eVision (IPTV service from Eircom) [Merged]

ChrisMcCauley · 29-10-2013 6:42pm

Ok. Had enough. I'm cancelling this. It just doesn't work reliably. I've posted more on the 'Talk to Eircom' section.

DublinBeaker · 29-10-2013 6:50pm

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Ok. Had enough. I'm cancelling this. It just doesn't work reliably. I've posted more on the 'Talk to Eircom' section.

Seen your posts on the talk to section, good luck with cancelling it.

galtee boy · 29-10-2013 7:34pm

I know its no excuse, but it is early days and bound to have teething problems, however they shouldn't have launched it until these problems were ironed out. I cant believe that you say its better quality than either Sky HD or Freesat HD ! I will have eFibre in my area soon and you have me intrigued enough to want to try it,despite the problems. Im sure these issues will be sorted, but the lack of ITV/UTV is a major issue.

PS, is it too late for you to post pictures of the EPG etc ?

7upfree · 29-10-2013 7:49pm

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

I got eVision installed today. When it works it is amazing - but it's dropped out twice today and has taken around 20-30 mins to recover each time

:eek:

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Again, a vast improvement over our Sky system

:eek: again. I find that hard to believe somehow. Sky are the top satellite broadcaster on the planet.

ChrisMcCauley · 29-10-2013 8:16pm

Certainly not too late to post some pics. I'll take some snaps when it comes back up - it goes down if I switch inputs on my Denon receiver!

Really pretty nice interface but some huge bugs and some small ones e.g. the lovely scrolling channel display which pops up on the left side of the screen doesn't make it clear that some channels can't be selected (not in your package) but the net effect is that the pressing up or down on the remote causes the selection to mover along apparently at random. Annoying but you could live with it. You can't live with it losing connection to the backend platform.

Chris

icdg · 29-10-2013 8:51pm

Merged multiple threads. ChrisMcCauley, I realise your not happy with your eVision experience, but starting two threads and hijacking a third (as well as posting in this one) is carrying it a bit too far. Can we keep the eVision talk to this thread please, for now at least.

ChrisMcCauley · 29-10-2013 9:40pm

Certainly no intention to hijack threads. Each thread had someone asking about eVision. I have it and just responded to each person.

By the way, no need to shout

7upfree · 29-10-2013 9:47pm

I'm a little confused TBH. You have said it's all of these:

Amazing, slick, buggy, and unreliable. ??????????/

ChrisMcCauley · 29-10-2013 9:48pm

Mr.S wrote: »

But the difference between 50Mb and 40Mb is unnoticable, a few extra seconds to downloads if you can even find a decent connection!

Agreed if you are only running one or two services at a time but factor in one or two Netflix sessions, eVision, the usual few browser sessions (or worse, streaming HD from iTunes) and losing 20% becomes a pain.

Regardless, it's the fact that they did it without consulting the customer, that's what annoys me.

Chris

ChrisMcCauley · 29-10-2013 9:52pm

7upfree wrote: »

I'm a little confused TBH. You have said it's all of these:

Amazing, slick, buggy, and unreliable. ??????????/

Yes and it is all those things. Amazingly fast with superb quality of picture and slick animations on the channel changes but spends ages trying to reconnect to the back-end services (buggy & unreliable) on restart. Multiple failures today - even switching inputs on the Home Cinema system causes it to restart.

Someday it will be amazing and slick but today it is that plus buggy and unreliable.

Chris

7upfree · 29-10-2013 9:57pm

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Yes and it is all those things. Amazingly fast with superb quality of picture and slick animations on the channel changes but spends ages trying to reconnect to the back-end services (buggy & unreliable) on restart. Multiple failures today - even switching inputs on the Home Cinema system causes it to restart.

Someday it will be amazing and slick but today it is that plus buggy and unreliable.

