looks like a promising new box. Like others I’ll keep an eye on this.
Youview has largely set my expectations for what these connected pvrs should be - The addition of popular apps and universal search to tie it all together. Going forward as apps become more ubiquitous on all platforms it’s going to be harder to distinguish between competitors. I’m going to be looking more for things that improve the quality of viewing, and the graphical interface.
Automatic frame rate switching is something I’ll be keeping an eye out for. It works a treat on the fire tv stick, though I wish more apps would utilise it on that platform. It gets rid of distracting judder on panning shots, something I’m always aware of with American 60hz content and traditional 24fps films on the Youview Netflix app. Once you’re aware how much better the content is when shown at the correct frame rate it’s hard to unsee it.
Also the Fire tv stick has a pretty smooth graphical interface, I’m imagine that’s also down to the processing power of the hardware.
Anyway will keep an an eye out for the reviews as others have said above. So far I’ve not been tempted by freeview play devices, but this could be a game changer. Wonder what new hardware Youview will have in the near future?
Ahhh... a 1TB box recorder. Just try finding the time to watch them whilst watching live TV.
You mean you still watch live TV?
For me the whole point of having a PVR and using streaming services is so that I don't have to watch live TV anymore. I don't always like to rely on streaming services to catch up on things. Because some stuff is often only available for a limited time. Where is if you can record you face no such limitation.
I'm not sure whether anybody else has pointed this out, but the base model of this new Humax will be sold at the same price as a 500GB youview box when youview was first released, so you're getting twice as much storage space for the same price that you would originally paid for youview box.
I'm willing to bet this box will be £10-£20 cheaper than the list price on Amazon
The other things keeping pvrs in business are the lack of decent HD quality ondemand (excepting the bbc ), and the ability to ff past the adverts.
You would think that being the case the market would be awash with cutting edge technology when choosing a pvr. It really isn't and hasn't been for several years. Ever seen a Samsung or Sony pvr?
In the latest issue of WebUser there is an interesting article on Google TV. Reading this and the future availability of it on Android TV's made me wonder if this is the first such application of combining Google TV and Android interfaces.
All I ever wanted from a tv box was the ability to use catchup for BBC radio channels from the channel guide which is why I bought into Youview. Since this feature has been removed from Youview I will happily dump my Youview boxes on Ebay if this feature is present on the Aura boxes.
Interestingly BT surely will need a replacement for its T4000 in the not too distant future, As Humax got the contract in the past wonder if they might rebadge this for BT tv?. 😫j
I think you'll find there's probably a new YouView box coming and it will be very much designed to please BT.
😀
After all the hype, how can they release the box without the promised App and expect to retain credibility?
It looks increasingly likely that this box was rushed out to capitalize on the lucrative Christmas market. Hopefully the missing apps will arrive later.
All I ever wanted from a tv box was the ability to use catchup for BBC radio channels from the channel guide which is why I bought into Youview. Since this feature has been removed from Youview I will happily dump my Youview boxes on Ebay if this feature is present on the Aura boxes.
Since then, the continued improvements in the iPlayer have shown that YouView going with the new versions, rather than trying to hang on to the old version just for the sake of radio on demand, was the right choice.
And since then, radio on the BBC has taken some twists and turns, culminating now in BBC Sounds.
But can somebody please explain why we have this sorry excuse for a BBC Sounds player on YouView, compared with what I can get from nominally the same Player on this iPad, as below, which has schedules and catch-up, both notably absent from the YouView version, to say nothing of the fact that I only get my one most local BBC channel, and not the plethora the app has?
Who is just not trying here?
But while not driven off the YouView EPG, BBC Sounds, in its iPad guise, does at least have its own schedules, and you can go back as much as 30 days to find programmes you missed, quite apart from all the stuff you can search for. So the acid test for the Aura is (i) does it have BBC Sounds and (ii) if so, does it have a proper iPad-like BBC Sounds with schedules and catch-up, or the very limited YouView BBC Sounds UI?
Anybody here got a Freeview Play device with BBC Sounds on it, who can check this? Our early adopter in the NowTV community has now sent his Aura back, with a note asking Humax to let him know when it’s actually finished, so we can’t ask him.....
‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
The other things keeping pvrs in business are the lack of decent HD quality ondemand (excepting the bbc ), and the ability to ff past the adverts.
You would think that being the case the market would be awash with cutting edge technology when choosing a pvr. It really isn't and hasn't been for several years. Ever seen a Samsung or Sony pvr?
Well no, because they have seen that eBay is awash with secondhand YouView boxes, on which the purchasers will mostly watch the SD channels, because the HD channels need too many digits typing in, and don’t have the local news. And in a stunning backward step, those SD channels will actually look crappier on 4K than they would on HD. But most users won’t care, because they want things easy.
How many VCRs did you see in the old days, just blinking 00:00? They never recorded anything, just used for playing films rented from Blockbuster or their ilk. I used to show people the vast improvement you got with a SCART connection versus using channel 35. They would gasp in amazement, and then go back to the easier way. DVD players got good penetration because they were even easier to use than VCRs. And the picture was better, but I’d hazard a guess they would have had about the same penetration even if it wasn’t, as you never had to rewind a DVD, or untangle its mangled remains from inside your player.
But PVRs? Always a niche market, outside of the great BT giveaway; and even there, content was king. The one thing I would add to what @Joe said is that it’s also the ability to timeshift channels that don’t do catch-up, or programmes not available on catch-up even on the channels which do do catch-up.
‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
All I ever wanted from a tv box was the ability to use catchup for BBC radio channels from the channel guide which is why I bought into Youview. Since this feature has been removed from Youview I will happily dump my Youview boxes on Ebay if this feature is present on the Aura boxes.
Since then, the continued improvements in the iPlayer have shown that YouView going with the new versions, rather than trying to hang on to the old version just for the sake of radio on demand, was the right choice.
And since then, radio on the BBC has taken some twists and turns, culminating now in BBC Sounds.
But can somebody please explain why we have this sorry excuse for a BBC Sounds player on YouView, compared with what I can get from nominally the same Player on this iPad, as below, which has schedules and catch-up, both notably absent from the YouView version, to say nothing of the fact that I only get my one most local BBC channel, and not the plethora the app has?
Who is just not trying here?
But while not driven off the YouView EPG, BBC Sounds, in its iPad guise, does at least have its own schedules, and you can go back as much as 30 days to find programmes you missed, quite apart from all the stuff you can search for. So the acid test for the Aura is (i) does it have BBC Sounds and (ii) if so, does it have a proper iPad-like BBC Sounds with schedules and catch-up, or the very limited YouView BBC Sounds UI?
Anybody here got a Freeview Play device with BBC Sounds on it, who can check this? Our early adopter in the NowTV community has now sent his Aura back, with a note asking Humax to let him know when it’s actually finished, so we can’t ask him.....
I had a look at the BBC Sounds app on our Panasonic FVP TV @Roy.
It has national and local (to me) stations, but no schedules or catchup.
I emailed Humax to ask about the Aura app. Answer came there none. Possibly an indication of customer service one might expect in the future? I’ve seen press ‘reviews’ but no actual user reviews so far.
On Amazon people who actually bought the device give it mixed reviews. Hard to argue with the growing consensus that Human rushed a unfinished machine on to the market. Maybe they thought all those trapped in lockdown would rush out and buy it.
Comments
Youview has largely set my expectations for what these connected pvrs should be - The addition of popular apps and universal search to tie it all together. Going forward as apps become more ubiquitous on all platforms it’s going to be harder to distinguish between competitors. I’m going to be looking more for things that improve the quality of viewing, and the graphical interface.
I'm not sure whether anybody else has pointed this out, but the base model of this new Humax will be sold at the same price as a 500GB youview box when youview was first released, so you're getting twice as much storage space for the same price that you would originally paid for youview box.
I'm willing to bet this box will be £10-£20 cheaper than the list price on Amazon
It really isn't and hasn't been for several years.
Ever seen a Samsung or Sony pvr?
Me? Very limited Roy. Live sport and News only. Although more recently, the Govt's number 10 Covid 19 press conference announcements.
Why would I want to do that? The BBC iPlayer is there for a reason you know..... it's unmatched as well.
Hopefully the missing apps will arrive later.
Well, let’s be clear that it was the BBC who removed the feature, not YouView:-
https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/6406678/bbc-iplayer-radio-on-demand-withdrawal/p1
and from all versions of the iPlayer, not just the YouView one.
Since then, the continued improvements in the iPlayer have shown that YouView going with the new versions, rather than trying to hang on to the old version just for the sake of radio on demand, was the right choice.
And since then, radio on the BBC has taken some twists and turns, culminating now in BBC Sounds.
But can somebody please explain why we have this sorry excuse for a BBC Sounds player on YouView, compared with what I can get from nominally the same Player on this iPad, as below, which has schedules and catch-up, both notably absent from the YouView version, to say nothing of the fact that I only get my one most local BBC channel, and not the plethora the app has?
Who is just not trying here?
But while not driven off the YouView EPG, BBC Sounds, in its iPad guise, does at least have its own schedules, and you can go back as much as 30 days to find programmes you missed, quite apart from all the stuff you can search for. So the acid test for the Aura is (i) does it have BBC Sounds and (ii) if so, does it have a proper iPad-like BBC Sounds with schedules and catch-up, or the very limited YouView BBC Sounds UI?
The answer to (i) is, possibly, not yet:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/humax
and to (ii) - who knows?
How many VCRs did you see in the old days, just blinking 00:00? They never recorded anything, just used for playing films rented from Blockbuster or their ilk. I used to show people the vast improvement you got with a SCART connection versus using channel 35. They would gasp in amazement, and then go back to the easier way. DVD players got good penetration because they were even easier to use than VCRs. And the picture was better, but I’d hazard a guess they would have had about the same penetration even if it wasn’t, as you never had to rewind a DVD, or untangle its mangled remains from inside your player.
But PVRs? Always a niche market, outside of the great BT giveaway; and even there, content was king. The one thing I would add to what @Joe said is that it’s also the ability to timeshift channels that don’t do catch-up, or programmes not available on catch-up even on the channels which do do catch-up.
As far as I can see, it’s the same BBC Sounds app you’ve probably seen on Youview – so only featured programmes (and live broadcast).
ReplyIs this supposed to be the same posting twice?
Or did you not even post it yourself at all?
@Sarah
Has the Community software gone rogue, as something very similar has happened here also?
https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/comment/19008093/#Comment_19008093
This was just due to the posts being caught and released from the spam filter. I have now released the duplicates.
Thanks!
Sarah
Hard to argue with the growing consensus that Human rushed a unfinished machine on to the market.
Maybe they thought all those trapped in lockdown would rush out and buy it.
“ We do not have a date as yet but we are really close to releasing it soon.”