UPC Horizon Advantages?

ION08

I've been with UPC nearly 2 years at this stage and overall pretty happy..

I have the black DVR+ HD set top box

100mb (White Thomson router)

and a Phone.

Is there much point in upgrading to Horizon???? (Which would tie me into a new contract)

What exactly are the benefits??

Besides a sleeker set top box (which incorporates the Wifi Router) would it give me any extra advantages over my existing set up???


Thanks for your replies.

M.J.M.C

ION08 wrote: »

Besides a sleeker set top box (which incorporates the Wifi Router) would it give me any extra advantages over my existing set up???

This is pretty much the only reason.
Maybe the slight increase in speed, but that would quickly be outweighed by the downsides of Horizon, and trust me there are many.
Unless you like spending 90% of your time d**king around with the new UI

Stay away man

pippip

You can record four items at once.......whether they are still there when you go to watch them and the box hasn't decided to randomly delete them is another matter.

newbygirl

Think it allows you to record 4 separate TV programmes at the same time if you felt the need to do that.

coylemj

Channel scrolling and jumping to specific days in the guide is much better on the old Thompson box, plus the Horizon box won't allow you to delete all of the programs in a series which is a major pain. I did a series record on an old program on one of the never ending repeats satellite channels, intending to catch one program a week to watch at my leisure, I didn't realise that they were showing episodes all night long over a few weeks, I now have about 30 episodes in the DVR and can't bring myself to the hassle of deleting each one individually, each delete requires about four separate button presses! They have promised to give us this function in 2014, it can't come soon enough for me.

I'd stay with the old box unless you could really do with the ability to record 4 simultaneous programs which is currently the only major benefit of the Horizon box.

ION08

coylemj wrote: »

Channel scrolling and jumping to specific days in the guide is much better on the old Thompson box, plus the Horizon box won't allow you to delete all of the programs in a series which is a major pain. I did a series record on an old program on one of the never ending repeats satellite channels, intending to catch one program a week to watch at my leisure, I didn't realise that they were showing episodes all night long over a few weeks, I now have about 30 episodes in the DVR and can't bring myself to the hassle of deleting each one individually, each delete requires about four separate button presses! They have promised to give us this function in 2014, it can't come soon enough for me.

I'd stay with the old box unless you could really do with the ability to record 4 simultaneous programs which is currently the only major benefit of the Horizon box.

Well that answers my question!

Thanks all

who_me

Is your box Thompson or Cisco? Because - even though people complain about the slowness of the Horizon guide - it's far, far faster than the old Cisco one.

ION08

who_me wrote: »

Is your box Thompson or Cisco? Because - even though people complain about the slowness of the Horizon guide - it's far, far faster than the old Cisco one.

Its this one here (but without the cisco logo) .. I have never found it slow though

sweetie

coylemj wrote: »

Channel scrolling and jumping to specific days in the guide is much better on the old Thompson box, plus the Horizon box won't allow you to delete all of the programs in a series which is a major pain. I did a series record on an old program on one of the never ending repeats satellite channels, intending to catch one program a week to watch at my leisure, I didn't realise that they were showing episodes all night long over a few weeks, I now have about 30 episodes in the DVR and can't bring myself to the hassle of deleting each one individually, each delete requires about four separate button presses! They have promised to give us this function in 2014, it can't come soon enough for me.

I'd stay with the old box unless you could really do with the ability to record 4 simultaneous programs which is currently the only major benefit of the Horizon box.

my solution to this is to protect the few progs I want to keep or watch and then delete everything once a week.

OP, the amount of people on baords complaining/asking to change back is enough to tell you to stay away from horizon.

mrweatherman

Strong advise not to bother with the box sound on HD channeld come in much lower than standard, wifi drops alot. Recording is dodgy sound missing at start of some recordings. Broadband drops to slower speed when the phone is being used. Apps freeze and stop alot and every so often the remote stops to. Oops upc just let the cat out the bag!!! Oh yeah upc is increasing rates by 4% next month

who_me

ION08 - that looks like my old one, yeah. For me at least, the guide was VERY slow. Hit the Guide button, and everything stops for up to 5 seconds before the Guide loads and the sound returns. Scrolling from channel to channel or screen to screen was very sluggish, much worse than the Horizon.

It might be best if you know someone who has the Horizon so you can have a look to see how fast it is and what you think of the UI.

coylemj

sweetie wrote: »

my solution to this is to protect the few progs I want to keep or watch and then delete everything once a week.

