Horizon TV- Awful?

coldfire1x

^^ Yes

bricks

I had something on live pause, I hit the record button also as I do on Sky just in case the live pause fails.
So I'm watching away and then randomly the UPC(Useless Piece of Crap) box changes channels. No buttons were pressed on the remote.
So then I think I'll just go to the recordings and watch it from there.
But its not recorded!
I could go on, everything about this box does my head in.
Even the on demand stuff, has no sound, or no picture or both sometimes, or the robot voice sound.

I know the Sky+ box isn't perfect but I've never felt like chucking the box out the window into the street.

tigger123

Luck100 wrote: »

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.

Cheers for the help! I downloaded Twonky and got it set up. The only problem is that I occasionally get an error code 9020 and it seems to lose connection with the laptop ... Anyone can else ever encounter this?

Luck100

tigger123 wrote: »

Cheers for the help! I downloaded Twonky and got it set up. The only problem is that I occasionally get an error code 9020 and it seems to lose connection with the laptop ... Anyone can else ever encounter this?

I haven't used Twonky myself, but most likely it's a flaky network connection. Are you using wifi or ethernet with the laptop? Wifi is not that dependable for running a DLNA server like Twonky or Plex.

Wabbit Ears

from the sounds of it you're connecting the laptop over the 2.4 gig wifi. Ideally for streaming you would be wanting a wired/powerline connection or be connecting using the far more stable ( but less range) 5 ghz.

tigger123

Yep, connecting over WiFi. Euch. They don't make this thing easy, do they? Jebus...

robbe

Hi,

Possibly (but can't see it any where else) a question that has been covered before but I'll ask anyway. Recently 'upgraded' to Horizon, opted to be 'deconsolidated' but horizon box was delivered 2 weeks before new router. I was using the wireless on the horizon box but have as of this morning taken delivery of the new router. I'm not at home but thoughtfully they have now disabled the wireless on the horizon box leaving the inhabitants with no phone/broadband until I come home this evening. Rang UPC who said that they disable the wireless on the horizon box on delivery of the new one and that I should have been informed (I wasn't). Can I ask if it's possible, using the gwlogin.net portal into the horizon box to turn wireless back on and also if it's possible to have both horizon and router wifi running at the same time? I did ask the UPC lad but he was a bit vague, he was also vague as to whether the new router supported 5ghz, mumbled something and thanked me for my custom.....not sure what the router is btw.

Thanks for any help

Wabbit Ears

in short no, its not the wireless that gone its the cablemodem in the horizon box is now not enabled.

robbe

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

in short no, its not the wireless that gone its the cablemodem in the horizon box is now not enabled.

Ah balls, was hoping that wasn't the case - the router doesn't support simultaneous 2.4/5ghz channels - however hopefully the more reliable coverage will make up for this......on another note completely inefficient in their method of delivering the kit - they delivered Horizon box first, then after 2 weeks a courier delivered a splitter then another courier delivered the modem. Little wonder they have to increase their prices with waste like this.

JDxtra

My parents ordered a Horizon box, so I popped over today to plug it in for them. 4 hours later - no working box. Here's what happened...

Initially the box set up itself fine, TV was working perfect - navigation was fluid etc. However, broadband and on-demand was not working. Waited a while, no change. I performed a connection check and it said it failed tests for all but TV.

OK - call support, wait on hold for 40 minutes. They advise me to do a factory reset, which I then performed. Then error 1030 popped up - problem with installation. Message was misleading, but did say it may take an hour (which makes no sense). Anyways, 1 hour later - no change.

Call support again, on hold another 40 minutes. They can't connect to the box - advise me to restart, try another TV point etc. Did all this and no change. Box stays on the same error message. No, we have to wait until Tuesday for a replacement.

Seriously, these kinds of problems are costing us the consumer. How much is it now going to cost them in terms of new boxes, couriers, support staff etc... these costs are being passed onto us.

They really need to sort out the software on these boxes and their backend systems. This box should have worked without issue after a few minutes.

wally79

JDxtra wrote: »

My parents ordered a Horizon box, so I popped over today to plug it in for them. 4 hours later - no working box. Here's what happened...

Initially the box set up itself fine, TV was working perfect - navigation was fluid etc. However, broadband and on-demand was not working. Waited a while, no change. I performed a connection check and it said it failed tests for all but TV.

OK - call support, wait on hold for 40 minutes. They advise me to do a factory reset, which I then performed. Then error 1030 popped up - problem with installation. Message was misleading, but did say it may take an hour (which makes no sense). Anyways, 1 hour later - no change.

Call support again, on hold another 40 minutes. They can't connect to the box - advise me to restart, try another TV point etc. Did all this and no change. Box stays on the same error message. No, we have to wait until Tuesday for a replacement.

Seriously, these kinds of problems are costing us the consumer. How much is it now going to cost them in terms of new boxes, couriers, support staff etc... these costs are being passed onto us.

