At the time, Freeview only offered over-the-air programming using somewhat “dumb” set-top receivers – so YouView had a clear advantage. While live 4K football is shown simultaneously in HD and Ultra HD each channel has its own cameras, commentators and studio support. And both require a lot of equipment and manpower to capture and deliver the picture. Truth be told, there aren’t a lot of YouView boxes out there, so making a choice is – for good and for bad – not that complicated. Still, because the boxes aren’t cheap, you should still look carefully at the different features they offer (which is what we’re here to help with.)

I got my sister a retail Youview box last Christmas from Currys I went for the one with the 1tb that's a little dearer. When viewed live or in replay the quality of the UHD pictures (in this case on a Samsung UE55JU7500) is truly spectacular, with those additional pixels paying rich dividends in terms of definition and clarity. And, from my early viewings, it's clear the event director is choosing shots that take advantage of this, with hunting out wider angles that allow you to see more of the pitch and stadium. Dolby Atmos is different from standard surround sound in that the sound comes from above as well as all around, and BT’s system delivered the effect convincingly in the demo I was given, where I was shown the opening moments of an early-season Premier League match at Anfield. The noise of the crowd did appear to be coming from all around, but more impressive than this was how easy it was to place the PA announcements, which appeared to be coming from directly above my seating position. Considering how complex the content offering is, the box itself is pretty easy to get to grips with.

BT TV offers great content access, but could do with more of it in 4K

A YouView Set-top Box –This is the main receiver that connects to your TV. The YouView+boxes also have a hard drive for recording content. If you're able to, make a note of all your preferred settings and scheduled recordings as you will lose them once you've completed a Maintenance Mode reset. Do note that a broadband connection is a MUST – you can’t even setup the boxes without connecting them to the internet first. If that’s an issue for you, you might want to look at getting a Freeview Boxinstead.

No doubt about it – this is most accomplished live TV you can watch right now, and BT deserves a gold star for being the first to deliver it.A major benefit is how well defined nearly everything is. Large amorphous areas such as the turf still look like a solid carpet rather than lawn grass, especially when the camera pans. The frame rate of 50fps combined well with my screen’s motion processing to keep everything supremely smooth, although the shape of the ball did slightly distort sometimes. Note that you could partner this PVR with a Full HD TV (the HDMI output can be set to 720p and 1080p) and still enjoy those 50fps broadcasts. Meanwhile TalkTalk’s Pay TV platform, which is currently based off a similar YouView ( IPTV) solution to the one adopted by BT, appears to be moving away from their current setup. The provider’s future TV STB kit – a Technicolor UZW4054TTG using JADE– looks set to be based off the Android operating system ( here). The EPG is a paragon of onscreen guides, so that finding and recording shows is about as easy as it gets. The PVR is highly responsive apart from taking its time to boot up (a real annoyance) and re-tune channels. Pausing is instantaneous but fast-forward and rewind aren’t the expected progressions that simply double the speed smoothly with each press. Instead, they stutter and jump like a kangaroo doing a steeplechase. One or two live matches a week will be shown in 4K on the Ultra HD Sport channel (number 434 on the EPG). Other sports lined up include MotoGP, UFC and rugby. To help satiate your desire for 2,160p material, there’s a handful of short promos in 4K designed to show off the format, located in the BT TV portal. Colour fidelity and contrast of the 4K content were first-rate. Looking at the same game on the non-4K BT Sport HD channel, it was as if someone had smeared vaseline on the screen.

Everything is sharper than it is in HD – not just a bit sharper, much sharper. The outline of players in UHD is much clearer, the detail in the grass is better (even in wide shots), and you can actually read the wording on the ads that run round the upper tier of the Wembley stand. Otherwise, the new box will support 4K, HDR video quality, WiFi, 1TB of storage (double the PVR capacity of the previous BT TV box), Dolby Atmos audio, a Bluetooth remote, and it will integrate 4 Tuners (i.e. allowing customers to record up to 3 shows and watch a fourth simultaneously). On top of that, you can also expect a new image-led user interface (UI), which has been rolled out for both new and existing BT TV customers. Our only concern is the amount of money you have to spend for what is currently a very limited amount of content. If BT can give us more to watch, we can reconsider that fifth star. The software is where the fun is. YouView’s interface is full of features, lovely to use and nice to look at too. For newcomers, YouView is a free service that uses the internet to bring Freeview and on-demand services under a single roof.What does BT bring to the party? Extra channels, including BT Sports 1 and 2, BT Sport Europe and BT Sport ESPN, but the main course is channel 434, where you’ll find UHD content. Eventually, though, Freeview introduced “Freeview Play” on higher-end boxes: a very similar (to YouView) service, that offers a mix of over-the-air channels with a 7-day catch-up service and a selection of apps. Sounds familiar? As we’ve come to expect from BT, the new channel is streamed over the internet directly to a YouView set-top box – in this case, the brand-new Humax DTR-T4000. The benefit of the YouView system is that internet channels appear in the YouView guide alongside broadcast channels and you can even record them. It’s this blurring of traditional and internet content that continues to make YouView a real winner in my eyes.

Is it worth it? Yes if you’re a sports fan with an existing BT Infinity subscription. Yes even if you’re not, but desperately want to watch UHD TV right now. Broadband ISP BT ( EE) appears to have publicly hinted that they are developing their first WiFi equipped set-top-box (STB) for pay TV customers, which seems set to be followed by “ multi-room capability” and plans for a “ seamless TV” experience – both in and out of the home (i.e. via fixed line and mobile broadband). The need for a new STB is perhaps further underlined by developments elsewhere in the market. For example, Virgin Media are preparing to launch their next generation Virgin TV 360 service, which is already in UK trials, and that looks set to arrive before Christmas ( here).I just bought a Humax DTR-T2000 Youview box - to replace my Toppy 5810 which seems to be on the blink. Its not to be confused with the similar-sounding HDR-2000T!!!!