Viewing with Vooz

If you’re looking for some free TV channels, you may be interested in VooZ, a new IPTV service that is very easy to set up.

The mostly free service requires you to buy a set-top box that connects to your ADSL router’s LAN port. Once you’ve acquired it, you simply connect the set-top box’s composite video and audio outputs to your TV’s A/V-in ports and you will be ready to enjoy watching free TV channels as well as some pay-TV channels and video on-demand services.

VooZ is a service of VRM Voizplus, which has been in the VoIP or internet-based voice call services for more than 10 years. Now, it’s using its voice-over IP experience to provide IPTV service. The VooZ operator says it needs only 2-megabit Internet connection speed because the TV programmes and movies from VooZ are encoded in MPEG4 format.

Suttipong Viriyabusya, chief of the operation department and managing director of VooZ IPTV, says the 2 Mbps bandwidth is enough for smooth broadcasting of standard definition TVs, adding that VooZ would prefer to make the service widely available before upgrading its broadcast to high definition.

Suttipong said the VooZ has set up nodes at all major Internet connection providers to ensure smooth streaming of TV programmes and movies. VooZ servers can now service up to 300,000 users.

I’ve been given a VooZ set-top box to test for a while. The box is very compact, measuring  33.1 x 22.7 x 5.3mm, and I found it really easy to set up, connecting it to a LAN cable and the A/V-in ports of my A/V receiver, which in turn connects to an InFocus projector.

Each VooZ set-top box needs to have an account, which will be assigned to you after you have bought it. The account is needed for the set-top box to log on to the VooZ IPTV server to access TVs and video on-demand services.

After I turned on VooZ set-top box for the first time, it took about 10 minutes to download the upgraded software, installation and rebooting systems before it was ready for use.

To my dismay, the InFocus projector reported that the set-top box was only sending out a 576i signal. I checked the on-screen menu of the set-top box and found no way of boosting the display quality to higher than 576i, which is the same quality as an analogue signal of free-to-air terrestrial TVs and lower than digital cable or satellite TV.

With this resolution, the VooZ is good for viewing on a CRT TVs or an LCD TV no larger than 32-inches.

Since I was watching it on a 92-inch projector screen, the picture quality from the VooZ set-top box was so-so. The main menu of the set-top box, which allows you to select various services, including TV programmes, video on-demand and news from Thai Rath online, flickered a little though the image on the TV remained stable.

The TV picture was smooth but was not as high resolution as other satellite TV pictures.

When you access the TV service, you will see a list of available channels. Select one and the picture will start streaming in real time with no delay. I used True High Speed Internet service at 7 MB speed and didn’t suffer any hiccups either in the TV and video on-demand pictures.

I found the picture quality of the video on-demand movies better than the TV programmes and on par with a DVD. In fact, the service is all about borrowing DVDs online.

The movies are grouped into categories and you browse through the categories to “borrow” the movies. First, though, you need to buy points from VooZ. When you buy a set-top box, you will get a refill card for 300 points that you can use to borrow 10 movies. You can buy more points online with a credit card or at any 7 Eleven. You are eligible for watching a borrowed movie for seven days.

I found that there weren’t all that many movies to borrow but Suttipong says new films are being added to the list every week.

There is also a high-definition movie category but as the set-top box cannot send out an HD signal, it’s not worth checking out.

For now, all the available movies are in Thai with no soundtrack options. This is something I hope VooZ will also resolve in due course.

So, if you need an easy and convenient way to watch TV on a reasonably small set, VooZ IPTV may be a good option for you. For anyone else, VRM Voizplus will need to provide a new set-top box with better picture and HDMI. Suttipong says that the new HD set-top box with HDMI connection should come out in the third quarter and its price may be the same as the current box, which retails for Bt4,000 with 40 free TV channels, including 3, 5, 7, 9, NBT, and Thai PBS. Under a special promotion, customers can also watch six pay TV channels – MU TV, Football Plus, Sport Plus, Outdoor Sport, AFC and Channel News Asia – for free and borrow 10 online movies at no cost.

 

         Requirements :

_ Internet connection: 2Mbps

_ Type of connection: LAN or Wi-Fi USB adapter (certain models)

_ TV: A/V connection

_ Where to buy: www.VoozShop.com