BT Vision Explored

A closer look at BT's home TV-over-Broadband service, BT Vision

On this page, we review the BT Vision service, and explore what BT's vision of digital TV has to offer.

Quick Navigation
New to BT Vision?	Want an overview? See our What is BT Vision Want a review? See our BT Vision review or download our audio review What channels? Freeview (see channel list), plus BT Vision on-demand Getting BT Vision - See our How to get BT Vision FAQ
Existing Vision user?	Looking for help and advice? See our BT Vision FAQ page Want to discuss Vision? Get talking in our BT Vision forum Updates on BT Vision? Join our Vision Mailing List

What is BT Vision?

BT Vision is a digital TV service that's available across the UK. BT Vision offers digital TV (using Freeview via a TV aerial), a digital video recorder (called a BT Vision+ Box), plus TV shows and movies "on demand" over a BT Broadband connection.

TV-over-Broadband and Video-on-Demand is the future of television, and BT has now positioned itself as a big player in this market. BT Vision's offering combines Freeview, a hard-disk recorder (for recording and live pause), plus access to on-demand content.

BT Vision's a great service, available only to BT Total Broadband customers in the UK.

More details at btvision.bt.com

What does BT Vision offer?

BT Vision offers over 40 TV channels and 20 radio channels via Freeview (More on Freeview).
You can watch a selection of TV shows from the last seven days, from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five - sometimes referred to as "catch-up TV".
The BT Vision+ box contains a hard-disk capable of storing up to 80 hours of programming - More on PVR recorders
The BT Vision+ box has a 14 day electronic programme guide, as well as an on-screen guide to allow selection of on-demand content - you can also search for TV shows and films by name or actor.
The on-demand content includes hundreds of films, TV shows, music videos, sporting events and kids programming.

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 | What is FrequencyCast? | Add us to iTunes

Getting BT Vision

BT Vision is available across the UK. If you want get BT Vision, you need to get your broadband from BT - More on BT Total Broadband.

Cost: You have two choices with BT Vision - you can take out a subscription (from £7.34 a month for the first 3 months), or get the service without a subscription, and pay for the content that you watch. If you're taking out a subscription, you get a free BT Vision+ box hard disk recorder (until July 3rd! ), otherwise the box is £90. You can get full details and sign up to BT Vision at btvision.bt.com.
Requirements: BT Vision requires a BT Total Broadband connection and a BT Home Hub (available free with BT Total Broadband). For the video-on-demand content, you need a line speed of 2Mb or over. To check your line speed, go to www.bt.com/btbroadband

Switch to BT Total Broadband and get a free BT Home Hub and BT Vision

With BT Total Broadband, you get a BT Home Hub (the wi-fi broadband modem that's needed to connect to the BT Vision service).

Details of getting BT's Broadband: www.bt.com/btbroadband
Want to switch broadband providers? See BT's switching guide.
Already got BT Broadband? Get BT Vision from btvision.bt.com

BT Vision Review

The Radio and Telly Team had their BT Vision box installed in February 2007. As well as the following review, you can also listen to our audio review in 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, it's self-install.

The BT Home Hub has to be physically connected to both a phone line (for Broadband) and the BT Vision+ box. If your Home Hub isn't near the TV and a phone line, you can make use of special HomePlugs to send data over your home's mains wiring.

The BT Vision set-top box is connected to the TV via a SCART lead or HDMI lead, and to the BT Home Hub via a standard Ethernet RJ45 cable.

For more on installation, go to get.btvision.bt.com

The BT Vision+ 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 hardware problems.

BT Vision V-Box
The BT Vision+ Box, manufactured by Philips

We have a special page dedicated to the BT Vision+ 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 you'll need to use on the remote: 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 are a number of ways of searching for everything - searching films by genre, TV shows by TV channel, A-Z listings, and a free-form text search.

This search 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.

BT Vision Search
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.

BT Vision EPG
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 in the first few months perhaps a little small, but we've seen the collection grow month-on-month.

Our most-used service at the moment, is 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. Vision Replay currently offers on demand content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

Music Video download
Downloading TV programmes from BBC On Demand, on a BT Vision box

Review Summary

We're pretty impressed with BT Vision - the service is easy to use, with the option to sign up to get all you can watch on subscription, or to choose pay-as-you-view, it's flexible and good value for money.

If you have a question, first check out our BT Vision FAQ, then if your question's not answered, please ask in our forum 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.

