NOW TV to launch most advanced box yet

[dr_necessitor]

NOW TV to launch most advanced box yet

"Online TV streaming service, NOW TV, is to launch its most advanced TV box later this year. The brand new NOW TV Smart Box will bring together NOW TV’s wide range of pay TV content and over 60 live free-to-air channels.

Additionally customers with a NOW TV Box will see new a brand new interface (UI) roll out to their TVs from February. The new-look UI will include a number of great new features including a content-rich homepage offering editorial recommendations of what to watch across catch up TV apps and pay TV content from NOW TV. A new ‘Best of Catch Up’ section, curated by content partners, will also arrive showcasing all the best shows our customers may have missed in one place.

Gidon Katz, Director of NOW TV said: “The launch of our new homepage on the NOW TV Box will make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly find and watch their favourite shows. And when the new NOW TV Smart Box arrives later this year, it will be the perfect one-stop box to get a contract-free, flexible way of watching the best of pay TV and free-to-air content all in one place.”

NOW TV worked with Silicon Valley based Roku Inc. to develop the new NOW TV Smart Box which will sit alongside the existing NOW TV Box, with pricing details and further information to be made available later in the year."

[ukbobboy]

1. @schnapps 2. @SeeMoreDigital

Well guys, here we go.

S, you said: "Might be wrong, but my assumption would be that all you need is a TV with a spare HDMI port, together with either a fixed or portable aerial to receive the Freeview channels."

Well, I can get normal freeview channels, via my current aerial, and my Now TV box is plugged into one of my HDMI ports, so I'm not sure what you are actually trying to explain.  

SMD, you said: "Sufficed to say the 'additional component' is primarily an internet connection, along with support for MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC-PS audio".

What kind of equipment is that?  Do you know what such a thing is called and/or where it is sold?

Anyway, back to my original question, does the new Now TV box have this "additional component" you speak of?

Well, I'm now struly stumped.

UK Bob

[dr_necessitor]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

SMD, you said: "Sufficed to say the 'additional component' is primarily an internet connection, along with support for MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC-PS audio".

What kind of equipment is that?  Do you know what such a thing is called and/or where it is sold?

Anyway, back to my original question, does the new Now TV box have this "additional component" you speak of?

Well, I'm now struly stumped.

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I think the ability to be able to watch these channels (in the Freeview 2xx range) or not depends on the capabilities of your Freeview device (be it a TV or a set top box or a PVR, with a built-in Freeview tuner) to decode said channels.

Most likely that older devices won't be able to do it. I've got a Humax DTR-T21xx PVR that was a new model in 2014, is internet connected and can access these channels. However, none of the channels carry any content that is of interest to me! 😉

Note that BT & TalkTalk deliver their add-on channel packages via this method. They supply fairly recent kit that is similar to my Humax, Freeview via aerial and internet enabled. Makes me think that the NOW TV Smart Box will be somewhat similar in nature.

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

SMD, you said: "Sufficed to say the 'additional component' is primarily an internet connection, along with support for MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC-PS audio".

What kind of equipment is that?  Do you know what such a thing is called and/or where it is sold?

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Freeview offers the following information: http://www.freeview.co.uk/what-we-offer/smart-tv/streaming-channels-and-connect-tv

However, what Freeview does not mention is that your television has to be able to support Freeview HD. And this is because only Freeview HD televisions support MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC audio decoding - which is what the 'streamed' channels use...

[dr_necessitor]

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@SeeMoreDigital wrote:

And this is because only Freeview HD televisions support MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC audio decoding - which is what the 'streamed' channels use...

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Also the newer/recent Freeview (HD) PVR models also provide support for "streamed" channels, which is useful if you've got an older TV that has a built-in Freeview non-HD tuner.

So given that the NOW TV Smart Box will have a built-in tuner, presumably it will support Freeview HD channels over the air and the "streamed" channels via the internet connection, thus providing a non-PVR solution for folks with older TVs that can do neither. Probably will be a lot cheaper than buying a new Smart TV!

[SeeMoreDigital]

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dr_necessitor wrote:

So given that the NOW TV Smart Box will have a built-in tuner, presumably it will support Freeview HD channels over the air and the "streamed" channels via the internet connection, thus providing a non-PVR solution for folks with older TVs that can do neither. Probably will be a lot cheaper than buying a new Smart TV!

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Given that the new box will already support MPEG-4 AVC video and HE-AAC audio decoding and an internet connection (as all streaming devices do), I guess it could be possible to add support for the Freeview streaming channels as well. But as you've already mentioned their content is not very interesting, with the exception of Planet Knowledge, not least because it's available in HD.  

