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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Upgrade from Now TV box to stick

Hi there

 

My Now TV box is a few years old and is starting to play up. 

 

Would Now TV upgrade me to a stick seeing as I have a subscription with them? 

 

TIA

8 REPLIES 8
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

The short answer is no.

 

Currently the NOW stick is out of stock. And if your device is faulty they won’t replace it regardless of you having a membership or not. 

Your best option is to purchase an Amazon fire stick. They have proven to be the most reliable devices for the NOW app.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
starman73
Elite

@gavs82008 how is the fire stick proven to be most reliable?  I have had a few issues with it crashing while watching football in recent days, but have no issues with the Now TV stick.  Also the now tv stick has a 30 minute live/pause which the fire stick does not have.

 

FWIW the Now TV stick is available from Argos (with vouchers) and another good alternative are the Roku devices.   I prefer these as they are more established versions of the now tv app. And they cost no more than a fire stick.

 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-devices-can-i-use-to-watch-now

gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@starman73 

Well from the times I’ve used my Amazon 4K Fire stick for the new NOW app I’ve never had any issues with it. 
Whereas my Now stick is horrificly slow. 

So in my opinion a “live/pause” isn’t a thing I care about where all my viewing is on demand. 

Also with Amazon Fire sticks you can purchase an Ethernet adapter which I use as it’s more stable and reliable other Ethernet than Wi-fi. 

Anyway, each to their own as it’s all my personal preference. 

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @gavs82008 @starman73 

 

Just my two pennies worth on the matter and i would also favour the Amazon Fire Stick if your budget can stretch and don't use the 30 minute live pause feature.

 

From my experience the NOW Stick is a little sluggish on the newer NOW rebrand user interface when comparing with my FireStick 4K (i don't know how the Fire Stick Lite or Fire Stick Basic compares with regards to responsiveness & loading against the NOW Stick).

 

I also find the WifI signal reception is better on the the Fire Stick and the NOW Smart Remote for me eats through batteries in three or four weeks and need replacing.

 

Plus the NOW Smart remote keeps losing connection with the Stick occasionally and i need to either reboot the Stick, temporary remove the batteries or re-pair the NOW remote to re-establish a connection between the Remote and Stick.

 

I gave my Sister an old NOW black Box and NOW Stick and she also noticed the above issues with the NOW Stick.

 

Where my Sister asked me for another spare older NOW black box which i had to swap out the newer NOW Stick which she couldn't get on with and she wasn't interested in the voice command search or additional buttons available from the Smart Stick.

 

Also this might be subjective but to my eyes the FireStick 4K seems to show a slightly cleaner picture than my NOW Stick, but i am encountering some random micro stuttering on NOW Sports with Boost which is annoying but NOW Cinema & Entertainment looks great to me.

starman73
Elite

i am encountering some random micro stuttering on NOW Sports with Boost which is annoying

 

The picture is inferior, as I have also experienced this.  And as I have experienced not proven reliable.  The fire stick is not as good as the Now Tv stick in some aspects and definitely not as good for Sports.  The speed of the interface makes little odds.  If it takes 5 seconds to start (and it doesn’t), it is all about the performance of the visual/audio once you start watching.  And for Sport the Now TV stick is better and has a 30 minute pause/rewind to boot.

 

Also I don’t have battery life issues with the remote, nor pairing issues. 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @starman73 

 

If that's the case keep using the playback device that works best for you (in your case a NOW Stick).

 

I can only comment on what i have encountered and experienced using two different NOW Sticks and for me the Fire Stick 4K would be my personal choice.

 

For me the Fire Stick has been one hundred percent reliable with regards to watching NOW (no buffering, no wifi drop outs, no error messages).

 

I did start a thread about random micro stuttering with the Fire Stick 4K with NOW Sports on Boost, but nobody seemed to notice the problem or didn't comment apart from me (one member said their Fire Stick was running smooth when watching NOW Sports with Boost with their Fire Stick set to 50hz in their settings which is what i use when watching NOW Sports).

 

At the moment i am living with the random micro stuttering on my Fire Stick 4K and could jump to a number of other NOW playback devices that i own if i wished when watching NOW Sports with Boost.

 

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Everything-Sports/Amazon-4K-Fire-Stick-NOW-App-Watching-Sports-Micro-... 

starman73
Elite

Your best option is to purchase an Amazon fire stick. They have proven to be the most reliable devices for the NOW app.

 

I was responding to this in the second post which I disagreed with.  It isn’t necessarily the best option nor is the fire stick proven most reliable.

gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@starman73 

And as I went on to say on a further post it was my personal preference.

 

When I’ve used the NOW stick, the speed of the UI is more important than a “30 minute live pause”.

The picture is not superior on the NOW stick over Amazon 4K, this I’ve tested myself and again in my opinion.

Again this is all personal preference.

 

If you prefer the NOW stick over Amazon fire then that’s obviously up to you. 


That being said it’s always a different kettle of fish when dealing with sports, as I can’t be bothered with it. 
The main gripe I have with NOW is regardless of device, not all channels are supported by 50fps which is standard across all BT sports channels. 
Until NOW can support a reliable 50fps across all its sports channels, BT sport will continue to be ahead of the game.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help