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

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

New Setup Suggestions & Results

As I mentioned in my earlier post my router died on me. So I decided to work on a new setup since I didn't have another Ethernet to wireless converter (bridge) on-hand.

The Challenges were:

1. KyLinTV STB only supports WEP and WEP is not secure
2. KyLinTV needs to have priority over other Internet traffic excluding my VOIP service.
3. It needs to be wireless since the cable modem is on the opposite end of the house and there is too much attenuation on the power lines to successfully use power line networking.
4. I only have one public IP address available.

The Equipment:

1. D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
2. D-Link WBR-2310 RangeBooster G Router

The Solution:

Ok, so we all know that WEP is completely insecure. If you don't know that do some research online and you will soon realize it is not acceptable for use if you will have other computers or accessories on the same network. However, KyLinTV only supports WEP security in the wireless card built-in to the STB (Set Top Box)

I have several other computers, network printers, NAS, media players and VOIP adapters on my primary wireless network. That network uses the DIR-655 since the speed is much better and it has QOS (Quality Of Service) controls which allow me to adjust the priority of various traffic on the network both wireless and outgoing/incoming Internet traffic.

The DIR-655 also has DMZ functionality which allows for a virtually segmented network which I can place the KyLinTV STB and second router using WEP on. The DMZ disallows hackers to access my primary network but does allow outgoing and incoming Internet traffic for the KyLinTV STB. This is key for many reasons but the most important is I don't want to share my network and data with others outside of my house and I don't want people snooping on my Internet usage.

I placed the WBR-2310 behind my DIR-655 like this:

• WAN port of WBR-2310 connects to LAN port of DIR-655
• WBR-2310 is set with a reserved DHCP IP address
• WBR-2310's IP address is set as the DMZ in the DIR-655 setup
• QOS setting is set to VI (Video) for the IP address of the WBR-2310. This gives it second priority only lower than VOIP traffic.
• WISH (This is the wireless prioritization system) is set to provide second level priority to all wireless traffic from the IP address of the WBR-2310 only second behind VOIP traffic.

The WBR-2310 is setup as follows:

• MAC filtering is enabled to only allow the KyLinTV STB WLAN MAC (Found in "Network Setup") address access (Note: easy to spoof a MAC so don't assume security here)
• 128 bit WEP encryption
• DHCP for LAN is disabled (Two reasons: just one thing more for a hacker to deal with to discover the subnet and more importantly KyLinTV STB will need to connect to the wireless router and then go through the process of requesting an IP address each time the unit is powered on. This saves you about 5-20 seconds of start up time each power-on of the STB.)
• Privacy separation ON
• Password protection on the administrative account
• No wireless configuration allowed
• SSID Broadcast OFF

This is by no means 100% secure, but it is the best you can do with WEP. Anyway, even if it is broken into the only thing they will gain access to is the Internet and the KyLinTV STB. If they want it that bad I am almost inclined to let them have access ;)

KyLinTV STB setup:

• Static IP on a different sub net than the primary network (Start-up Time Saver 5-20 secs)
• 128 bit WEP to match that of the WBR-2310

So I hope this makes sense. If you need further explanation let me know. Thus far it is working great.

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.

Subtitle Info

We watch movies in a multi-lingual environment and it would be great to know if the shows and movies (especially on-demand) had subtitles and in what language before watching. Maybe the folks over at KyLinTV will add that sometime soon :) Just a little request...

Low Bandwidth Testing?

A new channel appeared recently, Testing. It appears to be a "test channel for lower bandwidth." I wonder what this is all about? What does KyLinTV qualify as "lower bandwidth?" I would like to see them perfect the higher bandwidth first ;)

Full Screen - Are we ever going to have it?

I am sure many have noticed the issue with KyLinTV and the screen size. I certainly noticed it out of the box.
The problem is that the picture coming from the KyLinTV STB (Set Top Box) is not set to a resolution which fills a standard TV screen. Therefore, there are slim black bars on the right and left side of the screen at all times. Really annoying!
Another issue may be with their encoding process (which the first maybe as well, not sure).
I have noticed that with several programs there is a digitized looking static bar at the bottom of the screen. It reminds me of the VHS days when there would be stripes of interference across the screen on certain recordings.
I really hope that these issues can be resolved soon. KyLinTV, I hope that you are out there hearing my calls ;)

Video / Audio Sync

Okay, I know that Internet video sometimes lags. I also understand that occassionaly during the encoding process the video and audio don't synch perfectly. But KyLinTV needs to get it together!
I have only had the service a few weeks now but this appears to be major problem. I would venture to say that 90% or more of the time the video and audio on KyLinTV is so out of sync that there is anywhere from a 1-5 second difference. This isn't a problem if you are watching a show where you don't see the person talking ;) but when you actually watch the mouth and hear their voice 1-5 seconds later or vice-versa, it is incredibly annoying!
I would just like to see their encoding process improve at least enough that the video and audio are synchronized.
Anybody else having problems with this?

Just because I know somebody will ask my bandwidth test results are below from SpeedTest.net: