10-07-2016 10:46
I have just been reading about the new Now TV Smart box. It is advertised as "Get over 60 Freeview channels including 12 in glorious HD" I would like to know what channels are available in HD before I purchase. I have tried the "Contact Us" option but I keep being taken back to the same place with NO contact us options. Thank you for your assistance
13-07-2016 19:34
@DarylM wrote:I am in the Anglia region and have been watching the local news via my Now TV Smart box (so by an aerial). The standard-def ITV channel shows the Anglia news, but ITV HD shows Meridian.
Hi Andy,
To clarify ITV1 HD Anglia East is not available via Freeview yet, only via satellite (11,097MHz | V | 23000 | 3/4). Currently the main Tacolneston, Sandy Heath and Sudbury transmitters output ITV1 HD Meridian South
Looks okay on satellite though 😉
13-07-2016 2:44
@schnapps I live near Bristol but the local Freeview transmitter is pants so I point my aerial towards Wenvoe and get perfect reception on all the Freeview channels.
Personally I am looking forward to having one box for all my live TV. Plus the 50hz output is a big bonus. As for recording I'll be using a Raspberry Pi with 2 tuners.
13-07-2016 11:44 - edited 13-07-2016 11:48
@Anonymous User
I am Lucky the Wenvo local transmitter is only about approximately 15 miles from my house and on a dark clear night from my Bedroom window i can see the warning light on top of the transmitter mast for low flying aircraft.
When i did an automatic channel search on the NowTV smart box menu settings i was given two options to pick Wales (Wenvo) or England (Which i am guessing was Mendip).
When selecting Wenvo my local transmitter the box picked up about 170 channels (TV & Radio) can't be bothered to go through the channel list to see if there any duplicate stations etc and to be honest i tend to watch the HD channels only (can't stand watching anything in SD the picture looks terrible on any Freeview connected device) .
All my other TV viewing is spread across BT TV (mainly sports) NowTV, Netflix and Amazon.
Haven't done much comparison on the NowTV smart box over the SD channels, but the HD pictures look nice and sharp on my TV and IMO is on par with PQ with my Panasonic TV inbuilt Freeview Tuner and my BT UHD YouView box.
Also, i am guessing if you live in Bristol and you are tuned into the Welsh Wenvo Transmitter, that all your BBC programmes from England are being watched from the BBC iplayer app or some other source ?
Another thing worth mentioning, is that the NowTV new smart box uses 50hz video playback & has a quad core processor under the bonnet and navigating the UI appears snappier to me compared to any other NowTV device that i have owned (the BBC IPlayer app works fantastic on the new smart box over both the live and catch up BBC service if you have a good sufficient broadband internet speed).
BTW - I had a Raspberry PI for a while in my home set up (firstly used it for XBMC then has a Squeeze box server, now the PI is sadly gathering dust in my cupboard) it has now been replaced with an Amazon Fire TV box and a cheap 500GB NAS drive server which i mainly use for Spotify streaming to my Squeeze box devices dotted around the house.
13-07-2016 12:36
13-07-2016 13:03
Been thinking about the distance since your post, 15 miles approx would be driving by road to get there in my car.
Where as the direct line of sight distance to the transmitter mast would be much less (don't know how far though).
Also, where i live there are no high rise buildings (like if you live in the big city) or mountains blocking the transmitter path which would have an effect on the signal strength or quality.
Anyway all good my end with the number of channels and signal strength from the roof aerial.
13-07-2016 15:16
If anyone's interested....
If you see 'vertically' polarised aerials on houses they're pointing towards 'local' transmitters, which a far less powerful than transmitters that offer 'horizontally' polarised signals 😉
13-07-2016 16:25
@SeeMoreDigital wrote:If anyone's interested....
If you see 'vertically' polarised aerials on houses they're pointing towards 'local' transmitters, which a far less powerful than transmitters that offer 'horizontally' polarised signals 😉
True - thinking back to the launch of DTT (OnDigital - remember that? Or NoDigital as I used to call it!) our aerial ended up being aligned to a "local" tx about 12 miles away, rather than one of two "main" tx's (both almost 30 miles away in opposite directions), because the signal from the "local" tx was better than from either of the more distand main tx's. And so it has stayed. Nowadays we could probably get a better signal from the distant tx's, but that would incur the cost & bother of getting somebody to do it - something that most people don't do unless the aerial falls down!