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]

Dear Forum Members

I presume that most forum members or guests reading this own one or more Now TV box, and I guess like me there was a journey of looking at different devices, checking facilities and prices before deciding on the Now TV box. 

And once the decision was made and the product bought, did you find setting up the Now TV box difficult, easy or did you come across something unforeseen? 

Plus, has the Now TV box lived up to your expectations or have you been disappoint, if so why?

Finally, is there anything, question or otherwise, that I have missed?

Lets hear your story.

UK Bob

[Anonymous User]

Hello, @ukbobboy

The NOW TV Box is a fantastic choice for those who want the benefits of catch-up TV, on-demand boxsets, blockbuster movies and paid TV from 13 carefully selected channels, all at the hand of a simple device, linked to your TV. In addition, its a perfect substitute for home media, as it includes popular services such as; BBC iPlayer, Spotify and Sky News. You can also access Sky Store, which allows you to rent or purchase movies at the click of a button, with no strings attached. 

The NOW TV Box is incredibly simple to set-up for the first time. The easy-to-use interface provides clear and simplistic instructions which will ensure you're up and running in no time. Another great thing about the handy device, is that it can be configured to run Plex, using a built-in developer mode, allowing you to install third-party packages directly. 

On a personal scale, I use the NOW TV Box as a substitute for Sky TV. I can stream 13 top live Pay TV channels, which are enough to keep my entertained (who needs 300 channels!) and I have total access to Sky Movies, both live and on-demand, as well as Sky Store which can be accessed directly from the remote. Although the live streams are limited to SD, the picture quality looks very similar to standard Sky TV, and therefore doesn't affect me.

The NOW TV Box has definitely lived up to its expectations, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for both a simple home media device, and a substitute for standard contract-based Sky TV. 

I hope this has been helpful for you.

Thanks!

Osculogic 

[caseyb1993]

@ukbobboy Mine was a Christmas present. Come Christmas day, it'll be my one year NOWTV birthday! 

Originally, I was only going to use the 3 month pass that came with it and cancel as at the start, i'll admit I didn't really like it as I only used it to watch FOX and Gold and the box sets weren't for me.

A few weeks in however, more and more shows that I do like came on as box sets and then even MORE shows came on and I have kept it ever since. 

It's better than paying for full on sky, I'd never pay for that as sky have let me down in the past, (another reason why I hesitated to keep the NOWTV box). However my lovely brother lets me use his Sky Go so I can watch the boxing (yay!) and have even more channels. I used to share his netflix too but he cancelled it.

I found the installation very easy as I'm not really good at hooking stuff up so for me to get it going is a miracle. When customers on here talk about the technical stuff, my mind goes completely blank haha. 

I have had a few problems, the wifi channel 12 glitch was the worst as I thought i'd have to return the box thinking it was faulty but this forum soon helped me out. I thought fixing it would be hard with the instructions but it took less than a minute. 

Then, I was put onto the trial for the new box which was very enjoyable and I felt very privileged to be a part of it, to make something amazing become even better! Thank you NOWTV for that, a big thank you to @Anonymous User and all of the team, I made a few mistakes but I still had a great time with it. 

Every month, I say 'this will be the last month for a while' but then I read the blog and something I like always crops up making me keep it for yet another month. 

So NOWTV, I have a message for you:

[Anonymous User]

@ukbobboy

I've never purchased a NOWTV box for my own usage.

I've had Roku LT for just over 3 years and signed up to NOWTV on 30th July 2013 when it was only Movies.

I purchased HDMI Streaming Stick in Jan 2015 when Roku screwed up on update on LT - later fixed and box used upstairs.

Got black box to test earlier this year and it's a good product.

Just got second one with 6 month voucher from Currys ( £19.99) - giving box to friend.

