stuff on here but on closer examination I realised that a lot of the negativity came from a very small number of repeat posters.

So for a more accurate picture I went and asked a few of my neighbours and work colleagues. Apart from minor niggles they were all happy so I went ahead.

There were two minor delays in getting everything up and running but otherwise I'm glad I made the switch. I have the latest Horizon box which I like and the broadband is very fast and reliable.

Talk to real people in your area and don't base decisions on a few keyboard warriors.

Agreed. On this forum it reads like getting the Horizon box is the akin to inviting the anti-christ into your home. In reality, it's grand.

who_me · 24-09-2014 2:27pm

mfceiling wrote: »

Surely when you buy/rent a service it should be fit for purpose.

We are repeatedly told that "Horizon" is the last word in television/broadband that you can get, yet you had to buy a network extender (paid for by you) to get the Horizon box to complete the task it claims it can do.

I can't get a wireless signal when i move about 12 - 15 metres from my Horizon box. The last UPC router i had worked fine throughout my last house. When my wife rang to get Horizon installed she was given a spiel on the phone about how Horizon was the best piece of technology for tv/broadband that is on the market. Now she has realised that it's not anything close to what it claims.

If you bought a new car and then had to buy a separate steering wheel would you be happy? I doubt it...

You're right, it should be better (particularly from UPC's point of view as it gives people a bad impression of their flagship service - fast broadband). But it isn't, and UPC can't reverse-engineer a better router into a consolidated box. You'd have every right to ask for your money back, but if you want UPC's broadband then just buying a better Wifi router is the easiest option.

Personally, the consolidated option raises a number of issues, so it'd never work for me anyhow. They probably opted for no antennae because people wouldn't want them in a set-top box, but that impacts coverage and performance. Being consolidated also means you can't just update the Wifi without replacing the entire box. Want 5GHz, MIMO, or even AC Wifi? Good luck. I bought a good dual-band N router with MIMO and am getting up to 150Mbps over Wifi - I didn't want to spend that money but I ended up with a better service than anything any ISP would provide for free.

ps200306 · 24-09-2014 3:52pm

who_me wrote: »

Personally, the consolidated option raises a number of issues, so it'd never work for me anyhow. They probably opted for no antennae because people wouldn't want them in a set-top box, but that impacts coverage and performance. Being consolidated also means you can't just update the Wifi without replacing the entire box. Want 5GHz, MIMO, or even AC Wifi? Good luck. I bought a good dual-band N router with MIMO and am getting up to 150Mbps over Wifi - I didn't want to spend that money but I ended up with a better service than anything any ISP would provide for free.

It is possible to bridge to the Horizon box to use alternative WiFi. Switch off the wireless on the Horizon but let it keep on doing the routing and DHCP. Leave your own wireless router in bridge mode. I thought I'd read that this could cause problems with UPC's phone service but it didn't for me (maybe that happens if you let your own WiFi do routing too). I did have a different annoying problem -- whenever the Horizon box got an automatic update it switched the wireless back on. In any case, it didn't fix my problem because I had bad wireless interference whichever WiFi and channels I used. So I needed a powerline adapter anyway.

Wabbit Ears · 24-09-2014 5:03pm

Lots of people have hooked up 3rd party wifi access points or you can even use an old UPC or ASDL wireless router. You just disable DHCP on the modem and hook it up to one of the LAN ports. You can disable the horizon WIFI in the web gui, http://192.168.192.1 admin/admin

There really in no rhyme or reason to put anything in bridge mode to achieve this.

24-09-2014 5:16pm

dohboy wrote: »

Agreed. On this forum it reads like getting the Horizon box is the akin to inviting the anti-christ into your home. In reality, it's grand.

Go have a look at the "talk to UPC" forum to get an accurate view of the horizon box. It should never have been released in the state its in, and should have been rectified immediately when they realised the scale of some of the problems. Instead it's taken 18 months to release a "series delete" button. And thats it.

mfceiling · 24-09-2014 10:15pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Go have a look at the "talk to UPC" forum to get an accurate view of the horizon box. It should never have been released in the state its in, and should have been rectified immediately when they realised the scale of some of the problems. Instead it's taken 18 months to release a "series delete" button. And thats it.

If i see craig doyle's smug head telling us about "horizon's" magnificent abilities, i'll stick my boot through the box...

IrlMonk · 24-09-2014 10:36pm

mfceiling wrote: »

If i see craig doyle's smug head telling us about "horizon's" magnificent abilities, i'll stick my boot through the box...

Hahaha....
I think it's false advertisement to be honest. And they deny all the issues. Another company would be pulled up.
Thank god I switched to Sky :-) hahaha.....

ps200306 · 25-09-2014 12:02am

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Lots of people have hooked up 3rd party wifi access points or you can even use an old UPC or ASDL wireless router. You just disable DHCP on the modem and hook it up to one of the LAN ports. You can disable the horizon WIFI in the web gui, http://192.168.192.1 admin/admin

There really in no rhyme or reason to put anything in bridge mode to achieve this.

Sorry, you're right, I abused the word "bridge". Just stick your additional box on the same network as the Horizon.

Wabbit Ears · 25-09-2014 3:53pm

sorry yea, Give the modem an IP in the 192.168.192.x range as it will probably have a 192.168.1.z or 192.168.0.x address.

who_me · 25-09-2014 4:56pm

ps200306 wrote: »

It is possible to bridge to the Horizon box to use alternative WiFi. Switch off the wireless on the Horizon but let it keep on doing the routing and DHCP. Leave your own wireless router in bridge mode. I thought I'd read that this could cause problems with UPC's phone service but it didn't for me (maybe that happens if you let your own WiFi do routing too). I did have a different annoying problem -- whenever the Horizon box got an automatic update it switched the wireless back on. In any case, it didn't fix my problem because I had bad wireless interference whichever WiFi and channels I used. So I needed a powerline adapter anyway.

