True Visions/ubc Tv Waste Of Money

[GREGORYNINE]

I'm now in the 23rd day without True Visions/UBC TV. My decoder box (the third one now) doesn't work, I have waited on hold more than 30 minutes three times for service, their website is down for repair, and their service guys always come hours late, if at all. The last service guy called me 7 times and changed the appointment 5 times before he actually came (2 hours late). That time it actually worked for a whole hour before it broke again. So nothing seems to work with this company....but the invoice always arrives on time. I've had nothing but problems lately with this company. It was fine from 2005 to 2007, but now it seems to have fallen off a cliff.

It seems the cheap lousy controller boxes are a primary problem, but I've had inconsistent reception for 4 months now. The last 23 days nothing. Now the new code I'm getting is "E16-04 Service is currently scrambled".

What shall I do? There's no alternative in Thailand. Aren't monopolies great! I'm sure government officials are being kept happy, and the owners are making huge money...but they've forgotten the customers.

Any ideas?

G9

[tigerbeer]

dear OP,

save lots of money by giving up UBC. i did it years ago and never been happy ever since. i download whatever i want to watch

[retiredusn]

Other options are available, take a look at Dream tv out of the philippines which is now legal for sale in Thailand. (taiwansat.com)

[bungy007]

Other options are available, take a look at Dream tv out of the philippines which is now legal for sale in Thailand. (taiwansat.com)

I have two cable tv options here in Chonburi (it depends on which part of Chonburi you live in). Whilst the huge selection isn't there they do have enough to live with - BBC World, CNN, the hugely moronic Fox News, the exceedingly good though pro Arab Al Jazeera (biased almost as much as Fox News - so both ends of the spectrum), three or four sports channels, fashion channel, french, japanese, german tv programs, pop music and a couple of film programms that aren't censored to death to create massed pulp. all for the grand price of 300bt per month. We do have issues with ABC Australia Broadcasting Company as the picture sometimes freezes though the soundtrack continues. A quick telephone call to their staff fixes this in two mins flat!

UBC/True Vision - waste of time and money!

[GREGORYNINE]

Other options are available, take a look at Dream tv out of the philippines which is now legal for sale in Thailand. (taiwansat.com)

According to Dream TV's website, it's only available in the Philippines.

[patklang]

I love to watch football and for 2,000 baht a month that is worth it.I used to go to the local bars for the matches and i was spending 1000-1500 baht a night,and i was watching sat and sunday so i have a bargain.Also its not too easy to watch the midweek games at 0.300am at a bar.so i speand about 2-3000 baht at weekend multiply that by 4 and you can see my huge savings with True

[Lite Beer]

I dumped True Visions over a month ago and do not regret it. Can download any programs I need , can watch BBC World, CNN etc online. I can even watch the English Premier League Football online and can download Match of the Day.

[JustAnotherFarang]

I dumped UBC well over 12 months ago and have no regrets whatsoever. With websites like The Box and UK Nova I can download all my own UK entertainment and for movies I use BT Torrent and Pirate Bay. For Premiership football I can watch it live online through Justin TV or Sopcast or just download Matcvh of the Day for the highlights.

With the money I haved saved I bought a Nintendo Wii with 4 remotes and nunchuks, a Wii Fit board and a lovely 32 inch widescreen LCD to play it all on. Who needs UBC and its low quality programming that you have to pay for ad nauseum when you can have an adsl connection and a smorgasbord of choices instead

Just my tuppence worth

JAF

Edited March 1, 2009 by JustAnotherFarang

[samuibeachcomber]

Other options are available, take a look at Dream tv out of the philippines which is now legal for sale in Thailand. (taiwansat.com)

I have two cable tv options here in Chonburi (it depends on which part of Chonburi you live in). Whilst the huge selection isn't there they do have enough to live with - BBC World, CNN, the hugely moronic Fox News, the exceedingly good though pro Arab Al Jazeera (biased almost as much as Fox News - so both ends of the spectrum), three or four sports channels, fashion channel, french, japanese, german tv programs, pop music and a couple of film programms that aren't censored to death to create massed pulp. all for the grand price of 300bt per month. We do have issues with ABC Australia Broadcasting Company as the picture sometimes freezes though the soundtrack continues. A quick telephone call to their staff fixes this in two mins flat!

UBC/True Vision - waste of time and money!

have to agree,if it was n't for the english premier league/champions league i'd ditch it too,but i prefer to watch at home rather than at a pub.

[patklang]

suppose i could use a streaming site for the live matches,and i do download the Championship matches because they are not live in Thailand/or most of them arent live.Not as good as watching it on true though

[JustAnotherFarang]

suppose i could use a streaming site for the live matches,and i do download the Championship matches because they are not live in Thailand/or most of them arent live.Not as good as watching it on true though

"You get what you paid for" springs to mind......... then quickly slips away when its True we are talking about as you get very little quality content to justify the price.

