eVision (IPTV service from Eircom) [Merged]

The Cush

Article in the Sunday Times

Bond investors were told last that the launch of the service was imminent, and it would have an attractive "user interface" and recording facility. The television service is currently being trialled with 400 customers.

Wabbit Ears

yea, its on field trials for a while interally in eircom and the STB user interface is supposed to be really awesome, really looking forward to seeing it in the flesh as Im curious as to how it stacks up against the new sky box and the Horizon offering.

channelsurfer2

sounds very good if the prices are more or less the same as the ones they trialled in the RED C survey, it will be only 3 to 5 euro for multi-room and HD as and add-on with an extra 5 to 10 euro for additional channels.

excollier

Don't make me laugh, I can't even get broadband on my line here..........

Red Alert

This sort of crap was tried by Smart TV out in Parkwest a number of years ago, and the only reason it survived as long as it did was that they had a monopoly there until the management company relented and let Sky in.

Hi-def TV-quality video over IP only works well on a LAN supporting multicast, sending that over your broadband connection is asking for trouble.

channelsurfer2

well Eircom seem to be very confident it will work, otherwise they wouldnt be spending millions on it.

gctest50

Red Alert wrote: »

Hi-def TV-quality video over IP only works well on a LAN supporting multicast, sending that over your broadband connection is asking for trouble.

Necessary faster :

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/japan-launches-worlds-fastest-home-internet-20130416-2hxge.html

37 euro a month for 2gigabit - they're being robbed though

SpaceTime

It'll run over the e-fibre network which supports multicast.

Also, this is nearly a decade later than Smart Telecom's attempts at it. Technology has moved on a LOT since then.

The public information about the project says eircom are installing Huawei MSAN lite MA5600T in those cabinets. ( http://knnetworkservices.com/projects/telecoms/fixed/eircom-nga-super-fast-fibre-broadband/ )

Specs:
http://www.huawei.com/en/products/fixed-access/fttx/olt/ma5600t/index.htm

Have a read through. It has a LOT of IPTV related features.

There are over 1000 of those units being deployed in the current rollout. So they'll be bringing the network very close to the end users. Assuming the DSLAM has dedicated bandwidth for IPTV, it will run very nicely indeed.

7upfree

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews132232.html

watty

Not the same technology as Smart.
But still a problem if you are more than 100m from cabinet and want more than one or two TVs.
Also 92% of what subscription TV viewers watch is free content! So unless you made of money or really want Sky Sports, Saorview + Freesat is much cheaper and for 4 to 1000+ rooms the only sensible solution. You really don't need pay TV in more than a couple of rooms unless you are a Hotel, Prison, Hospital or Guest House offering Sky Sport (and that will seriously cost you!).

SpaceTime

The more options the better in my opinion.
At least it puts it up to UPC and Sky.

I'll wait and see before I make any pronouncements on the technology.

jay0109

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/eircom-launches-tv-service-in-direct-challenge-to-sky-and-upc-29665613.html

The new service, called ‘eVision’, will offer two basic packages, with 34 and 54 channels, respectively.

Incremental services will offer premium stations such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies. The service will come with a free set-top box, which will be capable of ‘pausing’ live television and storing up to 240 hours of television content.

The packages are aimed at Eircom customers, who will be charged €10 per month in addition to existing Eircom bill. Non-Eircom customers will need to sign up for a landline to avail of the service.

channelsurfer2

no itv or sky news? looks like they are having the same issue as sky did with TV3 blocking them if one is to speculate. I think i will stick to my 200 FTA channels (granted only 4 in HD) and recordable including ITV HD. that beats TV3 SD any day of the week.

mike65

That's a decent alternative to UPC or put another way if you don't have UPC in your area its an alternative to SKY but of course you need to have proper fibre connection for it to be viable and one supposes most of them are in areas covered by UPC. Still cheaper though depends on the channels, until you see the list its hard to be certain isn't it?

jay0109

https://secure.eircom.net/apps/tv/eoi.jsp

that's poor....TV link on their website is down, and on the day of an announcement like this!

Anyone got an idea of how much this would cost (incl line rental) v's UPC and Sky for a basic pacake

garroff

What about us rural customers with 2MB download speed (on a good day).
We are paying top dollar but have a sh$%*e service.

RogerThis

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/34523-eircom-launches/

mollser

Jeekers, there's a rake of channels on there that upc don't have, particularly noticeably fox and comedy hd, and the eden/reality etc group of channels.

