UPC Horizon Launched

who_me wrote: »

I'd keep the AppleTV (for Home Sharing if you use that, and Airplay). Most current NAS devices should feature a DLNA server, and the Horizon box has a DLNA client so they should work together for movies or music, even if the interface is a bit... meh. I don't know if the Horizon scales the content it streams over DLNA, but I'd guess it wouldn't.

The Horizon box is very noisy when initially switched on, but then is almost completely silent at all other times - in my experience.

just putting my experience of the switch to horizon here. overall it's worked very well. the horizon router doesn't do DHCP address reservation based on MAC address, but that's not a deal breaker, everything else i needed was there. it was easy to switch back to the good old 192.168.0.* subnet.
the box itself looks well and noise is not a problem for the living room. the remote kicks ass, finally a separate power button for TV and BOX, pairing with sony TV worked nicely.
channel switching is grand now, and the menu navigation is decent. however if you are used to XBMC or equivalent for watching stuff off your own network, you'll be disappointed with the home network browsing. you have a big wide TV screen and the interface doesn't make use of it. the music browser is lame, two lines of albums scrolling across while the rest of the screen is blank, the funky 3d lines look a bit less funky when you want to browse CONTENT instead of looking at empty space. similarly the movies / TV shows browser is functional but about as un-clever as it could be in terms of navigation. the on-demand viewer is quite good so i don't know why they couldn't do a better job for home network / DNLA support.

i'm sticking with the Apple TV/XBMC set up and using the UPC box just for live telly and recordings.

final point before end of rant... they still include the channels you aren't subscribed for on the TV guide, and when you want to scroll past all the sky sports & movies, it scrolls too fast and when you stop scrolling, it keeps scrolling about another 50 channels past where you left off, sometimes it crashed altogether on me at this point and had to restart the box. the graphics on the TV guide can't keep up with the scrolling speed, which makes it feel clunky. i set my 'favourite' channels but can't seem to see where this is can be used, you can't filter the channels in the TV guide to just 'favourites', thought this would be a no-brainer. overall though, 1000% improvement, so very happy.

dalkiadave wrote: »

On question 2: There seems to be an issue with Apple TV and horizon box, previous posters have stated the same issue and UPC have said they dont support Apple TV issues!

Had the same problem with my Apple TV - was connected via WiFi and connection existed, but not enough speed to stream. Wiring the Apple TV to the box through ethernet cleared that up and almost no waiting while buffering at the start of a film now...

Yes thanks guys, connecting the Apple TV to the Horizon via LAN works.
@dalkiadave: If I plug my old Thompson modem into the UPC wall box upstairs(which is live) I cant get internet connectivity via LAN.
I want to have the Horizon at the TV and a second modem upstairs at a second UPC wall box where I can connect via the PC via LAN because the Wifi is so flakey.
Have UPC crippled the Thompson modem and I have to pay to have a second modem?

I have the box hooked up to the tv in the main room. I recently picked up a smart tv for another room.

When the smart tv is turned on (hooked up to seperate box), the box (main room) suffers from severe lag and the remote is unresponsive. This makes it impossible to have both TV's on at the same time.

I think that the box may be scanning the smart tv for media or vice versa, has anybody any solutions for this problem?

I spent most of last Sunday configuring the Parental Controls on the existing Cisco Wifi router with great success (and a lot of trial and error). Now I have to decide if I should be moving to the Horizon platform or not.

My question to this forum is, is there anyone out there who has looked at the WiFi Parental Controls on the Horizon box ?. If so I would appreciate any information you can give me about the Parental control features that the box provides (Time of Day filters, user accounts, keyword blocking etc....).

I emailed the UPC Technical Support the same question but as of yet (asked last Wednesday - nearly a week ago) I have not gotten a reply and when I contacted them yesterday they could not answer and said to wait for the email.

Regards,

N.

PacificRooster wrote: »

Parental controls look reasonable on the Horizon. You can select the rating age for movies - had me puzzled as some films on terrestrial channels were showing as 'Locked Programme' due to the age rating set at 15 when the box arrived. I haven't blocked any channels yet but it appears you can do this as well as put a purchase protection on as well.

The poster is asking about internet parental controls via the web interface. The short answer is no they don't work and it is a huge issue for me as I have teenagers that are addicted to the net. When I enquired months ago on the trial I was told they have not been implemented yet. I assumed it would work when they released the Horizon, but nope.

