Thinking of going back to TCL/VF broadband but they want to replace my cable box with a T-Box which I don't

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Thinking of going back to TCL/VF broadband but they want to replace my cable box with a T-Box which I don't

lchiu7

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#136217 19-Nov-2013 13:27

I was TCL customer for nearly 8 years but jumped ship to Telecom for ADSL and then VDSL but kept cable TV on the existing box.

This works well for me. I record Freeview OTA using a DVB-T tuner card and the occasional other channel (Food TV, Discovery, UKTV) using GBPVR and a IR Blaster that changes channel on the cable box and I record using a Hauppauge PVR card.

I was thinking of heading back to cable Internet but I am told I would have to give up my cable box and get a T-Box.

The T-Box can theoretically do what I am doing now but of course the history of the T-Box technical issues are well known and the platform is closed, - you cannot watch content recorded on any other device. For example I regularly watch the stuff I have recorded from the digital STB on my GBPVR PC via a share using Popcorn Hours or even just VLC on a PC on the network or from my phone.

Clearly once the content is on the T-Box drive, the only way to watch it is from that unit.

So it looks like I will have to tradeoff not having faster Internet but more freedom with my recorded content to faster Internet but having a closed DVR platform unless others have some ideas I hadn't considered.

Thanks

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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#937296 19-Nov-2013 13:37

That seems a bit odd - I take it you're an existing customer for phoneline as well as digital TV (As cable TV is not sold on its own)?

You should be able to retain your existing products just fine if all you want to do is add cable broadband - the issue may be around the recently released packages, which will require a T-Box as they're provisioned a bit differently. I can get someone from the sales team in touch if you like, just flick me a PM.

Cheers,

Product Manager @ PB Tech

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lchiu7

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#937298 19-Nov-2013 13:50

Thanks. PM sent

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

lchiu7

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#937365 19-Nov-2013 15:37

Looks like I am staying with Telecom.

Thanks to Nik a VF CSR called me up. I can keep my box if I go back to cable but it's on the old "stack" so I would be limited to 150GB which is the reason why I left.

If I want 250GB then I need to move to the new stack and replace the digital box with a T-Box. And I have to return the old STB. I can't keep it since it shows up as an asset in the system.

Seems like a very arbitrary policy to me not driven by any technical requirements.

Did existing customers with regular STB's who wanted to go to the new plans have to ditch their STB's for a T-Box?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Talkiet

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#937376 19-Nov-2013 15:44

lchiu7: [snip]
Seems like a very arbitrary policy to me not driven by any technical requirements.
[snip]

I understand your frustration, but people need to understand that not all non technical policies are arbitrary. They can be driven by cost reasons, training issues, support complexity concerns, etc etc etc.

Just because Box A from supplier 123 supports Feature xyz, doesn't necessarily mean that Supplier 123 can offer feature xyz to Box A users in an efficient, supportable and profitable manner.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

lchiu7

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#937382 19-Nov-2013 15:52

I get all that. But what I don't understand it, the broadband speed is based on the modem and I did have a DOCSIS 3 modem.

So what is putting that back got to do with having or not having a T-Box?

It's not a technical issue in the technology sense but likely to be more of a customer care and billing issue built into their systems.

As an aside can a T-Box user tell me how their remote changes channel? Do you
- press the channel numbers
- press the channel numbers and then Enter
- have to scroll down the EPG to choose a channel to watch
- some other way

If it's either the first or second then I can probably emulate those IR codes with a blaster driven by the PVR software which is what I do now, otherwise it's impossible to change channels from a program.

And does the T-Box have have composite or s-video out which I could connect to my capture card.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

NikT

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#937405 19-Nov-2013 16:24

lchiu7: I get all that. But what I don't understand it, the broadband speed is based on the modem and I did have a DOCSIS 3 modem.

So what is putting that back got to do with having or not having a T-Box?

It's not a technical issue in the technology sense but likely to be more of a customer care and billing issue built into their systems.

Hi there,

You're right on that last point, but that makes it a technology issue anyway. :)

The issue is not with installing a cable modem, as we can certainly do that for you, and you can retain the existing services as-is - but as you specifically want the 250GB plan, which is a brand new product, we can't bundle that with the older Digital TV service. Digital TV is no longer sold, there is no more capacity to add channels, and it will eventually, presumably, be phased out. I do understand why you would like to keep your existing setup, but this is of course an unsupported (And, I believe, discouraged) configuration & use of the Digital TV service.

