June 15, 2015

Game of Thrones on Now TV - the Nialli verdict

I'll be watching the final episode of season five of Game of Thrones this evening via the On Demand service on my Now TV box. To date it's been a near-faultless service this time around (let's not remind ourselves how poor the experience was a year ago) and viewing has been a good experience, no buffering whatsoever and fine 720p picture quality.
I still find the menu system on the Now TV box ridiculous (a curious mix of horizontal and vertical navigation that I've not fully mastered in three months) and there are bugs you'd have thought they would have ironed out by now, for example a "whoops, something went wrong" message at the end of every show if you don't press stop. I noticed a drop down to SD for a few minutes at one point (I think that was possibly broadband related) but generally it's proven reliable.
All told, the service has met my family's needs and has meant that we've been able to watch Sky Atlantic content legally, including GoT, Mad Men and Thronecast, at a reasonable price and without venturing near a dodgy download or the guy in the pub with the DVDs every Monday. It's not a service for everyone but worked for us.

Postcript: with GoT finishing tonight I went online to Now TV to cancel my subscription. When the site asked me why I was cancelling I said it was too expensive, and immediately it came back offering me the next four months of Entertainment pass for £3.49 a month, which will be worth taking for series two of True Detective alone. I wonder if that will happen again in four months’ time?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I've just gone to cancel my Entertainment Month Pass and been offered the same deal, £3.49, for the next 4 months.

Also tried to cancel my Sky Movies Month Pass and got offered that at half price, £4.99, for the next 4 months as well.

Great find :)

Unknown said...

I've subscribed for over a year now and has got better, decent 720p picture but i'd really love them the have surround sound. Maybe one day.