Top Up TV Anytime details

Details are slowing becoming available of TopUp TV Anytime.

It seems that the current subscription service will be reducing its output to make way for a new service. Top Up TV Anytime will cost an additional £2, there are some changes to the lineup, and the service needs a PVR (digital recorder) to capture programmes. The set-top box is being manufactured by Thomson (model DTI 6300-16), and it has a twin tuner plus 160gig hard-drive (for 120 hours of TV). Boxes will be available from October 2006, priced £180 to new customers or £100 to existing customers.

FrequencyCast will be sticking with this story and featuring it in the next show. You can find more details on this at www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptv.html

161 comments

  • Anonymous

    I received my TUTV box just before Christmas after a lengthy wait. I just wish I’d discovered this forum before signing up for 12 months. I managed to get through to TUTV on Saturday morning to complain about most of the problems already mentioned on this forum, only to speak to one very rude and condescending customer services advisor. I was told that Thomson are aware of the problems and will be rectified mid to end of February. I’m willing to wait until then and if there’s still no change to the service, I’m getting out, 12 months contract or not.

  • Matt Lawson

    As of today it would appear that Discovery Channel has been dropped from TopUp TV’s channel list. We called them this evening and simply got told it had been dropped and that it was not announced that it was going to happen.

  • Anonymous

    once again more missed recordings a freeze up i missed as i didnt have the tv on at the time meant it didnt record two programmes.

    also 3 hours of saved programmes gone without trace.

    even when i do manage to record stuff it jumps sometimes by a few seconds but in the past it has jumped upto 5 minetes and even rewinding has shown the missing section just isnt there.

    im on my second box they replaced the first one for the same reasons and this time ive been told to wait for yet another miraculous download at the end of febuary (yeah like the last 2 did anything).

    TUTV have commited a cardinal sin of buisiness they havent taken the power of the customer into account its not good when you appear on watchdog after just a few months of running a service. time to stop the BS and the fobbing off and sort out the problems dont you think TUTV

  • Anonymous

    V3 firmware due in next fortnight

    http://tinyurl.com/yuohxw

  • Stuart

    All the box and download problems will be sorted I am sure, what really worries me is the fact that the reason we joined Topuptv in the first place was the extra channels we had to choose from, we are left with just four now that Discovery has been taken off. UKTV Style is on for 3 hours a day which is a waste of time, British Eurosport – all the major sports are covered by Sky and terestial tv so that’s of little use. The only two channels worth watching are UKTV Gold and TCM. I wrote to Topuptv and they said there was no chance of them putting any channels back in the normal line up and that in the future they will be just doing the Anytime programmes. I pointed out that most people like to choose their channels and programmes but this cut no ice with them. I can see a time in 12 months or so when everyone has paid for their box that the view will be it’s not worth paying £9.99 a month for the two extra channels (worth watching) that they offer. Of course by then they could have got rid of those as well. They did say that if enough people contacted them they would listen to their views but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

  • marilyn

    My tutv is a nightmare, won’t go into the problems, much the same as everyone elses. However, I did find a solution to a very common problem, the one where the box freezes and disconnecting do not rectify, no matter how many times you press the damn remote control it refuses to respond….anyone familiar???, Yes, well I did the following and it solved the problem….Unplug at the mains socket, leave for one minute, once you reconnect go to front of box and take the card out and re-insert it then locate the on off button. Its just a small flat thingy on the front of the box… press it, you will then see the green light…problem solved, until the next time anyway!!

  • M Daniels

    I received a replacement box at last (waiting since December 06). The promised free Picture Box for one month is non existent. I have emailed topuptv to no effect (as usual). The box keeps seizing up for no reason and has to be rebooted every few minutes. I cannot get out of the contract as I signed up for 12 months via credit card. Any suggestions anybody?

