topic Re: EE TV Pro functionality in TV

EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:40 GMT

I'm finding it very difficult to get a good impression of how well the Pro box works compared to Sky Q or VM V6.

Two stores I visited did not have a working box to play with . Another store did, and it seemed reasonably good, but it is inconvenient to get there to have a play with.

Some questions:

Is it possible to record Now TV channels through the TV guide, or are we limited to Freeview channels>
Can recordings on the Pro box be watched on the Mini box?
Can Now TV accounts be added at a later date? And can different Now TV accounts be logged in and out of? I.e I have a Sports subscription, my wife has a Cinema subscription (there's a reason.... 😁 )
Can subtitles be switched on with voice control? If not, how many button presses?
Are subtitles kept on when changing from one channel to another, or to recorded or streamed content?
Can two remotes be used for one box? I currently have 2 for my Sky Q box, though only one works for voice.

I am at the end of my Sky Q contract. If I switch to EE and find that the TV box isn't suitable, can I cancel the full bundle incuding the broadband in the first 14 days?

Thanks

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

HenryTudor8 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:59:44 GMT

I’ve had the Pro box and two minis for about a month now. To answer one of your specific points: no, as far I can tell, you can’t watch recordings on the Pro box from a mini box (I have tried).

TBH, you’ll find EE TV somewhat rudimentary and a work in progress compared to Sky and Virgin. I moved from Virgin because it saves me money. I’m satisfied, no more, and neutral about making the change. The full fibre broadband is good, and with this I get a great discount with unlimited usage on my four EE sim cards. This is what made the difference for me.

One thing you really need to know is that you can use either Freeview or EE TV, not both together. This means you don’t get all the Freeview channels if you go for EE and there’s no point otherwise (no sport for eg). If you switch from aerial mode to online (EE TV) you have to reset the box and lose your recordings. So, you can only record two programmes, not four per the EE sales pitch.

Just my quick thoughts, that might help.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:42:38 GMT

Thanks for your feedback, it's really useful. It's quite a surprise that it is either/or with the Freeview/EE TV. I was wondering how it would chose between aerial or IP for recording of e.g. BBC. Really disappointed that it isn't as functionally competitive as I was expecting. It looks like they have on offer 2 half-baked solutions rather than one decent solution. I.e. limited app and/or recording functionality on the Pro box, and no pause/rewind on the Apple box.

It looks like I might have to consider a trial of one of the EE boxes and cancel before 14 days if it is too disappointing. Also might take an Apple TV box from CEX for a trial as well to see if it would be a cheaper and almost as good solution.

I was originally with VM until I moved 18 months ago, and found Sky at the new location disappointing and more expensive. Now I'll have to see if I can get a non-Sky workable solution to save c. £50 pm

Quite disappointed that it is very difficult to get comprehensive information on the EE solutions

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:12:53 GMT

I'm not sure what you meant by "One thing you really need to know is that you can use either Freeview or EE TV, not both together." @HenryTudor8

If you choose aerial mode, then you'll get Freeview channels via your aerial, plus all your subscription channels via IP.

If you choose IP mode, you'll get a selection of Freeview channels, plus all the same subscription channels via IP.

If you take the Apple TV option, you get the same selection of channels as the TV Box in IP mode.

Note: buying an Apple TV from elsewhere will only provide the Sport channels - access to Freeview channels is only available on hardware provided as part of the EE contract.

To answer the original questions:

Is it possible to record Now TV channels through the TV guide, or are we limited to Freeview channels>
- Yes, Now TV channels can be recorded, as long as the Now subscription is through EE.
Can recordings on the Pro box be watched on the Mini box?
- No - recordings can only be watched directly on the box they were recorded from
Can Now TV accounts be added at a later date? And can different Now TV accounts be logged in and out of? I.e I have a Sports subscription, my wife has a Cinema subscription (there's a reason )
- You can log into the Now app on the box with other accounts, however recording the channels will be limited to just the Now subscription through EE TV.
Can subtitles be switched on with voice control? If not, how many button presses?
- Voice control not available, but it's a single button press on the remote.
Are subtitles kept on when changing from one channel to another, or to recorded or streamed content?
- The subtitles setting is remembered when switching content.
Can two remotes be used for one box? I currently have 2 for my Sky Q box, though only one works for voice.
- You can purchase additional IR remotes (the one that comes with it is Bluetooth - there can only be one per box, but you can have as many IR remotes as you like).

