KyLinTV 2.0 HD IPTV Set-top box Hardware Review

Anybody familiar with KyLinTV probably remembers the old set-top boxes. They were ugly, yellow beasts that looked terrible sitting next to a TV. This does not even mention the many problems faced by the older technology that was inside of the old boxes.

Old KyLinTV Set-top Box

KyLinTV 2.0 Set-top Box

Fortunately, KyLinTV 2.0 has gone a totally new route with a clean, glossy white and matte gray mesh box resembling an Apple TV in appearance.

KyLinTV 2.0 Front View

KyLinTV 2.0 Front Indicator Lights

KyLinTV 2.0 Top View

KyLinTV 2.0 Bottom View

KyLinTV 2.0 Bottom Label

KyLinTV 2.0 vs. Roku XDS (Size Comparison)

The new STB looks great sitting in an entertainment center and is small enough to even fit under many newer flat screen TVs. The STB measures about 7 ¼” wide x 6” deep x 1 ¾” high (18.41cm x 15.24cm x 4.44cm).

KyLinTV 2.0 and Roku XDS Side-by-Side

KyLinTV 2.0 and Roku XDS Top Side-by-Side

KyLinTV 2.0 and Roku XDS Front

KyLinTV 2.0 and Roku XDS Side

KyLinTV 2.0 and Roku XDS Back Connections and Ports

KyLinTV 2.0 Connections

The KyLinTV 2.0 HD set-top box has four different methods of connecting the video to a television: S-video, composite, component and HDMI. Audio can be connected either through composite or HDMI.

KyLinTV 2.0 Connections and Ports

KyLinTV 2.0 Component Video, Composite Video, S-Video and Power Connections

KyLinTV 2.0 Composite Audio, USB (for 802.11n Wireless Adapter), HDMI, Ethernet Connections

The new STB also has a USB connection to support the external wireless networking adapter and has a built-in Ethernet port for wired network connection.

KyLinTV 2.0 Wireless Adapter

The wireless adapter supports 802.11n using unsecured, WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption types.

The wireless adapter has a docking adapter with a 59” (149.86cm) extension cable so that positioning can be well away from the set-top box and other equipment. There is also an adjustable antenna which screws into the adapter. On the back of the adapter there is a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button for easy configuration with many routers which also have WPS functionality.

KyLinTV 2.0 Wireless Adapter Components (USB Extension Adapter Dock, USB Dongle, Antenna)

KyLinTV 2.0 USB Wireless Adapter

KyLinTV 2.0 USB Wireless Adapter Docked

KyLinTV 2.0 Wireless Adapter WPS Button

KyLinTV 2.0 Set-top Box Resolution Capabilities

The box itself can support high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) resolutions of 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i (NeuLion). KyLinTV 2.0 running at full quality high definition only supports videos in 720p and the majority of video is still in standard definition 480p (KyLinTV).

As far as being concerned about 720p being good enough to be considered HD, it is good enough. Most satellite and cable providers send 720 not 1080, Netflix does most of their HD programming at the time of this writing in 720 as well.

“A 20/20 human eye can't recognize details smaller than 1/60 of a degree of arc. Don't worry, you don't have to understand that. With a little math, though, we can use this number to find the distance beyond which the eye has trouble distinguishing one pixel from another. It turns out to be 137 percent of the diagonal measurement of any 16:9 widescreen: around 38 inches from a 32-inch TV. So if you're sitting 5 feet away, you'll never notice the difference between 720 and 1,080 lines of resolution. But if you trade up to a 60-inch screen, that distance jumps to almost six feet. Better push the couch back.

Even if you spring for a 1080p set, you'll need 1080p sources to take full advantage of it. (Cage, 2007)”

KyLinTV 2.0 Pricing

The KyLinTV 2.0 set-top box currently has two pricing options.

You can rent the set-top box from KyLinTV for a $50US deposit each plus $5.99US per month for each box beyond a household’s first box. Example: You have three boxes; you pay $150US deposit and $11.98US per month.

The other option is to purchase the KyLinTV 2.0 set-top box for $99US each and an access fee of $5.99US for each box beyond the first. There is also an access fee of $25US each time a box is activated.

