If you’ve bought a smart TV in the recent past, it is likely already preinstalled with Freeview Play. If not, there are a number of set-top boxes (starting at around £ 70) that bring this free service to your TV. Whether you already listen to shows with Freeview Play every night or have never bothered to find this feature on your TV, there is always more to learn. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of useful features that everyone needs to know.
For those who don’t know, Freeview Play is a portal that gives access to live channels and allows viewers to catch up on anything they missed. The latter distinguishes it from the simple old vanilla “Freeview”, which only includes access to linear television.
Unlike some of the most popular subscription services like Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime, Apple TV +, and others, Freeview Play won’t cost you a penny. However, you must have a valid TV license … at least until the broadband speed improves a little.
CONTINUE READING
Sky Q, Freeview, and Virgin viewers will unlock dozens of free movies
Freeview is the UK’s fastest growing television platform with over 9 million users. By comparison, Amazon’s Fire TV platform, available in the Fire TV Stick Streaming Dongles and Fire TV Edition Sets, has around 50 million monthly active users worldwide. [/life-style/science-technology/1374335/Amazon-Fire-TV-Huge-News-Confirmed] Reaching a fifth of that global number in the UK alone is pretty impressive. Freeview Play recently reached another milestone – 30,000 hours of on-demand content from BBC iPlayer, All4, ITV Hub, UKTV Play and more.
Here are some of the best Freeview Play tricks to help you become a master before your next boxing set binge or movie night.
What a plan!
If you have not yet downloaded the Freeview Play Companion App, you should really install the software on your iPhone or Android from the App Store or Google Play Store, respectively. Using the TV Guide section of the app, you can search the upcoming lists for new series, episodes of your favorite shows or movies that you want to watch. In the app, you can set reminders for the shows you are interested in. These are then displayed when you need to tune in to TV. In the “My Freeview” section of the app you can manage the reminders that you have set for the next few weeks.
Jump back
Stick with the Companion app if you’re going on a long journey (a scenario that probably isn’t coming anytime soon) and want to return to an episode that you watched on your TV at home, the My Freeview The tab in the app contains a list of your recently viewed programs. From your smartphone or tablet, you can tap the show halfway through to go straight back to the right place in the episode. When you get home, you can also go back to any episode on the big screen that you watched on a tablet or smartphone while on the go.
No sex please, we’re British
Freeview Play offers a number of parental controls that allow users to hide or block adult-themed channels. Unfortunately, the process of setting up this feature usually varies between smart TV models and set-top box manufacturers. So there is no definitive guide. However, it’s an essential feature for anyone concerned that younger viewers in the household might encounter a little fewer CBeebies and a little more CBoo – well, you have the idea.
Best selection
One of the best features of Freeview Play is the ability to travel back in time on TV. As you scroll to the right, you can see which shows appear on the schedule. Scrolling left will allow you to revisit shows and movies that have already been broadcast using the various catch-up services available. These are all shown on the TV schedule, so you can go back to last night and jump straight into the show.
However, if you want to see a selection of the best shows and movies available when you need to, type in Channel 100 on your remote. This loads a homepage for all content that is currently available via catch-up. You can sort the shows based on the TV channel behind them, e.g. B. BBC iPlayer, my5, All 4 or more. However, Freeview Play also categorizes shows and movies by genre, including comedy, drama and soaps, lifestyle, movies, and more.
search
Freeview Play returns to Channel 100 and offers a universal search function. This will allow you to search through all of the catch-up services available through the service. In other words, you don’t need to know if a show is on the BBC, ITV, Dave, Channel 4 or whatever. You just have to know what it’s called. Freeview Play does all of the behind-the-scenes work for you and shows you how to tune in.
