Never Miss A Programme.

[anotheoldgit]

I have seen many adverts showing the 'box of tricks' that enables one to go back and watch TV shows that were shown say seven days ago, but these boxes only seem to be available in conjunction with certain TV provider's packages.

Can one purchase such a box, and are they expensive and easy to connect to one's television?

[VHG]

You can buy a YouView box for £197.99

Note it connects to your broadband router for the "catch up" component.

http://www.youview.com/

[Buenchico]

'Smart boxes' (and 'Smart TVs) simply use services like BBC iPlayer to feed programmes to your TV (instead of your computer or other internet-enabled device). Because of licensing agreements, different boxes offer different services. e.g. the NOW TV box offers BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 (but not the ITV catch-up services). Sky are almost giving it away (at £9.99 including postage) because they'd like you to use it for their pay-as-you-go sports or movie services but you don't have to use them:
https://shop.nowtv.com/?DCMP=KNC-Brand-

Some boxes offer access to Youtube, or to paid-for services, such as Netflix or BlinkBox but trying to find one which simply offers all available catch-up services seems to be close to impossible. Even more oddly, it's often cheaper to buy a Blu-ray player that's got 'Smart' functionality built into it, than to buy a standalone Smart box. See the products described as 'Smart' here:
http://www.richersounds.com/products/home-cinema/home-cinema-separates/blu-ray
(but check carefully as to what services each one offers).

As I stated above, trying to find any device that offers ALL catch-up services is close to impossible but this Smart TV does it
http://www.richersounds.com/product/tv---all/samsung/ue22f5400/sams-ue22f5400
so I really can't understand why other products only offer a limited range of catch-up services.

[Zeuhl]

YouView box also records of course.

Needs an aerial connection and HD connects to TV.

Mine connects with the internet via one of those 'plug into the ring main' connectors with another one plugged into the router in another room.

[johnny37]

Talktalk gave me a youview box complely free in the hope that i would use subsciption service to sky sport and other channels. They even reduced my line rental by £5.50 per month for six months as a sweetner. I have no intention of paying for anything and am in no hurry to set it up but it would be useful for iplayer which is the function you want.