BT Vision Explored
Information on BT's Home TV-over-Broadband service
The BT Vision service launched in the UK on 4th December 2006, offering a new digital TV service for the UK. On this page, we review this new TV service, and explore what BT Vision has to offer.
What is BT Vision?
BT Vision is a new digital TV service that's available to homes in the UK. BT Vision offers digital TV (using Freeview via a TV aerial), a digital video recorder (called a V-Box), and supports TV and video content that's accessed on-demand over a BT Broadband connection.
Many see Television-over-Broadband (known as IPTV), or Video-on-Demand as the future of television, and BT is now positioning itself as a big player in this market. BT Vision's offering combines Internet TV with Freeview, a hard-disk recorder (for recording and live pause), plus on-demand content. BT is now making this new TV service available free to BT Total Broadband customers throughout the UK.
What does BT Vision offer?
- The BT Vision set-top box will support reception of Freeview via your TV aerial. Freeview offers over 35 TV channels and 20 radio channels - More on Freeview.
- Unlike Sky and Virgin, the BT Vision service is subscription-free. There's no charge at all for the basic Freeview channels or the recording service. If you choose to watch movies or TV shows from the Internet, you pay for content that you actually watch
- You'll be able to watch a selection of TV shows from the last seven days, sometimes referred to as "catch-up TV".
- The BT Vision V-box contains a hard-disk capable of storing up to 80 hours of programming - More on PVR recorders
- The BT Vision V-box has a 14 day electronic programme guide, as well as an on-screen guide to allow selection of on-demand content that you access over Broadband - you can also search for content by by name or actor.
- The on-demand content includes hundreds of films, TV shows, music videos, sporting events and kids programming, and BT has recently announced deals with a number of big name content providers.
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 We featured BT Vision in Show 12 of our radio show, FrequencyCast. Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player. Listen to Show 12 | Latest Show | More Info |
Getting BT Vision
BT Vision is now available across the UK. If you want get BT Vision, you need to sign up or switch to BT Total Broadband if you haven't already. (How to Switch provider )
- Cost: The BT Vision service is FREE to BT Total Broadband customers. There's no monthly subscription fee to use BT Vision. The BT Vision V-Box set-top box is also free to customers. There's a one-off £30 activation fee included in the connection kit.
You can pay £60 for a BT engineer to deliver and install your BT Vision box, or save yourself £60 by going for the "self install" option. Provided you're OK to connect the box to your telly and Home Hub yourself, all you'll pay is £30 for a powerful set-top box/recorder, and a subscription-free digital TV service. This is great value.
- Requirements: BT Vision requires a BT Total Broadband connection and a BT Home Hub (supplied free with BT Total Broadband Options 2 and 3). For the video-on-demand content, you need a line speed of 2Mb or over. To check your line speed, sign up to BT Total Broadband, or to switch providers, go to www.bt.com/btbroadband
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Prices for BT Total Broadband start from £7.95 a month (for the first three months).
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BT Vision Review
The Radio and Telly Team had their BT Vision box installed in February 2007, and have reviewed this for this site, as well as for Show 12 of FrequencyCast, our podcast. Below, we take a look at the BT Vision set-top box, the service, and what's on offer with the BT Vision On Demand content.
BT Vision's Movies-on-Demand screen
Read on for our review of BT Vision, or listen to our online review
Installation:
When BT Vision was first made available, it was by "engineer installation only". Now, a self-install version is available. Installation by engineer was straightforward. The BT engineer called on time, and installed the BT Vision set-top box. The BT Home Hub has to be physically connected to both a phone line (for Broadband) and the Vision V-box. Our Home Hub was already in position close to the TV and connected to a phone line. We were told by the engineer that, in situations where the Hub isn't near the TV and a phone line, the engineer will run an extension socket to somewhere close to the TV set, or make use of special HomePlugs to send data over a home's mains wiring.
The BT Vision set-top box is connected to the TV via a SCART lead, and to the BT Home Hub via a standard Ethernet RJ45 cable.
The BT engineer will also set up one PC in the house for wireless connection to broadband via the Home Hub, if required. Our engineer supplied a BT Voyager 1055 Wireless USB Adapter for connecting a PC to the Internet wirelessly. For us, installation took around 45 minutes.
The BT Vision V-Box
The set-top box is manufactured by Philips, and seems very well constructed. It sits well with other AV equipment, and there don't seem to be any obvious design problems surfacing as yet.
The BT Vision v-box. manufactured by Philips
We have a special page dedicated to the V-Box, so if you're interested in delving more deeply into the box, its connectors and the technical specs, go to our BT Vision Set-top Box page.
Using BT Vision:
Again, very straightforward. Using the BT Vision box as a Freeview receiver brings no surprises - standard channel changing and all of the features you'd expect to see on a standard Freeview box. The remote control is slightly chunky, but a good comfy design, and it's a cinch to use. There are three main buttons to use, the 'BT Vision' button to get to the main menu, and your recorded shows, the 'TV Guide' button to get to 14 days of programme listings that are available over the Internet, and the 'On Demand' button that opens the door to the online content available for watching via the BT servers.