They really need to sort out the software on these boxes and their backend systems. This box should have worked without issue after a few minutes.

I am usually UPC's biggest critic but I have to say the horizon setup went pain free for me a couple of weeks ago.

No issues with BB or TV since (touch wood) and hasn't missed any recordings yet or had any of the other issues I've seen.

Given the differing stories you hear I think the software might actually be ok (not amazing but ok) and the problem is in the quality control of the box manufacturer.

It just seems to be luck of the draw.

One question I have of long term horizon users would be whether their problems developed over time and can I expect pain in the future

beauf

wally79 wrote: »

I am usually UPC's biggest critic but I have to say the horizon setup went pain free for me a couple of weeks ago.

No issues with BB or TV since (touch wood) and hasn't missed any recordings yet or had any of the other issues I've seen....

Yet, my friend,...yet.

dingding

Anyone having problems where the Horizon box is not giving DHCP requests.

Devices stopped connecting when the lease expired.

I reset the box and it seems to have improved it.

darraghn

dingding wrote: »

Anyone having problems where the Horizon box is not giving DHCP requests.

Devices stopped connecting when the lease expired.

I reset the box and it seems to have improved it.

I have been having the same problem on and off sine I got one of the first Horizon boxes on the pre-launch. Got a new box after 3-4 months to fix the box not issuing IP addresses.

New box has been working on and off since then, every few months or so I need to switch off the box, wait for 10-15 mins to reboot and mostly it works.

Two weeks ago it didn't work, so I did a complete factory reset which didn't work either. Called broadband helpdesk, she could see that the factory reset had not completely worked as my SSID had not reset to the default. She performed a remote reset - which worked, but today the Horizon box is not giving out IP addresses to wireless devices - Wired Ethernet devices are OK for now. This is a real pain.:o I wonder if a new box would help or is it "just" a software issue? I have the 200Mb service and quite a few devices connected to he network, about 10 Ethernet and 10 wireless...

L1011

darraghn wrote: »

I have been having the same problem on and off sine I got one of the first Horizon boxes on the pre-launch. Got a new box after 3-4 months to fix the box not issuing IP addresses.

New box has been working on and off since then, every few months or so I need to switch off the box, wait for 10-15 mins to reboot and mostly it works.

Two weeks ago it didn't work, so I did a complete factory reset which didn't work either. Called broadband helpdesk, she could see that the factory reset had not completely worked as my SSID had not reset to the default. She performed a remote reset - which worked, but today the Horizon box is not giving out IP addresses to wireless devices - Wired Ethernet devices are OK for now. This is a real pain.:o I wonder if a new box would help or is it "just" a software issue? I have the 200Mb service and quite a few devices connected to he network, about 10 Ethernet and 10 wireless...

The Horizon's inbuilt wireless is not fit for purpose, and I'd not be certain of its DHCP/DNS forwarder/any other feature either. Get a high-spec 802.11ac wireless router, and use it for your wired devices also if required.

hitbit

So Has Horizon improved.

L1011

hitbit wrote: »

So Has Horizon improved.

General usage of the box as a TV device has improved but it has large annoyances still.

Use as a wireless router is unlikely to ever improve.

beauf

What he ^ said.

JDxtra

JDxtra wrote: »

My parents ordered a Horizon box, so I popped over today to plug it in for them. 4 hours later - no working box. Here's what happened...

Initially the box set up itself fine, TV was working perfect - navigation was fluid etc. However, broadband and on-demand was not working. Waited a while, no change. I performed a connection check and it said it failed tests for all but TV.

OK - call support, wait on hold for 40 minutes. They advise me to do a factory reset, which I then performed. Then error 1030 popped up - problem with installation. Message was misleading, but did say it may take an hour (which makes no sense). Anyways, 1 hour later - no change.

Call support again, on hold another 40 minutes. They can't connect to the box - advise me to restart, try another TV point etc. Did all this and no change. Box stays on the same error message. No, we have to wait until Tuesday for a replacement.

Seriously, these kinds of problems are costing us the consumer. How much is it now going to cost them in terms of new boxes, couriers, support staff etc... these costs are being passed onto us.

They really need to sort out the software on these boxes and their backend systems. This box should have worked without issue after a few minutes.

Parents got a second box delivered (looked brand new). Straight away error code 1030 no matter how long it was left. Swapped TV points, cables and all possible combinations - always error code 1030. Engineer arrived a few days later - no issues with signal or cable into the house. He's at a loss...

JDxtra

Sorted now. Phew. UPC did not have the box configured correctly on their end, so it did not know what to do when it connected to the network.

cyrano54

I have upgraded to horizon box about 3 weeks ago.