I've spoken with the sales teams to double-check this, and we do have a potential solution.

The new plans with 250GB can't be provisioned with the older set top box as the systems have been designed that way. If you would like to retain your Digital TV setup and get the new 250GB plan, we can technically, physically do it at the same property, just not on the same account. If you're okay with having a second account for 250GB only, that we can do - although it would not be eligible for the triple service discount of phoneline/TV/broadband, it would be eligible for the new on-account mobile discounts if you have an on-account mobile plan with Vodafone.

Options are:

- $119/month for 250GB at 50Mbps down, 2Mbps up
- $149/month for 250GB at 130Mbps down, 10Mbps up

Including discount with an on-account mobile:

- $89/month for 250GB at 50Mbps down, 2Mbps up
- $119/month for 250GB at 130Mbps down, 10Mbps up

If that's something you'd like to explore, I'm more than happy to get the sales folks to give you a bell back.

Cheers,

- Nik

Product Manager @ PB Tech

Smartphones @ PB Tech | Headphones @ PB Tech

lchiu7

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#937426 19-Nov-2013 16:58

NikT:

Including discount with an on-account mobile:

- $89/month for 250GB at 50Mbps down, 2Mbps up
- $119/month for 250GB at 130Mbps down, 10Mbps up

If that's something you'd like to explore, I'm more than happy to get the sales folks to give you a bell back.

Cheers,

- Nik

Interesting option. This part is a bit of a coincidence since I am at the same time negotiating to move my 2D cellphone to VF because I have just purchased a Nexus 5 and want LTE service :-)

That could be the way through but I would be interested in any T-Box customer telling me how the remote works (or I guess I walk into the VF store in Courtenay Place and try it out myself)

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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NikT

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#937439 19-Nov-2013 17:17

Good timing! I'll see if I can check out the remote functionality & ports for you tomorrow. :)

Product Manager @ PB Tech

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Kim587

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#937449 19-Nov-2013 17:39

On our T-Box you can just dial in the channel number and away you go, no need to press enter/ok
Of course you can select one through the EPG as well
It can be a bit of fun when you press '51' and the T-Box reads it ad '15' :-)

amanzi

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#937500 19-Nov-2013 19:57

The T-Box is pretty average. We've only had ours a couple weeks and have had issues with recordings cutting off the end, and several times have had the box freeze up which needed a reboot to fix it. I thought, after reading comments from VF staff on GZ, that the T-box had been greatly improved since Vodafone took over - I actually got the impression that it was an all new box, but this is obviously still the same old box that has been plagued with issues.

It's not all bad though, once you get used to the slow menus, the interface looks good and the quality of the picture is good too. Every time my wife complains about it, I just remind her that it's free with the internet connection so there's no point complaining about it. :-)

lchiu7

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#937561 19-Nov-2013 21:14

That's encouraging. The GBPVR software (now replaced by NPVR) has a feature if you use a USB-UIRT blaster/IR learner (which I use) you can learn the remotes of other STB's You just have to learn 0-9 and tell it if it needs an Enter after pressing digits. So if the T-Box responds to just pressing channel numbers, then the software should be able to learn the IR codes and change channels on demand as it does with the digital STB now.

Of course I have no way of checking unless I get a T-Box to try it out, and it doesn't have to be connected - just respond to IR commands.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Kim587

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#937571 19-Nov-2013 21:51

Our T-box certainly has composite outputs as well to answer that part of the question, although it does seem to like pumping out DRM protection which can be a pain in the neck.

Yabanize

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#937966 20-Nov-2013 15:43

If you just get a tbox and dont use the recording part it will function just like the box you have now..

We have one and dont have many problems with it,

Get the Tbox:)

Plus its High Def.

Your current box doesnt even have recording? Not sure what you're complaining about, If you want to record with your HTPC you can still use the composite or component outs

The normal box is just as bad or worse in my opinion

lchiu7

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#937982 20-Nov-2013 16:17

The issue I was considering was, can gbpvr learn the IR codes of the T-Box and then blast them to change channel when a recording takes place. The new product NPVR has no feature which is why I have held off upgradig.

And learning codes is no good if the GUI for the T-Box requires scrolling around the EPG to choose channels. But somebody has pointed out it also responds to numbers so it might be okay.

Don't care about HD since I record all HD (Freeview) via gbpvr and a DVB-T card which provides content that is watchable anywhere. And there are no HD Sky channels I subscribe to (Sports, Movies etc.)

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

lchiu7

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#937983 20-Nov-2013 16:17

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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