  • Anonymous

    if the sevice your receiving from tutv isn’t the service you believe you are paying for it is a breach of contract and you are entitled to cancel your contract at any time,it doesn’t matter how long the contract is,if you paid by credit card your card company should be able to help you.if the product you have purchased is faulty you are entitled to a replacement (not a repair)or refund including subscription fees for services you can’t receive.use the sale of goods act and your customer statutory rights,if you don’t get what your paying for cancel and walk away i have and i dont miss it.when tutv started i went through several makes of stbox
    all with faults like freezing,picture loss,poor response to total failure,until i found the humax 9200pvr-fantastic and totally reliable shame tutv or tutva will no longer support it.the future doesn’t look very bright for tutv or tutva does it???????

  • Anonymous

    The Febuary 2007 software upgrade download is now delayed until early-mid march!

    Still suffering many problems!

  • M Daniels

    At last I have managed to cancel my contract. I emailed tutv stating I wished to cancel my contract, due to the DTR being “not fit for purpose”, return the DTR for a full refund and cancel the £9.99 charge to my credit card. Within 5 minutes of my email I received a telephone call confirming my account had been closed and promising a refund of £20 immediately, a label for return of the box and a further refund of £55 on receipt of the box. The label came within 3 days and the £20 has been credited to my card. No further payment has been charged either for March. I now await the £55 refund to close this matter. I must say I was surprised this was dealt with so quickly with their previous track record. Methinks the Watchdog programme did some good.

  • Anonymous

    HI EVERYONE DOES ANY ONE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THERE VOLUME BUTTON AND SUB TITTLE BOTTON MINE IS NOT WORKING AT ALL DOEAS ANY ONE NOW WOT SWAP MEANS PLEASE HELP IF YPU CAN THANK YPU

  • steve williams

    still having to reboot every morning. set box to record the wild west part3 and it said missed recording. to say i was totally pissed off is an understatement

  • Anonymous

    does anyone know when the new software download is due

  • brian

    Lots of problems can be caused by the antenna itself and the direction it’s pointing in.

    The tutv site has a recomendation of what signal strenght is accepted ( minimum is 5 )the site tells you how to get into the menu that will give you this information,mine is on the minimum but this does not explain the fact that a couple of films have just stopped showing just when it was getting interesting, I’m seriously thinking about going to SKY it has to be more reliable and you have the antenna set up by them? !!!!

  • topuptvgetitsorted

    I cannot believe that the posts on this site seem so calm and do not reflect that absolute frustration i have with this service. It has gone from a perfectly good cheap alternative to sky to a bunch of crap. I have not had a decent service yet and their customer contact centre is appalling. Every day i have a problem and the recording facility just does not work. When is this supposed all curing download which i have been told about. I am prepared to give them a chance yet again but my patience is wearing extremely thin

  • Pete

    An over-the-air patch is being sent out at the moment – started yesterday. This brings software to v2.44. See http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/blog/2007/03/anytime-box-patched-to-v244.html

  • Bill Warden

    After starting the Blog and kept watching with interest and certainly glad I did not take up TUTV’s fantastic option I wonder if the ANON who wrote the blog on 12:36 AM, September 21, 2006,now wishes his parents had advised him. Not many things change for the better when you pay for services and support.

  • Sailor

    Today I am so peeved off with TUTV I have been searching to see if any others have had the same problems with them. I was amazed to find this blog, and with reference to Watchdog also. Since receipt of the DTR, we have had nothing but problems. In the main, it has bee reception, and I am aware of this having worked in communications for most of my life. The main problem was the continuous lock outs from the DTG, the rebooting every day. the loss of planned recordings, and many other matters. With regards to the possible 100 hours of overnight recordings, one would be lucky to get 6 – 8 hours of rubbish. We orginally upgraded to the TUTV Anytime because of what they offered and the channels and programmes they were broadcasting. Such channels as The New Yankee Workshop to mention one. Something I have enjoyed. TUTV decide to get rid of Discovery Real Time. Another channel we like is UK Brightideas, for the Housing Hunting, Living Abroad, Cooking, Gardening. Lately all the planned recordings have not happened. Today I reboot the DTR and find that the Channels have reduced from 88 down to 71. I have emailed TUTV on this.