Chris

I'll take your word Chris!:D

namrod28 · 30-10-2013 6:24pm

Hi Chris or anyone who could help.
Im moving to a new house next week and thinking of getting the whole eircom bundle but the only problem for me would be the lack of info on how good evision is, teething probs etc. The price does look good but the lack of channels and lack of knowledge on if and when itv sky1 ss3,ss4 and ssnews will be available does worry me.
Just not sure what to do so any advice would be great Thanks...

ChrisMcCauley · 30-10-2013 11:03pm

Hi,

In order of my preference ...

UPC seems to be the best overall package so go for that if you can (it isn't available where I live).

I've had excellent experience with Eircom's field staff so I recommend them as a telephone & broadband provider but eVision failed badly for me so skip that for now.

Sky TV worked fine for me but given their previous attitude to Irish customers, I would use them only if you needed RTE or lots of sports channels (not me). A reasonable alternative is a Freesat system such as the Humax ones. I have a HD box and love it, you get the BBC and UTV HD channels for free but you need a satellite dish - maybe you are moving to a house with an existing Sky dish and that would be fine.

I had really bad experiences with Vodafone so cannot recommend them.

Don't forget that if you aren't using a cable system, your phone and broadband are probably going to run over eircom lines so you either end up as an eircom customer or a customer of an eircom customer - guess which of the two get better service from the eircom field team.

Regardless, get an Apple TV if you get a decent broadband connection. Netflix works well with it and you have the option to purchase or rent movies.

Good luck with the move!

Chris

SpaceTime · 30-10-2013 11:23pm

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Don't forget that if you aren't using a cable system, your phone and broadband are probably going to run over eircom lines so you either end up as an eircom customer or a customer of an eircom customer - guess which of the two get better service from the eircom field team.

Chris

In theory, that shouldn't happen anymore. They've become really, really, really careful about separating Eircom Wholesale and Eircom Retail as ComReg is watching them like a hawk on it at the moment.

fasterbetter · 31-10-2013 7:58am

I have had evision installed about 2 weeks now.. so far so good. Have seen none of the issues with connecting described above.. Once in the 2 weeks the screen stalled for half a second but other than that its been faultless.

I have a second TV connected as well which is done using Devolo homeplugs. I already had a pair of homeplugs installed and it didnt interfere with these.

Interestingly each TV gets its own switch port on the router.

They do seem to try and make the speed of the line stable so my 50M dropped to 43M just before the install. I cant be sure if its related but it is a big co-incidence. It doesnt make a lot of difference in reality in my house anyway where I would normally have up to 5 streams running in parallel most evenings (nextflix, plex, etc)

The QOS they have on the routers seems to work well and no matter what other downloading is going on has no effect on the TV quality

Some of the family miss ITV but hopefully thats only temporary. I hear they are awaiting a license

So, all I can say is...at half the price I was paying UPC (€15 vs 30)I'm pretty happy so far.

AlanS181824 · 31-10-2013 8:27am

It has no Sky channels.... Granted Sky owns a shed load of channels and probably put a hefty sum on them but still.
The more choice for the consumer the better I think!

namrod28 · 31-10-2013 2:26pm

Thanks for the help, still no closer to making a decision though... time will tell I guess

channelsurfer2 · 31-10-2013 2:35pm

No sign of Vodafone even hinting at such a service? I guess it would probably just piggyback off the Eircom network anyway.

jay0109 · 31-10-2013 2:45pm

namrod28 wrote: »

Thanks for the help, still no closer to making a decision though... time will tell I guess

My latest year with UPC is up and so my loyalty discounts have expired. My monthly bill for TV and Broadband is now over €100 ( I have non-HD sky sports) and it's a lot of money every year = 2.5k gross from my salary.

Is there no website that allows easy comparison of the offerings on sale from the now 3 TV providers? Or are their offers so convoluted, that they cannot be compared!

Sully · 01-11-2013 1:12am

Doesn't UPC drop your broadband when using TV? Also eircom have not nationally started selling this, its available but not being actively sold outside of Dublin. Phased roll out, hence no advertisements anywhere.

