Android Media / TV Box - HiMedia Q5

When I first moved into my home, I decided that I did not want to install ASTRO because my partner & I will not be able to enjoy it when we are at work most of the day. The monthly fee of above RM40 (depending on your selected package) was also another deterrent. So to watch the most basic channels available, we installed a television (UHS/VHS) antenna on the roof. It worked for a few months but the elements of rain and shine has affected the quality and clarity.

All is not lost because we have UniFI and it comes with HyppTV (https://www.tm.com.my/hypptv). The only drawback is we can only watch HyppTV in our master bedroom, where we placed the decoder. My television in my living room is mainly for watching DVDs, shared videos files and YouTube.

After many months, I thought of the inconvenience to watch free TV channels such as TV3 and NTV7 for the news and other still interesting shows (e.g. cooking / traveling). However, I still was not willing to pay a monthly fee for it – so the alternative I thought of was ASTRO NJOI (https://www.astro.com.my/njoi), free satellite TV from ASTRO. It was promoted to be a one-time payment of RM348 for the necessary equipment plus RM100 for standard installation (satellite dish).

I was going to contact the nearest ASTRO NJOI dealer when a friend introduce me to his android TV/media box and got a chance to play around with it. There are many models and brands out there but the one I was introduced to was the “Himedia Q5 Quad Core 4K H265 Ultra HD Android 4.4 Smart TV BOX” (http://www.himediatech.com/q5iv.html)

Key Features:

• ARM Cortex A9 1.6G Quad-core CPU + Octo-Core Mali 450 GPU
• Android 4.4
• Google Browser and HTML5 Support
• Google play support
• DLNA, NFS, Samba Support
• HiControl , HisHARE , Airplay , Miracast, wechat control Support
• 2D/3D Games Support
• 4k Output, H265 Support
• 3D BDISO Support
• Built-in 802.11N WIFI
• New designed remote control makes operation simple and confortable
• DTS-HDMA and TRUEHD 7.1 PassThrough Support
• External SATA, USB3.0, 1000mbs LAN Interface
• Live TV , XBMC , Netflix , Flash Support

Connection & Control:

Connected to my LG Smart TV via HDMI cable, and to my home network via WiFi.
It has a remote control, and I also used a wireless mouse (USB signal receiver plugged into one of the three USB ports).

Content:

Since it is using Internet, it is not affected by the weather. It does not interfere with the HyppTV too.
I am now able to the free channels via an pre-installed Application (App) called CloudTV (http://cloudtv.bz/).

This Himedia Q5 was pre-installed with a number of applications (Apps)

The free content are categorized & you will need to search for what's available

You can add the channels you wish to see to a 'Favourites' list

Here's NTV7 from Media Prima

I was advised that I should have at least a 5MB Internet line to avoid slow buffering issue. However even though I have a UniFI5 internet access, I noticed I still encountered buffering issue. Initially I thought it was because I was using WiFi instead of Ethernet-wired connection, tried that but it still had the same issue - so my assumption now is shifted to the content providers – perhaps the location of the servers or there is high demand for the shows/movies that I wish to watch.

Movies:

An App called 'Cartoon HD' which allows to watch movies

There are loads of new and old cartoons too.

Price:

I ordered this unit via an online site for RM422.94 + RM9 for shipping.

Final Thoughts:

I am still exploring the different features and the pre-installed Apps, however I am personally convinced that this was a good purchase because;

• one-time investment fee.
• got to watch the channels that I initially wanted plus more.
• setup was easy (i.e. connect to the TV via HDMI and connect to wireless network).
• there was no need to for messy installation such as mounting a satellite dish, pulling wires and drilling holes in the walls.
• the android box is portable and can be moved any location (where there is access to reliable internet)

I will share the unboxing, connection and usage video when I’m done processing them. Stay Tune.