The USB wireless adapter for Wi-Fi cost $19.99US each.

It is important to note that when renting the set-top box customers are required to prepay for 12 or 24 months of service. However, when purchasing a set-top box customers can go on a month-to-month plan.

*These prices were current as of the time of original posting of this article. Please check KyLinTV.com for current pricing.

Conclusion

I think that KyLinTV is really offering a nice hardware package with their KyLinTV 2.0 setup. It has the capabilities and features of most streaming media set-top boxes on the market today. It also has room for growth, so it should not be soon outdated and replaced by new equipment.

KyLinMaster

References

Cage, C. (2007, October 23). Burning question: 720p, 1080i .. what does it all mean?. Retrieved from http://su.pr/1Ty6PD

KyLinTV, . (n.d.). Kylintv: faq. Retrieved from http://su.pr/2wosFc

NeuLion. (n.d.). Neulion - internet television technology innovators (iptv) - what we do:. Retrieved from http://su.pr/1RvysR

Jackie Xu Responds...QUICKLY

Alright, Jackie Xu quickly replied with an apology and explanation of the mix-up regarding KyLinTV's interest in having me test their new services. I will be contacting Jackie Xu at KyLinTV tomorrow to discuss the details and I expect to be testing the services and hardware very soon.

I will provide everybody with updates and reviews as things develop. I am excited to see KyLinTV so responsive and hope to provide everybody with some good information!

In case anybody wants to e-mail me you can contact me at kylinmaster@gmx.com since I cannot always access my blog while traveling overseas.

Customer Reviews of KyLinTV

This blog has been running for a while now and there is no doubt that there are a lot of people upset with KyLinTV! I receive a constant stream of e-mail and posts from disgruntled customers (past and present.)

I thought that since many of their comments are buried I would bring excerpts of them to the surface for everyone to see:

One word for Kylin - "SUCKS".
needless to say, outage at most of time, long time buffering, low quality picture ...
the thing really bug me is:
I have tried to cancel their service for 6 month. Every time I called them and was told to call another number to billing dept and after I dialed billing dept, its went voice mail directly. How many times I tried to call them to cancel? COUNTLESS!!! - Calvin | 11 Aug 2008

Honestly, I think you should go with DishNetwork. -KyLinViewer | 17 Jan 2008

Kylin's business model needs a serious review. - Kevin | 20 April 2008

Kylin is getting worse by the minute it seems. - Anonymous | 2 Aug 2008

This company is cheating, and I will send out a formal complain. - Anonymous | 27 Aug 2008

Never never go to KyLinTV. Otherwise, you will keep charging your credit card after you cancell the service. The service is terible and false ads. - Anonymous | 01 Sep 2008

The absences of CCTV-4 was upsetting and they lied about the outage. Now that it is back, they are reconfiguring the packages so if I want to have what I have now when my subscription expires, it would cost something like $600, up from $360....
These people are very greedy and instead of making subscribers happy, they want to wring out as much cash as they can from the subscribers... - Patsaison | 01 Sep 2008

this is ridiculous, i signed up with kylintv for about 4 months and i decided to cancel my service 2 months ago, i asked them for a return shipping box and received no reply for 2 ENTIRE months!
Today i checked my credit card bill and I see a $198 charge from KylinTv!! What the hell happened to the "Free Set top Box" or the response to my email, if I knew I was going to be charged $198, I sure as hell would send it back and pay the damn shipping myself!!! - Anonymous | 20 Nov 2007

Not happy at all with the kind of service we got. - Anonymous | 04 Aug 2008

What is up with all the channel cutting lately? KylinTV going out os business? - Anonymous | 16 Jul 2007

Goodbye KyLinTV & Call to Action

After half a year of outage (I was a paying customer for almost about 1.5 years), deceptive practices, and no progress from KyLinTV I finally boxed up the Set Top Box (Which isn't free as another person found out, it's on a $198 loan) and sent it back on my own buck.

While KyLinTV was plagued with Mainland outages, DishNetwork and DirectTV were able to maintain service. FTA programming remained available as well. KyLinTV blaming the Chinese government for the outage repeatedly was a poor excuse in my opinion.

