Tiscali Officially bought by Carphone Warehouse!!

pdoherty76 · 08-05-2009, 10:22 AM

Great news for Tiscali TV users. Carphone warehouse has finally bought Tiscali UK:

Carphone Warehouse Makes Bid For Italian Internet Provider Tiscali Sky Sources Say | Business | Sky News

And they have worked fast, theres already a link on the Tiscali homepage taking you to a page that welcomes Tiscali customers to Talk Talk:

Broadband and phone essentials package from TalkTalk

No specific mention of the TV service but talk talk have been saying they want a IPTV service and have already been talking to companies about set top boxes. So now they have the IPTV backbone from Tiscali.

Could they take on SKY, VM and BT?

stuartmacrae · 08-05-2009, 6:11 PM

I have the bundled Tiscali TV, phone & broadband package and am disappointed they've sold out - the price was brilliant & there was no line rental charge. Talk Talk don't offer broadband tv, and tiscali had been planning HD services in the future. As a mac user too, Tiscali were one of the few compatible providers. It's now back to having to research alternatives, the hassle of setting it all up again, and the possibility of hidden costs like needing to switch back to a BT line - potentially £127? A nightmare. Where next - Sky? Almost twice the price. Pity I'm not an MP & can't charge it to the taxpayer!

pdoherty76 · 08-05-2009, 6:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartmacrae

I have the bundled Tiscali TV, phone & broadband package and am disappointed they've sold out - the price was brilliant & there was no line rental charge. Talk Talk don't offer broadband tv, and tiscali had been planning HD services in the future. As a mac user too, Tiscali were one of the few compatible providers. It's now back to having to research alternatives, the hassle of setting it all up again, and the possibility of hidden costs like needing to switch back to a BT line - potentially £127? A nightmare. Where next - Sky? Almost twice the price. Pity I'm not an MP & can't charge it to the taxpayer!

Dont speak too soon...whathifi are reporting that talktalk are giving us a new EPG on 25th May and then 1080i HD following that:

Carphone Warehouse to buy Tiscali - home cinema news - whathifi.com

Quote:

The revamped interface has been designed in 16:9 to take advantage of flat panel displays, features more-intuitive browse and search tools, and has an icon-based front-end rather than the old list-style layout of yore.
The company also says that 1080i HD content is on the way too. The new interface goes live on May 25.

This is the best thing that could have happened.

stuartmacrae · 08-05-2009, 7:00 PM

Now that is starting to sound better. If they can deliver 1080i content that would be awesome. Although no doubt over HDMI rather than component for those of us with older Sony projectors...that said, the new interface might save my channel scrolling thumb!

I wonder if this new HD content is just over the same set-top box...I'd probably have to get a HD Fury 2 to be able to connect it with my projector...then again, am running out of inputs what with a bluray player, an upscaling DVD player & an X-Box plugged into it already. Ye olde style Tiscali neatly plugged into the projectors video option - not pretty, but easy.

rn143 · 25-05-2009, 9:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdoherty76

Dont speak too soon...whathifi are reporting that talktalk are giving us a new EPG on 25th May and then 1080i HD following that:

No new EPG today, did anyone else receive it?

stuartmacrae · 25-05-2009, 9:39 PM

Nope!

rn143 · 26-05-2009, 12:18 PM

Nothing today. Do any of the MKs know when this new EPG will be released? I'm looking forward to it in hope that it will turn off the Tiscali+ fan when it's on standby.

pdoherty76 · 26-05-2009, 2:26 PM

No sign of the new epg here either. A bank holiday was a strange time to schedule it anyway.

MK_Brett · 27-05-2009, 7:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rn143

Nothing today. Do any of the MKs know when this new EPG will be released? I'm looking forward to it in hope that it will turn off the Tiscali+ fan when it's on standby.

Not entirely sure how you think an EPG (electronic program guide) change will do something to your fan??
A change to the fan behaviour would require a s/ware update.

Regards

Brett

rn143 · 27-05-2009, 8:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MK_Brett

Now entirely sure how you think an EPG (electronic program guide) change will do something to your fan??
A change to the fan behaviour would require a s/ware update.

