So I spent some time this weekend setting up and playing with the BT vision + box.
First disappointment is that the "+" doesn't stand for HD. Indeed complaints abound on BT's support site that BT vision isn't HD.
Well, I say it isn't HD - some of the on demand type content is HD, so the box is obviously capable of outputting HD. It's just that the Freeview side of it isn't HD. Which is bonkers. you could understand it when if first launched, but why put out a new bit of kit that has some HD on demand content and HDMI and optical audio connectors but only has SD tuners - it even has two tuners so can record two things simultaneously, but it's not HD. Weird.
The second disappointment is that some of the content only appears to be available if you get the 'unlimited' package. Note that even though it's "unlimited", there's still stuff you can only get by paying for it. So it's unlimited apart from the limitations.
Now I understood this going in - it says on the website you have to pay for some bits if you've not got the unlimited package. that's fine - pay for what you want. Except the granularity suggested by the website is very broad - films not available at all, everything else you pay 50p and up for. Except that's not actually true - some of the non-film bits you also can't get unless you have the unlimited package. And I mean not at all - you can't pay to get them individually, you need the full unlimited package.
The third disappointment wasn't so much a disappointment, but that getting this unlimited package would not be particularly good value. Okay, you get all that stuff in the package, but most of it I've either seen or don't really want to see. I mean there's stuff I'd like to see, but not enough to make unlimited good value for money by a long way. Certainly not since most of the stuff I'd want to see you can pay for.
On the up side, the stuff available via the full-on paying methods (i.e. you pay irrespective of which package you've got) isn't too bad at all. There's a reasonable selection of films, for example.
However, unlike the other films you can only get via unlimited it wasn't at all clear if they were available in HD. Certainly some of the trailers looked quite high definition, but that may just be because the trailer is at a higher bit rate. I shall have to give the searching another go and see if that reveals the answer, or just give it a try if not.
Another up-side was that the iPlayer and the other catch-up devices work quite well. Well, iPlayer crashed the time I tried to give it a go properly, but then it's crashed when I've used it normally too.
A good thing there of course is that iPlayer is available in HD so those programs I can't watch as HD on Freeview I can't watch on the catch-up. And since I record and watch back 95% of my viewing that should suit me fine.
The last disappointment is the amount of light it puts out. Now this is a bit of a specific to me one, but I live in a bedsit, which means my TV stuff is in the same room as me. I also have difficulty sleeping when there are bright sources of light and the vision box really pumps out a lot of light.
Now I'm used to that to some extent and am adept at covering panels with clocks on at night to block the light. The problem is the vision box has a weird curvy front panel and it's so bright that this didn't really work last night. I'll have a fiddle over the next few days, but I've a feeling I may end up unplugging it and only plugging it back in when I want to watch some on-demand stuff.
Overall then I'm a bit disappointed - I certainly don't think it's worth £4 a month. I mean my PVR is way better at doing Freeview and easier to use and the few things the vision box does better are actually really only at their best if you pay 3 times that.
Showing posts with label BT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BT. Show all posts
Monday, 17 September 2012
Friday, 14 September 2012
a new vision
I think I forgot yesterday to explain why a shaving brush may help with my shaving.
Basically, the idea of shaving foam is that it does two things - it lubricates the blade as it passes across the skin, but the second is more relevant in that it essentially holds the hairs up off the skin surface.
Beard hair has a tendency to lay flat to the surface of the skin and this is one of the things that makes it difficult to shave. For me this seems particularly acute - my beard hair lies very flat and I also have some weird changes in direction of hair, particularly on my neck where the bottom part grows up and the rest grows down (well, sideways, actually).
This is also particularly ironic for me as my head hair tends to stick straight up for a good half an inch before the weight eventually pulls it down, and even then it's super fluffy. This was okay when I was younger, but recently I've started to thin and it looks odd because you can see my scalp, even though the hair is long. This actually prompted me to trim it off.
Anyway, the idea is that by using a brush you really get in and around the hairs, helping to hold them up. When applying the foam with your fingers, the big flat surface of your fingers has a tendency to flatten the hairs.
That's the theory, anyway - we shall see if it helps.
