I'm giving serious consideration to Tiscali TV, despite reports of some
appalling experiences.

As background, I'm only interested in TV streamed over my ADSL connection -
I'm treating conventional DTV reception as if it isn't possible at all.

I've had a butchers at the status reported by my Billion 7560 and the stats
break down as follows:


Connect Mode            ADSL
Modulation              Multimode
Profile Type            MAIN
Activate Line           true
Coding Gain             auto
Tx Attenuation          Dmt_0DB

DSP Firmware Version    E.67.5.33
Connected               true
Operational Mode        G.Dmt
Annex Type              AnnexA
Upstream                448000
Downstream              4192000
CO Vendor               BCLA
Elapsed Time            18 day 10 hr 53 min 45 sec


Which I guess means I get ~0.5Mb upload and ~4Mb download speeds in theory
(although my current ISP caps at 2Mb).

SamKnows reckons I should be able to get 4Mb+ or greater and my BT ADSL code
is "GEGEGEC".


Which is a roundabout way of saying, does that look like a reasonable setup
to support Tiscali TV, a standard telephone and a VOIP phone?

Does anyone have any observations on Tiscali TV in general? I'm really only
particularly interested in the BBCs TV and Radio output - everything else
is a bonus.

Anyone have an email address at Tiscali I could fire this lot off to? I
tried the site but ended up going round in FAQing circles.

> Which is a roundabout way of saying, does that look like a reasonable setup
> to support Tiscali TV, a standard telephone and a VOIP phone?

I am not using Tiscali TV and dont know anyone that is. a 2mbps
download speed I would assume would be needed for TV at least, for it
to run smooth and it may not be the best quality.
One problem that I would see it the upstream speed. If you were
streaming at 2mbps then you would use quite a bit of that upstream and
if you tried using voip with that you would really suffer, with
crackling and cut ups in sound.
On top of that there is a problem of used bandwidth, when you try and
use the internet the slow speeds. Not to mention you loose TV when
your ADSL has problems.
The finish it all off, Tiscali is really a crap company.

Sean Inglis wrote:
> I'm giving serious consideration to Tiscali TV, despite reports of some
> appalling experiences.

Don't. Tiscali only operate to collect subscriptions collecting 
customers through ISP takeovers. They offer the minimum of service they 
can get away with. You will have problems ....

> Anyone have an email address at Tiscali I could fire this lot off to? I
> tried the site but ended up going round in FAQing circles.

.. and this should be a clue to their customer service.

What's wrong with Freeview or Freesat for TV?

-- 
Adrian C

Adrian C wrote:

> Sean Inglis wrote:
>> I'm giving serious consideration to Tiscali TV, despite reports of some
>> appalling experiences.
> 
> Don't. Tiscali only operate to collect subscriptions collecting
> customers through ISP takeovers. They offer the minimum of service they
> can get away with. You will have problems ....
> 
>> Anyone have an email address at Tiscali I could fire this lot off to? I
>> tried the site but ended up going round in FAQing circles.
> 
> .. and this should be a clue to their customer service.
> 
> What's wrong with Freeview or Freesat for TV?
> 

Nothing when they are available. DAB and DTV reception are fragile, and
satellite reception is similarly problematic - signal whatsoever this time
of year, and nowhere easily accessible on my property to remedy that
situation.

> > What's wrong with Freeview or Freesat for TV?
>
> Nothing when they are available. DAB and DTV reception are fragile, and
> satellite reception is similarly problematic - signal whatsoever this time
> of year, and nowhere easily accessible on my property to remedy that
> situation.

I am assuming that you do not have a cable operator in your area. I
would check Freesat out though its quite recent and it may be able to
give you a service, and it is aimed at trying to fill the gap the
freeview has left, here is the link:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/

On 23 May, 09:47, naza  wrote:
> > > What's wrong with Freeview or Freesat for TV?
>
> > Nothing when they are available. DAB and DTV reception are fragile, and
> > satellite reception is similarly problematic - signal whatsoever this time
> > of year, and nowhere easily accessible on my property to remedy that
> > situation.
>
> I am assuming that you do not have a cable operator in your area. I
> would check Freesat out though its quite recent and it may be able to
> give you a service, and it is aimed at trying to fill the gap the
> freeview has left, here is the link:http://www.freesat.co.uk/


Good grief no. We have no mains water or sewerage, and we're oil-fired
- cable is a distant dream - but thanks for the suggestion, you never
know.

The problem is that there are *enormous* well established trees slap-
bang in the line of sight everywhere we could get satellite reception.
There's one spot at the bottom of the garden where this isn't the case
but this would involve a patio mount (no problem) and running a trench
up the garden and over 4 / 5 meters of concrete which is far more
problematic.

I've thought about just buying a WII and the related software so we
can use the BBC iPlayer on our TV - might still go down that route.

