BT's Ultra HD box now available to order online
When the Premier League kicks off again in two weeks, we'll see new teams and fresh faces, but there'll also be a new way to catch the action as it unfolds. That's all thanks to BT's new Ultra HD box, which will offer coverage of Saturday evening and mid-week matches in glorious 4K. While the new Humax-made YouView box has been available to purchase over the phone for around a week, BT has today opened up online orders, making it much easier to get your living room ready for when Arsenal meet Chelsea in the FA Community Shield on August 2nd and the lunchtime kickoff between Manchester United and Tottenham on August 8th.
If you're interested in making the upgrade, there are a few things you should know first. You will need to pay a one-off connection/installation fee of £44 for the Ultra HD service and you must have BT Infinity broadband for it to work (it operates independently of your normal internet, so download speeds won't be affected). BT says you'll only need its "up to 38Mbps" broadband tariff to get the channel, so as long as your line is capable of supporting 44Mbps, you're good to go.
The Humax DTR-T4000 box comes with 1TB of storage and can store up to 600 SD or 250 HD hours of recorded footage. For 4K broadcasts, you'll get roughly 60 hours of playback. If you're used to Netflix on your YouView box, you should be aware it doesn't currently work with the new Ultra HD hardware.
Once you have the kit, you'll need to subscribe to the BT Ultra HD Entertainment pack, which costs £15 per month. This will include the normal BT Sport Pack, all the Freeview channels, 47 additional "premium" channels, on-demand services and, of course, the BT Sport Ultra HD channel. BT also throws in a £500 voucher to put towards the purchase of an LG 4K TV (if you've not already upgraded).
If you're a Sky or Virgin customer, you're going to miss out (at least until both companies launch upgraded set-top boxes), but you will be able to enjoy BT's domestic and European coverage in HD (for a fee).
