YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

[Nathaniel]

Recently, I moved away from BT to Plusnet as recommended by Stephen (EOS Hereford) and have not regrets. Plusnet is also highly recommended by Consumer which? (If other members also move to Plusnet, Stephen would benefit if he is given as the "reference" & I am sure other members will be happy to do so as well).

Plusnet do not offer Youview TV at the moment but could do so in a few months. They are trialling this at the moment.
I therefore wonder whether I can use my YOUVIEW box to watch TV connecting it like a normal Freeview box or does it need a broadband connection. Without the broadband connection I won't be able to have On demand TV or catch up etc.

I wonder whether any member has tried to get Freeview TV with the Youview box. Previously my Youview box was connected to the BT broadband.

Many thanks

Nathaniel

[Bhuna]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Looking at this:

http://www.youview.com/whats-on/

Also in Q&A:

Does it matter who my broadband provider is?

No. YouView will work with any broadband connection, as long as it’s fast enough and you have the right data usage package. We recommend a minimum speed of 3Mb/s (Megabits per second). However, we don't recommend mobile broadband for YouView due to the large amount of data that On Demand and Catch-up TV uses.
- See more at: http://support.youview.com/articles/....WKlsQoZp.dpuf

It appears it would be possible, however you must remember that as your provider does not currently offer it as a service then you may find that any programs you watch that are streamed will count towards and limit you have on your broadband connection. Whereas if BT / Talktalk offer it as a service, I assume they must exclude that from the broadband limit (this is pure speculation).

There is no harm in trying to connect it up - but would also suggest you connect to the aerial for the live channels to minimise your broadband data usage if you have a limit to your package.

Give it a go and if it works, it does :)

Good luck.

[Nathaniel]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Thanks Andy. I note from the link that it is possible to connect my Youview box to the aerial. I will let you know how I get on.

Nat

[KEM30]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

We have a Humax YouView box which is permanently connected to the aerial for watching and recording TV but if we want to watch anything on demand then it has to be connected to the broadband (we also use PlusNet) - my son often nicks the ethernet cable to plug into the PlayStation for updates as wired is faster than wireless!

[Nathaniel]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Thanks Kem for this. Just as Andy has also mentioned that it is possible to connect the normal aerial to the youview box. I am not much of a TV person and always prefer to record programmes and watch them when I want to.

What you are saying is that I can even connect my youview box to the Plusnet router ethernet socket and watch on demand TV if I wish to? Am I correct on this? If so why was I paying BT £12.50 a month to connect to their BT hub 3 to watch youview TV when I never watched anything on demand, catch up etc? Have I been "conned"?

[Nathaniel]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Many thanks Andy and Kem. My Youview box works fine as suggested by you both. No problem.

[Bhuna]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Nathaniel,

Please remember that if you are watching catch up then it will use up any broadband usage allowance, so if you reach the maximum usage, you may then get charged for extra usage over the limit (I do not know what plusnet offer by way of broadband limits or what they charge afterwards - Im a Virgin Media 120mb connection geek LOL).

I think with BT, you also get extra channels etc as well as access to the streamed catch up so I expect that was what you were sold, whether you use it then is personal choice :).

[Nathaniel]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Thanks Andy. I have never tried or used catch up TV or On demand TV when I had Bt's version for about 2 years- Previously I was with Sky for almost 10 years. I don't intend to use these services even now- but who knows? I also thought I had unlimited broadband usage with Plusnet; must check that out. Anyway thanks for all the help.

[Hereford_EOS]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

Recently, I moved away from BT to Plusnet as recommended by Stephen (EOS Hereford) and have not regrets. Plusnet is also highly recommended by Consumer which? (If other members also move to Plusnet, Stephen would benefit if he is given as the "reference" & I am sure other members will be happy to do so as well).

Thanks Nat

Having just spoken to PlusNet, the user will need to let them know that I referred them and give my user name which is "fifty9" (without the quotation marks), the word FIFTY and the number/digit 9.
Every little helps.

[KEM30]

Re: YOUVIEW box & Freeview TV

We use our Freeview box to view and record TV mostly and occasionally view On Demand - usually when we've forgotten to set something to record or the recording failed. As Andy says, On Demand uses a fair amount of bandwidth but as we are on unlimited it isn't a problem for us. We only have the free channels but that's plenty for our needs. Haven't paid a subscription for TV for years - not sure what you were paying BT for - probably extra channels.