Horizon TV- Awful?

Tzardine · 07-01-2014 2:59pm

beauf wrote: »

You're not going to get Gandi on a support call. They will toe the official line.

Same with the reps here. I feel for them. They probably cant say what they really want to and just give the company line.

Zascar · 07-01-2014 4:48pm

It would be nice to hear id they are ever going to fix the thing though. Or will it just be like this forever and never get any better, like the old one?

sylphy · 09-01-2014 4:49pm

I got my Horizon box last month and thought I'd list the problems that I can remember - with regards to the TV service.

It's frozen once requiring a hard reset.

It goes black for a second or two and then returns to normal - about 2 times a week.

Sound cuts out on recordings - have to rewind and press play a few times to restore sound - regularly

No folders in the recordings menu - recordings are organised by date and can't be categorised.

Recordings are time based - meaning if a show starts late the recording will miss the end of the show. On other systems (Freeview - I think) the recording is started when a show starts.

The series record records the same episode/ old episodes.

When I watch a recording and click stop, sometimes I'll be returned to the recordings listing but not at the position of the show I just watched.

The delete one and delete all are located together - putting arsenic and sugar side by side, smart.

Slow navigation - I am slightly OCD and mark my tv for the following day every night, using the single channel view. This takes around 25 minutes. 2 problems here: 1; there should be page down option and 2; Remote clicks either take too long to respond or after multiple clicks all the actions are performed at once.

What is the point of reminders - I know what I want them to be - a list of shows that can be removed or set to record with one click. I spend about 25 minutes making reminders and then I have to go through the guide to see where the markers are. They had this system running on the old NTL/UPC box. Where you could view all reminders and toggle them between auto-tune (change station automatically) or remind and also delete them.

The duration that the reminder remains on-screen is too short - I have often gone to get coffee at the end of one show to come back and the reminded has displayed and removed itself in the 5 minutes I was gone.

When entering stations manually i.e. 1 0 1 the remote click(s) isn't registered or isn't registered quickly enough so I get redirected to the customer service channel.

The station numbers aren't listed in the EPG.

I see no need for the live picture from each station in the EPG.

Too many clicks required to get anywhere in the menu - I did a test to see how many individual clicks it took to turn the subtitles on and return to what I was watching - 20. That's 20 not including the times that I had to re-click the remote because it wasn't registered - that'd be 22 clicks.

It's a shame really, the functionality seems mostly there but it's hidden away, borderline inaccessible. I found where I could see what percentage of disk space I used once, I was proud, I haven't found it since.

Also I have yet to use the keyboard on the back of the remote - I seems like they could have added shortcuts here, imagine you could turn on subtitles and be back to your show in 4 clicks (click "Subtitles" -> click DOWN to "on" -> click MENU -> click BACK)

This thread has been active since August 2013 and I haven't seen any solutions to any of the issues addressed by UPC.

UPC should realise they have a huge asset in getting direct feedback here - we all want to have a great UI/UX. Even if UPC acknowledged the issues and said they were working on them that would be something.

Anyway .... that went on longer than I'd planned

Keep posting your issues.

iseegirls · 09-01-2014 5:00pm

Best first post I've seen in a while.

Agree with you on all the issues there - but mainly for this one:

sylphy wrote: »

Sound cuts out on recordings - have to rewind and press play a few times to restore sound - regularly

Repeatedly happens for me. Very annoying.

Said it before, but having the '1' button so close under the off button, with no difference in shape is ridiculous. Most remotes would have extra space. Just look at the Sky Remote Control.

Tzardine · 09-01-2014 5:02pm

UPC actually came and collected my horizon box last night.

The €200 cancellation fee was the best money I ever spent in my life. ( I even got a cheque in the post off them for €35 for some reason lol)

moonship · 09-01-2014 5:34pm

Having 100% issues described above. Very annoying. When i was to customer care they said i am free to retutn the box.

Tzardine · 09-01-2014 5:35pm

moonship wrote: »

Having 100% issues described above. Very annoying. When i was to customer care they said i am free to retutn the box.

Yes and replace it for a standard one or pay a €200 cancellation fee no doubt.

The guy that collected the box from me last night said he has a van full of returned ones.

Copyerselveson · 09-01-2014 5:43pm

First posts? Wouldn't be the first time a shill for another TV company posted in the board.

NinjaTruncs · 09-01-2014 6:05pm

Copyerselveson wrote: »

First posts? Wouldn't be the first time a shill for another TV company posted in the board.

Does it matter seeing as everything in his post is 100% accurate, Shill or not every issue he has listed I have experienced with my box. UPC have been told this information many many times are are doing nothing about it.

Zascar · 09-01-2014 6:14pm

Why do they have to be a shill? They could be someone who has never been compelled to post on boards before but this was the deciding factor to make them join and vent their frustrations.

