I've given up waiting
Chris__M2
Member Posts: 64
When I bought my YouView box last year, it was with the desire to eventually consolidate all my viewing requirements (apart from DVD/BluRay) into one box, and get rid of the mess that lived below my TV, and the multitude of remote controls.
YouView went quite a way initially, in that it both replaced my existing unreliable hard disk recorder, and gave me access to all the VOD players, not just BBC iPlayer. However, this was short-lived, as due to the ongoing problems with AR and 5, I had to get my old recorder out of mothballs for recording on that channel (although it does seem things may have improved on that front).
I also had hopes that things such as Netflix, LoveFilm, or YouTube would eventually appear on YouView. I know - nothing was specifically promised, but there was definitely the capability to add new apps to the box, they did say that new content would be appearing, and when asked, we occasionally got a tantalising "we are looking at new content providers".
Anyway, the other week, I saw a BluRay player for 70 quid in Tesco, which has Netflix, LoveFilm, YouTube and a lot more. So I bought it. Whether any of these will ever appear on YouView, I have no idea, but for me, they have missed the boat.
[Posted as an idea, simply because there is no topic type that describes this post]
YouView went quite a way initially, in that it both replaced my existing unreliable hard disk recorder, and gave me access to all the VOD players, not just BBC iPlayer. However, this was short-lived, as due to the ongoing problems with AR and 5, I had to get my old recorder out of mothballs for recording on that channel (although it does seem things may have improved on that front).
I also had hopes that things such as Netflix, LoveFilm, or YouTube would eventually appear on YouView. I know - nothing was specifically promised, but there was definitely the capability to add new apps to the box, they did say that new content would be appearing, and when asked, we occasionally got a tantalising "we are looking at new content providers".
Anyway, the other week, I saw a BluRay player for 70 quid in Tesco, which has Netflix, LoveFilm, YouTube and a lot more. So I bought it. Whether any of these will ever appear on YouView, I have no idea, but for me, they have missed the boat.
[Posted as an idea, simply because there is no topic type that describes this post]
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Comments
I know people will say lots of things will be happening very shortly but patience is wearing thin as evidence shows .
Bt Youview needs to open out it's product to add on's and other services more quickly and also to those thousands of customer's who are not getting infinity of fibre any time soon. After all other services seem to be able to do this easily with out the big wait.
That being so, I'm happy for YV to prioritise getting the basic functions of the box right, which I am optimistic they can do by the end of the year.
Be nice if they spent 2014 getting all the additional services working on the YV box, though, so I don't keep having to try to remember which device does what.
Of course, all this relies on no-one else being able to bring out a backwards EPG in the next 20 months; if someone can, there's a real danger of YV being dead in the water :-(
People want something, they don't get it, they see it elsewhere, they go elsewhere. No anger, no stamping of feet, just human nature and market forces.
I say this not becuase i dislike YW, i actually think its a great system with the potential of being the one-stop shop for all the viewing from the web/on demand/live etc. The problem seems to be that YW dont seem to see this or the emerging vendors responding to the market.
We absolutely do see the potential of our platform, and also what others in the market are doing. We also take all feedback from customers very seriously. I wouldn't be involved today if I thought it wasn't going anywhere, but I guess our actions and progress have to speak louder than my words alone.
You state over the next few months ( I take that not to be one or a couple but hopefully no more than 3 months) you will start adding more apps to the players section.
Well that will take the "wait" to 9 months which is an awful long time so please make it worth it and make the start of introducing these new apps no longer than 3 months ......already waiting for the "great stuff coming " in August
I have no doubt that you do. The issue I suspect is persuading other parties of that potential at a price they want to pay to come onboard with their service.
As for additional content, I am sure this will come to all users, not just BT and TT. My earlier comment was merely intended to suggest that the overall timing may be influenced by what one of the large stakeholders such as BT are doing.
We are doing everything we can to speed things up, but we don't write these apps ourselves.
Look forward to seeing the new stuff, as it arrives. (just fixing the skip button will make me a happy bunny, at the moment ... LOL... that one has been a pain in the proverbial)
Having said that, it is the continued vagueness of YouView pronouncements - "soon" and "over the next few months" - that made me decide not to wait.
I do realise this isn't your fault, you can only give information that you have. But a lack of a roadmap is a definite failing in the organisation as a whole.
Having worked in a similar area in the past, it is a fact that you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't. If you publish your planned future releases, and then are hit with some sort of development problem that delays the release (as often happens in ANY environment like this) - you will have everyone and their grand-mother up in arms and complaining.
If you keep all your cards close to your chest, then you have people complaining they don't know what is coming.
Few major providers of similar products (software driven hardware) reveal the detail of their forward plans - e.g. Apple, Samsung, etc. What will arrive with a new release may be hinted at, but often features come out of the blue - unannounced. Indeed, many boxes receive no updates at all.
Getting additional content via apps is what we would have called "a non-trivial" development. If the team are to try to ensure (as much as they can) that it works as intended at release, then this is going to involve extensive and complex testing, which is time-consuming.
YouView have committed to 3 updates a year - 3 times my previous pvr which received none!
I have no doubts that YouView, over the rest of this year, will develop into a superb pvr. If that takes the team a few months to achieve, then I am happy to wait and see what arrives.
Im one of the lucky few though that already has access to the likes of Netflix, Lovefilm and Youtube through a games console. It would be nice to have them all on the same box so i only need the one remote, but im in no rush.
Ive finally found a decent Freeview PVR with catch-up as an added bonus. i ain't going nowhere.
ive now got a smart tv i can connect my pc into it and stream through a network use the built i apps to watch films........................................
i wont go on, but the humax is sitting under the tv bringing back reminders of how 'cool' i thought i was with my then sky+ box and i can only cringe laughing !!
It was big, bulky, and took a while to start up. (It also cost about £40-50), and only had a fraction of the channels available to us now. (Remember 'abc1'?)
I too was amazed at the ability to look ahead and plan my viewing habit, to interact with the news by pushing that little red button, and to finally have that crystal clear picture.
Look where are now only 10 years later. Freeview installed on every new tv, the ability to pause, rewind tv, and record anything up to a week in advance. And now, catch-up services to watch that gem you may have missed...
Amazing isnt it?