    Recently we had a big problem with reception. We always have from day one, but it got worse and worse. I purchased an aerial booster from Argos, even on full power it did not improve anything. Reception on Ch 5, Film 4, UK Brightideas, and a few others was unwatchable. I emailed TUTV again, to which they telephoned me. I explained the situation to the staff, explaining I had even tried an RF Loop, (that is removing the RF Block on the back of the DTR and replacing with a Coax Antenna Lead. This still did not make any difference. TUTV decided to send me an RF Loop cable to try this out. I duly did, but the same results.

    I have just emailed them to say I am no longer happy with the system and once I have found an alternative I will be cancelling my contract with them.

  • Anonymous

    hi top up tv anytime i bouth my box in febuary this year i have had many problems with it but now with this soft ware update we have just had v2.44 it has been working good no problems at all there is one thing throw will we be getting any new tv channels in our packige for no extra charge and when is our next soft ware update due many thanks r .t. duffy

  • david weaver, west calder

    Many of you will have received an email last week from “Claire” at TUTV (but actually from Roger Matthews, Sales & Marketing Director) saying how they were intending to “improve” the programme content, having listened to all our feedback. The main “bombshell” in this latest communication is that TCM is now to be TUTV Anytime only, i.e., not “live”.
    Here is my reply to them:

    “Dear “Claire”

    With regard to the email (below) from Roger Matthews, I have to inform you that I am far from satisfied and even less impressed with your latest intentions to “improve” the service.

    I assume from the statement (quote) “from April 10th, TCM will now only be available on Top Up TV Anytime” – that TCM will no longer be a “live” channel on your service, but only as a TUPTV overnight download? If so, then once again, as with other channels, such as the “Discovery Channel” which you have migrated away from “live” , I will have no control over the TCM programmes I receive, but will be dependant on your “handpicked” selections, which to date have proved less than satisfactory.

    In my last email reply to you (which you failed to acknowledge), whilst agreeing that the latest software upgrade (2.44) had improved the reliability of the DTR box, I expressed my utter disappointment at the quality of the programme content. Your latest communication has done little to quell this disappointment.

    Apart from F1, I am not a sports fan, so British Eurosport is of little interest to me. The other channels; Paramount Comedy, LivingTv, UKTV Style and UKTV Food are, in my opionion, devoid of very much quality content. A quick search on the internet confirms that many people are of the same opinion, so I am surprised that you ascertain these to be “popular”.

    Allow me to be perfectly blunt. Most of the programmes downloaded overnight to the DTR box from TUPTV Anytime are utter rubbish. Each evening, I scan through the previous night’s downloads and delete them all (a process which now takes even longer since the latest software upgrade) .

    Once again, I re-iterate my intention to cancel my subscription to TUPTV Anytime at the end of my existing contract, unless the content quality of programmes are substantially improved by that time.

    Yours etc. ,

  • Anonymous

    Please, please, please all of you out there. DO NOT GET TOP UP TV.

  • Anonymous

    HI TOP UP TV I JUST WANT U TO NOW THAT THIS NEW SERVICE IS CRAP ALL OF THE PROGRAMES I HAVE SEEN ARE BEING PUT BACK ON MY BOX THEY ARE REPEATS WHY IS THIS THERE IS A LOT OF CHILDREN PROGRAMES ON I WANT YOU TO NOW THAT IF THINGS DONT GET BETTER SOON I WILL BE QUITING MY CONTRACT AND EVERY BOADY ELSE WHO I NOW WILL BE QUITTING THERE CONTRACT TO YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO SORT THIS OUT THANK YOU

  • Deborah

    Has anybody got subtitles yet? I got this box yesterday (27th April) and of course nobody told me that there weren’t going to be any subtitles. So I got somebody to phone for me and they said “definitely in the next two weeks”. I thought normal freeview would at least have subtitles? I don’t really care about all the other issues (although it would be nice to have the top up anytime programs- haven’t had any yet)I’m more concerned about having no tv at all now to watch (lack of subtitles). I gave my old freeview box away. Please help.

