TalkTalk TV feedback thread NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

This feedback thread is for the 20 testers who received a TalkTalk TV, Kids Boost and a YouView box and are currently trying it out in their homes.

Here's what TalkTalk have to say, "As Britain's fastest growing TV service more families are joining TalkTalk TV than ever before, taking up our offer of a free YouView box for easy access to the shows they love. Our TalkTalk TV package includes a YouView box worth £299, providing seven day catch up TV, pause, rewind and record Freeview channels, plus the option to add premium content one month at a time with TalkTalk's flexible boosts. This includes 69 TV channels not available on BT including a variety of kids content. Our toddler's channel Scamp includes our two most popular shows Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly, and there are thousands more TV shows and box sets in our TalkTalk Player. Our Kids Boost, which is only £5 a month, provides an additional 14 great children's channels including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Cartoon Network. It's great to see how much our customers are enjoying all the benefits of YouView from TalkTalk and this summer we're hoping even more families, including yours, will join them!"

We'd like you to add feedback twice - we'd like your first impressions now and in a couple of weeks (or when you're ready) we would like you to answer the follow-up questions.

So, in terms of your first impressions. please....

~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far?

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?

Thanks,

MNHQ

~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.

I was surprised at how small and neat the box is. It looks good. It was also delivered extremely swiftly. Really great first impressions of the box itself.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

DH set up the box, I have to say I haven't yet engaged with it properly but the catch up function is really good. I haven't used catch up TV before and it really has revolutioninsed my viewing. I absolutely love having a whole series of programmes available to me without having to have recorded them all. Even with the series link function on Sky you need to record from the first programme. I digress...
DH said it was easy to set up. I am usually quite technically minded but he'd done it before I had a chance. There was no swearing from the living room so I assume it was pretty simple...

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?
As I mentioned above, catch up TV has changed my TV viewing forever I think!

I will be getting to grips with it properly... once I've managed to tear myself away from all those progs I missed first time round...

Give your overall impression when it arrived

Nice looking box, very efficient delivery arrive when it said it would.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

I had a quick flick through the manual first but then got stuck in, was easy enough and only took a few mins.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

We think it's great, the recording is fab, and pausing love tv is so useful! The library is great it's so useful to have so many kids tv programmes just seconds away without having to remember to record anything.

My only negative comment so far is that it appears to be quite slow. I've previously had sky which was really fast, but even switching it on seems to take a while, and once I've selected a channel it take a few seconds to appear onscreen with what I've pressed, then to actually change channels. That's probably just me being impatient, or may be down to my Internet speed, but its only a minor niggle.

I'm one of the testers chosen and I'm just checking in as I'm having mine set up by the engineer tomorrow so I will check back in a couple of days once it's all up and running.

Thank you so much for this trial, we're enjoying it!

~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.

Good overall impression, it fits in well with our other electronics, arrived so so quickly.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

DH set it up, no problems, definitely intuitive, easy instructions, I was surprised how quick it was.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

We were so impressed by the catch up function, every member of the family has used it and love it. Being able to pause is brilliant, as I'm always being interrupted.

DH loves the HD channels.

Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?

The kids like the different programmes, I'm not sure if it's just the novelty yet.

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far? Apart from the kids programmes, I haven't really experimented with other programmes (I'm sticking with things I normally watch) but this weekend I plan to have a better look.

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?

I've never had a package!

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would continue to use it. It is slightly slow to turn on and slow loading all the channels, but it's not frustratingly slow.

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would recommend it. It has a good range of programmes, the catch up function is brilliant and it's not too slow and it's not freezing for us.

Thanks we've had our box for a few weeks now so feel like we're getting to grips with it.
~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.
I, too was surprised at how small it is which means it's discreet and blends in with all of the rest of the stuff surrounding the TV. DH says it was a bit cheap looking.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?
I set up the box myself and found it really straightforward. I had to connect with a powerline adaptor as our router is not near our TV but this didn't make things any more or less difficult. I'm a bit of a freak about following instructions but I found it really helpful that the basic set up was on the lid of the box so no delving through masses of paper when all you want to do is plug it in. The only criticism I do have is that it just said "turn on your box" and, without delving for said instructions, I hadn't realised that there were two "on" switches (one on the back which was not obvious as well as on the front). There were a variety of cables, both HDMI and SCART so it will be compatible with most TVs.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?
I think we've all enjoyed the catch-up TV. UP until now we have been using a digital recording box (we are in one of the first areas of digital switchover) which we can use to pause TV etc, so this no longer has novelty for us. I've been unwilling to accept paying for a TV package but this has meant that we needed to remember to record from the series start as KittieCat has pointed out.

