Mrs K has been "given" a free Now TV box at Legoland (I suppose a PSA if you're in the area).
Seems to be Freeview plus monthly controllable "passes" to premium channels such as Sky sports e.g. On with a monthly payment during the tour, off after 🙂
Anyone got it and can comment on the service, and their Fibre Broadband? With Amazon prime in the house also could this my my Sky Killer?
If Blockbusters are your thing Sky Cinema is good and at a tenner a month it's a lot cheaper than a normal Sky sub.
And there are no contracts so you can stop at any time when you get bored. We tend to use it more in winter.
The Sports Pass doesn't seem to be very good value though.
could this my my Sky Killer?
It's basically PAYG Sky without the HD or Sky box. I tend to just pick up the passes when they're on offer, I don't think I've ever paid full price for one. I've never had a problem with the service.
I have had a couple of Now TV boxes and when working are absolutely fine. The problem I had was with the frequency of box freezes & crashes. perhaps I was just unlucky but have had no such problems with my Panasonic freeplay machine.
Give it a go, the newer boxes may be better now.
You may not need the box which looks to be some sort of locked down Roku. Smart TVs, PS and Roku kit carry the app.
without the HD or Sky box
They have two new boxes - the basic one we now have and a Smart box which allows pause rewind save etc.
It's basically PAYG Sky
Yet not £90 a month.
Can someone confirm - it does have Freeview if you don't pay for passes? Seems hard to find a Freeview channel list on their website.
I've got one and have not bothered with the passes (gave away the cinema pass that came with mine). It has Iplayer, ITV hub, All 4, Red Bull TV. Got normal TV for watching live.
It's not Freeview.
You can add catch-up player apps from BBC etc (not sure of current ones).
It won't play live TV though unless the catch-up app supports it - iPlayer does for certain programmes.
Not Freeview? It says this on the website?
[i]Enjoy the best of free to air and pay TV channels without a contract
Watch over 60 Freeview channels plus 12 HD channels
Catch Up on your favourites on BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and Demand 5
Pause and rewind live TV
Get more of the TV you love with NOW TV Passes
Super simple set up. Just connect to your broadband and start watching[/I]
I guess I'll find out when she gets home and I plug it in.
Yet not £90 a month
Well, quite. Also has the advantage that you can easily drop it for a few months then opt back in when they've added a more few box sets or movies you like the look of.
I found it very handy for watching the Lions Tour.
I could just about swallow the £30 for a month by binging on all the other internationals and super rugby they had on at the time.
One thing I noticed that streaming was rubbish through my LG smart TV direct but much better through XBOX one.
Streaming was fine through the iMac and Android Smart phone too.
Is it still streaming at 720p? That was the biggest downside when I tried it out.
AFAIK you're also limited to 4 devices registered at any time per account and 2 using the service concurrently. And casting from a phone to a Chromecast counts as 2 devices. There are restrictions on how often you can change devices too. All of that doesn't bother me, but might be an issue if you're a family user.
Yet not £90 a month
Can you even spend that much on a sky TV package?
Ours (box sets with sports and cinema) is £18.50
Not Freeview? It says this on the website?
The new SmartBox is. But the standard box isn't.
I can't see them giving SmartBoxes away free.
Standard Box...
http://www.nowtv.com/tv-box
Smart Box...
http://www.nowtv.com/tv-smart-box
chromecast plus nowTV app on your phone gives you all the main sky channels (not sports but including atlantic) plus box sets (wire, GoT, Silicon Valley, Girls, Broad City etc etc) for £6 a month, I think.
I hate giving murdoch money, but this is a good enough deal for me to swallow hard.
...oh an obv when you've got chromecast you just pick up the free apps for All4, ITVhub, BBCiplayer etc etc. About the only live TV we watch is Newsnight, if that's not getting slightly stw.
The basic box has always been essentially free in that if you buy it with bundled passes it's often cheaper than the passes on their own, e.g. Box plus 6 months entertainment pass is currently £30 on amazon and has often been less. Consequently we have 4 of the basic boxes sitting around unused, which is a bit of a waste but at least we have plenty of spare remotes when one breaks!
Can you even spend that much on a sky TV package?
That includes 100% of channels,. Broadband & phone.
Ok, I see. We probably need to upgrade to the SmartBox then - I'll try this one and see how we go first. The PAYG principle sits better with me.
We do have Amazon content via Prime/XBOX One. Whats the connector? I guess I have to work out where its sits between my Sky/Xbox/Sound bar/Tv spaghetti...