Stokolan wrote: »

Question. Should I be seeing more then whats on now and next on the tv guide? As all im getting is no programme information available after that.

Sometimes it's slow/fails to load. Usually closing & reopening it works (for me at least).

bren4q wrote: »

Having kept the old modem and ringing customer care a number of times, I have learned that:
- the existing Thompson modem stops working when Horizon is installed
- to have a separate modem means "decoupling" the broadband from the Horizon box, which will cost me another €45 on top of the €45 it already cost just to switch bundles
- the existing Thompson modem has already been decommissioned and a replacement needs to be sent out, which means waiting another 3 days

I was under the impression that keeping the existing modem would be a simple matter, and one which they had accounted for in their plans, after reading the Horizon install guide which states:

While ordering the Horizon bundle online, at what point does one request to keep the existing modem? I contacted customer care before the Horizon box was delivered to ensure that it would be ok to keep it. They told me it was. It was only later when the old modem stopped working and I rang them to sort it out that I learned it would cost me an extra €45.

I have been very surprised to see how unprepared UPC are for these kinds of separate broadband/TV setups. Surely they realise that there is a huge diversity in how people have their TV and broadband connections set up in their houses.

The main reason I switched bundles was the thinking that the TV box would be the same or better than the old model, and have the ability to record 4 channels, while I would have the same broadband service which I was extremely happy with.
But having experienced the slowness, flakiness and obtrusive interface on the Horizon TV, along with these fees and hassles in getting my old broadband connection working (assuming it will eventually be resolved!) I regret making the switch from my old bundle to the Horizon bundle.

Not worth the hassle, and not worth the €90 in fees.

And therein lies the problem with UPC!!!

ndowney wrote: »

Thanks the the info. I am definitely not signing up in that case. I will pester UPC again to see what they say.

Thx,

N.

There is Parental Control in the Horizon Router
You can create a Password to lock controls
You can create Web Site Filters
Time Filters
Device control and Mac access control

Hi All,
Whats the story with subtitles over DLNA, is that something that you have to set up on DLNA server, or horizon box itself supports subtitles?

Anyone else notice a lot of channels are not available when logged on using a mobile device? iPad in my case.
I'm disappointed that I can't get channel 4 etc.

On the phone to upc looking far an answer.. 35 minutes and counting. Bloody disaster.

One hour 5 minutes on hold and counting...there must be just one person answering. Phones.

McDonnellDean wrote: »

Got this installed yesterday.
- I would expect the channel buttons to do page scrolling in the menu, scrolling is a pain otherwise.
- Can't move + / - 24 hours which is a bummer.
- I'd love tabs across the top to break out the channels more, the genres is not a great implementation of this.
- Lots of button presses for simple things, they could simplify remote usage a lot.
- Can get stuck in a menu / back loop if your not careful
- No quick way to navigate favorites.

EDIT: In thinking, a lot of the SW issues would be solved by bringing on a UX expert.

+1 on everything here, except for the last comment.
A UX expert is not needed. Anyone in the world could have pointed out all of the problems!

I sincerely hope that they were under immense pressure to get Horizon pushed out in a hurry and that this is not the best that they can do. I hope to God UPC are aware of how much of a chore it is to perform the most common of tasks like browsing and changing channels in comparison to their older boxes, Sky, and even the cheapest Saorview and FTA boxes out there. And I hope that a software update in the very near future will fix all these issues.

Zascar wrote: »

Well we all hope that but how likely is it? I'm pretty fearful that this is pretty much it! How much dd the old box ever change?

Agreed, this is it. All of these issues and more were pointed out to UPC during the trial and guess what... they released it anyway.

sokol7998 wrote: »

Hi All,
Whats the story with subtitles over DLNA, is that something that you have to set up on DLNA server, or horizon box itself supports subtitles?

I cant get my box to play subtitles over DLNA when the subtitles are contained in an additional .srt file. Ive tried Twonky, Windows media player and Serviio. This is a problem for me as my kid speaks two languages and I try play stuff with subtitles when I can.

If I have subtitles turned on in the settings menu I can watch the subtitles that are encoded into a movie.

and of course movies with burnt in subtitles are grand

paulboland wrote: »

There is Parental Control in the Horizon Router
You can create a Password to lock controls
You can create Web Site Filters
Time Filters
Device control and Mac access control

Have you actually got these to work? Please let me know.