NowTV Box 4500SX - Forcing Login to NowTV

[ColinA]

I'm hoping someone out there can help...

I have had my 4500SX box for a few years now.., never had any issues..

I don't use the NOWTV side of it, I just use it for TV channels..

A couple of days ago, it started going straight into NOWTV when I powered it on..., very odd..

I couldn't see a way around it, so I FACTORY RESET it and it now takes me thru the connection via the www.nowtv.com/tv link to activate it..

It then wants my login details..., and many years ago, I had used it once to watch Sky cricket, so I put my details in...

Then takes me on to a section where it insists I go for a 7 day trial and won't go any further unless I put my credit card details in..

I don't want a trial and I'm not giving NOWTV any credit card details...

At this moment, I'm seriously annoyed as there seems to be nothing I can do you use my box.. I'm guessing this is a firmware update that has done this, but it has rendered my box useless..

I just want it back to where I have been for the last 5-6 years..?

Any ideas..?

[nst]

Im afraid I cant offer any practical advice to that particular box...

Apart from to say that NOW's interface is odd and there might be an obscure box you can select which is more like 'sign in' instead of sign up.  Its often confusing but look closely if theres any options rather than just going straight for entering your details.

That said, I think that your main issue could well be that the box is now 6 years old.  Although it borders on the side of criminally wasteful - these things, especially the cheap hardware, is not really designed for longevity.  It's very telling that NOW have long since exited the own brand set top box market.  I would expect their old boxes to be breaking down by now with no avenue remaining to replace or repair it.  Frankly, with no updates to the NOW app on that platform it's just not worth hanging on to.

Your best bet is to replace the box with something a lot more modern and mainstream.  My personal preference is the AppleTV Box but I appreciate the price point puts people off - the NOW app in there is now top notch and the interface, lack of Ads, etc  is well worth the price.  That said, just get an Amazon fire stick.  They are often on offer but can easily be found for £20-30 for the base model and £40-50 for a 4K one.

Its really not worth sticking with some hardware thats long since declared obsolete and abandoned by the manufacturer.

[commanda6]

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@nst wrote:

Your best bet is to replace the box with something a lot more modern and mainstream.  My personal preference is the AppleTV Box but I appreciate the price point puts people off - the NOW app in there is now top notch and the interface, lack of Ads, etc  is well worth the price.  That said, just get an Amazon fire stick.  They are often on offer but can easily be found for £20-30 for the base model and £40-50 for a 4K one.

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Hi @ColinA @nst 

Amazon has recently increased the prices of their streaming devices by 20 to 30% depending on the model. So unless you want something that is available on Amazon devices, but is not available on Roku, then the best bang for the buck choice is actually Roku At this point in time. It is true that Amazon devices are still quite often on offer. However, they now only tend to match the old prices when they are on offer.

just don't go for the low end roku model, though, as it possible that this doesn't have auto adjust refresh rate. Excluding this particular piece of functionality on low-end devices used to be a favourite trick of rokus , but I'm not sure whether that's still the case . Even so, the midrange Roku that is available in the UK can be had for around £40. The Roku express 4k

[ColinA]

Hi there, many thanks for your advice...

I'll go off and look around Youtube and see what the devices you recommend can do for me.. The Apple TV sounds good, but I don't think it is much good for UK terrestrial TV stations from what I could see.. 

All I ever used on my NOWTV box was UK channels, and a few of the internet apps.., none of the subscription services..

Very annoyed that they have in effect trashed the unit for me.. I'm sure there is a legal angle in all that, but I just can't be fussed with it all..

I'll know better dealing with NOWTV again.., and I suspect many of the others who used this will have exactly the same problem..., a very silly thing for NOWTV to do..

Thanks for all your advice, very much appreciated...

[nst]

@ColinA it is GREAT for UK terrestrial.

You need, of course, the iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX, and My5 apps installed - through each you can access live TV

HOWEVER, the number 1 app in the paid App Store on the appleTV is an app called "TV Launcher" - it's cheap and GREAT.   It gives you a TV guide, and the ability to select the show and takes you directly into the appropriate app....  having this app is just like having a regular live TV guide.

If AppleTV is on your radar, believe me there isn't a better option out there for a fast, fluid, ad-free streaming box with great software and app choice.

[RoyB]

@ColinA @commanda6 @nst 

As far as I know, Now hardware has always expected to be initialised by the user buying a membership, or logging on to an existing account, and so while you can use the box without any Now memberships running, in order to use the other apps on it, this state of affairs won’t survive a factory reset.

I wonder if a soft reset would have worked? Too late now, anyway.

Where you are now, I think you have two free options to get this box working again:-

(i) give it the credit/debit card details it wants, and then take a Hayu free trial. Though this won’t work if you have already had one, and even if it does work now, you couldn’t use it after a second Factory Reset, if you ever had to do one. However, I know you don’t want to do this, so:-

(ii) Find a friend, family member, or colleague, with an active Now membership, and get them to start up the box for you with their account, (not allowing you to watch them putting their password in!) and then log out. That should put you back exactly where you were before the Factory Reset

[ColinA]

Yeah, I did that FACTORY RESET and as you say that was the end of the world..

