NOW CLOSED: YouView feedback thread: Non Testers: share the TV programme you'd love to rewind, watch again or pause for a chance to win a £100 JL voucher

[AnnMumsnet]

Hello

This is the feedback thread for the 20 testers who have received a new YouView TV box and who are currently trying it out in their homes.

YouView say "YouView is a subscription-free television service which seamlessly combines live and catch-up television. The service offers over 70 free to air channels and radio stations via a TV aerial and also connects to any broadband service to bring catch-up and on demand programmes directly to your TV. The TV service, which launched in July 2012, is backed by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva"

The YouView box allows you to record, pause and rewind TV, as well as featuring BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5.

Testers: we'll be asking you to add feedback twice - we'd like your first impressions now and in a couple of weeks we will add some more questions.

So, in terms of your first impressions. please....
~ give your overall impression when it arrived
~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?
~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room
~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with

If you're not a tester, YouView would love to hear from you - for a chance to win a £100 John Lewis voucher please share on this thread the programme(s) you'd love to pause, record or watch again - this could be a programme that's on now, or something special from the last few years or even something from your childhood - the programme which is really special to you and/or your family. Maybe you were on TV as a child and would like to see it again or you want to relive an Olympic moment or even maybe you're a massive Corrie fan and want to never miss an episode! Please share this on the thread and you'll be entered into the prize draw.

thanks
MNHQ

Please note: The final questions have now been added to the thread on Tues 2 April at 11:30

So, in terms of your first impressions. please....
~ give your overall impression when it arrived

Shiny!

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?

I set it up. It was very simple, even with using the plug in whatsits though our BT vision box used them so I just went round replacing wires. We hit a glitch half way through installing and for a while I was ready to throw it out of the window and was putting off calling technical support expecting to be on hold for ages but I called, went straight through to a very helpful person and was sorted in minutes. Excellent phone help :). I think our HDMI cable wasn't working properly as TV screen kept going blank but I think box was still working, switched to scart lead and it is fine. Will have to try to put cable back at some point to see what happens as using scart I don't have enough sockets for the dvd and video (yes you read that right, video. Dinosaurs we are) so have to scrabble around when we want to watch something.

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room

It is on our only TV which is in the living room

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with

The search button is bloody wonderful, I love the way it brings up all your options, makes it so easy to find stuff to record, find stuff to stream on demand etc. On our old vision box you had to search the TV guide to set recordings and to stream stuff had to think what player it was in or if it was in vision on demand and the search, not find it, realise you were in the wrong bit, go ti the right player, search......the way everything can be searched as one is very streamlined and works well. Everything streams perfectly. I've set up a few series links but tbh we are just using on demand instead most of the time.

I was astonished to find we still had BT vision on it. I hadn't realised it worked like that. I assume people subscribed to other participating services also just automatically get their services on their new boxes? I had though that for us, as BT vision customers, would need to go through BT to get a youview box if we wanted one but there was my BT icon!

Not really struggled at all, kept hitting wrong buttons on the remote but now we are used to it it is fine. Remote feels a bit cheap though, buttons very "clicky". Just not as nice to handle as our old one (one that came with vision)

Dd is still begging me to put the old box back for The Snowman and the Snowdog . Hope they bring it out on DVD soon! Does make me wonder though about data transfer, people often keep stuff they are attached to, for instance a family member being on TV, would be nice to have a way of moving data over. I have NO idea how practical that is though.

it's coming at some point Indith

I'd like to watch and rewind Ivor the Engine. Haven't seen it since I was a little girl, and it was the one cartoon my mum loved.
Don't know if she'd recognise it now , but it reminds me of her in happier times

I'm already signed up Ann :) I just want it to hurry up! Every single flipping day "mummy I wish we didn't have a new box. Mummy I think you should take it out and put the old one back." She used to watch it every day after school while I did reading and homework with the big one!

I'd love to see A Very Peculiar Practice and Twin Peaks again...both were must sees in my youth ..both full of black humour and quite bizarre

It's an excellent toy.

DH told me it was very easy to set up.

We all find it very intuitive to use, easy really. Love having such ease if watching television and catching up with television. Really dislike being forced to watch adverts on ivt player, but that's not YouView's fault.

