BT Vision - a word of warning

Downandoutmoney

Hi, we moved in to our new address in August and BT Vision was set up in September. I was pretty disappointed to start with having previously had Sky and Virgin, the package is pretty awful, but as we can get neither of these we will have to make do. We had a few problems over the next few months with the system restarting, but it was rare and I just made do.

Over the last two weeks this problem (BT box turning itself off, returning to the blue screen after a minute, occasionally going to green screen for ten minutes) has increased, and is now happening at least 10 to 20 times a day, we are regularly missing important parts of programmes and it is pretty much useless. I've just tried to watch two episodes of frasier on ch 4 before going to work, and after 40 minutes the system had crashed 6 times with an average reset time of 2 minutes, making viewing impossible.

I called BT yesterday and was advised that this was an ongoing problem affecting all viewers, they were aware of it, and they were working to solve it, but had no idea when this would be, but that no solution would be coming soon. Pathetic is the best way I can sum up this response. When I have previously had issues with Sky they have fixed it that day or had an engineer round that week. BT's response of we don't know when we'll get round to fixing it is beyond incompetent. I've checked BTs own forum and this seems to be a big problem, which has happened before and took months to fix.

Personally I'll be voting with my cash, and come September 2013 will be cancelling the TV contract and buying my own freeview box, and I think I'll just move the telephone and broadband service too if this is the level of customer care BT deem to be acceptable.

Good luck to anyone sticking with it, and please be careful if you're thinking about signing up with BT.

antonic

Been with BT Vision now for 3 years and have never had a problem with them.

I would recommend them, if you want PPV but dont want as Sky Dish on the side of your property.

macman

Why can't you get Sky? No dish allowed?
The 'old style' BTV (prior to YouView) is just Freeview with some limited on-demand content. Nothing that a Humax Freeview PVR can't give you. Why pay for that?

VisionMan

I too am one of many who also have never had any problems with BT Vision. The box does have the odd hiccup, but nothing I can't live with.

Over Christmas, all my recordings worked, I downloaded multiple free HD films and worked my way through series four of Fringe. All without problems.

@Downandoutmoney

It sounds like your box has downloaded a corrupt update, to try to rectify this take the following steps -

1. Pull the power lead out of the box/turn it off.

2. Whilst the box is off, reset your hub. When you get your internet connection back turn on and restart your box. Leave it alone for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Note - The green screen is normal, this means the box is performing a diagnostic reboot and this process should not be interrupted.

Then post back here and let us know how you got on. Ta.

Ectophile

BT Vision is going through a period of change, and unfortunately you joined at just the wrong moment.

BT have just released a completely new version of the Vision software (it's not just a software update - it's a completely different operating system). It's turned out to be a lot buggier than BT were expecting and some customers seem to be having endless problems with their boxes. They have been rushing out bug-fixes, so it should be more stable than it was when first rolled out. I'm lucky - I've got one of the old boxes that can't take the new software - I'm expecting BT to send me a new box one day.

Meanwhile, all the new services BT are planning haven't been finished yet. There will be a new selection of streaming channels that aren't on Freeview. But the infrastructure isn't ready yet - it should be all rolled out later this year.

Macman's "some limited on-demand content" is somewhat negative considering how much there is.

System

OP you can cancel your contract now without penalties, ive just done exactly that before christmas for the same reasons.
BT said as it was a known fault there would be no fees.

Downandoutmoney

Macman - yeah, no dish allowed, conservation area. AS I said I think I'll be going to freeview.

Visionman - tried that, but no joy. I appreciate the green screen is normal, but not twenty or thirty times a day!

We'll persevere for a while, but we can't go on like this for long, we lose the plot of any programme as it now happens four or five times in a half hour programme. We'll see, and thanks for the advice.

macman

No dish on the house maybe, but you can have it at ground level if it still gives a line of sight to the satellite? Then you can cover it with a tasteful shrub.
Or have the dish on the rear elevation, Conservation Officers are mainly concerned with dishes on the street side of the property.

VisionMan

Downandoutmoney wrote: »

Macman - yeah, no dish allowed, conservation area. AS I said I think I'll be going to freeview.

Visionman - tried that, but no joy. I appreciate the green screen is normal, but not twenty or thirty times a day!

We'll persevere for a while, but we can't go on like this for long, we lose the plot of any programme as it now happens four or five times in a half hour programme. We'll see, and thanks for the advice.

Hey! - Have you thought about YouView from BT? That way you won't have to change your ISP, the Freeview HD box is massively subsidised, that platform has no stability issues and there are LOADS of new services coming to it in 2013.

Downandoutmoney

yeah Visionman, thinking about that now. I'm a little confused though as to why BT are operating two TV services? Surely it would be better to concentrate on one system and actually get that right?

VisionMan

Downandoutmoney wrote: »

yeah Visionman, thinking about that now. I'm a little confused though as to why BT are operating two TV services? Surely it would be better to concentrate on one system and actually get that right?

BT Vision and YouView are both platforms in a state of change, at the moment. BT Vision will shortly start streaming live TV channels over their Infinity network, and YouView are not yet capable of doing this. But they will be. Which is expected to be in the summer of this year (July).

And so, ATM, BT are supporting both boxes, until the full switch to YouView later in the year. when the boxes become technically capable of supporting the new services BT will be offering.

Hope that makes sense.