Singtel MIO TV Hiccups

Lao Li is pissed

An enormous public outcry erupted among football fans here in Singapore when intermittent "freezing" of the TV screens interrupted their game during the English Premier League (EPL) match last night.

Singtel MIO TV, who own exclusive broadcast rights to air the EPL were bombarded with hundreds of angry comments on their Facebook wall.

Singtel announced that subscribers to MIO TV's online package were not affected [link].

This is utter bullshit.

THIS IS NOT AN ISOLATED CASE IN THE SPORTS CHANNEL!

This "frozen" screen problem is affecting ALL the channels on MIO TV. I am not a subscriber of the sports channel yet, I have been plagued by the same problem ever since subscribing to some of their movie channels. 

I had the technician came over to check but he was unable to identify the cause much less to rectify the problem.

According to him, the cable, modem, and everything is in good order.

If everything were in order like he claimed, then why is this happening? There must be a fault somewhere, no?

MIO TV programs are a pain to watch with the frequent interruptions.

Other than the "frozen" screen, the image would also become pixaleted and laggy as well. Sometimes, there is even no sound.

I have both Singtel MIO TV (installed in the living room) and Starhub SCV (inside my parents' room).

Whenever MIO TV is "frozen", I would switched to the same channel on Starhub SCV but the show is playing normally with no problem.

I do not watch alot of TV but on the few occasions that I do, I would run into this problem. Here are some proof to rebut Singtel's claim that other subscribers are not affected.

The following videos were taken over a span of several months.

001

002

003

004

005

006

"Frozen" screen + no sound + "satanic" voices + pixelated screen

007

This is exasperating and annoying! Is this the picture quality that I pay monthly to watch? I feel like I am watching from a pirated VCD instead! 

And it seems that I am not the only one facing this problem. Just do a search on youtube and you will easily find more disgruntled customers in the same predicament as me.

Comment by uploader wtstravel:

This video shows evidence that the MioTV freezes at random. It also takes roughly 20 minutes to start showing anything on the screen, if you've turned the device off from the main power. Whether the device is worth your hard earned Singapore dollars is up to you to decide.

But personally, Singtel's MioTV is a pathetic device that is only compelling because they've thrown money behind the rights to some sports channel.

Comments by uploader lulang70:

Frustrated weekend watching the EPL matches!

Comments by uploader yishywan:

For the past months (especially after the world cup), this is the kind of hopeless video quality I have been watching under Singtel Mio. And...this is after 4 "knowlegable" singtel technician have come to my house to fix the problem. We called yesterday to complain YET AGAIN and the technical helpdesk for Mio TV promised to send a "very good" technician to come but only in 2 weeks time.

Singtel is not good enough to broadcast these sports channels and it should be left to Starhub to do the job. Period!

Comments by uploader alsonchee: 

After World Cup 2010, Singtel MIO TV has never fail to offer free "Pause Frame at the right moment" What quality is this!

Below is Singtel's explanation following the uproar after the incident.

 View link to the comments [here].

Now they are pushing the blame to the "unprecedented number of viewers who switched repeatedly between two channels at unusually high frequency that caused their system to slow"?

It is not fair that only subscribers to the sports channel will be offered a goodwill gesture. What about the rest of us experiencing the same issue?

Dear Singtel, if you are taking this seriously like you said, now is the best chance to perform service recovery.

As a consumer, I feel helpless that I am not receiving the help I need. 

So, after I have signed on the dotted line, I am on my own now? Does that mean I have to accept my fate silently and be stuck with this problem until the contract ends?

Is that it, Singtel?