One box, lots of options
A new IPTV box from GMM Z makes watching iflix series and movies a dream
Watching content streamed by iflix on your big screen TV just became a whole lot easier with the release of the GMM Z Stream, an Android OS-base IPTV box.
Before, tuning into the TV series and movies available through the iflix service on your large-screen TV meant attaching a Google Chromecast to your TV then “casting” from the iflix app to the Chromecast.
Now the GMM Z Stream, which runs on Android 6.0 operating system, can run the iflix app and thanks to its HDMI output, plays iflix movies directly onto your TV.
The box is a powerful multimedia hub. It’s powered by AMLOGIC S905X quadcore 64bit cortex-A53 processor with a clock speed up to 2 GHz and uses a pentacore MALI450 processor to handle graphics tasks.
It has two gigabytes of working memory or RAM and 8 GB of storage for installing apps. The box is capable of decoding and outputting up to 4K video at the rate of 60 frames per second. It also supports decoding 1080P video at 60fps.
The IPTV box comes with two USB ports and a microSD card reader, one HDMI port, and one optical digital output as well as a LAN network port. It also supports wireless connectivity with dual Wi-Fi bands of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. With the builtin Wi-Fi connectivity, the box supports DLNA, AirPlay and Miracast multimedia streaming.
In fact, the box is just like an entertainment computer for playing Android games and apps with output to your TV. You can connect a keyboard and a mouse to its USB ports to use it more conveniently than through its remote control alone.
During the test, I used a Logitech wireless mouse to navigate and interact with apps on the box. I could click the onscreen keyboard to log on to my iflix and Google accounts effortlessly. The box streamed movies and TV series from the iflix server with good 1080p quality and excellent sound without any performance hiccups. I tested it using LAN cable connection as well as with True Online’s SuperSpeed Fibre 50/29 Mbps package. The iflix movies streamed beautifully and both sound effects and dialogue matched the pictures perfectly.
Using the wireless mouse, I could conveniently browse through iflix’s vast library of popular international, Asian and local TV shows and movies, while selecting audio language and subtitle options.
I could also browse TV series and movies by category – movies, TVs, kids and studios, for example. The TV series currently include Top 200, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Thriller and Horror while the movies category has Top 200, Action, Animation, Chinese, and Korean.
The GMM Z Stream box is also pre-installed with YouTube, Atime-Online, OneHD 31 and GMM 25 apps.
The YouTube app allows you to conveniently watch YouTube clips on your large screen TV while the One 31 and GMM 25 apps get you live content from the two TV stations, streamed via the Internet. The Atime-Online app lets you listened to Internet radio stations from the Atime Media, including Chill89, Hot915, 94EFM, and Greenwave 106.5.
Since the box supports a mouse and keyboard, you can use the builtin web browser and a Chrome browser to browse websites just as you would with a computer and mobile phone.
You can also use Google’s Play Store to download and install more games or apps that support Android 6.0 to run on the box.
Another option is playing Full HD 1080p movies stored on external hard drive or USB flash card. Several apps are pre-installed for playing movies, including Kodi 16. During the test, I tried using the pre-installed Kodi 16 to play Full HD 1080p movies on a flash drive connected to one of the USB ports. The movies played smoothly and it was easy to select both soundtracks and subtitles.
iflix is currently collaborating with GMM Z Trading to allow buyers of the new GMM Z Stream box to enjoy three months of unlimited access to iflix content.
GMM Z Stream is distributed by Z Trading, a subsidiary of GMM Grammy, for Bt2,490 and is on sale at GMM Shops, PowerBuy, MegaHome, JIB, O Shopping, Big C, HomePro and Amorn Electronic shops.
Key Specs
- OS: Android 6.0
- CPU: Amlogic S905X QuadCore 64bit CortexA53
- GPU: Penta Core ARM Mali450 GPU up to 750MHz+ (DVFS)
- Memory: DDRIII 2GB
- Flash: EMMC Flash 8GB
- Wi-Fi: 2.4G + 5G (Dual Band)
- Video: UHD 4K, FHD 1080P, VP9 HW decoding
- Audio: MP3, AAC, WMA, RM, FLAC, OGG, AC3, Dolby
- Picture: jpg, JPEG, MJPEG, PNG
- Multi Screen: DLNA, AirPlay, Miracast
