Mumsnet Talk

Yes please. Cancelled our Sky + when we moved last month and missing the pause/record massively. 4 children and constant arguing over what to watch is leading me to madness. That and the fact that I manage to miss everything I want to watch.

I'm trying to compute my chances, LovelyAndGorgeousAnnMumsnet, how many testers are needrd?

[adorable smile]

Chaos, my lovely...it says in the first sentence. 20.

Yes please, have filled in survey. Would be very interested to compare and contrast with Sky, which we currently use.

3Mb/s broadband? I wish.

Skulks off into the can't play corner.

Arsechumps.

Ooo me pretty please I only have a crappy free view box that doesn't work half the time. My main mission in life it to fast forward through an add break at least once

Ann.

::strokes Chaos' hair::

Me! Me! Oh, pick me!
We have fetch TV and since the company was sold the service has been dire! We can sometimes get iplayer but never 4od and it usually records programmes we set to record but not always.
I would love to try a reliable TV service.

Apparently my broadband speed is 18.89Mb/s

And, rather conveniently, I need some kind of box for the new TV in the playroom...

Balls.

I don't have an aerial.

Me please,
it's like you guys knew I'd brought a new tv this weekend hmmm....
Your not watching me are you?

Me please! Having to cancel sky as can't afford and with two SN children explaining why no Nick Jr anymore isn't going to be pretty.

Me please!

Am debating leaving Virgin (on medium package without Youview box for £39 a month but they are offering new customers package with Youview box for £25 ) to switch to Sky, whose package includes a Youview box. Would be good to try one out beforehand.

ooh pick me! Im also considering leaving Virgin - quite crap and expensive too, but need an alternative.

OOO me please. We're looking at changing our tele provider. Be ace to be able to check this out.

Mind you, I've just realised I have no idea where my TV aerial points are.

I'm curious to try one of these. We renewed our BT broadband and Vision in Jan without realising that the new thing was out there to try. I am wondering if we have been duped by BT by them not suggesting a YouView subscription instead?

Me please :-)

Fingers crossed!

Fingers crossed too been seeing the adverts everywhere :-)

Please pick me, I never 'win' anything! And would really love to try this product and save a fortune on monthly sky subscriptions!!

This would be great as battles with 5 children and a husband in the house at the same time are not pretty! Would be lovely to record one of my programs for a change! Have 5.2 Mb internet speed, hurrah, so fingers crossed.

Oh, I would love to try this! We live in a semi rural area where there is no cable availability and I don't wish to pay for Sky. Would love to have access to catch up tv and on demand services both for my self and the kids.

We have sufficient broadband speed and can meet the other technical requirements.

Oooh oooh oooh. Pick me! Pick me!

Filled in the survey

I just filled in the survey, but got a funny message when I submitted. Can you check if mine is in please Ann?

I have BT vision so not sure I can try this! I would love the bigger recording box as ds1 keeps filling it up with Match of the day and top gear!

I would love to try this as I'm fed up of DS always pinching my laptop to watch Iplayer and the likes.

I'm available to test.

The survey say no, can't get through to the link, just hanging. Tried in two browsers.

Oh I've just seen the bit about having to connect the box to the telly and the router - my router is in another room to both the tellys

Would it work if it was connected via a HomeHub plug which I use now to watch IPlayer on the telly in the living room?

Survey was a bit wonky re: formatting, can you confirm you received my response please MNHQ, thanks.

I also want to know if it can be connected via wireless. We have a sky box but can't use iPlayer etc as trailing the broadband cable across the living room is not practical.

Ooh me please.

Would love to give Youview a try and hopefully rid ourselves of virgin 'sometimes I'll work sometimes I won't' media. And Mr Gobacktosleep would be shocked to his core that I had contributed something to the watching of TV in the family .

Have completed the survey but didn't receive the usual acknowledgment, can you check for me please that its gone through?

I'd love to test this!
We're getting rid of sky due to cost. This could be an option! This digital stuff is a bit of a mystery to me.

Yes please!

