Internet / Web TV boxes, what are impressions?

[longball53098]

300 channels including all HBO, Star MOvies, Fox News, CNN, Al Jazerra Discovery channel, History and all the sports channels and just 2500 baht a year works perfectly and you get so much more for so much less than true worldwidesatellitetv.net

Could not be happier

This box is the MaigeTv system . I have the same box direct from Maige in China

[justjen]

For all these suggestions which include use of computers for the TV access. I noticed there is no mention of the power/size of the computers themselves IE: suggested RAM for instance as I read many posts speaking to buffering.

Also with regard to the multiple named boxes here in?? I am quite sure that not all named in this thread can be acquired in Thailand. Wondering if they were brought in under arm or shipped in and in that case would love to hear how that went.

Watchglobal.tv are based in Bangkok. They have been very helpful to my friends I recommended. It is a simple setup that connects by HDMI cable to your TV. In around 1 year of using it I haven't had any issues. I have True 16 mbs connection.

[Hua Hin Barry]

This is the same box that we are using in Hua Hin.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I finally got around to taking a focused look at four of the different local cable replacement services mentioned earlier in this thread:

ILikeHD (it looks like you first have to create a log-in ID account before getting to their info):

https://secure.ilikehd.com/heimdall-GUI/login.php?lang=en

NTV:

http://www.ntv.mx/index.php?c=2&a=0&p=10

ThaiExpatTV:

https://www.thaiexpat.tv/

WatchGlobal.TV

http://www.watchglobal.tv/

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Based on my review of the four, it certainly looks like ILikeHD has the best content for the price ratio, at least for me. They have an easy to sign up for and inexpensive trial, 30-50 baht for a few hours use (that runs continuously from the time to start, not just when you're using the service).

But the pluses for me are: inexpensive at 500 baht or $16 per month for their full international and Thai package, easy payment via PayPal, accessible via the web and Android/IOS devices, no equipment purchase/set-top box required, by far the largest selection of cable channels included for the price, including a lot not available in either of the other two services. They also offer some VOD movies for a small extra monthly price.

I did a trial subscription for a few hours yesterday, and it performed smoothly on my BKK True cable 15 Mbps connection. The web interface has settings available to control the video size/quality, and thus the amount of data bandwidth/speed required. The web interface allows you to save favorite channels, though no ability to erase or omit ones you don't care about. I tried bunches of their different channels, and the video quality was good and streamed well.

One downside I noticed was, at least for my family, none of our Android phones or tablets seem compatible with their Android apps. Their info says version 4.1 is required, though the Google Play page says 4.0... But Google Play showed their apps incompatible with several Samsung mobiles we have running ICS, an ICS tablet I have, and even my wife's original Nexus 7 tablet, now upgraded to the latest 4.4, it's the latter one that really has me scratching my head. Another downside, no DVR or time-shifting capability with this service...

Another downside, I assume, is it certainly looks like this service is "appropriating" content from a variety of other providers, since various of the channels they're offering show TrueVisions logo, GMM or CTH logos, and even a couple that showed a DirecTV logo.

In my case, I have an HTPC connected via cables to my TV, so I just stream from my PC to my TV, without the need for a settop box. But if someone doesn't have that kind of setup or a web-capable TV, then the need for a settop box (or something similar) to make one's TV "smart" becomes a bigger issue. Though HDMI out from an Android tablet to an HDMI TV should work as well.

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Regarding NTV, their least expensive packages start at about $24 per month, and go up to more than three times that amount for their largest package. Basically, their lower priced offerings are for web and XBMC devices, and their higher prices for each plan include the capability to use with a particular model of (I believe Android) settop box. But their programming packages focus on sets of channels of interest to folks from the UK, Scandinavia, Russia and sports enthusiasts. Even with the biggest package, fewer quality channels than ILikeHD, and notably fewer premium movie channel offerings, as far as I can tell.

NTV also offers VOD movies, and their website says you can watch on mobile phones and tablets. But I'm not seeing any app info listed there, so I don't know if they mean via apps or via just using the web browser on one's phone or tablet. They say using the higher priced plans along with a separately purchased settop box, their particular model, provides the added capabilities of time-shifting and catchup. No mention of their pricing for the settop box. Their UK Premium (about 60 channels) and Ultimate packages are both double the price if you select those plans to work with the settop box, instead of just via the web and devices.

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The ThaiExpat.TV service is really UK audience focused, offering a 600 baht per month standard UK package with 19 channels and a 900 baht per month Premium UK package with 32 channels -- far less in number than the earlier two services, but certainly honed in on the UK. A nice feature is that both plans offer a 7 day catchup/on demand feature for their streaming content.

Apart from web playback, they also have various offers involving their Android settop box, starting with a box only purchase at 5,499 baht, and then combinations of services plans and the box together reaching up to a year of service and the box for 10,499.

If you're UK-centric, I can see the appeal. If you're not, then there's not much else there for the price, aside from a few U.S. programming channels, CNBC, Bloomberg, and a few international news channels. Their website says they're planning to add both German and French channels in the future. They offer a free trial on their website, which I signed up for, but never received the required SMS message to my Thai mobile from them to complete the process.