    Thanks Deborah

  • daz fine

    the top up tv service is terible ,dont get it i feel i have been completely ripped off and am gonna try and get out of my contract,channels dont come through hardly,and the machine has 2 be left on all night which is very un eco friendly and a fire hazard,and to top it off the remote packed up 5 mins ago totaly disgusted!

  • Deborah

    I gave up waiting, and went and bought a small cheap freeview box today. The subtitle thing is being seriously dragged out and this morning I got an email saying that the download should be ready by the end of april….APRIL. …. Not impressed. If I could hear it would be fine, it works well, uptodate, handy recording feature but if I did it all again, I would just buy a hard disk recorder freeview box. Argos are selling them for £99.99. If only we could warn all new potential tutvA buyers….

  • Anonymous

    I have the old topup tv and am fedup with the service also reduced viewing, no faith in tv Anytime . CANCELLING SUBSCRIPTION.

  • Anonymous

    what is the point of tv manufacturers installing a card slot for top up tv when its useless? i cant see how tutv get away with it, DEMANDING you buy A NEW BOX ! so all freeview boxes
    recently bought with card slots are useless! yes i agree it sucks!

  • Anonymous

    HI top up tv anytime i want to know when the next software update is due for subtitles you had said the end of april still waiting for it and the programes are being repeat again i have watched that so raven and that was repeat why the programes are shit i likeed watching blue murder and thats gone now we want more new channels to thanks r.t.duffy

  • Chris Jones

    Finally fed up with phoning and writing – I’ve not had a trouble free month since subscribing – I’ve just cancelled my subscription. The picture froze on Saturday night and after several attempts at applying procedures – received over the phone on Sunday – when a technician was supposed to call me back (But didn’t) – had no TV at all! So enough is enough – I’ve persevered but have been let down.
    Don’t suppose you want to buy back your useless box?

    Chris Jones

  • Anonymous

    If these new boxes were motor cars, they would not be allowed on the road. Topuptv must be close to going bust – it is all therir own fault – customer services have been lying to customers for nearly six months. False deadlines – magic wand promise for evrything. As for subtitles – I have an e-mail from top up that confirms they knew all along prior to launch that subtitles would be a major problem – i.e non-existant. They have badly let down their disabled customers – and did so knowingly !!!!!!!! Their so called contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on – and again they know it. As for content – they are sending kcheap kids programms and multiple editions in single downloads. MY mute button doesn’t work – no subtitles and crap content. By the way, I belive after all their false promises to fix ‘everything’ in the next download, top up tv know if they don’t thousands of customer will walk away – and topup will go bust very quickly. By the way – as a lawyer – I have noticed that the main company is based off-shore. Very worrying if things go pear shaped. If top up want to call me my number is 0870 895 9062 (yes, topup – it is 10 bloody pence a minute just like your useless customer services) Stphen Everitt-Rowe LLM

  • Carol L

    We are sick and tired of the poor service. The signal is dreadful on major channels even though the weather is fine. It cosntantly fails to download programmes we have set it to record and the sounds skips on it constantly. Wish we had stuck with freeview!

  • jvpsuk

    TUTV, what a load of rubbish! I have had nothing but trouble since receiving my DTR. Transmission ending before scheduled programme end? Downloads with missing ending, I think TUTV have bitten off more than they can chew. I have stopped my DD they tell me I can’t, contract, etc. Now box u/s, freezes when library is viewed, unable to return to TV, switch off box or delete downloaded content. By the way, does anyone know the childs name who selects the downloads? Jim.

  • jvpsuk

    TUTV, what a load of rubbish! I have had nothing but trouble since receiving my DTR. Transmission ending before scheduled programme end? Downloads with missing ending, I think TUTV have bitten off more than they can chew. I have stopped my DD they tell me I can’t, contract, etc. Now box u/s, freezes when library is viewed, unable to return to TV, switch off box or delete downloaded content. By the way, does anyone know the childs name who selects the downloads? Jim.