From a technical point of view, what is interesting about this new box is that in order to display standard definition Freeview channels, it will have to include (interlaced) MPEG-2 video and MPEG-1 Layer-2 (MP2) audio decoding.

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

Dear Forum Members

Does anyone know if the New Now TV Box will be able to pick up those freeview channels that require an additional component or facility to be viewed, e.g. Vintage TV, where a notice appears saying "Sorry, your device is not compatible with this service".  

Furthermore, there seems to be more of these "Sorry, your device is not compatible..." freeview channels popping up every few months and I really do not know what is needed to make them watchable.

UK Bob

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You need a Freeview HD receiver which supports MHEG-IC with the streaming channel extensions, and is connected to the Internet.  Oh, and it needs to be on the whitelist for the service and/or not the blacklist.

Basically anything certified with the Freeview HD logo after 2012 should work.

I don't know if the NowTV smart box is Freeview HD certified.

[commanda6]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

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@ukbobboy wrote:

Dear Forum Members

Does anyone know if the New Now TV Box will be able to pick up those freeview channels that require an additional component or facility to be viewed, e.g. Vintage TV, where a notice appears saying "Sorry, your device is not compatible with this service".  

Furthermore, there seems to be more of these "Sorry, your device is not compatible..." freeview channels popping up every few months and I really do not know what is needed to make them watchable.

UK Bob

---

You need a Freeview HD receiver which supports MHEG-IC with the streaming channel extensions, and is connected to the Internet.  Oh, and it needs to be on the whitelist for the service and/or not the blacklist.

Basically anything certified with the Freeview HD logo after 2012 should work.

I don't know if the NowTV smart box is Freeview HD certified.

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@Anonymous User your partially correct. There are two methods of delivering IP channels on digital terrestrial one is  MHEG-IC as you describe, and the other is something else. I'm not actually quite sure what the other method is

It's part of the reason why only half of the IP channels on available on freeview work on Youview. In some cases you can find that some boxes will support one method and not the other or in some cases, both. Freeview play for example supports both methods. So all IP channels are available on freeview play

[Anonymous User]

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@commanda6 wrote:

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@Anonymous User wrote:

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@ukbobboy wrote:

Dear Forum Members

Does anyone know if the New Now TV Box will be able to pick up those freeview channels that require an additional component or facility to be viewed, e.g. Vintage TV, where a notice appears saying "Sorry, your device is not compatible with this service".  

Furthermore, there seems to be more of these "Sorry, your device is not compatible..." freeview channels popping up every few months and I really do not know what is needed to make them watchable.

UK Bob

---

You need a Freeview HD receiver which supports MHEG-IC with the streaming channel extensions, and is connected to the Internet.  Oh, and it needs to be on the whitelist for the service and/or not the blacklist.

Basically anything certified with the Freeview HD logo after 2012 should work.

I don't know if the NowTV smart box is Freeview HD certified.

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@Anonymous User your partially correct. There are two methods of delivering IP channels on digital terrestrial one is  MHEG-IC as you describe, and the other is something else. I'm not actually quite sure what the other method is

It's part of the reason why only half of the IP channels on available on freeview work on Youview. In some cases you can find that some boxes will support one method and not the other or in some cases, both. Freeview play for example supports both methods. So all IP channels are available on freeview play

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No, there's only one method.  The reason only half of them work on YouView is because there are two companies that write the MHEG apps that use this functionality - Synapse (S&T) and Arqiva (formerly Connect TV).  This introduces variences as to which devices things work on.  However, the main reason why half of them work on YouView is because YouView doesn't support MHEG-IC.  Arqiva are shareholders in YouView so after they bought Connect TV they fudged the YouView firmware to enable it to support their own channels.

So, you're right they don't use MHEG-IC on YouView, but that's just a workaround for incomplete functionality.  On every other device they use MHEG-IC.

Freeview Play works differently of course, but the numbered channels in the EPG are all MHEG. 

[Anonymous User]

Hi All,

Just a quick note to say you do need an aerial in order to take part in the trial, so @Anonymous User and @caseyb1993 it might be worth picking one up on the cheap.

Apologies for the information given via live chat - the live chat team don't have any involvement with the trial, so they've likely interpreted the question as relating to the current box.

Thanks,

Tom

[greedyfinch]

Thanks. 2012 may be the watershed, I know I bought a smart tv in the year before and although it has internet and can use iplayer etc the freeview iptv services don't work.