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NowTV box

Got mine today and set it up (all 20 seconds that it took :p).

Streaming seems OK and I got Plex installed which is alright. My server seems to struggle transcoding some files so they don't play too well. I need to have a fiddle with the settings to see if direct play works better.

Is there any way to side load other apps or the Roku channel store into it? The Sky limited selection is... limited.

Over all so far seems OK. Unless the Roku version adds considerable additional items then I think I would be a bit peeved at paying £50 for one.
 
many people have no idea that Plex is able to share your media across the Internet

This feature is brilliant as I can add say holiday movies and my parents can instantly watch it on their now tv box
 
I believe that the main difference with the Roku is that:-

it has a LOT more channels.
It has a much better UI.
It is much faster than NOW TV.
It can do 5.1 surround, NOW TV is only stereo, even through HDMI.
It can do 1080p, NOW TV is 720p.

NOW TV is fine for £10, purely for Plex to get something in the bedroom, but as a main Media centre, NOW TV is quite crippled, even with Sky Movies with Sports day pass installed. The other competition is ATV which is much better quality with its media playback, similar to the Roku in hardware features, less channels but it has Netflix, Youtube, and if you like Baseball or NBA then ATV is great and the Sky News app actually stream live news as opposed to clips on NOW TV.

I was dead set getting a ROKU 3 for Plex just to get 5.1 and 1080p but tbh, I rather spend a bit more to get something to run XBMC, which is much nicer to use than Plex.
 
The hardware and outputs of the NowTV are identical to the Roku LT.

My main gripe is that Plex just.... isn't that great? Everything that the NowTV does natively works fine (iPlayer, all the other channels, etc), but Plex just feels cumbersome. My Server isn't a super computer, but its hardly slow (3Ghz dual core, 4GBs RAM, etc), but basically transcoding on the fly is a no go. Direct Play works great, but that restricts me to a subset of the files I have.

I can't complain for a tenner. Its worth it for iPlayer/4od/etc alone. But had I paid £50 for a Roku expecting a nice simple media streamer of my files, I'd be a bit disappointed. £50 gets your all you need for an RPi setup which would be much better.
 
Got mine up last night, pretty good for £7.99 but I wish they had a proper subtitle service :(

:edit: OMFG THE SANTA HATS. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN.
 
Skeeter said:
My main gripe is that Plex just.... isn't that great? Everything that the NowTV does natively works fine (iPlayer, all the other channels, etc), but Plex just feels cumbersome. My Server isn't a super computer, but its hardly slow (3Ghz dual core, 4GBs RAM, etc), but basically transcoding on the fly is a no go. Direct Play works great, but that restricts me to a subset of the files I have.
Click to expand...

I don't seem to have an issue with my Plex server. Only a Q6600, 4gb ram etc. Copes just fine. It is the wireless connection which causes any problems I have. This is the only reason I am thinking of changing it at the moment for something else.

As for sideloading, you can only add one channel this way.
 
For 720p /stereo its decent enough, and Im paying the additional £4.99/month for the entertainment package (Sky catch up, box sets etc), although this is only trial price until march I believe

Sports day packages are too expensive imo (and the beep confirmation for each button press is a little annoying) but for £25 - incl 3 months Sky movies subscription - its not so bad.
 
Finally got round to plugging my Now TV box in the other night after having it sat in the box for months. Installed Plex on it, direct playing a 720p video works but it doesn't seem to handle the AC3 5.1 sound...? If I switch to transcoding, sound works but my NAS can't handle that and I get a buffer every 5 seconds. Is there something I'm missing here, do I need to fettle with the files on the server first, or a setting on the Now TV?
 
Considering a proper Roku box is about £50 and this is only a tender is it any surprise that it doesn't do some of the things that the Roku does?
 
Got this for my mum for Christmas, she has been moaning that the TV in their lounge doesnt have iPlayer etc, this will put me firmly in the good books I feel.
 
Found PlayTo works nicely as a server, lets me send to my nowtv box and doesn't tie up the tablet like some of the other server apps I've tried.
 
Anyone had any issues with Spotify?

The remote works perfectly with everything else, but in Spotify i find it often moves 2 places when I press a navigation button once for example.
 
Does anyone know if you have Sky Movies on Sky, that you will be able to link it to your sky account and watch Sky movies channels through the Sky box?
 
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