BT Vision
March 29, 2008
Our BT Vision equipment arrived this week and first impressions are very positive. Although the initial set up took a number of reboots the process was relatively simple and it certainly looks to be an interesting alternative to Sky.
The BT Vision equipment comes with power network ethernet adapters and despite our initial doubt over how the whole system was going to work the adapters were easy to set up and worked without any effort.
Purchasing premium content is very simple although we would recommend you activate the “enter Pin to purchase” options in the set up menu as there are no restrictions to purchasing otherwise, this is particularly relevant if children have access to the controller.
Apple have promised us movie rentals in the UK this year but BT Vision seem to be already there with a host of premium movies, a good back catalog and a massive range of on demand TV content. Favourable to BT films are priced according to age and some episodes of older TV programmes are only 49p.
BT Vision also offers 4OD and BBC content from the previous week with the BBC content being free.
The on screen TV guide is very like the Microsoft Media Center Guide and works the same way, with series record options easily accessible by hitting the R button twice. Our initial experiences with recording were not so positive although we will update the site after a few weeks of use.
We recorded two programmes this week, one was perfect but a single 30 minute episode of ‘Mitchell and Webb Look’ managed to end 3 mins before the end of the programme. This may have been down to changes in schedule but still a little annoying. This week we are going to test recording two programmes back to back on different channels and will feedback on site soon after.
Certainly one of the surprises we found was the ability to record two channels at once from a single aerial connection. Given then BT Vision box is offers HDMI and BT are promising HD content and free upgrade in the near future it is certainly an attractive package.
We are not jumping to cancel our Sky just yet but if BT Vision proves to be reliable the combination of Apple TV and BT Vision will soon result in a Sky cancellation unless Sky offer their HD upgrade at a much reduced price.
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DigMo!Filed Under News | Tags: BT Vision, Sky
Hi,
Great review. I also just recieved the BT Vision package and what you have said sums up my opinion also.
I will add however, that if you click on the item that you have set to be recorded, you ca change the time that it finishes recording, so you don’t miss the last 3 mins. You have the choice of 5mins after, 15 mins after and so on. I set all of my recordings to end 15 mins after the program is due to end, just to be on the safe side.