The Now TV Good Stick is the most affordable strategy to improve your TV’s smarts. 

It prices simply £14.99, lower than half the value of the Amazon Fire TV Stick and precisely half the price of a Google Chromecast. The principle goal is to get you to enroll to one among Sky’s paid-for content material subscriptions, nevertheless it’s additionally a great way to bypass your TV’s sluggish or non-existent catch-up apps on a really tight funds.

The principle new characteristic for this technology of stick is voice management. Ask for an actor or director and the Now TV Good Stick will discover movies and TV sequence they’ve made. 

This can be a extra simplistic tackle a streaming add-on than the Amazon Hearth TV stick, with comparatively poor video high quality and a fundamental interface. In the event you simply need to check out Now TV’s motion pictures or get entry to a model of BBC iPlayer that truly works correctly, although, it’s nonetheless a strong purchase. 

Value and availability

The Now TV Good Stick prices £14.99. If that low worth isn’t sufficient to get you , perhaps it’s not for you. 

Its value is successfully sponsored by Sky, as a result of the stick is made by Roku. And Roku’s most cost-effective own-brand fashions begin at round £30. 

Within the UK you’ll discover the Now TV Good Stick bought at locations like Argos, however you possibly can’t purchase one at Amazon. It’s because Amazon makes its fiercest rival. 

The Now TV Good Stick seems to be like an elongated USB reminiscence stick. Bear in mind these?

Nonetheless, at its finish there’s an HDMI, somewhat than a USB socket. It plugs immediately right into a HDMI port in your TV or dwelling cinema receiver.

The one potential stumbling block is that there’s no “bridge” cable. In case your TV has rear-mounted ports and is backed proper up in opposition to a wall, you could wrestle to suit the stick in. It might additionally poke out of the facet of your TV if it has side-mounted HDMIs.  You want 88mm clearance to suit this little gadget into your setup: time to get the tape measure out. 

More likely to have issues? You should purchase a brief “male to feminine” HDMI extender cable for a few kilos on-line. 

The Now TV Good Stick additionally has its personal energy supply. A 5V energy provide and microUSB are included, and the cable plugs right into a socket on the stick’s rear.

Distant management 

DIY recommendation out of the best way, let’s check out the distant. 

It’s a rounded chunk of plastic, much less trendy than Amazon’s Hearth TV distant however possible so much smaller than the one which got here together with your TV. It’s most likely smarter too. 

This can be a Wi-Fi distant, letting you management the stick from a distinct room. Needing “line of sight” is a factor of the previous. 

This left us questioning: why is there clearly an infrared transmitter on the highest of it, then? 

The distant has one other particular transfer. Within the Now TV Good Stick’s settings menu you possibly can choose your TV model to regulate its quantity utilizing two little buttons on the distant’s proper facet. 

This works effectively, though it is just helpful for essentially the most fundamental of setups. You’ll be able to’t management the quantity of AV receivers or soundbars, which is a disgrace when most use the identical sort of IR indicators. 

The distant’s buttons are largely the conventional fare. There’s a D-pad, energy button and play/FF/RW controls. And down beneath are extra particular shortcuts. 

‘My TV’ takes you to the films and TV you’re within the technique of watching. It’s a little bit restricted because it solely works for Now TV content material, not, for instance, iPlayer reveals. 

‘TV Information’ reveals Sky’s TV channels, which you get entry to with the Leisure Move (extra on that later). The stick is just not a TV receiver, and all these channels are streamed over your web: there’s no Freeview right here. 

‘Youngsters’ is a piece that compiles all of Sky’s Youngsters’ TV content material, and the Sky Retailer is the place you possibly can lease and purchase motion pictures and reveals not included within the Now TV motion pictures service. They have an inclination to have movies that had been in cinemas till not too long ago, and ultra-high profile sequence like Recreation of Thrones. 

Speech recognition

The distant’s most attention-grabbing button is the little microphone, although. Press this and a little bit pinhole mic underneath the facility button begins listening to your voice. 