I'm a bit of a luddite when it come to these things, I guess with Amazon TV via Prime and this most viewing basis would be covered?
We do have Amazon content via Prime/XBOX One. Whats the connector? I guess I have to work out where its sits between my Sky/Xbox/Sound bar/Tv spaghetti...
Put off messing with connections until you decide whether you need the Smart box and just use the app on the Xbox to start with. Saves using HDMI and another adapter for the time being.
I use it to watch GOT, other than that for me its of no interest.
Netflix and Amazon Prime have more films and series I watch.
Ah got it. My brain just made all the connections.
The Now TV box can go on the rarely used upstairs non-smart TV. My wife will have an ACL op in October so this will give something to watch whilst she's bed bound.
In the meantime, I can watch the content - or Amazons content - through the XBOX apps, and remove all but the very basics from Sky pretty much just retaining the broadband.
I think it's excellent.
NowTV, the service rather than the device is basically the more core Sky Channels for £8 a month (it's just gone up a quid) so Sky1, Atlantic, Discovery and Fox - so that Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Ray Donovan, Westworld on demand.
It's streamed at a max of 720p - which isn't 1080p but it's worth remembers Sky HD isn't 1080p either - it's 1080i which is about on-par with 720p.
The device, as others have said is a locked down Roku box, it's a shame it's locked down because they disable the SD card slot and you're limited to whatever Apps sky will allow you which means no Netflix and no Amazon - but you don't have to use their box I use Apple TV which streams NowTV in HD (the device v service battle in the UK is a bloody minefield).
There's really 2 ways to do NowTV - live, which is just like watching live TV, but unlike Sky+ / Virgin etc you can't pause, rewind etc - they also broadcast with adverts which makes some of the US shows a nightmare to watch.
Or on-demand, if you wait till the programme has ended live you can stream it without adverts, pause, rewind and all that.
Honestly, it's the future - there's no point to terrestrial / satellite or cable transmission, the only barriers are business barriers. With current technology it would be more than possible to have a single app running on a single device that will show you what’s on ‘now’ (an outdated concept once you’re used to it) and what you can watch on demand like the Sky+ menu, click and go but that’s not how it works
Sky / Netflix and Amazon are in a pitched battle for subscribers. Sky won’t let Netflix or Amazon onto its devices – which okay might seem fair enough, after all they’re pretty much giving away £80 Roku boxes for free, but they are picky about what devices you can stream their service to too – and pickier still about what devices it will stream in HD to. Netflix will work on anything they’re allowed on in the highest resolution that’s possible (providing you pay for it) but Sky won’t let them in, Amazon won’t or can’t be shown on any Sky device and won’t allow NowTV on to their firestick.
AppleTV suited us mostly, because it allows NowTV in HD, Redbull in HD, Netflix in HD – Amazon won’t be in HD but then I don’t buy it either.
I had planned to get rid of all subscription TV, I got totally fed up of paying Sky £80 a month, my plan was to stream NowTV which covers all the premium stuff we like and watch the rest via a Freeview HD Device, sadly our ariel had died after years of not being used which scuppered me, but I’ll have it repaired when our contract is up in November.
P-Jay, that I my thought. We have Prime for the other reasons, but seeing as our TV watching consists of Mrs K's shows recorded so she can watch in her own time (replaced then by OnDemand), and me watching F1, Rugby and the TDF all of that seems covered. My one issue was with Eurosport but I paid the £20 for the Eurosport player which comes through Amazon anyway.
Who needs to record stuff if everything is OnDemand?
Now I just need to make sure [s]Mrs Kryton[/s] I can get a daily fix of Love Island and we're good to go.
No complaints here and been using it for 18months. Got movies and entertainment for 3 months for £16, so keep eye out for voucher offers or get them on eBay!
Box sets and streaming is good, no problem with that or boxes here.
Agree I don't like giving money to murdoch but it's way less than sky money and it works.
Free view is available on the smart boxes but not the standard. They are both half price at various times during the year so don't pay more than £15 for basic or £30 for smartbox.
Got ours from the local sainsburys.
The interface isn't as slick as sky but once you get use to it it's worth it for the price difference and lack of contract associated with it.
It streams so make sure you have unlimited internet! Used ours on fibre and had no issues with lag
It's great. The Mrs uses it for box sets while I use it for sky sports. Get a months pass off eBay for around £20-25 which suits me. Not paying for all the other rubbish which I would be with full sky.
Who needs to record stuff if everything is OnDemand?