This seems to be aimed at a particular part of the market, providing the most popular channels. I remember doing a RedC survey on this ages ago about eircom and tv. Not taiolred for everyone I guess.

xebec · 01-11-2013 2:46pm

jay0109 wrote: »

Is there no website that allows easy comparison of the offerings on sale from the now 3 TV providers? Or are their offers so convoluted, that they cannot be compared!

Try here: http://www.bonkers.ie/

7upfree · 01-11-2013 4:27pm

Sully wrote: »

Doesn't UPC drop your broadband when using TV?

Nope. 106 Megs wired (40 wireless on an iPad 2) with all other TVs working.:D

sparky63 · 02-11-2013 12:14am

Parents have evision and have to say very impressive. Quality of picture is crystal. No issues or problems like above. Sky has many more channels but its also much dearer. I'm looking at the basic evision package plus the add on package and two multiroom boxes and it comes in at 26 euro for the three plus 50 for the fibre. There is an ondemand icon on the screen, so i reckon its in the pipeline. But the best bit is there is no downgrade fee from moving down a package. They have a sky sports package so no more having to commit to 12 months to watch the premiership season anymore.

ftakeith · 02-11-2013 11:47pm

sparky63 wrote: »

Parents have evision and have to say very impressive. Quality of picture is crystal. No issues or problems like above. Sky has many more channels but its also much dearer. I'm looking at the basic evision package plus the add on package and two multiroom boxes and it comes in at 26 euro for the three plus 50 for the fibre. There is an ondemand icon on the screen, so i reckon its in the pipeline. But the best bit is there is no downgrade fee from moving down a package. They have a sky sports package so no more having to commit to 12 months to watch the premiership season anymore.

1 happy customer

when 100 happy customers reply it will be interested

sparky63 · 03-11-2013 1:48am

ftakeith wrote: »

1 happy customer

1 happy poster.

barrackali · 03-11-2013 2:51am

I couldn't help but have a look at my neighbours evision set up today....and what did I find. I found a box that looked like a it came from the 80's and a remote that looked very like some of the ones you find in Euro shops.

The picture clarity was not a patch on Sky or UPC's systems....with significant distortion when his kids were playing the ps3 upstairs. He did admit there was a major slowdown of the net anytime someone was watching the evision tv box.

The UI looked ok in fairness, but there are very few channels.

syboit · 06-11-2013 11:55am

barrackali wrote: »

I couldn't help but have a look at my neighbours evision set up today....and what did I find. I found a box that looked like a it came from the 80's and a remote that looked very like some of the ones you find in Euro shops.

The picture clarity was not a patch on Sky or UPC's systems....with significant distortion when his kids were playing the ps3 upstairs. He did admit there was a major slowdown of the net anytime someone was watching the evision tv box.

The UI looked ok in fairness, but there are very few channels.

It would be interesting to know the speed of his broadband aswell. I would have thought that the tv would have some quality of service so it gets a steady bitrate and not get effected by other uses on the line.

BeerNut · 15-11-2013 1:59pm

syboit wrote: »

I would have thought that the tv would have some quality of service so it gets a steady bitrate and not get effected by other uses on the line.

I've certainly not noticed a difference on the TV when various other drains on the bandwidth are running.

barrackali · 16-11-2013 10:51am

Well...I'm glad it's working out for you! A lot of people I know are complaining about this issue...it's cause is obvious anyway, Eircom just doesn't have the bandwidth to offer all of these services.

FTTC and the last bit over copper is just not good enough, there will always be considerable quality loss.

SpaceTime · 16-11-2013 12:00pm

Sully wrote: »

Doesn't UPC drop your broadband when using TV? Also eircom have not nationally started selling this, its available but not being actively sold outside of Dublin. Phased roll out, hence no advertisements anywhere.

UPC definitely doesn't drop your speed as their TV service is not IPTV (other than the On-Demand service). It has nothing to do with their broadband service. Their normal television channels are digital cable (DVB-C) so they're basically broadcast constantly down the cable network just like the way an over-the-air channel is. Their broadband signals are carried on the same wires, but separately to the television signals.

