Vodafone TV & SKY

[Big-D]

I bought 2 Vodafone TV Units a week ago and installed them.

Up until this morniong I could view Channel 5 (previously The Box)  withouit any issues.

The STB reset for some reason ( I assume an automatic update) and since then I now need to "Subscribe" to Channel 5 and other Free-T0-Air channels.

I already have a Sky Subscription, with two "add-a-Room" add-ons, using Sky HDi boxes, and don't intend to pay an additional $50 a month to get the Free-To-Air and Freview channels on my Vodafone TVs!

The value of these Vodafone TVs has deminished significantly in my opinion since this morning.

Not a good way to keep your customer-base Vodafone!!!

What has suddenly changed???

[johnr · Accepted solution]

@Big-D  Some Sky Channels were free for a while (over Christmas) and this ended today as simple as that

Channel5 is not FTA and cause you have the Sky units does not mean you get it free on Vodafone TV

The FTA channels have not changed and are still free

@grantt 

[bpbary]

 3rd day with this STB,Well wondered why I was getting sky on this untill today

no worries just switched back to sky box I have some reservations and gripes and issues

free to air channels can be recorded on every other device I have except this "due to pattner restrictions thic content cannot be recorded" think that is what it said free to air is exactly that so if there are no restrictions by the original provider on any other device what gives Vodafone the right to restrict recording on free to air  content

VFTV device went into standby whilst watching

whilst watching tvnz on demand Emergence back to back episodes the unit  started playing audio only 3 times in a row  first time i turned the unit off then on again then the  next time i tried rewinding  back to the start which seemed to work after a few goes now I find it hard to make a judgment here as to hardware or the very poor editingby tvnz inserting adverts with evident  video corruption in the edits which would cause sync loss on some devices  so I don't really know what is up here

the device runs rather hot   it is in a ventilated area I have no air con here 33C inside today with ranch slider open  box was at 43-45C

usb port but no option to record to external media  on a per recording basis press R submenu(icon  cloud icon usb)

I wish there was an option for menu overlay transparency and possibly menu text colour 

apart from this I think the device is great but could be better

love to hear if anyone else has had the  issues I had watching on tvnz demand(is the device faulty or is the video file at fault

Cheers,Brent

[BlakeNZ]

The Vodafone TV is not a traditional recorder, The recording happens on Vodafone's servers rather than the box in your home, different permisison is needed.

However for me the trade off is worth it, because I love how for a lot of shows you don't even need to record them, you can just go backwards through the guide and watch them (some shows don't allow this also but still).

The box does get a bit warm but I think that's fine. 45 isnt too bad.

The TVNZ app just got a new update, perhaps try it again now.

[KenKissling]

How do I know what a subsciption to BBC news will cost?

[grantt]

Hi @KenKissling 

You will need the Entertainment package, which is $25.50.. which also requires you have the Sky Starter package.

[Gfunk]

Hi @johnr
Just curious to know how we were supposed to know that those channels were free for a while, and that they'd be turned off today?
Did I miss an email or other notification? The vtv UI certainly didn't tell me they were about to expire.

I was very much enjoying watching the content on those channels.

[johnr]

@Gfunk  The media release from VodafoneNZ and I also got an email from Vodafone about it

The other hint was you were not paying for them while they were free

[johnr]

Here was the information posted on Geekzone

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=254293&page_no=68

[Big-D]

@grantt

Thanks for that clarification.

As I’d had Vodafone broadband installed and purchased both VTV units within the “Free” period, I wasn’t aware of it ever being different.

I didn’t however receive any notification from Vodafone via email or on the STB, which may have been good from a “Customer Communications” perspective.

Thanks again.
Donald