Hi All

Thinking about getting a NowTV box with an entertainment pass.

After reading around here and on the NowTV forum I'm getting the impression that the catch up/on demand part of the package is rather hit and miss. Some people have said that episodes of some series go missing and some don't even get listed.
If I could rely on things being there to watch I'd be inclined to go for it but am rather hesitant at the moment.

Does anybody know how long it takes for programs to be available after they've been shown and how long they're available before they get removed?

Cheers Tom

P.S. I may have prevoiusly posted this in the wrong place. My apologies.....

I find it too hit and miss to answer your questions. The whole interface is badly thought out. That's when it works at all. I've had to re-install the PS3 app three times now because it gets itself into a state where it can't play any streams.

A shockingly bad product when compared to either Amazon or Netflix.

I've had it on my Roku since the trial and haven't experienced any major problems. There was a week last November when they seemed to be having a technical meltdown and nothing was being uploaded for catch-up, but overall it's been ok. Episodes stay on the service for a couple of weeks, and if a new series of a show is about to start then they generally put up all the episodes from the previous series.

There's a list of programmes that they don't have the rights to on their website every day, although this is shrinking as time goes on.

The Walkign Dead tends to appear on catch-up about 24 hours after it has aired on Fox, which isn't too bad. I would like an instantaneous appearance, of course, like most people who complain!

I am very happy with my Now TV box and find the catch up adequate.

There is no one rule for all shows.

Some home made Sky content is on there permanently although for example Trollied S1&2 but not S3, Starlings S1 but not S2,

Things get added monthly in box set form which will only be there for a month due to rights issues. Other new additions appear to have no expiry date.

As for shows as they are aired again there are rights issues. Fox shows are generally there for 7 days but in some cases it takes 2-3 days for it to be put up so not much time to watch. For others such as HBO you generally have 28/30 days. I've found the majority of catch up episodes for shows I watch are added within a few hours of being aired. I think 1 out of 12 episodes of new American Dad was severely delayed in being made available so not too shabby. Airs on a Thursday on catch up Friday.

Repeats are often not available on catch up due to that old chestnut, rights issues.

The search box should give you more of an idea of dates and availability if you browse different shows

Personally i've been watching several shows via my Entertainment pass and really haven't run into any problems. Never looked back since getting the box and the pass, having I Player, 4 od and Demand5 on my tv is also great.

As my problems suggest, the hardware box is probably the way to go if you want to use this service.

It would be better if they kept a full series going until it finished. It got annoying and I got rid of it.

Thanks for all the input.

At the moment we have a Sky hd box with the entertainment+ package and hd upgrade. We also have an hd freeview pvr.
Even with a discount, the Sky is costing about £32 a month. The only channels we watch over and above those on freeview are Sky 1 and Sky Atlantic. As they're available on Now TV I'm thinking about dumping our subscription but am a bit worried that we'd miss the recording facility of the box too much ( we sometimes have 4 things recording at once over the two machines ). I'm really happy with the freeview pvr so all I'm concerned about is the availability of the programs we'd watch on Sky but via the Now TV catch up service as we rarely watch live tv.
On a slightly separate issue. Does anyone know if I could just pay the £10.50 ( or whatever it is ) and keep the pvr facility of the Sky box and would that be enough to keep the on demand service or is an actual package subscription required?

I hope all that makes sense......

Cheers Tom

While talking about Now TV at home one our daughters decided to get one.

I've just set it up. Very painless it was indeed
I know it's very early days yet but the streaming from the movie service ( 30 day free trial ) seems flawless. It might still be a bit early in the evening but I was under the impression that all the buffering issues started at 8pm. After half past eight and we've just watched 20 mins or so of Wrech It Ralph without any problems.
Fingers crossed it stays that way

