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."

[4268]

The question was what would we like to see. The fact that we probably won't get those is irrelevant. This is just a bit of fun.

[DarylM]

I'm hoping that there will be an option to disable any menu screen on start up.  I would like to be able to switch the box on and for a Freeview channel to be displayed (i.e. what my TV does at the moment).

Then, with one button press on the remote, I could go directly to the Home screen or the Now TV app.  Rather than having to switch sources as I do now.

It would be nice to have a full 7-day EPG for the Now TV channels, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  I expect any EPG to just be for Freeview channels.

I'd welcome any surprise additions, but currently I'm just expecting a Freeview HD set top box with the current range of smart apps built in.

[schnapps]

A full 7day EPG across both the Freeview and NowTV live channels would be a much welcomed addition.

[DarylM]

I'd love a Freeview Play/Youview-style backwards EPG which links directly to catch up content from the listings.  But I have zero expectation of this actually happening.

[schnapps]

---

@DarylM wrote:

I'd love a Freeview Play/Youview-style backwards EPG which links directly to catch up content from the listings.  But I have zero expectation of this actually happening.

---

@DaryIM

Yeah, totally agree I have both services (Panasonic TV for Freeview Play and BT UHD box for Youview) and they are a godsend for watching Live terrestrial TV & the main associated catch up services.

So simplistic to use.

[commanda6]

---

@schnapps wrote:

---

@DarylM wrote:

I'd love a Freeview Play/Youview-style backwards EPG which links directly to catch up content from the listings.  But I have zero expectation of this actually happening.

---

@DaryIM

Yeah, totally agree I have both services (Panasonic TV for Freeview Play and BT UHD box for Youview) and they are a godsend for watching Live terrestrial TV & the main associated catch up services.

So simplistic to use.

---

@schnapps @DarylM Youviews system is slightly better one of the two I think. Freeview play needs a bit of refinement, but then again, I suppose stream you play is the new kid on the block where is Youview has had over three years to refine the system like @schnapps I have both systems in the house. I have pure retail Youview. When Youview the scroll back function is integrated directly into the standard guide. Instead of changing to a different interface, which means the experience is more simplified than freeview play. The scroll back function on Youview also works with Channel 5s channels properly and I think it might work, but the UK TV channels to.

When Youview first came out it was considered by some to be the platform that would eventually replace freeview . Then a few years later freeview play was announced, partly because some of Youview's partners didn't like what was going on with youview. It's been said before that the ISPs might possess too much power where Youview is concerned , and given that development of Youview is progressing at a snails pace. I think I would have to agree with that assessment. No new services have appeared on Youview since Netflix cannot really be a coincidence? It's a shame really because Youview showed so much promise when it first appeared. 

[commanda6]

---

@commanda6 wrote:

---

@schnapps wrote:

---

@DarylM wrote:

I'd love a Freeview Play/Youview-style backwards EPG which links directly to catch up content from the listings.  But I have zero expectation of this actually happening.

---

@DaryIM

Yeah, totally agree I have both services (Panasonic TV for Freeview Play and BT UHD box for Youview) and they are a godsend for watching Live terrestrial TV & the main associated catch up services.

So simplistic to use.

---

@schnapps @DarylM Youviews system is slightly better one of the two I think. Freeview play needs a bit of refinement, but then again, I suppose stream you play is the new kid on the block where is Youview has had over three years to refine the system like @schnapps I have both systems in the house. I have pure retail Youview. The Youview the scroll back function is integrated directly into the standard guide. Instead of changing to a different interface, which means the experience is more simplified than freeview play. The scroll back function on Youview also works with Channel 5s channels properly and I think it might work, but the UK TV channels to.

When Youview first came out it was considered by some to be the platform that would eventually replace freeview . Then a few years later freeview play was announced, partly because some of Youview's partners didn't like what was going on with youview. It's been said before that the ISPs might possess too much power where Youview is concerned , and given that development of Youview is progressing at a snails pace. I think I would have to agree with that assessment. No new services have appeared on Youview since Netflix can that really be a coincidence? It's a shame really because Youview showed so much promise when it first appeared. 

---

@schnapps @DarylM 

I have corrected the dictation mistakes by altering the quote of my last post above. Sorry

[Anonymous User]

@schnapps I changed from sky BB to BT infinity last month(traitor! I know!) I also decided to go for the starter package for TV wholly for the sports since all my TV demands are covered by now TV and Netflix. BT sent me the non-recordable you view box. I had never used one before but upon first boot I was welcomed with open arms to the BT family with a lovely video explaining how to get up and running. After this BT leave you on your own to work it all out. I found that in first impression everything seems so intuitive, it's like everything is where it should be, no thinking required! It's just there! I think that you view has great potential but as said the isp's are certainly holding it back. 

[Anonymous User]

I know some of you will have already seen my thoughts on teh new smart box in other threads... sorry!

To stream or not to stream… that is the question

If you have NOT been living in a cave or underground for the past 14 years, you will know that today we have more choice than ever when it comes to watching television. With Freeview, Youview, Freesat, Sky and a host of other platforms, pumping an endless number of channels into our homes, its hard to keep up. Sky, BT, Virgin to name but a few, all trying to out do one another in the war of the set top box. Smart TV’s that only provide us with half the app’s we want and a hundred others we will never need.

Over the years I have spent £000's of pounds on TV's, Sky and endless set top boxes, gadgets and HDD recorders, but the Now TV box for £14 has to be one of the best bits of kit on the market. Not only did it allow me access to NOW TV but unlike those TV’s that claim to be smart, the NOW TV box really was, and had all the catch up app’s I really needed (BBC Iplayer, ITV Hub, 4OD and Demand 5).

Since the beginning of the year we have been teased with the news regarding this new smart box NOW TV (Sky) has been developing with Roku. This week we have been told that the new box will incorporate a DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) tuner, that’s a Freeview tuner to you and I. This will allow the user of the box to not only stream Sky content (NOW TV), but also allow those of you without a Freeview tuner in your television or set top box to gain back the channels and some, that you have been missing since 2012 with the digital switch over.   

It is for this reason that I was really upset when I read about the new 'Now TV Smart Box' due out this year was to have a DTT tuner. Most people that buy the 'Now' box, have a TV, and most TV's will have a DTT tuner... So having a DTT tuner in the new 'Now TV Smart Box' I see as pointless! Would it not have been better to provide the Free-to-Air channels (Freeview) via the internet? I just don't get it... Yes I understand that there are licensing issues with some of the channels, but on the whole would it not have been better to come up with the concept ‘FreeStream’.

TV as we know it has been evolving over the years, and more and more of us are watching catch up and on demand services than ever before. I know there will be some of you that welcome the digital tuner and even more cables behind the TV and running around your home. The new NOW TV smart box looks a lot like the Roku 4 UHD box, but with half of its system taken out and replaced with a DTT tuner how much of the Roku 4 will be left?

With beta testing about to get under way and boxes available this summer I just hope Sky has made the right move… Sorry Sky

[SeeMoreDigital]

Oh jeez tonbtv23,

You're one of the reasons why I hate untidy forums. As you've already posted much the same points within this: New NOW TV Smart Box topic and this: Now TV Smart Box Trial topic!

It really is pointless bringing up the same old stuff all over the forum!

Admin/Moderating Team members. Please merge all these duplicate topics together?