Now Ultra boost

[lufc87]

I know this has been asked many times before but there doesn’t seem to have been anything new posted in a few months. Is there any news on the Ultra boost being available?

I’ve noticed the option actually now shows if I login to Now but obviously it doesn’t let me purchase.

[hooba]

@zulu17  Yes, and if Part 1 had been delivered on day 1, I'd have happily stayed with EE Tv.

@Midnight_Voice The big deal about having the 4 sports UHD channels on the EPG is that they are then recordable. The ability to record Sport is really important - because Now's catch-up on sports content has always been, and continues to be, pretty awful.

I wouldn't watch The White Lotus UHD in any other way than on demand. I don't want it any other way than on demand. I access all of my Now content (even when I had recording capabilities when with EE/BT TV) on demand. Why would I record something when I can just access it on demand? On demand is better - because unlike recording there are no ad breaks to skip.

[Midnight_Voice]

@zulu17 

I don’t know if you have a background as a software developer at all, but the problems with a Day 1 element 1 were twofold.

Firstly, it would have needed EE’s sales systems to handle UltraBoost, when they were already in the process of being developed to handle migration from BT - still far from straightforward, even now.

Secondly, it would have needed the Now handling to take account of UltraBoost, at least to recognise it as equivalent to HD, and with other changes, possibly, to support the extra user provided. While this was probably code that Now would have to provide, it would have needed a special version for EETV, which Now might not have been willing to provide.

We know that EETV Now, confronted with the UltraBoost setting, did not recognise it, and so defaulted to SD, going in rather the wrong direction.

[hooba]

@Midnight_Voice I don't disagree with your analysis of what would have been needed on day 1.

But ... my gripe is that EE's sales team should have been able to handle UltraBoost. If not on day one, then maybe week 1. Or Month 1. Or month 2, 3, 4, 5 ......... And still the capability seemingly doesn't exist. That's just not good enough for me. Another pet gripe is the very strong push to migrate BT customers on to EE, when the EE ordering systems and processes are far from ready. That's all BT and EE's doing, so I have little sympathy for any ongoing problems that causes EE. It impacts me, the paying customer. But yeah - you're right, in order for day 1, the ordering system needed to be in place. It wasn't. And still isn't. Which is annoying.

Also agree - for day 1, the EE Tv Now app would have to have been able to recognise Ultraboost as at least equivalent to HD. But didn't for a long time. But that was a problem that was unique  and specific to the Now app on BT/EE. Every other device managed it. e.g. I have 2 AppleTVs. One is NowTV UHD compatible, the other being a lot older, isn't. But the older one didn't kick me down to SD - it recognised that I had UltraBoost and dished me up the best it could do - HD.

And that's why I'm really grumpy about EE Tv. The systems and processes should have been in place. The App like all others should have been to recognise UHD customers. Neither of those things happened. One of those things has happened (the app can now recognise UHD customers) but to this day EE are still not capable of handling orders of UltraBoost.

It's really poor. Thanks for pointing out the things EE should have done, but didn't do.

[Profile closed]

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@hooba wrote:

It's really poor. Thanks for pointing out the things EE should have done, but didn't do.

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Hard to disagree.

Luckily I am out of contract with BT in early May and with the lack of progress of EE TV as a platform, knowing now I won’t  get the new Smart Hub Plus and that my “special move to EE deal” is more expensive than the new customer version, my journey with BT/EE is coming to an end.

[lufc87]

Not sure what package you have but I was migrated from BT to EE last month and got the new hub plus (was on BT 900 now EE 1G) and a much reduced price. Admittedly I did have to go through submitting a cancellation request first but I rang them, they rang me back a few days later. Pretty painless.

[lufc87]

Just another thing on this new Now app, I have a wide variety of devices and despite it supposedly being launched 2 days ago, I’ve yet to see anything.

[Profile closed]

Thanks for the info and I'm glad you got sorted but, this ship has sailed for me.

[zulu17]

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@Midnight_Voice wrote:

@zulu17 

I don’t know if you have a background as a software developer at all, but the problems with a Day 1 element 1 were twofold.

Firstly, it would have needed EE’s sales systems to handle UltraBoost, when they were already in the process of being developed to handle migration from BT - still far from straightforward, even now.

Secondly, it would have needed the Now handling to take account of UltraBoost, at least to recognise it as equivalent to HD, and with other changes, possibly, to support the extra user provided. While this was probably code that Now would have to provide, it would have needed a special version for EETV, which Now might not have been willing to provide.

We know that EETV Now, confronted with the UltraBoost setting, did not recognise it, and so defaulted to SD, going in rather the wrong direction.

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 @Midnight_Voice   I wecome your views  however , I don't understand what the migration of customers from one ISP to  another has to do with enabling EE to offer the Ultaboost  addon to the Now product range.  Surely it is you take the order , add the extra premium to the bill, inform NOW of the revised  customer subscription level and give them their cut.  The issue with the NOW app apparently defaulting /limiting customers with Ultra Boost addons to standard level service on the EETV box  would be regarded as a fault .I would have expected that NOW testing of new subscription levels would have been performed on all Now  app supported  device platforms even if new features were not being made available on that device at the time.

[scousegeek]

In fairness this is exactly the same situation with Sky’s own platforms, whether Sky Q, Glass or Stream there are no dedicated linear channels for UHD content other than sports. All cinema and entertainment content is delivered over the internet on demand. Same with BBC.

[Midnight_Voice]

@zulu17 

Like @hooba  says, the systems for moving people from BT to EE  (and indeed for taking on new EE customers) are far from ready, so adding UltraBoost as an option would be moving the goalposts for those system changes; everything you describe has to be programmed for, no matter how straightforward each individual task might seem.

I suspect EETV and Now weren’t even going to change the EETV Now app at first, until they hit the UltraBoost/SD issue, and realised they had to. But again as @hooba says, a relatively small change, and only what Now had to do anyway for all the platforms not going to UltraBoost.

But yes, UltraBoost completely wrong-footed EETV at every level; but even if they were caught napping, it should never have taken this long.

But I think I back them not doing a half-implementation of it, allowing it to be sold before it can be used. I can imagine all the complaints…

But what surprised me was the relatively low takeup of Now Boost; 30% of Sports users, but only 10% of Entertainment and Cinema users. That’s an awful lot of people happy to stick with SD, Stereo, and only one user, or one and a bit, at a time.

So despite the vocal complaints on here about lack of UHD, which when it comes will anyway cannibalise those HD figures, it seems the silent majority CBA even to shell out for HD 😢

And Darrenologists will have noted how coy he is about BT customers getting UltraBoost, which looks like it’s going to be a carrot to lure them to EE 😛🥕🥕🥕