Waiting for my Youview box

As our Sony HDR packed up, and we have BT's phone and Infinity 2, I registered for the YouView offer, and eventually got the order conf. Tracking in My BT, and in emails, showed variously box delivery and Vision activation dates as last Sunday, Monday, and Friday coming. In the end, Vision was activated on Sunday, and the box came yesterday. 

I put it down to standard BT confusion, and Parcelforce 

We're having to move stuff around in the room so as yet haven't set the Humax box up, and in turn haven't tried Vision.

Don't know if you can run both boxes together. From the YV forum there's mixed views on YV box functionality so if you can run both together, it might be worth it for now. There's a big YV update due 31/10 I understand.

For us, it was a no-brainer. After activation and delivery, for £4pm (£5 from January) we've got a £250-£300 new recorder (HD too) plus all catch up players in one place on the telly where they belong, and modern day PVR pausing live TV etc.  

That's via Vision Essential. If Vision itself offers anything extra worth watching, that's a plus.

Be interested to know how you get on with it.

They tried to deliver it this morning. Got home to find a drop card saying it has been left at my local Post Office. Woo Hoo! I drove to the P.O..... Have a guess which is the only day of the week which is early closing.... Yep, Wednesday.

Oh well, I'll pick it up on my way home from work tomorrow and have a play before The Wife gets in from work.

I really, really try NOT to be a grumpy old git.

But come on, half day closing?

Is this 2012, or 1912?

Got my box here but unless I pull a 2m long oak unit out twice, I can't play till a new sub-woofer cable comes.

"Oh Mr Postman bring a bag for me" 

I note that the YV box was delivered by post.  Did you have to pay £50 for the engineer to set it up, or were you able to do that yourself?

I have registered with TalkTalk for a YV box and received an email saying that one was available, but have yet to arrange delivery and installation with TT.

The BT offering is a Humax box, and mine came via Parcelforce, either 1 or 2 days late, depending on which BT email I read 

BT give you the option. You can either self instal - which I'll do - or opt for an engineer instal, at a similar price to TT. I understand with TT you have to have an engineer instal it.

Not sure why that is. It's power, aerial in, HDMI to the TV, set up. Should be straight forward  but might be 

We'll see later today, if my new sub-woofer cable turns up.

Picked it up yesterday, so I've had a few hours of 'play time' with it. No set-up service was offered or asked for. Just unplugged the HDMI, Ethernet, Aerial & Power from the BT Vision box and plugged them into the Youview box (except power, the Youview box has a captive mains lead unlike the Vision box's fig 8 connector.)

Overall, very happy with it and it's leaps and bounds ahead of my old BT Vision box. It does take a while to come to life, but to be fair I've left mine in 'eco' mode. Apparently the 'rainforests be damned' mode makes it come out of standby much quicker.

Having a Freeview HD tuner for the first time is great (worth it for Rachel Riley in HD alone. ). Haven't tried recording facility yet, but the catch-up TV seems to work as it should (Plan to watch Michael Palin's 'Brazil' at some point over the weekend). The jury's still out on whether I prefer my TV's tuner or the Youview box for plain old SD broadcasting though.

One thing I can't find either in the manual or in the on-screen guide is any picture adjustability. On my Vision box, I could pick between 1080i or 720p (I preferred the latter), but can't seem to on the Youview box. Colours seem overdone too. Yes, I could adjust the picture settings on the TV, but this would affect the picture when watching the TV tuner (my telly is quite old and doesn't have individual settings for different inputs...... I think....)

Also, my Onkyo displays 'PCM'. not sure if there's any alternative to this as I've not found any audio settings other than language.

One other thing I would like an answer for which I noticed while watching 'The Simpsons' last night. On my TV's tuner, on 'Wide' setting (no auto formatting), it fills the whole screen from corner to corner. Not stretched, not zoomed in, just as it should be. When watching on Youview, there are black bars either side of the screen like an old 4:3 TV. This was the same on C4 & C4HD.

Why would this be?

Overall, I ain't complaining for £50. I'd have paid that for a plain jane freeview HD box, let alone with the extra functionality of recording and iPlayer, and the integrated on demand of BT Vision (which answered my first query whether I'd need both boxes to be connected... You don't).

I'm sure I'll have other findings over time, but I can't think why anyone wouldn't want one if they're sick of extortionate monthly subs fees for Sky or Virgin.

Thanks for the update Chris. My new s/w cable *still* hasn't come, so my new box is still sat in its..err..box.

Can't help much with picture adjustment and display mode. Might be some community help over at the YV forum

http://community.youview.com/youview

Until the update expected 31/10, I'm led to believe there's no 5.1 support from the box with either HDMI to an AV amp, or optical to the amp, so for now I'm going to use the HDMI to TV they suggest. My TV outputs plain 5.1 to my amp anyway. So your Onkyo might just be *seeing* stereo for now. Be interesting to see if the amp display changes after the update.

I'll probably instal ours tomorrow and if needs be, just pull the unit out again to instal my new s/w lead.

BTW, some interesting info here re ownership and registration. I've registered mine.

http://community.bt.com/t5/YouView-from-BT/YouView-box-can-I-keep-it-after-12-months/td-p/657482

It's a shame to read that so many people are having probs with Youview! - I ordered mine online the day after the BT "Unlimited Broadband Extra" offer, (£5.50 per month less than previous "Option 2" Broadband). Got delivered within 3 working days - works a treat out of the box as expected! 

Well the promised update has brought a few changes. I can now choose 720p/1080i/1080p as desired and I can get Dolby Digital via HDMI now too.

No real problems here. Have had it lock up once or twice, requiring it to be fully switched off and restarted, but other than that....

Hope you are happy with your youview box. I know What Hifi gave it a 5 star rating, but I disagree. I'd give it a 3. I've had mine for a few months now, and although the picture in both standard and high definition is very good, there are too many failings elsewhere to award it a maximum rating.The box and remote fall well below the Sky equivalents in my humble opinion. The box freezes too often for my liking and this doesn't inspire confidence. For some reason, it also sometimes refuses to record programmes at your chosen time and searches elsewhere for them. This is advertised as a plus point, but for me its a negative, because you can never totally rely on your chosen programme being available to view at the time you thought it would be. And the remote is very lightweight, with a cheap 'plasticy' feel to it. Also, it is not terribly responsive. On occasions (i.e. when going in reverse mode in a pre-recorded programme, it takes on a mind of its own and either refuses to stop at the desired point, or chooses its own destination!). I cancelled Sky because it became too expensive. Youview obviously works out cheaper, but I much preferred my Sky box and remote. The build and the technology just felt more robust. Which reminds me, must buy a lottery ticket tomorrow!

I just got a PS3 fro iplayer, 40d, itvplayer and 5-whatsit. It'll replace my BD35 as BDP too - no room for both, nor do you need both. The PS3 is wireless and, preloved, canbe had fro around half what the Youview box costs without any kind of contract.

That said, all youview thoughts are worth seeing.