The only thing I'm disappointed with is the noise of the remote control. Seriously, I think it's going to be thrown through the window. Click click click click click aaargh.

I'd love to be able to catch up on the TWS when he denounced me in front of the nation for being a bullshitter.

Overall impression when it arrived
brilliant all shiny and new, it looks great, i also liked how you sent the powerline adaptors too.

describe the set up
I did it myself, it was surprisingly easy actually. I didn't like the instructions I found it a little bit complicated even though it was just pictures just because of the blue lines, i found them and the grey ones made it complicated. But I ignored that and just used common sense instead. Very simple.

Which tv is it on?
Its on our bedroom tv. i originally was going to have it with my new tv in the kitchen but as the youview box is fairly big. It would have made my kitchen look a bit cluttered with it being on the counter.

what do i/ family think about it, it's best feature?
Completely fantastic! its best feature? loads! The movie section bit, which you can subscribe to, we generally buy two movies a month from sky box office so this would be great if we got rid of sky which we are now thinking of doing.
The whole pause/ rewind/ record features are faultless. So far I prefer it to our sky set up we have in our lounge, DP is convinced its better too. If I can get the kids to give up Cartoon Network & Nick jr then it'll be curtains for sky.

~ give your overall impression when it arrived

We were impressed to also get the plug in network adaptor thingies with it. We have some at home already and find them excellent. The box itself looks great, with the big button at the front reminded me of the simplicity of xbox. It's lightweight and looks smart.

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?

I set it up without using the instructions as it was self-explanatory. Took no more than 15mins with kids watching. However, the initial start-up process took a bit longer and the kids were desperate to watch something.

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room

At the moment it is in parent's bedroom as we have building work going on and can't currently access the main tv. So we are currently using the players only and not the freeview. We'll try the freeview next week when we have access to the aerial again. In the meantime it's been extremely handy during the building work to just watch catch up.

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with

I like the interface, seven yr old daughter can use it.
However we have not been able to get itv player (I'm told to ring the support people for this). Also disappointed to find it has shut down mid programme several times. I can't seem to find a reason for this.

That's all for now. I'll think of more for the next feedback no doubt. We're enjoying testing it so thank you!

~ give your overall impression when it arrived
It was bright and shiny and exciting! I was very impressed to be also sent the adapters, I hadnt even thought about how it was all going to connect up!

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?
The instructions were so stright forward and easy, the pictures made things so clear. I'm a bit a lot of a techniphobe and find wires etc very difficult, I managed to do it all myself. If I can do it, anyone can!

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room
our main tv in the living room

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with
We love using it, it makes everything so much easier when dd1 (2 years old) wants to watch a programme that isnt on, rather than inducing a tantrum I can just find it for her.
When dh and I are watching a programme and the dc are getting out of bed over and over, rather than missing vital bits and missing half the programme were enjoying pausing, rewinding and recording. Its a little of a novelty right now, and we love it!

I missed the struggled with point, and although we love it, if I'm honest, trying to change the channel drives me crazy! I don't feel (and that might have something to do with a 1 year old and a 2 year old distracting me!) there is enough time to press the channel you want before the TV changes over. Eg if I want 71 I press 7 and before I can press the 1 its changed to channel 7.

I'd love to watch episodes of The Adventure Game. I absolutely loved that program when I was young and I'm sure DS1 would love it. I keep looking out for it on tv and DVDs but I don't think it'll ever be shown again.

(For CMOTDibbler - you can Ivor the Engine on DVD now. We've got it. The kids love it too.)

Overallimpression when it arrived

All lovely and new and thrilled too see the dLAN come too.

Describe the set up

Ridiculously easy. Had it up and running in 10 minutes, DD3 (just 4) has got to grips with it already which is fairly indicative of ease.

Which tv is it on?

Sitting room. We moved recently and I dumped Sky as it was just getting so expensive.

Share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with

It's excellent, so easy to use and the tedious pettiness between me and the children is pretty much forgotten!

Three of my 4DC have already scheduled, recorded, watched loads just over the past three days, fights between my 18 year old DD2 and DD3 have magically ceased now they can schedule/record their own stuff.

I've used iPlayer for catch up when one of the grots have been watching/recording. I've not used ITV Player though as rarely watch ITV anyway and recorded the one thing I wanted to watch.

