List of alternatives to YouView

Visionman · 2 March 2017, 11:12PM

Are there any alternative plug & play Freeview HD boxes that are on sale today that would be a reliable, value for money replacement for a YouView box?

Daniel · 3 March 2017, 12:17AM

I hope your not abandoning us vm

jonesh · 3 March 2017, 12:41AM

The list is empty. He's got nowhere to go.

Daniel · 3 March 2017, 1:54AM

I hope so because VM is one of the best forum members and would be missed if he does go. Let's hope if he's cutting his BT TV off that he just continues to use youview as a recording device.

al · 3 March 2017, 10:18AM

He's trying to prove a point: stop moaning there's nothing better.

We can still discuss and debate. That's what the forum is for.

Matthew Johns · 3 March 2017, 10:38AM

The only one that' I'd consider is the Humax FVP-4000T. It gets some wins such as youtube and wifi, but loses on others such as speed.

SomersetBob · 3 March 2017, 11:30AM

Provocative :-) Try PANASONIC DMR-HWT250EB or any other Freeview Play PVR.

redchiz · 3 March 2017, 12:45PM

I am quite impressed, on paper at least, with this one: http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/...

Tim C · 3 March 2017, 5:35PM

The Panasonics are always worth a look & if/when I get the update & hate it as much as I think I will then my 2 Youview boxes will probably be replaced by a pair of Panasonics.

redchiz · 3 March 2017, 5:48PM

There is even better value to be had if you avoid Freeview Play and go for a more simple Freeview HD recorder, a refurbished Humax can be had for around £100, not for you of course if you particularly value the backwards EPG. Otherwise, combine one of those with a Chromecast, or similar and you're laughing.

stormy · 3 March 2017, 6:12PM

Yeh it looks pretty good that, still prefer the Youview UI but if mine dies I will seriously look at the Panasonic. They have generally great build quality too, something that can not be said for Humax.

DJHB1980 · 3 March 2017, 8:40PM

I wish TVs would have a dedicated HDD slot on the TV not just a USB input slot but something to hold a HDD.

Tim C · 4 March 2017, 10:17AM

My Panasonics have USB slots which I've plugged external drives into for recording & live pause etc.

Yasha Noke · 4 March 2017, 11:56AM

@DJHB1980 Do you mean a slot to hold the actual HDD itself, in a similar fashion to the Australian 4tune recorder?
http://au.humaxdigital.com/4tune-storage/
http://au.humaxdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Detachable-HDD.png
I suspect that would introduce further complications to a TV as in heat and possibly interference.

jonesh · 4 March 2017, 12:29PM

Panasonics are competent machines. We have two at the moment. They have an air of quality that seems to elude Humax, but in our experience they aren't particularly long-lived.

Dave Howes2 · 4 March 2017, 4:16PM

That's probably something to come in the future. SSD drives are becoming bigger, cheaper and more reliable almost daily, so probably not too far in the future either

Visionman · 4 March 2017, 10:40PM

So with you hating it so much (your words) which box will you be replacing YouView with?

Dave Howes2 · 5 March 2017, 2:58AM

At the moment, none at all. Updates are blocked for the time being until it hopefully gets sorted out a bit, and if that doesn't happen I'll look at one of the unofficial forks once they've matured a bit.

jimb · 5 March 2017, 7:55AM

How have you blocked the updates Dave?

Roy · 5 March 2017, 10:12AM

Unofficial forks of YouView?

The knives will be out if YouView gets wind of any of those.

Dave Howes2 · 5 March 2017, 12:18PM

Blocking at the moment is by using a simple timer on the powerline connector - not exactly elegant, but it does the job for now. We've got the BT home hub 5, which has the ability to block selected ports for selected periods, I just need the time to work out which ones they use.

'Fork' was probably the wrong term. The most impressive looking one is a complete replacement Debian based distro, and not for the faint of heart as it involves flashing the firmware and having a working Linux computer to reformat the drive and first time installation of the software. It's also currently only for the T1000, and designed to bring an otherwise bricked box back to life.
The fact is though, having chosen to go the open source route, the source code is freely available and usable by anyone........

Roy · 5 March 2017, 3:46PM

Isn't that the usual mistake that people make - because some components of the YouView software are open source, they imagine it all is?

Dave Howes2 · 5 March 2017, 4:59PM

I really don't know about the ins and outs of what they've used, but I'd imagine that if it's been rebuilt from the firmware upwards, and, I'd imagine, the proprietary stuff is what they'd want to dump, I don't see that there's much of a problem. They make a point of saying that what's available could well differ from standard Youview, as it depends entirely on services publicly available on the internet with an api for the player section (which is presumably how they have Youtube). Basically they're taking a piece of redundant equipment (note: they state it's designed for bricked boxes) and turning it into a dedicated Linux-based computer with a Freeview box attached. When we eventually get the update due to some mishap, and, if the problems haven't been sorted out by then, then I might well give it a go, because the other half will certainly be scouring the internet for alternative PVR's!

Visionman · 5 March 2017, 5:09PM

An interesting discussion, but not one remotely attached the the topic at hand, which is viable plug and play alternatives to YouView.
Quite a few look great on paper, and in the real world, when they work. Of which Freeview Plays flagship box the Humax FVP-4000T is a particular beaut.

jimb · 5 March 2017, 6:58PM

Are you saying that the FVP-4000T is a great box in the real world?

Visionman · 5 March 2017, 7:21PM

Best to have a read of its home forum.
https://myhumax.org/forum/forum/fvp-4000t-1

Though it should be noted that whilst there are hundreds of complaints on here about YouView 2.0, there were hundreds of users of the FVP-4000T that not only complained about them, they took them back.

jimb · 5 March 2017, 8:25PM

That's a case of TLDNR.
Have you tried one, if so what did you think of it?

Visionman · 5 March 2017, 8:28PM

I gave you that link for a reason. If you can't be bothered reading it, well, you can lead a horse to water....

jimb · 5 March 2017, 9:10PM

You're joking. There are 25 pages.
But I wanted to know your opinion.
Perhaps you've been following that thread over the last twelve months?

Visionman · 5 March 2017, 9:47PM

Me? I slaughtered the FVP-4000T even before it came out and every word turned out to be true. And still lags on today.
You?

jimb · 5 March 2017, 11:00PM

https://community.youview.com/youview...

List of alternatives to YouView

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