Horizon TV- Awful?

coldfire1x · 30-09-2014 12:16pm

Need a quick suggestion. I have the Horizon Box. Last couple of days the wireless has gone off, however I can connect via cable and get the internet.

Called UPC and they tried to reset the modem on the box remotely but that didnt work.

They are giving me 2 options now, take a new Horizon box or take a seperate modem / router.

I am not sure which one should I go for. Anyone knows the exact model number of the model / router they are sending out now?

Any suggestions?

ps200306 · 03-10-2014 9:43pm

CyCaboose wrote: »

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.

That's interesting. That's what I saw when I set up a second router. In my case I *did* disable the Horizon wireless. But I had a lot of neighbours' routers visible, so I put the whole thing down to wireless interference. Have you checked how much wireless activity there is in the locale?

ps200306 · 03-10-2014 9:44pm

Am I losing my marbles or has the menu for viewing free disk space on the Horizon moved? I just *cannot* find it. I thought it used to be under Settings. While I'm at it -- is there any up to date Horizon manual online anywhere. Whenever I Google I find things that are not up to date with respect to the current software.

Wabbit Ears · 03-10-2014 10:04pm

its in settings>diagnostics

ps200306 · 03-10-2014 10:59pm

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

its in settings>diagnostics

... cos checking your disk space is a diagnostic test???

Thanks. Would never have found it there. The menu layout on the Horizon really is barmy. Setting the program guide "Favourites Mode" on the individual channel settings, and no way to do it from the guide itself, is plain daft. I like the features on the box but the UI is from hell.

twinklerunner · 05-10-2014 7:52pm

Sit down to watch a recorded programme, only to get this message (photo attached) .. what a pain.

mugwumpjism · 09-10-2014 5:01pm

right so I've read some of the posts here, haven't the time to go through the 38 pages...but the general gist is the interface on horizon is bleedin awful...I had the old UPC and was happy with it's interface, could scroll through the channels with just a small box at the bottom and see what's next at the same time. now it's either or and it's a horrible dark band with crappy small writing. Is there any sign they are going to upgrade this..or has anyone come up with a work around....who the hell did they do the market research on? Someone who hadn't got a TV before and was just dazzled by the moving picture?

IrlMonk · 09-10-2014 5:56pm

There is about 3 different ways to browse using that interface and if you look back on posts you will see how other people browse the UI. The way you are describing is a useless way and your right the text is way too small.
I don't have that problem anymore, had ta get rid of it and get sky instead.
Good luck ;-)

Sapele · 18-10-2014 5:19pm

Recently upgraded from UPC HD box to horizon and agree with what a lot of people are saying, such as text too small when changing channels, remote buttons too small, only showing Now and Next when before it was easier to see whats on later without using Guide etc

However, I would take this ANY day of the week over Sky for the simple reason that skys picture/sound quality is hopeless compared to what Im getting with horizon. Watching sport and movies on horizon is a pleasure, have to stifle a laugh evertime I hear a sky advert boasting about stunning picture quality LOL. you must be having a laugh. After having had sky installed and seen other sky setups im wondering if a lot of people who recommend sky are watching small screen tellys which are not showing up the inferior signal coming through.

Dravokivich · 18-10-2014 5:23pm

Well the stuff in sd is always going to look bad. My folks waited ages before upgrading to hd with sky and its looking really good on their sports/movies channels.

The only thing keeping me with upc is that there is so much provided in the package.

ps200306 · 18-10-2014 7:57pm

I didn't bother with a HD telly until I got UPC, since I wasn't prepared to pay Sky extra for the HD box. In either case, a lot of it comes down to the amount of compression on each channel -- I could see that it varied from channel to channel even in SD on Sky. Same with UPC -- the picture quality on Sky News is way better than BBC News 24, for example, the latter looking highly compressed. I'm not complaining -- any channel on UPC on my 37-inch HD LG screen is a serious step up from Sky on my 26-inch Beko from Power City... but it's obviously not all down to the UPC vs Sky question

califano · 20-10-2014 2:10pm

who_me wrote: »

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.