The BT Vision Remote Control
Accessing the On Demand content was very easy - and BT has gone out of its way to make browsing and searching for content as easy as possible. There's about three ways of searching for everything - searching films by genre, TV shows by TV channel, A-Z listings, and a free-form text search. This latter feature is our favourite - there's one search engine for everything, on demand content, shows in the EPG, even actors and directors. A great way to find what you're looking for and some thought has clearly gone into how to get to the wealth of content available.
Searching with BT Vision
Features and functions
The BT Vision service has got a lot going for it - the built-in hard disk recorder is great for recording off-air telly - the 14 day programme guide, features like Series Link and Programme Search make finding and recording TV programmes a dream - superior even to our favourite, the Sky+ box.
The BT Vision Electronic Programme Guide
Watching On Demand content is great too. Later on this page, we summarise some of the TV shows available to watch "on demand". The selection at the moment (July 07) is perhaps a little small, but this is set to grow and there's already something for everyone. The service we're looking for is only really available from Channel 4 at the moment, and that's Catch-up TV - the ability to watch a TV show that's been on in the last 7 days, and watch it at a time to suit you. Great that Channel 4 are offering it - but we want to see the Beeb, ITV and Five get on board with catchup TV soon too.
Downloading TV programmes from BBC On Demand, on a BT Vision box
Review Summary
So far, we've been very impressed, and have nothing to fault on the service yet. We're keen to flesh out this review, based on questions from our regular visitors, so if you have a question, first check out our BT Vision FAQ, then if your question's not answered, please contact us and we'll try to help.
We also have a BT Vision forum and a dedicated BT Vision mailing list, so please feel free to sign up.
On Demand Content
The top question we're asked, is "what on demand content is available on BT Vision". In January 2008, here's what was on offer on our BT Vision box to BT Total Broadband customers:
On Demand MoviesWhen we last counted, over 400 movies. Films priced either £1.99 or £2.99 for a 24 hour rental. Here are some sample titles:
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On Demand TV ProgrammesLive TV is supplied using Freeview. Extra 'on-demand' content is available for download. This isn't like a traditional TV channel, there's a huge store of TV shows from a range of channels and content providers that you watch via BT Vision over the 'net. When we last counted, over 1,500 TV shows were available. You can access TV content by category, channel, 'TV Replay' and 'Premium TV' categories. Prices between £0.79 or £0.99 per episode, or for £6 a month for the TV Package. Catch up TV (last 7 days) from the BBC are currently free.
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KidsContent from BBC Hits, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Last time we counted, around 850 kids shows. Prices for most items are 49p.
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MusicMusic videos, concerts and Music Extras.
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Sport on BT VisionBT Vision Sport launched in August 2007, with content provided by sports channel Setanta Sports. In the 2007/8 season, they will be showing 46 live FA Premier League games, 60 live Scottish Premier League games, live Nationwide Conference games and other European football Leagues. There will also be access to PGA golf and many other sporting events. Cost? BT Vision customers on BT Total Broadband can get the BT Vision Sport service either via monthly subscription (from £4 a month), or per-match pay-to-view. Here are the pricing details for the 2007/8 football season:
To get BT Vision Sport, you must be a BT Total Broadband customer. No news on Test Match Cricket, or other sporting events yet. Consider joining our BT Vision mailing list for occasional updates on BT Vision. |
Interactive games
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We featured BT Vision in Show 12 of our radio show, FrequencyCast Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player. Listen to Show 12 | Latest Show | More Info |
BT Vision News
Here are a few news updates on BT Vision. Sign up to our email newsletter to be notified of anything new.
- Jan 2008: BT Vision coming to Microsoft's X-Box - See our Blog
- Jul 2007: Software update released (v1 2.14068.2)
- Jul 2007: BT Vision Sports details available - See our Blog
- Jun 2007: Software update released (v1 2.2019.22)
- May 2007: After the initial soft-launch in December, BT's marketing for BT Vision steps up a gear - national TV, press and posters all promote the benefits of BT Vision
- Mar 2007: Software updated to 1.2.1184.95
- Dec 2006: BT Vision to cover Premiership football games. From 2007, BT takes on Sky as it's partnered with sports channel Setanta to show 288 Premiership matches in full, per season. More
- Dec 2006: BT Vision officially launched. V-Box free to BT Total Broadband customers (£30 connection, £60 installation)
- Nov 2006: Official launch date confirmed as 4th December 2006
- Nov 2006: Disney / Buena Vista TV now signed with BT Vision. More
- Oct 2006: Video on demand deals with MTV, Paramount Comedy and Nickelodeon announced.
- Oct 2006: Sony BMG sign a music deal with BT Vision. More
- Sept 2006: EMAP to provide content for BT Vision, including music channels. More
- Sept 2006: Audio and Video podcast content from BT Podshow is to feature on the BT Vision Platform. More
BT Vision Questions
Please see our BT Vision FAQ for answers to frequently-asked questions.
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More on BT Vision?
More details...
- Discuss BT Vision in our BT Vision forum
- BT Vision Help and Advice
- BT Vision Set-top Box info
- Join our BT Vision mailing list, or our Yahoo Group chat list
- Online review of BT Vision in Show 12 of our Podcast
- More on the BT Home Hub
- More on the Digital TV options
- More on alternative IPTV solutions on our dedicated IPTV page.
- For more on Freeview and free-to-air set-top boxes, see our Freeview page.
- More on BT Total Broadband
- For details of hard-disk recording
solutions, see our Personal Video Recorder PVR page
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