Quick question: if I buy a BT or TalkTalk Youview box on eBay, which features will work without a contract?

I want:
- usual freeview channels
- pause/ rewind live TV
- record TV
- iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD, etc

Can I have them?!

They should all work as the on demand stuff runs from your internet and the recording is done on the hard drive

You can buy the boxes by themselves, they are made by humax

You'll need a youview+ box to record

It looks as though it will all work except - possibly - the pausing and rewinding which apparently needs a contract or the purchase of a one-off licence. Is that right?

I thought pausing just started the internal hard drive recording so it shouldn't matter if you have a contact or not, or does everyone else watching that channel have to wait until you've made your cup of tea before viewing commences?

I know it sounds odd Jimbo, but when Sky+ first came out, if you cancelled your sub. the features stopped working. With YouView (or YouView+ possibly! not sure about that), you can get it via a contract with BT or TalkTalk or you can pay a one-off fee. I'm not sure that all the features on a BT box will work if used without a contract, although YouView's website seems adamant that it will.

Why youview and not freeview or freesat? (Not sure whether youview is satellite or terrestrial or what...)

Pause and record works out of the box on freeview and freesat from Humax and no doubt others.

Neil, I'm fumbling my way through here; what I think is that YouView provides pause and record, twin tuners and on demand access to iPlayer, 4OD etc.

You can get that out of the box with Humax/Panasonic et al, as you say, but the BT branded boxes seem to sell for less on eBay.

I'm just keen to find out whether the same model sells for less because of the badge or because the functionality is paid for in different ways and you won't get it second hand without a contract.

Yeah; can't help you there; I'm allergic to contracts.

Plunge taken, £60 for BT-branded Humax DTR-T1000 on eBay. I'll see what we do and don't get once I've got it and hooked it all up...

Initial verdict: excellent! Easy to set up, great interface and EPG.

One question: despite retuning all channels, there's no BBC1 HD (and possibly other HD channels, I don't yet know). Is this likely to be a geographical availability issue? Poor reception? The other channels, including the available HD ones) look fine.

Well, strike a light!

Switched on yesterday and all HD channels were present and correct.

I would thoroughly recommend this device!

Pfft. Far, far too easy. What I meant to say was "I would thoroughly recommend this device, if it wasn't faulty"

eBay seller has been helpful, sent me reset codes, etc, but to no avail.

Am now trying to arrange a swap to a new box or my money back.

Hey-ho.

What have you done to it now, Jim?

Well, I thought I'd connected it up (properly) and made it all work fine. But it (being technology) immediately had a nervous breakdown. Meh.

Further thread resurrection...

The replacement box the seller provided has worked fine up until a couple of weeks ago, when the on demand channels stopped working. Everything else is fine. I eventually did a full factory reset (lost all recordings/presets, etc.
It all sprang back to life for a few days, but yesterday it failed again.
Clearly I've once again been found out by the old "buy cheap, buy twice" adage. However, I don't really want to buy thrice, so I'm looking at moving to the new BT box, but I'll probably wait until we move house (and potentially have BT broadband, including a new, free, shiny box).

Can't fault YouView, mind, it's the nuts.

Humax fail; the YouView has conked out, with the only sign of life the yellow and green LEDs where the ethernet cable plugs in.

T'interweb reckons it's a PSU problem (though how come the LEDs work?), so would it be possible to fix for someone competent (i.e. not me)?
I have bitten the bullet and bought a brand new T2100 model for the seemingly reasonable price of £72. This one has the PSU externally, which looks like a better solution.
I would like - if possible - to get the old one working again as a back up/to give to stepson.

Otherwise, I might take it along to my welding course tomorrow and, er, customise it.

I took the box to a local TV and electronics shop; the guy plugged it in and... the thing came back to life. Or at least partially.

I brought it home and it wouldn't tune any channels or recognise the router/internet connection. Eventually I managed to get into maintenance mode and got it to re-download and install the latest software.

It now works fine. Until the next time. Still glad I've ordered the new one.

Talk Talk have sent my parents one as a freebee (after ripping them off for crap broadband and stupidly expensive price for the last year). They already have a Humax. What does the new thing do that their old one doesn't?

Very good question! Either it offers them faster, more reliable performance, with an external PSU in case it dies.

Or, it offers them a chance to make £70 on eBay...