I don't know anyone with a NOWTV account, unfortunately..I only used it to see SKY CRICKET, but that was just too expensive, so I never used it again.. 😞

I guess in the bigger scheme, it's very annoying that a unit I have used for so long, without issue, has now been rendered useless by a firmware update..

Thanks for all your advice, very much appreciated and very kind of you..

[ColinA]

Just to add here, the nut of the problem is the activation process for anyone else finding this post.

On the NOWTV box it shows you an activation code, and you then need to go to your PC, put in the link and enter the activation code..

You are then pushed to login to your NOWTV account..

It then FORCES you to go for a 7 DAY/30 DAY TRIAL..., which of course you don't want.., it then FORCES you to put your CREDIT CARD details in, which of course you don't want to do...

Unless you ACCEPT ALL of that, it will not activate your NOWTV box..., so, you are completely knackered..

The SIMPLE answer is that they change their website to allow you to put your login details in and that in turn ACTIVATES your NOWTV box.., allowing you to bypass FREE options and giving away your CREDIT CARD details.., none of which you want..

Total MESS, and not well thought out on NOWTV's side

[RoyB]

@ColinA 

You are quite right about what Now could do to solve this problem with their legacy devices being used without a Now subscription on them. No doubt Now will consider the revenue opportunities this would bring. Ah….

I suspect the legal angle will be that the T&Cs you accepted when you took the heavily subsidised device meant that it would only work if you took out a Now subscription on it, and additionally that Now could decide what apps you could and couldn’t have on it, a range heavily cut down from the apps available on the parallel Roku device (which Roku calls channels rather than apps).

I’m sure the endless trouble caused by Now having its own devices, subsidised to reduce the barrier to entry to Now streaming, has led to Now dropping them in the current day, where Now is available on most TVs, and certainly on any streaming stick that anyone might buy.

The subsidising also led to the situation where many of us have a few Now Sticks in the loft or in a cupboard somewhere, as it was cheaper to buy a device just for the streaming vouchers it came with - leading to Now embedding them as virtual vouchers in the Sticks, which meant you did actually have to fire the stick up at least once.

There were ways that Now could have stopped this, based on the code that stopped us having multiple free trials of a given membership, but they didn’t.

But now to your situation - if you can’t/won’t get the box going again by the methods I suggested, then given the way you use it, for the Freeview TV channels, the suggestions involving sticks won’t solve this. It is my dearest wish to see Freeview replicated over the internet, but we aren’t quite there yet.

However, the problem for most people is that they are trying to avoid the need for a terrestrial aerial, which is clearly not a problem for you, as you must be using one now.

That being the case, I would recommend a YouView solution - one of the BT TV DB-T22xx miniboxes (‘zappers’) you can find on eBay or in CeX, or, if you want to push the boat out a bit further, go for a BT DTR-2xxx or a DTR-4000, which can record as well.

These all have a range of apps on, though they can’t match what’s on an Amazon, Roku or Apple device. But they do have the all-important Freeview….

Oh, and by the way, it isn’t a firmware update that has locked up your device; it’s the way they have always worked, and revert to when you do a factory reset. You wouldn’t have got anywhere with it when you first bought it, if you hadn’t started that Sports subscription.

[ColinA]

Thanks Roy.., that's perfect.. I'll go off and investigate those boxes you suggest..

Colin

[commanda6]

My apologies @ColinA 

I didn't twig that the model number you gave above was the smart box with the digital terrestrial television (DTT) tuner. 

While my advice about Amazon devices being overly expensive is still correct. If you wish to access DTT channels , then the advice I gave yesterday, is largely useless except for the channels that can be accessed from within the BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and Four apps respectively. 

Your best choice over still Roku, though , as in terms of apps/ smart functionality, it would give you what you are used to with the Now device, plus a whole lot more that your ability to access linear Freeview channels would be limited to what's available in the apps mentioned above or channels as Roku rather confusingly calls them.

@RoyB  is correct and pretty much everything he has said above, but I'm afraid I would have to caution against getting youview hardware on on eBay. Much of what you will find will now be rather old, which means she would naturally have to question its reliability . And while it is possible to replace the HDD in the variants of youview hardware that have hard disks. The process of changing the disc can be a pain in the backside. If you do decide to go down this route, I wouldn't gather anything that is over £100.

On a final note, the Manhattan T4 and T4R Freeview play boxes are meant to be coming out in July . If possible I would wait for these as I can't imagine the T4 which is a receiver only and not a PVR being above £120. The T3R can still be found if you look hard enough that I don't think you would get it for under £169.

[ColinA]

Hi there, really sorry, it should have been a 4500SK box..., my mistake..

Thanks for the update..., I'll check out those options you suggest... 🙂

[RoyB]

@ColinA @commanda6 

My YouView box from 2012 is still working as well as it ever did (which is to say, not as well as the more modern YouView boxes). But it has suffered no mechanical or electrical deterioration.

Though the same can’t be said for many of its fellows, which is true. But boxes from 2014 onwards have very few issues. In particular, the BT ones; and the DB-T22xxs are completely solid state, and so have no disc to fail.

Your only worry with an eBay purchase is that the device works initially, but doesn’t last long; if that is an issue, a CeX one will come with a guarantee.

Here’s one on eBay, described as ‘new’:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/2158467010?iid=115811912529

You could get six of those, for what a T3 might be priced at….