This looks great. I didn't think my broadband speed would be good enough but according to the tester it is so i'm in <fingers crossed>

Meee Pllllllleeeeeeeaaasasssseeeee

Done

This would be perfect for us! We are considering upgrading from Freeview and were just talking about the YouView box, and wondering if it would be worth the money.

Keeping all my fingers and toes crossed

Good luck everyone!

I have no idea what half of that blurb meant. We are with talk talk. Now I know with our previous provider we went over limit levels so will need to check if we have any data limits, although from the way DH streams you tube whilst watching football it may appear not.

Also, I have never had anything but free view. The whole pause and record live tv etc is soooooo new to me I desperately want to try it. I love that ad with the sweeping hands. Whatever ad that is (pays no attention to RL at all, an advertisers nightmare).

Would love a you view box , be great for catch up

Thanks Ann - have tried agan. Think I was successful this time

Thanks Ann

Yes PLEASE!

I am sick of Sky! I even posted a thread about this a few weeks ago...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1660391-I-HATE-SKY-But-I-love-SkyPlus-Is-there-an-alternative

Thanks AnnMumsnet, the formatting was unusual for a survey and it was bit slow, just a blip maybe, looks fine now.

Please consider me we have been looking just last week at the Youview package available through our Broadband internet provider BT and are considering upgrading to include it in our package- it would be brilliant to try it beforehand. We are a busy family of 5 all interested in different things from sport to History to Childrens TV to soaps dramas etc would be brill to be able to pause and rewind live TV and be able to catch up on favourites.
Please would you be able to check that my survey has gone through as I seemed to get logged out in the middle of it and then I didn't receive the usual acknowlegement after I sent it. Thankyou so much

I've applied... Please pick me!!

me please! our village has just dug our own trenches and laid our own cable to enable us to have superfast broadband because BT are interested in supplying to rural communities. We're going from 0.5MB to 700MB!!!!!!! So need something to try it out on!!

we have only had five channels for 6 months and would love to have something we actuually WANT to watch!! We'll give good feedback!!

Please add me to the "Me please!" list.

i've done the checker thing, and it says my internet is suitable

Count me in!
Need a cheaper alternative to our horrendously expensive Sky subscription :-(

Would love to try this ...but we're in an Internet backwater with "not fast enough" speed according to that checker thingy.

Gah.

OOh, sounds great.

All done - this would be fab.

MNHQ - Ann (if you're still on duty at this hour) I filled in the form and at the end it just dumped me unceremoniously back at the products tests homepage - no message about "Thanks for completing" etc. Please could you check if it arrived safely as I would REALLY like to be considered for this one!

ooohhhh - I'd love this - and we could finally get rid of Sky!!!

Ooh yes please. Would love one of these! Have already heard they are the best one to get. X

Oh id love to!
With 2 young kids I only get to watch stuff I like on catch up!
And we use the recording facility lots too.
X

Would so love to take part as I never catch the programmes I want to watch, but it says we have some digital channels unavailable Does this disqualify us?

Oooh pick me, pick me <jumps up and down>

Would love to find a cheaper replacement for Sky!

I'll volunteer
We love telly

Thanks Ann - I will accept that dumping with grace then ....

Thanks for finding out, have signed up!

Thanks for finding out Ann. I will throw my hat into the ring (ever hopeful )

Signed up! With teens in the house, we like to watch some things a bit later once they've gone to bed, so we have some peace. Catch up is our friend, apart from the fact we have to use the only working laptop in the house to view it. Oh, and we can't get sky as we're in a dip surrounded by trees, which is a right arse.

Yes please, I have just left Virgin and just watching free view at the moment.
Where do I sign up ?

Ah yes spotted the link, thanks.

Have signed up. Keeping everything crossed that I'm finally picked to test something.

Fingers crossed......

Is there a way to check if my form was received? I thought I did submit it this afternoon but I am not sure now. Would not want to miss the chance.

Hi, it's telling me my broadband speed isn't fast enough but it's just that we're having problems with Virgin today and yesterday (even the tv channels have went off, they seem to be doing something in our area.

We have 32mb broadband!

