Recording from Entertainment and using Smart TV

[Goggleyes]

Hi - I currently have Sky Signature (no sports/cinema etc...) and HD - I'm looking at swapping over to NOW Entertainment and unless I'm wrong, the channels for both are all the same? I'd appreciate if someone could possible confirm?

Also, I usually record things to my Sky+ box to watch later on but understand this will not be possible if I switch to NOW. Do I have any alternative options for this?

Our main TV is a smart LG 65UQ91006LA

It's not essential that be able to record but would be nice.

Many thanks

[gavs82008]

@Goggleyes 

NOW only offers either Live or on demand content, if you want NOW to record then you need to go to BT. 

What you should do is take a look at entertainment and what you'll get. 
https://help.nowtv.com/article/entertainment-membership

Also for full 1080p and no third party adverts with on demand content you need boost. 
https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-now-boost

What you need to make sure does your device have the app available? Otherwise you will need to make sure to get a supported device.
https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-smart-tvs-can-i-use-to-watch

If it helps I am currently paying £5 for entertainment and £2 for boost. Thanks to cancellation offers. 

[Goggleyes]

Thank you for your reply. 

[gavs82008]

@Goggleyes 

To follow-up from the sound advice by @nst you can use this link which will tell you when said content is due to expire on NOW.

www.artesea.co.uk/nowtv/boxsets.php

Depending on the deal with the show it might not disappear after 30 days. New Amsterdam season 5 for instance has just finished and it is not due to expire until 2029 sometime. 

[nst]

Its very hard to give someone hard and fast advice when it comes to streaming - as theres far more to the landscape than NOW of course.

When ditching a service like SkyQ to opt for a streaming solution - my advice is that you must have a content aggregator such as AppleTV's TV app which does a fantastic job of presenting the latest episodes of tv shows you are watching across ALL the streaming platforms (except Netflix - boo)...

With that, there is simply no longer a need for recording content at all.

However as we have said, you need to be mindful of how long something will be available on the respective streaming platform before it disappears.  There is no one answer to all of them as it varies wildly.  Keep in mind MINIMUM of 4 weeks (which frankly is enough) or far longer depending on the service.  Two months to a year+ in some cases.  Demand 5 and iPlayer a year or more..... ITVX and NOW maybe a month ish.

[gavs82008]

@nst 

Totally mate, being a former Sky+ customer it wasn't too much of a painful move as all my TV viewing was via on demand. That was about 7/8 years ago and long before Sky Q, so I was only moving from occasional recorded shows and on demand to full blown streaming. 

Jumping between streaming services wasn't too bad as I was a Netflix user and used the other PSB apps. 

Having JustWatch app has also made life easier to keep track what content is where. 

That being said, I have never owned an Apple TV due to cost. Despite having an iPhone and iPad, did own a Mac a few years ago too. Do have to say I like the Apple system environment, but owning a Sony Bravia TV with all the apps I use has been super handy and using JustWatch saves a bit of time. Otherwise I would have gone down the route of Apple TV, as much as I like the Amazon Fire sticks, the "home page" design is just awful, often I just go to the "my apps" section for simple viewing instead of other content/apps being thrown in my face. 

[nst]

Never heard of the JustWatch app but sounds like it does the job for you.

Ive never looked back having ditched Sky about 4 years ago - I was quite surprised how the Apple TV app completely replaces the need for recording.

Takes a while to get your head round the concept sure... and for brand new shows or movies, you need to wait for them to have been made available before you can add them to your list rather then ahead of time as you might have done with a recorder...

Out of interest as an Apple iPhone and iPad user, you already have full access to the TV app as its built in to those devices and syncs across them - no need for an AppleTV box as such though the price has come down lately which is unusual for Apple kit. - you just need the respective streaming apps installed on the device too and it works just as well.

[Goggleyes]

I've not had Apple TV but we already have Netflix and Amazon (only the free stuff via Prime).

[nst]

dont confuse AppleTV the hardware box, with AppleTV+ the streaming service.

Two separate things.

However, in my opinion, getting an appleTV box, using the TV app on that box - you will functionally get more than Sky+ gave you, including a "recording" queue... for a fraction of the cost.

[Goggleyes]

I've got Sky+ on 2 boxes with multiroom and did not get as far as Sky Q. One of the boxes is now intermittently playing up so it is definitely time for a change. I've done a bit of a review as best I can to see how much channel usage we get out of Sky and to be honest from what I've seen I don't think I'm going to miss it as it looks like NOW have the channels we already watch and the rest would be Freeview. Thank you for your reply.