UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

belmulletman

Eamo71 wrote: »

latest info - gone live in Switzerland http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/01/12/upc-cablecom-launches-horizon-in-switzerland/

Also follow the link - there we are at the end www.horizon.tv

AAAH!! come on UPC! We know it's 'coming soon', but when?? Just a month, PLEASE!

Del2005

belmulletman wrote: »

AAAH!! come on UPC! We know it's 'coming soon', but when?? Just a month, PLEASE!

A month:eek: They said we'd have Eurosport 2HD soon, that was back in October. A couple of years more like it

Eamo71

Del2005 wrote: »

A month:eek: They said we'd have Eurosport 2HD soon, that was back in October. A couple of years more like it

Meant to be here in Q1 - though if I was a betting man I'd say start of Q2. We await TCP/IP's news on the beta testing front. They'll have to give it six to eight weeks minimum to see how the Swiss are getting on. So, what's the average length Of time for beta testing when the first Irish users get a hold if it?

Mountjoy Mugger

Eamo71 wrote: »

latest info - gone live in Switzerland http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/01/12/upc-cablecom-launches-horizon-in-switzerland/

Also follow the link - there we are at the end www.horizon.tv

Coo!! I see the Swiss get Channel 5 UK from UPC.

belmulletman

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Coo!! I see the Swiss get Channel 5 UK from UPC.

What what what?? and we don't...

(p.s. I posted this info over here: http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2056846411
Might be worth keeping it over there where it's an official UPC forum!. Not sure they monitor here any more tbh)

JDxtra

Friend of mine has one in Switzerland. Says it's amazing. It replaces so many pieces of kit.

JDxtra

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Coo!! I see the Swiss get Channel 5 UK from UPC.

There are a lot of British living and working in Switzerland, which probably explains this.

bob11

It has gone live in Netherlands as well ..

http://www.upc.nl/televisie/horizon-tv/#tab-vragen

grindle

bob11 wrote: »

It has gone live in Netherlands as well ..

http://www.upc.nl/televisie/horizon-tv/#tab-vragen

They've had it since last September.

AlanMc86

It's currently being tested by a small group in Ireland

TCP/IP

AlanMc86 wrote: »

It's currently being tested by a small group in Ireland

Are you one of the small group. I got an update from UPC today saying that customer testing is still not up so maybe some employees are testing internally which would make a lot of sense.

AlanMc86

I'm not one of them but you're right it is UPC employees only. I'm probably not allowed say how many or how long it's going on for.

coylemj

If it's anything like the way they launched On-Demand, the first we'll hear about the Horizon box from UPC Ireland will be a razzmatazz press launch featuring C-list 'celebrities', then they'll finally announce it to their customers, but only when forced to do so by an avalanche of 'when can I have it?' e-mails!

Actual paying customers come last as far as UPC and information goes.

JoeyJJ

They never gave a hoot about Existing customers silently let us move onto more expensive packs, have to treaten to leave to get decent rates and rarely keep us in the loop about new services. Then when the launch something, they don't keep it going with as much emphasis, how long have I been waiting for dextor series 3 upwards!

Eamo71

Another Horizon tidbit here. Check out the video at the end of the article. http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/01/25/fries-cable-learning-from-netflix-but-he-has-the-content/
Mike Fries very bullish about cable and the Horizon product. Basically says it'll hand Netflix its own head. We'll wait and see.

Eamo71

have some posts been deleted?

TCP/IP

Yes it looks like all the posts about it been installed in employees houses on trail seem to be gone. Perhaps a mod can confirm.

Eamo71 wrote: »

have some posts been deleted?

grindle

Eamo71 wrote: »

have some posts been deleted?

UPC probably don't want anyone connected saying "PM for details" or "It'll be April or May" for a product they haven't fully tested yet.
Nice to know this is actually getting tested - pity about the previous boxes.

zg3409

They probably don't want people saying Quarter 1, which becomes quarter 2 or 3 or 4 especially when it is likely only to be launched in areas with 120Mb internet available and stocks of boxes would probably be low at the start.

They probably would like to at least have a map or database of where it is available or not before the phone calls start arriving into them.

Presumably they would also like to be also able to state prices and services offered too.