BT Vision: On Demand Content

The top question we're asked, is "what on demand content is available on BT Vision?". We've created a page covering BT Vision Content, but here's a quick summary:

On Demand Movies

Loads of films priced either £1.99 or £2.99 for a 24 hour rental. Here are some sample titles:

Action & Adventure: Including Jaws, The Matrix, Hunt for Red October, Hulk, Bourne Identity, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean
Classics: Including The God, the Bad and the Ugly, Dirty Harry, Psycho and Pink Panther
Comedy: Including: East is East, Lost in Translation, Love Actually, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Break Up, Withnail & I
Drama: Including: A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Dancing, Forrest Gump, United 93
Family: Including Addams Family Values, Babe, Cats and Dogs, E.T, The Grinch
Horror: Including : An American Haunting Friday the 13th Parts 2 and 3, The Gift, Tremors
Romance: Including Blue Crush, Wuthering Heights, Frankie and Johnny, The Wedding Planner
Sci-Fi & Fantasy: Including Dune, Explorers, Back to the Future, Fifth Element, Hulk, Mad Max
Thriller: Including An American Haunting, Hannibal, Eyes Wide Shut, Miami Vice, Training Day, Patriot Games

High Definition: From September 2008, a number of HD films are available for download over Broadband with BT Vision. At launch, a small number of films are available.

On Demand TV Programmes

Live 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) content is available from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 as well as Five.

Comedy: Black Books Series 1, Spaced Series 1, Red Dwarf Series 1, Father Ted Series 1, Little Britain Series 1 and 2, Trigger Happy TV Series 2, Peep Show Series 1, South Park Series 1, plus classics like Porridge and Open All Hours
Drama: Nip Tuck, Shameless, Queer as Folk, Doc Martin, Doctor Who Series 1, Bleak House, Elizabeth
Documentaries: Battlefield Britain, History of Britain Series 1, Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Monarchy, Conspiracy
Entertainment: Deal or No Deal, Wife swap, Pimp My Ride, Boiling Point
Lifestyle: 10 Years Younger, Jamie's School Dinners, Rick Stein's Food Heroes, Himalayas with Michael Palin, SAS Survival Secrets
TV Replay: BBC: BBC on demand shows from the last 7 days are available
ITV Net Player: ITV's on demand service. Get your fix of Emmerdale and Coronation Street from 99p a show, or all content from the last 7 days for £3 a month
TV Replay 4 on Demand: Programmes from Channel 4's on demand service 4oD, including Countdown, Hollyoaks, Dispatches, Deal or No Deal, Relocation, Relocation, Relocation, Skins, The Daily Show, The Hustlers, The Market. Shows are £0.99 each
Demand Five: 8-day catch--up on The Gadget Show, Home and Away, Neighbours, etc
Premium TV: Desperate Housewives Series 3, ER Series 3, The O.C Series 4, Ugly Betty Series 1

Kids

Content from BBC Hits, Cartoon Network, Disney, Disney Playhouse, Baby TV and Nickelodeon. Last time we counted, around 850 kids shows. Prices for most items are 49p.

Programmes including a good selection of series and episodes of: Basil Brush, Dexter's Lab, Rugrats, Spongebob SquarePants, Teletubbies, Balamory, Bob the Builder and Postman Pat

Music

Music videos, concerts and Music Extras.

Music videos: 32 pop , 34 Urban and Dance, 44 Rock and Indie and 53 Retro Classics videos, priced 29p.
Concerts: around 20 concerts priced at £1.99, including ELO, Heart, Joe Jackson, Madness, Oasis, Prince, Simply Red and The Who

Sport on BT Vision

BT Vision Sport offered content provided by sports channel Setanta Sports. In the 2008/9 season, the service showed 46 live FA Premier League games, 242 same-day Barclays Premier League matches, 60 live Scottish Premier League games, live Nationwide Conference games and other European football Leagues, 125 Football League and Carling Cup matches, plus live boxing, darts, Magners League rugby, PGA golf, cricket and more.

Setanta Sports went into administration on 23 June 2009. It's not clear at this time what sports services will be offered by BT Vision moving forward

More on BT Vision Sport

Interactive games

15 games including Pub Quiz, Hangman, Solitaire, Patience, Sudoku. Typically £0.50 for a 30 minute rental

PODCAST FEATURE: 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 | What is FrequencyCast? | Add us to iTunes

BT Vision News

Here are a few news updates on BT Vision. Sign up to our email newsletter to be notified of anything new.

Jun 2009: Setanta Sports enters administration - More
Oct 2008: Demand Five online - Content from Five - See our Blog
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 in
Sept 2006: Audio and Video podcast content from BT Podshow is to feature on the BT Vision Platform. More