Say the identify of a director or actor and the Now TV Good Stick will discover related Now TV content material. You’ll be able to say “Dwelling” to return to the house display screen, or launch apps like “All four” or “iPlayer” simply by saying their identify. 

It’s additionally helpful for locating explicit genres of movie or TV reveals. “Horror TV reveals” and “thriller motion pictures” get you the outcomes you’d anticipate, for instance. 

Nonetheless, voice recognition and the smarts of this method are way more simplistic than these of Amazon’s Echo or Google Home. It’s essential converse fairly clearly to be understood and keyword-based outcomes solely work for Now TV content material. 

We requested the Now TV Good Stick for “Graham Norton” content material, and whereas The Graham Norton Present was proper there on the house display screen promoted as Spotlight content material, the voice search got here up with nothing. It’s as a result of that’s a BBC iPlayer present, not a Now TV one. 

Voice recognition works, nevertheless it’s fundamental. 

Interface and apps

The Sky Now TV Good Stick has a easy interface that’s nearer to a TV’s menu system than the Amazon Hearth TV Stick’s, which seems to be so much like Netflix’s UI. 

This could sit effectively with technophobes. It doesn’t look flashy, although, and whereas navigation feels fast pages of content material can take a second or so to populate even with a 130 Mbps dwelling broadband connection. Movies take a beat or two to load, too.

A matter-of-fact fashion continues within the TV information and Now TV sections. Motion pictures aren’t siphoned off into a military of sub-genres based mostly in your earlier viewing habits, as an alternative leaving you to largely trawl by way of “traditional” style libraries with 100-400 movies in every. 

You get a extra acquainted expertise when utilizing a lot of the Now TV Good Stick’s third-party apps. The entire hottest UK catch-up providers are right here: BBC iPlayer, All four, Demand 5 and ITV participant. 

These run very effectively, with not one of the stuttery lag that impacts some older good TV programs. Nonetheless, whether or not you get the very newest model of every’s interface is down to those third events, not Sky. 

For instance, BBC iPlayer seems to be a lot the identical because it does on our PS4, however YouTube seems to have a barely older model. 

YouTube is one among a handful of apps you’ll need to attempt exterior of the catch-up crowd. Others on provide embrace the anime streamer Crunchyroll, music video portal Vivo and web radio participant TuneIn. For Scottish patrons, STV’s catch-up is on-board too. 

The app library is puny in contrast with that of an Amazon Hearth TV Stick, although. With that rival you possibly can play a great deal of Android video games, and run apps like Spotify. This stick additionally misses out on different streaming providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Mubi. 

It’s most likely the largest concern with the Now TV Good Stick. We perceive Sky’s choice solely, however bear this limitation in thoughts should you suppose you could need to dip out and in of various providers. In spite of everything, not one of the huge gamers tie you to a long-term contract, inviting this kind of disloyal behaviour. 

Streaming library and subscriptions

There’s a bit extra to get you head round with Sky’s subscription choices than with Netflix or Amazon. Sky affords 4 packages, which it calls “passes”, making them appear extra like tickets to content material somewhat than subscriptions. 

First up, there’s the Leisure move, at £7.99 a month. This allows you to watch 12 TV channels and grants entry to field units and catch-up episodes from them. For instance, there are 5 seasons of The Blacklist (field set) however solely two episodes of Rick and Morty (catch up). Right here’s the complete listing of channels:

• Sky One 
• Sky Dwelling 
• Sky Atlantic 
• Gold 
• Comedy Central 
• Syfy 
• Sky Arts 
• ITV Encore 
• Fox 
• MTV 
• Discovery Channel 
• Nat Geo Wild 

Lots of you can be after the £9.99 Cinema move. This allows you to watch, Netflix-style, “over 1000” movies, and unlocks the next Sky Cinema channels within the TV information:

• Premiere 
• Hits 
• Villains 
• Disney 
• Household 
• Heroes 
• Comedy 
• Thriller 
• Drama 
• Sci-Fi and Horror 
• Choose 

Including collectively all the films within the style sections we rely 2007 movies on the time of evaluate, however this doesn’t account for titles that seem in a number of sections. It offers you a tough thought of how a lot there may be to trawl by way of, although. 

