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."

[Anonymous User]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

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@Anonymous User wrote:

@Anonymous UserI don't suppose you would know how to create an unofficial Plex channel which uses the TV Player listings that you have access to.

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I don't have any always on devices so don't have a plex server installed. My main challenge was building something for Roku as a learning exercise.

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@Anonymous User No worries, thanks for the TV Player zip, well worth the effort.

[Anonymous User]

@artesea  That app is great, any further development or features/upgrades in the near future?

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User there isn't really anything else to add. The Plus channels and catchup require logins and whilst I can get the box to do that, the files are DRM protected in a format not supported on the Roku boxes.

[Anonymous User]

@artesea - yours is a really polished, well executed app/channel - better than 90% of the junk currently in the channel store.  It makes you wonder why Sky or those TVplayer people don't do this themselves.

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous UserWow - gotta say very impressive, all working great now and must say it's even better than expected. Thanks for taking the time to put this together - All we need now is the official Plex app on NowTV and it will be an awesome setup.

Thanks again 🙂

[commanda6]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

@Anonymous User @dr_necessitor @commanda6 thanks for the reports.

The EPG data that it tries to parse had an issue where one channel was missing the now/next info and caused it to crash on the splash screen. I've added a check to ignore these for now.

I've updated the blog post with the latest ZIP and also pushed the update to the Roku private channels.

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All working now @Anonymous User 

[ukbobboy]

Dear Forum Members

I am going to extrapolate, from the Roku 4, what kind of features the new ultra modern Now TV box is likely to have and how (some) users can make the most of them:

1) Dislplay will be Hi-Def , 1080p & 4K (although 720p will be retained)

Of course, a TV capable of displaying Hi-Def will be required and a modem-router capable of downloading 6 - 15Mb.

2) Hi-Def HMDI Cable, Now TV will may supply these with the new smart box.

3) Optical output for HQ audio from box to amplifier (unknown whether this will be activated when box is initially released). 

4) USB and micro SD ports will be available.

5) Reset switch (no longer a pin hole) now located on the base of the box.

6) Quad core arm CPU.

7) Choice of using ethernet port (10/100 Mb) or wi-fi.

😎 New faster and more powerful O/S.

I think that's it but I must stress I have no insider knowledge, i.e. I'm guessing.

UK Bob

[Anonymous User]

Regarding it being a Freeview box and therefore it must be 50Hz:

The channels will likely be streamed therefore we may still be stuck with 50Hz content played out at 60Hz. I certainly hope not though.

[ukbobboy]

Dear Pro 50Hz Forum Members

As far as I am aware, most modern TVs can switch between 50 & 60Hz which enables them to play multi-regional films from any source (such as DVD, Blue Ray, etc. ).

So I have a question, what is the difference between a 50Hz TV source and a 60Hz one, in other words why are you guys

pro 50Hz?

As for me, I cannot tell the difference between the two.

UK Bob

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

So I have a question, what is the difference between a 50Hz TV source and a 60Hz one, in other words why are you guys pro 50Hz? 

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It's not that we are pro 50Hz in general...

What we require is to have 50Hz (25.000fps) sources displayed at 50Hz, 60Hz (29.970fps) sources displayed at 60Hz and 24Hz (23.976fps) sources displayed at 24Hz.

Meaning, we want the source video frequency to match the boxes output video frequency. We don't want 25.000fps (50Hz) sources output at 60Hz!

Edit: Also, if it's true that the proposed new set-top box is going to offer a Freview tuner. Given that all of the standard-definition channels are broadcast using 50 'interlaced' fields per second. This will look awful if it's displayed a 60Hz!

Indeed, I'll go as far as saying that even the people who can't currently see the 25p-to-60Hz issue (with the current Roku boxes), will definitely see an issue with 50i displayed at 60Hz!