New to EE TV - a few issues

[imacken]

I am trialling EE TV with a view to ending my 23 year relationship with Sky, and I can't say I'm too impressed so far.

Now, some of these may be fixable, and if so, any help appreciated.

1) Can't easily skip adverts on ITV recordings, although I realise this can be avoided if I use the box in hybrid aerial/internet mode.

2) on the iPhone/iPad app, there does not seem to be a way of watching channels like BBC1, Sky Sports, etc.

3) can't watch recordings on the app, or make them.

4) the mini-box seems to be a standalone device with no connection to main box, so no access to recordings etc.

5) the 'What's On now' live TV bar only highlights SD channels, so seems like a waste of time.

6) only seem to get surround sound from Sky channels, not on BBC1, etc.

7) if I select a programme to 'series record', all versions of the programme, e.g. on +1 channels, get recorded.

Any help or comments on this would be appreciate.  At the moment, I am thinking of returning to Sky.

[Midnight_Voice]

@imacken 

1. This is technically possible, but the content owners will not permit it. Sky have more clout with them in this area.

Is there anything to prevent you putting the Box Mini on the main TV for her, and having the Pro box off wherever you watch the Sports? Most non-Sports stuff that she might want to watch after being broadcast is available in one or other of the Players. And that’s how owners of the EE Apple TV rather than the Pro box behave to learn to manage,

2. You can’t undelete, but you can set a requirement for an ‘Are you sure?’ with each delete request, which helps quite a bit.

3. I take it you mean the EE TV app, on a mobile or similar? Well no, it isn’t Sky Go. But do you get nothing on Watch Live? And if you have successfully paired the app with the Pro box (have you? ) then you should be able to schedule recordings more or less at will. And if you can’t, then you have an issue that EE TV support should be able to fix for you, if you report it.

You don’t even have to be subscribed to EE TV to  use the app to set recordings on a paired YouView box!

4. Again, this is not usual, and again, EE TV support should be able to find the fault here and fix it for you. Is it just the IP channels that EE TV provide where you get these stutters (Multicast), or is it on the apps on the box (Unicast) as well? And are you connected by Ethernet or WiFi? Knowing the answers here should help narrow it down.

[imacken]

Thanks for that. 
1) no, that’s not practical. It’s only on occasions, i.e. on a random basis, when I need to use the mini-box room. 
2) thanks, I’ll look for that setting. 
3) I’ll contact support as no attempts to record have worked. As I said, they all show as ‘pending’.  I gave up. 
4) only happens on IP channels. Apps are ok. I’m on wi-fi. 

[DarrenDev]

If recordings are staying as "Pending" in the app then it sounds like your TV Box has been reset since it was paired with - this breaks the pairing. We're currently working on improvements to the apps to recognise this quicker (it currently takes 2-3 months for the YouView cloud to recognise and let the app know).

You need to unpair and pair again.

[imacken]

If I got another Pro box, would that work in place of the mini-box?

[Midnight_Voice]

@imacken 

Yes, I believe it would; you would just have to accept it in the place of the Box Mini. And remember that you can’t record on one box and watch on the other, so you would need to plan your Sports recordings in advance for the second box, wherever you put it.

You could, when you get the mobile app working, pair a mobile with each box, so at least you could set recordings remotely. Though note that you can only pair the remote EE app on any given mobile with one box, so you would need two mobiles to cover both.

In the dear dead days of YouView as a B2C outfit, you could control three YouView boxes off a single mobile by having each of the YouView app, BT app and TalkTalk app paired with one box each. But now it’s only the EE app, I get by with an Android phone, an iPad, and an old Google tablet.

@DarrenDev says EE can deactivate resold Apple TV boxes, but I’m not sure that they can (or will) deactivate resold Pro boxes. But it is important to remember that when you come into possession of one of these, then, rather like it can be with cars, you become merely the (un) registered keeper, not the owner, and what you are buying is not the box, but the right to become the keeper, for as long as EE don’t demand their property back 😛

[imacken]

Thanks for that. I think getting a second box is the best way forward for me. 

[DarrenDev]

A second TV Box Pro is the same as a second EE TV Apple TV - not supported, not offered, and may be deactivated if discovered. It's your choice and your risk.

[imacken]

Sorry, what exactly are you saying? Why is it such an issue? All I want to do is record some programmes in another room!

[Midnight_Voice]

@imacken 

Which you could perfectly well do with an earlier YouView box, as long as it was originally supplied before 19 December 2019, which gets over the ownership issue.

However, you are then left with the IP (Intellectual Property) issue if the recording you make is of a Now channel, where EE TV is supposed to be restricting you to one recording device.

Though personally, I wouldn’t start to worry until EE start taking action to grab these Pro boxes back:-

 The list goes on to Yate 😛

[imacken]

Thanks again.

So, let me get this straight. I can’t legally use a second box in another room, and I can’t access the legal recordings from any other location or mobile device? So, when I’m away from home, I can’t access the legally made recordings.

What is the reasoning here?

I appreciate this is not EE’s fault, but surely this needs to be resolved. Currently, this is a major drawback of EE TV. I saw the comment about Sky ‘having more clout’ in this matter, but is that the end to it?

(Please let’s not see the usual ‘maybe EE TV is not for you’ type response.)