  • Anonymous

    hi everyone i have a problem i have had a bank stament through the door today they have charged me £14.99 from top up tv anytime but in the past few months i have been charged loads of money i phone them up and i explained wot had happened to them in febuary i phone them up to say i was charge twice they said there was nothing they could do they keep on taking payment out every coulpe of weeks and it meant to be every month wot should i do i am getting rip of please help thanks

  • Anonymous

    cancel your direct debit, then they will talk

  • Anonymous

    new s/w due Tuesday 3rd July

    Latest build
    Hello,

    Sorry I haven’t posted for a while but Kieron has been very active covering all the bases so I’ve been relegated to a ‘watching brief’. Kieron is now taking a very well earned break and so, you’re stuck with me again for a bit.

    We’re likely to be running the next OAD very shortly so I thought I’d give you a run-down of what we’ve found in testing and the Beta trial:

    Improvements & Developments

    • Subtitles – closed captioning both on Live and Recorded events
    • Plasma Blanking is implemented with variable trigger times in TV Set-Up
    • Video Glitching is improved (see below1)
    • EPG synopsis pop-up delay maximum is increased to 10 seconds
    • Library status icons are now displayed in TUTVAnytime pop-up
    • “Disk space remaining” value is now reported in the Library screen as well as in Planned Recordings
    • “Messages” and “Customise Top Up TV Anytime” have been repeated on the Main Menu screen
    • “Messages” now displays the number of unread messages
    • Conflict logic has been augmented to allow addition of new Anytime segments
    • Advanced menu has been included in standard menus
    • ALOD has been improved*
    • CA Authorisation handling has been improved*
    • Impulse Record & Retrospective Buffer has been tidied up
    • MHEG (as seen in BBC multiscreen) has been corrected
    • Placeholder handling has been corrected
    • Time offset protection has been introduced*
    • “Purge VOD schedule” is added*
    • “Disable Time Checking” is added*

    * File handling on boot and startup has been improved which should lower the incidence of ALOD and we have had good results in testing and in Beta.

    * We have an issue in previous builds where an activation is received by the unit and passed to the card but is not reported to the higher level application. This means that – whilst the authorisation is on the card – this is not recognised by the Anytime system and the VOD (and decoding of encrypted channels) will fail until the box is forced to go and look at the card which is done on a power cycle or if the card is reseated. This is now fixed.

    * We have had – as many of you have seen – problems caused by rogue time offset or descriptor tables being broadcast by – well, no names, no packdrill. This is obviously critical to our system in a way that is less so for other boxes as the system uses the time/date data to determine when it records and deletes. This has led to recordings disappearing and VoD not being loaded so we have built some protection logic into the box to guard against this.

    * We’ve also added “Purge VOD Schedule” and “Disable Time Checking” as engineering options. These are to allow us to get rid of a VOD schedule if the TOT/TDT data is incorrect and the box won’t revert to the updated schedule and to get it to ignore incorrect TDT/TOT references. I suspect we won’t have to use these much.

    Still to Do

    1st event record†
    Recording failure due to over-cautious space prediction†
    “Signal Error” message clearance†
    File handling on FF transition to Play or FR~

    †Recordings of the first event in a day part channel are failing. This is due to a bug in the SI handling and will be solved in the next build.

    †Recording failure due to “predicted to fail due to lack of disk space” – this can currently be experienced even when the box reports enough space available for a recording. This has been identified and fixed in the alpha build we’re testing now but was too late to make it into this release.

    †The tuner drivers can sometimes report “no signal” either for a momentary drop out or for errored packets. This icon should be cleared by the high level application when this call is resolved but in some cases is not. This results in the icon being displayed over present video. We aim to fix this in the next build.