As an aside, you can watch live matches in a higher definition/resolution if your adsl is good enough........ and its as good a quality as UBCs reception.

Why pay for apples when you can take them from the trees :-)

JAF

Edited March 1, 2009 by JustAnotherFarang

[paulfr]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Torrents ?

Rapidshare ?

TV Station website ??

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

[Langsuan Man]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Google is your friend.

Torrents ?

Rapidshare ?

TV Station website ??

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

Duh, if you have an internet connection you can try the alternatives BEFORE you dump UBC..........

Edited March 1, 2009 by Langsuan Man

[lazygourmet]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Torrents ?

Rapidshare ?

TV Station website ??

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

Already two years ago, I gave up UBC;

I am using (and abusing...)

livestation and wwitv

they are bringing you online a combination of more than 3000 channels.

[paulfr]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Google is your friend.

Torrents ?

Rapidshare ?

TV Station website ??

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

Duh, if you have an internet connection you can try the alternatives BEFORE you dump UBC..........

Now that was quite a productive reply.

Thanks Langsuan Man

[namoo]

Get yourself an Apple Tv, Movie Rentals from $0.99 and tv show episodes to purchase from $0.99 also. Best thing I ever did regarding TV in Thailand. Straight forward to use and on a TOT 2mb connection shows/movies are ready to view in 3-6 mins. Not to mention the thousands of Video Podcasts on every subject you wish and Youtube access - all with a simple interface and remote from the comfort of your sofa.

Quality picture wise is as good as DVD unlike UBC broadcasts and also if you wish HD versions of the movies to purchase or rent are also available as are HD TV Episodes.

You can also obviously stream from your Itunes on your desktop/server/laptop.

Edited March 1, 2009 by namoo

[Digitalbanana]

What shall I do?

Any ideas?

G9

Have you tried not paying the bill or having a face to face with them? I would if they charge for such a crap service to you.

I must be one of the few people on this board who doesn't say dump True/UBC as for me it is the best service of the bunch. All the other sat tv systems don't crack it for me (I watch a lot of Premier League football) and the internet thingie isn't an alternative in Thailand where the net is so slow.

[katana]

TVU Player's another good one for live football.

http://www.tvunetworks.com/

[longball53098]

What shall I do?

Any ideas?

G9

Have you tried not paying the bill or having a face to face with them? I would if they charge for such a crap service to you.

I must be one of the few people on this board who doesn't say dump True/UBC as for me it is the best service of the bunch. All the other sat tv systems don't crack it for me (I watch a lot of Premier League football) and the internet thingie isn't an alternative in Thailand where the net is so slow.

I must be another one of the few that has great service from True with the few problems I have ever had in 3 years. The picture is always very good. I don't have a HD tv and the quality is very good. I do have a problem with the breaks for advertising on most channels the volume increases several db. But overall the True picture, service and content suit me just fine. I don't have a high speed internet that I can try/use and no cable so for me True provides me my tv fix.

[goofie]

Alot of the programs have been dubbed into Thai, like Discovery, Nat Geo, ESPN.......... They advertise them in ENGLISH, I would have assumed like in some other countries they have English Nat Geo, the orignal program and Dubbed Nat Geo. I can't find this. I have called 6 times, allways they can speak English well enough to say someone will call me back at 5pm. When I signed up, the person who answered the phone spoke very good english to do myapplication stuff. I get the feeling these people are a bunch of lyers. TRUE internet, they lie even more when trying to get info out of them.

Not my problem when Thais have no job later in the yeah. The mind boggles.....

Anyone know if htey have English Shows like this?

Picture qualitly is fine for me though.

[trd]

For English language on Discovery, NG etc just select the bilingual button on the remote control. It toggles between Thai and English. Best to set up the default language as English in the menu set up.

[guzzi850m2]

I'm now in the 23rd day without True Visions/UBC TV. My decoder box (the third one now) doesn't work, I have waited on hold more than 30 minutes three times for service, their website is down for repair, and their service guys always come hours late, if at all. The last service guy called me 7 times and changed the appointment 5 times before he actually came (2 hours late). That time it actually worked for a whole hour before it broke again. So nothing seems to work with this company....but the invoice always arrives on time. I've had nothing but problems lately with this company. It was fine from 2005 to 2007, but now it seems to have fallen off a cliff.

It seems the cheap lousy controller boxes are a primary problem, but I've had inconsistent reception for 4 months now. The last 23 days nothing. Now the new code I'm getting is "E16-04 Service is currently scrambled".

What shall I do? There's no alternative in Thailand. Aren't monopolies great! I'm sure government officials are being kept happy, and the owners are making huge money...but they've forgotten the customers.

Any ideas?

G9

Well I have UBC too and I am quite happy with it, a lot of interesting channels for me there. If you have problems with the "box of tricks" I suggest you take it direct to a UBC service center, sukhumvit road have one. I had one problem with mine after the house had been empty for 2 month and I came back, 5 minutes at the service center where they can check the box it was sorted, nerver had a problem since.

