AIS Play - any good?

[Guderian]

I've been getting my English-language news and documentaries plus all the Thai-language channels for the GF from Sophon cable TV here in Pattaya. The downside is that foreign channels like Sky News and Al Jazeera News are received by Sophon via satellite and then fed to their customers by cable, so when it rains a lot, as it has this year, you lose the reception quite frequently. So I was thinking of getting a streaming service instead, I'm not worried about movies or TV series, I just want a few English-language news channels, some documentary channels, maybe some channels showing older films and TV shows though that's not really important, plus all the Thai TV channels. Someone suggested AIS Play which seems to have BBC News plus Al Jazeera, and all the lakorn and other Thai stuff that the GF likes. The cost seems to be around 200 Baht a month, but almost everything seems to be in Thai so I'm not certain about the details. Does anyone use AIS Play and is it worth the money, are there any drawbacks, or are there any better options to stream Thai TV plus some foreign language channels?

[recom273]

Its free if you have an AIS phone.

 

Yes, its great for the wife, saved a fortune on the True subscription.

 

Do you have a smart TV or android box, I found it was laggy on my TV but its great on my Apple TV.

 

I can't tell you about AJ or BBC News, I have a VPN and BBC iPlayer on a amazon FireTV stick, does AJ stream their news?

 

I will check AJ and BBC world in a while.

[recom273]

Yes, you do get AJ and BBC World along with quite a few other news channels.

 

There are other channels like Eurosport, BBC Lifestyle, WB and Paramount that a rerunning old American series.

 

OK for free, but we never watch it, just Ch.3 on a weekend morning.

 

Have you never thought of getting a VPN, I pay 2000B for 2 years with Surfshark, I can access BBC iPlayer and sbs on demand, which have some great content - I can also access Channel 4 & 5 (trouble with ITV) but never bother. Im sure you can access some other Aussie and American catchup channels too.

 

Others may tell you that a VPN is not necessary, but for me its just simple .. along with torrents for movies and other TV.

[tomazbodner]

Had Playbox that came with AIS Fiber until end Feb, and while it was programming wise more or less the same as TrueVisions (both Platinum packages), I had to switch back to True at new place as AIS couldn't deliver speeds I wanted. What I can say is that True is more reliable and has better picture quality. AIS is significantly cheaper and is decent enough. Only thing is that you better have router near TV to use LAN, else you'd get complaints from the box on using Wifi. Box also "hanged" as in... picture totally fell apart from time to time, which powering it off (physical button at the back) and on again usually resolved.

 

Overall, AIS was good, and definitely better bang for the buck than TrueVisions.

 

Never used Play app on phone or tablet.

[JayClay]

I used AIS play for watching the F1 on Fox Sports. It was generally very good. It supports Chromecast so I could load it up on my phone then cast it over to my TV.

 

Since True Sports lost the F1 I cancelled my subscription but that was nothing to do with the quality of service; I just don't watch anything else on TV.

 

[paahlman]

1 hour ago, JayClay said:

I used AIS play for watching the F1 on Fox Sports. It was generally very good. It supports Chromecast so I could load it up on my phone then cast it over to my TV.

 

Since True Sports lost the F1 I cancelled my subscription but that was nothing to do with the quality of service; I just don't watch anything else on TV.

 

Ais play works great from the phone or ipad to the different rooms or tvs. Like said.. It supports chromecast which almost all boxes and tvs support now. Quality is top notch. Never had any problems. Free also with your subscribtion.

[Guderian]

Thanks for the replies.

 

When you say that it's free with an AIS phone, what exactly is an AIS phone? Is it a phone branded and sold by AIS, or just any old telephone with an AIS sim card? I've got an AIS 1-2-Call sim card in my Oppo but I've never been offered AIS Play, so I guess it must be a specific type of telephone.

 

If you need to pay for it, what's the easiest way of doing that? Do they sell subscription cards in the 7-elevens, like they do for, say, Netflix? Or do you have to visit an AIS office? I've got a Samsung smart TV and I can download the AIS Play app onto that.

[buick]

3 hours ago, JayClay said:

Since True Sports lost the F1

the fox sports channel that showed F1 is gone but the F1 races are still shown on true visions.  channel 666 now.

[JayClay]

14 minutes ago, buick said:

the fox sports channel that showed F1 is gone but the F1 races are still shown on true visions.  channel 666 now.

And is that available on AIS Play?

 

(I should have said "since Fox Sports lost F1", sorry)

[JayClay]

39 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Thanks for the replies.

 

When you say that it's free with an AIS phone, what exactly is an AIS phone? Is it a phone branded and sold by AIS, or just any old telephone with an AIS sim card? I've got an AIS 1-2-Call sim card in my Oppo but I've never been offered AIS Play, so I guess it must be a specific type of telephone.

 

If you need to pay for it, what's the easiest way of doing that? Do they sell subscription cards in the 7-elevens, like they do for, say, Netflix? Or do you have to visit an AIS office? I've got a Samsung smart TV and I can download the AIS Play app onto that.

If you have an AIS sim card then you can subscribe via the AIS app.

[Guderian]

27 minutes ago, JayClay said:

If you have an AIS sim card then you can subscribe via the AIS app.

Right thanks, that sounds promising. I'll get the GF onto it on Monday, she's much better at this stuff than I am.

[recom273]

2 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Right thanks, that sounds promising. I'll get the GF onto it on Monday, she's much better at this stuff than I am.

Just call them, AIS have the best English support helpline - you can do it all via the automated system or maybe app, but if you are lazy, like me, just call them and tell them what you want and they send you a SMS, with some kind of 6 figure code. it will come while you are on the line to the operator. 

 

No need to pay anything.

[Guderian]

1 minute ago, recom273 said:

Just call them, AIS have the best English support helpline - you can do it all via the automated system or maybe app, but if you are lazy, like me, just call them and tell them what you want and they send you a SMS, with some kind of 6 figure code. it will come while you are on the line to the operator. 

 

No need to pay anything.

OK, thanks.

[recom273]

19 minutes ago, Guderian said:

OK, thanks.

On a sidenote, you talked about documentaries - its a good time of year to buy a VPN subscription that will give you access to all the major channels catchup services, lots of good deals around Black Friday. 

[mtls2005]

I have an AIS prepaid SIM.

 

I have AIS Play, basic edition, pretty sure it's free. https://www.ais.th/play/en/freecontents.html?scrolltop=freecontents1

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ais.mimo.AISPlay

 

They do offer a number of paid, add-on services. I also signed up for Disney +/Hotstar during the 35 baht/month promo. I use the app's casting option to cast to my Chromecast/TV. You may be able to run the app natively on a TV or Android TV box.

 

https://www.ais.th/play/en/index.html

 

Maybe get an AIS SIM if you don't have one, download the app and see if it has what you want.

 

 

 

 

[mtls2005]

Note that BBC World News is bundled in the Play Premium bundle, 199/month, and the Play Premium Plus bundle, 299/month.

 

https://www.ais.th/play/en/package.html?scrolltop=playpremium

 

and is not in the free package.