I recently got myself BT Vision.
They've had a special offer on where it's only £4 a month and the box is free. Now obviously I already have Freeview - and, indeed, the PVR I've got is a Humax one, which is generally regarded to be the best make. My dad has BT vision and a Humax digibox and says the Humax is way better and he's obviously been able to compare things long-term.
However, my PVR is not High definition and this Freeview is (well, I think it is - I haven't actually plugged it in yet, but more on that in a mo). It's also got this new on-demand service. This is the one that was announced a little while ago - I can't for the life of me remember the name they gave it, but it involves several of the big players.
As I mentioned I've not actually started the box up yet. My first problem is that I obviously need a clear period where I'm not watching or recording stuff and so that's put out most of the evening. But also I have a box of AV cables which I will need to play with various configurations and that's in the garage so I'll need to get it out. I'll also need to find my longer network cable as the one they supplied is about 20cm too short.
I'm therefore going to play with it this weekend. The thing I'm not sure about is to do with pass-through of signal. A while back I was having real problems with my PVR in that the signal was breaking up. However, by chance I discovered that by switching it around with my VCR (so it really was a while ago!) the signal improved massively.
So I'm not sure if I should split the signal and send it through both boxes independently (the BT vision has a HDMI connector - hence my assumption it's HD) or if it'll be okay passing the signal through.
I'll also probably take the opportunity to have a bit of clean around - a lot of dust tends to accumulate around the TV area.
Basically, the idea of shaving foam is that it does two things - it lubricates the blade as it passes across the skin, but the second is more relevant in that it essentially holds the hairs up off the skin surface.
Beard hair has a tendency to lay flat to the surface of the skin and this is one of the things that makes it difficult to shave. For me this seems particularly acute - my beard hair lies very flat and I also have some weird changes in direction of hair, particularly on my neck where the bottom part grows up and the rest grows down (well, sideways, actually).
This is also particularly ironic for me as my head hair tends to stick straight up for a good half an inch before the weight eventually pulls it down, and even then it's super fluffy. This was okay when I was younger, but recently I've started to thin and it looks odd because you can see my scalp, even though the hair is long. This actually prompted me to trim it off.
Anyway, the idea is that by using a brush you really get in and around the hairs, helping to hold them up. When applying the foam with your fingers, the big flat surface of your fingers has a tendency to flatten the hairs.
That's the theory, anyway - we shall see if it helps.
I recently got myself BT Vision.
They've had a special offer on where it's only £4 a month and the box is free. Now obviously I already have Freeview - and, indeed, the PVR I've got is a Humax one, which is generally regarded to be the best make. My dad has BT vision and a Humax digibox and says the Humax is way better and he's obviously been able to compare things long-term.
However, my PVR is not High definition and this Freeview is (well, I think it is - I haven't actually plugged it in yet, but more on that in a mo). It's also got this new on-demand service. This is the one that was announced a little while ago - I can't for the life of me remember the name they gave it, but it involves several of the big players.
As I mentioned I've not actually started the box up yet. My first problem is that I obviously need a clear period where I'm not watching or recording stuff and so that's put out most of the evening. But also I have a box of AV cables which I will need to play with various configurations and that's in the garage so I'll need to get it out. I'll also need to find my longer network cable as the one they supplied is about 20cm too short.
I'm therefore going to play with it this weekend. The thing I'm not sure about is to do with pass-through of signal. A while back I was having real problems with my PVR in that the signal was breaking up. However, by chance I discovered that by switching it around with my VCR (so it really was a while ago!) the signal improved massively.
So I'm not sure if I should split the signal and send it through both boxes independently (the BT vision has a HDMI connector - hence my assumption it's HD) or if it'll be okay passing the signal through.
I'll also probably take the opportunity to have a bit of clean around - a lot of dust tends to accumulate around the TV area.
Friday, 9 September 2011
internet & fansubs (BT)
I mentioned a while back that I’d gotten myself BT broadband.
Well, unfortunately I recently had to boost my package to the unlimited downloads one. This is quite a lot more expensive (the broadband bit of the package basically doubles), but there was no way I was going to be able to keep within the bandwidth limit, and they charge you a huge amount for each gb you go over.
