Vodafone TV - How is it?

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leo0787sx

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#143702 24-Apr-2014 09:27

Hey guys :)

I've always been on Sky but really tempted to switch to Vodafone TV for the free HD, cable and the fact everything else is with them (Mobile and Internet).

It always put me off when Telstra had it and early Vodafone days due to the issues with picture and recording, is this still an issue or have things improved? I have no issues with Sky but Vodafone offers a better deal, just don't want any problems with it though.

Thanks.

corksta

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#1030454 24-Apr-2014 10:50

I just signed up with Vodafone TV a couple weeks back. Channels 1, 2, and 3 didn't work properly when connected to the Vodafone supplied HG659 router for some reason (pixellated images, dropped audio), but I've been told a fix should be released next week for this. Once I changed my set up so that I was using my own router connected directly to the ONT everything was working as it should be.

The EPG is much nicer than Sky's and is in HD (best way to describe it) compared to Sky's blurry mess. It works pretty much the exact same way, as does the remote.

I've found that when setting up a series link for recording a show it'll actually record all instances of that show. As an example I record Fair Go, but apparently it's also on TV 1 on Sunday afternoons so it records that too before recording the following week's show again. Sky didn't do that.

If I had to guess I'd say the quality of the SD programming is marginally better than Sky's. Even though the source is the same I've read that the Sky signal is further compressed in order to deliver it over satellite, whereas Vodafone stream it directly from the source exactly as they receive it, so the quality should be a bit better regardless. We have a Panasonic 65" TV and pretty much any SD programming looks terrible anyway, I'd imagine smaller TVs might display a less pixellated image.

I think there's a lot of potential for Vodafone's TV box. Essentially right now there is no difference betwen what they offer and what Sky offers, other than pricing. It'd be nice to see Vodafone offer more HD channels, or at least offer things like Discovery, Nat Geo, etc, in HD to have that point of difference compared to Sky.

r2b2

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#1030525 24-Apr-2014 11:57

corksta: I just signed up with Vodafone TV a couple weeks back. Channels 1, 2, and 3 didn't work properly when connected to the Vodafone supplied HG659 router for some reason (pixellated images, dropped audio), but I've been told a fix should be released next week for this. Once I changed my set up so that I was using my own router connected directly to the ONT everything was working as it should be.

The EPG is much nicer than Sky's and is in HD (best way to describe it) compared to Sky's blurry mess. It works pretty much the exact same way, as does the remote.

I've found that when setting up a series link for recording a show it'll actually record all instances of that show. As an example I record Fair Go, but apparently it's also on TV 1 on Sunday afternoons so it records that too before recording the following week's show again. Sky didn't do that.

If I had to guess I'd say the quality of the SD programming is marginally better than Sky's. Even though the source is the same I've read that the Sky signal is further compressed in order to deliver it over satellite, whereas Vodafone stream it directly from the source exactly as they receive it, so the quality should be a bit better regardless. We have a Panasonic 65" TV and pretty much any SD programming looks terrible anyway, I'd imagine smaller TVs might display a less pixellated image.

I think there's a lot of potential for Vodafone's TV box. Essentially right now there is no difference betwen what they offer and what Sky offers, other than pricing. It'd be nice to see Vodafone offer more HD channels, or at least offer things like Discovery, Nat Geo, etc, in HD to have that point of difference compared to Sky.

Sounds like you have Vodafone on Fibre? Its delivered differently via Cable so would be interesting to know if all your points apply the same (apart from your first issues which wouldn't exist on Cable of course :) )

SteveON

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#1030548 24-Apr-2014 12:44

If it's the same box TCL had, it's leggy and slow. The box also turns it's self off randomly and audio doesn't always sync. But that's only on the model we had from TCL.

corksta

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#1030699 24-Apr-2014 16:24

My connection is through Vodafone's UFB service.

I would say the box is slower than Sky's, but not frustratingly so (and I'm a huge hater of anything that lags). It definitely could be faster though. I haven't experienced the issues that SteveON has had, maybe firmware updates since the TCL days have resolved this.