BT YouView review

Box Office movies are most recent releases but lag a little behind Sky, which always gets content first, but there’s still a decent choice of new films to watch. HD versions cost slightly more, but the quality’s excellent. Currently available, or coming very soon, are Men in Black 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. Vision Film is a pretty decent channel showing slightly older films with unlimited viewing, but it gets a decent selection, such as Robin Hood and Kick Ass.

TV is similarly as good, with classics like Fawlty Towers and The Shield available to watch on-demand. In terms of coverage, it’s similar to Netflix, although BT has some shows Netflix doesn’t and vice versa. BT Vision takes note of what you watch and will surface suggestions based on this in the For You section, helping you find extra content that you might want to watch.

The For You section has recommend shows to watch, based on what you’ve already watched

We like the Music Videos service, which lets you create a playlist of your top tracks, so you create your own visual playlist for parties.

We like the way you can create your own music video playlists

NEW SERVICES

The real advantage of YouView comes when you look at the other services that are available, such as Sky’s Now TV. For £8.99 a month you can access unlimited films, the latest pay-per-view shows, live streaming access to some Sky Movies content and, coming soon, live streams of some other Sky channels for general entertainment and sports.

Sky and BT compete, to a certain degree, for the same customers, but the two happily co-exist together on YouView, which is great to see. YouView was built to be expandable, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see LoveFilm or Netflix available in the future, either. What this means for the consumer is more choice, which has got to be a good thing.

WORTH BUYING?

BT Vision was always slightly hampered by the restrictive hardware and live TV interface, but with YouView that’s all changed. The Humax DTR-T1000 is the best Freeview HD PVR we’ve reviewed and it’s great to see BT using this model.

We’re also fans of BT Vision’s on-demand content, with plenty on offer from the latest films (slightly delayed behind the Sky release) and lots of on-demand TV. With the ability to add new services, such as Now TV, YouView is extendable, too, so you’re not locked to just what BT wants to give you.

What really sells it for us, is the price. TV Essential has an activation fee of £49, plus the service is £5 a month, which means the Humax DTR-T1000 costs you £109 over 12-months and the box is then yours to keep at the end of the term. Considering the PVR costs £299 by itself, that’s an incredible bargain. TV Unlimited has the same up-front fee, but costs £12.50 a month (£150 for the year), giving you a total cost of £199 for the YouView box. That’s still amazing value, considering all of the unlimited on-demand TV programmes and films that you get.

On top of this, you have to take out a BT Broadband package, but even these prices are pretty good. For example, the excellent 76Mbit/s BT Infinity services with free Evening & Weekend calls and TV Unlimited costs £38.50 a month plus the activation fee of £49. There’s also a separate line rental cost of £10.75 a month (if paid in advance), although line rental costs have to be accounted for any broadband package.

Sky still has the best range of channels and on-demand movies, while Virgin Media comes a close second, but if you mostly watch Freeview and want a decent range of catch-up and on-demand services, plus the ability to add new services such as Now TV, it’s hard to argue over BT YouView’s prices. It’s a definite Best Buy.