Anyone using a Now TV Box?

[mark1234]

I'm thinking of getting one of Sky's new Now TV Boxes for iPlayer use as they're only ten quid. Anyone else got one? Any comments?

https://shop.nowtv.com/

[Pixelz]

I'm tempted too, but without WMC integration it's another remote control, another power supply and another hdmi connection.
I do like the size of the box, but the sports subscription looks expensive at £9.99 for one day.

[milli260876]

Nice bit of kit for a tenner, works with the roku mediabrowser 3 plugin too btw!!
worth the £10 just for that imho...

[mark1234]

Since asking this question I have actually bought one of these. Got it on a deal where it cost me minus £2, so completely risk free!

TBH, all I've done with it is connect it up and watch one episode of HIGNFY on iPlayer. The video playback was fine, and streams in HD, but the main UI on the box is slow. Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow! It's a bit like one of the Linksys extenders - fine at its main job, but painful to use the menus.

Covering Pixelz points, yes it is another HDMI, remote etc. To be honest, after TV being an exclusively Media Centre experience in my house since 2005, I'm hoping this will start to wean the family off MCE dependence. I agree that the sports day package is expensive compared to the monthly cost, but if you're only going to use it once, maybe twice, a month then it's still cheaper, and also cheaper than it would be to actually attend the event you're watching. Not that I'm a sports fan, so won't be paying at all...

[apbms1]

If they did a media cente plugin that could replace tunerfreemce . Id happily pay a tenner for it.

[mark1234]

An update to say that the NowTV box is getting some proper use and I'm very happy with it.

It's got iPlayer, 4oD and Demand 5, so all the mainstream TV is covered. There are a number of other channels/apps that you can install. The Vevo one is getting use in my household.

iPlayer and Vevo are both in HD (subject to the actual content being HD). Not so sure about the 4 and 5 offerings, though last I checked they weren't HD even on their websites so I'm not holding out hope there, but they're perfectly watchable. I had a 30 day Sky Movies trial and it wasn't in HD on the only film I tried watching.

I think the only thing missing from this is, as much as I detest it, a YouTube app. Everything else is covered, it's only a tenner, and who doesn't want to see Katy Perry and Pixie Lott in HD first thing in the morning?

[holidayboy]

I'm definitely getting one of these - especially now that I've seen a few posts a saying that you can sideload Mediabrowser3 on to it!

[bobbob]

£10.99 for a days access to Sky Sports? i barely pay that for a month in my sub! i'm going for an NUC with MB3 on personally

[holidayboy]

I have no interest in paying $ky anything once I have the box!

I'll use it mainly for iPlayer tbh, MB3 will be a nice bonus

[mark1234]

I don't use MB3 at all, but I've just seen this post saying that live TV is coming to it, using Media Centre as the backend. Does this mean the NowTV box could be a £10 extender? Why do people care about the £450 XBox One being an extender?

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index. ... -platform/

[IownFIVEechos]

I don't use MB3 at all, but I've just seen this post saying that live TV is coming to it, using Media Centre as the backend. Does this mean the NowTV box could be a £10 extender? Why do people care about the £450 XBox One being an extender?

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index. ... -platform/

Because it would be the one thing in our lives that we could talk to and it would listen and not talk back! XBOX OFF!

[duncane]

...Does this mean the NowTV box could be a £10 extender? ...

Eventually yes. The MB team are getting the web client working first then it's up to the individual devs to implement on their clients, Roku being one.

It's rolling out this weekend, so I'm hoping to test!