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FyreTV IPTV Set Top Box Review PDF Print E-mail
Article Index
FyreTV IPTV Set Top Box Review
What You Get
FyreTV In Action
Conclusion
Page 3 of 4


FireTV In Action

We tested the FyreTV system alongside a simple home theater pc we have in place here. Since the television we use for the HTPC has only one HDMI port (Emerson's excellent and inexpensive LC320EM8, which we reviewed last year), we opted to use S-Video so we could loop FyreTV's connection through the HTPC's Pinnacle PCTV HD 800i ATSC/QAM tuner. Video quality via HDMI was really no better or worse in comparison, so this wasn't a huge tradeoff.

Because we had the output looped through a capture device, we were able to capture video of the device and its interface in real time. As a result we'll provide a brief video overview of the device here. We have tried our best to avoid showing anything grossly offensive, but if scantily clad or potentially naked people doing sexual things bothers you we'd suggest you skip the video.


For the rest of you, or those who cannot view the video we'll proceed with the interface overview.

Upon powering up the device you are greeted with the Lock interface. From here you can set up the devices network attributes as well. We opted to simply let our Netgear router's DHCP server do its job, and DMZ'd the particular IP assigned so we wouldnt have to worry about firewall configuration. Currently there is no real information available from FyreTV as to its required TCP or UDP ports, but we expect that along with the rest of the documentation situation to change as the product exits beta. Getting into the actual unit requires entering your assigned 6 digit PIN code, and a wise inclusion this is considering the content involved. Currently however all beta testers are assigned the same PIN to ease adminitrative concerns while the device itself is in testing.
lock.jpg
Once in your greeted with a "cover flow" like interface. As enticing as this is at first, the current "LiveTV" and "TV Guide" sections of the device are for show only and do not work. The settings section allows you to adjust the FyreTV's interface between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, but this only effects the interface itself adding additional sizing bars to the sides of the interface so it doesn't appear stretched on a 16:9 display. All of the content we have been able to view so far is mastered in 4:3 aspect ratio. You can also select network stream quality between three different bitrates, 750kbps, 1100kbps, and 1500kbps. This might be a useful setting for those hampered by sub 3Mbps broadband services, but we found no greatly discernable difference in the quality of these streams. The streams themselves are encoded as h.264 streams, and h.264 can certainly give very good video quality at even the lowest bitrate provided here. We found the video quality across the board to be "near DVD", which is a good thing.
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The account section allows you to view your account and billing settings, though like much of the interface currently these have no function at all as of yet. Each subcategory has its own Help section as well, but at this state all selecting Help does is cause the device to crash. Not very helpful.
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The current "meat and potatoes" section of the device, the section that actually mostly works, is the Category View. Here sporting a similar cover-flow interface you can simply browse titles and select them with the remote, or pair down your searches with various Categories. The categories appear to be keyword related to each video in the sense that you can "stack" category types to pair down to specific videos that cross multiple category types. Actually viewing the videos themselves is straightforward and intuitive with the remote's directional control, and you can even select specific scenes in a video to start with, though these are limited to about six specific scenes/cuts per video. The playback interface allows you to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward at up 128 times speed.
account.jpgcategory.jpg
As alluded to above, video quality is quite good with barely ever a hint of blocking or color "ringing" you might see in mpeg2 or divx streams, a testament to how good h.264 encoding itself is. Streams here play almost immediately, and there seems to be no seek lag in the fast forward and rewind capabilities either. At least this part of the experience FyreTV seems to have nailed.

However, as you've probably gathered from the article so far, there are quite a few caveats at this juncture, so lets wrap things up here and tell you what we think about FyreTV after a months worth of experience with the device.



 
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