Also, Eircom are selling that product anywhere there's e-fibre which is in most urban areas at this stage and even quite a lot of small/medium sized towns in fairly non-populous parts of the country.

e-fibre's actually not currently available in a big chunk of Dublin City Centre and Cork City Centre (central island area) which are the two most urban areas of the country. So it's not really Dublin vs "Down the country" issue.

UPC's mostly available only in the cities and larger towns, although that is quite a large % of the population. They've never gone to smaller places with cable.

icdg · 16-11-2013 12:27pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

UPC's mostly available only in the cities and larger towns, although that is quite a large % of the population. They've never gone to smaller places with cable.

More places than you might think due to the legacy inherited from CMI Cable (which covered most Leinster towns of a decent size as well as a few other places) and, dare we mention it, MMDS - though that now has a death sentence over it (and, of course, doesn't do broadband).

Sully · 16-11-2013 12:56pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

UPC definitely doesn't drop your speed as their TV service is not IPTV (other than the On-Demand service). It has nothing to do with their broadband service. Their normal television channels are digital cable (DVB-C) so they're basically broadcast constantly down the cable network just like the way an over-the-air channel is. Their broadband signals are carried on the same wires, but separately to the television signals.

Also, Eircom are selling that product anywhere there's e-fibre which is in most urban areas at this stage and even quite a lot of small/medium sized towns in fairly non-populous parts of the country.

e-fibre's actually not currently available in a big chunk of Dublin City Centre and Cork City Centre (central island area) which are the two most urban areas of the country. So it's not really Dublin vs "Down the country" issue.

UPC's mostly available only in the cities and larger towns, although that is quite a large % of the population. They've never gone to smaller places with cable.

I'v read and heard reports of peoples broadband dropping with UPC. Interesting to note. Some people seem to be able to get above and beyond their broadband speed with UPC whereas others, its less than half.

Will be interesting to see if efibre will see the same 'upgrades' in speed that UPC have been rolling out. I assume the availability is down to it being a relatively new product and targeting specific areas where the response might be greater.

icdg wrote: »

More places than you might think due to the legacy inherited from CMI Cable (which covered most Leinster towns of a decent size as well as a few other places) and, dare we mention it, MMDS - though that now has a death sentence over it (and, of course, doesn't do broadband).

MMDS is a pretty decent pack of channels, with people seemingly getting the multi room free from it. Would have assumed MMDS was already scrapped, or at the very least on the way out seeing as analogue TV has been given the boot. But I assume there are customers of UPC who don't want cables put in through their walls / floors so MMDS is fine for them.

SpaceTime · 16-11-2013 1:58pm

Sully wrote: »

I'v read and heard reports of peoples broadband dropping with UPC. Interesting to note. Some people seem to be able to get above and beyond their broadband speed with UPC whereas others, its less than half.

Will be interesting to see if efibre will see the same 'upgrades' in speed that UPC have been rolling out. I assume the availability is down to it being a relatively new product and targeting specific areas where the response might be greater.

The technology is the limited in what it can do with FTTC (e-fibre). They will see a speed improvement when a technology known as 'vectoring' gets switched on. It's been planned into the eircom FTTC network and all the modems supplied by all suppliers of 'fibre' using your phone line are ready-to-roll with it.

It will mean a speed bump to about 100Mbit/s for those lucky enough to be very close to the cabinet.

Basically, vectoring works a little like noise-cancelling headphones. The DSLAM (cabinet equipment) manages the crosstalk and noise between the lines connected to it. It analyses the noise on each line and injects a noise cancelling signal to cancel it out. So, that allows the data rates to be increased.

That technology's very, very new but it's part of the spec of the eircom cabinets and everyone's modems (eircom, vodafone, digiweb, magnet etc etc). So, it should see a pretty decent speed improvement for many.