Can we still apply as we know we have a fast enough connection (we do speed tests every couple of nights).

I've submitted anyway, just in case it closes before I get a chance! Broadband is definitely fast enough and the website says we can get the channels.

My broadband is too slow apparently.
Which isn't right actually, we have independent broad band not via phone lines but I suppose they just go by postcode area.

Done

Yes please, it would make evening cluster feeds soooooo much more interesting!!

Sorry, I didn't put it in the end box! Eeks sorry. It is definitely fast enough though.

We just bought one of these (well a You view one that is similar probably not the exact same one). So far very impressed with it. What a shame we didn't see this first. (I know, I know there is no guarantee we would have been picked).

Have got my fingers crossed for this one (after I googled what an ethernet cable was!!).

AnnMumsnet(MNHQ) Please could you check my form received which I submitted Tuesday 26/02 I did ask in my post but think I may have been forgotten sob !
Sorry to be a pain , you seem to be doing lots of checks its just I'm not sure whether mine was sent or not as I was logged out in the middle of filling in the questionnaire then I didnt get an acknowlegement on completion like you normally do .
Thanks very much xxx

Sob - we bought one last week - although I can highly recommend it

I've just entered my details - when will the decision be made?

Pick me!!! I am out of contract with sky, and have used virgin in the past as well. Both had their plus and minus points but would really consider moving to this long term. Fingers crossed.

Yes please! We've been looking for a non-subscription tv service for some time. We have a smart tv and currently use the in-built freeview but we don't have access to all the fabulous channels this bad boy does! Oooh how exciting... the pause button is going to be essential for our family as we're always getting distracted by our baby boy when watching the telly xx

Should point out - we can confirm that we could meet all the installation requirements.

Me, Me, me please. I obviously need to be persuaded away from Sky which isn't working too well since moving home a couple of weeks ago.

Pick me please!! I'm with virgin at present and am not very happy with the service provided at all. I would be very pleased to be a tester and fit the required criteria!! Xx

Oh Please, Please, Please! We can't get this service through our internet provider, and the boxes are so expensive! I did look into getting it but decided we'd have to wait a few years until the priced came down.

My 16m son is Rubbish at sleeping so I usually have to go up and settle him 3 or 4 times in the evening so I never get to watch entire episodes of anything. Then the 3 or 4 night feeds + full time job mean I'm exhausted anyway so go to bed early and don't get to watch good TV.

With this I'd be able to catch up at some point and actually join in some conversations about TV at work!

Thankyou for checking for me AnnMumsnet

Submitted....not sure what my chances are with 97 posts before me, but very much keeping my fingers crossed on this one!!! It would make life SO much easier....the amount of times I've had to turn off the TV when the children are in the middle of a programme and had to deal with the fallout, and one of these days it would be nice to see a full series without missing that one critical episode, or catching up on that last riveting 10 minutes of a programme that I missed when summoned upstairs by my youngest...

Have actually been looking at this service from Talk Talk, but think the set up fees expensive

After cancelling subscription from sky last year after being a loyal customer for approx 15 years due to my husband losing his job it would be something that would benefit our household massively having four kids age ranging from 7 to 15 all wanting to watch totally different channels. It's rather appealing with no monthly high subscription charges like sky as we live in an area where there is no cable so choices are limited.

After doing the form for testing this i don't know if it went through as it jumped to home page
Is there any way for me to find out please as i would kick myself if i didn't register in time.

Have submitted our application and would jump at the chance to record something to watch myself when all are asleep/ and also what each of my 5 children would like let alone poor DP who rarely gets a look in! We have never had anything like this and would definitely reduce television arguments in our house!

I'd love to test this - I have a 60mb Virgin media connection and would love to give it a test drive! Especially in the bedroom where the 2nd TV is.

We should also like to test this. Have submitted application.

The more I look at my Sky bill, the more I like the idea of youview. Have filled in form and am keeping everything crossed!!

Have the people been notified yet?

I was just notified! Thank you MN

Woohoo! Thank you MN! Really looking forward to trying this one.

We've got one apparently - email this morning!