It'll get a good workout over the Easter Hols when DD1 is back from uni and DD2 & DS are back from boarding school for more than just a weekend.

Thank you so much, really enjoying testing this.

We love to rewind and rewatch certain clips on programmes like You've been Framed! Some of them seem surreal so you have to rewind and re-watch just to make sure you saw right!

Also, any magician programmes, just to see if its obvious how the magic was done

I would re-watch grange hill as I used to love that when I was younger. Using a you-view box would enable me to watch my favourite programmes and pause tv when i get various interruptions from the kids!

Overall impression
Well packaged, but everything easy enough to get out and put together. Box is quite nice, though DH thinks the logo on the remote looks a bit 'cheap'

Setup
Setup was very easy, we took about 2 minutes to physically set it up together (easier than doing it alone simply because of needing to unplug and move a few cables). The system set up was also straightforward, the only glitch came when the tv turned itself off when the youview box was restarting. Since then experience has shown that it's best to turn on the youview box when the tv is totally off (not on standby), then turn tv on once the display shows the youview has started. I'm guessing this is a specific interaction with our tv (a Sagem) rather than a widespread problem.

We had a problem with the sound, it basically kept cutting out or getting v fuzzy when I changed channels, and the sound generally wasn't great. This was disappointing as the picture was excellent; our tv is HD ready and a good quality, but the pic was clearer than we normally get.

I went through the trouble shooting in the leaflet and online and then phoned the helpline. The guy I spoke to was very polite and helpful, and explained that there was a known issue with the sound when connecting with an HDMI cable. He suggested switching to the scart lead, which has completely solved the sound problem, but unfortunately the picture, while still excellent, isn't as brilliant as it initially was.

Where is the tv?
The youview box is connected to our only tv, in the main living room. I'm glad it came with the powerline adaptors, as having to trail a lead would be quite a pain, and I imagine most people don't have their phone line right next to the arial in their living room.

What our family thinks
We've never had sky or been able to digitally record, although we do access lovefilm, iplayer etc through our DVD player, so a lot of the features have been new to the kids. Our nearly 7 year old gave it a score of 100 out of 100 - he's v pleased with the ability to record You've been framed! The recording has been v easy to do, and the ability to record things like Numberjacks which are not available on iplayer is especially good. I've got a little confused at times when setting it to series record something which is on multiple times a day (Octonauts at the minute!), and a few recordings have missed the last minute or two of the actual programme, but it's generally been great. It didn't record something on RTEjr this morning, and the programme info for the RTE channels doesn't always load, but I'm not sure whether that's just a one off.

We used the pause feature while watching the Ireland match at the weekend, and it's so straightforward that the 5 and (nearly!) 7 year olds can basically work almost all the features themselves.

The interface for the on demand selection is great, far better than that on our DVD player, and we're really enjoying having 4od.

~ give your overall impression when it arrived

Very impressed. Lovely, sleek black box. Impressive remote control (this is important) The back of the RC, where you put the batteries in, is attached to the actual control. This helps when you have a clumsy teen who is infamous for dropping controls and 'losing the back'.

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?

My DP set up the YouView Box. It took less than 10mins and was extremely simple to do. DP said even I would have no trouble, if I were ever to attempt it.

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room

The YouView Box is in our front room

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with

After a conversation this afternoon all three of us, who are able to express an opinion, agree that the YouView Box is, so far, a great success. Since it's been installed, we've actually sat down more as a family and watched films together. (We have taken the 30 day Now TV trial offer).

We think the picture is extremely crisp and love the pause, rewind and record function (It's taking time to sink in that we have those features).

On Demand is great, however, quite often it seems to 'crash' and a programme that we want to watch has to be abandoned, this seems to be more on Demand 5 for us.

Overall, we are so far, very impressed with the YouView experience.

Doctor Who. Every episode. We only discovered it when Christopher Ecclestone was The Doctor and I'd love the chance to watch older episodes as well as to re-watch the ones we have loved as a family.

