TalkTalk bigwig parks knighted-rear in cursed YouView chair

Retail genius Sir Charles Dunstone will chair the YouView consortium until a permanent appointment can be made. Sir Charlie co-founded The Carphone Warehouse and is chairman of budget ISP TalkTalk. TalkTalk has been a YouView member since 2009. The ISP offers a free YouView box and claims to be adding 10,000 punters a week - …

[Keith 72]

YouView sucks

I'm not surprised that Sugar fired himself.

[Roger B]

Re: YouView sucks

In what way exactly does it "suck"? I've had my Humax box for several months now and love it, everything set to record on a weekly basis, the NowTV on demand player was very easy to use and quick for the month I used it during the free trial. The only thing missing is a Netflix app, rumored to be on the way I think, and access to my network NAS would be nice but as that only holds music its not the end of the world.

There seems to be regular software updates as functionality gets added, its now possible for Android/iOS owners to use their device to setup remote recordings.

[Keith 72]

Re: YouView sucks

It sucks in so many ways it was easier to generalise.

The only thing missing is Netflix?! What about BlinkBox and LoveFilm? I seriously don't think they'll bother.

I've had my Talk Talk YV box since December. The interface sucks. It's a very poor PVR. They've only recently added functionality to search in the Guide rather than just for On Demand stuff (and that functionality hasn't made it to Talk Talk yet). You can't see a list of what series you have scheduled to record - either that or it just forgets them once there are no more episodes in the 7 day guide.

On Demand players are crap compared to recorded programmes - rewind, fast forward are painful and it won't remember where you watched to if you don't watch a programme in one viewing.

You search just for free content, or even content which won't require a subscription.

It takes too long to wake up - and that's from the non-eco mode. And then it's only a digibox. If you want to see your recordings or worse start an on demand player you have to wait again.

The iOS app is seriously limited in functionality (i.e. you can only add a recording to your list - you can't see what you have scheduled to record) and there's no word of when the Android app will be available.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: YouView sucks

You need to update your box.

Also read the instructions, much of what you rant about is covered.

LoveFilm Instant, Blinkbox and Netflix apps are on their way.

Anon cos I'm involved in some of the above.

[Keith 72]

Re: YouView sucks

The box updates itself - but there was another update this week so that I can now chose to have it confirm recording deletes, which is handy as I had deleted some in error. I only know this change because I read it on the Talk Talk website.

I've read the instructions - because I was looking for missing functionality. But of course as they're changing it every month my instructions are out of date! I know it's Linux based, but I didn't expect I'd need to trawl forums and rebuild the box myself.

The problem is that it's still playing catch up with PVRs that have been around for years. YouView was years late and when it arrives it's still "Nearly Ready" - as the box says every time you switch it on!

[Anonymous Coward]

NowTV (Sky) also provide YouView content over IP.

Smart TV's will do everything YV does and make its box completely pointless pretty soon I would think anyway...

... If Roku doesn't kill it first.