Thanks, YouView. How do people use the YV box?
churchwarden
Member Posts: 795 ✭
Having had a Humax pvr prior to the YouView box, I was used to recording. However, rarely I would resort to catch-up on the PC, especially when I had missed something I thought may be good. However, my PC is not connected to the TV, and I really wasn't keen on sitting at the PC, so only resorted to this option rarely.
Recently, Martin mentioned a programme - Scandal - that I thought may be worth a go (still undecided .... like Martin!) However, a quick scan of On Demand, and there it was - 4 episodes of it. So, I managed to easily get a look at the beginning of the series, thanks to YouView.
This raised a question in my mind - of the 3 ways to use the YouView box - live TV, recorded programmes, and On Demand - what sort of mix do other users have, and how do they use their YouView box?
Recently, Martin mentioned a programme - Scandal - that I thought may be worth a go (still undecided .... like Martin!) However, a quick scan of On Demand, and there it was - 4 episodes of it. So, I managed to easily get a look at the beginning of the series, thanks to YouView.
This raised a question in my mind - of the 3 ways to use the YouView box - live TV, recorded programmes, and On Demand - what sort of mix do other users have, and how do they use their YouView box?
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I work from home, so a couple of days a week, I use catchup to find something short and light to watch for a half-hour's lunch break. So far discovered two shows that I had completely missed first time round - Green Wing, and - currently - The IT Crowd.
Recordings, about 80% of its usage. At the moment, only for timeshifting, which I watch as soon as possible, as I had a bad experience with lost recordings.
Catch-up, about 20% of its usage. I thought I would use this more, but it's still a bit hit and miss, so I've gone back to recording everything I know about in advance.
I've found that I'm recording far more than I did on my Sky box, especially radio comedies/dramas and films which I might fancy watching one quiet weekend, and therefore watching less live TV than I did.
It used to be a case of: 'It's Tuesday 8pm so it's Holby City, let's make sure I'm in my chair and ready'. Now the box records away and I watch whenever I feel like it.
Only shows with real spoilers such as Dallas and Homeland get watched 'live'.
I've had PVRs since the Pace Twins launched 10 years ago but this is the first that has really unchained me from the schedules and I put that down the on demand content, especially the deep archive content on 4oD such as Whose Line is it Anyway and Desmond's.
And like you, I was able to use the 4oD to catch an unseen 1st of a series (Secret State in my case) and then series link the rest.
This is because "in the old days", I would watch TV for one of two reasons - something I wanted to watch was on, or I'd watch something I might not bother with, simply because I wanted to relax.
Timeshifting got rid of the second category - when I wanted to relax in front of the TV, I would always have something on disk that I *chose* to watch.
However, with YouView, I am not sure if having a large 4oD back-library at my disposal (and the BBC shortly, I understand) whether this is going to increase my viewing time or simply change what I watch. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
In most cases I record anything that my wife and I want to watch, just in case something comes up. Have to revert to pure TV at times when there are time clashes which usually happen around the 9 o'clock time period.
Had BT Vision but like the simpler interface for on demand with YouView and will probably use it quite a lot once BT get their usage monitor sorted out and I can be certain of just what does, or does not, count to my download usage as there are still several confusion threads around about this.
Have used BT Vision previously for watching old films or TV series and expect to do the same in the future subject to the usage monitor of course.
On-demand probably only accounts for about 5% of my viewing, but I'm steadily using it more.
I'd watch more on-demand, but I think the methods of finding programmes could be improved. It's ok if you use the backwards EPG, but I find the pay channels can swamp the results when you search or browse. For example, if you browse for films, you'll get about a thousand films from NowTV, and have a hard job finding something you can actually watch.
I too watch very little live t.v. Preferring to record and then watch at my leisure. This is usually from about 0300 to 0700 as I am a poor sleeper. I agree about how hard it is to find a film to watch on demand because the listings are swamped with pay for movies from Now T.V. but I have found the odd t.v. show that as been recommended to me after the live broadcast. All in all I am nw pleased with my YouView box.