The video quality degraded and was never great to begin with. Artifacts, synchronization problems, buffering issues all were never solved and never improved. Comments were ignored and support was slow to respond.

The programming offered in lieu of the advertised channels Fig. 1,2were channels KyLinTV should have been paying me to watch most of the time. It is a issue of taste of course, but I joined for certain channels and was force fed something else. Month after month KyLinTV promised "Soon the outage will be over," but nothing happened. Just more channels that quite frankly sucked and none of the channels returning which they advertise! Customer even posted to this blog stating that KyLinTV wasn't informing them of the outage when they were signing up for new service. Per my advice they called KyLinTV back and specifically asked. Upon this the answer was given that their monthly fee would be reduced and admission of the outage was explained.

Fig. 1


Fig. 2




Ending service was as enjoyable as the past half a year of service. It wasn't. Had to send back the STB, so it wasn't really "Free" as advertised on the very first page of their website. Fig.3,4 Not only that, I had to box it and pay for return shipping. No offer of a return shipping container or anything. Just, "OK, your account has been canceled, just send it back to us."

Fig. 3



Fig. 4



I think the FTC should be alerted to the false advertising that KyLinTV habitually carries out. Maybe if enough people file formal complaints something will be done ;-)

I will keep the blog going for all the KyLinTV customers out there and as a warning to future consumers.

I would like to also extend my willingness to KyLinTV to review their products should they ever decide to want a fair and balanced report to the public. During this whole time I was a paying customer and this blog has recorded the issues, treatment and history of my time with KyLinTV.

I hope that my effort and time can serve as an informational tool for others. Of course, everything I wrote is only my opinion and that may not be valued by all. Nonetheless, I hope that I have helped just one person.

Goodbye KyLinTV

KyLinTV... Seems like they are going down :-(

Mainland Channel Outage

Well, anyone with KyLinTV service has likely been concerned over the past several months. With every passing day things drag on and nothing happens. KyLinTV doesn't update us and progress seems to be really, really slow.

Service for all the Mainland channels has been out since the middle of the Summer. Only Video-On-Demand (Cost extra) and all the channels KyLinTV should be paying me to watch are available.

Lack of Updates

The service update informing customers that KyLinTV is working to resolve the problem is far outdated and not very informative. It states that Summer is almost over and soon September will be here. Well, it is October now and no new news.

Deceptive Sales

Of course, on their website there are no user forums, outage information, updates or warnings to new customers that they are going down the tubes. Really, wrong of them in my opinion to not warn customers and not take care of current customers. How hard is it to type a message and broadcast it?

Oddly, KyLinTV does advertise the Mainland channels are part of their service. At best this is deceptive. At worst it is a matter for the FTC.

It is unfortunate that things have come to this. Maybe the outage is not the fault of KyLinTV but they need to take care of us customers and be completely honest with new ones.

They Were Trying, Not Anymore

Now, let me give KyLinTV a little credit. They are providing some really crappy programming for free via Video-On-Demand. Crappy is an understatement, it is so bad I can't explain it. Phoenix North America Channels for free, not very interesting, especially for people interested in Mainland issues. And some of the absolute worst "live" programming available. I know they are trying but this isn't working anymore.

Political Issues

I don't know who is to blame for the outage. KyLinTV or Mainland TV programmers. Either way here is the deal.

Right now ALL I get is a Taiwanese viewpoint. By holding up the Mainland perspective and programming there is an interesting thing happening. KyLinTV subscribers are getting one side of the story about back home. They get the Taiwan/American slant on everything. Often, the viewpoint is so slanted it is amusing.

So here is my question and stay with me here. Is KyLinTV a purposely refusing to air Mainland programming? Is this a pro-Taiwan / anti-Mainland China action? Is political influence being exerted by the American or Taiwanese governments?

It is just a curious situation and something worth thinking about. I am not saying there is a conspiracy or anything but without any explanation from either KyLinTV or the Mainland we are are left in a mystery. I wish one side would come out and force the other's hand in providing an explanation.

Competition Coming?

