Does 7 day catch up use broadband?

[theonematt]

Hello,

I was looking into getting this, however it seems my broadband connection isn't fast enough (when I'm downloading anything, I normally get speeds of about 300kB/s).

I was wondering if the 7 day scroll back uses your broadband connection or the aerial? This is the thing that really sells the box to me, but if it needs the broadband connection to use the scroll back feature, I'm not sure it's worth it.

However, I do know for sure that I can play iPlayer and 4OD perfectly using my laptop, even in HD, so maybe the test that the YouView website does is inaccurate?

Thanks.

 

[Gavtech]

Catchup is delivered via broadband.

Something does not add up though since catchup already works for you.


Try more speed checkers and see what results you get.

Here is one for example.

 

[theonematt]

Download Speed 2.95Mb/s. Which sounds about right for my area. Like I said this seems to be sufficient for catch up (I will point out that when I said it works in HD on my previous post - granted it can be jumpy, but standard is fine). To be honest with you though, all I really want is access to freeview HD and the ability to pause/record/rewind, and a series link feature. My TV has freeview, but only in standard def, and I can't record or pause.

Is YouView worth the money for these features alone? Or would it be worth looking at a more basic box? And would YouView even work if I didn't plug it into my broadband at all?

 

[lbear]

My advice would be to not buy a Humax at the moment. The box is not yet stable and has a number of extremely annoying glitches which mean many (including me) have to reset the box up to several times a day - when it freezes completely on changing channels for example. Neither box currently fully meets the base specification issued by YouView and the two USB sockets are not currently enabled. The monthly Humax updates attempt to solve these glitches but, for example, the March update made my box start the known "failed recordings from wakeup" glitch and increased the incidence of the "freeze on change channels" much worse.

I am on my second one in 7.5 months after a glitch caused the box to do a self-recovery routine which wiped the entire hard drive of every recording. If you do want one, my advice would be to get one through BT - it is quite a good deal as part of their broadband/phone/TV package as is the Huawei box (with a smaller hard drive) from TalkTalk. Both should be able to provide a lot better speed on broadband than you currently have although this will depend on your area. If you wish to buy one, get it from Richer Sounds and take up their 5 year warranty. Humax will swap a box out but this is usually a refurbished one they have had returned (unusually my replacement was a new consumer boxed one). They have replaced the original black cased DTR T1000 with the DTR T1010 which is the same electronics in an updated case. The previous one was the same as used by their HDR Fox T2

A speed of under 3 Mb/S will not give you a good viewing experience on the streaming services. I estimate a minimum of 5Mb/S is needed if anyone in your household wants to use the connection while you are watching catchup. Getting a TalkTalk/BT box as part of a package can (hopefully) result in the ISP pulling out the stops to improve your speed.

An internet connection is needed for other functions besides catchup notably the firmware updates and filling the programme information in the EPG. The "backwards" EPG requires the connection in order to populate. The data needed of course will count as part of your broadband ISP's monthly limit (not all "unlimited" broadband is unlimited) although I believe this does not apply to the BT package as their router is especially set up to allow what are in effect two accounts.