1080P update

[Anonymous User]

I have seen a few posts wanting to know when the Now TV output will be upgraded from 720P to 1080P, so I contacted Now TV support today to get an update.

They confirmed that this is definitely being 'worked on' but they could not confirm when or if it will be available. They also could not confirm that it will arrive in 2019.

It sounds like it is not a quick & easy thing to do, otherwise we would have it already. 

My personal view is that we will get it eventually as there will be a strong commercial reason for it, because competitors are commonly providing 1080P or even 4K output now.

Hope that helps some of you. 

[Anonymous User]

@gavs82008 

As per the link Full HD streaming option so more than likely a chargeable addon. Let's hope it's 50fps otherwise it will be a waste of time.

[Anonymous User]

If they start charging for full HD it’s Ta Ta to Now Tv 

[Anonymous User]

Well Sky have for years been charging extra for HD channels, so no surprise if they do on Now TV also when this update happens - I’m curious if they might also give an option to watch sports in 50 FPS if you pay another few quid extra for something marketed cleverly as UltraSmoothMotion or something like that. 

[Anonymous User]

This is all an absolute joke. 

Last year the official line was "by the end of this year (2018)"

It's clear that there is a chargeable upgrade, and that is subscribing to Sky proper.

[Anonymous User]

if getting 1080p leads to a full Sky subscription they would need to supply more than 11 channels only way they will get customers to keep paying.

[Anonymous User]

Ive been on this forum for years telling people that if they ever did 1080p with framerate fixed then there would be a charge, Im amazed that people thought this wouldnt happen.

They do not want to hurt there sat business.

[Anonymous User]

It would be naive to think they won't charge extra for an upgraded service.

[gavs82008]

Exactly, considering Sky charges £5 on top of the bill for HD on selected channels. 

From what I recall its only selected Freeview HD channels and the sports that comes as "free" as part of the pakcages. Not sure about the movie channels though. 

Either way, its long overdue to get 1080p on Now TV.

[Anonymous User]

Seems to be news online about this:

https://www.pocket-lint.com/tv/news/now-tv/147996-now-tv-plus-1080p-streaming-service-launching

[Anonymous User]

A lot of speculation and conjecture in that article, not atypical of the stuff usually found on that site.

[Anonymous User]

Watching venom last night via a now tv smart box (the one with freeview receiver functionality) the TV showed the signal info as 1080p. So is the now tv box "up scaling" the 720p transmission to 1080p format? Or is it actually 1080p? Still crappy stereo sound - wish the movies choice was a bit better on netflix or prime

[Anonymous User]

My understanding of the NowTV box is that it is 1080P capable. When you connect to the TV it will therefore state '1080P' on screen. However, that does NOT mean that the stream you are receiving is 1080P. In the case of NowTV, it is still 720P although some TV's will upscale the output so that it looks better than that.

Hope that helps 😁

[gavs82008]

@Anonymous User @Anonymous User 

Just stumbled across this post on the BT forum re Now TV. Seems to me that customer testing might begin in July hopefully on our end without need for YouView boxes (wishful thinking I know!).

Fingers crossed some official word comes out soon, the new football season is not far away and still no updates from either BT or Sky!

on ‎26-06-2019 15h29

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Message 16 of 16

Re: Full Now TV through the YouView box

Spoke to BT TV sales team today, looks like we will be informed next steps in July with the service hopefully starting in the first week of August this year.

[gavs82008]

Spoke to BT TV sales team today, looks like we will be informed next steps in July with the service hopefully starting in the first week of August this year.

[Anonymous User]

They aren't leaving much time for testing and the various updates that usually follow in the testing environment to sort out bugs etc.

[gavs82008]

An article has just surfaced for customers in Ireland.
https://www.balls.ie/other/sky-sports-distribution-deal-413148

In short Sky, BT and Premier Sports will be bundled together as one pack called Sports Extra. Prices yet to be confirmed.
Wonder if this goes for Now TV and to get Premier sports on Now TV would also be handy for the La Liga and some Scottish games.

[Anonymous User]

@gavs82008 

I'd be surprised if Premier Sports did a similar deal with Sky in the UK. The main reason Sky have taken up the Irish deal is due to Premier having the 3pm kick offs on a Saturday afternoon in the EPL, where of course no such scenario (3pm Saturday KOs) can happen on UK screens, therefore Premier would not be as tempting a proposition to Sky in the UK market.

That article you link to is an incredible piece of misinformation, eg. Moreover, the move also means the company will secure rights for the Champions League and the Europa League, as BT Sport currently hold both. Sky won't be 'securing rights' to the UCL/UEL, they are going to be selling BT Sport channels, BT of course still hold the rights to those tournaments, not Sky 😆

[UKTVPlayapp]

Looks at those July 22nd 2019 is the launch date for BT Sports to appear on now tv boxes. If you go into google and type in new freeview channels forthcoming and click on forthcoming changes and it there.

[UKTVPlayapp]

Fingers crossed its true hopefully we will hear something from Sky or Bt very soon.

[gavs82008]

Having seen clear differences of Now TV between my 4K tv and a standard 1080p TV I would say that it’s just being upscaled and not actually outputting at 1080p.

As much as I’d want it to be 1080p right now, I can’t see it happening unless you pay a bit extra.
It was suggested in a survey last year that 1080p along with 5.1 surround sound and 4 streams at once would come at a cost of £5 which would cover all passes.
Hopefully we see something happen in time for the Now TV launch on BT TV boxes, which is when I suspect it will.

[Anonymous User]

...and always has been.

Not a practical option for those of us who only occasionally subscribe. Like currently I do for GoT. (Though I'd regularly get Cinema if it was in 1080p with surround sound like the other services I pick flit between)

I just plain don't watch enough TV, so Sky/Now aren't interested in the thousands of us like that.

I'm sure Netflix and Amazon aren't complaining.

(Might be my imagination, wishful thinking or maybe something to do with bandwidth, but GoT tonight did look better defined)

[gavs82008]

It is a Sky owned company, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a chargeable add-on. 

Would like to hope they could add perks on that, say to double the streams to 4 instead of 2 and devices from 6 to 12.

5.1 surround sound should be in as default regardless of this possible chargeable addon

Thankfully I haven't had too many issues when watching football (although I don't often watch it. But I have seen it in poor action elsewhere so I would agree that it would be a waste if they couldn't improve on that. 

I have BT sport (thanks to a cheap add on via my EE Max Plan) on my Samsung TV, watched Hearts vs Hibs a couple weeks ago. The stream was completely flawless, also as default it was in HD. 

Hopefully it will be similar quality to BT sport on the dedicated TV app.