Frustrations - a number of posters have already mentioned the speed of start up and I have changed the settings so that start up is quicker but it is still slow (I can go to the kitchen and put the kettle on). That's insanely frustrating when the toddler is shouting for the TV, it goes on... wakes up...navigates to correct screen...loads programme... .

So far, there have been no arguments between the children over what to watch; the youngest is too young to assert her opinion just yet, however, the availability of so much stuff as they get older bothers me a bit. The youngest is already a bit of a TV demon .

I found trying to find recorded programmes, finding the correct menu for either a recorded programme or knowing whether something could be replayed by simply going backwards on the "guide" or having to use one of the "players" thoroughly confusing and I will confess that last week I got so frustrated I unplugged the "bleeping thing" and just plugged the old box back in. I certainly think that there is an opportunity for some simplification of the menus.

6yo DD is unable to use the box independently and this is frustrating as she could use the other box with ease unless there was a recorded programme she wanted to watch and that was because her level of reading ability is not yet such that she could read the list. I suppose, countering that, we've not had to have the argument - "you can't watch that because we didn't record it"

I'm not sure I like the fact that the children know that they can pretty much watch what they want, when they want (so perhaps being unable to use it herself isn't a bad thing). That, combined with the sluggishness and the poor picture quality when watching iplayer etc (we have fibre and a relatively small TV) have meant that I've not been persuaded and will be quite happy to return to our digital recorder box.

Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?
We've not tried these as I didn't realise they were available to us, so I'll be back when we've tested this out.

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far?
We've not really deviated from our usual viewing habits, DH has just confessed to having watched a little of BT sport!

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?
We've not had a package before so I've nothing to compare it with.

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?
I think it's unlikely. I have to say DH was keener than I in the first place; I've always resisted paying for TV as I find there is enough poor quality TV to keep us more than occupied and think that it provides DH with another excuse to "just put the TV on".

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?
If someone wanted the ability to watch catch up on the TV screen rather than a laptop/PC and it was something that they were likely to do regularly then I'd probably say go for it. Or, if they wanted to be able to record TV and didn't already have the ability to do this via a digital recorder box. Personally, I don't think we have used, or would use this function often enough to justify the cost.

Sorry, that was an essay

I could never go with TalkTalk again and still feel traumatised by my treatment. Basically they erroneously thought I still owed them money when I'd closed my account and passed the case onto a bailiff company from whom I got some nasty threatening letters. Dh was away at the time so I was on my own with the kids.

I called TalkTalk several times and they agreed over the phone that as far as they were concerned I didn't owe them anything. But the bailiff letters kept ramping up and I was so scared I paid the money they were asking for in the end (which had gone up from 30 something to around 80).

This was probably about 8 or more years ago but I'm still angry and hurt about it now. I sincerely hope the company has changed.

Tester here. DH setting up at the weekend, sorry for delay.

When the box arrived we were pleased with the way it looked, small and neat and looks good.

It was very easy to set up, very straightforward so no problems there. We also had a call from talktalk to see if we'd managed to install it ok, so that was nice. It was fairly intuitive so the main box was set up really quickly. DH set up the wifi power adapters and that was more fiddly, he said that the terminology in the instruction booklet didn't quite tally with what was on the physical box, so the booklet probably needs a writing refresh.

We really enjoyed playing around with it, exploring the channels and testing it over the first couple of days. It's fairly straightforward to work out how to use it so didn't take us long to find our way around. The best feature for us is definitely being able to view anything over the last few days that we might not have recorded, especially the kids programmes. My son loves to watch his favourite programmes after school and I don't have to faff about selecting them to record, we can just catch up. Also pausing is fabulous, so useful.

Kids boost is good, my son (4) has enjoyed some of the new programmes we'd didn't previously have access to, but he has really loved the films more than anything and we can catch up with talktalk and watch them any time.

I have found the device to be a bit slow to switch on, and sometimes unresponsive when switching on. That can be frustrating as it seems as though it needs time to warm up. I have also experienced programmes freezing a couple of times which is really annoying. Moreso when it's the kids programmes as they get really impatient! Also when you switch it on, it's hard to tell whether it's going to respond as the pale blue stand by light changes to a slightly brighter blue and then gradually starts to move. If it turned a different colour it would stop me repeatedly pressing the button wondering if the remote is working!