[Anonymous User]

@ukbobboy

I think price has to be the main factor in deciding to purchase a NOW TV box.  For £15 all the main catch up services is an absolute baragin.  The only thng that lets it down IMO is the poor ITV Hub app and the fiddly way to access older episodes, other than that the box is easy to set up & use

[ukbobboy]

Well Guys

I see that we all seem to similar but individually unique reasons why we all purchased that great little smart TV box.

My main reason, without going into the entire (boring) history, was to link or network my computer system to my TV, in order words stream films, TV programmes and videos to my TV.

I originally wanted to purchase the WD TV Media Player but was put off by the lack of UK TV channels (it only had the BBC iplayer), complicated set-up procedures, various technical difficulties and at a price that I had to be sure about.  The last straw for me was when users of this device were bitterly complaining that WD's latest firmware update stopped the machine from playing/streaming MP4 files.

Well, after about 4 - 6 months of waiting for WD to correct their error I gave up and started looking for something else.  This is when I came across the (white) Now TV box, it seem to have everything I was looking for, and even though I did my research (due diligence) I was still somewhat skeptical.

However, the price was such (£10) that I took a punt and since then never looked back, I was also so surprised at how easy it was to set up it made me wonder why WD's offering was so complicated (I had downloaded and read the WD manual some months before). 

The only small but real problem I had was getting into developer mode but after consulting users on this forum that also became easy.

Now, thanks to the little white box, my TV is now part of my small home network, I can watch catch-up TV on my TV screen, rather than my PC screen, and above all I can now stream my DVDs, etc., via my ReadyNAS, directly to TV.

And finally, I can say without any doubt that this little smart box has opened up for me a whole new vista of entertainment and now there is no turning back.

UK Bob

[Anonymous User]

Got a White NowTV box because it was a £10 ( only a £10) and roku were still trying to flog an out of date roku 3 for £100 - 1p.

And It was a way to get HTML5 apps on a HDTV that was not Ethernet or wifi enabled but was still 1080p HDTV...

The second gen Black NowTV box I did not buy.... As Amazon released the 4 Core CPU TV box with NEW content and alot of extras...

With Amazon branding and support...  I don't need the Smart box for TV content as the shows Im interested in are NOT on the box...

Since NowTV white box released many other devices have got TV released apps and other devices got new services...

Console Support by big brother SkyUK with a new service level extta being the biggest addon...  

With the white box CPU being over loaded when it comes to BBC iplayer and Youtube the boxes were re-tried as they can't cope with new html5 templates... with the Black box being a £5 more than the White, Nobody wanted the now under powered boxes...

When for £15 they get brand new restricted old roku 3 clone... 

Have moved on and moved out the UK... 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Over an 12 month period I bought two LG televisions which both came with 3 month Now TV Entertainment and Movie passes along with some Sports passes. And then one morning when I switched on my third (older) LG television, there was a free Now TV trial offer, with even more Entertainment, Movie and Sports passes. So I registered and managed to view Now TV for around nine months... And now I'm hooked 

I primarily view the Now TV movie service, as I have a Virgin media box with entertainment package. But (as I've mentioned elsewhere before) I would drop Virgin tomorrow if there were more entertainment channels on Now TV...

[BicBasher]

I purchased a LG TV in 2014 with three months free movies and the then 30 day free trial.   Ended up paying for an entertainment pass and when they put it up to £6.99, I decided to buy a white box with a three month entertainment pass. (and later a Chromecast for more free Ent pass time).

The white box IMHO was awful, sluggish and the 60Hz refresh rate really didn't help, along with poor PQ, but I tolerated it so I could catch up on ITV and C4 shows.

This year, I went on the trial for the black box.  I was really cynical that it'll be another white box issue, but this box really resolved a lot of issues, such as speed, reliability and ease of use.  The only thing missing is 50Hz output, but I still have my LG tv working and Chromecast outputs at 50Hz too, so I'm not too worried about enjoying Now TV with the best possible PQ and the black box still gets used for ITV Hub.