Watching NOW TV on BT TV

[Anonymous User]

I am currently subscribed to the Entertainment and Cinema (Monthly) and Sky Sports (Season Pass). I also have an active BT TV subscription. I've recently seen some information about watching Now TV through BT TV but either I'm not looking in the right place or details are vague.

Is there anyway to sign in or activate my Now TV passes so that they can be accessed through BT TV?

Thanks in advance

[schnapps · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous User 

My understanding is if you don't subscribe to BT TV with any of the NowTV bolt on packages and your NowTV passes are still paid directly to NowTV and not BT.

Then you should be able to sign into the NowTV App on your BT Youview Box with your NowTV login details and use your NowTV passes via the App.

You won't be able to use the NowTV channels on the main BT TV electronic TV guide or record them.

[Mark_Weinreb]

@schnapps It might be because my Youview box is a BT badged one, but I can see the Now TV channels in the epg. In fact, a full 7 days worth. Of course, since I don’t throw any money to BT, I can’t record, pause or set any reminders for any NowTV programs. But no matter, a full 7 day epg. Something people have been crying out for since, well,  NowTV launched.

[schnapps]

Hi @Mark_Weinreb 

Should have said watch via the BT TV electronic 7 day guide any of the live channels that are part of NowTV if you don't subscribe to the BT TV with the relevant NowTV bolt on package.

That's interesting that you can see the NowTV live channels on your BT TV Youview box if you don't subscribe to BT whatsoever including BT Broadband ?

My BT 4K Youview box doesn't show any NowTV live channels in the 7 day electronic TV guide where my internet and TV passes are all through NowTV.

[Mark_Weinreb]

@schnapps It’s only the app that has NowTV in the epg, and not the box (4K version) itself.

The app does have a few quirks, like showing the NowTV channels twice. Once as SD and again as HD. But that’s no different to any other epg.

Here’s a taster of next Monday afternoon on some NowTV channels.

[schnapps]

Hi @Mark_Weinreb 

Got my wires crossed thought you was talking about the actual 7 day electronic TV guide on the BT Boxes and not the BT App (which i haven't used since i left BT about 3 years ago).

i tend to use the Sky Plus App on my Tablet or Smartphone for checking up & coming shows in the next 7 days, where there is only certain channels on Sky / NowTV that i mainly watch.

[RoyB]

@Mark_Weinreb @schnapps @Anonymous User 

Here are the rules around YouView boxes:-

Box-dependent:-

the update schedule for new releases. This always goes with the box model, no matter which ISP you use it with. As apps are release-dependent, the apps available from the box also vary with the release, though generally all boxes get all the available apps in time.

YouView’s equivalent of NowTV’s white box, the one that is getting progressively left further and further behind, is the Humax DTR-T1000 series, the original black T1000 and the silver T1010. These can’t run the latest apps, or be used with the remote app for mobile devices, and even what they can run has to take their limitations into account, e.g. what is a smooth scroll on the T2xxx and T4000 boxes is a jump on the T10x0s.

ISP-dependent:-

the skin and the channels you are shown.

The ‘skin’ is the presentation of items on the screen, the colours, fonts, font sizes and font weights used, and even whether, say, Settings is a menu item or a little wheel top right. These radical differences in appearance are driven by a single flag, set automatically by the box on detecting your ISP, as BT/PlusNet, TalkTalk, or Other. Other gets what is called the Retail skin.

The channels you are shown in the EPG are likewise dependent on the detected ISP, with extra channels shown for BT and for TalkTalk. These are the ISP’s subscription channels, but you don’t need to be a subscriber to be able to see them, though you do to be able to watch them. And like Sky or NowTV, there are various packages of channels you can subscribe to, so even subscribers can see channels in the EPG that they can’t watch.

None of this is dependent in the slightest on what make or model of box is in use.

ISP Subscription-dependent:-

Which of the extra channels shown by the ISP on the EPG that you can watch.

In the case of the NowTV Channels shown by BT in their EPG, you have to be subscribing to NowTV via BT TV to get these. Though note that the NowTV app on YouView boxes is available to any NowTV subscriber who signs in to it; it’s just the EPG channels that are restricted to subscribers via BT TV.

Other wrinkles:-

You can choose, on any box, to have the EPG show just channel numbers, or to show channel logos as well. Which you choose affects the flagging up of the NowTV channels on the BT EPG.

You can choose, on any box, to selectively hide channels in the EPG. This does not affect your ability to go to those channels by number, nor does it suppress results from them in Searches, but it does stop channels you can’t get from cluttering up the Guide.

If your ISP is BT, and you can’t see the NowTV channels in the EPG, it may be that they are hidden; I have BT but not BT TV, and I can see them there.

YouView used to supply a remote app you could have on your phone or tablet, that would let you send recording requests remotely to a designated (paired) YouView box. And see what you had scheduled, and what you had recorded, on that box. From anywhere in the world, not just when you were in range of the box.

TalkTalk also had an app, a clone of the YouView one, but that anyone could use, and BT had one also, developed independently, for BT TV subscribers only.

YouView dropped their app, which also pulled the plug on the TalkTalk one, whereupon BT stepped in and opened up parts of their app to non-subscribers, at least to allow remote recording requests, see what you have scheduled, and what you have recorded.

The EPG on the BT app is generic, so it teases me with even Freeview channels that I can’t get, whereas the YouView one was a copy of my exact EPG as seen by my box.

So not as good as the YouView app; but half a loaf is better than no bread.

YouView boxes:-

There have been many; made by Humax for YouView Retail, BT Retail, BT Subscription and Plusnet Subscription, and by Huawei for TalkTalk Subscription and independent Retail.

Of the Humaxes, T10x0s were the first generation, now obsolete, T2xx0s are the second generation, still going strong, and the BT T4000 is the third generation, with UHD and the most powerful processor. No HDR, though.

Huawei boxes had a similar evolution.

Here’s a link to YouView’s comprehensive list of boxes and their software versions:-

https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/latest-software-versions/

We don’t much talk about the zapper (non-recording) boxes there, but most recording boxes have a cut-down zapper equivalent we can ignore.

I hope all this helps you make sense of what you see on YouView boxes, and will help you help other subscribers,

[Anonymous User]

Is the line 3 quote from a short story “ The one billion names of god?”

[Mark_Weinreb]

Close, @Anonymous User . The Arthur C. Clarke short story is actually called “The Nine Billion Names of God”, and it’s actually the last line not the third. Unless @RoyB is quoting from a totally different story.

[RoyB]

@Mark_Weinreb 

@Anonymous User 

Yes, that story.

’Line 3’ is reference to my sig, which previously had a Line 1 and a Line 2, which did not find favour.

The stars that went out here on the Community, I will leave you to conjecture….