Horizon TV- Awful?

califano

wally79 wrote: »

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."

Cheers ill see how it goes, wouldnt like to have to pay €60 as an existing customer when others are feining cancellation to get cheaper deals in the first place. Im sure you could swing a deal by pm to forego the 60 install.
I didnt think you needed broadband to setup the horizon box initially because what about people that just want upc tv. Just rang tech to confirm and he said no just hook it up to the tv point and it will install. He said just login to the horizon box and disable wifi.
I have 14 days apparantly to cancel the contract if it doesnt work out.

Joo0

If you have Skysports you can get HD multiroom for 5 euro a month with free box.

califano

Joo0 wrote: »

If you have Skysports you can get HD multiroom for 5 euro a month with free box.

Only for new customers, they wouldnt budge when i tried.

Install went fine it wa just a matter of plug and play. Strangely yesterday evening before i got the horizon box i lost half my HD channels on the hd box and they said this evening its a MOX issue and they need to send out an engineer on Friday so hopefully they can get that back.

Joo0

http://www.upc.ie/television/premium-existingcustomer/
Bottom of the page. Ends on Friday as far as I know.

califano

Joo0 wrote: »

http://www.upc.ie/television/premium-existingcustomer/
Bottom of the page. Ends on Friday as far as I know.

Sorry, i thought you meant the €1 for 6 months offer, thats the one for new customers. Wouldnt be interested in this one as i have ways and means;)
Must say the horizon tv box is impressive so far.

Sapele

unklerosco wrote: »

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.

That's certainly odd. Your HD reception with horizon should be crystal clear, (imo) you either have a problem with your upc signal or tv. Sky HD is hopeless. Even my TV3 (non hd) is very good but some of the other SD channels on horizon are lacking in signal quality, but who cares since they are rarely watched. If I were you I would be straight on to UPC who can and will adjust signal strength (I know as I have been on to them many times over the years). Sky on the other hand will do nothing, I tried to improve my sky reception until I way blue in the face, all I got was a headache and extra changes on my phone bill.

aphex™

Are you still having problems with this box? Looking to move to UPC today. I went back 3 pages and it's the series delete and WIFI issues which are mentioned, which won't affect me.

beauf

Depends what's a critical feature for you. For example mine didn't record the last 10 mins of Love and Hate, then missed the next two episodes. On other series its been recording duplicates. Not a big deal for me, might be for others.

califano

Is there any way they can update firmware to reduce the display facade when you turn a channel to less that 5 seconds?. Currently 5 seconds is the minimum amount of time it will take to go away which seems about 3 seconds too long.

Luck100

califano wrote: »

Is there any way they can update firmware to reduce the display facade when you turn a channel to less that 5 seconds?. Currently 5 seconds is the minimum amount of time it will take to go away which seems about 3 seconds too long.

Yeah I find that really annoying. Would love to knock it down to 1-2 seconds.

califano

Luck100 wrote: »

Yeah I find that really annoying. Would love to knock it down to 1-2 seconds.

yeah and the thing is you can on the multiroom box whether hd or sd. But i wonder if this could feasibly upgraded in a software update in the future.

musohead

My 2c, having used Horizon since it came out and comparing it with Sky that I had before. IMHO there are strengths and weaknesses to each so hopefully the following helps someone:

1. It appears to me that UPC is compressing its HD signal. There is a motion blurring that doesn't happen with Sky HD. However the UPC SD and HD picture are good quality in other respects. Plus UPC throw in plenty of HD channels (inc. ITV HD) as standard. UPC just edges it over Sky for this reason.

2. The UPC remote control is appalling. It has a terrible lag that means you often overshoot a menu choice. You can accidentally delete a recording if not careful. Sky wins hands down here for its responsiveness.

3. UPC's EPG is terrible. It's very slow to move about and no intuitive way to jump up/down pages. It doesn't show a lot of information and takes several button pushes to see basic programme details. Sky's EPG sets the standard, being fast, intuitive and informative, easy winner. I'll give UPC some consolation points for their 'favourites' mode.

4. UPC's scheduling is not as intuitive as Sky's. Too much button pushing for basic tasks. It also does some strange things, like recording multiple repeats of a programme and often losing series link. Sky is rock solid here.

5. UPC's display of recorded programmes is quite good, grouping by latest episode date. However the playback controls are poor. There is no obvious way to jump through a long programme other than 30x fast forward. Can't even jump to the end. Sky's controls are good with options to jump anywhere.

6. UPC's Android streaming app is actually quite good and manages to be usable compared with similar streaming apps I've tried (e.g. Dreambox). The remote control function of this app is very useful. UPC win over Sky's basic scheduling app.

There are other oddities with UPC. The scart signal does not work if the HDMI is not active. So if you're running an extension TV off the scart, the main TV has to be on too. UPC's 'My Network' has potential, especially if you have a server with videos, but it's very clunky to use, requiring plenty of button pushing.

That's enough for now. Any questions?