Downloading is not an option for me as my service provider is TOT, I pay for 2000kp/Sec, but often only have 3-400

Good luck with the TV watching whatever option you choose

[Digitalbanana]

TVU Player's another good one for live football.

http://www.tvunetworks.com/

But it is no where near as easy to watch as True UBC -(unless you want to see the FA Cup).

I just had another look at TVU, which I last used 2006 in China where the TV choices in English language are minimal to none. I cannot understand how this can be considered an alternative to buying a True UBC system in Thailand, it doesn't even come close. Maybe a support in times of dire need, but hardly easy to use esp in Thailand where bandwidth is so limited. I just wasted ten minutes on TVU and got nowhere.

[PattayaParent]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Torrents ?

Rapidshare ?

TV Station website ??

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

I'm sure you will be.

All my attempts to watch programmes from live streaming on my computer (mostly the footy) have been frustratingly very slow to full stop.

[Plus]

I've tried several live sport programs, they are all p2p shares, speed depends on the number of generous people who download live games on their computers and broadcast them for the rest of the world. With shitty connections here it's just not compatible to UBC, though sometimes it works ok.

For popular games there are several channels with varying quality but I always get a bunch of errors and time outs when I tried to watch them. By the time I find the one working half ok, half game is gone already.

Forget jumping channels when there are two-three games at the same time.

Kids can watch their Cartoon Networks and Spark 24/7, dubbed in Thai. There are plenty of cartoons online on Chinese sharing sites, but if everyone at school talks about latest Ben Ten contraption like Bahugan, those Chinese Mickey Mouse videos are useless. Japanese cartoons are also only Japanese, no Detective Conan or DragonBallZ everyone is talking about.

These two things - sports and latest cartoons - are what keeps our house hooked on UBC. Movies and series are easily downloadable months and years before they reach cable, but no Thai subs, which is a bummer for most Thais I know.

Dreamcast or whatever are illegal here. UBC/True has got the rights for channels like HBO/ESPN/Star and most of English football. On local cables you either don't get them or they are stolen from True itself. Serves them right, but it's still illegal.

[katana]

TVU Player's another good one for live football.

http://www.tvunetworks.com/

But it is no where near as easy to watch as True UBC -(unless you want to see the FA Cup).

I just had another look at TVU, which I last used 2006 in China where the TV choices in English language are minimal to none. I cannot understand how this can be considered an alternative to buying a True UBC system in Thailand, it doesn't even come close. Maybe a support in times of dire need, but hardly easy to use esp in Thailand where bandwidth is so limited. I just wasted ten minutes on TVU and got nowhere.

Fair enough. I use it outside Thailand where it works well for what I need it for, and hadn't tried it inside Thailand.

[thaimate]

i must admitt that true isnt the best system in the world ,but have never really had a problem and when i did years ago it was sorted straight away . as for getting stuff of the internet ,when you have a familly forget it ,son wants cartoons ,wife lukes the news ,i like series .much easier to have a tv in the front room and everyone watches when they want,downloading stuff is a pain as speeds are too slow here ,even with 2 meg.

[Langsuan Man]

Where and how do you do these downloads ?

Google is your friend.

Torrents ?

http://triponic.com/guidestutorials/ultimate-beginners-guide-for-torrents/

Rapidshare ?

http://www.whatsrapidshare.com/index.html

TV Station website ??

http://abc.go.com/

http://www.nbc.com/

http://www.cbs.com/

http://www.fox.com/

I'd like to dump UBC but am afraid I will be disappointed

with the alternative.

Thanks

Duh, if you have an internet connection you can try the alternatives BEFORE you dump UBC..........

Now that was quite a productive reply.

Thanks Langsuan Man

Is this productive enough for you.........

[torrenova]

OK, so you chuck UBC and then what ? In places like Pattaya you have a cable option. Most places do not.

If I want to download something then I have to waste time to find it, then wait forever to get it downloaded. I also have to pay for the best internet speed I can. That cost is about the equivalent of the UBC cost in itself. So financially, there is no real argument.

The fact is that it is not cheap. It is crap but it is all there is. At Bt2000 it is the equivalent of £40 which I guess is about a top rate Sky package in the UK.

I know that if you can be bothered, you can go the whole internet / computer thing and have a XYZ terabyte HD and have a meg speed (for LOS) internet connection and download all the high def stuff and have it available on a home network feeding through into your mega plasma telly and surround sound system etc. The thing is that to justify all that you have to be programming the dam_n thing everyday to download stuff and spend your entire life watching it !

In the end, I think you're better off with UBC.

[goofie]

Thanks "TRD" for telling me about bi-lingal. Shame that appartently no one in UBC is bi-lingal.

UBC coustomer support on TV !!!!!

Thanks again.