Yeah, annoyingly the built-in Wifi keeps on turning itself back on again. I never use it, but it'd be nice to have it permanently off and not conflicting with the numerous Wifi networks in our apartment block.

I also tried a powerline for a while, and was quite happy with it, but with a decent N router I'm getting higher speeds (maxing out around 100Mbps on Powerline, up to 150Mbps on Wifi). I'd have hoped we'd have seen improved Powerline adaptors by now, supporting actual download speeds of 200Mbps+.

ps200306 · 25-09-2014 6:57pm

I had an N router but suffered the same wireless interference problems, and then it died anyway. The powerline gets me about 60 Mbps and occasionally drops the connection and needs rebooting. Probably noisy wiring.

who_me · 25-09-2014 7:08pm

ps200306 wrote: »

I had an N router but suffered the same wireless interference problems, and then it died anyway. The powerline gets me about 60 Mbps and occasionally drops the connection and needs rebooting. Probably noisy wiring.

Was the Wifi interference on 2.4GHz or 5GHz? The 2.4GHz band is very cluttered these days - I can pick up over a dozen networks from my apartment - but the 5GHz is very quiet. If your devices support it, that is.

ps200306 · 25-09-2014 7:51pm

It was 2.4 GHz. Sounds like good advice on the 5 GHz -- if I buy another router I'll make sure it has it.

25-09-2014 8:10pm

ps200306 wrote: »

It was 2.4 GHz. Sounds like good advice on the 5 GHz -- if I buy another router I'll make sure it has it.

Just ask UPC to send you one of their modem/routers and to disable the broadband functionality on the horizon box. They support 5GHZ too.

Wabbit Ears · 26-09-2014 9:36am

ps200306 wrote: »

I had an N router but suffered the same wireless interference problems, and then it died anyway. The powerline gets me about 60 Mbps and occasionally drops the connection and needs rebooting. Probably noisy wiring.

One thing to note with powerlines is they only work reliably over solid copper. Don't use them on an extension cord or anything which is using twisted copper.

who_me · 26-09-2014 3:41pm

ps200306 wrote: »

It was 2.4 GHz. Sounds like good advice on the 5 GHz -- if I buy another router I'll make sure it has it.

I know it's extra cost, but I'd recommend it if you can afford it.

Neither UPC (nor any other ISP) are likely to send you a top-notch router. Get one with 5GHz (supports wide channels so more speed), simultaneous dual-band (so newer and older devices can connect to it), and MIMO (moar speed!) AC is ideal, but even a good N router can offer a theoretical 750Mbps+ (300Mbps+ on 2.4GHz band, 450Mbps on 5GHz). And forget UPC's "our routers don't need any external antennae" nonsense, get one with big antennae sticking out the back!

killbillvol2 · 26-09-2014 4:51pm

who_me wrote: »

I know it's extra cost, but I'd recommend it if you can afford it.

Neither UPC (nor any other ISP) are likely to send you a top-notch router. Get one with 5GHz (supports wide channels so more speed), simultaneous dual-band (so newer and older devices can connect to it), and MIMO (moar speed!) AC is ideal, but even a good N router can offer a theoretical 750Mbps+ (300Mbps+ on 2.4GHz band, 450Mbps on 5GHz). And forget UPC's "our routers don't need any external antennae" nonsense, get one with big antennae sticking out the back!

Any particular suggestions?

wes16586 · 26-09-2014 11:05pm

Has anyone any idea why I may have my tv picture squashed on the top part of my screen and the bottom part is blank. When I click on guide the guide fills the entire screen as it should so I know its not an issue with the tv itself. I've already tried the aspect ratio through the horizon preferences with no luck

Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks guys

former legend · 29-09-2014 9:17am

wes16586 wrote: »

Has anyone any idea why I may have my tv picture squashed on the top part of my screen and the bottom part is blank. When I click on guide the guide fills the entire screen as it should so I know its not an issue with the tv itself. I've already tried the aspect ratio through the horizon preferences with no luck

Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks guys

Try:

Menu - Settings - Advanced Settings - Video- HD Resolution and changing to a different resolution.

I had an older, non-HD TV, but when Horizon was set to output 1080p, things went a bit wonky and setting the output to 1080i or 576p solved it.

who_me · 29-09-2014 5:47pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

Any particular suggestions?

Mine is TP-Link N750, but the AC-1750 at the top of the page is faster again. Both would be streets ahead of anything UPC would hand out.

CyCaboose · 29-09-2014 5:57pm

I got a 2nd router and did the whole bridge mode thing (altho I didn't bother disable wifi on the horizon box, just put it on a different channel)..

anyway all was good for a bit, but the exact same issue keeps happening even when I'm connected to the 2nd router... the wifi constantly drops and goes to Limited Connectivity.... every time it happens the only way to fix it is to Disconnect and Reconnect, then it works fine. Although on my work laptop it is incredibly bad, if I am working from home it happens every 10 mins... whereas on my personal laptop it doesn't happen as often. No idea if thats just because I'm on Lync video calls and presentations a lot with work so its using a fair bit more streamed bandwidth than my laptop typically does.

I just don't know anymore. Horizon is awful, the wifi on it is terrible, but I am really surprised I see the same wifi issues on the 2nd router. Never used to have these problems before Horizon.

Horizon TV- Awful?

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