My experiences so far as a non-Finnish speaker with Elisa Viihde have been very good, particularly when compared with the service experience you get from many other companies.
I won't go into the setup process in much detail - I was replacing an existing Elisa connection, so the DSL was already there - just a matter of swapping the modem and doing some rewiring.
Setting up the modem was easy, but - as has been mentioned elsewhere - your configuration options are extremely limited. This modem is clearly aimed at nontechnical consumers, and unfortunately there is no 'advanced mode'. If I get really sick of it, I may try to reinstall my old FritzBox, though I am not sure how easy it will be to make that work.
The viihdebox is likewise pretty easy to set up. The fact that it speaks english makes life much, much easier. However, there are some idiosyncrasies:
- If you press the blue button on the remote instead of using the menu button to access the Viihde menu, you're back to Finnish
- If you record a program, many of the menu options (like bookmarks) are also only available in Finnish
- Subtitling is horrendous. The box only understands Finnish, English and Russian. So while watching a show on Yle 5 where Finnish/Hindi/Chinese is spoken, the stupid thing refuses to show the Swedish subtitles. This, combined with the fact that subtitling options are hidden deep in the menu is a real pain.
- The box seems somewhat underpowered - the lag when pressing buttons is sometimes 5 to 10 seconds - quite long.
- Channels that come over internet freeze from time to time. This requires a channel switch to get them back, and is (depending on how often it happens and when during a programme) a minor or major annoyance.
- As best I can make out from previous posts, it is possible to store programmes locally. How does that work, and is it only possible on a USB stick? My NAS sits next to the viihdebox...
Edwin