Talktalk Youview questions

SteveofIrthlingborough

Apparently according to Talk Talk you can get a free You view box and self install if you are on the Plus package in a few weeks

:j

search self install on Talk Talk site, newbies not allowed to post links :-(

VisionMan

The YouView box £50 install charge (which BT call a £50 activation charge, no engineer visit) is still a hell of a cheap price to get a HD PVR for. And, after your initial contract is up, it's your's to keep, to take where you will. So it's not as bad a deal as some may think.

beachie

And now the installation is free too.

Think this is a great deal. I was paying £19 with PlusNet, occasionally going over my allowance so was up to £24.

Since I was looking to buy a freeview recorder anyway this seems a great deal, especially with the 12 months lovefilm instant.

cinimod

Hi,

We just had TT YV installed. Have been with TT for 12 months+, so it may be different from a new user, but when the rep mentioned the £50, I asked for the box to be sent to me as I work in IT, have a degree in IT and really don't need anyone else to flash the ROM on the router I already had (which is the extent of the optimisation done on-site). I pushed quite hard and was told they would still send the engineer but would waive the fee. Job done now, it's been in a few days and is fine. The only thing not working is the TalkTalk player - apparently there was some setup which TT were supposed to have done but hadn't. There is a ticket in the queue for this, I'm not desperate to get it, everything else works fine. Overall, would recommend it.

stevemcol

Yes, I've just realised that the install is now free. I've signed up. It does look like the option to pay line rental in advance has been removed so where you win, you lose.
My TV is in a different room to my router. It's all on the ground floor though and there's a void under the floor. I've ordered some cat 5 cable, a crimp tool, tester and RJ45 connectors off Ebay, all for under a tenner. A couple of discreet holes in the floor boards and I should be sorted. Box arrives on 14th Jan.

Skoorb

stevemcol wrote: »

Hi

A couple of questions if anyone can help.
There is a £50 engineer fee for a talktalk youview install. If pressed, will they allow a self install and waive the £50?
Also, with my current talktalk broadband, I get regular buffering latency when watching the various iplayer, 4od programmes, yet the talktalk website says my bb speed is ok for youview. Do they optimise your download speed in some way for the tv sevice or are they just trying to sell me a pup?

Thanks for any advice.

Hi,

At the moment, installation is free, but self installation is about to be launched as an option; you can register and get more info at https://sales.talktalk.co.uk/product/tv/self-install-pre-reg. *

Everyone can still pre-pay for line rental (thank goodness), but it is now available on-line only, not by phone, and no longer effects the length or terms of your contract. The marketing blurb is at http://sales.talktalk.co.uk/product/valuelinerental, whilst full details how to add it and what it does are at http://help.talktalk.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/2117/

YouView themselves have issues an offical explanation of why you need a TalkTalk supplied YouView box (manufactured by Huawei) rather than a Humax one for the TalkTalk player to work here. I've quoted it below:

Piers (Official Rep) 3 months ago
Sorry for joining this thread so late, but I think it would be useful to clear up a few things. Some of these points have been mentioned by posters already, so thanks for all your contributions.

- The current Humax box (the hardware) is capable of supporting IP multicast, but it does not yet have all the software needed to connect to TV content streams delivered via IP multicast. This includes all YouView Humax retail boxes, as well as Humax boxes soon to be made available by BT. Software updates will allow these boxes to become multicast enabled in the future - the low level operating system already supports it but there's a lot of other software in the box that needs to become "multicast" aware or even just "IP live channels" aware.

- TalkTalk Huawai boxes can receive live IP channels via multicast on the TalkTalk network, but only via the TalkTalk player right now. Humax boxes are not able to access these channels, and were not able to access them through any of the trails.

- Right now, we're working with manufacturers to add multicast functionality to all YouView boxes, as we want IP channels to be easy to use as possible - so that those folks who don't want to know the technical details don't have to think about IP or multicast at all. This will mean changes to the YouView software, and the Programme Guide, and will take some time to implement. Please be assured that were working as fast as we can on this at the same time as all our other priorities; such as many of the great suggestions listed already on this forum.

Talk Talk have created a page that explains what's possible on their network now. This situation may change when live IP channels and multicast support is rolled out more widely to YouView boxes, but we don't have a exact date for that right now.

http://help.talktalk.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/2493

I hope this helps, and I'll be happy to answer more questions as they arise (which I'm sure they will!). Thanks for listening.

Piers

One of the half decent things about TalkTalk is that they have a support forum staffed by some of their best customer facing employees, so if you want definitive answers to something, you can avoid their famously dodgy call centres and go ask at http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61941

I hope that helps!

*From what I understand, the two main reasons that they have been pushing the engineer installation as a requirement up until now are:
a) because in tests most people didn't finish the installation process themselves; after the YouView box has run though its setup wizard you have to manually press the TalkTalk button and run though the TalkTalk setup wizard to link the box to TalkTalk and activate the paid for TalkTalk features - otherwise the box just acts the same as one you could buy in Currys, and
b) because the TalkTalk engineer has the ability to change configuration settings at the exchange to ensure that your broadband connection has an acceptable quality of service to work without stuttering. This is less of an issue as their automated Dynamic Line Management now takes pretty good care of this as it has had a few months of tuning on real customers.

stevemcol

Just got my youview installation today. Despite my reservations, I was very impressed with the engineer service. He spent quite an amount of time optimising my BB speed. After fitting me a new master socket and recharacterising the line, he got a 2mb download speed increase to 8mb. Shiny new router as well. Nice features on the box and the talktalk remote controls the TV as well. Overall a nice package and good value for money.

NorthernSilver

stevemcol wrote: »

Just got my youview installation today. Despite my reservations, I was very impressed with the engineer service. He spent quite an amount of time optimising my BB speed. After fitting me a new master socket and recharacterising the line, he got a 2mb download speed increase to 8mb. Shiny new router as well. Nice features on the box and the talktalk remote controls the TV as well. Overall a nice package and good value for money.

2meg to 8meg result!:beer:

stevemcol

NorthernSilver wrote: »

2meg to 8meg result!:beer:

2meg increase. 6 to 8. Still not bad though and worth an engineer visit (free).

bajangal

I took up Talktalk's special offer of having the Youview box installed free on 12th January. Today I have received a bill from them and they are charging me £50 for a BrightSparks Engineer.
I signed up online but cannot find my confirmation email from them - which stated that there was no charge for the Engineer.
Does anyone know from what period the free installation offer covered - or has anyone got a link to a document stating the installation was free. Many thanks.