So we are moving and we'll unlikely take our Sky dish and box with us so....

Looking at Swisscom and Cablecom TV packages

I have no idea which to go for which is best etc... best packages, service, best english language TV, best interface on the box (i'll miss Sky+ but happier not to line Murdochs pockets any further)

So any comments, advice warnings to help me choose

thanks very much

Cablecom has much better support in my experience. Swisscom has been a disaster with my phone.

yayy I got a reply! thanks!

Since posting this I have found out cablecom does not support my area but a local TV company calle Mauer TV or something plus Swisscom does

I know I could search for this but I am ill therefore I am being lazy do swisscom boxes come with a pause, record, rewind sky+ like system?

I had problems with both

I found Swisscom's customer service was better than Cablecom's on average - but Swisscom's wasn't perfect (I dealt with one stunningly incompetent person, who took one painful hour to finally admit they had no idea about the product I'd ordered) and Cablecom's wasn't completely dreadful (one really bright and helpful person who managed to sort something out in five minutes what four other technicians hadn't in a week). After the rather painful installation and setup period though, everything has worked flawlessly.

I think Cablecom's offers are better value for money, but the Swisscom package and box has been very good (though it should be at that price...) and it has all the English language TV I want.

If you get Swisscom TV basic - no
If you get Swisscom TV plus - yes

You will probably want the plus package anyway, as you need that for most of the English-language channels.

PS get well soon!

YOu can if you want

http://www.swisscom.ch/res/tv/angebot/index.htm

The packages are here on the English Swisscom website

Are you purely looking for TV or for phone and internet as well? If you are looking for all three then the vivo casa packages makes sense.

http://www.swisscom.ch/res/kombi-ang...Id=en#vivocasa



http://www.swisscom.ch/res/tv/angebo...oraussetzungen

You will need a DSL connection if you want to use Swisscom TV since all the TV comes through the internetz.

http://www.swisscom.ch/res/tv/angebo...oraussetzungen

Cablecom is much cheaper and has faster internet. It wasn't available where I was when I got Swisscom but is now...so I can't wait to switch over and get 5 times faster internet for less money

We have Swisscom for internet and TV - it has all BBC, ITV and Channel 4 "stable" channels like E4, Film4, More4 etc

I find it very good to be honest - the plus package is pretty good and has all the SkyPlus features - record two channels and watch one, series link, live pausing etc.

They have good online movie choices too - order with the push of a button of chf3 or so

Can't comment on cablecom - but I'm very happy with Swisscom

I've got both, well not Cablecom rather WWZ, a cable tv provider from Zug.


Advantage Swisscom: is recording menu and options. For example you can log onto Swisscom's website and set your box to record any program you wish from anywhere in the world. Not something someone would need every day but there has been a few times I was at work and remembered I forgot to set it to record a show I wanted to watch so I just logged on from work and did it remotely. In addition to being able to edit the recording times you can also program the channels via the Internet as well (add, remove or rearrange channels). I set up the whole list of channels and all my preferences via my computer instead of the box.

Very stable system (see disadvantages cable tv)

Disadvantage Swisscom: Reception, from day 1 my Swisscom TV reception has never equalled my cable tv provider's quality. The first day Swisscom announced they were making TV available I ordered it, those early days (first year) were horrible. Often the sound didn't match up with the picture. They worked it out finally but it required me to abandon ISDN and go back to analog phone service. Analog allowed me to use a faster DSL which gave me better tv quality. As an incentive to switch to analog Swisscom was nice enough to pay me CHF 250.- for new phones and did the conversion (technician came to my place for the install) free of charge.

Channels that are broadcasting in two languages always revert back to the first sound track when changing channels. If you like to channel surf that means constantly having to hit the language selection button to see if the channel in question is broadcasting in English (very annoying).



Advantage cable TV: External hard drives..!! I've got a 1 TB drive hooked up to my recorder and can record hundreds of hours of programing, many times more than the Swisscom TV achieve. Plus if you absolutely don't want to erase the drive you can always go out and buy a new one.

More HD channels.

NEVER having to hit the language button to see if a program is broadcasting in English. Once you've set the system preferences to English you will have ENGLISH every time you switch to a channel that is broadcasting a program in English..!! (My most loved advantage of cable tv over Swisscom).

Disadvantages cable TV: System crashing/rebooting. Sometimes clicking something in the menu or changing channels would cause the system to crash and reboot, very annoying in the beginning but they seem to have most of the bugs worked out. It still crashes from time to time but at least now it's only once every month or two.


Summary: To put it in a nutshell, phone and cable providers do best what they were designed to do (Swisscom=phones, cable TV=television). Sure they've tweaked their technologies to included each other's services but when you get right down to it, a phone company still serves the best phone service and a cable tv company, the best tv reception.