Wabbit Ears

I can tell you, as some one who currently has both SKY and UPC that P

mjp

Currently have UPC basic package with phone and broadband bundle. Bought hd tv and looking to upgrade to hd package but they are requesting €90 activation fee aswell as the additional €5 per month. Additional monthly payment I have no issue with but don't want to pay the €90 activation fee. They tried selling me horizon box but refuse to take it due to the negative feedback I've been getting from friends and seeing online.

Any recommendations asto how to get around this activation charge??

mfceiling

mjp wrote: »

Currently have UPC basic package with phone and broadband bundle. Bought hd tv and looking to upgrade to hd package but they are requesting €90 activation fee aswell as the additional €5 per month. Additional monthly payment I have no issue with but don't want to pay the €90 activation fee. They tried selling me horizon box but refuse to take it due to the negative feedback I've been getting from friends and seeing online.

Any recommendations asto how to get around this activation charge??

Give Sky a call - no "activation" charge and you will have a tv service that actually works and does as it claims.

IrlMonk

That's what i did.....a thousand times better

paulboland

Just to let you know
Horizon Wireless 5GHz is active on the Horizon Box

Its now Dual Wireless
2.4GHz and 5GHz

Great Update
You can use both Wireless same time

I tested 5GHz on my iPhone 5s works great

If you have a wireless device that's 5Ghz I would use it

You now have 2 wireless options

You can connect 2.4Ghz wireless devices and 5GHz wireless devices same time to your network

killbillvol2

paulboland wrote: »

Just to let you know
Horizon Wireless 5GHz is active on the Horizon Box

Its now Dual Wireless
2.4GHz and 5GHz

Great Update
You can use both Wireless same time

I tested 5GHz on my iPhone 5s works great

If you have a wireless device that's 5Ghz I would use it

You now have 2 wireless options

You can connect 2.4Ghz wireless devices and 5GHz wireless devices same time to your network

That's a useful addition. I knocked off wireless and use my own router so it won't affect me.

For anyone using 5GHz it might improve your signal (almost certainly will) but its range will be very limited.

doubie

Got it sorted..I had to delete the TV from both the wired and wireless internet. Then I had to add another wireless access point and then connect the tv to this over wifi.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

total former

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

My bill includes a single figure for all three services.

Wabbit Ears

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They do this for residential accounts but they will itemise a buisness account which is what you need to have if your work is paying the costs.

tigger123

I recently installed the Horizon HD box.

I've been looking around the forum but can't find what I'm looking for.

Can anyone point me towards a step by step guide to stream media from my laptop to the Horizon box? Stuff such as live streaming (like Netflix) or saved movies on my hard drive? Essentially, is it possible to see up a connection that operates like Google Chromecast using the Horizon box?

coldfire1x

Login to My UPC
Click on 'HZN Client Entitlements'
Under Heading 'My Twonky' click on 'Information and Download link'

You need that for what you are trying to do.

Luck100

tigger123 wrote: »

I recently installed the Horizon HD box.

I've been looking around the forum but can't find what I'm looking for.

Can anyone point me towards a step by step guide to stream media from my laptop to the Horizon box? Stuff such as live streaming (like Netflix) or saved movies on my hard drive? Essentially, is it possible to see up a connection that operates like Google Chromecast using the Horizon box?

Check out Plex media server or Twonky. I use Plex myself. You browse and play your media (video, music, photos) from the horizon box. Not sure if horizon can handle netflix.

pastor

Hi Paul

I opted for the seperate wifi router and received the Cisco model. As there are no external ariels the wifi is not much better than it was on the Horizon box originally. With the 5Ghz option now being available on the horizon box would I be better off forgetting about the Ciso and asking upc to switch back to using the Horizon wifi? I hope that makes sense?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

paulboland wrote: »

Just to let you know
Horizon Wireless 5GHz is active on the Horizon Box

Its now Dual Wireless
2.4GHz and 5GHz

Great Update
You can use both Wireless same time

I tested 5GHz on my iPhone 5s works great

If you have a wireless device that's 5Ghz I would use it

You now have 2 wireless options

You can connect 2.4Ghz wireless devices and 5GHz wireless devices same time to your network

beauf

I can't see your range improving going back to the horizon box.

You'd need to connect a better WiFi router to the cisco box to improve your range. There's threads on boards how to do this.

You end up with more boxes and cables though. Which is annoying.

ps200306

If I cancel my Horizon TV service and downgrade to broadband+phone only, will UPC replace my Horizon box with a broadband modem/router? Or will they leave the Horizon box with TV functionality disabled? I was hoping that a positive spin-off of ditching the TV would be a replacement for the dire Horizon Wifi.

beauf

I have a horizon for TV. But I use a TC7200 for internet. Its WiFi isn't great either. I had to use my own Wifi router to get a semi robust wifi connection. Plan for that.

ps200306

Will UPC replace my Horizon box with a different broadband modem/router if I downgrade to broadband only?