For many years Australians have had to put up with clunky set top boxes. Foxtel’s PVR is downright archaic with a boring and confusing interface and the box limited to 500G. Other PVR’s are even worse with little or no content and are primarily designed to record free to air TV programs.
It has taken FetchTV to blow the PVR market apart with a box that looks smart and looks stylish sitting next to a new generation wafer-thin TV. The standout features include an interface that is visual and easy on the eyes and above all, easy to navigate.
If ‘Best Of The Best Awards’ were being handed out right now, this box would be a serious contender. Not just because it delivers access to a great deal of content and functionality, but because whoever has designed this STB has taken into account the way people live today, which is more minimalistic than cluttered.
This is more Apple than the Apple TV box.
It also delivers more functionality than the Apple TV box.
Out of the packaging, we had the FetchTV service up and running in minutes. But before we go there you need to understand that this box is ideally suited to work via an ISP such as Optus or iiNet despite the fact that it can be purchased outright at Harvey Norman for $379.
The only way that you know from the front of this box that it is a technology device, is that there is a slither of blue light running underneath its square top.
At 50mm tall, 260mm wide and 252mm deep this device is far from intrusive, You get RF-in and RF-out ports to connect your TV antenna, with the free-to-air signal being tuned on-board the FetchTV box. In fact the tuner worked better than a $3,000 major brand TV.
There is also an Ethernet port and you can connect the box over a Wireless network using a wireless bridge.
When it comes to connecting this box to a TV, I suggest that you use a HDMI cable instead of the included set of RCA connector cables.
One of the really standout features over any other set top box, with the exception of Foxtel and T Box, is the range of movies that are available. Not only are they easy to search using the comfort of a tablet, we found that the downloading process was a tad faster than the Telstra T Box.
From hitting the button to download, we found using the new D Link AC router on the Telstra network, that a HD movie took around 3 minutes to buffer before the movie could be played out to a TV display screen. The quality was excellent.
When it came to recording free to air TV the record, pause and play features were excellent. Even the switching between channels was quicker when compared with the new Panasonic 4K 65″ TV.
The FetchTV content line-up comprises an in-home movie store with 3,000 titles, including the latest new releases, catch-up TV services ABC iView, TenPlay and SBS on Demand, and apps such as YouTube for TV.
There’s also the option to add subscription entertainment channels from major content providers such as MTV, Viacom, Disney, ESPN, Comcast, Discovery, BBC, and Fox.
When we tested the YouTube offering we were able to play movie and music clips including the new 2014 Official World Cup Music clip that has already done 70,000,000 downloads, in Full HD.
Another channel we tested was the ABC iView. The access to the content was quick and the quality was as good as an iView app built into a TV.
Another big improvement over what Foxtel offers is the remote. Foxtel’s has not changed in 10 years. The FetchTV remote feels good in the hand and the key buttons are easy to use. It is also smaller than the Foxtel remote, but larger than the T Box’s which is so small that it is not only easy to lose, but feels uncomfortable to use.
Access to the IPTV and video-on-demand functionality can be made via the remote or as I preferred via an Android tablet. In fact I found the 8″ LG tablet ideal and if you are going to invest in a FetchTV service, I strongly suggest that you go out and buy yourself a dedicated 8″ tablet for use solely with the FetchTV STB. You can pick one up for $125 that will do the job.
Under the bonnet the FetchTV offering is pretty much like a high-end PVR, but with significantly better content availability. The fact that you can connect to the device via an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, gives this device a massive lead over any of the set top boxes out there. They also have the best interface for navigation and content access.
For example if you have a ‘My Stuff’ button on your smartphone or tablet it will sync your list of recorded shows from the FetchTV box, and play it direct to a TV. You can also purchase movies and other content via your portable device and stream it to a display screen.
The Delimiter guys said recently that the FetchTV interface has gotten to the level now where it really does fade into the background, letting the content itself come to the fore.
They also said that one example is the way that FetchTV lets you set ‘series’ tags for certain TV shows to automatically record – no matter what time they’re on. FetchTV will automatically search its dynamically updated Electronic Program Guide and record these shows at the correct time (if you want, with a small buffer each side of the show), without you even having to think about it.
One weakness with this device is that you are not going to get Full HD domestic sport until the FTA’s raise their game. The free to air TV networks are doing a lousy job of putting Soccer, NRL, ARL and Rugby to air in HD. Despite shooting a sporting event in 1920 x 1080i the TV stations in Australia are down converting the signal to to 720 x 576i standard definition.
What FetchTV has done is hook up with US sports network ESPN to stream two channels in Australia, delivering a whole new swathe of international sports content locally, all of this is delivered in 1080p which Fetch TV will make available over the NBN.
From as low as $3.95 Fetch TV users can get access to new releases or catalogue movies for fees ranging up to $6.95. Fetch TV has content deals with all of the major film studio’s including 20th Century Fox, Madman, W Studios, Sony Pictures, Hopscotch, Paramount, Universal, Disney, Warner Bros, Roadshow, and Icon.