::grumpy::

Is the fact I live in NI? Is that why I never get the really cool product tests?

::grumpy::

Eeeeek we've just got the email, I'm going to look into the wifi option as I do have a long enough Ethernet cable but I have a house rabbit so no cables is a lot easier

We're getting one! Very excited!

V excited to be getting one (and am in NI!) I'd also prefer to connect wirelessly, will a power adaptor be supplied as standard, or just the Ethernet cable?

grumpy too. I never get the good ones

Argh!!! I got one too!
I really didn't expect to be chosen.

I love MN! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Can't wait to report back!

Tee, I don't think the NI bit is the problem....I'm in London centre of the world and didn't get chosen either

I haven't been chosen for a product test for ages

I think my old name was luckier
Maybe I should change back

Well done all you chosen ones!

I've had an email as well. Very happy

So, it's just us then, eh, Filly.

I'm kidding! Congrats to all the winners!

Squee, so chuffed. At last I'll be able to see the start, middle, and end of programmes. Thankyou MN, this made my day.

Thank you I never get chosen for things, very chuffed! This has made my day too Awkward.

Delighted to have been chosen for this.

Looking forward to our television viewing entering the 21st century - haven't been able to record anything since the old video cassette player broke down around 6 years ago!

And no more Top Gear v Call the Midwife on a Sunday night!

The whole family (yes, all 6 of us) eagerly await the arrival of YouView.

Thank You Mumsnet!

Thank you so much mumsnet, we're so pleased to be chosen! This will give us the incentive we need to get off our butts and change our supplier and save some cash

ours has just been delivered. Anyone else think the office junior had been let loose with the Sellotape dispenser gun Had to actually get Mr gobacktosleep involved to break through to the boxes. He's hoping to set it up this evening after work.

We've recently bought one of these - would I be able to add to the feedback thread anyway?

For those whose box has been delivered, did they phone before delivery? Have to go out and don't want to miss the courier. Also, was there a powerline adaptor in the box? I somewhat underestimated the distance to the router when I first signed up, so will need to buy the adaptor if there isn't one!

No they didn't call, thought they would as needed numbers but maybe that's incase you're out. There's a box with 2 plug in adapters comes with it.

Mine is here, but I didn't have a call either.
I'm having problems installing it, the end of my TV aerial doesn't seem to fit into the back of the youview box. Talk about falling at the first hurdle!!!

I foresee one MAJOR problem. Dd cannot lt a day go by withou watchin The Snowman and the Snowdog. It is rare condition but she will actually fade away and die without it. Or at least that is the impression she has given me. Problem is that it is recorded onto our current hard drive box thing.

Mine will be here at 3.30pm according to the rather lovely sounding UPS man who called me this morning. I have all connections ready to go so I can install it straight away.

Thanks, home now and eagerly awaiting delivery!

What's the betting they come when I'm on school run?

Im patiently waiting for the big arrival.

Got parents evening at 5. I'm desperate to be in when it arrives

I've managed to connect using an aerial convertor thing.
Set up very easy, but I'm still having aerial issues as its not finding any channels despite loads showing on the checker thingy.....

I'm going to call the troubleshoot thingy next.

Mine's not here yet. No phone call yet either.
DH is in while I'm on the school run, hope it arrives soon <unreasonably excited in anticipation>

Mine is not here either.

Mine arrived whilst I was out, no call, but they left it with a neighbour.

Mine is here and was set up within about 20 minutes I was very eager! Thank you YouView and Mumsnet, we will be giving it a good testing out after tea this evening

Oh and thank you for the wifi adapter thingies, my rabbit will get to roam free whilst we watch tv now

<<sob>> where's mine?

Still not got ours

We didn't have a phone call but got a note through the door. Thankfully they took it to the post office which is easy to get to, not the depot which is only open for a couple of hours a day. Probably took it there because it was barey wrapped. The paper was very ripped and the bubble wrap was holding it all together.

Set it up last night, really easy. Thankyou for the wifi thingies it means I haven't had to unplug my PC. DH is very impressed and he set stuff up to record last night.... but I then deleted some because I thought DS (16m) had set them up but he can watch them on catch-up.

