Apple TV - Good platform for Now TV?

[Anonymous User]

I'm new to Now TV. Fed-up on more cost increases on Sky Subscription I can see that I can save a lot of money taking the Now TV route. 99% of our viewing is on Atlantic, Sky 1, Living and Fox so this seems perfect.

I have a PS3 and I've been using my 14 day trial on this, making sure it will be a viable alternative to a full Sky Subscription.

So far I know I'll miss the planner, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I see that Apple TV is the only hardware platform that can livesteam in 720p. I've got no idea why that is - but that has put me in a situation where I'm interested in this platform. I know I can get a Gen 3 Apple TV for around the £50 mark.

However, I'm reading some threads where the Now TV app for Apple TV isn't as avanced and I'd lose such features as "My TV" - is that the case? Are we simply waiting on an app update and do we know if that app update is going to happen?

So very basically, can people tell me if the Apple TV platform is good for Now TV. I'll be watching Atlantic, Sky 1, Living and Fox and for the majority of the time the catch-up will be fine, but would like the ability to live stream at 720p.

Will I be disapointed if I spend the £50 on an Apple TV device and take this route? Will the app on Apple TV be as good as it is on other platforms?

Cheers.

[Anonymous User]

The issue is IF you are actualy going to watch live because a High amount of users get used to catchup and boxset instead of watching live at all for New zero day TV and Movies content... 

Sport only offers live content.... But thats HD on console now... If you have got used to using catch up only on you Sky+HD box and not waching live to avoid adverts... then theres nothing on Apple TV that you can't get on console for NowTV...

O you don't state if you have a mac... if you have a mac then yep you allready in the echo system with Iphoto Imovie and Itunes...

and its a simple yes its a big massive plus allready being in the Apple echo system... If you on windows PC then AppleTV becomes less of a good thing... 

You have to be sure that you will not regret losing... Watch, Sci fi, alibi, universal, and don't wash it of to easy.... there are many many many many many Posts in the Idea section for the Big channels From the dish services to move to NowTV after people Lose them moving to NowTV...  ( but thats why it costs less...)

How much time do you spend watching Brand New content Live, Not repeats (You can watch boxsets of new shows instead of reruns) but actual new shows... if very little I think the AppleTV is not worth replacing a console (unless you have Mac allready...) or are you adding it to another HDTV...

I rejected an Apple TV Because im NOT in the Apple Echo system... And allready got consoles when I had NowTV boxes and realy a NowTv box was only £10 then...  

PS Tried the new Amazon app on console Yet,  clone of the Fire TV box GUI...  (with the 4K support removed as console don't have H265 decoders...)     

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User the AppleTV 3 is let down by the poor user interface across the board.

The quality of live TV on the PS3 (and NOW TV box) of most channels is at 720 these days just a few like Comedy Central and Gold which hold them back from publicly saying they are not SD.

I'd say it wasn't worth switching unless you wanted some of the other stuff from the AppleTV. 

[dr_necessitor]

I echo much of the previous sentiments. We use NOW TV via an Apple TV 2nd gen, iPad mini 2, a NOW TV box and a ROKU 2. The UI on Apple TV is the worst of the lot. We have postponed/cancelled a planned Apple TV upgrade to the 4th gen, simply because the NOW TV app for Apple TV has simply been ported to work on the 4th gen - it has yet to be revamped to look slicker and take advantage of the new world of tvOS. So, get an Apple TV 3rd gen if you need/want one (perhaps you're in the Apple ecosystem like us) and use it for NOW TV if you like (it works on gen 2 & 3 but there are reported issues from time to time by gen 4 users), but you may prefer the UI on NOW TV box or ROKU 2 (we do). Just to add, ROKU 2 has apps for many other services like BBC, ITV, C4, C5, Netflix, Amazon Video, Google Play TV & Movies etc so, for us, it pips the Apple TV to the elusive title of "one box to view them all".

[schnapps]

Tend to agree with the other above posts.

Being a ATV 3 and NowTV Black box owner, I rarely use my ATV 3 box for watching any NowTV content.

Like previously mentioned by the other posters, the Apple TV user interface is so crude and sluggish compared to the more snappier / more user friendly UI on the NowTV black box.

Also, the Now & Next Live Channel EPG on the ATV is terrible.

In terms of Live Channel Picture Quality IMO it is marginal (The ATV just edges it by a "Cats Whisker") but most people would struggle to tell any difference.

One thing I did notice watching Live TV on the ATV that occasionally the Live stream would sometime buffer even with a 38 Meg broadband speed with the ATV wired over Ethernet, where the NowTV black box has been totally stable with no buffering issues. 

Don't normally watch much Live TV on the NowTV platform , would rather see the shows 24 hours after it has been aired on the Catch Up service or binge on the Box sets in the NowTV library.

The NowTV box has a feature called "My TV" where you can add non live shows to your "Watch List" for future viewing, together with "Recently Watched" shows.

Another bonus with the NowTV box is that you have access to the four main terrestrial Catchup apps from BBC i player etc.

If you are sensitive to 60Hz playback on 50Hz UK Broadcasting content, then in the ATV menu settings you can change the video output to 50Hz, where there is no option on the NowTV box which unfortunately is locked at 60Hz (For me personally it is only an issue on Live UK sports with fast moving camera pans such has Football for example).

Unless you like the concept of the Apple Eco system,  I would go with the NowTV Black box myself.

You might be interested to know, that Argos have a fantastic deal on at the moment for a NowTV black box with 6 months Entertainment pass for £19.95, which works out at £3.32 per month for the first six months, which is an extremely attractive deal to consider if you go down the route of the NowTV black box option.

[dr_necessitor]

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@schnapps wrote:

If you are sensitive to 60Hz playback on 50Hz UK Broadcasting content, then in the ATV menu settings you can change the video output to 50Hz, where there is no option on the NowTV box which unfortunately is locked at 60Hz (For me personally it is only an issue on Live UK sports with fast moving camera pans such has Football for example).

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Yes, good point, forgot to mention that.

Connected to an older TV, Live Sports looks "slightly odd" via NOW TV box (defaults to 60Hz and unchangeable) and via Apple TV set to 60Hz, but looks ok via Apple TV set to 50Hz.

Connected to a much newer TV, Live Sports looks fine via both even at 60Hz.

So I suppose it maybe depends perhaps on the capability of the TV (which has perhaps improved on newer TVs).

[Anonymous User]

The Now TV app on the Apple TV (it's the same app on both the old ATV 3 and the new model) is unique, but not In a good way. It lacks all the niceties of other Now TV apps, such as Watchlist, Last Played, showing which episodes have been watched, and even a graphical user interface. It's little more than a screen full of white text on a black background with some tiny thumbnails. It's also very slow, which is common to all ATV 3 apps and their ATV 4 ports as they don't run locally, they're just scripts on a server somewhere. The ATV 4 is capable of proper native apps, as Netflix and many others demonstrate, but to do that requires giving a damn, which Sky don't.

In short, buy a Roku or a games console if you want to watch Now TV.  The ATV 3 & 4 apps are utterly abysmal and will never be updated.