I started watching KyLinTV 2.0 last night and I have to say that it greatly exceeds my expectations!
First, the new equipment looks so much better than the odd shaped yellow box that was KyLinTV "1.0". It resembles a nice white AppleTV in appearance and size. I will put up some more photos later when I unpack my good camera.
For comparison, here is the KyLinTV 2.0 set-top-box (STB) compared to my old DVD player.
The new interface is much easier to navigate and understand. There is a much more logical arrangement of channels, VOD and other features.
The quality of the live streaming TV is SO MUCH BETTER it will blow away users of the old KyLinTV service! HD channels looks like DirecTV or DishNetwork HD channels and the SD channels look as good or even a little better than traditional TV providers. There is one small caveat that to mention though. In what I would consider a wise decision by KyLinTV, they seem to use a quality stepping method to give fast channel initialization and changing of channels. What this means is that when you first switch to a channel the quality is reduced for about 2-15 seconds and gradually improves during that time to the full quality that can be supported by your connection. It can be a little annoying but it makes good sense and speeds up changing channels so that it is similar to satellite TV service speed. Occasionally, audio cuts out for a few seconds, usually 3-5 seconds as a channel is initially selected. However, even with the quality stepping things are quite enjoyable. I will do a more complete review and explanation of this and other service quality issues very soon.Maybe it was just the excitement of trying out a new product and service but everybody in my household upon seeing the new KyLinTV service was very pleasantly surprised.
One last thing I wanted to mention before I go back to watching KyLinTV for the night. One of the coolest new features KyLinTV 2.0 has is the new "Internet Video" feature. This is really exciting because you can watch Sina, Sohu, Tudou, Youku, CNN, NBA, Vimeo and Youtube on your TV using just the set-top-box from KyLinTV! The quality varies, since millions of users are responsible for uploading the videos to the various services, but overall quality is good to great. To be honest, it seems like the KyLinTV STB does some kind of upscaling because some of the videos look better using it than they do using my computer. This alone could be a reason to get one of the new KyLinTV boxes because you can find nearly any show, movie or video you could want to see with just this feature. I will explore this more and report back but it is really exciting.
I will be posting much more information over the coming weeks/months so keep posted and if you have questions let me know. There are a lot of new features I am still playing with and learning about but I will try to provide answers and reviews of what you want to see.
2 comments:
I think your review is so bias, I even wonder if you are working for kylintv. I did use the 2.0 myself and found that it is disappointing to use. It is much harder to netvigates around channels then the 1.0 version. It was designed to suit the computer and tablet PC users, with icons and flipping back and forth frames are totally nonsense on a set-top-box which we use the remote control to control it. It is like putting the ipad OS onto a set-top-box where you can not multi-touch it. To me, the picture qualities are actually lower since it less bandwidth to stream. although it claim to use lower bandwidth to stream, it was buffering like crazy. In conclusion, even if a techie guy like me found it is hard to use the Kylintv 2.0, I don't think mama, papa, grandpa, grandma would know how to use it.
Anonymous,
I assure you; I do not nor have I ever worked for KyLinTV or any of their partners.
If you go back and read the past several years worth of my reviews, you will clearly see that I have been anything but positive in my past reviews. I am giving my honest reviews of their products and services without bias for or against the company.
I will work to post a video review in the next week or two showing the navigation of the new KyLinTV 2.0 interface so that people can judge for themselves.
I can understand that you feel the interface is uncomfortable; it certainly does not resemble the interfaces of services such as DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast, etc. There is definitely a learning curve with new or different technology.
Regarding your comments about the iPad and iOS interfaces, I have some good news. I have been advised by good sources that KyLinTV is testing an iOS version for the iPad so you can have your multi-touch very soon. If you cannot wait, try out an Android Tablet that supports Flash, because streaming KyLinTV 2.0 already works on those devices. I even have it working on my Barnes and Noble Nook, although the device is a little underpowered for Flash in general.
The browser-based version of KyLinTV 2.0 has been awesome for me so far. In fact, I think it is the most responsive, easiest way to view KyLinTV. I will get a review up about that soon but give it a shot.
Just out of curiosity, what is your tested connection speed? I have a middle of the road Internet connection where I live, testing out at 9.56Mbs/4.78Mps. What equipment are you using, brands/models? Are you using wireless or wired, if wireless is it 802.11b, g or n? Through whom is your service? Are you using any QOS or SPI on your router/firewall? I have a lot of network equipment lying around and at my disposal so I am willing to do some testing if I have the same equipment lying around.
One reason I ask is that the new service uses adaptive technology, not just "less bandwidth" as you mentioned, that steps-down/up the video/audio bit-rate of your Internet throughput drastically changes, is inadequate or has some type of interruption (jitter, packet-loss, etc.). This may account for the lower quality video/audio you are experiencing. What this works to overcome is the problem seen with KyLinTV 1.0 where service was an all or nothing situation, you either had it streaming or not. In addition, now that many users have bandwidth caps set by their ISPs, they may need to manually step-down the bit-rates to avoid exceeding their caps, (which is done through the KyLinTV 2.0 settings interface). You might try playing with those settings to see if you get a more consistent experience.
Therefore, you may want to down-step your STB since either it sounds like your equipment, network configuration or bandwidth cannot support the full bit-rates. I will post some various setups I am testing my STB with at different friends homes, hotels and my office as time allows in the coming weeks.
I would not be so quick to imply that your mama, papa, grandpa and grandma are either incapable or too ignorant to use KyLinTV 2.0. Give them more respect and credit they are your elders!
I have let my grandmother loose with KyLinTV 2.0 and in one day when we came back from shopping, she had already located her favorite Opera programs and was driving my younger cousin mad. Sometimes we techie folks are more critical of technology than the average person is. We tend to over think and power use when regular people simply sit down and accept things as they are. My grandma was quite happy to see she could watch her home station, live, and see programs that grandpa was watching back home. Those channels were not even offered with her Dish Network service so even less than perfect quality was fine with her.
Get back with me either on the blog or by e-mail and we can hash things out and see if we can get your service working a little better, or at least see what is exactly wrong so we can advise other people. My e-mail is kylinmaster@gmx.com.
KyLinMaster
Post a Comment