I previously wrote a huge list of dislikes with horizon, I'll dig it out and post later. If anything, this is helpful customer feedback that they should be taking on board to improve their product and customer experience. If they fixed even a small few of these, they could significantly increase customer retention. Many in this thread including myself sent the box back due to many of the frustrations mentioned. In this day and age, for a product launch as high profile as this one, it's laughable. If they listen and fix these issues, they can recover.

who_me · 09-01-2014 9:42pm

Personally, I think the box is "ok". I use a much better Wifi router, use a Harmony remote rather than the Horizon one, use an AppleTV rather than the Horizon's DLNA streaming functionality, and don't record much. So maybe I'm missing all the bad bits!

I do think it's massively overhyped. It's sluggish, UI is awkward to use, and some parts (the apps, On Demand) don't work well at all. You certainly wouldn't get that impression from all their adverts.

icdg · 09-01-2014 11:03pm

Copyerselveson wrote: »

First posts? Wouldn't be the first time a shill for another TV company posted in the board.

If you're going to make that kind of accusation you better have some proof of it.

minotour · 10-01-2014 9:41am

sylphy wrote: »

I got my Horizon box last month and thought I'd list the problems that I can remember - with regards to the TV service.

It's frozen once requiring a hard reset.

It goes black for a second or two and then returns to normal - about 2 times a week.

Sound cuts out on recordings - have to rewind and press play a few times to restore sound - regularly

No folders in the recordings menu - recordings are organised by date and can't be categorised.

Recordings are time based - meaning if a show starts late the recording will miss the end of the show. On other systems (Freeview - I think) the recording is started when a show starts.

The series record records the same episode/ old episodes.

When I watch a recording and click stop, sometimes I'll be returned to the recordings listing but not at the position of the show I just watched.

The delete one and delete all are located together - putting arsenic and sugar side by side, smart.

Slow navigation - I am slightly OCD and mark my tv for the following day every night, using the single channel view. This takes around 25 minutes. 2 problems here: 1; there should be page down option and 2; Remote clicks either take too long to respond or after multiple clicks all the actions are performed at once.

What is the point of reminders - I know what I want them to be - a list of shows that can be removed or set to record with one click. I spend about 25 minutes making reminders and then I have to go through the guide to see where the markers are. They had this system running on the old NTL/UPC box. Where you could view all reminders and toggle them between auto-tune (change station automatically) or remind and also delete them.

The duration that the reminder remains on-screen is too short - I have often gone to get coffee at the end of one show to come back and the reminded has displayed and removed itself in the 5 minutes I was gone.

When entering stations manually i.e. 1 0 1 the remote click(s) isn't registered or isn't registered quickly enough so I get redirected to the customer service channel.

The station numbers aren't listed in the EPG.

I see no need for the live picture from each station in the EPG.

Too many clicks required to get anywhere in the menu - I did a test to see how many individual clicks it took to turn the subtitles on and return to what I was watching - 20. That's 20 not including the times that I had to re-click the remote because it wasn't registered - that'd be 22 clicks.

It's a shame really, the functionality seems mostly there but it's hidden away, borderline inaccessible. I found where I could see what percentage of disk space I used once, I was proud, I haven't found it since.

Also I have yet to use the keyboard on the back of the remote - I seems like they could have added shortcuts here, imagine you could turn on subtitles and be back to your show in 4 clicks (click "Subtitles" -> click DOWN to "on" -> click MENU -> click BACK)

This thread has been active since August 2013 and I haven't seen any solutions to any of the issues addressed by UPC.

UPC should realise they have a huge asset in getting direct feedback here - we all want to have a great UI/UX. Even if UPC acknowledged the issues and said they were working on them that would be something.

Anyway .... that went on longer than I'd planned

Keep posting your issues.

Fair play, comprehensive list there. Id been planning to do this but wont bother now, LOL @ Arsenic and Sugar!

You do sound like you know what you are doing though, do you work in QA?

Zascar · 10-01-2014 10:44am

OK here is something I wrote at the time but never posted. I was venting my frustrations about the box at the time. It's not complete but it describes my thoughts on Horizon:

--

I've been a loyal UPC Customer for more than 10 years. Although it was not perfect I was mostly very happy with my old UPC box. It did most of the basics well (which is the most important thing) and was generally nice to use. What I want in a digibox is the ability to very quickly see what's on the other channels and flick between them - Fast. It did this well via pressing OK - and begin able to flick left and right to see what's on now, and next, on the other channels; then click ok for the channel to load straight away. I also had the choice of All Channels or My Favourites, and it would rememeber it. Perfect. The only major complaint is how slow the "Guide" was. Since it took several seconds to load - and whatever I was watching got muted - it was pretty much unusable. Most people never bothered to use it. The On Demand was pretty slow too and for that reason I never really bothered to see if it was any good. It's very simple software usability basics. Make everything simple, intuitive and FAST - otherwise people just won't be bothered.

