TrueVisions has a better app
All the movies and TV shows you like can now be streamed to a phone or tablet
With the new TrueID TV app, subscribers to TrueVisions can enjoy many of their favourite live TV channels and a huge selection of movies on the go.
The TrueID TV application replaces the free TrueVisions Anywhere app. Make the switch and you get a better user-interface and more functions. Anyone can use it, but only TrueVisions customers get the top benefits, including the right to watch five premium movies per month and unlimited choices from the buffet for a year.
The new app also has a Premier League section from which you can monitor results of all English Premier League football matches. It has highlight video clips, results, fixtures and a score table and will remind you when your favourite team is playing next.
TrueVisions customers can also use the app to check programme schedules via an online guide.
There are more than 3,000 movies, TV shows and football matches available to watch on the go.
The app is like a TrueTV set-top box, but instead of bringing the content into your living room, it comes to your smartphone or tablet computer (either Android or iOS), as long as you have 4G or a Wi-Fi connection.
You can download and use the app as a standalone or access it from the “Movies” or “TV” section of the main TrueID app.
To log on to the TrueID TV app or TrueID app, you use your TrueMove H mobile number or an email address and ID card to register for a True ID account.
Once logged on for the first time, you have the option of linking in your TrueVisions account so you can enjoy watching the same Live TV channels to which you’re already subscribed.
Not all channels can be accessed via the streaming app, apparently because the copyright owners forbid live streaming. You can’t, for example, watch Fox Movies Premium.
Regardless, I found during a trial run of the service that the available channels more than sufficed as entertainment on the go.
I could get 123 Live TV channels via the app, including 26 TrueVisions channels, such as Warner TV, Sony, Sundance HD, Lifetime, iConcerts HD, Disney’s stuff, Cartoon Network HD, National Geographic HD, True Sport 1, CNN and BBC World News.
Sports fans will be happy that all six beIN Sports channels are on offer, as well as four True Sport HD channels.
Fans of Asian and Thai movies can use the app to watch the True Asian Series and True Thai-Film channels, as well as classic Chinese kungfu films on Celestrial Classic Movies.
You can use the app to monitors news and entertainment programmes on 25 digital TV channels.
And you can search for available movies and series, using one of five sections on the app, the others being Discover, Premier League, Live TV, and Me.
Discover is the home screen with access to most services, including the five premium movies you can watch every month for free. TrueVisions customers who switch over from the Anywhere app get this privilege for a full year.
Also accessible from Discover are popular Live TV channels, TrueVisions Exclusive, movies grouped according to current events (like the Golden Globe winners), Exclusive movies and series, Collections of the month, and Free unlimited movies.
You’ll find the online TrueVisions Guide in the TrueVision Exclusive subsection.
In the Live TV section are 123 channels available for subscribers to the TrueVisions Platinum HD package. You can also search for channels by name and number here.
Use the programme schedule accessible in Live TV to set alerts about upcoming shows.
A useful function Live TV is Catchup, with access to channels and shows aired in the past seven days. You can select two, four, six, 12, 17 and 23 hours ago, yesterday, or two days ago.
The catchup function only works for UEFA Champions League, Inside News Tonight, True Music and Autopsy USA.
The “Me” section is where you stash movies or series you haven’t finished watching yet.
When watching a movie or live stream, you can do so in a small window at the top of your phone display or in full-screen mode, for which the display turns horizontal.
You can change the resolution the app sets according to your Internet connection speed. A Live TV programme can be viewed in Auto, Low, Medium or High resolution, but movies have the options Auto, 360p, 480p, 540p, 720p and 1080p.
I tested the app on TrueMove H’s 4G network and my home Wi-Fi router using True Online’s FTTX service at 30/5Mbps. The app streamed 1080p movies and Live TV shows smoothly. The picture and sound quality was good.
Best of all, the app supports Google Chromecast, so you can send the content to your TV. This is very handy because you can use Chromecast to enjoy TrueID movies and TV shows on any TV – as long as you have an Internet connection.
The app and service are free, but TrueVisions has yet to announce a rate for the movies you watch once you’ve seen the five films allowed as per subscription.
KEY FACTS
- Platform: iOS or Android
- Required: TrueID account, Internet connection
- Highest movie resolution: 1080p
- Maximum number of channels: 123
- Launch date: December 15, 2017
- Service provider: TrueVisions