There are two basic problems that have really brought this to the fore. well, actually there’s one problem, but it has a couple of facets.
That problem is the entire reason I got the BT broadband in the first place- fansubs.
As I’ve explained before, I got the Bt broadband because I was hammering my landlords connection so hard and so often that it seemed to be causing the line to fall over on a very regular basis. When this happened it meant I had no internet access at all, sometimes for quite long periods of time.
Also, my usage was clearly causing the line to hit its limit often, so when my landlord used it he’d get really slow speeds. Therefore, by transferring my fansub downloading to another line, I’d stop being an arse.
But then two problems cropped up. Firstly, the shower broke. As I explained at the time, that meant I couldn't download any fansubs because my computer is underneath the hatch to get access to the stopcocks. And because it was out for a week, I created a big backlog of stuff.
The other problem is that this year there seems to have been a real problem over shows that have been picked up for legal streaming. I try to be a good boy and only dl shows that haven’t been picked up by crunchyroll and AOD. However, this year a whole raft of stuff either wasn’t licensed at all or was licensed, but I was region locked out of.
A new service called Nico Nico started, which seemed to take several shows and I found the site basically unusable. But then quite a bit of stuff on crunchyroll was region locked and then there was this big announcement that most of it was going to be on AOD.
I’m not sure I buy into the conspiracy theories that it wasn’t picked up by crunchyroll for the UK because of AOD, but what was definitely true was that it was ages before AOD announced they had them and then literally months before they started appearing.
On top of that, AOD’s site has been crushingly slow, making it unusual and there’s still the problem that AOD's content can only be viewed full screen or in a tiny window, making it a much less practical site for me.
In other words, I seem to have reverted back to downloading just about everything.
And things seemed to be going so well :(
But it did mean that last month I was hammering the connection and I had to increase the bandwidth allowance.
What made this slightly more annoying was that when I tried to rest the payment direct debit thing, it wouldn’t let me set it to a sensible level. It had this weird thing of one page was recommending a sensible amount, but then when I went onto the page to change it, it insisted I couldn’t take it below a different “recommended” amount that was £10 more than the other recommended amount. I put the higher recommended amount in quotes, because if you it acts as a fixed minimum value, it’s not really a recommendation is it?
Still, I guess if a large credit build up because of this stupid flaw in the system, I’ll eventually be able to set it lower.
Well, unfortunately I recently had to boost my package to the unlimited downloads one. This is quite a lot more expensive (the broadband bit of the package basically doubles), but there was no way I was going to be able to keep within the bandwidth limit, and they charge you a huge amount for each gb you go over.
There are two basic problems that have really brought this to the fore. well, actually there’s one problem, but it has a couple of facets.
That problem is the entire reason I got the BT broadband in the first place- fansubs.
As I’ve explained before, I got the Bt broadband because I was hammering my landlords connection so hard and so often that it seemed to be causing the line to fall over on a very regular basis. When this happened it meant I had no internet access at all, sometimes for quite long periods of time.
Also, my usage was clearly causing the line to hit its limit often, so when my landlord used it he’d get really slow speeds. Therefore, by transferring my fansub downloading to another line, I’d stop being an arse.
But then two problems cropped up. Firstly, the shower broke. As I explained at the time, that meant I couldn't download any fansubs because my computer is underneath the hatch to get access to the stopcocks. And because it was out for a week, I created a big backlog of stuff.
The other problem is that this year there seems to have been a real problem over shows that have been picked up for legal streaming. I try to be a good boy and only dl shows that haven’t been picked up by crunchyroll and AOD. However, this year a whole raft of stuff either wasn’t licensed at all or was licensed, but I was region locked out of.
A new service called Nico Nico started, which seemed to take several shows and I found the site basically unusable. But then quite a bit of stuff on crunchyroll was region locked and then there was this big announcement that most of it was going to be on AOD.
I’m not sure I buy into the conspiracy theories that it wasn’t picked up by crunchyroll for the UK because of AOD, but what was definitely true was that it was ages before AOD announced they had them and then literally months before they started appearing.
