BT Vision is the on demand television service from BT. It comes as an add-on package when you take out the BT Broadband Option 3. For a few extra pounds a month you get access to the somewhat large and varied library of films, TV show, music videos, sport and kid shows as well as some other ... Read review
Advantages: Great Equipment, Occasional great shows/films Disadvantages: On Demand content lacks hit shows
BT Vision is the on demand television service from BT. It comes as an add-on package when you take out the BT Broadband Option 3. For a few extra pounds a month you get access to the somewhat large and varied library of films, TV show, music videos, sport and kid shows as well as some other specialised content like replay TV, subscription channels and adult content. The BT Vision box which BT provides you with is also a fully functional Freeview ... ...I’ve decided to get the BT Vision box.
===Hardware & Installation===
When I first received the BT Vision box, about a week after ordering it from BT. The initial impression was that the BT Vision box was quite well built and wasn’t some cheap piece of hardware they modified, but in fact a pretty solid structure. The remote is quite large and is also quite well built, with a large variety of buttons to control the Vision ... more
BT Vision is the on demand television service from BT. It comes as an add-on package when you take out the BT Broadband Option 3. For a few extra pounds a month you get access to the somewhat large and varied library of films, TV show, music videos, sport and kid shows as well as some other specialised content like replay TV, subscription channels and adult content. The BT Vision box which BT provides you with is also a fully functional Freeview box and TV recorder, which is one of the main reasons I’ve decided to get the BT Vision box.
Hardware & Installation
When I first received the BT Vision box, about a week after ordering it from BT. The initial impression was that the BT Vision box was quite well built and wasn’t some cheap piece of hardware they modified, but in fact a pretty solid structure. The remote is quite large and is also quite well built, with a large variety of buttons to control the Vision box and also additional buttons that you can later program to work with your TV (like volume and channel switching). However although the hardware was impressive, getting it to work was a very laborious process, as BT had to active my BT Vision service, which they messed up the first time, after the customer service rep got the number wrong (Option 3 comes with 2 numbers, your phone line number and your hub phone number, you need to give them the Phone line number) and I had to wait for a week for them to realise this mistake. After which it took another week to reactivate and overall it was a strenuous process.
The Vision Box has to be connected to the BT Home Hub to work and receive the on demand content (and to boot up after shut down), BT has included a great bit of hardware with your Vision package, the Powerline Ethernet Plugs, these plug into your average plug in a wall and are able to send the internet signal from one plug (connect to the BT Home Hub) to the other (connected to the Vision Box). This saves you having to wire your BT Vision box into the Hub. These are pretty useful for your Xbox or PS3 also, if you are not using the Vision On Demand, simply use the plugs for your Xbox Live or PSN connection.
Note – The Vision Box comes with a HDMI output, but there is very little HD content available on the On Demand. Quite useful if you have a big TV though.
On Demand Selection
BT gives you quite a large selection of content, which is divided into categories which you subscribe to and are able to watch. However if you wish to watch a show as a one off, you can simply do a one of payment to watch that episode or film, which is charged to your BT Vision Bill. From the categories offered (Film, TV, Kids, Music and Sport), I found that the only package worth subscribing to is TV which is £6.85 a month. This is simply because it offers the best and the largest amount of content from the UK and US alike, show like The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Inbetweeners, Californication, South Park and many more. Don’t get me wrong, I am a massive fan of movies; however the Film package only offers movies from their “Picture Box” selection, which I found are typically movies you can find in the bargain bin in Tesco or Asda. The Kids option does offer some great cartoons and the occasional kid’s movies, and is definitely worth subscribing to if you have young children.
TV Package
Since I’ve only really had the TV selection, I’ll talk about it in a little bit more detail. You get a large selection of shows from different channels and networks like Channel 4, Five, ITV, BBC and some US ones like; HBO, CBS, Warner Bros and a few more. New content appears weekly. However I’ve found that the content seems a little mixed up. The Warner Bros content only seems to stay on their for about a week or 2 and then disappears, and quite often you will find seasons of shows missing like, The Wire Season 3 is there, but no sign of 1 or 2, which can be quite annoying as I tend to like watching my shows in order. Also out of the 10 new bits of content that appears weekly, about 1 or 2 are shows that I would consider watching, I find it to be a treat if shows like South Park or The Terminator make an appearance, which is quite rare.
Film Package
I've only had the film package for about a week before I decided to switch back to TV. Although BT offers a large amount of new films and advertised to be available before Sky, which is true, there is no package that allows you to watch them for “free” on a monthly subscription. The movies typically cost about £3 - £4 to rent out and watch. The only packaged movies are the movies available in Picture Box, and like I mentioned above, they are not often any good.
Overall I will continue using BT Vision not because of the On Demand content, but because of the Box itself, it offers one of the best Freeview Boxes I’ve ever used and the TV Recorder is fantastic and comes with an incredible 120gb of Hard drive space and has similar functions as Sky, with series links and otherwise, however they don’t work as well. So if you want a great Freeview box with a built in tuner for free and you happen to be on the BT Option 3 plan, it is worth paying around £7 a month to get it, as box like this will cost you around £100 and you don’t get to watch on demand shows. However it is not worth getting it just for the on demand content.
