Vodafone TV Questions

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nzpaul

72 posts

Master Geek

#151590 29-Aug-2014 20:24

My Freeview PVR is dying and I was about to buy a $500 Panasonic PVR but I was on Vodafone's website upgrading my Cable(Christchurch) plan to Unlimited (the 130mb/s unlimited plan) and saw the Vodafone TV system and it looks like it may be a good fit for me. But I have a few questions I have not been able to answer from Google (and Geekzone google search).

1. How does the picture quality compare with DVB-T Freeview?

2. Does it store shows on the Vodafone TV box itself, and if so how large is the harddrive? If not, how much storage do you get in the cloud?

3. Can you fast forward through ads like a normal PVR?

4. How does it compare in general with a $350 Dish-style basic freeview PVR?

5. Am I correct in understand it would only cost me $100 to install, and no monthly fees? Seems to good to be true...

6. My TV is not in the same room as my cable modem. Is this going to be a problem? I do have 802.11n wifi.

7. If family members are watching TV, will it interfere with my upload/download/gaming ?

Thanks for your help.

konfusd

213 posts

Master Geek

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#1118221 29-Aug-2014 20:45

1. The picture quality is the same as Freeview|HD as it uses the same broadcast stream from the individual broadcasters.

2. Shows are stored on the inbuilt HDD, iirc it is 300GB

3. Yep fast forwarding is no problem :)

4. Sorry can't comment on this one, I've never used any other PVR!

5. Yep no ongoing fees as long as you're on Unlimited ($15/month if you're on 80GB), unless you want a 2nd box which is $25/month.

6. Not 100% sure of how it works on Cable (I'm on Fibre but the box is the same) but would guess it takes either a Cable or Ethernet connection from the cable modem. It will need to be hard wired.

7. On fibre the TV streams are totally seperate to the broadband connection, I would assume it's the same on cable

I volunteer my time on here, and all opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

jjnz1

1363 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1118250 29-Aug-2014 21:18

Not sure about other PVRs, however it is far interior to the MySky unit. I have VF TV and I am not happy, to the point where I am seriously considering returning the unit - even though they give it to me for free.

Slowness - so annoying! My 2011 Samsung Tv responds faster, MySky blows this thing out of the water

Recording - once you start recording you cant watch the show until it has finished. Like wise when you record a show, switch to that channel half way during the recording, you cant rewind past the point of the channel change.

Menu structure is too clunky - changing the colour scheme has not made it better, menu structure is not absolutely bad however does not much MySky for ease. Slowness adds more negative points to the already lacking menu.

Reboot - needs a reboot every 4 weeks otherwise certain SD channels start appearing like youtube on a slow connection - pixelated-ish...

My connection is 100mbps/50mbps, with the TV on and also downloading I can hit 120mbps down - so the TV is over and above the standard coonection speed rate.

Needs to be hardwired - wouldn't try wifi even if you could for reliability reasons.

No cloud PVR functions like Foxtel.

nzpaul

72 posts

Master Geek

#1118293 29-Aug-2014 22:46

Thanks for the answers. They were very helpful.

dcole13

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1118298 29-Aug-2014 22:58

For your question 7, as far as I know the channels are not transfered over TCP/IP but you might want to check with someone from Vodafone.

Home ADSL: School:

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1118300 29-Aug-2014 23:05

TV is delivered over Multicast channel

dcole13

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1118301 29-Aug-2014 23:11

johnr: TV is delivered over Multicast channel

I thought that multicast was only used on Fibre?

Home ADSL: School:

r2b2

586 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1118745 30-Aug-2014 20:24

jjnz1: Recording - once you start recording you cant watch the show until it has finished. Like wise when you record a show, switch to that channel half way during the recording, you cant rewind past the point of the channel change.

Not true (well at least not last time I checked a few weeks ago). All you need to do is go into the planner and select the "Recording" program and you can watch it whilst it records.

jjnz1: Reboot - needs a reboot every 4 weeks otherwise certain SD channels start appearing like youtube on a slow connection - pixelated-ish...

That's not normal - if I was you I'd get a technician out to potentially replace the unit as it sounds like its not functioning correctly. Since I got my new one (I had one of the original units), I haven't had (touch wood!) any reason to reboot it.

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Coil

6614 posts

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Inactive user

#1118748 30-Aug-2014 20:37

dcole13:
johnr: TV is delivered over Multicast channel

I thought that multicast was only used on Fibre?

Only on Fibre.
Delivered by Cable on Cable.

Sideface

9367 posts

Uber Geek

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#1118750 30-Aug-2014 20:42

Remember that there is a 12 month contract for cable, but a 24 month contract for Sky TV.

Sideface

MikeB4

18435 posts

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#1118761 30-Aug-2014 21:17

Sideface: Remember that there is a 12 month contract for cable, but a 24 month contract for Sky TV.

I have just signed onto VF TV with Sky option, the term is 12 months

NikT

1710 posts

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#1119668 1-Sep-2014 15:31

nzpaul:

6. My TV is not in the same room as my cable modem. Is this going to be a problem? I do have 802.11n wifi.

7. If family members are watching TV, will it interfere with my upload/download/gaming ?

When provided over cable, the Vodafone TV STB comes with a separate cable modem. This will get its own jackpoint installed, and it doesn't have to be near your existing cable modem jack (Depends on house layout/access to cable box on side of house).

Watching TV won't interfere with cable broadband as they're separate streams/channels, and the STB has its own modem.

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