I thought I should come on here for Tiscali's defence. I've found it to be a great system. Having used Sky for a few years, I ended up having to find an alternative due to moving house in an enclosed area where a satellite signal couldn't be received and cable wasn't available.

I read about Tiscali TV and BT Vision, I didn't know much about video on-demand and it didn't sound very appealing to me personally, but Tiscali offered most of the channels I watched on Sky down the phone line, so this sounded good for us.

It wasn't until the system was installed I realised how brilliant VoD is and how much Tisali has to offer. I found more than enough TV shows to watch on-demand, and it's brilliant being able to make a huge playlist of music videos and have them play random, being able to skip past a track you don't want to watch etc, or rewind or fast-forward as if watching a DVD.

The Tiscali+ box also has some well implemented PVR features, the pausing and rewinding works well, I've found myself using these a lot. I believe it can record three Freeview channels received via aerial, or two while watching a third. It's a shame it only can record one programme from the DSL channels, but I understand this is a limitation is due to the phone-lines we have in this country. Hopefully ADSL2+ will sort this out when it becomes widespread.

The picture quality of the VoD and the DSL channels isn't perfect, slightly worse than Sky on the same 40-inch LCD TV, but it's never anywhere near bad enough to detract from viewing.

The menus are easy to navigate, but sometimes feel slightly unresponsive, so I have to slow myself down as the menus can take a bit of time to catch up. I've gotten used to it now.

All in all I'm much happier with the service than I thought I would be. The VoD content, including the Catch-Up services, and the PVR functions means I can watch things when I choose rather than being stuck to the TV schedules. I find the system better to use than Sky's with much more content when you get past the number of actual channels. Recommended to anyone.

I would recommend Tiscali as an option which isn't really advertised as much as other providers. My Broadband speed has increased (x 4), I've not had one crash or system freeze to date. The TV service is awesome and you don't get lumbered with 100's of channels you'll never watch. The VOD service is comprehensive and keeps the whole family entertained. Along with the phone service we're saving over £50 a month on what we had before.

Loads of VOD content.
Catch Up service
Good Value for Money
Series Link
You can not tell difference between Digital channels and IPTV Overall, Great Value for Money