It's arguably the best £9.99 I've spent on a gadget, I subscribed to the entertainment pass for a short time when I didn't have Sky, but as said it's handy to have in a bedroom for catch up services. It's a shame they haven't kept the sport pass at £6.99 per day, as I'd be more inclined to use it, even once a month or so.
Yeah, I'll add my voice to its fan club. I've bought one for me and one for my parents. The interface (and the fact there's a separate remote) means it's a lot easier to use than some smart TVs I've encountered, plus it offers all the main catch-up services. It actually works really well as a Google Cast device when using the YouTube app, too.
If only those catch up services offered the live broadcast it would be a great option for a bedroom set where an indoor aerial isn't sufficient for reliable Freeview
The only real negative I've experienced with NOW TV was when I had to sign up via the LG app to claim the 3 month Sky Movies pass. I tried using the remote which was very fiddly, so ended up connecting a USB wired keyboard to complete registration.
I'm tempted to buy a NOW TV box for £19.99 and claim three months entertainment pass and the ability to use ITV Player and 4oD, in addition to the easier to use remote. Netfilx and Amazon apps are on the smart tv, so still get the best of both worlds.
I now have a NOW TV box and have tested it against the LG app.
Positives: Has ITV Player and 4oD (in addition to iPlayer and Demand 5) which playback as good as the desktop players. Software is quick to respond, has Sky Store and easy to add from the Roku channel store. SSN HQ is also free via their app,
Negatives: Now TV playback is on the whole awful in comparison to the LG app which is clear, crisp and SD quality. It appears that the NOW box will stream at the lowest bitrate possible and picture and audio sync is poor. My Motorola Moto E using Android KitKat syncs the picture better than the box.
So if you want a very cheap way of watching the PSB catch-up shows, it's perfect for the job. Otherwise, just buy for the bargain pass offers and use another device to watch NOW channels.
Last edited by London Lite on 6 October 2014 7:10pm - 2 times in total
I've always been in the market for a basic pay TV service at a sub-£10 subscription, I've previously had OnDigital Prepaid, ITV Digital with 6 primary channels and the original Top Up TV. Was very happy with all of them for the price, but all went tits up and I wasn't willing to pay Sky's prices. The Now TV entertainment package is about the best bundle of channels a lower price than any of the previous services I've had. With the peanuts the hardware costs and the possibility of having multiple boxes/devices on the same subscription I was drawn into it, it just seems a bargain that's too good to be true - obviously Sky's business model for the service will rely on nutters paying a tenner a day for Sky Sports before getting Sky proper and ending up shelling out £50 / month for a contract, I guess I'll just have to rely on such nutters continuing to exist so I can pay 7 quid a month for the entertainment pack.
I picked up the £19.99 bundle with 3 months entertainment included last week, 2 days later got a second box for £9.99 - so for an outlay of £30 I now have it in 2 rooms with subscription paid up for the rest of the year and only one subscription of £6.99 covering both after that; seems a bargain to me.
The box is a bit sluggish, but how anyone seriously thinks they can complain about that for a tenner which also includes an HDMI cables and batteries for the remote is beyond me - the full Roku box costs 4 times more for a reason. There are also ways around some of the slowness - I have the Youtube app synced to my phone so I can search for videos on my phone and then push them to the device rather than use the search on the app itself, it's fine using it like that. The quality of the composite output (one of my TVs is still CRT) is surprisingly good, the menus are a little bit blurry but the picture quality is fine.
Slating isn't too bad, I was quite surprised by how few programmes were affected (would love to know what bizarre rights issues there are that makes Allo Allo on Gold slateable but no other BBC sitcom though). Only real bugbear for me is the insane amount of button pressing required to get into live TV - it almost seems like an afterthought (even down to being the very last option on the menu). When for me it was the live TV channels that I got it for I would expect there to be a button on the remote for it - or at least a direct option from the home screen. As an aside, the Android app suffers from the same problem - it took a day before I even realised you could get live TV on Android, I thought it was on demand only. Once you're in it though, I do like the now/next scan bar you have to move through the channels, it looks quite classy and responds quickly.
Sky don't exactly shout about the fact that Sky Sports News HQ and Sky News are also available live (and with any subscription), but for those you need to go back to the home screen and launch their own separate apps, why not just have them as part of Live TV and push them as bonus channels to bring the channel count up?
Moving away from the official offerings on the box, I've sideloaded Plex and am also using it to stream content from my PC, certainly an improvement on the original Xboxes with XBMC I've been using which are now really starting to struggle with modern content. With this though, can anyone recommend software which can just use SMB and stream directly (like XBMC can) rather than needing dedicated server software running on the pc? Sticking with Plex precludes me moving to NAS which I had planned to do.
All in all I'm a big fan. Even if you have no intention of subscribing, a tenner for a smart TV box isn't to be sniffed at.
The box is a bit sluggish, but how anyone seriously thinks they can complain about that for a tenner which also includes an HDMI cables and batteries for the remote is beyond me - the full Roku box costs 4 times more for a reason. There are also ways around some of the slowness - I have the Youtube app synced to my phone so I can search for videos on my phone and then push them to the device rather than use the search on the app itself, it's fine using it like that. The quality of the composite output (one of my TVs is still CRT) is surprisingly good, the menus are a little bit blurry but the picture quality is fine.
Slating isn't too bad, I was quite surprised by how few programmes were affected (would love to know what bizarre rights issues there are that makes Allo Allo on Gold slateable but no other BBC sitcom though). Only real bugbear for me is the insane amount of button pressing required to get into live TV - it almost seems like an afterthought (even down to being the very last option on the menu). When for me it was the live TV channels that I got it for I would expect there to be a button on the remote for it - or at least a direct option from the home screen. As an aside, the Android app suffers from the same problem - it took a day before I even realised you could get live TV on Android, I thought it was on demand only. Once you're in it though, I do like the now/next scan bar you have to move through the channels, it looks quite classy and responds quickly.
Sky don't exactly shout about the fact that Sky Sports News HQ and Sky News are also available live (and with any subscription), but for those you need to go back to the home screen and launch their own separate apps, why not just have them as part of Live TV and push them as bonus channels to bring the channel count up?
All in all I'm a big fan. Even if you have no intention of subscribing, a tenner for a smart TV box isn't to be sniffed at.
True when you factor in the cost of the box, but is still heavily subsidised by Sky .
The YouTube app I've found to be the best PQ wise. Other apps on the box also work well. I also forgot how easy the remote is to use. I couldn't find how to watch Sky News live though using their app.
Gold is where the Now TV box really lags, where as Sky One and Atlantic, it's not so noticeable, but in comparison to the LG Smart TV is still in a different league. I may try a Chromecast in the future (when my three month pass runs out) and see if that handles Now TV's pictures better than the stripped down Roku box.
NOW TV are already admitting that their Android app won't work with Lollipop and are suggesting users stick with KitKat until they've run beta tests with the new Android OS.