HFC (hybrid-fibre-coaxial) cable networks like UPC use are just much higher bandwidth over the last bit i.e. that connects to your home. Until eircom actually replace the phone lines with fibre to your house (FTTH) they're not going to beat UPC on top speeds. It's just technically not possible over a twisted pair vs a high bandwidth coaxial link to your house.

The only hope for getting beyond 100mbit/s with the FTTC (e-fibre) network is using 2 phone lines bonded going back to the cabinet, which might be quite feasible as many homes have 2 pairs coming into them anyway.

Also, any technology reliant on DSL, in this case VDSL2 for e-fibre, suffers very rapid speed decreases the further you get from the cabinet. So, UPC can actually deliver reliable speeds regardless of distance as the coaxial cable is fully shielded and designed to carry high bandwidth (TV channels) from day one. Where as eircom's still dealing with a legacy network that was only ever designed with carrying audio i.e. simple twisted pair between you and the cabinet.

FTTC and VDSL2 are a *huge* improvement over the old ADSL2+ from the exchanges but, they're not going to be able to compete with cable in terms of top speeds as can already be seen in areas where UPC have gone to 200mbit/s without any fuss at all.

Areas where UPC cable broadband isn't full speed would be generally due to older local coaxial wiring that isn't capable of carrying the same bandwidth as the newer higher spec cabling.

They've replaced it in a lot of areas and are still rebuilding a lot of the old junk that their predecessors had been using for years. That's what all their rewiring has been about over the last few years.

7upfree · 16-11-2013 2:59pm

Sully wrote: »

I'v read and heard reports of peoples broadband dropping with UPC. Interesting to note. Some people seem to be able to get above and beyond their broadband speed with UPC whereas others, its less than half.

8:30pm (as peak as it gets). Horizon and two other boxes in house. And an iPad. And an iPhone.

I've got four relations on UPC. All consistently achieve the advertised speeds.

Sully · 16-11-2013 3:27pm

7upfree wrote: »

All consistently achieve the advertised speeds.

Lies. You are achieving above and beyond :P

Sean54 · 19-11-2013 3:13pm

I have e fibre and it works fine, (without PSTN) I ordered evision and Eircom dropped my profile.
Technician failed to show for appointment, support team are little help could`nt get anyone to call out. I had taken a day off work to be in the house ( Installation Monday - Friday only) They rang me back after 2 weeks to arrange an appointment.
They made a new appointment but included a phone on the order, when I rang them they told me I needed a phone line (PSTN) to have evision.
Has anybody else had similar experience?

Sean54 · 19-11-2013 3:13pm

I have e fibre and it works fine, (without PSTN) I ordered evision and Eircom dropped my profile.
Technician failed to show for appointment, support team are little help could`nt get anyone to call out. I had taken a day off work to be in the house ( Installation Monday - Friday only) They rang me back after 2 weeks to arrange an appointment.
They made a new appointment but included a phone on the order, when I rang them they told me I needed a phone line (PSTN) to have evision.
Has anybody else had similar experience?

Sully · 19-11-2013 4:07pm

Sean54 wrote: »

I have e fibre and it works fine, (without PSTN) I ordered evision and Eircom dropped my profile.
Technician failed to show for appointment, support team are little help could`nt get anyone to call out. I had taken a day off work to be in the house ( Installation Monday - Friday only) They rang me back after 2 weeks to arrange an appointment.
They made a new appointment but included a phone on the order, when I rang them they told me I needed a phone line (PSTN) to have evision.
Has anybody else had similar experience?

evision is only sold with a phone line.

Sean54 · 19-11-2013 4:19pm

Strange original order for evision from Eircom had no phone line & €10 cheaper.

7upfree · 19-11-2013 5:12pm

Sully wrote: »

evision is only sold with a phone line.

Kinda makes sense in fairness. How else could you avail of it otherwise?

channelsurfer2 · 19-11-2013 5:35pm

I wonder how many have actually signed up for it? I did point out to a sales rep that I would be only interesed if the UTV and some of the sky channels were made available. He just shrugged and said no plans in the immediate future for them.