Advantages: No contracts, high quality On Demand TV Disadvantages: No over run facility on recordings
...standard I decided to give BT Vision a try. BT Vision offers a more advanced service that has the basic freeview set up at its foundation. Top Up TV really did not do it for me, it was slow and clunky, and frequent downloads of TV shows and movies failed. With a similar system to Virgin's offering I wondered if BT Vision would go one better.
BT Vision has the aid of On Demand services in order to make it more attractive, and after years of anticipating ... ...In order to use BT vision you need to have BT Internet and a home hub, the hub is available to you for £30 and BT throw the TV box in. BT Vision offers about half the content of Virgins On Demand service, basically a good few thousand hours of viewing. You can purchase On Demand products for between 29p for a music video to £2.99 for a film; alternately you can get a variety of packages from £3 to £14 that includes all TV and Music options. Sports ...
sghawken 22.11.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Vision
Advantages: Hours and hours of entertainment (recorded telly and packages), cheaper than other providers Disadvantages: Packages could be a bit more developed (except film) but then it would cost more.
The BT Vision package was the only purchase I've ever made after being asked if I was interested in 'some information' on a product (usually code for 'at least 20 minutes of naff scripted sales pitch') and I'm so glad I did. Not only is the service a hell of a lot cheaper than it's competitors, but it's basic package alone offers more hours of entertainment than any other. I've been recommending this to family members and friends who are all on less ... ...The Package ===
With BT Vision you can either opt for one of the packages (Bronze, Silver or Gold) or you can 'build' your own package by picking the types of chanel that you would like. That way you can cut out the things you're not so interested in. Personally I prefer the Bronze/Silver/Gold options as I think you get a lot more for your money. With the DIY BT Vision the prices of each viewing pack vary from £2.93 to almost £7.00 per month. I'll ...
Ottavia 29.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Vision
Advantages: Cheap way of getting a freeview recorder Disadvantages: On demand content is limited and could be updated/added to more often
BT Vision is BT's attempt to grab a market share into the digital tv sector. It is an add on service to BT Broadband
Basicly the Vision box is a freeview reciever with a 80 hour hard disc recorder built in. It also has on demand features alowing for pay per view tv when you want it.
The freeview side obviously needs to be in a freeview area. If not then this side of the box will not work. The box has 2 tuners built into it. This is so that the ... ...if you got setanta and BT Sport seperate.
The films are only pay as you go. They cost between 1.99 and 2.99 for 24 hours. Within that time you can watch the film as much as you want.
To get this service you need BT Broadband. They give you the box for free but charge you £30 to get the service activated. If you want somebody to come and plug it in for you they charge an extra £60. It really is simple to set up though so it is not worth forking ...
jegb 02.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Vision
Advantages: Great on demand section, good on paper Disadvantages: see review, there are plenty
...through the HDMI lead and BT Vision have no answer for this other than the box isn’t compatible with all models of HD TVs! The picture quality at either 720p or 1080i does not look anywhere near as good as my built in freeviews and despite having 100% signal quality the box is showing it outputting in 75%?
The on demand section, whilst easily the best part of this is let down by constant picture and/or audio stuttering making some programmes unwatchable. ... ...In a nutshell then, BT vision is a great concept...When it works. The box however is way too niggly and needs to be replaced. The HD content needs a massive revamp and they simply have to find a way of gaining ESPN to ensure it retains Premiership football. The pricing, whilst far cheaper than Sky or cable, needs to be reviewed as for any film buffs, BT vision is not a great thing to have currently. If you’re not bothered about the thing crashing ...
cw180 08.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Vision
Advantages: Choice, price Disadvantages: Less channels than Sky
...pricing and technical details regarding BT Vision as prices change and technical details bore me to death. So what I will do is explain why I chose BT Vision over the other main competitor, Sky. With Sky you will get all the main digital channels, you will also get a lot of channels which you wonder how many viewers these actually get. Admittedly, with Sky you will get a lot more for your money, but as we all know with TV, do we want to watch it ... ...you hit something good. Bt Vision is more of a rifle, one shot, one kill.
With BT Vision you can choose what you watch, when you watch it. So although you may not get all the channels that you would with Sky, you can at least watch what you want, whenever the moods takes you. Any episode of Season 10 of Top gear? Sure, it's 3am and I am bored, let's put it on! And then you need the toilet, so let's pause it! Oh, missed that bit, let's rewind. Fallen ...
kilmurray 27.12.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Vision
Quality of service
Range of packages
Range of channels
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I have rarely had to call customer services, but when I have, they have been courteous, and helpful.
The Top Up TV service in my opinion has great potential. It's an innovative way to utilise overnight broadcast space which otherwise wouldn't be used, to great effect. It's not designed to compete with the likes of Sky or Virgin Media. There just isn't the capacity to broadcast that many channels on Digital Terrestrial. Certainly better than having to be connected to broadband to rely on watching TV, like you are with BTVision. You don't have to trawl through loads of channels to find something interesting to watch, you just press the Top Up TV button, and select something that has downloaded for you overnight... it's as simple as that.
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