Exactly, I think a lot of people these days think in terms of Sky+ / Virgin Tivo - I used to ask myself "how do I record things?" it's almost laughable after a few weeks.
IMHO - if you want to watch premium tv (I'm glad to read we've avoided the usual "I don't own a TV" and "go out an do something else argument up to now) the best solution available today is a decent PVR for Freeview stuff which ideally will work as a streaming device for your ondemand stuff - netflix or prime, whichever suits you or both, NowTv for the premium stuff and ideally a decent fibre connection it's about half what you'll pay Sky, you can run upto 4 devices which makes Sky Multiroom at £10 a month or whatever seem a rip-off and it works wonderfully.
Great. Our upstairs TV doesnt have hdmi
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/HDMI-SCART-Composite-Converter-specification/dp/B00NAT0W2Y ]Not necessarily a showstopper[/url]
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portta-Converter-Component-Support-Channel/dp/B00A8FIQXA ]Or one of these if you want to keep 720p resolution[/url]
The new SmartBox is. But the standard box isn't.I can't see them giving SmartBoxes away free.
Curry have the smart box for £45
With 5 months entertainment pass included (worth £39.95)
So not quite free for the box. But close enough.
I already ordered the top one johnners, but thanks.
Right. All connected via Xbox, there are some live channels and an amazing amount of content, staggeringly so when you add Amazon. The unbeilebale bit as i found out via the account page is that this is a Sky service.
I'm assuming if we added a smart box we can log it into our existing account?
Also, these vouchers, are they sent via email or do you have to humt them down?
Not great image quality but does have shows the other channels don't have.
All the CYE are currently on it.
Billions too.
When you cancel you get an option for about £1.99 a month.
I'm assuming if we added a smart box we can log it into our existing account?Also, these vouchers, are they sent via email or do you have to humt them down?
Yes, up to 4 devices at a time can be registered to one account. Once you're up to 4 you can only change one a month (I think).
I've only ever bought vouchers on offer with a box so I've only had the scratchcard type, typically at a fiver pm for the Ents and £6 for movies. If you just let them debit your card there are no vouchers involved but you'll be paying full price, mostly. I say mostly because there are often introductory offers for new subscribers, and I've gone to cancel before and they've come back with a half price or better offer for 4 months or so.
So what's the cheapest way I watch game of thrones?
I've no interest in signing up for another service (already have prime and netflix).
There are a few listings on ebay for 'NOW TV Box with 3 Months Entertainment Pass' for £15. Will that do it? Are the episodes available on catch up?
Well, the Entertainment channel has 14 days free so im about to attempt to watch 20 episodes of GOT in that time.
Yeah that'll do it, starts Monday and runs for 7 weeks so 3 months will be plenty.
Check your device is alllowed to stream in in HD.
https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-highest-streaming-quality-for-my-device#
Well, the Entertainment channel has 14 days free so im about to attempt to watch 20 episodes of GOT in that time.
Be aware that the first episodes of a series usually drop off before the last one has aired - so if you're planning on binging S7, do it in two stints...
So what's the cheapest way I watch game of thrones?
You don't need a box if you've got a Playstation, xbox, pc, mac or a phone. £6.99 (rising to 7.99 in august) a month for the entertainment package.
Mac player is a bit crap if you don't have great hardware - mine struggles to output full screen. PS & Phone both fine.
Right you've all talked me into it, just ordered a smart box from John Lewis with 4months movies for £35.
Anyone know of any offers for the entertainment pass?
Right you've all talked me into it, just ordered a smart box from John Lewis with 4months movies for £35.
Wow. Having experienced the interface I might just buy that with my Paypal balance!
Anyone want a free non-smart box? 😀
So here's m y next question; If we get the smart box, dow you get the 60 Freeview channels through the other devices e.g. xbox or just via the box/tv its connected to - the latter being what I believe to be the case...?
Anyone know of any offers for the entertainment pass?
Best one I can see that I'd trust is Amazon at £25 for 5 months. 3 month pass looks to be OOS.
If we get the smart box, dow you get the 60 Freeview channels through the other devices e.g. xbox or just via the box/tv its connected to - the latter being what I believe to be the case...?
You believe correctly.
Best one I can see that I'd trust is Amazon at £25 for 5 months. 3 month pass looks to be OOS.
I think WH Smiths and Game sell the entertainment pass - 3 months for £15 or 2 months movies for then same price.
We tend to get a 2 or 3 of months at a time and then leave it for a few months, otherwise you run out of stuff to watch.