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I also took a quick look at WatchGlobal.TV. Just long enough to see their service is based on the customer purchasing from them a $225 / 7200 baht Android-XBMC settop box, and then having a choice of relying on free channels or paying an extra monthly fee for a variety of programming packages, which look to be the same ones offered above by NTV at similar prices, without the required settop box. They list various example channels on their website, but I didn't find a full channel list for their various packages. Several of their country specific paid packages like the UK and Russia talk about each offering 50-60 channels.

As far as I can tell from their website, it appears you need to purchase their settop box in order to use their service. I didn't see any mention of standalone web streaming. I also didn't see any mention of any capability to extend to service to use on mobile phone or tablets via apps.

_______________________________

So, that's my quick overview of these four. From those who are using them, did I get it basically right, or am I missing or misunderstanding pertinent details???

[Sandman77]

Most of ip boxes have a limited lifetime

Here in Europe I install my dreambox with a satellite dish motor receive from 42 east to 30 west

With nearly 10000 tv channels also bbc and sky , can access with my slingbox from anywhere in the world over iPhone and iPad!

And this service never interrupt or disappear , it's always there when you need it!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The only issue is...not everyone living in Thailand has the ability to have and maintain a satellite dish, Dreambox unit and Slingbox player far away in their home country, or have someone else who can deal with any of those if they need to be reset, rebooted, maintained, etc.

.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

OK... so now that I've got access to more non-Thai cable channels than I know what to do with, how do I come by a manageable online programming guide?

A lot of the channels seem to be originating with TrueVisions, but True's web-based programming guide is horrible to navigate... at least the one I'm aware of.

http://www.truevisionstv.com/trueworld.aspx

I'd really prefer something I can edit/manage myself, just to select a few channels that I want to follow....and not have to wade through entries for dozens and dozens of channels I'm not interested in at all.

[taony]

HI there TallGuy,

Which did you choose in the end?

Cheers

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

HI there TallGuy,

Which did you choose in the end?

Cheers

I did a short trial subscription, and then signed up for an initial month subscription with ILikeHD.

I'm not a Brit or Russian or Scandinavian, so it really was the only one of the group that made sense for me.

So far, mixed results.... I seem to get a lot of buffering during the morning/daytime when I try to use it in BKK with my 15 Mbps True cable service, both when connecting direct or using one of several Thailand IP VPNs I have access to. But, oddly, late in the evening here, the buffering seems to be much less or not any of a problem.

When I signed up a few days ago, you had just two monthly choices with ILikeHD -- one a Thai language channels only package, and then a more expensive Thai and English language channels combined package for 500b per month. I took the latter, even though I didn't care about the included Thai language channels.

But just in logging on this morning, I got a pop-up message saying they're reconfiguring their plans to give the choice of a Thai language only package, or, a English language only package without the Thai channels. Take the two together, and it comes out to the same 500b package as the prior one plan with English and Thai together.

But now, it's actually better, because you can have the English language only package (without the included Thai language channels) that runs 350 baht, whereas before, you had to buy the combined 500 baht package to get the English language channels included.

Here's an indication of some of the favorites channels I've selected among those available:

[damole]

I started the 350 Bt international packages on Thursday (4th), so far so good. I was using it ilikehd.com from March - June this year when there were far fewer UK and English language channels and watching football, my main priority, was ok, but I did experience buffering and lost streams occasionally, tech support was excellent.

The new Android app is good on my Geniatech ATV1200 Android TV box and so far the service seems more reliable than before although I did experience some buffering last night and then lost a BBC1 stream this morning but I've been watching the Sky News HD stream for the last 15 mins perfectly.

The one place where ThaiExpatTV wins is the TVGuide and ability to watch the last 7 days TV. As most of the interesting (to me) UK TV is on in evening that makes it the early hours of the morning here in Thailand and so being able to watch that on 'catch up' is really useful. Also their buffering technology is excellent so no problems with lost streams but the last time I used it they had no HD TV. Before summer I was running both but now that ilikehd.com has the main UK terrestrial channels it seems pointless to have both.

Although I'm not an F1 fan I will try that this weekend as a test, when premiership football returns next weekend I will find out for sure if this is the right system for me.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

FWIW, I haven't had the same morning/daytime buffering problems with ILikeHD in recent days, after having some earlier in the week.

They have a lot of online settings, such as video bandwidth and even a setting to choose which ISP you're using. But thus far, the "automatic" choice for ISP seems to work better than when I select their setting for my actual ISP, True Online.

Still trying to figure out whether their service works better when directly connecting with them via my ISP, or going through one of my VPNs that have a BKK server location.

But more broadly, the one thing I'm still wrestling with is their lack of any programming guide -- which is somewhat understandable, in that they're pulling in a VERY large selection of channels from a variety of sources and locations. Hope someone who's been using them longer might have some viable suggestion.