Still no subtitles on the NowTV BT TV App!

[gcmartin]

Weeks ago I asked the question why there are no subtitles on my Now TV App on the BT TV UHD box.

Today I discovered that even my Amazon Fire Stick has NowTV with the Subtitle option. So what I have do do now is go through a Fire Stick instead of the Inferior BT TV UHD box to get them.

For reference the Android version of the NowTV App that Amazon fire are providing is version 2.17.0

Is it to much to hope that sometime in 2021 BT will finally get their act together and provide the updated App?

[DarrenDev]

See my reply on a previous thread you've contributed to on this topic:
https://community.bt.com/bt/board/message?board.id=YouView&message.id=58816#M58816

NowTV provide their subtitles in a format that isn't compatible with the YouView platform. It's going to take months to add support for it. Other apps have chosen to deliver subtitles in a supported format instead.

[gcmartin]

As I said I will use my Amazon Fire TV cube which provides a superior solution (as does the Roku NowTV stick). Is it the case that BT boxes do not use Android Apps? Otherwise I really can't see what the problem is other than a reluctance to provide the necessary upgrade (version 17.0 for Amazon fire).

[DarrenDev]

Correct - BT TV boxes don't use Android. They use a custom operating system created by YouView. There is no upgrade available, otherwise we'd have done it. Either NowTV need to update their app to provide subtitles in a supported format, or we'll need to wait for YouView to update their OS in 2021.

[gcdmartin]

OK thanks for that information.

Maybe it's time for BT to switch to the we'll tried, tested and excellently supported Android Operating System then?

[DarrenDev]

I was part of a team of people evaluating a number of options 3 years ago. Whilst Android TV was my personal preference, it came with a number of issues - it wasn't very mature at the time, so would have meant a lot of work on a platform that had very limited industry support back then. The decision was made to put more effort into YouView - you'll see why in 2021. Big things are coming.

[gcmartin]

Mmm - intruiging.

Thanks for that teaser!

Happy Christmas and a much better 2021.

[zulu17]

Probably worth noting that Now Tv  app has existed on Youview for a number of years  although for many of them only provided a subset of their offerings (eg Sky Movies ondemand package) yet no subtitles were available. That shows the relative weakness of the effectiveness of the regulatory  authorities. So in this instance the apparent inertia is not due to BT.