The £2.99 Youngsters move is a good low-price possibility for households however, crucially, it doesn’t offer you entry to the 100-plus Disney motion pictures on Now TV. You simply get a slew of TV reveals and the next six streamed TV channels:

• Cartoon Community 
• Boomerang 
• Nickelodeon 
• Nicktoons 
• Nick Jr. 
• Cartoonito 

Lastly, there’s the Sky Sports activities move, at £6.99. It’s simply the priciest of the lot, as that solely will get you 24 hours’ entry. A month-to-month move is £33.99. This doesn’t allow you to stream previous occasions, simply entry to 10 sport channels:

• Foremost Occasion 
• Premier League 
• Soccer 
• Cricket  
• Golf 
• F1 
• Motion 
• Enviornment 
• Combine 
• Information 

There’s no low cost for signing up for the lot. You’ll pay £20.97 a month for the Leisure, Motion pictures and Youngsters packages. 

Video and audio high quality

The Now TV Good Stick’s picture high quality is worse than that its options. Whereas Sky has advised us 1080p streams are coming “by the tip of the 12 months”, proper now we’re caught with 720p.

Even the Now TV Good Stick’s interface is rendered at 720p. We tried switching the output decision between 1080p and 720p, and the one distinction seen was within the upscaling algorithms utilized by the stick and our Panasonic plasma take a look at TV. The TV is the extra aggressive upscaler, if something. 

720p movies can nonetheless look good on the proper distance, however the disparity is turning into embarrassing. Amazon and Netflix have provided 4K and HDR content material for some time. Netflix began with 4K again in 2014. 

Some content material is worse than 720p too. Whereas some TV channels stream at 720p, or close to to it, others are caught at customary definition. Watching Syfy, for instance, and flicking between the identical present on catch-up, it was clear the channel was being broadcast at customary def. Catch-up streamed at 720p. 

Sky tells us you’ll be capable of pause stay TV with the Now TV Good Stick, however on the time of evaluate this characteristic doesn’t work but. 

BBC iPlayer does stream at 720p, fortunately, though in our expertise it begins off at a fairly dismal-looking SD stream. It takes a few minutes to lock onto to HD, and we observed extra artefacts than when taking part in by way of a PS4. 

A reminder: that is when utilizing a 100Mbps-plus connection.

Audio assist is much less more likely to disappoint, with Dolby Digital+ and DTS on-board to allow encompass sound. There’s no DTS HD or DTS HD Grasp Audio, however to anticipate that from a tool this low cost appears unrealistic. 

We additionally love the thought of the Evening Listening mode, which normalizes sound ranges so that you’re not left scrambling for the distant when there’s an explosion in a film and it’s 11:30pm. Nonetheless, its impact doesn’t appear all that pronounced and because it doesn’t rein-in bass it received’t assist a lot in case you have first rate audio system or a subwoofer.  

We appreciated

The Now TV Good Stick is reasonable. Tremendous low cost. In case your present TV has a creaky previous good TV interface, or one missing apps, the strong variations of catch-up providers you get hear justify the value alone. 

There are intelligent options too. The Wi-Fi distant works from awkward positions that an IR distant can’t deal with, and built-in TV quantity management is a neat little further.

The films part additionally affords some newer movies than you’ll discover on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, and the My TV part may be very helpful for reveals and movies you don’t make it by way of in a single go.

We disliked

Video high quality is at greatest OK. The leap to 1080p is lengthy, lengthy overdue. We’re nonetheless ready. And a few content material nonetheless streams at SD. There are image high quality points in third-party apps like iPlayer too, with streams beginning at customary def.

Restrict your expectations of the voice command characteristic too. Its skills are fairly slim and voice recognition is just not in the identical league as Amazon’s. 

Verdict

The Sky Now TV Good Stick is just not a gadget for videophiles or the tech-obsessed. Video high quality is restricted, there’s no assist for Netflix or Amazon Prime Video and voice management assist is rudimentary.

Nonetheless, it’s good for these with smaller TVs, or individuals who need to give their setup an injection of smarts for lower than the value of a pizza and a drink.