Would phone line and ethernet ports still work from the original upc modem aswell as the wireless router when connected?

who_me · 20-10-2014 5:54pm

califano wrote: »

Would phone line and ethernet ports still work from the original upc modem aswell as the wireless router when connected?

Yes, they'll be unaffected. You just plug a cable between one of the Ethernet (LAN) ports on the Horizon box (or other UPC router) into the WAN port in your new Wifi router. You might need to do some configuring to set up the IP addresses on the Wifi router, but for me it picked everything up itself.

The only drawback I found is that the Horizon app won't work unless it's on the same network as the Horizon box. If you want to use that, you'll either need to leave that device (iPhone/iPad/Android device etc.) on the built-in Horizon network, or else perhaps enable bridging - but I've never tried that.

unklerosco · 26-10-2014 10:21pm

Sapele wrote: »

Recently upgraded from UPC HD box to horizon and agree with what a lot of people are saying, such as text too small when changing channels, remote buttons too small, only showing Now and Next when before it was easier to see whats on later without using Guide etc

However, I would take this ANY day of the week over Sky for the simple reason that skys picture/sound quality is hopeless compared to what Im getting with horizon. Watching sport and movies on horizon is a pleasure, have to stifle a laugh evertime I hear a sky advert boasting about stunning picture quality LOL. you must be having a laugh. After having had sky installed and seen other sky setups im wondering if a lot of people who recommend sky are watching small screen tellys which are not showing up the inferior signal coming through.

I'm the opposite, have horizon and the pic quality is pants compared to my folks sky HD box.. and my TV is far superior to theirs so I'd be expecting better pic quality.

beauf · 26-10-2014 10:28pm

Is that on HD or SD? I think the SD on the UPC can be poor at times. HD is great though.

unklerosco · 26-10-2014 10:31pm

beauf wrote: »

Is that on HD or SD? I think the SD on the UPC can be poor at times. HD is great though.

HD..

beauf · 26-10-2014 10:32pm

There must be a problem with your UPC signal then, should get them to look at the signal strength or such.,

unklerosco · 26-10-2014 10:49pm

beauf wrote: »

There must be a problem with your UPC signal then, should get them to look at the signal strength or such.,

We've great signal strength, mail UPC line for our are a starts at my house, great BB speeds too.. I just find the pic quality on any sky HD boxes I've seen to be better..

beauf · 26-10-2014 11:24pm

Maybe you're TV doesn't work well with the Horizon box. I've seen that with the old UPC digital box, one TV worked much better than the other. I expect because of the interpolation difference between boxes and TV's. I've only seen it effect SD not HD. HD should be native I assume.

ArmaniJeanss · 27-10-2014 2:23pm

Quick question on my new Horizon Box.

When I click record for a tv programme I then click 'this episode' or 'entire series' and the programme records fine.
However when I click record on a film it prompts me 'Confirm Booking?' Is it looking to charge me to record a film? To clarify these are just bog standard 10 year old films on RTE or BBC, not up to date blockbusters.

ps200306 · 27-10-2014 5:22pm

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Quick question on my new Horizon Box.

When I click record for a tv programme I then click 'this episode' or 'entire series' and the programme records fine.
However when I click record on a film it prompts me 'Confirm Booking?' Is it looking to charge me to record a film? To clarify these are just bog standard 10 year old films on RTE or BBC, not up to date blockbusters.

There's no charge. It's just a feature of the spectacularly awful user interface.

who_me · 28-10-2014 12:21pm

Is anyone having problems turning on their Horizon box lately? Mine often turns on, then immediately goes back to standby again. Could happen 5..6..7 times before eventually it'll stay on.

Also, every few minutes the screen flickers and the TV's input info panel pops up (e.g. "HDMI1 1080i at 50Hz" or whatever) as if I've just changed inputs. It could be a TV issue, but it only ever seems to happen when on the Horizon.

beauf · 28-10-2014 12:54pm

Not seen that no

califano · 28-10-2014 3:15pm

I have an sd and hd tv box in 2 seperate rooms. Im getting a horizon box in the next couple of days. Im keeping the hd tv box and handing back the sd one. Also holding the white upc thompson router for wifi and wired and have asked them to disable broadband on the horizn box.
Im keeping the existing upc tv hd box in the same room as the white upc router and the horizon box will be in another room.

