BT Youview+ Set Top Box (500Gb) Recorder with Twin HD Freeview and 7 Day Catch Up TV - no Subscription (Renewed)

I was looking to replace my previous (BT supplied) YouView box which had gone class F. I have to confess to being a bit reluctant to buy a refurb but given that it was a good price on a lightning deal...In the box were: The YouView box, power supply, remote, batteries, HDMI cable, 10m LAN cable and manual. The YV box looked pristine but there were very minor signs of previous ownership on the remote. The LAN cable is an ultra cheapo job which looks like it is made of telephone wire rather than CAT but I probably won't be using that anyway and I really wasn't expecting it to be there, so kudos for trying.Setup is a breeze: plug it in to the TV, connect the cabling, switch on and let it do its thing. There seems to be a lot of confusion in the Q&A over what a YouView box is, so let me see if I can elucidate.Fully connected the YouView box is smart Freeview HD PVR. The choice of apps, however, is limited but the main ones from BBC, ITV, C4, Five and UKTV are there plus a couple of others. These can be accessed stand alone or via the retrospective EPG if appropriate. There are also apps for Netflix and NowTV which can be used on payment of the appropriate subscriptions. Particularly useful is the BBC sport app during Wimbledon (if you like that sort of thing): no more dreaded voice of Sue Barker appearing at set point to tell you to change over to BBC2/1/red button if you want to watch more of this match because they're gratuitously playing musical channels yet again.If the box is not connected to the internet then it just functions as a PVR without the smartness, so no problem there. Some would question whether it's worth buying a YouView box if you're not connecting it to the network, but given that this cost me 80-odd quid, that's pretty good value for a PVR.Of course if there is no network connection, you're not going to get any software updates which may fix bugs or enhance functionality.The PVR itself is a good one. The HD quality is super. There are dual tuners which means that you can watch one channel while recording another or record 2 channels simultaneously. The design of the box means that it MAY be possible to record 2 channels and watch a third if the channel you want to watch is on the same Multiplex (MUX) as one of the ones being recorded. Let me explain. Digital channels are transmitted in groups called multiplexes, each MUX being transmitted on a different frequency. Each tuner can decode only one frequency at a time and the YouView box has the capability to display one channel on the frequency while recording another. So if you want to record BBC1 and ITV at the same time you could watch any of the channels transmitted on the same frequency as either of these simultaneously. Therefore you could watch BBC2 which is in the same MUX as BBC1, but not Dave which would require decoding a third frequency and therefore would need a third tuner.It's not perfect. Although the software is pretty easy to use there are some omissions. For example, there is no capability of setting up a manual recording as opposed to using the EPG or add slippage time to the front and back of a scheduled recording. This is fine provided the broadcast channel transmits the appropriate start and stop codes at the correct time but the lesser channels are notoriously naff at doing that.Note that the PVR is Freeview which means it needs to be connected to a standard aerial which is subject to the channels being transmitted in your area and signal strength. It will NOT connect to a satellite dish. If you don't connect it to an aerial it will still work as a smart TV receiver and be able to access iPlayer etc. but I can't see anyone using it like that, however, as cheaper and more functional alternatives are available if you don't require PVR functionality.In all, a pretty good buy.

Two areas for review here as this is sold as refurbished. The first is how good it is condition and performance wise considering it is not new. In this respect it stacks up very well . Well packed up and showing no signs of wear.Initial performance also is perfectly ok. No instructions however but set up is very straight forward.The second area for review is how good the device is. For me it provides everything I want as a simple intuitive recorder that allows instant access to main catch up apps via a very clear and straightforward program guide. The only down side is no wi fi. You need to connect directly to your hub via an Ethernet cable or via a pair of power extenders if you don’t want a Ethernet cable trailing about. For that I dropped a star but all in all a great little box at this price.

This has replaced an identical existing subscription box. Received timely, well packaged with everything necessary (cables, batteries, instructions). Though refurbished very clean, unmarked and in excellent condition. Set up and working within 10 mins (once I'd remembered to re-connect the aerial!) Appears to function perfectly. Everything as promised. Very pleased with equipment and supplier. One happy bunny!

BT has clearly dictated how Hauppage should design the firmware for this as its way below Hauppage's usual standard.This box has no option to edit channels and remove the weak signal ones picked up from a distant region. The series record picks one of the ITV1 channels at random and nearly always seems to get the weakest signal that is unwatchable.Working around this by specifying HD for the series record is no good as ITV moves the programme between ITV1 and ITV4, and the latter has no HD option. As soon as you add an ITV4 episode it adds all the ITV1 standard definition channels too, so that's ITV1HD, and SD recording at the same time - scheduling any other recording causes a clash and its usually the HD recording that fails.To really cap it off, the HDMI output regularly crashes and you have to power the box off and on again to get it working again.

we were not watching much on our Virgin box. Its usually Netflix and Disney+. But we do watch a few terrestrial channels. As Virgin continually are putting up prices we decided to look for an alternative. We also had our broadband from Virgin, so firstly cancelled that - that was more painful than it should have been. Never going back to Virgin. Anyway, Got broadband sorted. Next step was to get a freeview box to enable recording of the few 'normal' channels we watch. There are a lot of these about but a number of them at the budget end are a bit clunky to schedule recordings and then to find the program later to actually watch it. So we decided to get a good box and not go cheap. We noticed that there was a 'Youview' device and wondered what this was. Basically its almost identical to Freeview. This device had good reviews and I didn't think BT would put their name to any old rubbish, so purchased it. Easy to setup and use. Very pleased with quality. All round a good buy. Saving a fortune moving away from Virgin :-)

So far, so good as I was able, even with no instructions with the box, to find a video showing how to set it up, and was pleasantly suprised that it seemed to be working well. As it happens I had to get an aeriel engineer in about a tv in the bedroom, so he had good look at the box and all the possible improvements, and immediately retuned and showed me some very good possibilities I had not found for myself, and also got the full 160 channels I had not found on installing. I have just left Sky as it was too expensive and now don't have to pay any extras as I get so many apps etc., I shall be spoiled for choice.