There are probably too many menus, talktalk, youview and the guide button. Could these be merged into one button and a simple menu on screen?

Selecting paid for packages is easy and instanaoeous, DH has signed up to sport & movie package.

The search function is not so good as it's vague and quite broad, only allowing you to search for one thing. So eg you should be able to search by genre such as 'films' so you can record all the films over the week. Also could you look at recording sky? Maybe this is a contractual thing with sky, but it's a shame you can't record the films for example.

We have a Freeview box but no additional packages, although we have used sky at relatives houses. I think Talktalk compares pretty well and suits us better than Sky personally, but the slow response time probably needs some attention.

Yes I would tell friends it's good, apart from a couple of minor niggles.

Give your overall impression when it arrived.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

• so I'm on our second day of the You View trial. We asked for an engineer to set it up for us and they arranged a time that was convenient for us for him to pop around. We didnt fancy setting it up ourselves as short of time and not knowing whether it would be complicated or not. The engineer arrived at 7am and stayed for an hour.

It appeared very simple to set up. I thought the box was larger than I expected but it fits in nicely on top of our dvd player and had some lovely purple/pink lights on the front which looked very pretty. After the engineer had installed it he ran through the basics, wrote our password in the book and checked that we understood how to work it. He said our speed would be around 18, but thinks it will drop down to 15 at some point. He said it was a very good speed.

Using it is quite intuitive but there's lots of information to take in and I think it's just a case of playing around and becoming familiar with it. My 5yr old son has already got to grips with the pause and rewind and has been watching and re-watching his favourite programmes back to back. The instruction manual is clear and easy to read and understand.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

• I have been quite excited about it and feel like a kid with a new toy. It's great been able to catch up with programmes I've missed and the best feature so far has to be the endless 're-runs of Peppa Pig as I get peace and quiet! The first couple of times we tried the Milkshake on demand, the box crashed so we had to turn it off and back on again but it seems to be ok now. I've struggled with trying to remember the location of certain programmes. I'm sure I can add these to favourites or something so I will probably learn how to do it over the following week.

~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.

It arrived quickly. The box is nice and small and compact and the lights on the front when starting up look good.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

My DH set the box up. He had a quick look through the instructions and manged to set it up in about 5 minutes, he said it was easy to do.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

We all enjoy using the box. The programs freeze occasionally. The main drawback is that it is very slow to start up and this can be frustrating. I like being able to pause the programs and think the catch up is great.

*Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?

My son loves the childrens' programmes but would like to see more. We had a whole afternoon of Spongebob.

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far?

I have only watched my regular programs at the moment mainly soaps.

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?

I haven't had any other TV packages before.

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?

I haven't used it enough to decide yet.

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes I would recommend it as it's very useful to have. I am a bit concerned that I have received a letter from Talktalk saying that I have signed up to a new 18 month contract now which I do not want to do.

Hi. Thanks for choosing us for the trial. We are loving it so far!

DP and I are both rubbish with tech, so a TalkTalk engineer installed the box for us. He was here no time at all, and he explained how to get into the libraries etc. Very helpful. The box itself is small and looks good.

DS2 loves Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly, so we have had lots of that on Nick Jr! We have also used the rewind function a couple of times when we have been interrupted watching something in the evening. Like others have said, the response time from the remote, and the time it takes to start up etc can be a bit frustrating, but we have never had a package before and we are very impressed overall.

Meant to say, we signed up to the music package, but we can't really get any use of it as the signal keeps going. So that's very annoying but probably just because of where we live.

We're very much enjoying the trial, thanks so much! Here are some first impressions:
Give your overall impression when it arrived.
Great - box was perhaps smaller than I had expected and slotted in fine.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

DH set it all up and it seemed very straightforward - her had the tech conversation with Talk Talk who said we would need some kind of power adaptor as our internet is quite far from our tv, they provided these free of charge and it all works. There was no swearing from DH as he set it up, usually a good sign!

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with? At this point I should say we can't get the kids package for some reason, I have reported this to Michelle at Mumsnet who I gather has mentioned it to Talk Talk...
Other than this - it does take ages to turn on, and it does freeze fairly often when we are watching catch up, we've had one occasion when Numberjacks froze and wouldn't come back which was a 4 year old's nightmare...more importantly it froze just before the end of Great British Bake Off!! Although assume this was because it was a high internet usage time.
Things we LOVE: it has improved our tv signal no end, despite living in fairly central London our tv signal has always been terrible and so far, so good!
Also generally loving the whole idea of catch up tv and have used it loads already. As I say the kids boost package hasn't appeared yet although DS likes the look of endless Peppa Pig episodes...will comment further when this bit is switched on for us.