Regards

Brett

Won't the new EPG come via a s/ware update? MK Chris said, on another thread, that there was an update due soon to fix the noisy fan problem. So I assume the new EPG will contain some bug fixes.

pdoherty76 · 27-05-2009, 6:01 PM

Well something strange just happened.

I turned on the tiscali box and it wouldnt start, then a message came on the screen saying "Does not recognise software version, if problem persists please call customer support".

Never happened before, so my guess is they tried to update the box and the software was duff.

Also had a very rare outage of internet last night between 1am and 5am. Was saying failed to authenticate.

Theres clearly something afoot but as usual its been bungled

STdrez625 · 27-05-2009, 11:52 PM

It will be good if they do get a new EPG and some Hd services. However it may be too little too late. The package price is good. One thing still bugs me though, I can record say a docu on Civilaztion and get asked for my pin NO, and yet I record "PhuckPigs on Heat" and no PIN is required. I am sick of the PIn system and want it switched off completely, along with a way of recording programmes directly to my computer Hard disk rather than the Tiscali hard disk.
In my previous experience of Carhone WareHouse they had the most disgraceful CS of any company I have ever experienced, they will have to be exemplary to wash away that stain on there record.

pdoherty76 · 02-06-2009, 3:50 PM

Tiscali have sent customers an email today saying that the new EPG will be rolled out on 10th June.

There will be subtitles and the EPG itself will be HD, although the programming wont be yet.

stuartmacrae · 12-08-2009, 10:22 PM

Looking like a VOD HD service for Tiscali in the pipeline rather than proper HD channels. Can't see how Tiscali TV can survive with more included HD channels arriving on V+ & freeview HD in the near future...

paulderbo · 17-09-2009, 3:23 PM

Had a worrying call from Talk Talk last night.

As an existing Tiscali customer, they called to see if I would like to transfer over to one of the Talk Talk packages early. I asked about Tiscali TV and was told that it was likely that the service would be discontinued in the near future (they couldn't tell me what 'near' meant though, 3 months, 12 months...?)!

Don't know whether this is just the sales team trying to get people onto a more profitable package for them (the package they were offering had no TV, only had free off peak calls and no free international calls), or whether it's true.

All very concerning!

**LV426** · 17-09-2009, 3:34 PM

Sales droid on targets, I'd say. I had one telling me that my current Tiscali BroadBand+Phone+Anytime Calls was going to be discontinued. I told him I'd change if and when it was.....

Tiscali (still being run as a separate operation at present) have communicated no such thing.

stuartmacrae · 17-09-2009, 4:27 PM

Holy hdmi cables, you're kidding me! I recently paid extra to upgrade to Tiscali plus, so I will be mightily cheesed off if they cancel the tv package. There are other considerations about the line rental & potential installation charges if I need to move to another provider. And will Talk Talk be compatible with a mac?

MK_Chris · 21-09-2009, 10:41 AM

Hi,

I'm not aware of any changes to our service, certainly not a discontinuation, unless you recieve official notification from us, I would say there's little to pay attention to,

Regards

Chris

drutz · 21-10-2009, 1:07 PM

Have not long joined Tiscali and signed up for the whole package. Engineer came out Monday and he had a trainee with him saying the demand for tv etc was increasing and they needed more engineers as I was his 6th call of the day so can't see talk talk getting rid of this as it seems to be proving popular.

pdoherty76 · 21-10-2009, 6:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drutz

Have not long joined Tiscali and signed up for the whole package. Engineer came out Monday and he had a trainee with him saying the demand for tv etc was increasing and they needed more engineers as I was his 6th call of the day so can't see talk talk getting rid of this as it seems to be proving popular.

Tiscali TV will never be popular until they ADVERTISE IT.

I have never seen an advert for tiscali tv, ever.

In theory it should be incredibly popular as it is the best value TV service available and requires nothing but a landline.

I had an install in august last year and the engineer told me they had just recruited another 20 installation engineers in the manchester area alone because the service was so popular, but that doesn't tally with the official figures of between 60,000 and 100,000 users.

Anybody know what the recent figures are?