UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

I've had the Horizon box for 2 weeks now and unless things change I am almost certainly going to return it because...

Wifi and phone work fine, no difference from the old setup apart from a slight increase in broadband speed, so major benefit from Horizon
Not really interested in the media server aspect as my TV/PS3/laptop already have this ability, so again no benefit from Horizon.
The "all in one" aspect of the box is a step backwards from a user point of view, everything stops working when the box needs power cycling, as it does much more often than it should.

However, the TV/DVR functions of the Horizon box are just shockingly bad!

Channel browsing is much worse that the old setup, I want the channel/programme info easily and quickly accessible, fancy interfaces and multiple button presses only get in the way of want is needed.
1. The user interface takes up way too much of the screen, way way too much!!!!
2. The TV guide is not much better, its slow and doesn't tell you which season of a TV series is which, this is a major headache.
3. When setting a recording the option to record "All seasons" should be there as well as single episode and entire season.
4. Access to recordings is too clunky, again, way too screen area hungry, each item should be a line of text, if you want more info then press a button.
5. When watching a recording, the "skip" forward/back option is gone, fast foward/back is NOT the same.
6. Having the "Delete Everything" option so easily accessible is just looking for trouble! Honestly, how often does anyone need to do this?

So, overall the "background" functions of phone and broadband are fine, but as a user they should be this way, set them and forget them. The main interaction the majority of users have with the box is through the TV/DVR functions, and these are bad, very very bad indeed.

I was with UPC for years and was told over the phone that this wouldn't tie me into a 12 month contract. All calls recorded etc ..... Not planning on changing over anyway so not worried just deciding on whether to get a cheap netgear router as a range extender.

Anyone know if it's possible to change the DNS settings on the box? I'm thinking of signing up to the SmartDNS service from Overplay.net and would like to know if I can change the DNS settings on the box or if I'll have to change the settings on every device I have connecting to the box.

fermi-paradox wrote: »

Yes, if all you need to do is change the DNS servers, it's in the Basic/Local area network settings on 192.168.192.1 (unless you've changed this, in which case you don't need to be told where they are )

Thanks, will have to give this a bash when I get home.

Every now and then - mabe once a day the picture will go fuzzy/grainy and the programme will start to cut in and out. This happens until I turn the box off and back on again.

Anyone else having this problem? It's a pain when it happens during a recording.

@padski08 I have iPad working with the new box just fine (it's all on default config)

quenching wrote: »

I've had the Horizon box for 2 weeks now and unless things change I am almost certainly going to return it because...

However, the TV/DVR functions of the Horizon box are just shockingly bad!

Channel browsing is much worse that the old setup, I want the channel/programme info easily and quickly accessible, fancy interfaces and multiple button presses only get in the way of want is needed.
1. The user interface takes up way too much of the screen, way way too much!!!!
2. The TV guide is not much better, its slow and doesn't tell you which season of a TV series is which, this is a major headache.
3. When setting a recording the option to record "All seasons" should be there as well as single episode and entire season.
4. Access to recordings is too clunky, again, way too screen area hungry, each item should be a line of text, if you want more info then press a button.
5. When watching a recording, the "skip" forward/back option is gone, fast foward/back is NOT the same.
6. Having the "Delete Everything" option so easily accessible is just looking for trouble! Honestly, how often does anyone need to do this?

So, overall the "background" functions of phone and broadband are fine, but as a user they should be this way, set them and forget them. The main interaction the majority of users have with the box is through the TV/DVR functions, and these are bad, very very bad indeed.

Wow that is very harsh! There are valid things in your list for sure, and I hope you fill out the survey and let them know that the actual TV viewing part is ill thought out in parts, but still, for me its a huge step up from the old box, which was slow, ugly and could not record two things at once without going to standby.

I hope they resolve the issues with navigation, disable the laggy picture preview boxes (or make them optional.. maybe somebody out there likes them) re-introduce the +1min button and a few other improvements, but do remember this is a trial and you are being compensated.

My take on it is they put too much stock on a flashy UI, the on-demand services, and the apps and did not really refine the TV viewing/browsing experience, which for a lot of people is way more important.

granturismo wrote: »

I self installed Horizon last night, I'm on the 100M package and getting 32M max wired.

I've been on hold for 1 hour last night and tonight and so far UPC tell me I'm on 100M from what they can see at their end. I was cut off tonight when talking to the 'self install' team and dont have the energy to ring them again at night.

I rang this morning and got talking to someone straight away but they werent able to do much because I was ringing from work.

I'll be able to call during daytime from home next week so hopefully it can get sorted.

Anyone else on 100M getting less than 50M wired? Did anyone get this sorted and if yes, do you know how to sort it.

thanks

I'm having the same problem; I rang up and they told me it was my Vista laptop so I tried it on my Win 7 laptop and got the same result she then said it is the cable I'm using but I told her I'm using a CAT6 cable she then said my laptop wasn't fast enough. When I said I can try it on my work laptop did she change her mind and agreed to send out an engineer.

I have run about 20-30 UPC speed tests and I've been taking screen shots of them and saving them but the funny thing is about 5-6 times I've speeds of 100-112mb so it is not my cable and it is not my laptops.

When I run the speed test it goes from 0-18mb in the blink of an eye but pauses for a second then jumps to about 28mb the pauses again for a second and then jumps to the result which is usually between 38-50mb.

Kingkenny76 wrote: »

I'm having the same problem; I rang up and they told me it was my Vista laptop so I tried it on my Win 7 laptop and got the same result she then said it is the cable I'm using but I told her I'm using a CAT6 cable she then said my laptop wasn't fast enough. When I said I can try it on my work laptop did she change her mind and agreed to send out an engineer.

I have run about 20-30 UPC speed tests and I've been taking screen shots of them and saving them but the funny thing is about 5-6 times I've speeds of 100-112mb so it is not my cable and it is not my laptops.
..

I also got asked if I was using a laptop - dont know why this should matter. They werent interested in what OS I was using.

I got 2 speed tests where the download speed was over 100M but every other test was approx 30M.

I've tried a second cable and tried a second ethernet port on the back of the horizon box but no change.

I wont be able to ring them during the day until Wed and I'm not wasting my time trying to ring them between 6 and 9pm.

Achilles wrote: »

Your profile may not have been provisioned correctly on their end. Alot of the regular tech support types on those lines haven't got a clue. Did you ring the dedicated Horizon TV support number? It's in this thread... somewhere.

I didn't know there was a Horizon TV support number Do you have it handy? If not I'll look through the post.

granturismo wrote: »

I also got asked if I was using a laptop - dont know why this should matter. They werent interested in what OS I was using.

I got 2 speed tests where the download speed was over 100M but every other test was approx 30M.

I've tried a second cable and tried a second ethernet port on the back of the horizon box but no change.

I wont be able to ring them during the day until Wed and I'm not wasting my time trying to ring them between 6 and 9pm.

Yeah, it's weird there seems to be some sort of slow down either from UPC or from the box.

Synode wrote: »

If you find it will you post it here.

they gave me the number on twitter, but when its only a self install helpline, once you have it set up its no use

You know if your network port isn't a gigabit network port its impossible to get over a hundred megs??

Anyone's else's picture quality changed recently ? Mind has gone to like super HD which means its extra bright and all the sets look fake , I keep my screen in cinema mode which genreally gives it the best affect