Attractive for the money, fair play eircom.

jay0109

RogerThis wrote: »

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/34523-eircom-launches/

Does'nt look much cheaper when I see what they have from that link

€16 for the 54 channels
€5 for a few HD channels
€29 for just sky sports 1 + 2
= €50 + line rental/broadband which is €30?+

mike65

Hmmm,

No SKY channels in either of the cheapest packages is not much to shout about if they want to go to war with UPC - the cheapest UPC quad play bundle looks rather better value at 50 per month.

7upfree

mollser wrote: »

Jeekers, there's a rake of channels on there that upc don't have, particularly noticeably fox and comedy hd, and the eden/reality etc group of channels.

Attractive for the money, fair play eircom.

Fox is on UPC C 126

_Whimsical_

No Sky News...a deal breaker for me. I know it's not much good but it's my default vegging out in front of the tv channel when there's nothing else on.
No UTV/ITV option either.

Otherwise it seems good. I wonder who'll beat them with this offer now.

channelsurfer2

13 channels for 10 euro a month. the rest are all free to air and unlike satellite if you cancel you wont get to see any of the free to air channels. however even at 16 euro its still 11euro cheaper than skys basic package and HD is only 5euro extra making it 21 euro compared to 42euro with sky for the cheapest HD offering.

mickyellow

Just noticed the Sky Sports package. This just includes Sky Sports 1 & 2. Where's the other channels? (Sky Sport 3,4, news & Extra). The Sky News & UTV option would really turn me away from it. Also the remote looks like it's straight from the 1980's. I'll be staying with UPC. Eircom should have invested their cash in improving their network rather than launch a service which is the same as what the competition is offering. Five years too late Eircom.

Gmol

Wow I would get HD and Multiroom as well for less than what I am paying Sky & Bt.

Wabbit Ears

Gmol wrote: »

Wow I would get HD and Multiroom as well for less than what I am paying Sky & Bt.

as peopel talking about the budget have been saying ad-naseum "the devil is in the details"

channelsurfer2

quick comparision for me anyways(full price excluding gimmicky special offers)
sky broadbconnect lite up to 24mb plus offpeak calls 40euro per month add sky basic pack 27 euro = 67euro add hd for 15 euro with multiroom 15 euro =97euro
eircom efibre advanced 50mb 45euro plus eircom tv at 16 euro is 61 euro. add HD and Multi-room is 71 euro. that saves 6euro to 28euro per month.

I cant get UPC so no comparision with UPC.

ElNino

Apparently the Sports channels are not HD. I am not sure about the movies.

Adrian Weckler ‏@adrianweckler 1h
Just got Eircom TV demo. Nice, fast EPG. Lack of HD for sports channels, though. Positioned as 'value' offering to buttress broadband, phone

icdg

The pricing for the basic service is very good value.

But the lack of a deal with BSkyB for their basic channels (though it's a long time since Sky One or Sky News were a "must" for me) or for Sky Sports 3&4 would put me off (although Sky has undertaken to Ofcom that all Premier League will be on Sky Sports 1&2, that doesn't apply to anything else).

They have got BT Sport from the off at the same pricing as UPC

channelsurfer2

to be honest sky 1 and sky news are not missed much these days with BBC news a very good replacement for Sky news. UTV and ITV2-4 are a big miss that they probably wont sort out in a hurry.

mackersdublin

7upfree wrote: »

Fox is on UPC Ch 126

But Fox HD isn't on UPC

mackersdublin

And in eVision's T&C's "RTE Two HD is available free of charge to all customers able to receive HD channels" just like UPC and Sky

Paulw

mackersdublin wrote: »

But Fox HD isn't on UPC

Fox HD isn't listed on the evision package either, only Fox channel.

mackersdublin

Paulw wrote: »

Fox HD isn't listed on the evision package either, only Fox channel.

It's in the HD Add on Pack
https://www.eircom.net/tv/channels

patrickmooney

There is a video of the service on silicon republic. The EPG seems miles better then Horizon. They rely on a side bar to browse other channels and view now/next. From what I've seen it looks very well thought out. Can't wait to get more information on their UI implementation.

Onthe3rdDay

For anyone with free to air satellite/saorview it's a very poor offering and a step backwards if you want HD. (No ITV HD and no Channel 4 HD)

However, if I were able to just get the BT/Setanta package on it's own for the 16 euro I'd be tempted.

batistuta9

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

However, if I were able to just get the BT/Setanta package on it's own for the 16 euro I'd be tempted.

i was think that as well but it looks like you'd be missing setanta ireland & the BT HD channels too

SweetCaliber

No ITV? UTV? Selection of channels is good otherwise. Hopefully the eFibre will keep up with it, e.g. no buffering or such.