Cheers Tom

I've been using Now TV for just under a couple of months and would just reiterate what Arwen_Evenstar said, there doesn't seem any hard and fast rules but most stuff does appear within a few hours of airing, occasionally shows get missed out for a few days but I've also found that this happens on catchup on Virgin Media too, VM blame the suppliers for not uploading it so I'd guess Now TV will do the same.
I think the mistake some people make is to compare a £4:99 service to a £20 plus tv package, for £4:99 I think Now TV is a very good service, however if they were to put up the price as has been rumoured I might have to rethink that.
I'm another one thinking of ditching my tv package in favour of Freeview and Now TV and possibly Netflix too, I've also tried out a couple of free Sky Sports day passes and whilst this is the least cost effective Now TV service for someone like me even at £9:99 will probably work out cheaper than subscribing to Sky Sports for a year, I generally only watch Sky Sports when my team is playing so unless they are on Sky over 20 times next season (which aint gonna happen for any team) what is effectively PPV for the matches I want will work out a lot cheaper over the course of a season, I'd also add the picture quality of Sky Sports through the Now TV box is superior to the pq of the SD channels on cable (but nowhere near HD).

To the point about buffering I haven't experienced this yet but I have noticed sometimes maybe 2 or 3 times a week there is a definate degradation of the picture quality between 8 and 9:30pm, hopefully this is a teething problem and Sky get the Now TV servers sorted out to cope with demand in peak times but its worth noting for anyone thinking of using the service.

Oh and one last point, I've found the Now TV box even though it only outputs at 720p gives a much better picture than I can get from my HTPC hooked up to the tv so at £9:99 I'd recommend investing in one if you don't have any other compatible devices.

Decided to give NowTV a go with the 3 months movie package for only £24.99 with the box!

Streaming seems flawless and the PQ seems better than Sky Movies SD. I know its not HD but watchable to say the least (We use a 39" LCD TV). Only once did we have degradation on the picture, only to find out it was our broadband at fault not the box/service.

Also sideloading Plex has opened this little box to a wealth of other channels for free.

BBC iPlayer works brilliantly too. Also streams in HD (720p).

Only downside is that there is no ITV Player and the Flixster app does not work (Keeps Crashing!)

For the price though , you cannot argue!

You can download the ITV Player and install it on to your Plex via your PC. And the good thing is that it cuts out all the ads.

Also you should be able to get Sky Sports day passes on ebay for around £3.

Install the Plex unsupported apps channel and you find ITV Player in there, along with a few other goodies

Game of Thrones S4 Ep 1 was available on catchup before it's proper showing live at 9pm Monday on NowTV. May not happen next week though as the initial simulcast with the US at 2am not taking place

I watched GoT S4E1 on catch up last night. It appears there were problems with the 9pm viewing on Sky Atlantic and a significant number of complaints on the Now TV website and twitter feed. I have had problems with live prem football and it seems Now TV struggles when there is high demand.

I read that , that's something they really need to sort out otherwise people will get fed up.

I received an email a few weeks back from Now TV giving me a free Sky Sports as an apology for problems with their streaming. However, I had problems on sunday during the Lpool-West Ham game. Last night with GoT seems to really have led to major complaints. Like you say people will lose faith in the service if they can't find a permanent solution.

I streamed GoT at 6pm last night - no problems - but have tried a skysports pass once only and had problems - had buffering on a 73 mb/s connection!?

I watched it about the same time. I was surprised it was up before the 9pm showing. Had not problems with the streaming.

Would that have something to do with GOT being shown at 2am monday morning?

Received an e-mail with a voucher because of problems last night.

These things shouldn't happen but its nice to see a company apologise and offer a good will gesture.

And without having to complain or comment in any way. Their systems identified that I and others were having problems.

If the new Fire TV has a Now TV App I will consider ditching sky as the 2 main channels I watch on sky are Sky 1 and Atlantic with the odd programe on the documentary channels, but nothing I wouldn't really miss.

So with Netflix, Prime Streaming and Now TV + Freesat I should be able to cover most bases.

I suspect the vouchers went to everybody. I wasn't even home last night, and my Roku was unplugged, and I still received a voucher.

I also received 5 Sky Sports codes last year for the same problem (and only used the last of them this weekend) - again, for problems with streaming that didn't affect me.

I wonder if it's because I've never logged out of their website?

I received a voucher too, I didn't try to watch anything on Monday. I only signed up for Game of Thrones, but there are a few other things I'd like to watch so a free month is very welcome.