Homechoice Max Pack

Homechoice is a more complex service than your average ISP, because it is also offers TV over broadband as well, so it's no surprise there were some teething problems during my test period.

Homechoice has replaced my set-top box on two separate occasions - the company claims both upgrades were necessary because the previous boxes could not cope with its ever-expanding user numbers.

These replacements had to be carried out by a technician and there is no option to do it yourself. Since the second upgrade, the Internet service has performed quickly and reliably. I've had to manually reboot the set top box to recover from unexplained crashes, but this isn't a regular occurrence.

On the whole, the TV service isn't as advanced as that of Sky+. There are few interactive services and the image quality on some less-popular broadcasts, such BBC News 24, is below par. Popular shows and movies look good though, and the entire service works remarkably well.

The TV-on-demand facility is excellent, with a good range of exclusive programmes and movies. You can pause TV, watch another channel, and then resume watching where you left off on the original channel with ease.

The service costs £50 a month, which may seem expensive, but it does include TV as well as broadband. There's a nominal £1 set up fee, but no monthly usage cap, a 20:1 contention ratio - the best in our tests - and a fast 8Mbits/s, download. For such a fast service, the upload is a little disappointing at 288Kbits/s though.

On the whole, I have no difficulty in recommending Homechoice to anyone who wants a combined broadband and television service.

Note: This is part of PCW's long-term group test of broadband Internet packages. Links to all other packages reviewed can be found below