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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Smart Box - what a crushing disappointment. Two Big Gripes

OK, I like Now TV, I use it on my BT box and on my Xbox. As I wanted a way for the kids to watch the kids channels on an old TV, I saw the Smart Box and thought 'perfect', a freeview tuner, live kids chanels and a bit of on-demand, just what I wanted.

 

I got the box and took out the kids pass to add to my movies pass.

 

What a disapointment!?! Two main gripes:

 

1.  The tv guide is soul destroying! if you want a kids channel, you have to manually click through almost the whole TV guide? I see that there is no obvious way of avoiding this? You can't seem to set favourite channels, sort by type, type in a chanel number or skip several at a time?

2. There are only the freeview kids chanels on the EPG, not the ones from the Kids Pass (which are available though quite a faffy method navigating to the now tv app, the kids app and then scrolling down to the bottom). There was some nonsense on another thread saying that this was for child protection reasons - what a load of tosh, it's clearly just some lazy implementation!

 

It turns out that these are well documented dificiencies in the product and have been since release yet they seem to be ignored.

 

I appreciate that having used NowTv boxes in the past I had a really high expectation to start with, but have never, in all my life, been so disappointed in a product. I thought Now TV were pioneers in quality and innovation, this just seems like a very lazy bit of kit to me.

 

Sorry but I really felt the need to vent on that. I am just so disappointed having been really quite excited by the box!

 

3 REPLIES 3
Anonymous User
Not applicable


@Anonymous User wrote:

You can't seem to set favourite channels, sort by type, type in a chanel number or skip several at a time?

 


Most of your complaints are justified.  However, you CAN skip up or down several channels at a time by using the "fast forward" and "fast reverse" keys on the remote.

 

Wlat

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks for the tip, that takes the edge off a bit! I'm hoping that there might be a smartphone app that lets me control the box with a bit more functionality (a bit like my fire-stick)?

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User wrote:

I'm hoping that there might be a smartphone app that lets me control the box with a bit more functionality (a bit like my fire-stick)?


@Anonymous User

 

Not really, there's the Roku remote app for Android and iOS but that won't help you navigate any quicker that you can with the remote control. If you have an iPhone you can use the NOW TV app to also act as a replacement remote as well as choosing programmes to play directly on the NOW TV box (only NOW TV content, not Freeview channels) which is quite useful.

 

Otherwise you're stuck with the way the Smart Box works, which I agree is lacking functionality and refinement currently. Just have to hope updates improve things in time.