Had the current Panasonic pvr for 7 years, it’s never faulted and recorded perfectly. Wouldn’t be without it. The biggest (and very important) advantage is that I fast forward all ads. I genuinely can’t remember the last ad I’ve seen on tv. Thinking about it, it has to be Christmas time when I’m actually interested to see what ads they’re all putting out. Streaming the usual Channel 4, ITV, etc, is terrible with those breaks.
I can also operate the pvr from my phone if I’ve forgotten to preset a recording.
New technology and new ways of watching doesn’t necessarily mean better.
It might just be me, we recently changed the TV partly to get ITV X and partly the need for a larger screen as dearly beloved is developing cataracts, she also has hearing loss and some days after work needs a break from hearing aids. Unless I have setting wrong, Humax provides subtitles. I haven’t yet found them on the catchup channels.
ITVX and iplayer etc have subtitle options, but they all operate differently and have different icons. I think it’s iplayer where you can change the font size. Usually you need to pause the programme then go up or down with the remote to see the rwd/fwd option, and there should be a subtitle icon. Or check the remote as that might have a subtitle on/off button.
OK, well, thanks but I use most of those suggestions already (not fire stick as the TV has the apps I need when I can stream), but there are a few things I want to record…that I can’t find on Amazon Prime (unless I pay extra), iPlayer or TVX.
SO I guess the answer is - no - nobody can explain the difference between you view and Freeview, or tell me if the BT box will still work if Youview goes off air next March.
That’s what I was going to say. Sony smart tv. Usb stick in the back records Freeview channels. I pay for Quest and Now and obviously you can’t record from them but any live Freeview you can for example ncis channel 21
I think it really is as simple as that Youview is a long dead brand of off-air digital TV and it was replaced many years ago by the brand Freeview which initially was the same but has since been developed extensively, particularly to integrate it into a broadband delivered service for past programming.
I would strongly advise against buying any box branded Youview now because it’s likely to be very slow (I remember my Humax Youview box took about ten minutes to start up from off). Also they were power hungry and the software support finished years ago.
All of this can easily be checked out if you Google it. And I don’t actually know about the specific model of box you mention.
We have been using a YouView box since we cancelled Sky in 2016. YouView was (IIRC) a partnership between BT and the BBC. In reality it was just Freeview packaged differently. It’s USP was that you could go back in time in the planner and when you selected a programme it would play it by jumping to iPlayer or whatever. I think Freeview boxes do that now anyway.
Our box is now branded BT TV via firmware updates and the only memory of its YouView past is the logo on the box itself.
We’re pretty happy with it and will continue to use it until it breaks. We only use it for the 5 terrestrial channels in HD and record most of what we watch; for iPlayer, Netflix, Prime and Disney we have an nVidia Shield box which does 4K/UHD but I suspect our next TV will have all that built in.
As our YouView box is now a BT TV box I don’t imagine anything will change. It’s still a great interface and not too slow at all.
Thanks all - I can see it is “oldie tech” and to be cool I need to stream all the time, but as a lot of the streaming stuff is targeted at people younger than us, we tend to be more in line with Andrewh’s approach so I think I’ll give it a go with the BT box. I know it isn’t perfect but have used one before and the controls and interface were OK once they became familiar. If it all goes wrong in April I’ll post the results and be ashamed!
Though probably uses 5x the electricity of a modern equivalent - I only say that as we have an old Panasonic 42" plasma in the bedroom and Mrs AC has a habit of leaving it and every other TV/device in the house on when she goes out!