Sean54 · 19-11-2013 5:42pm

Technically there is no need for a PSTN line for DSL or VDSL, but Eircom would`nt sell the DSL package without a phone service.
Eircom now sell the efibre (VDSL) without a PSTN line ie (naked broadband) for €40 a month, I have this service.
I originally ordered evision on top of my broadband (without phone service) and Eircom took the order but failed to keep the installation appointment.
They then issued a new order with a phone service attached.

SpaceTime · 19-11-2013 6:39pm

I'll be cutting the PSTN whenever the contract renewal comes up. I use mobile and VoIP only for calls. I don't even have a phone plugged in to the eircom wall jack anymore.

ftakeith · 19-11-2013 7:43pm

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

I wonder how many have actually signed up for it? I did point out to a sales rep that I would be only interesed if the UTV and some of the sky channels were made available. He just shrugged and said no plans in the immediate future for them.

utv ireland from 2015 on evision

evision is exactly like bt vision in the uk

Sean54 · 21-11-2013 5:22pm

I cancelled the order for evision, just keeping the broadband only. I got fed up getting the run around from Eircom. When I called sales about the order with the PSTN attached I was told the evision could only be sold in a bundle with a PSTN line and then given a different price (Special offer €46 for six months Phone, Broadband, Multi room & Experience pack, then €71 for an 18 month contract). So far I have been given three different prices (Two by e-mail and one verbally).
The Eircom web site (pricing of evision) gives separate pricing for evision with efibre only at €15 add on. See link below for Eircom evision pricing.

http://www.eircom.ie/bveircom/pdf/Pt11.1.pdf

Eircom may have a good product but there customer service is terrible.

channelsurfer2 · 21-11-2013 5:35pm

how can they charge 15 euro for evision when its not in a triple play pack? I thought you could only order it with Broadband and phone line?

channelsurfer2 · 21-11-2013 5:41pm

ftakeith wrote: »

utv ireland from 2015 on evision

evision is exactly like bt vision in the uk

Its not a patch on bt vision in the uk where they can get over 70 free to air channels and a free youview pvr that they can keep. eircom do not let you keep the box.

Sean54 · 21-11-2013 6:08pm

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

how can they charge 15 euro for evision when its not in a triple play pack? I thought you could only order it with Broadband and phone line?

Exactly my thought!! Eircom originally sold me evision without phone line. Answer depends who you ring in Eircom sales.
Check out the link above.

Adder_86 · 04-12-2013 8:30pm

As someone who can't get HD with UPC and isn't willing to pay for Sky, but is able to get eFibre (and is not happily using it), decided to try eVision rather than just jump to Saorview.

Will probably add a Roku for Netflix/Youtube.

I am worried about a broadband slow-down though. They're not warning about that (or even stating that the TV will use bandwidth), so they'll have a very irate customer if it becomes noticeable.

fasterbetter · 05-12-2013 7:57am

hi

I have e fibre 3 months now and evision 2 months

Was originally on 50M down/20 up with it and about 200M from cabinet

Eircom reduced speed to 43M when they installed the TV

You dont really notice that reduction as nothing in the house can download that fast anyway..(unless you plug cable into router). Most stuff is on wireless n

When directly plugged into the router with a laptop I am getting download speeds of 41mbps which is about as much as can be expected on a 43Mbps line sync

When the TV box is turned on this drops by about 2.5Mbps

If you have a second TV box like I have the download speed drops another 2.5Mbps when that is also turned on

Because of the QoS on the routers it doesnt matter what else is going on in the house the TV will always work and get the best bandwidth.

This doesnt mean you can't use the other 38/39Mbps of bandwidth and I would frequently have 2 or 3 people watching netflix and someone downloading Torrents at (2MBPS\16Mbps) while the telly is being watched.

So far very happy with the service..hoping they will add a few more channels soon.....but 15 a month versus the 30 I was paying UPC with 6 months free (of the basic 10e) was hard to beat

fasterbetter

eVision (IPTV service from Eircom) [Merged]

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