Now, takes Sky's menu in comparison - the Menu appears instantly, scrolling quick and the channel switches immediately. What anoys me personally is the inability to have my default favourites menu like the UPC box, cuasee there are just so many junk channels - but that's just me.

The reason the iphone was so successful was because they did the basics very well, Did not add too many flashy bells and whistles, just made everything simple, smooth, fast and easy. That rulebook went out the window with Horizon.

It boggles my mind as to what went through the development teams head when working on a totally new experience. Maybe I'm nuts - but if it was me, I'd make a lost of what people really like about the current product - and a list of what they do not like. I'd basically keep what's good - then try to fix what's broken or what people do not like. I'd then review the competition's offerings in the market - and try to incorporate the best of all worlds to create the perfect box. Simple?

Because Horizon its so slow I'm simply less likely to change channel as I cannot be arsed with how laborious it is to use. So I just don't watch tv as much. I'm not an actual software developer but I've worked in technology & Software companies for 10 years so I do know a thing or two about what makes a good piece of software vs a bad one.

Lets think about it from the beginning. What do people want out of a digibox. First, they want to quickly flick around the channels, find something they are interested in watching, press once button and have it display immediately. This process is now worse on the new box.

A few points that annoyed me most.

Scrolling up and down is laggy. If you are going more than a few you often overshoot it.
To change channel you press down (wait) press ok (wait) - get a fairly pointless menu and press ok (and wait again). You can also hold it for a few seconds to go straight to it. It should be the other way around, hold for menu, press to go to channel. Whatever is used most should be the easiest to get to.
There is no Page up and Page down. There used to be. Why lose it?
You've prioritised flashy looks and transitions over speed and usability
Pressing OK twice pauses. Makes no sense. There is a button on the remote for Pause. Now you need to press two different buttons, before it was better.
The wifi is problematic, drops quite a lot. others have way worse issues
You just get the icon of the channel which is harder to read than the txt version.
The info at the top like time etc is hard to read
Way too much of the screen is taken up by the darkened menu
5 seconds is the minimum time it stays there for, Why? Should be a 2 second option
Can't see what's on next like you used to be able to.

I think If they have the option, a lot of people are now going switch to Sky. But if they actually fixed these issues, it would be a really excellent box and UPC would be a very clear winner over Sky in my book. I'd really love to see UPC take the dozens of suggestions here from customers and actually do something out it. For the moment I got my old box back, but I hope to have the new and improved Horizon box again some day

dwef · 10-01-2014 6:20pm

Totally agree with all the issues here. But there is one other thing that's annoying the absolute ****e out of me. Why are the channels arranged in such a stupid manner as standard. Yeah i know i can set up a favorites list but wouldn't it make more sense for example to keep all the BBC channels for example together along with other channels and their respective +1.

As for the Sky thing, I actually got a call from them a few weeks ago about going back with no charges (setup or box) Seriously tempted. I know they are more expensive, but the box seems so much better. Especially the TV guide.

sylphy · 10-01-2014 6:35pm

Minotaur - I'm not in QA. I'm a software developer which is why the UI bothers me so much.

Also the fact that UPC spent so much on advertising and infrastructure when some of that money could have gone into a redesign.

That and UPC are aware of the problems and seem unwilling to do anything about it.

As it stands I wouldn't recommend the box to anyone because of the frustrating user experience.

pagdanf · 12-01-2014 2:47pm

totally agree, i have the horizon box few months now and its so slow, a real pain to go through the tv guide and set recordings, and now in some of my recordings theres season - 1 episode number - 1, and when i click on it theres nothing there but it seems to have recorded it. ive told everyone i know to stay well clear of it. the old upc recorder box worked so much better. and i hate that when you are in the tv guide the channels move as you scroll up and down, i know that was the same on the old recorder box but its worse here. the page up page down like on sky beats the snot out of this. im giving it one more month and then im going to sky. horizon box is not doing what it should for me: recording programmes i like. this horizon box would do your head in.

iamiomega · 10-03-2014 9:43pm

I am having terrible issues with UPC's Horizon- The wifi is terrible. I can't get it sometimes even if I am in the same room. I rang them up. They offer the wifi free so there is no guarantee with it. It could be my neighbours that is causing me the problem. But none have a have a computer never mind wifi.
They also need to get their customer service in order. If you ring them you will have to wait least 40 mins before they answer. I have rang them and I have had to wait at best 25 mins and at worst 50 mins
My advice stay away from it

beauf · 10-03-2014 9:46pm

How do you use the favourites?

Can you remove channels that you aren't subbed to?

manageit · 11-03-2014 8:21pm

I have the horizon box with about six months.

A couple of points.

1) It is slow and it takes ages to delete a recording.