Anyhow, why doesn't China Telecom start sending IPTV boxes overseas and providing Mainland service to overseas markets? I mean the debut in several cities over the past year or so has already taken place in the Mainland. Hmm... maybe that is what is happening. Maybe KyLinTV is going to be forced out of the market by emerging services from major providers.

KyLinTV, Still Not a Player

Well, either way KyLinTV doesn't seem to be ready for the "big-time" yet. They were the first to come and it is looking like they may be the first to go as well. They intermittent service, lack of updates and complete halt of innovation all signal bad things to come in my opinion.

KyLinTV Customer Service EXCELLENT!!

Well, I was having a lot of trouble with KyLinTV the past few weeks. Turns out it was my wireless router was on the fritz. However, KyLinTV was extremely helpful. They were quick to respond to e-mail support requests. They also responded with useful and worthwhile comments. So many technical support centers simply respond with, "Call us." In addition, KyLinTV called me I don't even know how many times trying to correct the issues. They were technically knowledgeable and I can't say enough good things about their support team.

They speak Chinese and English very well and there is no communication problem even during the most technical issues.

Good Job KyLinTV!

High Motion Video - KyLinTV Still Having Problems

I must say that while I am impressed with many features and services of KyLinTV, I am also frustrated by their inability to improve the performance of their video. Nearly any video including a lot of motion or activity will drop many many many frames and jitter, jump and skip A LOT!
Watching for instance, a dancing with stars show, action movies or sports becomes quite annoying. It is almost a strobe effect it is so bad. I am not sure if it is on the encoding or decoding side but KyLinTV really needs to work this out. I would rather have "blockiness" (is that a word) than dropping frames and jumping around. Many shows just lose their effect when the smoothness is gone.

Video-On-Demand Review

Well, I have been viewing a lot of Video On Demand (VOD) with KyLinTV the past couple of days and it really looks great. I must admit that it seems worth the value ($.10-$1.50 US).

Resume Feature

I also really like the convenience of the "Resume" feature. I wish the TV Shows had that same feature. It is a real pain when you are watching a movie on one of the live TV channels and then suddenly either because of Internet issues, power outages or you need to leave and return later that you must restart the show from the beginning. That is where the VOD is really nice, you can stop and resume within 30 days!

Quality

If you have watched the "Live TV Shows," on KyLinTV, there is a noticeable difference in quality. The VOD is much higher quality! Smoother, better video/audio sync and less artifacts than appear in the "TV Programs".

Price

The price is very reasonable. This is especially true when compared to "Pay-Per-View" found on other networks. The prices range from $.10-$1.50 US Dollars per VOD. $.10 is for a special lasting less than 10 minutes, $.50-$.60 for a TV show and $1.00-$1.50 for movies and special shows lasting 60+ minutes. KyLinTV also offers a package which allows unlimited VOD viewing $420.00 US. If you interested in a TV Drama series you can view the first episode of most for free! While this is a great way to hook you into watching that series, it is also a great way to find new shows you are interested in watching. I think allowing you to watch that first episode for free is a great move on the part of KyLinTV.

Programming Selection

WOW! That best describes the selection. There are A LOT of choices, sports, movies, TVshows, specials, etc. The TV shows (drama) are really great! You can find the show you like by browsing KyLinTV's large library of Chinese language programming and then you can choose which episode from the entire series you want to watch. This is a great way to catch-up on missed episodes or just start back at the beginning and watch the progression of the show.
As mentioned earlier, the first episode in each series is usually free so you have nothing to lose by watching just to sample VOD or to see if the show actually sucks or not ;)

Conclusion

I would certainly recommend this feature if you are interested in catching up on your favorite dramas or just watching movies without going to the store or ordering DVDs from overseas.
I will actually be upgrading my subscription soon to the unlimited package.

Introduction

Welcome,

This blog will review and discuss the Chinese language (mostly Mandarin but some Cantonese) IPTV service KyLinTV ( http://www.kylintv.com ).

Please feel free to comment on your experiences with KyLinTV and their services. Please post in English or Mandarin. If you want it translated let me know and I am happy to do that for you as time allows.

Neither myself nor this blog are officially associated with KyLinTV other than being a subscriber.