As I have said before I would not make plans based on this arriving soon or agree to long term contracts with any supplier. It's best to get a true independant review before jumping into long term contracts especially based on UPCs "on demand" problems that seem to still occur.

Eamo71

More Horizon news...

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/02/14/lgi-reaches-a-100000-horizon-subs/

icdg

TCP/IP wrote: »

Yes it looks like all the posts about it been installed in employees houses on trail seem to be gone. Perhaps a mod can confirm.

Not by me. However, as a rule, I wouldn't post any information about my job on Boards.ie .

SteM

Eamo71 wrote: »

Another Horizon tidbit here. Check out the video at the end of the article. http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/01/25/fries-cable-learning-from-netflix-but-he-has-the-content/
Mike Fries very bullish about cable and the Horizon product. Basically says it'll hand Netflix its own head. We'll wait and see.

Surely this sort of service lives and dies by the content available? UPCs current On-Demand choice is pretty poor imo, Netflix UK/IE is also poor but Netflix US is much better. I subscribed to it and stayed subscribed for the content.

If Horizon is a fancy box serving they same On-Demapnd that UPC are currently providing then I won't get too excited by it. 6 tuners - nice except I don't see myself ever wanting to recore more that 2 things at once and there are so many +1 channels now that it's hardly a problem.

bk

I think the idea of 6 tuners is more so that it can stream live TV to "dumb" terminals in other rooms.

TCP/IP

bk wrote: »

I think the idea of 6 tuners is more so that it can stream live TV to "dumb" terminals in other rooms.

Also I believe that the 2 of the tuners are reserved to help quicker channel changes by preselecting the next channel up and down. One of the big problems with the current UPC boxes is the still channel change.

7upfree

SteM wrote: »

Surely this sort of service lives and dies by the content available? UPCs current On-Demand choice is pretty poor imo, Netflix UK/IE is also poor but Netflix US is much better. I subscribed to it and stayed subscribed for the content.

If Horizon is a fancy box serving they same On-Demapnd that UPC are currently providing then I won't get too excited by it. 6 tuners - nice except I don't see myself ever wanting to recore more that 2 things at once and there are so many +1 channels now that it's hardly a problem.

But I suppose there will be people who would?

SteM

7upfree wrote: »

But I suppose there will be people who would?

There'll always be people who will use functionality. Content is king though.

Del2005

SteM wrote: »

Surely this sort of service lives and dies by the content available? UPCs current On-Demand choice is pretty poor imo, Netflix UK/IE is also poor but Netflix US is much better. I subscribed to it and stayed subscribed for the content.

If Horizon is a fancy box serving they same On-Demapnd that UPC are currently providing then I won't get too excited by it. 6 tuners - nice except I don't see myself ever wanting to recore more that 2 things at once and there are so many +1 channels now that it's hardly a problem.

There aren't that many +1 channels on UPC and most of them I don't even watch the live channel.

Edit..

Compared to Sky there are very few. Most of the major channels on Sky have a +1,UPC doesn't. I detest watching ads so I usually record anything that isn't live and skip the ads. So for me personally the more channels I can record together the better.

Eamo71

SteM wrote: »

There'll always be people who will use functionality. Content is king though.

most of the issues I've seen on this board in relation to cable TV centre on functionality. that's why this new box will be so important for existing customers and tempting other folks to UPC. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen people write on these boards that they don't want to go to UPC cos the Box is brutal. Content is not always the leading motivation in choosing a package. Also Sky hasn't that much of a USP anymore most of the extra channels they have I personally don't care for anyway ... and in terms of Atlantic -- there's plenty of "other ways" to get that content.

Undutchable

After many updates the Horizon box is now shaping up to fulfil it's initial promise.
The network media player functionality has been much improved and new apps are being added regularly, facebook & twitter have finally appeared.

JoeyJJ

Undutchable, how does the streaming tv to other devices work? Do you need to have an app installed or can you use an ip address from the box? Have a blackberry playbook and am expecting it to only support ios and android

iDann

Any potential release date yet?

Also, Does the Horizon box combine the STB & Router/Modem? Can't find a answer anywhere!