OK it's set up at last! Took about 30 minutes.

The volume button doesn't work, however, so not sure we can use it.

Will report back fully tomorrow.

A bit more feedback, will post proper full report tomorrow.

I can't find the kids boost package either, just have Peppa Pig.

We just got a SMART TV and it seems it overrides all that menu, which we aren't esp keen on as its a lot slower. As mentioned, the volume control doesn't work on the TalkTalk remote, so we have to switch to the other remote for that which is a bit of a PITA.

If there is a way to just access the recording bit and the OnDemand bit without having to have the rest of it, it would be good.

OnDemand does look good, and I really like how you can browse genres across all catch up, live TV etc.

~ Give your overall impression when it arrived.

It was left outside my back door so I didn't realise it had arrived. Wen I unpacked it, it all looked neat and straightforward.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?

My DH did the hardware and I did the programme set up. Took about 30 minutes, maybe a little longer as others as we used our own router so the updates took a while.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?

We found it a bit confusing to start with as we've just got a new smart tv and the menu disappeared to be replaced with the TalkTalk one which we don't like as much, but this may be just a case of getting used to it.

*Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?

Assume Kids Boost is the childrens programmes available on talktalk player? This isn't clear. DD is watching some Halloween cartoon on Cartoon Network ATM and is enjoying it, and is looking forward to watching the Disney Channel.

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far?

Downton last night, and have tried Wrong Mans on iplayer. Also watched Strictly live and results on iplayer.

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?

I haven't had any other TV packages before.

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?

Not sure. Like the idea of paying for a one off film, and recording as we don't have a device for this ATM.

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends.

It seems fine so far.

Just to add the kids boost is now working for me and dd had an angelina ballerina marathon on Saturday which made her very happy! Still haven't watched the live channels though. On demand is a bit sticky for us too.

Give your overall impression when it arrived.
An engineer turned up in the time slot promised. So I was pleased about that.

~ Describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box? How easy are the instructions? Is it quite intuitive or do you have to read through the welcome pack first?
An engineer set it up for me, it looked complicated so not sure I could have done it myself.

~ Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with?
My son loves the catch up facility so he can watch the last weeks Ben and Holly and Thomas. The negative is it's slow to load up and get going. Also I'm unable to delete any programmes I've recorded. I'm pressing the blue delete button and nothing happens.

Follow-up questions:
~ What do your children think of the programmes offered on Kids Boost?
Love them the catch up and on demand facility are great.

~ Which programmes have you most enjoyed watching on TalkTalk TV so far?
Ben and Holly, Thomas the Tank Engine, Graham Norton and Panorama.

~ If you've had a TV package in the past, how do you think it compared to other TV packages?
It isn't as quick as Sky in every way really. Navigating round the functions, watching recorded programmes, getting to your recorded programmes.

~ Will you continue to use TalkTalk TV in the future? If so, why? If not, why not?
I would possibly use it on my spare tv in the kitchen if the package was cheaper. Also as I can't delete any recorded programmes it would soon fill up and be useless to me.

~ If it came up in conversation would you recommend TalkTalk TV to your friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?
I would recommend as a cheaper alternative to Sky.

I am not able to get the kids boost package.
When I try the Disney channel I keep getting an error.

Oh dear - my first impressions are not good.

1. Box took 2 weeks to arrive as TalkTalk messed the order up twice. They did phone to apologise but If I had paid for the service I wouldn't have been happy.

2. box very easy to set up and I had it up and running in about 20 minutes

3. Kids boost has not been added and TalkTalk claim to have no information that I am taking part in this test. I have now been told that I have entered into an 18 month contract with them and that if I want the Kids Boost I have to pay for it.

4. Haven't watched anything on TalkTalk TV as as we only seem to have these channels - TalkTalk Box Office (not free), Digital Theatre (not free), free Trailers, The Karaoke channel and a bollywood chanel called Eros.

Something seems to have gone fundamentally wrong with my trial and I am really concerned that TalkTalk have no idea what I am talking about, and have signed me up to a contract I don't want. Could somebody from Mumsnet please contact me ASAP to try and sort this mess out.

I am an exisiting TalkTalk customer and this experience has made me want to go to BT!