Set up experience was painless. I do not need a massive wifi coverage so the all in one approach of that box works ok for me. I have about 8-10 wifi devices and they all can connect without any problem. I like the simultaneous 2.4 and 5 GHz broadcasting
So far, the BB experience have been very good and stable (I'm not convinced I get the 240mb but this is working for me)

The TV experience however is just bad. Of course the channels are displaying fine. But the interface on the Horizon box , all the menus and the navigation are poorly designed. It works for a casual use, but after a while you start to wonder about the mad logic behind all those menus and button clicking you have to do to achieve basic tasks.

Here are a few of very annoying shortcomings:
1) no page down or up options, (very limiting for guide pages or long lists)
2) why do you need to go to advance settings to see how much space is left on your box to record new shows?
3) why can't you cancel a series booking? You seems to be able to cancel a specific episode or ALL (and it seems to mean ALL) your bookings
4) The onscreen menu does not highlight very well the currently selected command. Basically it is the same white, same font just slightly bigger, and sometimes above or below a line. Why not having some color or at least something more obvious. Half of the time I end up press OK for the wrong command...
5) My recording and planner lists are just a nightmare to use and to find something. Why not a simple list of independent recordings and series each displayed as one line (as in the old box). At the moment you have all individual episodes displayed forcing you to scroll down a lot to find what you want or to go into refine mode...
6) why the box does not remember that you have watched and deleted a specific episode and will record it again...
7) the Mosaic view is nice, but why only 2 rows, and for some reason the thumbnail of some show revert to the default after a while.
8) still on the mosaic view, the navigation is very counter intuitive between rows. When you go to the top row, it becomes the bottom one.
9) why the box does not remember the specific view setting I last used. For instance in Mosaic view I like to refine by A-Z . The next time I go to that view, after watching something, I have to select Refine again.
10) why can I switch the guide view from a grid to a one channel view without having to go back to the menu
11) better why can't the guide button be customized to the view you want
12) after watching a recording, to delete it you need first to stop it then select it again to delete it.

There are many more issues than that. In particular Now and Next...

Overall I like the possibility of the new box, but I have to admit for something that has been in the market for over 2 years I was seriously expecting a much more mature UI. Considering than most of the above was available in the old box...

A few people messaged me to ask how I got the box sorted given that I haven't posted in this thread in awhile. My solution was easy, I plugged out the Horizion box and told UPC they could stick it where the sun don't shine.

beauf

I dunno if there was a recent update but you used to be able to cancel series. Is showing that option at random for me. It's no longer working as at was.

Global

Resolved all my issues with the (2nd brand new box within a 6 month period ) Horizon box ... Always freezing .. awful GUI ... all round balls up by UPC ... By responding to their price increase by choosing to end my contact only six months in without penalty ...Best move ever

Saint_Mel

I'm on the Horizon box about a month now. Originally I was selected for the trial, but then they reckoned they couldn't provide it in my area!

WiFi range seems better than when I had regular UPC but I have to agree with most, and I've informed UPC many times, the TV user interface is nothing short of woeful. It can't hold a candle to the regular UPC one!!! Recording listings is very poor.

Also, one thing that really annoyed me was finding out that setting shows to record via the Upc app doesn't actually do a series record.

Upc phone app seems like a fantastic service, especially if your out of phone credit and need to make a call...however I just discovered it doesn't appear to work over 3g ... its WiFi only which is a pain.

irishguy1983

Contemplating leaving UPC. Is it actually cheaper than Sky these days??! The Horizon packages look quite expensive.

I'm on the old UPC - not a chance I would move to Horizon considering all I've heard about it.

Joo0

irishguy1983 wrote: »

Contemplating leaving UPC. Is it actually cheaper than Sky these days??! The Horizon packages look quite expensive.

I'm on the old UPC - not a chance I would move to Horizon considering all I've heard about it.

If you don't have sports channels no point in having a pay tv subscription

happybob

irishguy1983 wrote: »

Contemplating leaving UPC. Is it actually cheaper than Sky these days??! The Horizon packages look quite expensive.

I'm on the old UPC - not a chance I would move to Horizon considering all I've heard about it.

TV Navigation is Crap -> Check
Random DNS Resolution Issues -> Check
Random WIFI network drops -> Check
System doesn't work properly if you switch DNS -> Check
Horizon Go doesn't work with HTC One M8 -> Check
"gwlogin.net" randomly works/fails -> Check

Yep; pretty disappointing for an 'upgrade'. Was better off on my previous UPC package.

happybob

happybob wrote: »

TV Navigation is Crap -> Check
Random DNS Resolution Issues -> Check
Random WIFI network drops -> Check
System doesn't work properly if you switch DNS -> Check
Horizon Go doesn't work with HTC One M8 -> Check
"gwlogin.net" randomly works/fails -> Check

Yep; pretty disappointing for an 'upgrade'. Was better off on my previous UPC package.

P.S. Looks like UPC have had 12+ months to sort this out and still haven't. Expect attrition.

irishguy1983

Joo0 wrote: »

If you don't have sports channels no point in having a pay tv subscription

Have Sky Sports and the Setanta package I'd gladly go another way if I could but I live for sports!