Broadband & Tv Recommendations

[chipfork 10]

We're with Virgin Media and for what we need are paying over the odds. I've rang to find out the process for cancellation and the call centre offered their best available deal, a £3 a month discount on our current plan 😲 We did then get put through to another team to confirm the cancellation policy and see if they could do any better. It seems gone are the days when they'd find a loyalty deal and despite being with Telewest/Virgin for nearly 20 years that's as good a deal as they can offer.

 

We're looking for recommendations, I've been exploring the options but interested to hear what others in Sheffield are using and how they've found it. Below is a bit of background on what we have and some potential challenges. We'd prefer to keep the Virgin broadband and go to Freeview for TV but then there's factoring a new aerial and a PVR. BT, NOW TV and Plusnet offer fibre in our area, some without any install charges and the all-in cost is considerably cheaper. Favouring NOW TV at the moment as there's a TV bundle, not sure if it has a PVR built into their box though.

 

• We have the Mixit TV bundle, we don't watch a huge amount of TV and Freeview would be more than adequate. We do need to record though. Note: we don't have a roof aerial, it came down in the winds many years ago.
• We have the M100 broadband and because I work away much of the time this is now overkill, we just need something reasonably fast and reliable.
• We have the Talk Weekends phone deal but don't have a home phone plugged in, we have it because it's cheaper to have the service added. We use mobile phones which have more than enough minutes. Note: We don't have a physical telephone line, that got tangled in a tree some years back and BT removed it from the telephone pole.

 

 

[Chaddamp 0]

I'm a full time carer for my lovely wife who has Multiple Sclerosis,when we were forced to give up our employment,and subsequently my wife can't walk ,drive ,do simple every day things,I started to shop for better prices on every thing .Eventually we went with Talktalk for land line and internet .THEN … I came across moneysavingexpert.com .It's saved us a fortune so my advice...Try moneysavingexpert.com .hope you get this cos powers from above have barred several posts with no answer why?????

[Guest]

NOW TV is simply a streaming service, you can't record TV.

 

Use broadband checker to see what's available. Because in Sheffield it really does depend on the area. I'm pretty sure a lot of Woodseats is still in the dark ages as despite the exchange being cabled for fibre to the cabinet years ago they've never updated the cabinets.

 

Check what you want to record, if you want it fairly quickly it might be fine with a smart TV so you can get iPlayer, ITV Hub etc etc.

[Annie Bynnol 612]

TalkTalk have been bombarding us to upgrade to a Superfast discounted 160mb service.

We are already on TalkTalk.

Outreach(BT) could connect to it. 

After 7 hours of phoning am now back to 50 at a much cheaper rate than originally.

I have boxes   and cables. Can I do anything with them?

[chipfork 10]

Chaddamp. thanks I've used moneysavingexpert and comparethemarket's bundle checker for deals, they all seem to have a similar feed as the offers are much the same.

 

probedb, thanks I did suspect NOW TV would just be broadband and a very simple TV box. We've been looking at some Smart TV deals and maybe recording to the TV PVR is the way forward albeit limited to the TV tuner's channels. Much of what we watch is recorded so I'm wondering if the investment in a Freeview PVR and a new aerial is the way forward. 

 

We can get fibre from all the other suppliers. Interestingly the deal checkers are quoting average 35Mb for some services and when you check the supplier web sites they are significantly less. We don't download or stream much at all, I do work from home at least 1 day a week so reliability is more relevant.

[zach 235]

Although, I don't use it, my telly does all the recordings, set timers to record from Freesat or Freeview etc. All I have to do is add the storage to use the function. I don't have a TV recorder box so can't comment to the advantages...if any. I have noticed that the boxes are Freesat or Freeview but most have the catch up services. For my use I've found that the normal Freesat/Freeview and Amazon Prime via PC or the TV gives me enough to watch. That works out at £150 a year tax to the BBC and about £80 a year to Amazon. I thought the TV/Phone packages seem to be a bit expensive for what they are. I just kept my broadband seperate from my TV, not everyone's favorite but I get an 80/20 line from BT for a tad over £30 per month.

 

Check the broadband speed available at your postcode here  (Not sure how accurate these are) 

 

There are a lot more ways of getting and recording TV around the house such as HDHomerun but get the basics in place first. 

[alchresearch 214]

If it were me I would:

 

Get the TV aerial back in use.  Maybe mount it in the loft if you're in a strong signal area.

 

Buy a secondhand Freeview recorder box.   You can get one for as little as £20.  HUMAX would be my recommendation.

 

Go for the cheapest broadband only package and change in 12 months when they price hike.

[swarfendor437 14]

With TalkTalk. Not long after paying VLR (Value Line Rental) upfront about 18 months ago I was quickly informed by them that it was a legacy product and went with the Top fast broadband offer at £25 a month. They said it would include a freeview box (YouView) which I did not want but they explained to me that it was part and parcel of the top speed bundle. I could not use the cables to connect to the powerline adapters they provided as too short, either from the TV wall socket or the router socket! Good job I had some spare CAT cable! Then last January we received a notice that they were going to charge £4 a month for the Box - I explained it was part of a bundle - they said it was never part of a bundle! Er Hum! So I disconnected the YouView Box even though they (Customer Service) said they were not going to charge. We now have a Humax purchased from John Lewis which also has a Netflix button but also under Freeview there are lots of other freeview channels (including some channels from around the world - recorded shows). The Humax box has good 5g channel wifi connectivity. We do have a roof aerial but I think you would be OK with one of these:

 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/tv-accessories/tv-aerials/one-for-all-sv-9215-flat-indoor-tv-aerial-21488736-pdt.html

[Ghozer 112]

Just cancel everything except the BB and Phone (for some reason VM make BB cheaper as part of a package with the phone line, even though phone-line isn't required (like DSL connections))

You shouldn't need a new aerial for freeview, that's a fallacy... only around 3% of people would have needed a new aerial, and they should be sorted by now with how long freeview's been out!

[swarfendor437 14]

2 hours ago, Ghozer said:

Just cancel everything except the BB and Phone (for some reason VM make BB cheaper as part of a package with the phone line, even though phone-line isn't required (like DSL connections))

You shouldn't need a new aerial for freeview, that's a fallacy... only around 3% of people would have needed a new aerial, and they should be sorted by now with how long freeview's been out!

In his original post the OP stated they don't have a TV aerial - it came down in a storm. I suggested the aerial above as on the portable we couldn't get a signal due to 4g telephone interference.