Ridiculous solution - why should I have to manually protect some programs in order to bulk delete others? Suppose I have 20-30 programs that I don't want to delete? I'm still stumped.

There was a perfectly adequate function on the old box which UPC in their stupidity omitted to replicate in the new box.

mrweatherman

who_me wrote: »

ION08 - that looks like my old one, yeah. For me at least, the guide was VERY slow. Hit the Guide button, and everything stops for up to 5 seconds before the Guide loads and the sound returns. Scrolling from channel to channel or screen to screen was very sluggish, much worse than the Horizon.

It might be best if you know someone who has the Horizon so you can have a look to see how fast it is and what you think of the UI.

i have that useless box... i wouldnt bother my arse with it, loads of problems with it and was the biggest mistake ever made getting it and really over rated

Mearings

who_me wrote: »

ION08 - that looks like my old one, yeah. For me at least, the guide was VERY slow. Hit the Guide button, and everything stops for up to 5 seconds before the Guide loads and the sound returns. Scrolling from channel to channel or screen to screen was very sluggish, much worse than the Horizon.

It might be best if you know someone who has the Horizon so you can have a look to see how fast it is and what you think of the UI.

I have the Cisco 8485 stb which used to behave as outlined above but now is a lot better (no longer stops program or sound).

<<<[QUOTE=tdo;86495
I have been sitting on the fence for quite a while. What sealed it for me was that, for the first time in months, I pressed the Guide button (I have a HD box, Cisco maybe?) and instead of the going off and making a cup of tea while the guide loaded, it was just...there. I tried scrolling down..no lag. Brilliant! It also has channel logos, which I can take or leave, but the no lag bit was great.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I have a Cisco HD box, the guide appears immediately + no sound loss.
I guess UPC must have done a firmware upgrade?
Last edited by Mearings; 12-09-2013 at 12:08>>>

sweetie

coylemj wrote: »

Ridiculous solution - why should I have to manually protect some programs in order to bulk delete others? Suppose I have 20-30 programs that I don't want to delete? I'm still stumped.

There was a perfectly adequate function on the old box which UPC in their stupidity omitted to replicate in the new box.

hey save your attitude for the upc reps, it works for me, thats all

jimosterberg

I recently upgraded to horizon and have found it great so far. The broadband speeds are great and I've had no trouble with the tv.

former legend

jimosterberg wrote: »

I recently upgraded to horizon and have found it great so far. The broadband speeds are great and I've had no trouble with the tv.

+1 on this. I was on the SD box and going back to it now would be like going back to a black and white TV.

Horizon has its flaws but it's a great piece of kit, IMO.

Morf

former legend wrote: »

+1 on this. I was on the SD box and going back to it now would be like going back to a black and white TV.

Horizon has its flaws but it's a great piece of kit, IMO.

Mixed response overall it seems.

Great piece of kit if it works right I think we can take from it.

I have recordings on my HD+ box that I'm in no hurry to lose so I'll sit tight for the time being.

Venom

jimosterberg wrote: »

I recently upgraded to horizon and have found it great so far. The broadband speeds are great and I've had no trouble with the tv.

+1

Upgraded to Horizon box as well and have had zero problems with it so far. Menu speeds are a huge improvement over the last box and the new dual sided remote is so much better ease of use wise.

ION08

OK so I ended up upgrading to Horizon and got it all installed today.

Mixed feelings really.....

I was paying €86 for the package I was on before. Now I'm paying €75 for Horizon with the exact same TV package but I have 200mbps instead of 100mbps which is great.

The set-top box and remote are a lot sleeker looking, as is the UI.
I also like the fact that the internet router is incorporated into the set-top box. Great.

The apps are also pretty cool.

Now, my only major gripe, and its a BIG one, is that regardless how snazzy the new UI looks, it is an absolute CHORE to flick through the on-screen channel menu.

When watching a channel, you can no longer hit OK which brings up the blue rectangular box along the bottom of the screen which lets you then quickly go left/right to see whats on Now & Next on all the channels. :mad:

With Horizon, when watching a channel, you have to press "back" which brings up the on-screen menu but it only shows you whats on now, if you want to see whats on "next" you have to press right.

Now, if you want to look through other channels to see whats on now and next you basically have to press up/down and it is sooo slooooow, not only that but you have to keep pressing left and right to see whats on Now and Next on all the channels.

It's ridiculous, it actually puts me off wanting to browse through the channels.

The old Cisco HD box was much better to use.