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

HenryTudor8 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:45:56 GMT

This isn’t what the EE help section says, and when I asked in here some weeks ago it was made clear that it was either aerial mode or IP mode and that if you set up the box in aerial mode you don’t get any IP channels. Maybe I’ve been misinformed.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:06:10 GMT

@DarrenDev

Thanks, that is very helpful

@HenryTudor8

I'm wondering if the confusion relates to recording? I wonder how many aeriel channels can be recorded if in aerial mode, and is it maybe the case that in aerial mode, two aerial channels can be recorded and 2 IP streams can be recorded? And if in IP only, maybe only 2 IP streams can be recorded. Maybe Darren can clarify?

Also, I have seen in other threads that pause/rewind is not available on the Apple Box EE TV app. I wonder if this means that Pause/Rewind is not available in the EE TV app on the Pro box as well, if you are already recording 2 separate IP streams. @DarrenDev , any thoughts?

Thanks both for your feedback.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:23:58 GMT

If you can point me to any misleading help articles @HenryTudor8 I'll see if I can get them updated.

When in aerial mode, all the Freeview channels are over aerial and all the subscription channels are over IP - the subscription channels are the same regardless of which mode you're in.

When in IP mode, you're restricted to watching/recording 2 channels at the same time - any 2 channels.

When in aerial mode, you can watch/record up to 4 aerial channels at the same time, or a max of 2 IP channels. i.e.:

4 aerial, 0 IP

3 aerial, 1 IP

2 aerial, 2 IP

1 aerial, 2 IP

0 aerial, 2 IP

When the limit is reached on simultaneous watching/recording live, you can still watch existing recordings and any on-demand content as needed.

Pause/rewind is available on the TV Box Pro and TV Box Mini, for ALL content - channels and apps.

On the Apple TV, pause/rewind is available on on-demand content, but not currently on channels - we're working on it though, and hope to offer it soon.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

HenryTudor8 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:31:20 GMT

Yes, there are two tuners for each of the IP channels and the aerial channels/streams.

But, I don’t understand why one has to choose either IP or aerial mode and why you have to factory reset to change between them. It’s very unclear.

With the Pro box you can record two programmes, but you can’t watch a third. If you have two programmes set to record on, say BBC1 & BBC2, and you’re watching ITV a message comes up to tell you that if you want to continue watching ITV you have to cancel one of your recordings.

We certainly need @DarrenDev to clear this up because I asked about aerial v EE TV modes before I set up the box and it seemed clear that I should go for EE TV if I wanted the EE channels. Possibly that was wrong.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:46:02 GMT

I'm not sure if this level of detail is going to make things clearer or not for you - I'll let you be the judge:

There are 4 tuners for the aerial . This is a hardware thing - the device is physically capable of tuning to 4 different frequencies at the same time, to consume 4 different DTT streams.

The IP channels don't need tuners - it's all decoding of internet streams. The restriction here is the bandwidth that the box is capable of receiving via the broadband connection. Some connections would be capable of accepting more streams, but e.g. if the box was connected over wifi and the signal wasn't perfect, or there were other people also using the wifi at the same time, then the bandwidth could be limited. This would take a very complicated set of rules to manage, and also could be very confusing to the user as to why sometimes recordings worked, and sometimes they didn't. Thus it's limited to 2.

But, I don’t understand why one has to choose either IP or aerial mode and why you have to factory reset to change between them. It’s very unclear.

Choosing aerial mode or IP mode is to make things simpler - otherwise there'd be 2 of most channels (one delivered via IP, one via aerial). In an ideal world. all Freeview channels would be available via IP, but we're limited to the channels that will allow us to broadcast their content over IP, and also limited to the amount of bandwidth that we can dedicate to these channels.

Factory resetting is required as switching between this modes changes the fundamental operation of the box - it theoretically could have been possible to allow the switch back and forth, but the code required to support that would have been very complicated for a scenario that users would normally only do once. It is possible to use maintenance mode to reset the box and still keep existing recordings, but some of those recordings would fail to play as the content encryption on them would fail (e.g. if you recorded a programme in IP mode and switched to aerial mode, the box would no longer have the decryption key for the IP stream).

With the Pro box you can record two programmes, but you can’t watch a third. If you have two programmes set to record on, say BBC1 & BBC2, and you’re watching ITV a message comes up to tell you that if you want to continue watching ITV you have to cancel one of your recordings.

This is correct if in IP mode, or when in aerial mode and recording 2 IP channels whilst trying to watch a 3rd IP channel.

We certainly need @DarrenDev to clear this up because I asked about aerial v EE TV modes before I set up the box and it seemed clear that I should go for EE TV if I wanted the EE channels. Possibly that was wrong.

Sorry, I don't understand this bit.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:00:01 GMT

@DarrenDev

Is there anywhere the information you have provided is available for us to find ourselves, rather than having to pester you?

Failing that, can you answer some more questions...
- Are the subscriptions available on the Mini boxes at the same time as on the Pro box? For example, can all three boxes be playing a Now Entertainment channel at the same time? Or the TNT Sports channels at the same time?