~ give your overall impression when it arrived
Very excited, and very surprised it arrived in one piece due to the minimal wrapping on it. We had to collect it from the post office and they'd written on "arrived at P.O. like this."
Liked the look of it, really pleased when I saw the on/off switch on the back but then noticed the Big Shiny Blue on/off button on the front... and so has my 17mo DS. Not designed with toddlers in mind. DH said the remote control was nice, a comfortable shape, not bulky. I think the connector to stop you losing the battery cover is Genius!

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?
I set it up straight away while being hindered by DC who wanted to climb behind the TV unit. Very straight forward, took about half an hour in total, even with the hinderances.

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room
We just have one TV, in the living room.

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with
Love the search feature. I've been able to search for programmes I guessed would be on and set them up to record, also if I've spotted a film when it's part way through I've searched for when it's (inevitably) on again and recorded it all.
DH and I like the tactile clickiness of the remote, but don't like the touch sensitive buttons on the actual box.
The only things we've struggled with is sometimes when you press OK thinking you're selecting something, it will send you back a page. We need to remember to press Up first.
Also if you're recording 2 things and try to watch a 3rd it asks you to stop recording one so you can switch channels. I'd rather the first option was to cancel switching channel because the first few times I didn't read properly and stopped recording something. I imagine DC will do this a lot!
Prompt for the Hi-Def channels is good.

I'd pause, rewind and rewatch in the night garden DS's favourite show and he HAS to watch it before bedtime, also the only thing that'll make him happy some days!!

Sometimes I think how much peace I'd get if I just left it on all day!

Flashpoint, my guilty save until noone is around to annoy me pleasure. Usually a child wakes up and needs attending though.

Doctor who would be the one to watch again and again! I used to adore watching figure skating championships and was even shown on TV in the past cheering away for my favourites when i went to actually watch the skating. so it would be weird yet amazing to go back to spotting myself in the audience!!!

the kids were filmed a couple of years ago for a piece on homeschooling but when our old digibox died that footage got binned too - so would love to see that again as they did so well and my son was showing how well he had learned to read since being AWAY from school!

Overall first impressions
Great, smart looking box
Menu options very intuitive and easy to work out

Set up info
I set it up myself
Power line adaptors were a great, well thought out inclusion. I had no idea that something like this existed.
Set-up info very clear and basic which made it easy to follow

Which TV
It is currently set up on my bedroom TV, but I am so impressed that I intend to give notice to Virgin Media who I have a TiVo box with, then move it into the living room.

Best feature
The search function
Being able to pause, rewind, ff, etc

Struggles
Had a few aerial issues to begin with, but the helpline people sorted me out!
Lack of ITV Player

Overall, I am very happy with it ad consider it far better than my TiVo box.
The suggestion of a child lock button was a great one!

~ give your overall impression when it arrived
We were very impressed, sleek but also solid and we were chuffed that it came with the powerline adaptors too. Was packaged up really nicely too.

~ describe the set up: did you set up your YouView box yourself? If not, who did? How easy did you / your DH/DP etc find it to set up your YouView box?
My dh set it up and said it was really easy to set up (after we realised that our TV aerial had been "taken over" by our neighbour so we had to pay to get a new one installed!!!!), the only fiddly bits were trying to run the cables up the back of our TV cabinet as the power cable is hard wired into the box, it's not able to be unplugged from the unit iyswim.

~ tell us which TV is it on/ in which room
It's connected to our only TV, in the living room.

~ share what you/ your family think the first couple of times you used it - what was the best feature and what, if anything, have you struggled with
We've been really impressed, it's very simple to navigate and all the functions are easy to use, on-demand is very speedy generally, the picture is very clear, lots of space on the hard drive for recording.
Slightly annoying things are: clicky buttons on remote control, not being able to press "back" and have it take you back to the channel you were watching before the one you're currently watching (our virgin box would do that). not being able to browse the "TV Guide" section by genre ie "kids", "music" etc, and the layout of the channels doesn't seem to make alot of sense, it would have been good to group all the "4" channels together, all the "ITV" channels together, all the "music" channels together etc instead of having to click up and down the guide. Also the instructions say press the up/down arrow to "page" up or down the TV guide but it doesn't actually "page" it does it channel by channel (unless ours is faulty).

Sorry about all the slightly annoying things, they are really just niggles, on the whole we are very, very impressed

I'd love to be able to watch Fraggle Rock, dd2 is very much like I remember Red to be but she's never seen it!