Comments on the new box

[Anonymous User]

Swapped our nowtv (white) box for a new smart one yesterday. Oddly went to Currys who told me they didn't have them in and didn't expect them as you can only order from nowTV online. Went to argos next door and bought one for £69.99 with four months movies.

Looks much nicer, runs much faster and we even think the bbc iplayer is significantly faster, having free view is great as saves clicking back and forward between remote. It's much better all round.

what I don't like is the TV guide is only now and next - a few hours of tv as a guide would be better - I've downloaded a TV guide app. Also don't like the menus (but never have on nowTV) as find them a bit all over. Also, the HD channels are way down the list and can't seem to work out a quick way to get to them. Would be better to have them further up and quicker to access (who would watch bbc1 when you can watch bbc1HD other than for local news).

also no idea how long we can pause for. The guide says 'depends on programme and area'.

all in all - much better and worth the £

[Andy]

@Anonymous User

Glad you are enjoying the new box so far, it's quite a bit bigger than the old box isn't it?!

Unfortunately there is no way of reordering the Freeview channels at the moment, hopefully that will come in an update at some point as it is frustrating scrolling through the list all the time. You should be able to pause for around 30 minutes (not really sure how it varies from location or programme) and the box starts buffering from the moment you watch a Freeview channel, so you can for instance rewind back after a while if you forget to pause.

[Anonymous User]

Picked up one of these at the weekend to replace my crappy freesat box. Quite impressed. Usual problems with 720p and stereo so no improvement there but as a one stop box it's great and looks much more premium than the others.

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

A quicker method to jump up & down the TV Guide channels list instead of continually pressing the up & down arrow on the remote controller is to press the FF and RW buttons on the RC.

With regards to the live pause TV feature i was getting around approximately 30min on SD and about 15 min on HD whilst watching Freeview, haven't tested the time on the NowTV live channels .

[Andy]

@schnapps yeah, of course HD will reduce buffer time, forgot about that. 15 mins looks a bit sad for itself when you see it written down, probably why NOW stick to their 'depends on location and programme' statement! And why I went back to Freesat very quickly!

On the positive they've used a lovely blue NOW TV logo on it, not the exorcist-green variation! 

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User Still happy with Humax HD Freesat box connected to main TV - I've added 500GB usb drive so can also record.

New Smart Box is connected to TV in a spare bedroom and has worked well with indoor aerial albeit only get 5 main channels in HD.

Being more powerful smart box does run demand services better.

[DarylM]

@Anonymous User  The channel list is in the order that Freeview give their channel numbers.  So even though the Now TV Smart box does not use channel numbers, that's the order they're in.  BBCHD is Freeview channel 101, so that's why it's so far down the list.

As mentioned above, probably the quickest way to browse through channels is to view a Freeview channel in full screen and then press the left arrow key.  This will bring up the channel list.  Then press the 'fast forward' key to quickly move the list forward a page at a time (rather than just one channel at a time).

[BicBasher]

The only real issue with the new Smart Box is that I had to buy an aerial splitter, so I could run an RF cable back to the TV, so I could continue to use the TV tuner on my set as the new box doesn't have access to the connected Freeview channels in the 200s.

As mentioned, it is so much faster than the white or black box and iPlayer and Demand 5 whizz through now.   50Hz also means no more motion judder on fast action films and sport.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone got the new box up and running. If so would they mind post some pics of box and also the interface, as I haven't seen many pictures of what the interface looks like.

[Anonymous User]

I bought a new Now TV Smart Box from Argos this morning, complete with the 5-month Entertainment Pass.  I had no problems at all in setting up my account and installing the Box.  So far, I am delighted with it and am exploring all the functions.  The video and audio quality is very impressive.  As my TV set does not have an HD tuner for Freeview, it has enabled me to have the HD Freeview channels for the first time, which is very nice.

I have just one query.  As there is no On/Off switch, there seems to be no way of powering down the Smart Box when it's not in use, other than unplugging the mains power unit - which I am reluctant to do.  And if I did unplug it from the mains, would I have to go through the rather lengthy procedure of entering my ID and password all over again?