On top of that, AOD’s site has been crushingly slow, making it unusual and there’s still the problem that AOD's content can only be viewed full screen or in a tiny window, making it a much less practical site for me.
In other words, I seem to have reverted back to downloading just about everything.
And things seemed to be going so well :(
But it did mean that last month I was hammering the connection and I had to increase the bandwidth allowance.
What made this slightly more annoying was that when I tried to rest the payment direct debit thing, it wouldn’t let me set it to a sensible level. It had this weird thing of one page was recommending a sensible amount, but then when I went onto the page to change it, it insisted I couldn’t take it below a different “recommended” amount that was £10 more than the other recommended amount. I put the higher recommended amount in quotes, because if you it acts as a fixed minimum value, it’s not really a recommendation is it?
Still, I guess if a large credit build up because of this stupid flaw in the system, I’ll eventually be able to set it lower.
Friday, 28 August 2009
now that's quiet
Well I got my new power supply unit for my gaming PC and installed it.
I was a little afraid that perhaps it wasn't the PSU that was the problem, so I stood well back when I turned it on. But everything was okay, so the PSU was definitely the problem.
The only shock I had was the noise - this new PSU is virtually silent compared to the old PSU. I think it's a bit of double whammy - this new PSU is a quiet model, but also the old PSU was incredibly loud.
I'd always known my machine was loud - it sounded like a blooming Hoover! - but I'd never realised it was entirely because of the PSU. I've got one of those mega-powerful PCI-E graphics cards in it that's a got a big fan on it (it takes up two slots) and there's the CPU cooler and stuff so I'd assumed all of that was making a large contribution.
Turns out not at all - with the new PSU in and the covers on, it's almost silent :/.
Of course, having regained my PC, guess what I did? Yup, played Anno 1404.
I could have used this as an excellent opportunity to watch some DVDs or do some scanning, but unfortunately, I'm now realising, because I bought as you do (Richard Hammond's book I mentioned earlier in the week) I've been reading that pretty intensely instead.
Ah well - at least this weekend is a bank holiday so at this stage I can con myself into thinking that I'll be utilising the bonus time to do something I should do, like scanning or watching DVDs. I'm sure the reality will be a great big pile of Anno.
I don't think I discussed it on here, but my landlord inquire about me getting cable and basically, virgin said they won't allow two separate accounts at the same address. This seemed very bizarre to me - I mean, what difference does it make how many accounts you have at the same address? Surely it just means they're turning away perfectly good business?
So having go this bad news my landlord came up with the idea of running a cable from his router to my place. I dunno what's happened with this, though, as I've not seen him to ask. I don't like to be pushy with it, because he's basically offering to give it to me for free.
I must admit to also being slightly worried about the practicalities - I'm an extremely high bandwidth user and I wouldn't want to push him over any sort of fair use quota.
In the meantime I've been investigating different broad band deals and phone lines and stuff.
I pay a lot for my broadband, I've always known that. The thing is though, it seems to be you get what you pay for.
Where I am, distance from the exchange wise and line quality wise, I get about 1.5 meg tops. This is pretty much as I'm expecting and all I will ever get, so deals going on about 24 megs and even 8 megs are just no-goers. I will never achieve those sorts of speeds (cable not withstanding).
But also, the line I'm currently on is a business line. This means it has a low contention (25:1 or 30:1 I believe). My experience is that this makes a lot more difference to your speed than anything else.
All non-business broadband I've seen has had contention of 50:1 - so a heck of a lot worse, meaning the speed would be a lot lower during peak times. Peak times are during the day and evening, when I'm either using P2P or doing my general surfing.
Also, as mentioned, I'm a very high bandwidth user. I have a facility for checking how much I've used each month and I've never checked it and seen my monthly usage bellow 100gigs.
That's a lot of bandwidth and the vast majority of ISP's "fair use" policies would be triggered. Indeed, many have stated monthly caps that are way below 100gig.
Basically then, non-business accounts are out.
So what about other business accounts? Well, the ones I can find are essentially either identical to my other account, or, again, they don't offer quite as good a service.
