Thought I'd write a brief note on the TalkTalk YOuView package which I signed up for and which arrived/was enabled earlier in the week.
I've been busy recently, so not had that much time to play with it as yet, but initial observations are :
As an existing TalkTalk customer, when you sign up your signal/noise margin is increased. I've been on a 6db profile for about 2 years, this suddenly changed to 9db a day before the YouView box and new modem/router arrived.
This meant my synch speed on the existing DSL-2780 dropped from a typical 20.5K to 18.7K.
This is well documented (and complained about!) on the TalkTalk forums, though I understand the logic that it wil make the service more reliable. Still annoying though!
Although it's effect was less than the profile drop, what was a bit more annoying to me was the new modem/router. I suppose I'd expected that a new. up to date modem would give me faster line speeds than my older equipment.
In fact, the supplied Huawei HG533 synched slower than the DSL-2780 that it replaced. A further drop from 18.7K to 17.3K.
So, what have I gained for a 3500 drop in speed?
Well, the YouView box interface seems well designed. The concept of an EPG is fairly ubiquitous now, you scroll forwards, perhaps selecting and marking future programmes to record. What I like is that you can go backwards in time in the same EPG, and select a programme from two days ago, which will launch the BBC iPlayer (or whatever) and you can watch the programme instantly.
It's slightly disappointing that when selecting a programme from the past, there is a very noticable delay, and an obvious loading of the iPlayer application. It's still quite usable - it's not a significant delay - but I feel it'd be nicer/feel more integrated if it was more immediate.
I've not had the tie to play with any of the other on-demand or subscription services as yet.
Summary : So far, I like it, despite the loss of bandwidth!
Ian
ps *grumbles at loss of bandwidth*