- Is there mobile(Android)/tablet/PC access to the subscription channels? If so would that be through the Now TV/TNT apps rather than an EETV app? And is there a restriction on the number of devices that can access the subscriptions concurrently?

- It appears that you can change your subscriptions month to month. But can I add Now TV Entertainment to the Sport package? I don't see a package that just includes just TNT Sport and Now TV Entertainment.

- There is a message on the website that says:
Already got NOW, Netflix or Apple TV+?
No need to cancel. We’ll move your billing over to your EE account for you.
.. So if I ordered the package with Sport (TNT), and I already have a discounted Now TV Entertainment, can I add the Now TV package to my EE account, and pay at the rate I was paying with Now TV?

So many questions...but I'm nervous about committing to a 24 month contract and cancelling my Sky contract, only to find there is something that I can't work with. I do know that it won't be as slick as having everything with Sky, but the savings might be worth it...if there are no showstoppers.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 20:39:17 GMT

Also, @DarrenDev indicated that it would be possible to record 2 aerial channels and 2 IP streams. Yet the information below, from the Important Information bit after the different bundles are described, seems to contradict this - especially the bits in italics.

Internet Mode (IP)

You can connect your TV Box Pro using your Broadband connection or by using an aerial.
The TV Box Mini and Apple TV 4K only connect using your Broadband connection.
Some channels that are available in aerial mode may not be available in internet mode.
It is not possible to watch recordings made in Internet mode if you switch to aerial mode.
Existing TV Box Pro customers that move from aerial mode to Internet mode may lose any subsequent recordings and settings.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 18:30:49 GMT

The EE web site is being updated to provide more information and help.

All boxes can be used at the same time, but I'm not sure whether they can all watch the same thing - we used to be restricted to 2 devices, but I don't know if this has changed. I'm on holiday at the moment, so can't find out.

Yes, you need to use the provider- specific apps on other platforms, which have their own concurrency rules. e.g. TNT Sports will allow 2 devices to watch at the same time.

Flexing your EE TV package is currently only possible over the phone - call to find out your options. It'll be online and in the EE app eventually.

Offers direct with Now TV are not transferable to EE TV.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 18:34:04 GMT

Nothing you've quoted contradicts anything I've said, and I don't understand why you think it does, so don't know how to respond with further information.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

elkay62 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 22:56:55 GMT

Hi,

You seem to suggest that it should be possible to record "2 aerial, 2 IP".

However, this information I found seems to indicate that there would be no point as you couldn't watch recordings from both aerial and IP...

"It is not possible to watch recordings made in Internet mode if you switch to aerial mode.
Existing TV Box Pro customers that move from aerial mode to Internet mode may lose any subsequent recordings and settings."

I.e. this seems to indicate that recordings via aerial and IP are mutually exclusive.

Maybe this isn't the case, but then the Important Information section would need to be corrected.

BTW, I do appreciate the effort that you make addressing all the questions about the new boxes. However, I think I might only get a true picture 😏 if I actually order it.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 23:22:23 GMT

When in aerial mode, the subscription channels are still delivered over internet.

That article only applies when in "Internet mode - i.e. all channels delivered over internet and nothing via aerial.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

HughNew — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 14:04:12 GMT

Thanks @DarrenDev @for the helpful explanations on this thread. I have just received my new EE Pro Box and have read the thread to get extra info on the set up.

I got this box to replace my BT Vision box specifically after a conversation with the helpline about Dolby Atmos availability. There is however nothing in the Pro instructions about this functionality. Can @DarrenDev help again on this please? I am particularly wondering now, on reading this thread, whether the Dolby is carried via both the aerial and the IP set up options, or is it just via IP?

Also, when you say subscription channels are still delivered over the internet even when in aerial mode, does this include apps like iPlayer etc, as well as say Now and Discovery +? Lastly, for aerial mode I assume it’s correct to connect the Pro box to both the aerial and the router - despite the instructions only advising one or the other?

Thanks for any guidance!

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

DarrenDev — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 14:15:10 GMT

@HughNew Dolby Atmos isn't currently broadcast over any aerial channels, so it doesn't matter what mode you choose. It's available on TNT Sports Ultimate, and in some of the apps - neither of which care about the mode. Dolby Digital is available on some Freeview channels - again, via both aerial and internet.

Apps and subscription channels are always available over the internet - your TV Box should always be connected to the internet, and can be connected to the aerial as well if you want to use it.

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

HughNew — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 11:06:16 GMT

Thanks!

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

Lesliepeart — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:19:27 GMT

No where near as good as sky q box

Re: EE TV Pro functionality

Lesliepeart — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:20:39 GMT

There is no link between boxes, very cheap poor system for what we pay