Tested BT TV Box Pro

The clean genie

The device itself is a compact, minimalist black box with nothing but a BT logo on the front. This has a ring around it that lights up when the box is in use – it’s unlikely to distract you from what’s on the telly. £various / stuff.tv/BTPro

BT and the beast

This powerful box packs in more TV than the Christmas edition of the Radio Times. Enough to make you switch from Sky?

With the BT TV Box Pro you can watch 4K HDR content over Wi-Fi, stream Dolby Atmos-supported shows and films, and record up to three Freeview HD shows at once while watching a fourth. And 1TB of storage (around 600hrs) means it’ll be a while before you’re forced into a tedious delete-athon.

The total haul of channels you’ll have depends on what package you choose. All come with up to 94 Freeview channels, and then you bolt on the extras. The £73/m VIP package includes BT Sport in 4K, standard Netflix, and Sky Sports and Sky Cinema via Now.

The redesigned YouView interface is easy to get to grips with, if not quite as slick as Sky Q. The EPG shows every channel you have access to in one place, including any Sky channels via Now. The universal search function isn’t quite as universal as you’d expect, though, refusing to find anything on Netflix.

You get the likes of BBC iPlayer, Britbox, All4, ITV Hub, My5 and Amazon Prime Video built in, as well as a handful of kiddie-friendly streamers, but notable absentees include Apple TV+ and Disney+. And there’s no Dolby Vision.

There’s not as much 4K content available as on Sky, but things still look great in HD. To experience the box as its very best, though, you’ll want to watch a 4K football match on BT Sport Ultimate with Dolby Atmos, which looks and sounds fantastic. Well, unless it’s Arsenal.

Bound and vision A new, sensibly designed Bluetooth remote means you can hide the box in a cupboard and still be able to control it.

Place oddity

You’ll need BT’s Smart Hub or Smart Hub 2 to use the box (they’ll send you one if required). Keeping the two fairly close together is advised, so if you’d rather go wired than Wi-Fi there is an Ethernet cable included. Techspecs

Max resolution 4K HDR Storage 1TB Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, optical, aerial in/out, HDMI, USB

STUFF SAYS An excellent 4K HDR-ready set-top box offering a feast of telly

It’s not quite Sky Q but BT’s box is still a bit of a star, man

Matt Tate A BT TV Box Pro with the all-you-can-eat VIP package isn’t what anyone would call cheap, but it really does cover almost all of your square-eyed needs, thanks to that bundled Now subscription and free Netflix. The interface is great too, making it easy to find something to watch; and while the absences of Disney+ and Dolby Vision both stand out, that doesn’t stop the BT TV Box Pro being pretty easy to recommend.