So farewell, BT Vision

BT Vision loses another customer.

I received the letter below from BT Vision this morning. From 12th June they're going to move Sky Sports 1 and 2 from the terrestrial broadcast channels to broadband delivery. Also, in the side-box, you will only be able to watch/record one of these channels at a time (due to bandwidth restrictions).

My letter from BT Vision

Now, here in rural Wells, Somerset we have never been able to get BT Vision replay or on-demand services: they stutter and die.  I get c. 20 Mbps down my copper line, but the exchange is just a few hundred metres away. The exchange access equipment is surely dimensioned for intermittent Internet browsing, and can't support high-speed video streaming. This new Sky-over-broadband proposal will trash the main reason I signed up to BT Vision in the first place: cricket, tennis and cycling on Sky Sports.

I called them.

The Indian call centre was just as rubbish as usual. They seemed to believe the letter was a mistake as I'm not in a 'BT Infinity' fibre optic roll-out area. I asked to cancel and got transferred to the Scottish people.

Carol told me it was all a mistake and I'd continue to get over-the-air Sky.

"That's not what the letter says."

She checks. After an inordinate amount of time she tells me "Yes, you're going to be switched, because the technical team has determined your line rate can support it."

I'm weary. The technical team don't understand that with copper, the line rate is hardly an infallible guide to real-time high-speed service delivery which can be screwed up by contention, DSLAM capacity limits, upstream fibre line-rate issues - lots of things.

I have cancelled: the last day of service is Friday 14th June. It's off to Sky now, and BT - this was an own goal, guys!

Sky Sports success

While we were visiting my mother in Bristol yesterday, the backroom folk at BT Vision were toiling away trying to get Sky Sports 1 &2 and ESPN to work on our new BT Vision system. I got a call on my new smartphone around midday - Craig said that they had downloaded some new systems software to the BT Vision box and as a result the smart-card enabled channels were now working. I didn't really believe him.

At 4.30 pm we were back home and of course my pessimism was unfounded: in glorious video we were able to watch the last hour of the England vs. Sri Lanka second test (it was a draw). So thanks, Craig! And thanks for calling back at 6.30 pm to check it was all working.

We are using all the functions of the BT Vision box:

1. I recorded The Archers in advance and Clare heard it later.
2. We were going to be late for Springwatch so I set it to record from 8 pm and then Clare started watching the recording at 8.10 (yes, you can record and watch a programme at the same time).
3. We watched a Video-on-Demand programme from The Discovery Channel on the Meredith Kercher murder trial this morning.
4. We used the Pause/Resume button on a programme we were looking at yesterday. Bonus - you can fast-forward through the adverts.

Two criticisms. Firstly, the design of the set-top box is bulky and old-fashioned; does it really need to be so large? Secondly, I find the menu structure cluttered and confusing. Apart from that the service brings a tranche of new functionality we're finding really useful.

BT Vision

BT Vision arrived today in shrink-wrapped boxes. First I junked my old and trusty NetGear router and replaced it with the new BT Hub. So much junk on their installation CD - they are STILL trying to force you into their ghastly BT-Yahoo mail and various rubbish toolbars. Surely they must now be rueing that ill-fated tie-up.

After having my hard driver cluttered with God-knows-how-many Megabytes of unwanted "extra features", I was eventually released from screen-thrall to discover how to configure the hub itself (not easy to find, BT!) and thus set the password to what I wanted.

The Powerline devices were easy. This is how BT trucks the Video-on-Demand from the HomeHub to the TV set - through the mains cabling. The two Powerline devices simply plug into the wall and connect via Ethernet cabling to their clients (HomeHub and Vision box respectively).

The Vision Box itself was relatively easy to wire up, but erratic to make work. Too many minutes staring at blank screens wondering if anything was actually happening. Sometimes I thought it was on, but it was on standby ... purple and blue look rather similar, BT. That wasted half an hour.

The Sky viewing card failed to work. After an hour I called technical support in India, and they confirmed a fault and have escalated to 'back office'. I await developments.

So far though, the basic Vision functionality looks good. I did a quick 'catch-up TV' experiment and the programme - streamed over the Internet - looked just fine. We were late with dinner and as Clare nursed a burned hand (retrieving something way too hot from the oven) we daudled and were late for the cricket on Channel 5. No problem! I just paused it, and then resumed it at 7.30 pm when Clare and Adrian were ready to watch.

And someone has to do the washing up ...