BBC and ITV Recordings - agh!!! Is BT/EE Value for Money?

[mairetheresa]

Why is BT/EE forcing me to watch my BBC recordings on IPlayer when Virgin and Sky do not do this? It's infuriating!!! Oh - and if I don't hurry up and watch it, it expires - and when internet plays up, I'm stuffed.. May as well go back to a basic recording box.

ITV recordings force me to watch the ads - again, Virgin and Sky do NOT do this (despite call advisors telling me they do - or are about to!!).

I am now paying for ITVX Premium to miss the ads so I moved from Virgin to BT/EE to save money but it's not actually working out that way.  And my Netflix subscription - which didn't include ads - now does!  Been sold a dud.

[Midnight_Voice]

@mairetheresa 

You set your box up in IP Mode, which does the things you describe, and also gives you a cut-down selection of channels (albeit some in HD where they are only SD in Freeview), and reduces the number of recordings you can make at once.

Unavoidable if you don’t have a TV aerial (and earlier YouView boxes wouldn’t even work at all without one).

But if you do have a TV aerial, then plug it into the Box Pro, do a Settings/Factory Reset (you will unavoidably lose any existing recordings) and your box will return with a full complement of the aerial Freeview broadcast channels available to you, more simultaneous recordings allowed, proper recording of the BBC iPlayer, and you can skip the ads on recorded itv programmes.

And of course, all the internet apps and channels still present and correct.

You will still need to upgrade your Netflix subscription though, if you don’t want ads.

[mairetheresa]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.   To top it all, the BT engineer who installed it couldn't get it to work via ariel. No idea why.  I don't have a clue and prefer not to lose my settings now.  I also heard there are other disadvantages to not having IP but can't remember what they are 🙈

Just angers me that I'm forced to watch streamed progs that I've recorded.  And FFing on IPlayer is ridiculously fast. 

[Manatarms84]

The stuff with iPlayer and ITV are in the control of the broadcasters not BT/EE

[Midnight_Voice]

@mairetheresa 

Quite possibly, all there is behind your aerial socket on the wall is a wet piece of string.

You can check this easily by plugging an aerial lead into your TV, and seeing if you can tune in any channels.

If not, the engineer is vindicated. But if you get some, he should be ashamed of himself for not being able to set the Box up in Aerial Mode.

[mairetheresa]

Why does it only happen with BT/EE then?  Sky/Virgin users don't experience this? 

[gomezz]

Do Sky and Virgin support delivery of these services to be recorded over IP. I don't think you are comparing like with like.

[mairetheresa]

I've no idea.  I'm just a customer with no tech knowledge who wants to watch and record tv.  When I signed up to BT TV a year ago, I could FF ads on ITV and watch BBC from my recorded shows, not via IPlayer.  Nothing has changed with my setup and nobody else I know has this issue with Virgin or Sky.  

[zulu17]

I did look at this last year and the BBC said

BBC requires the playback and catch-up of programmes through iPlayer on a number of IP only platforms, including Sky Glass, Virgin Stream, EETV on Apple and Freely as examples. As with each of these platforms, the EE TV Box Pro is required to route users to iPlayer for playback when the box is in Internet mode, where an aerial is not required. 

As EE were not ready for this at the launch of their device, we agreed with EE that they could store BBC programmes on the device for a limited time until they were able to offer playback though BBC iPlayer.

[mairetheresa]

Thank you,  that's interesting!  What is the benefit to them?  It's no benefit to me to record now there's a time limit on my viewing.