HomeChoice and Video Networks

HomeChoice and Video Networks

PAGE CENSORED BY VIDEO NETWORKS/HOMECHOICE!! SEE here for details!
This page contains information about Video Networks Ltd and HomeChoice ... a great idea sadly limited by the ineptitude of the companies carrying it out. I cover the good and the bad sides and my 6+ month ordeal in trying to get a working system. If you are interested in getting the system installed or are interested in the VOD (Video on Demand) market in the UK, then you should read on.

My Saga

The 80 page service log!
Censorship
Other people who've had problems

If you have any feedback mail me at videonetwrk@yahoo.com.

HomeChoice is one of the first VOD systems in the world. It has an extensive array of programming, all of which can be reached at the touch of a button on the remote control. It has films, programming and music videos.
Films usually become available around 6 months after they become available to rent on video. Examples of recent films on HomeChoice are 28 Days, Scream 3, Honest and the Virgin Suicides. Unfortunately the choice doesn't really compare to what is available on Sky Box Office, however its great for afficionados of older films, and when you 'rent' a film you can watch it as many times as you want within 24 hours.
The programming is varied and includes the latest news from the BBC and ITN, the latest EastEnders, early Friends and ER, BBC Nature programs, Babylon 5, etc. There seems to be very little that has been created within the last year or so.
There is a very wide choice of music videos including the current top 30 and many superb less-commerical videos that are very rarely shown on stations such as MTV and the Box. It also possible to place videos into a playlist.
Good Points:

You can watch what you want when you want - its one of the first services of its type in the world.
You can use it for 24/7 internet at ~112 Kbps for an additional monthly fee
It is the only way of watching decent TV programs outside of primetime hours.
Very impressive to show your mates

Bad Points:

See 'the saga' above. Whats the point in any service if the provider can't get it to work?
The picture quality is not very good. While it is marginally better than VHS, very obvious artifacts are present. How bad these are seems to depend on the quality of encoding of the material. They seems to manifest themselves as artifacts around edges - very rarely or never have I seen the blockyness which is typical of DCT compression (eg MPEG). State of the art compression techniques can do a much better job than this with 2Mbps bandwidth, but these would have made the STBs much more expensive and were probably not available when HomeChoice first launched.
The internet service has a few problems - such as its use of Network Address Translation, and sporadic problems with speed and mail delivery. These didn't affect me very much when I had the service.