Anyhow, anytime, Anywhere

If you can’t bear to be away from live sports coverage or current events, the new mobile pay-TV service, TrueVisions Anywhere, is exactly what you need.

With Anywhere, you can watch live broadcasts of the UEFA Champion League, American Football, the NBA, major tennis events including the upcoming French Open and golf tournaments on a smart phone, tablet or notebook computer wherever you have access to a 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

CNN, BBC World News, and TNN24 HD channel are also available along with Channels 3, 5, 7, 9, NBT, Thai PBS, KBS World HD, I Concerts HD, Golf Channel, TrueSport HD2, TrueSport Extra 1, ASN, History Channel HD, TrueSport 1 through 5 and Bloomberg.

Cartoon and movie fans can tune in to True Thai Film, Sky Theatre, M Channel, Cartoon Network, True Spark, Toon Channel, and Sundance Asia HD channels.

TrueVisions Anywhere is an add-on service, costing Bt299 per month per account. If you’re a Platinum HD, Gold HD or Super Entertainment subscriber, you get the service free of charge for one year.

Customers must download an iOS or Android application and register to use the Anywhere service by the end of this month.

Registering is simple: either use Facebook or your True ID account.

If you use Facebook to log in to the service for the first time, Anywhere will ask you to enter the serial number on the smartcard inserted in your TrueVisions set-top box. After that log on is automatic.

During the first year of free service, Platinum HD customers can watch 65 programmes, Gold HD customers 58 programmes and Super Entertainment programmes. Customers who have who more than one watch point or set top box are allowed to use the Anywhere service simultaneously. Just enter each smartcard serial number of each set-top box to register.

To watch Anywhere programmes on a notebook or desktop computer, you will need a web browser with Flash Player 11.1 installed along with Internet Explorer 8 and higher, Firefox Version 6 and higher, Safari Version 4 and Google Chrome.

You can download the Anywhere app from Apple Store or from Google’s Play Store.

TrueVisions recommends an Internet connection speed of at least 4-Mbps to enjoy high-resolution TV content, Since most people now have a 10 Mbps, connection, watching TV programmes on Anywhere should be no problem. And the 3G connection speed is more than adequate for enjoying the mobile TV services.

Streaming several channels to many customers simultaneously requires very broad Internet connections as well as robust and stable computer servers. To that end, TrueVisions has invested Bt460 million in acquiring the hardware and servers to serve up to 350,000 customers in the first year. A TrueVisions PR official says the company will be monitoring traffic of its users and will add servers to meet demand,

And those servers do need to be powerful, as Anywhere is much more than just a streaming service. Users can rewind a live programme within two hours of the broadcast and also watch archived programmes shown up to two days previously.

Anywhere also comes with trial on-demand service, allowing customers to watch archived football matches and some full-length movies. 

I tested Anywhere service using my desktop computer, an iPad and an Android smart phone, my home 10-Mbps ADSL Internet connection through True Hi-Speed Internet and True Wi-Fi hotspots.

The test found that the quality of the streamed TV programmes and movies was pleasing though not, as one would expect, the same quality as HD movies beamed from the satellite. The resolution of the streamed programmes is adjusted to look good on the mobile gadgets and on the computer monitor but they don’t have the same resolution as those beamed from the satellite or broadcast via TrueVisions’ fibre optics network.

The HD channels on Anywhere are not HD but nonetheless sharp when watched on the computer monitor. Their aspect ratio is 4:3, instead of the 16:9 broadcast on TrueVisions’ HD channels.

TrueVisions says the quality of the picture is based on the user’s Internet speed. It uses Adaptive Bit rate technology to monitor the Internet speed and adjusts the resolution to avoid sluggish streaming.

I found the streamed movies were smooth with the sound well synced to the characters’ lip movements. But when I started the service or selected a channel to watch, it would take a few seconds to stream and adjust the synchronisation of the picture and sound.

The app or web browser will remember the last channel you have watched. To change channels, either bring up the channel list or, if you are using an Android or iOS tablet or smart phone, swipe the screen to the right or left. TrueVisions recommends the use of iOS device for better stability.

The two-hour rewind feature worked well. Go to the streamed programme then point your mouse cursor to the movie to bring up the progress bar. Then drag the progress bar back to the location where you want to rewind to view the programme. You can rewind by up to two hours using the streamed programme’s progress bar.

To watch archived programmes, click on the programme list icon and select the option to go back to two days earlier. Then select the programme and click on its name. The test found that archived programmes played well  and smoothly.

The video on demand service is also fun to use. When you click on the video on demand icon on top of the screen, you will see a list of available football matches as well as movies. Most of the movies are currently from Korea and Hong Kong, During the trial period, the number of movies is limited but when TrueVisions fully launches Anywhere, more movies will be available for watching on the pay per view basis.

 

 

      Key specs

_ Number of channels: 120 – 65 pay-TV channels, 55 free-to-air channels

_ Special functions: Rewinding live programmes by up two hours; Two-day archived programmes; Seven-day TV programme guide

_ Required tools: Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 6 or Safari 4 or Google Chrome pointing to http://truevisions.tv; Android or iOS devices

_ Required bandwidth: 4 Mbps Wi-Fi connection, TrueMove H 3G

_ Fee: Bt299 per month