> The problem is that there are *enormous* well established trees slap-
> bang in the line of sight everywhere we could get satellite reception.
> There's one spot at the bottom of the garden where this isn't the case
> but this would involve a patio mount (no problem) and running a trench
> up the garden and over 4 / 5 meters of concrete which is far more
> problematic.

Are the tree's your's so to speek or are they the council
responsibility?
If the are the councils you could have them trimmed so that you could
get some reception. However they may well take a while and they need a
lot of boot before they actually do something.

Sounds like the tree's are the root cause of all your TV problems,
radio waves get through a lot of stuff but they are not very good with
penetrating water.

Using a Wii with your TV and the BBC iplayer may well work, but you
lack some variety, like some of the matches that are broadcast on ITV.
Better option maybe to get a PC and hook that up to your TV with a
SVHS cable and get a Home Entertainment PC setup.

I would seriously still work on trying to get it through the air. The
internet is not really the most developed platform yet for TV.
Where there's a will, there's a way

On 23 May, 14:27, naza  wrote:
> > The problem is that there are *enormous* well established trees slap-
> > bang in the line of sight everywhere we could get satellite reception.
> > There's one spot at the bottom of the garden where this isn't the case
> > but this would involve a patio mount (no problem) and running a trench
> > up the garden and over 4 / 5 meters of concrete which is far more
> > problematic.
>
> Are the tree's your's so to speek or are they the council
> responsibility?
> If the are the councils you could have them trimmed so that you could
> get some reception. However they may well take a while and they need a
> lot of boot before they actually do something.
>
> Sounds like the tree's are the root cause of all your TV problems,
> radio waves get through a lot of stuff but they are not very good with
> penetrating water.
>

To be honest, they are magnificent and I'd rather sacrifice my
reception.

> Using a Wii with your TV and the BBC iplayer may well work, but you
> lack some variety, like some of the matches that are broadcast on ITV.
> Better option maybe to get a PC and hook that up to your TV with a
> SVHS cable and get a Home Entertainment PC setup.

Load of tech. in the house to allow this, but it doesn't really pass
the Wife test. Not concerned about footy.

>
> I would seriously still work on trying to get it through the air. The
> internet is not really the most developed platform yet for TV.
> Where there's a will, there's a way

I may get one from somewhere with a civilised returns policy and see
what gives.

seani wrote:

> The problem is that there are *enormous* well established trees slap-
> bang in the line of sight everywhere we could get satellite reception.
> There's one spot at the bottom of the garden where this isn't the case
> but this would involve a patio mount (no problem) and running a trench
> up the garden and over 4 / 5 meters of concrete which is far more
> problematic.
> 
If there is electricity near to the bottom of the garden (nearby shed?), 
perhaps you could locate the satelite receiver over there and use a 
wireless TV sender to send signals to the house. Not the best of a 
picture but better than that down a phone line?

> I've thought about just buying a WII and the related software so we
> can use the BBC iPlayer on our TV - might still go down that route.

Not a good resolution picture, that route. Better on a PC.

Have a look at http://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/ if you wanna question 
how users are getting on with their TV service.

-- 
Adrian C

Sean Inglis wrote:

> I'm giving serious consideration to Tiscali TV, despite reports of some
> appalling experiences.
> 
> As background, I'm only interested in TV streamed over my ADSL connection
> - I'm treating conventional DTV reception as if it isn't possible at all.
> 
> I've had a butchers at the status reported by my Billion 7560 and the
> stats break down as follows:
> 
> 
> Connect Mode            ADSL
> Modulation              Multimode
> Profile Type            MAIN
> Activate Line           true
> Coding Gain             auto
> Tx Attenuation          Dmt_0DB
> 
> DSP Firmware Version    E.67.5.33
> Connected               true
> Operational Mode        G.Dmt
> Annex Type              AnnexA
> Upstream                448000
> Downstream              4192000
> CO Vendor               BCLA
> Elapsed Time            18 day 10 hr 53 min 45 sec
> 
> 
> Which I guess means I get ~0.5Mb upload and ~4Mb download speeds in theory
> (although my current ISP caps at 2Mb).
> 
> SamKnows reckons I should be able to get 4Mb+ or greater and my BT ADSL
> code is "GEGEGEC".
> 
> 
> Which is a roundabout way of saying, does that look like a reasonable
> setup to support Tiscali TV, a standard telephone and a VOIP phone?
> 
> Does anyone have any observations on Tiscali TV in general? I'm really
> only particularly interested in the BBCs TV and Radio output - everything
> else is a bonus.
> 
> Anyone have an email address at Tiscali I could fire this lot off to? I
> tried the site but ended up going round in FAQing circles.

Not supported on my exchange apparently. Coming "soon" of course for some
unquantifiable value of soon.

So that's that consideration out the window.