    2.81 Conclusions

    Side by side tests with 2.44 and from the Beta tests have shown that 2.81 is better than 2.44

    Stability also seems to have improved and the UI and feature enhancements have been well received.

    The next build

    We’re already busy with the next build and have the UI and application changes in alpha test.. I won’t spoil all the surprises though but you can expect this to follow soon.

    Future work

    ~Low level file handling issues are causing the device to lose track of where it is in a file during the playback or trick play of an event. This often leads to big ‘skips’ in the playback unless transitions are performed through ‘play’. We’ll keep you posted on this.

    ~General stability – we always aim to improve the general stability of the box and will continue to do so over the next builds – again – we’ll keep you posted.

    Thanks again and I look forward to hearing how it goes.

    Simon

  • Anonymous

    hi simon the new upgrade wot i have recieved is excellent final got subtittles on and my box does not crash anymore i look forward to the next up grade very soon thank you from robert

  • Anonymous

    How do I get the new software?

  • Anonymous

    The new software download is a vast improvement.

    Especially now we have subtitles, and the reliability seems to be improving all the time.

    There has been a few problems with the downloads over the last couple of weeks though, and there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it.
    It’s possible that something somewhere at some of the transmitters has changed to cause this.

    Looking forward to future updates to the software, that looks like it’s going to have some “must have” facilities that other more expensive PVR’s have, but will surpass them.

    It’s worthh sticking with, this service, and hardware is getting better all the time.

  • Deborah

    ARGH! I AM SO EXCITED!!! Flicked thru this page like I have been doing for months and read that subtitles are available!! Now forcing OAD and am incredibly excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous

    i i want some help we are getting a upgrade next week its called extra content wot doeas it mean

  • Anonymous

    hi top up tv i want to now when is this new channel called virgin coming to the box replacing ftn just recieved a new down load with the new programmes it sounds good thanks

  • Anonymous

    Top Up TV had also found itself on the wrong side of a number of Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Ofcom adjudications [10] [11] [12] [13] [14], which have ruled that Top Up TV’s advertising does not make the time-shared nature of the service clear enough. Their advertisements have been criticised in these ruling for appearing to indicate that 11 full channels are on offer when, in fact, the company only has broadcast access to 4.5 channel spaces and none of their channel offerings are broadcast full-time unlike their satellite and cable competitors.

    The time sharing system had also lead to criticism as it has cut programmes off before they are finished – especially on British Eurosport, and to a lesser extent on UKTV Gold. In its argument to the Advertising Standards Authority (see above), Top Up TV claimed that its channel suppliers joining the service had given an undertaking to align their channel’s schedules to fit around Top Up TV’s time sharing but that still left a few programmes cut off part way through.

    On May 18, 2006 Top Up TV Ltd, Top Up TV’s holding company, changed its name to Minds 1 Limited and entered members voluntary liquidation [15]. According to Top Up TV the move is part of a restructuring programme, and will see the company demerged into three separate companies; Top Up TV 1 Limited, Top Up TV 2 Limited, and Top Up TV 3 Limited. The voluntary liquidation, combined with the initial heavy £7 million loss as reported in its own annual report, has resulted in increased media speculation regarding the viability and future of Top Up TV.

  • woodie

    Recently spoke to top up tv anytime on the phone with a view to buying the service. The people on the phone were either of limited intelligence or were deliberately pretending not to understand the points I was making. Having since read all these blogs I can see why. I am not surprised people were not aware that you only had a limited live program ability. The guy I spoke to, and asked this question, just “could not understand” the concept of this question and many others. They’ve obviously been trained to be vague when asked questions that show it for the con it really is. I will not be going anywhere near top up tv ever again.

  • Raoul Duke

    Hi everyone,

    Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

    Since we had the TUTV Anytime box in December 2006 it has constantly crashed and missed recordings, and the series link and subtitles have only just started working after the latest sofware download. Small comfort.

    I have been calling TUTV at least twice a month since we got the thing, noting the name of the member of staff, time called and what discussed / promised. By June I had had enough of broken promises (they never call back), and duff advice such as ‘turn it off and on again’… so I cancelled my Direct Debit.