Very impressed so far, but why oh why do designers insist on making things with big glowing on/off buttons on the front? Do these people not have small children?
DS keeps turning it off, then looking confused and demanding I fix it... still hasn't totally grasped cause & effect.

It's just arrived! Soooo excited! I wish I was less rubbish at technical stuff so I could set it up now. I've a feeling today's going to drag until DP gets home and can sort it.

Thank you MN!

Still not here I shall pout if it doesn't arrive soon!

no they can't come this morning I'm running toddlers!

Dh is practically in heaven with all the bits it came with. Oooh look an ethernet cable! Oooooh!

Where's my new toy? <<stamps feet>> <<has completely unreasonable tantrum over the delay in receiving her free expensive toy>>

hurrah! arrived after toddlers but before nursery pick up.

I got mine too

Am I the only one still waiting for my 'free expensive toy'to arrive??

The shiny black thing is tuning and trying to find TV channels. Dd already wants me to put the old one back because "this one takes a long time to load" (doesn't instantly start playing Cbeebies on being plugged in) and because I have gently broached the fact that The Snowman and the Snowdog is not preloaded onto this machine.

Oh and she doesn't lik eit because it is black. I'm sure all will be forgiven when it can play beebies.

Argh! setup issues.

tip: if it freezes try a soft restart. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds.

Oh great, thanks will try that before hurling it out the window calling the helpline. Taking a break feeding the baby!

Gosh their helpline is good! No queue, UK call centre. Nice man is sending me e-mail for something to apparently reboot the whole thing to see if it will work.

Oh my goodness there is the e-mail. Very efficient!

Mine is here just waiting for dh to come home so we can attempt set up! And yes to the overuse of (very sticky) sticky tape! Arrived 8am with UPS, no prior phone call though.

It works! I think it was actually a problem with the HDMI cable. The screen on my TV kept going blank but then I realised that the box itself was still displaying messages so I switched ot a scart lead and it works.

I hadn't realised I would still get my BT vision with it. I sort of assumed I'd have to get a new box from BT if I wanted to upgrade with them but as if by magic a little BT icon appeared on my menu when the box loaded and hey presto! I am VERY impressed (and a little scared at how it all links together and knows stuff).

All seems very smooth so far, I have been scrolling through things and setting up all my series links and now I've started streaming OBEM from yesterday which I hadn't watched yet and it is streaming no problem yet we gave up using iplayer and stuff on the old BT vision box as it kept freezing.

They tried to deliver mine this morning and I must've missed them by literally 3 minutes FFS. Card through door, coming tomorrow now. Bloody typical that I have to go up to the Marsden for my check up tomorrow morning. Going to call and see if I can get them to come in the afternoon sometime or I might cry if I get another delivery card through the door

We've DP set ours up about 10 mins ago.

Easy set up, beautiful picture and I'm excited because we're just about to watch last nights Great British Menu and I've already found Sir Terry Pratchett's Eric on BBC iPlayer radio, so I'm going to indulge in my favourite author tomorrow. So far we LOVE it!

Ours arrived today - UPS man left it with lovely next door neighbour who brought it around on our arrival home.

It looked very well packaged but whilst I was talking to lovely next door neighbour the DCs had whisked it away, opened it and set it up. DS1 said it took him about 15 minutes but he is very good at gadgets and is 16. He said it was quite simple and even myself or DH could have done it eventually! (He could have been being kind, I'm not sure!)

It is aesthetically pleasing - nice, compact, shiny and black with a big glowing blue button. Batteries for the remote were included. Youview booklet also provided which tells us what it will do.

DS1 has one comment - all channels are listed even ones that you have to pay for. He wondered if there was somehow you could switch the 'pay for' channel listing off (DS3 aged 8 was getting very excited at certain channels showing but we can't get them as we haven't got any paid for TV).

DS2 was delighted to look up the youview box in the Argos Catalogue and see how much it costs!