The basic point then is that while I could get broadband a heck of a lot cheaper, I can't get broadband that meets my needs any cheaper.
Unless I get access to cable via John. I may see if I can get hold of him this weekend and see if he's still keen on the idea.
If I could do that I'd be very tempted to dump my landline entirely. I virtually only have it for broadband - certainly I could cope with all my calls being via my mobile phone.
And speaking of phones I may have mentioned my bill had suddenly shot up - it went from £11 a month to £19 a month: nearly double. So I was looking at non-BT deals, but while I was doing so I was also checking the BT site and everything on the site seemed to be saying that although line rental had gone up, it was only by about £1.
I therefore gave them a call and what it seems has happened is that my direct debit for £11 wasn't quite enough to cover the cost of the line. Therefore, some automatic system kicked in and decided that £19 was the value for it be.
This is utterly ridiculous - across 5 years of having the line (so 5 * 12 monthly payment), the entire total of the deficit was £20. And in the space of 4 months paying at £19 I've therefore built up about £16 of credit on the account.
So the woman re-ran the software and it came up with the much more reasonable £12 monthly charge and she also said I can claim back the over-payment, apparently.
Bizarre.
I was a little afraid that perhaps it wasn't the PSU that was the problem, so I stood well back when I turned it on. But everything was okay, so the PSU was definitely the problem.
The only shock I had was the noise - this new PSU is virtually silent compared to the old PSU. I think it's a bit of double whammy - this new PSU is a quiet model, but also the old PSU was incredibly loud.
I'd always known my machine was loud - it sounded like a blooming Hoover! - but I'd never realised it was entirely because of the PSU. I've got one of those mega-powerful PCI-E graphics cards in it that's a got a big fan on it (it takes up two slots) and there's the CPU cooler and stuff so I'd assumed all of that was making a large contribution.
Turns out not at all - with the new PSU in and the covers on, it's almost silent :/.
Of course, having regained my PC, guess what I did? Yup, played Anno 1404.
I could have used this as an excellent opportunity to watch some DVDs or do some scanning, but unfortunately, I'm now realising, because I bought as you do (Richard Hammond's book I mentioned earlier in the week) I've been reading that pretty intensely instead.
Ah well - at least this weekend is a bank holiday so at this stage I can con myself into thinking that I'll be utilising the bonus time to do something I should do, like scanning or watching DVDs. I'm sure the reality will be a great big pile of Anno.
I don't think I discussed it on here, but my landlord inquire about me getting cable and basically, virgin said they won't allow two separate accounts at the same address. This seemed very bizarre to me - I mean, what difference does it make how many accounts you have at the same address? Surely it just means they're turning away perfectly good business?
So having go this bad news my landlord came up with the idea of running a cable from his router to my place. I dunno what's happened with this, though, as I've not seen him to ask. I don't like to be pushy with it, because he's basically offering to give it to me for free.
I must admit to also being slightly worried about the practicalities - I'm an extremely high bandwidth user and I wouldn't want to push him over any sort of fair use quota.
In the meantime I've been investigating different broad band deals and phone lines and stuff.
I pay a lot for my broadband, I've always known that. The thing is though, it seems to be you get what you pay for.
Where I am, distance from the exchange wise and line quality wise, I get about 1.5 meg tops. This is pretty much as I'm expecting and all I will ever get, so deals going on about 24 megs and even 8 megs are just no-goers. I will never achieve those sorts of speeds (cable not withstanding).
But also, the line I'm currently on is a business line. This means it has a low contention (25:1 or 30:1 I believe). My experience is that this makes a lot more difference to your speed than anything else.
All non-business broadband I've seen has had contention of 50:1 - so a heck of a lot worse, meaning the speed would be a lot lower during peak times. Peak times are during the day and evening, when I'm either using P2P or doing my general surfing.
Also, as mentioned, I'm a very high bandwidth user. I have a facility for checking how much I've used each month and I've never checked it and seen my monthly usage bellow 100gigs.
That's a lot of bandwidth and the vast majority of ISP's "fair use" policies would be triggered. Indeed, many have stated monthly caps that are way below 100gig.
