Sky To BT

Colin_London

jessmist wrote: »

They told me I would need the vision plus box to watch bt sport.
With the you view box I could get the hd channels.
But you couldn't use just one box to get both the sport and the Freeview hd channels.
Which seems crazy.
Ye its a one off payment of £10

This is correct unfortunately.


If you can't get Infinity then you have a choice between a BT Vision box, which allows you to watch BT Sport 1 & 2 (but not ESPN) via your TV Aerial, but with no HD channel capability.


Or a Youview box which gives you the HD Channel capability, but no BT Sport (as the Youview box only delivers BT Sport via an Infinity connection).


In both cases however you can get BT Sport via an online app on tablet, smart phone or your PC for free (excepting a 12 month tie-in to your contract).


The BT Vision box is quite an old box - it can cope with subscription channels via the aerial and a smart card, but doesn't have the new HD tuner. The Youview box is newer so has the HD Tuner, but when it was designed to deliver subscription channels from the internet, so it wasn't thought necessary to add the card slot. Once you get Infinity in your area all these problems go away, but if you are only on standard ADSL broadband the current BT offerings fall between two stools.....

Colin_London

Twisted_Cherry wrote: »

I just spoke to BT a few hours ago, and they did NOT tell me it was restricted to an App, they did try to push for an order for infinity but I said it was needed as my dad barely goes online and has no use for superfast broadband. All she said was there was a £10 activation charge for BT Sport.

He's going to be mega disappointed if he can't get BT Sport on his TV, the Sky Box is going, was planning on selling it on eBay!

BT Website Says:

Can't get BT Infinity packages? You can still enjoy BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 when you order a broadband and TV package from BT with a £10 viewing card fee.

It was made out to me the £10 viewing card fee is a one off fee?

OK - try to clear up a confusion here.


If you get Infinity you receive BT Sport on your TV through that Infinity connection and a Youview box. There is no need for a viewing card. You can also choose to watch in HD for £3 extra a month. If you live in an Infinity area BT will insist that you take out an Infinity contract to watch BT Sport.


If you can't get Infinity then you can receive BT Sport on your TV through your TV aerial and a BT Vision Box with a viewing card (Cost £10 one-off) but only two channels in SD only. This is usually only possible if you receive from a main TV transmitter, not one of the small relays.


Or else you can use your old Sky box (which doesn't need to have a Sky subscription, just your old viewing card) and watch via your old dish again in SD or (if you have a HD Sky Box and pay £3 a month extra) in HD. They do this by adding the BT service to your old Sky card.


In all cases if you have BT Broadband you can also watch via a tablet/smartphone app, or on your PC for free (albeit committing to a 12 month contract tie-in).


Don't think of Infinity as just for surfing the internet - it can also be used like a cable TV connection to get a growing number of live TV channels from BT. So if you value TV more than surfing then it's still worthwhile thinking of signing up to infinity.

Twisted_Cherry

Colin_London wrote: »

OK - try to clear up a confusion here.

If you get Infinity you receive BT Sport on your TV through that Infinity connection and a Youview box. There is no need for a viewing card. You can also choose to watch in HD for £3 extra a month. If you live in an Infinity area BT will insist that you take out an Infinity contract to watch BT Sport.

If you can't get Infinity then you can receive BT Sport on your TV through your TV aerial and a BT Vision Box with a viewing card (Cost £10 one-off) but only two channels in SD only. This is usually only possible if you receive from a main TV transmitter, not one of the small relays.

Or else you can use your old Sky box (which doesn't need to have a Sky subscription, just your old viewing card) and watch via your old dish again in SD or (if you have a HD Sky Box and pay £3 a month extra) in HD. They do this by adding the BT service to your old Sky card.


In all cases if you have BT Broadband you can also watch via a tablet/smartphone app, or on your PC for free (albeit committing to a 12 month contract tie-in).

Don't think of Infinity as just for surfing the internet - it can also be used like a cable TV connection to get a growing number of live TV channels from BT. So if you value TV more than surfing then it's still worthwhile thinking of signing up to infinity.

OK thanks for the information. I see this means Dad needs Infinity to get BT Sport 1 & 2 through the new YouView Box... Right I shall have a word with him, see how much more expensive it is... If he's not keen then we might be better to cancel the BT and stick with Sky.

If we buy our own Freeview Recording Box with a viewing slot, would BT Sport work then once we have purchased the £10 viewing card?