DS1 commented that they can watch Tracy Beaker over and over again (I think he probably said that because the programme annoys me immensely and not because he has a secret crush on Dani Harmer!) Lots of programmes are listed and you can watch about 20 previous episodes.

That's all I can update at the moment (DH and DD have not had a chance to look at it) but from the sons in the family so far it's great!

Have connected pretty easily, but having problems with sound - is fine to start with, but once I change channels it either goes a bit fuzzy or cuts out. Have teiddled the ariel and also retuned but it doesn't seem to work, going to try the old turn it off and on again.

So DH set ours up this afternoon and instantly found a very interesting programme on trains on iplayer to keep him happy for an hour. He then went to pick ds from an after school activity and I managed to pause the kick off of the football for their return <extra brownie points>.
Dh reports it was really simple & quick to set up and certainly wouldn't need an engineer to come round to install it. He's very impressed with the supplied dlan adapters. It seems very easy to use and personally I like that the box itself displays the time and the channel you're watching - which I know sounds a simple thing but I often don't remember what channel I'm watching with the virgin media box we have . Initial thoughts are all positive. Sunday night will be the test of the record tv facility for us as its our 'busy' night for tv viewing .

It arrived today (no prior phone call) and then we realized that our TV aerial doesn't work! I called an engineer who ended up installing a new one for us (£80) and now its all working!

DH is well impressed at the "one terrabite" capacity and every single feature do far.

Just wondering, does anyone know when we'te supposed to start leaving feedback, I've had no emails yet.

Ours arrived on Thursday. We are having major building work done so set it up upstairs just connected to the broadband thinking the kids could watch players which should be enough to keep them entertained.
Really easy to set up, although DH complained the power cable is too short. I did it in about ten minutes with kids pestering me, 'is it ready'. It couldn't find any channels as not plugged into the aerial so this confused it a bit. We're using a scart connector, as it's on the old telly in the bedroom. Maybe that is an issue too.

Perhaps it's not meant to be used with broadband only but so far we don't seem to have itv player, and it keeps cutting off mid-programme.

When we can get to the telly again next week we'll plug into the aerial and see if that is better.

hairtwiddler ours is plugged into the aerial and broadband and we don't get itv player either Is this an issue with everyone? ITV are one of their partners so would have thought it should be there.

According to DH the lack of ITV player seems to be a common complaint (he googled it) I'd quite like to have it as DD is a big fan of the Cube but it's on a bit late for her.

The DCs have worked out how to work the box using the buttons on the front (typically at 6am when they get up). I tried foxing them by taking the HDMI cable out, but they sussed that out in about 2 minutes. I want a "go back to bed" setting!

Ds2 (12 months old) is in LOVE with the shiny button at the front and just sits there pushing it over and over again which really annoys dd and is especailly annoying when we are watching something on iplayer because then you ahve to start all over again. I would adore a box with a child lock function. Just a button to press on the remote (which you then keep out of reach) to disable the buttons on the box.

However the lovely search button is my best friend in teh world ever.

hairtwiddler dh called the customer service number re: lack of itv player. Apparently some of the transmitters aren't yet transmitting itv player so they talked him through connecting to another (took only a couple of minutes). We now have itvplayer but 'may' according to the person on the phone no longer get our local news. I guess that's a choice we'll have to make if its the case. Dh isnt too bothered about local news as we are no where near his beloved NE . They suggested that anyone with any such problems get in touch with them as this then raises the issue higher up and they will then look into transmitter issues if enough people are experiencing them with a look to solving them.

Any idea when/how we start to leave feedback? So worried that we might not have received an email or something and will have to return the box!

Usually you get a week or so to try the product out before MN email a link to the feedback thread.

Thanks indith you've put mind at rest

Has anyone else lost half their channels? We've lost all the ITV, Channel 4, & Channel 5 ones.
The online help says to check signal strength, which was weak. I've tried retuning and now the channels are totally gone.

I suspect it's our dodgy aerial. But I can't afford a new one for a few months.

Just tried plugging it back in the telly. It's the aerial. Usually we only lose reception when it rains, but it must be objecting to the cold now too.

Maybe I'll get it a blanket and a brolly.