    Then all hell broke loose. Despite never responding to my calls or letters, the moment they noticed my DD had been cancelled they wrote me a snotty letter threatening to pass my details to a debt recovery agency. I called them back, insisted on speaking to a team leader, and listed the numerous problems and my attempts to resolve them. She basically called me a liar, denied any knowledege of my earlier calls, and insisted that the subtitles, series link, etc, DID work.

    But she did agree to hold off involving a debt recovery agency, gave me a month off the subscription and promised the technicians would call me the following evening to resolve the problems… But surprise, surprise, no-one called me back.

    I wrote back to them pointing out their latest failure to keep their promises and asked for a returns label and a refund. No reply.

    The subtitles and series link functions spontaneously started working about three weeks ago.

    Yet in the meantime my TUTV account appears to have been frozen, meaning i can’t view any of the downloaded content… more’s the pity, as it was a load of rubbish repeats anyway!

    So it appears that I have ‘won’, in a sense. I’m free of the 12 month contract, and since the TUTV downloads ceased I have a massive 80 hours of space on the hard drive. (Although for £75.00 I could no doubt buy a better Freeview PVR with more features and a clearer picture.)

    So anyone reading this who is thinking of signing up – DON’T. And if you’re trying to get out of a TUTV contract – write to them, list your grievances and cancel your Direct Debit if you don’t hear from them within 14 days.

    Disgruntled former TUTV customer

  • Anonymous

    hi every one wot is going on with this website why have they took top up tv anytime of this website for

  • Anonymous

    For anyone wishing to sign up for a 12 month contract-DONT.I have had to endure 11 months of a total rubbish service,with no help from customer services except reams of emails for resetting,and rebooting.It sill freezes,shuts off recording before program ends,uploads during day,orange light goes on for ages during day,requiring rebooting,signal goes when the slightest motorcar/motobike goes past,24 hr whirring noise.All in all,the basic package from Sky has got to be better,and the SAY their customer service is a lot better.So I will not be renewing after the expiry of 12 months of viewing hell.

  • Anonymous

    I have had all the same problems as the last post. Having searched high and low for the answers I think I have resolved some of my problems. It states that there should be a minimum of 15% disc space free at anyone time, so I started to delete some of the programmes that were saved overnight until I reached the magic 15%. Fingers crossed most of my issues have been sorted. However, I must agree with most of the posts that this is not a good and fair service for the amount you pay per month. I too will be looking for another provider once my 12 months is up. Hope this helps to resolve some of your problems.

  • Waynes World

    I bought a Thomson Freeview recorder bundled with a free TUTV bundle

    I was told by the salesman that the month starts once I put my card into the machine.
    Two weeks later when I got round t opening my letter, it mentioned that I would have to cancel my trail by a certain date, about two weeks time now. I phoned them and asked is that the date I will get charged for the service, of which the reply was yes. And they told me the card is activated from the date it is sent out. This is a contradiction from what the first sales guy had said. So basically I had been given mis information / lied to just so they can get my card details and the possibility I would not cancel in time and make there extra money.

    Why can’t free trails let you decide to pay for the rest? Either they have no confidence in there service of how good it is that customers would be happy to carry on and pay , or sounds like they do this to make money from new users who accidentally go over there free trial period. Much like a DVD rental company I once tried with.

    I complained about the fact I had to phone them due to there fault and they gave me a refund of £9.99 to cover the calls to the 0870 and for the inconvenience. Although I did say id report them too.

    All I got to do is check in two weeks to make sure they have refunded me, since reading some comments from above about them being a con type company. Which means that they might try there luck at no refunding me. But don’t worry I will like some of you persevere. Since they must make millions this way over the masses of people who do try.

    Rip off is a good word.

  • jimbo

    Just purchased thomson DTI 6300-16 160GB,how dd i get 120 hours recording space? Thanks,Jimbo.

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