Is the new 'Black' Now TV box worth having?

[Anonymous User]

Hello all,

I have the old 'white' box. I'm reasonably pleased with it, but I do get hanging/buffering issues quite regularly, with deadful picture quality on occasion presumably due to badwidth issues.

Is it worh upgrading to the new black box (the smaller one without the Freeview tuner)? Is it's performance better, will it improve the buffering and other issues I've been experiencing?

Thanks - hoping someone can explain.

Cheers

J

[SeeMoreDigital]

In short yes @Anonymous User. The 'black' box is a much better. And the 'smart' box is better still 😉

[Anonymous User]

Excellent - many thanks for the advice.

[Andy]

@Anonymous User

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, you'll notice quite a significant difference in speed and responsiveness on the black NOW TV box, particularly in apps like BBC iPlayer. It also supports 1080p for apps that support it (not NOW TV!) and has an Ethernet port which you might find handy. Picture quality on NOW TV should be the same though, if you are having a lot of buffering and or PQ issues it's likely to be issues with broadband and wifi rather the box itself (although the black box supports 5GHz wifi which may improve things a bit for you if your router offers that).

However if you use NOW TV passes anyway you can currently pick up boxes with a bundle of passes for sales prices from most of the usual shops at the mo which makes the box effectively free anyway, so nothing lost in giving it a go.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/NOW-TV-Box-Tech-Spec

[Anonymous User]

Many thanks Andy. I will indeed give it a go.

Really appreciate the swift, detailed reply.

Cheers

[Andy]

@Anonymous User

No worries, if you do get the box and find buffering is still an issue you can always post back and people can look into trying to help with that (NOW TV recommend a min broadband speed of 2.5 Mbps for instance, but for good PQ you'd want it higher than that).

[Anonymous User]

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Jestercat2 wrote:

Is it worh upgrading to the new black box (the smaller one without the Freeview tuner)? Is it's performance better, will it improve the buffering and other issues I've been experiencing?

The upgrade is a no brainer if you get a box with a voucher.  The best thing you can do to improve performance is to connect the black box to your router if possible..  This was not possible with the white box.

Not sure the upgrade to the newer box is as easy to justify.  The live channels are of better quality and there is the 30 minute pause.  The freeview channels are only of interest if you have an older non freeview HD TV.   Better, but not so much better that you have to upgrade.  Maybe when the next generation of boxes offer full HD and 4K.

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

Maybe when the next generation of boxes offer full HD and 4K.

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Hi @Anonymous User,

Just-so-you-know.... Should NOW TV ever decide to upgrade the image resolution of (all or part of) their service, the 'black' box and the new 'smart' box are able to support 1080p.