Also, I noticed the boxes connect to the eFibre box via Ethernet cable, will the engineers run Ethernet cables throughout houses to each box? What if all your Ethernet ports are used on the eFibre box?

channelsurfer2

apart from the lack of sky channels(which obviously sky held back out of pure commercial reasons and probably acted like a bully) its not bad. Sky cant compete with in and if it forces Sky to drop the price of multi room and HD that cant be bad. It now leaves Sky as almost 3 times as expensive as UPC and Eircom for multiroom and HD...

Cantona's Collars

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

For anyone with free to air satellite/saorview it's a very poor offering and a step backwards if you want HD. (No ITV HD and no Channel 4 HD)

However, if I were able to just get the BT/Setanta package on it's own for the 16 euro I'd be tempted.

You can get BT/Setanta as standalone on satellite,all you need is a Skybox (get a HD box) which are cheap on Adverts and a card,Setanta will send you one free.Once you get the card,pop it in the HD box & it'll give you the UK epg,ring Setanta with the card number,DD details etc. and you're up and running.

Infoanon

The website heralds 30+ channels on the basic service but only 28 are listed.

The offering is poor when you consider that many of the channels are available fta and not having UTV (and ITV2/3/4) is a major disadvantage.

It does have Watch,Eden & Yesterday compared to UPC but that does not make up for the overall shortfalls.

Nevertheless competition can only be good for the consumer.

ftakeith

sky go monthly ticket is better value

I got it last saturday for the heineken cup rugby

I got the sky entertainment, movies and sports for only €55 and you are not tied to a 12 months contract

It will be knocked off by me on the 12/11/13 as I am in control, not sky

then on the 7/12/13 I will get it back again for heineken cup rugby and take in the same for this month

mostly only watch live sport
then watch the rest of the content on demand legally

twinklerunner

I am an Eircom Broadband customer and I've noticed over the last few weeks that the BBC iPlayer is working perfectly; is this related to this announcement in any way?

delw

Lack of music channels aswell

Davy

No recording on the multiroom box unlike UPC and sky

eVision multiroom boxes are compact in size and can do everything your eVision+ box can except for record/pause/rewind

former legend

I'm sorry but I don't get who this will appeal to.

No Sky channels? No UTV? So I think it's very disingenuous for them to compare their 'basic pack' with Sky or UPC.

And why can you only get Sky Sports 1 and 2?

No on demand or TV players? The user interface looks nice and all that but content is king.

But my main concern would be the ability of eircom's lines to handle HD TV and heavy internet traffic. If I'm streaming video on the computer and the missus is watching Eastenders in glorious HD on the TV, will it all come crashing down?

Mearings

I live in a block of flats where we have a choice of UPC or SFA.
Will an individual flat owner be able to opt for the Eircom bundle whilst neighbours remain with UPC?

barrackali

I don't know who in their right mind would want this product.....I have seen and used this type of offering over in the UK.....and it is indeed terrible. If you are truly broke or don't have another option...well that's the only reason to go for a product like this.

offmeheadpal

SweetCaliber wrote: »

No ITV? UTV? Selection of channels is good otherwise. Hopefully the eFibre will keep up with it, e.g. no buffering or such.

Also, I noticed the boxes connect to the eFibre box via Ethernet cable, will the engineers run Ethernet cables throughout houses to each box? What if all your Ethernet ports are used on the eFibre box?

they give out free homeplugs.. I heard. so you only need to have 1 free port on the eFibre box. also the red WAN port can be turned into a 5th Ethernet port so most people should be fine

Onthe3rdDay

zerks wrote: »

You can get BT/Setanta as standalone on satellite,all you need is a Skybox (get a HD box) which are cheap on Adverts and a card,Setanta will send you one free.Once you get the card,pop it in the HD box & it'll give you the UK epg,ring Setanta with the card number,DD details etc. and you're up and running.

Yes I know, but previous hassles with setanta have made me wary. If my phone line is with eircom and their billing is straight forward it makes things easier. However, I doubt if they'll have the sense to offer a stand alone sports package. They'll want me to pay the extra 10 euro a month for stations I either don't want, or already have.

The only people that would want this product it seems are those that can't put up a dish and aren't in a cabled area, plus have efibre, oh and don't mind not having Sky 1 or UTV/ITV....That's a fairly small market to be aiming at.

Outside of RTE, BBC and Channel 4 stations, they seem to have picked the stations that people generally don't watch or on the other hand the stations that are fantastic for 4 or 5 months and then you never watch again because the same shows are shown over and over again.

ted1

In fairness the GUI looks much better than Horizon