Thanks

belmulletman

iDann wrote: »

Any potential release date yet?

Also, Does the Horizon box combine the STB & Router/Modem? Can't find a answer anywhere!

Thanks

Dont' know anything about a date, but I've seen the user manual online somehwere and it does combine the STB and the Modem. There's N wifi and a 4port gigabit router!

Can't wait to get one!

Undutchable

JoeyJJ wrote: »

Undutchable, how does the streaming tv to other devices work? Do you need to have an app installed or can you use an ip address from the box? Have a blackberry playbook and am expecting it to only support ios and android

At the moment there is only an app for ios devices, android is promised but nothing for blackberry as yet.

Fromthetrees

€ 13, -
per month Extra

Mearings

Fromthetrees wrote: »

€ 13, -
per month Extra

It's all Dutch to me.

ted1

Fromthetrees wrote: »

€ 13, -
per month Extra

You know we'll have different prices

Fromthetrees

ted1 wrote: »

You know we'll have different prices

It's just an idea of the price we'll have for it here. Maybe we'll be paying a few euro more than that.

Eamo71

Fromthetrees wrote: »

It's just an idea of the price we'll have for it here. Maybe we'll be paying a few euro more than that.

Mike Fries said its be a "few euro extra". I think 13 euro is a bit high?

Eamo71

iDann wrote: »

Any potential release date yet?

Also, Does the Horizon box combine the STB & Router/Modem? Can't find a answer anywhere!

Thanks

Release date seems to be q2 here. So JUne at the latest???

Fromthetrees

Eamo71 wrote: »

Mike Fries said its be a "few euro extra". I think 13 euro is a bit high?

It does seem high. If the on demand content is vastly increased (to compete with Netflix) then they could possibly justify it I suppose.

I have a friend working for UPC but a previous post mysteriously disappeared so I guess I shouldn't repeat what he told me about dates again or maybe I will mysteriously disappear. UPC are a powerful entity.

Eamo71

Fromthetrees wrote: »

It does seem high. If the on demand content is vastly increased (to compete with Netflix) then they could possibly justify it I suppose.

I have a friend working for UPC but a previous post mysteriously disappeared so I guess I shouldn't repeat what he told me about dates again or maybe I will mysteriously disappear. UPC are a powerful entity.

UPC can't stop individuals posting online particularly if they don't work for them. So if you have any info please do share...

iDann

Can't wait for it to come out, looks like a pretty decent UPC box at last! Wish they kept the QWERTY keyboard on the remote.

Solair

There's a rather nice public demo of a more recent version of Horizon in English here :

It'd give you a much more realistic idea of what they've been up to. It looks *very* slick compared to other STB software I've seen to date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIzBJuH8kTA

who_me

English manual viewable here.

Quite a bit of detail in there. One nice thing I noticed is the return of a channel list (yay!). It's been an annoyance of mine that if you want to switch to a channel, you have to either remember it's number (unlikely), use the guide (very slow to load) or keep flipping until you reach it (very slow too, with 200 channels or so to get through).

Came across this review randomly, its in Dutch but you still get a nice feel for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k23_K5f4hU

Calibos

Talked to some upc engineers about it yesterday and they were sceptical we'll be seeing it rolled out any time soon. They said there's lots of problems with it in the Netherlands. One laughed and said, maybe it'll be 'great' in 2 or 3 years.

Make of that what you will!

Barrymchugh

UPC techs have recently been trained in on installing these boxes, they are being released for testing very soon now!!

Eamo71

Barrymchugh wrote: »

UPC techs have recently been trained in on installing these boxes, they are being released for testing very soon now!!

According to a recent poster here who later deleted his posts the boxes are already being tested, mainly by UPC employees.

Eamo71

Calibos wrote: »

Talked to some upc engineers about it yesterday and they were sceptical we'll be seeing it rolled out any time soon. They said there's lots of problems with it in the Netherlands. One laughed and said, maybe it'll be 'great' in 2 or 3 years.

Make of that what you will!

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/03/01/troubled-start-for-horizon-in-switzerland/

grindle

Reading from the list of problems is like reading a list of what the current box does. How retarded are they that they haven't gotten this right, this was their Big Chance™?