Switching from My Sky HDi to Vodafone TV (HD) on UFB

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Switching from My Sky HDi to Vodafone TV (HD) on UFB - experiences, recommendations?

jakenz

52 posts

Master Geek

#138715 14-Jan-2014 15:46

I'm an existing My Sky HDi subscriber who also has a Telstraclear (Vodafone) cable connection.

Thinking of moving to one of the new Vodafone UFB (over cable) + Vodafone TV bundles/deals.

I'd be interested in the experiences of folk who've already made a similar switch. How does the user experience and overall package of Vodafone TV compare to My Sky HDi? For e.g.:

storage capacity of Voda TV recorder is stated as 300GB, does it fill up any faster than Sky HDi? Any option to bump it up as with My Sky+?
picture quality - any noticeable difference in level of compression over UFB vs satellite? (yes I'm aware from reading other threads the HD/SD channel designations are the same on both, so comparing say Sky Sport 1 HD on both is there any difference?)
can you still sign-up for and use the Sky Go service on an iPad for instance?
and how about the Sky android/iphone apps that 'talk' to the Sky HDi unit to allow remote recording - do they work with the VF TV box too? If not, is there any VF TV equivalent?
user interface - understand VF TV is higher res, but how's the speed? (saw one user posting it was a bit slower)

Cheers

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Geekzone

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#966903 14-Jan-2014 15:46

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

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- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

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- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

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I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#966984 14-Jan-2014 17:18

storage capacity of Voda TV recorder is stated as 300GB, does it fill up any faster than Sky HDi? Any option to bump it up as with My Sky+?

300GB - One decoder - Depends on what your recording at what quality.

picture quality - any noticeable difference in level of compression over UFB vs satellite? (yes I'm aware from reading other threads the HD/SD channel designations are the same on both, so comparing say Sky Sport 1 HD on both is there any difference?)

Non compressed - Full HD where is avaliable

can you still sign-up for and use the Sky Go service on an iPad for instance?

Nope

and how about the Sky android/iphone apps that 'talk' to the Sky HDi unit to allow remote recording - do they work with the VF TV box too? If not, is there any VF TV equivalent?

Not sure.

user interface - understand VF TV is higher res, but how's the speed? (saw one user posting it was a bit slower)

Not much different. Different UI that is more visually rich.

rokki

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

#967069 14-Jan-2014 20:04

TimA:

storage capacity of Voda TV recorder is stated as 300GB, does it fill up any faster than Sky HDi? Any option to bump it up as with My Sky+?

300GB - One decoder - Depends on what your recording at what quality.

picture quality - any noticeable difference in level of compression over UFB vs satellite? (yes I'm aware from reading other threads the HD/SD channel designations are the same on both, so comparing say Sky Sport 1 HD on both is there any difference?)

Non compressed - Full HD where is avaliable

Picture quality seems much better all round. Particularly the HD stuff really quite stunning.

can you still sign-up for and use the Sky Go service on an iPad for instance?

I was working initially after I swapped over now I get a stream concurrency error all the time so probably not.

Nope

and how about the Sky android/iphone apps that 'talk' to the Sky HDi unit to allow remote recording - do they work with the VF TV box too? If not, is there any VF TV equivalent?

Not sure.

No they no longer work.

user interface - understand VF TV is higher res, but how's the speed? (saw one user posting it was a bit slower)

Not much different. Different UI that is more visually rich.

My gear 55" Samsung 4K SUHD LCD HDR , Denon AVR-4200W Reciever in 7.1.2 Surround , Denon 2 Channel Amp to power ceiling speakers , Combination of Polk Audio Fronts And Tannoy Surrounds plus 2 Cambridge Audio Ceiling Speakers Pioneer Downfiring Subwoofer , Oppo UDP-203 UHD Player , Roku Ultra , Apple TV 3

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#967673 15-Jan-2014 17:05

I am very interested in this as well, will be moving from Auckland to Wellington next week and moving to Vodafone TV from having my sky+ for the past few years.

jakenz

52 posts

Master Geek

#968408 16-Jan-2014 18:17

Thanks for the feedback. This site's formatting of the response posts makes them hard to follow, so to summarise (incl info since confirmed by Vodafone) re the Vodafone TV service over UFB (fibre or cable):