VisionMan

Twisted_Cherry wrote: »

OK thanks for the information. I see this means Dad needs Infinity to get BT Sport 1 & 2 through the new YouView Box... Right I shall have a word with him, see how much more expensive it is... If he's not keen then we might be better to cancel the BT and stick with Sky.

If we buy our own Freeview Recording Box with a viewing slot, would BT Sport work then once we have purchased the £10 viewing card?

Unfortunately not. But BT are doing deals on BT Infinty atm, 18 mth contract, starting with Infinity 1 at £7.50 for 6 mths then £15 a mth for 12 -

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband/packages/?infinity=yes

Twisted_Cherry

VisionMan wrote: »

Unfortunately not. But BT are doing deals on BT Infinty atm, 18 mth contract, starting with Infinity 1 at £7.50 for 6 mths then £15 a mth for 12 -

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband/packages/?infinity=yes

Thanks, spoke to Dad and he's thinking on it. It's a real shame because I want Infinity and can't get it yet... despite me living five minutes away in the car - we are on different exchanges!

I shall check out the link!

Colin_London

Best to go for the packages that include both the Infinity connection and the TV service. You need the TV service to get the inclusive Youview box, and you get 18 extra channels in addition to the BT Sport channels.
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/tv/packages

The TV Entertainment + BT Infinity 1 packages is £14.50 a month for 6 months then £22 a month for 12 months. Plus Line Rental of course. You can then opt to 'bolt on' further channels if the 18 + Sport isn't enough.

There is also an Infinity connection charge of £30 and a TV activation charge of £19, but these are outweighed by the £60 Sainsburys voucher (available at the time of writing....)

jessmist

Hi,
I am still undecided what to do. Haven't had time to phone sky again yet.
I have just been looking at talk talk and there tv package seems a bit better for me as i can get the kids channels. Where as bt its only a demand version as i can't get infinity.
The only problem is i won't be able to keep my phone number if i chose talk talk.
Bt said i would be able to keep my number.
Any views on what talk talk are like ?

Thanks

Twisted_Cherry

I was just checking the BT Order... and this is what I see.


free pic

Does that mean (trying to get my head around this) with a BT Vision+ Box we can get BT Sports 1 & 2 through the TV with the one off £10 fee for the viewing card?

Currently dad is just on Unlimited BB, only using about 18GB a month, but wants Unlimited in case he goes over... (or I am there! )

So long as he can get BT Sport he's happy... He's not bothered about other channels, so long as the box records. Wondering though if BT Vision+ has Catch Up TV? Although he does not use this much, if at all!

We already cancelled the SKY TV...

Colin_London

Twisted_Cherry wrote: »

I was just checking the BT Order... and this is what I see.


free pic

Does that mean (trying to get my head around this) with a BT Vision+ Box we can get BT Sports 1 & 2 through the TV with the one off £10 fee for the viewing card?

Currently dad is just on Unlimited BB, only using about 18GB a month, but wants Unlimited in case he goes over... (or I am there! )

So long as he can get BT Sport he's happy... He's not bothered about other channels, so long as the box records. Wondering though if BT Vision+ has Catch Up TV? Although he does not use this much, if at all!

We already cancelled the SKY TV...

Yes - a BT Vision+ Box will receive BT Sports 1 & 2 in SD only via your TV aerial if you pay £10 (one-off) for a viewing card. This assumes you are receiving a main terrestrial transmitter and can also receive channels 4Music, ITV4 and Yesterday (which are on the same Mux).

Yes the BT Vision+ box has catch up TV and records. Needs to be connected to your router via a cable or using Powerline adapters for catch up TV and on-demand purchases.

Colin_London

jessmist wrote: »

Hi,
I am still undecided what to do. Haven't had time to phone sky again yet.
I have just been looking at talk talk and there tv package seems a bit better for me as i can get the kids channels. Where as bt its only a demand version as i can't get infinity.
The only problem is i won't be able to keep my phone number if i chose talk talk.
Bt said i would be able to keep my number.
Any views on what talk talk are like ?

Thanks

Sounds like you are clear on your options. Talk Talk is becoming quite popular for its TV service, not least as they don't insist you take a fibre service to receive it. In the past they were well known for poor customer service but have been improving steadily and now rate better than BT. See this latest research from Ofcom:


http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/tv-research/Quality-Customer-Service-report-December-2013/Quality_of_service_report.pdf