TV

[AJS111]

I moved over to ee on 10th December 2024 and have had nothing but problems! I was promised like for like with what I had with sky and so far I have discovered that:

No disney app

No plus 1 channels

If recording 2 programmes you have to be watching one of them

Cannot play a recording while still recording

Won't play some recordings at all 

I complained as the HD channels were not included in the price and they credited my account with £20 as an apology and let me know about a special deal which would be cheaper for the full package for the next 3 months. I accepted and just over a week ago my bank refused the payment as it was almost double what was due! I rang up and they said the offer had not been put through and assured me it would be sorted . I have just logged into my banking and they have taken what they originally tried to, almost double what is due!! 

I'm honestly now at my wits end with this company and want to cancel my contract but the grace period has expired. I feel I have a good case though considering I have been lied to on many points and now been stolen from!! Any advice please before I go nuclear on them when the phone lines open lol! 

[Weerab2024]

You were definitely mis-sold, EE TV is nothing like Sky, and what you said is missing is true.

The hd add on is an additional £6.

If you were offered the full works package for half price it is definitely more expensive than the entertainment or big entertainment packages.

Who knows if the Disney plus app will come as paramount plus has just arrived and no one knows if and when additional channels will come.

Not sure what you mean about recordings not playing, BBC recordings come straight from iPlayer and the 6 o'clock or 10 o'clock news isn't available as catch up on iPlayer. 

You can try calling them and give them the examples you were mis-sold and see if they can extend your grace period to allow you to cancel. 

I would advise anyone to do their homework first before ordering, all they key information is on the website if you search for it. 

[Chris_B]

@AJS111   Try not using IP mode and plug a TV aerial in to the box and reset it back up. 😉

[Weerab2024]

@Chris_B advice is only for your 2 recordings and the plus 1 channels queries. 

If you have an aerial and reset your pro box with it plugged in and choose aerial mode when it reboots you will loose existing recordings as you recorded it in IP mode, but you will be able to record upto four channels at once and watch the fourth channel that you are recording. https://ee.co.uk/help/tv-sport/getting-started/set-up-ee-tv-box-pro

You will get the full suite of Freeview channels (apart from the channels in the 200 channel range) but you will get less in HD compared to IP mode. https://ee.co.uk/help/tv-sport/manage-use/modes

Obviously this won't be available in 10 years as Freely is forcing out Freeview.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Weerab2024 

Pardon? Freely is available on a few second-tier TVs, and has known teething issues.

I know people are talking about shutting broadcast TV down, but they will probably make a worse mess of that that shutting down POTS, the deadline for which is steadily receding.

And have you calculated the bandwidth that will be needed for everyone to be on Freely? I don’t see ‘Multicast’ anywhere in their literature, and BT/EE’s attempts to perfect this are anyway not encouraging….

[Weerab2024]

@Midnight_Voice this is solely my opinion but it's been mentioned in many online articles that within the next decade the frequencies that carry the bandwidth that Freeview use will be auctioned off for 5g and it's successors, hence why the main broadcasters have launched an alternative streaming service and are heavily promoting it and ramping up deals with both TV manufacturers and channel broadcasters. 

They have 10 years to improve freely and broadband for everyone before this happens.

I admit that they will probably go down to a barebones service for a backup facility and for those that are caught in the no mans land of technology and the price of fibre broadband, and being forced to change as some don't like change, but I doubt everyone's current TVs will be working within the next 10 years. This article details ofcoms position https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/end-of-freeview-as-we-know-ofcom-plans/

If you think aerials or satellites will still be in use by 2040 good luck with that. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@Weerab2024 

Ten years from now is 2035. But you have to move the goalposts another 50% to make your final point?

But let’s go back ten years, that was 2015. Who today is running a smart TV from 2015 that still has all its faculties?

Sure people run older TVs - and turn up here with heart-rending pleas for kludges to keep them going with modern devices like the Box Pro and its ilk. I still run two TVs from 2015, but both need a Roku or Firestick to keep them smart, as the native apps either don’t run any longer, or are too slow to be borne.

So 2035 would see few current TVs still working like they do today, even if Freeview refused to die; nothing new there.

But what of Freeview and Freely? The barrier to entry for broadcasters is going to be much higher for Freely, unless there is some further technological revolution that makes switching from broadcast to internet straightforward.

And look at U - they have the internet technology to allow on demand, which few of the second-tier broadcasters do. But even they balk at going live in IP Mode on EETV.

But what would be the likely speed of uptake? Go ask the car manufacturers and dealers, who have admitted defeat in the push to get us to give up our fossil fuel jalopies, and go ‘green’ and electric. (As if all electricity came from renewables, which of course it doesn’t, any more than the raw ingredients of batteries do).

Of course, I doubt I’ll be around to see if you are right or wrong, but maybe I could have a bet with one of my grandchildren 😛

[Weerab2024]

Well I hope you are, but I just asked Gemini and I was told that Freeview is licensed to 2034 with the current agreement but this hasn't yet been extended  and there is no commitment to keep Freeview after that, so I guess that's why ofcom are reviewing the situation.

The same discussion could have occured between us 16 years ago with analogue TV being phased out for digital TV and Freeview tuners becoming included in new TVs from 2008 for that preparation.

A few of my favourite channels aren't on freely or EE yet but I guess they will come.

As U channels aren't on EE yet but they have reached an agreement with PSBs for Freely, could that be down to EEs bargaining power or even their desire or available resources to reach an agreement with U?

It's just my guess work on what other sources have said but it's a case of watch this space I guess. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@Weerab2024 

Digital TV is a good example of how long these things take, and the false starts you can get. DTV started in 1998, the actual switchover started in 2007, and we were finally all over to digital in 2012. Fifteen years.

We have just ten years to your 2034 date, and it will arguably be a more complex change, if a move to IPTV is to be the answer.

By 2012, we were already on our third digital TV, and only in 2015 were we fully over. It wasn’t just the broadcasters who had false starts:-

1. A Nokia set top box. Didn’t make it past the table expansion. Abandoned - we’d had years out of it, at least.

2. A Sony digital CRT TV. Couldn’t cope with the channel rearrangements. Returned for full credit.

3. A Sony flatscreen. HD, but predated DVT-T2, so no HD broadcasts. Supplemented with first a DigitalStream to add HD and then a YouView PVR to add HD and smart apps.

4. A Samsung 4K Smart TV. HD channels and smart apps built in, finally, but also curved screen, 3D.

Our fault for being early - some would say premature - adopters, but IPTV is likely to be a similar rocky road, and equally drawn out.

And yes we could have got a smart TV before the 2015 Samsung, but this reflects that you don’t buy these things the minute they come out when you have an existing purchase to amortise.

Wake me up when I can get Talking Pictures on my Box Mini 😛

[Weerab2024]

@Midnight_Voice our Living room Roku Hisense gave up the ghost before Christmas and we now have a Hisense with Freely.

I will give you a heads up what IPTV service gets it first 😛