Basically then, non-business accounts are out.
So what about other business accounts? Well, the ones I can find are essentially either identical to my other account, or, again, they don't offer quite as good a service.
The basic point then is that while I could get broadband a heck of a lot cheaper, I can't get broadband that meets my needs any cheaper.
Unless I get access to cable via John. I may see if I can get hold of him this weekend and see if he's still keen on the idea.
If I could do that I'd be very tempted to dump my landline entirely. I virtually only have it for broadband - certainly I could cope with all my calls being via my mobile phone.
And speaking of phones I may have mentioned my bill had suddenly shot up - it went from £11 a month to £19 a month: nearly double. So I was looking at non-BT deals, but while I was doing so I was also checking the BT site and everything on the site seemed to be saying that although line rental had gone up, it was only by about £1.
I therefore gave them a call and what it seems has happened is that my direct debit for £11 wasn't quite enough to cover the cost of the line. Therefore, some automatic system kicked in and decided that £19 was the value for it be.
This is utterly ridiculous - across 5 years of having the line (so 5 * 12 monthly payment), the entire total of the deficit was £20. And in the space of 4 months paying at £19 I've therefore built up about £16 of credit on the account.
So the woman re-ran the software and it came up with the much more reasonable £12 monthly charge and she also said I can claim back the over-payment, apparently.
Bizarre.
Thursday, 20 November 2008
bloody BT
BT phoned me last night.
Bizarrely, and I have no fucking clue what's going on, they claim that my "calls are not 'with' BT".
They've phoned me with this claim before, and it's always gone the same way:
Them: "Your calls are not with BT"
Me: "Yes they are."
They then assert that they aren't and I start to get very fucking annoyed. Yes, they are with BT, I just don't use my landline very much. Some automated system has decided that means my calls are not "with" BT.
I don't even know what it mean - who the fuck else would they be with? BT certainly send me a bill every quarter and, if I've made any call, they charge me for them, SO WHO THE FUCK ELSE HAS MY CALLS THEN, DIPSHITS?
What winds me up even more is that they, having made this asserion because the system is telling them my calls aren't with BT and me having denied it, told them no-one else has my calls, said I've never "transferred" my calls, and don't have SKY or any other call thing (well, I've got a mobile and I basically only use that to make calls), they then go on to say that they can check the system to see if my calls are still with BT.
I mean, seriously: What?
How can the system tell them my calls aren't 'with' BT and then they can check the system to see if they are? Excuse me while I spot the total fucking inconsistency.
As you can probably tell this wound me up no end. I was fuming for ages last night and I'm still annoyed about it now.
My guess is that if I let them proceed it will turn into a telesales thing and they'll try to sell me shit I don't need, but by the time we get anywhere near that point I'm already shouting at them and i just hang up.
Bizarrely, and I have no fucking clue what's going on, they claim that my "calls are not 'with' BT".
They've phoned me with this claim before, and it's always gone the same way:
Them: "Your calls are not with BT"
Me: "Yes they are."
They then assert that they aren't and I start to get very fucking annoyed. Yes, they are with BT, I just don't use my landline very much. Some automated system has decided that means my calls are not "with" BT.
I don't even know what it mean - who the fuck else would they be with? BT certainly send me a bill every quarter and, if I've made any call, they charge me for them, SO WHO THE FUCK ELSE HAS MY CALLS THEN, DIPSHITS?
What winds me up even more is that they, having made this asserion because the system is telling them my calls aren't with BT and me having denied it, told them no-one else has my calls, said I've never "transferred" my calls, and don't have SKY or any other call thing (well, I've got a mobile and I basically only use that to make calls), they then go on to say that they can check the system to see if my calls are still with BT.
I mean, seriously: What?
How can the system tell them my calls aren't 'with' BT and then they can check the system to see if they are? Excuse me while I spot the total fucking inconsistency.
As you can probably tell this wound me up no end. I was fuming for ages last night and I'm still annoyed about it now.
My guess is that if I let them proceed it will turn into a telesales thing and they'll try to sell me shit I don't need, but by the time we get anywhere near that point I'm already shouting at them and i just hang up.
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