Smart Tv Box, real TV over the internet and something extra

For more than three months, we have been testing an interesting solution for receiving all Slovak channels, including regional televisions from various parts of Slovakia. In the case of the Smart Tv Box service and equipment, the Košice provider of television and internet connection does not have to limit itself to eastern Slovakia at all. We are in Bratislava, because all you need is a better internet connection, a TV that you thought would be just for a game console, and with a few seconds delay compared to the classic broadcast on regular television, you can see exactly what anyone else with regular television. Television via Smart Tv Box probably contains all Slovak channels from RTVS channels to individual regional televisions. Due to the satisfied use of the entire service, which does not cost monthly fees and only pays a package of channels beyond the normal services, it is time to write some observations and opinions on the quality of the service.

Internet TV, basically anywhere

One of the major benefits of a device is its mobility. If you change places repeatedly, you are a student at a boarding school (in this case it is a pity that there was no service before), or you commute between East and West, North and South, for friends on weekends and the like, the service is not tied to one place of residence. All you need is an internet connection and you are watching Slovak TV or a package of other TVs.

No connection required

A relatively important plus is again mobility and installation- The device consists of several ports: USB to an external drive (or USB key), a MicroSD card, an HDMI port and, of course, a LAN port. If you don’t have a LAN, you can use WIFI. WIFI settings are available when the device is started. You connect it to the TV via an HDMI cable and select a new connected device on the HDMI port on the TV. The custom controller is used to switch channels just like a classic TV. Until you tell a potential observer that the TV is online, there is no way to tell the difference.

Classic and HD

Given the offer of Slovak channels in the offer, it is necessary to specify that the classic channels are followed by their HD versions. If you are interested and have fast internet, you can switch to a higher quality picture and, depending on the quality of the TV itself, you have a full quality HD picture. In the HD version there are, for example, Jednotka, Dvojka, Markíza, JOJ, but also JOJ Plus, and WAU. They have a list of channels on the official website.

Off-TV capabilities

The device has several advantages, for which we would not exchange it for anything similar at the moment, and it is an important equipment of our editorial office, although television is more of a soundstage. The Smart TV Box remote control is one of the few on which you can correctly understand the function of each button. There are many of them, they are often used for various gadgets, which must be mentioned as pluses. Connecting to Youtube and watching videos is just a small thing. The main tweaks are the ability to record the program to an external drive, which should be blank before use.

You will format it directly from the Smart TV Box. Recording is a bit complicated, but only at the beginning. The owner will also be pleased by the fact that in addition to the listed televisions, they will eventually find even more of them, and if you happen to want only a purely soundstage, there are also radio stations on offer, including Viva radio and a few smaller ones. As part of the paid package, a good news is the TV archive, which in my case has completely changed the way we use television and kept annoying advertising to a minimum. The archive contains all the films and series that have recently been broadcast on television, and even reruns. Whether you missed the evening news, the evening show, the Simpsons, the Chartshow, or Telerano, everything can be viewed in the archive relatively quickly after the end of the show. You can easily get used to watching the whole series of a series in a row, you skip the commercial and you don’t have to wait waiting for a specific broadcast time. Ideal for a working person. Pleasing are the ability to view information about the current program, preview the current broadcast of all TVs on one screen, where you can immediately see in small windows what they give.

A little enrichment is a bit of a surprise in the form of TV SME. This is a separate service, which is a standard part of the basic package and can be found in the menu in the Entertainment section. TV SME has its own interface, which contains all the videos and broadcasts of the SME daily, including the complete archive. You can watch perhaps the most famous video from SME, which also appealed to non-readers of SME. Similarly, there is the METOO application and then another component, an Internet browser with which it is possible to classically surf the Internet. Without a keyboard, it’s a little more complicated, but in case of emergency, it’s still a capable little helper to quickly reach a website and a specific address.

Paid package

The package, which is beyond the free package, contains several televisions, including the Slovak RIK from JOJ, intended only for children. Other TVs include MTV, RFM, the adult TV channel DUSK, FilmBox, EnglishCLub TV with English lessons, Duck TV for the youngest children, sports channels, the History Channel and a few others. The mentioned archive will be made available with a paid package, which costs EUR 5.50 per month. With the price of the basic package of 0 EUR, that’s not much. Within the mentioned archive, I can’t help but mention the precise storage of individual films, series, programs and the like under a picture characterizing a specific film, as if you were in an online video rental. Someone has to work with it every single film. But the details also create impressions.

If something isn’t clear, a video helper will help . There is a woman presenting the settings, capabilities and possibilities of the whole device, which actually offers a video tutorial to understand everything that can be done with the device.

Shortcomings can only be considered if there is only an occasional outage, which can be caused by a weaker Internet or connection errors. Nothing to bother. The delay of a few tens of seconds from the classic broadcast is negligible. The whole facility with this service is an ideal solution for a mobile person, but also for those who come home in the evening and want to see whatever was on the air during the day. The viewer can participate in the exact marking of the place of the beginning and end of the program, if by chance the service itself does not recognize the exact end, or a gap in the program caused by advertising. Don’t look for a major minus in the whole thing. In less than three months, it didn’t even work out in our case.

Antiksat Satellite TV

Antik also plans to build satellite TV using a dish. The service is to be operated and presented via the Antiksat.sk website, but is still awaited. Antik Telecom will be Eutelsat 16A, which is located at an orbital position of 16 ° E. It will not be possible to use a 60 cm dish to receive from this satellite. Information provided by spravy.info.