Very old youview T1000's internet withdrawal

[zulu17]

What is surprising is how little notice YouView have given  their  users. I would imagine a  withdrawal of functionality on this scale would have been determined quite some time ago and certainly longer than the month that YouView seem to announce it. I would have thought that 3 months notice would/should have been possible. That would for example given those users who need to acquire new hardware the opportunity to acquire goods at discount prices during recent sales.

When BT ceased the BT Vision box device did they not provide an update to effectively turn that hardware into a normal Freeview pvr. it remains to be seen whether the withdrawal of the YouView internet services will result in a simple easy to use pvr or one with strange missing elements. let’s hope for those current remaining users dependent on it , it is the former.

[Lսkе]

@Midnight_Voice 

When I tried my fully up to date T1000 three weeks ago with it attached directly to a router via an Ethernet cable, like yours apps itvX, Channel 4 and My5 also gave me YVM105, and pretty much instantly.

I wasn't expecting itvX to work , as that already had been announced, but I don't recall previously hearing anything about Channel4 and My5 until the 28th February announcement.

[Midnight_Voice]

@zulu17 

I had a BT Vision box, and they simply stopped working altogether when BT discontinued them.

This did not endear me to BT.

[zulu17]

IIRC @Midnight_Voice  there were several generations of BT Vision or Vision+ boxes  from  2 or 3 manufacturers  , I think at least one was  reverted to a Freeview (non HD due to  its tuner} recorder with no internet services whereas others would only be of use for parts or as a doorstop once once service ceased.

[DarrenDev]

Going back a LONG time now, but the original silver BT Vision boxes were running the Mediaroom platform from Microsoft. It was hardware locked to that OS, and therefore had to be shut down for licencing reasons (thus bricking the boxes).
The replacement black "G2" boxes ran a Linux OS running a custom UI written by BT - this was when I joined BT TV (back in 2012), developing that UI (note: I'd already been in BT 16 years at that point).
When YouView launched, the old G2 platform was shut down. I know the original plan was to brick those boxes too (to protect the encryption technology inside), but I can't remember whether that happened or whether they were just blocked from the network?

These decisions are always made for either legal or security reasons - we wouldn't intentionally brick hardware just to be nasty.

[Midnight_Voice]

@DarrenDev 

I had a silver one (actually, two, after the first one bricked itself so badly that even a visit from a BT Tech couldn’t rescue it - and he did try quite hard).

I then went back to an ‘ordinary’ PVR, a DigitalStream. It had an Ethernet port ‘for future use’, but I don’t think anything much came of it.

I bypassed the G2, and bought a retail DTR-T1000. Which also bricked itself a few weeks in with Boot Fail Invalid Signature. That went back to Humax for inspection, and apparently even they couldn’t rescue it.

I did wonder if it was me, but the replacement T1000 that Richer Sounds readily supplied is the one in my pictures, the one I’ve been talking about lately. So that one’s actually lasted a lot better than most 😛

The DigitalStream will become slightly more capable  than, and more attractive to use than, the T1000 next week, but both are of largely historical interest now.

[zulu17]

I did have a brief  look at my retail Humax T1000 this morning. Not particularly  impressed  with  YouView/Humax as I received no notification  on the platform  (box)  itself of the change. So I imagine  there may be retail users out there unaware.

 After the software  update today  ( which presumably  removed the YouView  accesss) my retail box home button still attempts to display guide preview . Player data etc  which of course it can't  and informs me I am not connected  to the Internet and gives instructions  to check and various  connections.  

[Midnight_Voice]

@zulu17 

Yes, and still shows the backwards EPG, which, as a page of it came up No Information, and then refreshed to show programmes with the icon indicating they were playable, it must have been getting from somewhere. Nothing was playable, of course.

But if we had hoped this update was going to make the box aware that it could no longer access the internet, and behave accordingly, then we are sadly disappointed; the box seems to be as surprised as those unaware users you posit, and worse, constantly surprised as it can’t learn anything new.

As regards a notification, though, the box has been displaying one, as shown in this earlier post of mine:-

https://community.bt.com/t5/EE-TV-YouView/Very-old-youview-T1000-s-internet-withdrawal/td-p/2346335/...

Though I don’t know what the rules for showing it were; I only saw it the once, after an MM Option 4.

[zulu17]

Yes @Midnight_Voice  i saw your post of the box notification message  but I have not seen it appear on my T1000 so can only conclude it hasn’t been uniformly communicated and I was specifically looking out for any messaging.

[Jones_01]

Our T1000 showed a message once. On the day of the announcement, I think. Nothing since. It's in daily use.

I imagine that there are people who think that their boxes have gone faulty. Retail customers?