One month entertainment pass is currently half price (£3.50). So two months to get you through GoT would be £11.49 (with the August price hike).
On the back of this thread I bought a smart box with 5 months entertainment for £45 from currys yesterday for our holiday place but also as a test to see if we can ditch Sky at home.
They didn't have any on the shelves and I had to ask for one as it showed stock on the web site - interestingly the same box with just a 3 month pass is more expensive!
Got it set up and it looks OK although it's not seeing the freeview channels yet.... need to investigate.
Got it set up and it looks OK although it's not seeing the freeview channels yet.... need to investigate.
Let me know would you, I literally had my finger on the but and just popped in here to check for any updates 😀
johnners - Member
Not necessarily a showstopper
Well i bought the hdmi>scart converter which doesnt need the power to work. In fact, with or without power it makes no difference to the pic quaility. What gives?
Kryton, how you getting on with this?
I'll offer my tuppence worth.
I had the full Sky package but it was costing me £80 a month just for the TV. Cancelled it and went for the Now TV box with the entertainment package. Don't miss Sky at all. The option to bolt on movies or sports for a month if there's a particular reason to do it is way better than paying all year round.
the Now TV box itself is pretty good. Seems pretty reliable, fast and easy to navigate. My only slight gripe would be navigating the live TV listings. The channels aren't numbered, you have to scroll through the entire listings. You can't jump straight to one channel. Not a huge pain as I don't watch a lot of broadcast TV. Only time it does become a bit of a pain is due to the HD channels which are quite far down the listings and take a bit of time to scroll to. A minor gripe for saving £80 a month though. Would also be good if Netflix was included in the apps but I use the xbox for that.
all the boxset stuff from Sky is there on the entertainment package (plus more) with the only caveat being the stuff doesn't tend to be on the now tv listing for as long as it is on Sky, but they do warn you well in advance when a show will no longer be available on demand.
all the tv players are there (iPlayer, More4, ITV, Demand 5) plus Redbull, Youtube (which streams brilliantly from mobile devices), Spotify etc.
Genuinely can't see me going back to Sky now. I'd tried BT tv a few years back and it was a hateful experience. Terrible box and unreliable service. Now TV is far better.
Similar to above, left sky satalite and went to sky internet (nowTV).
Used to serve as our main point for Iplayer etc TV but we've migrated to a fire stick and only use the Now TV box for Now TV Stuff
Kryton, how you getting on with this?
Pretty much exactly what BoardinBob says.
Although to be fair I haven't watched it much since Games of Thrones ended*, but will be adding on Sports in the 6 Nations months.
*We have Amazon Prime - although I find Amazon's interface via Xbox confusing - so we view movies there. NowTV's movies are more current though.
Currently only paying £1.99 a month for the Kids channels.
So worth getting the NowTV Smart box over just using the app or the Apple TV?
Can't see anything about connections for the Smart box either. Is it freesat? Can I just plug the cables from the sky dish into it?
mrblobby - Member
So worth getting the NowTV box over just using the app or the Apple TV?
I've got both.
Apple TV is lovely, but pretty much does the same thing - the problem with NowTV box is it can't stream Netflix and Apple TV can (as well as NTV in HD which a lot of devices won't).
I'm yet to find a single device to rule them all, Apple TV is great, but ITV, C5 and C4 don't have an app for it. NowTV box is cheap, easy to use and has those, but no Netflix.
Maybe Roko make a box that does it all.
Wifi, power & HDMImrblobby - Can't see anything about connections for the Smart box either. Is it freesat? Can I just plug the cables from the sky dish into it?
The Now TV box is a stripped out Roku box. Sky are invested in Roku.
I would have gone for a Roku but its almost impossible to get Kodi on it and you cant get NowTV on a fire stick.
The Now TV box is a stripped out Roku box. Sky are invested in Roku.
Wonder if you can just buy the unstripped Roku box?
Just playing with the free trial over the iPad. Hmm the bit annoying that chromecast is seen as a device.
Hmm we only have satellite cables to our sky box, no aerial cable. Assume that means to freeview channels on the smart box? 🙁
[quote=mrblobby ]Hmm we only have satellite cables to our sky box, no aerial cable. Assume that means to freeview channels on the smart box?
correct
You can by a stock Roku and run most things on it. I only have the Now TV box because it was free with a 6 month subscription.
[url= https://www.roku.com/en-gb/index ]https://www.roku.com/en-gb/index[/url]
Well I was all set to cancel Sky and get NowTV but they did me a deal that was too good to refuse 😕