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. 

[izabfixit4u]

Sounds good to me. Appreciate all who let me know about this. Feels good to be part of the NOWTV Community. Just need to fix my reconnection issues which the technical checks seem to be more than oblivious to including the fact that the show me having one of the new Style Hubs. I only have the square chubby one. I do have a SKY hub which I imagine is exactly the same. Would I be able to use this for my NowTV Broadband Services contract account do you think. Taking into consideration that I have an icle bit of an online dispute waiting to be resolved with Sky. Any and all advice would be appreciated And welcome. X Helgy [email removed]/account

[Anonymous User]

Sky who of course is the same company as Now TV has been promising 1080p since 2018 and I thought I would get it for Christmas for movies but no. 

The chance we will get it now is slim as I woukd of thought it would be 1080p. 

They are pushing the football sports package which is still quite a lot of money, now tv should be on amazon available also on amazon firestick like bbc, itv ch5, netflix 

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

It’s not possible that Amazon would think NowTV a bit too close a rival to Amazon Prime Video?

But I’m sure that if there was a deal to put NowTV on there, it would have to be reciprocal, and Amazon would appear on the Sticks, etc.

If you want both right on one device now, though, then the Roku devices fill the bill here.

[Anonymous User]

I think your right, they do see them as a rival, but I think all these services need to start thinking of there customers a bit more. 

With the influx of new services like apple and Disney approaching fast sky could be left behind.

We need one box that does it all or several boxes depending on which service you had first to be able to run other apps 

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

Ah, ‘one box to rule them all’. The YouView box always had this ambition, slipped back a bit, but seems to be on track to achieve this at last, if/when we finally get full NowTV on it.

The Roku devices have probably stolen a march on YouView as far as apps go, but don’t compete in the ‘live TV with recording’ space, where YouView is potentially rivalled by Freeview Play, Freesat, Sky and Virgin, who don’t have the full complement of apps, though.

With the PSBs still being a big thing, further streaming services coming on line aren’t going to bring down Sky; all they will do is fragment the existing streaming services by nibbling a few things away from each and wanting us to pay more money.

A straw in the wind was when The Bureau, which we had been watching on Amazon Prime, moved so that the third series was on Sundance, one of the satellite services that Amazon wanted an extra subscription for. We didn’t bite, so we lost out; and so did they.

But at the moment, we are in a golden age where we can pretty much get everything out there with just a few subscriptions, maybe three; soon, we will need seven, which we will decline to do, we will have to be selective again, and so the golden age will have come and gone.

Watch the torrents, currently practically non-existent, start coming back to life....

[Anonymous User]

Torrents alive and well on a well known much maligned platform (K*d*) 😉

[crashcris]

Well 1080p and 5.1 is now here, to access it it's called Now TV Boost and it'll cost an extra £3 per month. Sorry, but I think it's taking the proverbial to charge extra at this stage.

[RoyB]

@crashcris 

Netflix charge £3 a month extra for HD

[crashcris]

@RoyB 

True, but Netflix's full HD charges for all their Movies and TV box sets is £8.99, whereas Now TV Entertainment + Movies +Boost is £22.89. Amazon Prime with all their films and TV box sets in HD and 5.1 is still £7.99. The quantity on offer on Now TV is fractions of the other 2 services for way more than double the price. Do you not see how it seems a little like they're already overcharging and asking for a further £3 comes across as "taking the proverbial"?

[RoyB]

@crashcris 

Thinking again about your price observations, it occurs to me that you were actually comparing the pre-HD pricing of NowTV versus those other services.

So you could argue that NowTV were already “taking the proverbial”; by which token, only charging as much extra as Netflix for the quality boost seems quite restrained 😛

[gavs82008]

@RoyB @Anonymous User 

Hey guys, do either of you have the Enterainment pass?

Have noticed that MTV (Catfish) and Comedy Central (South Park) don't have the HD tag on my Samsung TV.  Although the 2 channels should be part of the HD "lineup".

Are you able to have a look for me and let me know if you see the HD tag on the 2 channels? 

Having had a painful discussion on Live Chat, they finally confirmed that South Park isn't on HD. And they are apparently still uploading HD content. So they must have tackled the high priority channels first.

[RoyB]

@gavs82008 @Anonymous User 

Yes, I have the Entertainment pass and the Boost. I’ll check those two programmes tomorrow for you and report back,

[RoyB]

Confirmed that both aren’t HD, and aren’t 5.1 either, looking on my NowTV Stick.

The test I use is to Pause the programme, and then if HD and 5.1 are available, little icons for these will come up on the screen, in the bottom left quadrant.

Neither of the programmes quoted have these.

Though note that if they show up, it means that these are available, not that you are necessarily getting them; even on an HD Ready stereo TV, they will still show up.

[gavs82008]

@RoyB 

Exactly what I was doing too. Plus I noticed that if the show was available in HD and 5.1 then the tags would appear. 

After my painful Live chat the other day the agent confirmed that shows are still being uploaded in HD, and a massive raft of MTV shows appear to be in that category. They also confirmed that South Park is not available in HD (perhaps much like MTV awaiting shows to be uploaded?). Not that it would matter with that type of show, although still would be preferred.

Thanks for taking some time to test this for me. 

[Anonymous User]

Sorry @gavs82008 but as I'm using an Apple TV 4K I cannot avail of the HD Boost ☹️

[gavs82008]

@crashcris 

Now TV is Sky owned after all

With Sky TV to get the Entertainment channels in HD, you also have to pay an additional £5 fee on top of the Entertainment package. 

So its not surprising at all to see a charge for HD. 

[RoyB]

@crashcris 

Put like that, yes you are quite right. But then quality comes into it also; Netflix have some awful straight-to-video movies, something NowTV avoids by not having very many - about a 1,000, while there are about 20,000 films out there they could choose from. Or have more of, in their library.

And while Amazon have some good Prime offerings, most of the things I’d like to watch on there seem to be chargeable extras. But then neither Netflix nor NowTV deliver parcels.....

OTOH, nobody need pay the advertised prices for NowTV passes, not with a Curry’s just down the road flogging Entertainment passes for £5 a month, and Cinema ones similarly discounted.

What I’ve found with any of them, though, is that trawling for good stuff is a pretty forlorn hope, and can waste evenings; if we haven’t heard of it, we really shouldn’t watch it.

So now we go on recommendations, and a wants list taken from film and TV reviews. Curiously, perhaps, we find ourselves choosing TV programmes pretty evenly across all three, but see a strong bias to NowTV cinema, despite knowing objectively, how much less there is to choose from there. All chocolate creams, few toffees 😛

[crashcris]

@RoyB 

I'll agree that it can take a lot of time searching for anything worth watching on any of the platforms. Every week I have a movie night with a mate and my goodness we've watched some right stinkers, even modern blockbusters have left me totally baffled to their success ; Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, Venom, Aquaman, Mortal Engines and Rampage to name a few.

[Anonymous User]

Out of all of those I've only seen Venom. Saw it in the cinema, a VueXteme 2D showing. I really enjoyed it. 🙂

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User @RoyB 

@gavs82008has started a thread https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Other-Apps/Sky-Go-update/m-p/505344#M2143 that may be of interest re NowTV and Amazon (it's the latest on the new Sky Go rollout).