BT Vision: a first look

While Sky is busy plotting BT’s downfall with what’s expected to be a tempting broadband offer later this summer, BT is ready to kick back where it hurts.

With BT Vision, BT will complete its transformation from phone company to quadplay provider, the awful buzzword for companies offering phone, mobile, broadband and TV.

At the heart of the offering is a set-top box, with many of the features of the wonderful Sky+ and surprisingly a few improvements. That said, Sky still has some major advantages that BT Vision will struggle to overcome.

What’s in the box?

Made by Philips, it’s a hard disk recorder, with a 160GB drive for 80 hours of recording. It’s got two Freeview receivers so you can record one programme while watching another.

Interesting sockets include an HDMI output, making the device High Definition ready, an Ethernet socket and a USB port. There won’t be any HD content at launch, but it looks likely to follow.



What does it do?

Firstly it’s a Freeview box and won’t cost you any extra to watch its 32 digital terrestrial channels. Secondly it’s a hard disk recorder, so you can pause, rewind and schedule recordings of any television broadcasts. With its two Freeview tuners you can watch one channel while recording another.

Thirdly, and the feature BT will sell hardest, it will offer video on demand supplied via your broadband connection. This will range from last night’s Eastenders, to documentaries, kids’ shows and rock concerts. Up to 100 hours of BBC content is expected to be available for seven days after broadcast for free. Some but not all commercial channel content will be charged for. Subscription packages include Comedy, Drama, Kids and Documentaries.

You’ll see a trailer of your chosen video before you decide to buy it, which you do using a PIN code. The video then displays straight away, with no need to download it first. 1.5Mbps of the customer’s broadband connection is reserved for these video downloads.

The video on demand downloads don’t count towards your monthly broadband usage allowance, which is as low as 2GB on the cheapest option.

The EPG (electronic programme guide) looks nice, appearing as a translucent screen over what you’re currently watching and not interrupting the sound. A short-cut menu lets you shift to any day of the week, and recordings (including series links, to record all shows in a series) can be set from this screen. Programme information, written by BT’s editorial team appears automatically when you highlight a show.

Can I get one?

BT won’t be more specific than “Autumn” for a launch date, and you’ll also need to be a BT Broadband customer equipped with one of its new Home Hub white boxes (a “big iPod” as one BT source wishfully put it). The Home Hub is basically a router with support for Wi-Fi and VoIP.

You’ll have to connect the set-top box to the Home Hub via an Ethernet cable, although BT says there is built in Wi-Fi which will be “enabled within months”, letting you place the Hub in one room and the set-top box in another.

Part 2: How much will it cost and is it any good?