2) You have the recordings set up and after recording your programmes for some time it stops and you have to set it up again.

3) The apps are the same since I got the box, no new ones. If you are looking for something on Youtube you have to spell out exactly what you want or it will not find it.

4) The music box sets are the same since I got the box.

5) Because the wifi is in the set top box it means it is usually hidden under the TV making it difficult to pick up signal upstairs or in another room.

Why is the Sky box so much quicker and slicker.

IrlMonk · 12-03-2014 11:43am

The user interface is bloody annoyingly slow.
My god how can upc let this out.
A remote control in the early 90's was faster than this thing. Upc have gone back in time.
The bloody cheek of them to be releasing crap to customers like this is ridiculous.
I noted this in a previous thread but it is like talking to the wall.
They know themselves how bad it is but they just fob it off.
I updated to the latest version but the interface is still the same, I do think it would suit a very old person in their 80's with bad eyesight and slow coordination.
Absolutely dreadful.

IrlMonk · 12-03-2014 11:50am

I had to get a separate modem because of the bad range of signal.
The ui is a bloody disgrace.
The apps are a joke
Its a disgrace how upc get away with it.
All the false advertisement and the glossy packaging, and behind it all you have an incomplete package. Great hardware, s***e software.

manageit wrote: »

I have the horizon box with about six months.

A couple of points.

1) It is slow and it takes ages to delete a recording.

2) You have the recordings set up and after recording your programmes for some time it stops and you have to set it up again.

3) The apps are the same since I got the box, no new ones. If you are looking for something on Youtube you have to spell out exactly what you want or it will not find it.

4) The music box sets are the same since I got the box.

5) Because the wifi is in the set top box it means it is usually hidden under the TV making it difficult to pick up signal upstairs or in another room.

Why is the Sky box so much quicker and slicker.

beauf · 12-03-2014 12:14pm

IrlMonk wrote: »

... I do think it would suit a very old person in their 80's with bad eyesight and slow coordination....

Actually its worse for them. Its too complicated, and they don't have co-ordination or any concept of "lag" in a button. For example it takes about 2 mins to start up. By that time the older person has pressed it on/off about a dozen times waiting for the light to come on. We had to switch our old relatives back to the old box which they can manage much better.

I've only had a horizon box a few days and I'm not sure I want to keep it.

The lag when deleting a recording brings you to delete everything off the box option almost every time. Who ever put that option there, and whomever released it like that should be fired.

I'm not sure the 4 channel recording really outweighs the generally poor usability on a daily basis.

A channel hopper couldn't live with this box.

Zascar · 12-03-2014 1:46pm

I'd love to know if anyone of any significance in UPC has read this thread and if anything is being done with it. Do they just pass it off as "Ah we have X million happy (silent) subscribers, there will always be a few complainers" - or do they take it seriously that they need to make some massive improvements to their interface to make it in any way usable?

Tzardine · 12-03-2014 1:58pm

Zascar wrote: »

I'd love to know if anyone of any significance in UPC has read this thread and if anything is being done with it. Do they just pass it off as "Ah we have X million happy (silent) subscribers, there will always be a few complainers" - or do they take it seriously that they need to make some massive improvements to their interface to make it in any way usable?

If you have ever used Horizon you will know they dont give a dam.

The thing is awful. Any decent company would not release it due to the bad reputation it would bring. It is in no way ready for launch and it still is not.

Standard response from reps here and facebook. i.e will pass on feedback.

IrlMonk · 12-03-2014 2:14pm

I was only joking about an 80 year old and the ui, the lag is that bad that by the time the press buttons to change stations then the ui would suit because of the slow reaction time.
And yes it is to complicated for the elderly.

The upc reps on here are not that helpful, it's out of their control and they just say that they will pass on the issues I have. They never actually admit to a problem which is annoying.

Andy454 · 12-03-2014 10:29pm

unregistered clicks & sudden cross menu "catch up" are insufficient RAM and underpowered CPU issues

What's the spec on the horizon unit?

16-03-2014 1:38am

Got the horizuon box yesterday and while I've found the user interface to be terrible I wasn't all that annoyed given that its the first time I've had TV in years. Decided to call it an early night and arrived in a few minutes ago looking forward to sitting down and watching a western I'd recorded earlier today, only to find that no matter what I do the box simply refuses to work. Multiple hdmi leads, two different TVs and still no picture.

16-03-2014 1:48am

Solved the problem by shaking the box. Back home my parents have Sky and I've had more trouble with my Horixuon box over the past 36 hours than they've had with Sky over the past decade.

IrlMonk · 16-03-2014 3:19am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Decided to call it an early night and arrived in a few minutes ago looking forward to sitting down and watching a western I'd recorded earlier today

"Duck You Sucker".........Yiba! Yiba!

Horizon TV- Awful?

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