Picture quality - per Rokki "Picture quality seems much better all round. Particularly the HD stuff really quite stunning. " That is great news. Certainly what I would have hoped for - in theory lower per unit cost of bandwidth over cable vs satellite ought to mean less motivation for cable/UFB TV providers to agressively compress video streams - particularly HD streams - to save costs. Very cool to hear that seems to actually be the case. If so they ought to market this as a point of difference, though suspect this might breach whatever agreement they have with Sky for content...
None of the bonus Sky services work with the VF box/TV service (VF have confirmed this also) - i.e. neither remote record via Sky's website or iphone/android nor the Sky Go service will work.
VF TV recorder speed - 2-3 second delay when changing channels (this per VF helpdesk) - I'm guessing its to do with the fact the new channel's video stream has to be requested, sent, received and buffered over cable while with Satellite its just switching across to an existing feed just on a different frequency.
VF TV recorder interface - higher resolution & richer than My Sky HDi/plus
Just the one version - 300GB

For what is worth in my situation - I'm looking at an 80GB UFB 50Mb/s plan with Sky + sports on VF TV and as I have an eligible VF on account mobile plan ($30 discount) - it basically works out $30 less than what I'm currently paying in total for the same Sky package on HDi and a 60GB 15mb/s legacy T/clear cable plan. So it makes sense financially (if you can live with the missing Sky extras and the 300GB storage - I think I can). Not quite so compelling if the $30 VF mobile plan discount wasn't available.

r2b2

586 posts

Ultimate Geek

#969165 17-Jan-2014 22:27

TimA: can you still sign-up for and use the Sky Go service on an iPad for instance?
Nope

That doesn't appear to be fully true. I signed up with my Telstra account number when it was iSky and my login still seems to work (and pick up that I now have movies where I didn't before). There's also a Link to your Telstra TV account link on the account settings page.

Although having said that I'm not having much luck actually playing anything - the little "wheel" just keeps spinning and spinning when I play (on Chrome/Linux).

rokki

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

#969219 18-Jan-2014 05:38

Well I just turned off my Wifi and through my sure signal Sky Go does still work it just doesn't seem to like my DNS setting through unblock us hmmm might see if I can raise a support ticket with them.

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Quinny

889 posts

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#969986 20-Jan-2014 13:09

Using SkyGo just fine with TCl login.

rokki

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

#970346 20-Jan-2014 22:31

Hi Quinny are you running any DNS type service ?

Quinny

889 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#973488 24-Jan-2014 13:03

Nope. Just the standard TCL 44 and 46. Works fine on ipad mini (which uses NZ store). Sorry for slow reply.

kharris

1209 posts

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#976066 28-Jan-2014 17:22

r2b2:
TimA: can you still sign-up for and use the Sky Go service on an iPad for instance?
Nope

That doesn't appear to be fully true. I signed up with my Telstra account number when it was iSky and my login still seems to work (and pick up that I now have movies where I didn't before). There's also a Link to your Telstra TV account link on the account settings page.

Although having said that I'm not having much luck actually playing anything - the little "wheel" just keeps spinning and spinning when I play (on Chrome/Linux).

I use Sky Go on my iPhone. I find when I am using mobile data or my home network it streams fine. Through the work proxy it does not... however I am not surprised.

lctham

59 posts

Master Geek

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#976453 29-Jan-2014 09:23

Hi,

Im also considering switching over to Vodafone TV (over UFB) for the cost savings,

Just a couple of questions too,

Will Vodafone eventually make an app so you can remote record? Or at least enable you to do it over the web?

I have a universal remote already programmed to my myski box, will the vodafone box use the same remote codes?

Lastly, can you get the Vodafone guys to split the signal so that all rooms in the house can receive the same sky channel?

Cheers in advance,

Quinny

889 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#976456 29-Jan-2014 09:26

Yes you can rf back feed (I do atm). App - dont hold your breath been asking for years and nada. I would expect codes will change for remotes but the voda/TCL one is programmable so it can run tv, box and 3rd device which is nice.

lctham

59 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#976465 29-Jan-2014 09:39

cheers mate,

when you say for years, didnt this Vodafone TV just get launched a few months ago?

Anyway, I think I can live without for now given the savings you'll get,

Quinny

889 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#976467 29-Jan-2014 09:41

Its the TCL TBox that was used with TCl cable by another name as far as I know. Insides delivery might be different but the software interface looks identical to what cable people are using.

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