Do i need to do anything more than plug the new horizon box in and away i go!?. Just making sure the old router doesnt need to be plugged into the horizon box?.

Anything else i need to know about this setup?

mfceiling · 29-10-2014 12:28am

califano wrote: »

I have an sd and hd tv box in 2 seperate rooms. Im getting a horizon box in the next couple of days. Im keeping the hd tv box and handing back the sd one. Also holding the white upc thompson router for wifi and wired and have asked them to disable broadband on the horizn box.
Im keeping the existing upc tv hd box in the same room as the white upc router and the horizon box will be in another room.

Do i need to do anything more than plug the new horizon box in and away i go!?. Just making sure the old router doesnt need to be plugged into the horizon box?.

Anything else i need to know about this setup?

Probably should read the "talk to UPC" thread before you order the Horizon box...

Wabbit Ears · 29-10-2014 9:02am

You deffo have to do some setup on the horizon box and will need to connect the horizon box to the existing router. This can be done over wifi but, TBH, youre just asking for trouble doing that as horizon wifi isnt great.. Really the Horizon box should be wired to the external router, Perhaps using powerline adaptors.

Youd really want to be talking to UPC support when setting this all up as it sounds like youre making things very complicated for yourself.

califano · 29-10-2014 11:35am

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

You deffo have to do some setup on the horizon box and will need to connect the horizon box to the existing router. This can be done over wifi but, TBH, youre just asking for trouble doing that as horizon wifi isnt great.. Really the Horizon box should be wired to the external router, Perhaps using powerline adaptors.

Youd really want to be talking to UPC support when setting this all up as it sounds like youre making things very complicated for yourself.

Thanks. Remember i have two existing upc tv points and i dont intend to use horizon tv box for anything other than tv(no apps no wifi). So except for initial setup which i can do wired from powerline which i have surely after that horizon box can just work off the tv splitter?. The broadband will work off the standalone white upc router in the other room?

EDIT: This horizon box is really only to replace the sd box so i can have hd tv in 2 rooms.

wally79 · 29-10-2014 12:41pm

califano wrote: »

Thanks. Remember i have two existing upc tv points and i dont intend to use horizon tv box for anything other than tv(no apps no wifi). So except for initial setup which i can do wired from powerline which i have surely after that horizon box can just work off the tv splitter?. The broadband will work off the standalone white upc router in the other room?

EDIT: This horizon box is really only to replace the sd box so i can have hd tv in 2 rooms.

Why not just get another hd box?

califano · 29-10-2014 12:57pm

wally79 wrote: »

Why not just get another hd box?

It is a good question but i didnt think that they gave out any boxes other than the horizon box anymore?.
Also with my current arranged price for the bundle(broadband,tv,phone €98) getting a 2nd hd box would be more per month than getting the horizon complete bundle by about €12 per month.
Is it possible to get a hd box that isnt the horizon box though?

wally79 · 29-10-2014 2:01pm

califano wrote: »

It is a good question but i didnt think that they gave out any boxes other than the horizon box anymore?.
Also with my current arranged price for the bundle(broadband,tv,phone €98) getting a 2nd hd box would be more per month than getting the horizon complete bundle by about €12 per month.
Is it possible to get a hd box that isnt the horizon box though?

They told me no on the phone but the reps on the Talk to UPC forum said it was and followed up and I got a call back to say it was possible.

That was about 6 weeks ago. Haven't decided on it yet. Here's the PM I received

"Hi,

Ths is possible. An activation fee of €60 would apply and an additional monthly charge would depend on the bundle which was then taken. Our Sales Team can advise of this on freephone 1908 from 9am to 9pm daily and they will need your account details.

Thanks, Brian."

Horizon TV- Awful?

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