Rveal review

[Bajareque]

We queried this forum a couple weeks ago about android TV boxes and whether they were usable in Boquete. We've been looking for years for a solution to the entertainment problem here. Most cable channels aren't content we want to watch and the ones that are show more commercials than program. We'd looked at Slingbox and other potential solutions, but they were all too complicated or limited.

In the last year, however, it seems that android boxes have finally matured. Used to be that only hacker types could get these to work satisfactorily. But we're at about the third generation of such boxes now and most of the rough edges have been polished off.

Background: Android boxes are essentially smartphones without a screen that have been specialized for capturing video from the internet and sending it to your TV. They cost much less than most smartphones ($60-$300). They run the same android OS as the phones, but use apps to find and display content. They are about the size of a large can of tuna (only square) and usually have an input port for ethernet (or no input port and just use WiFi) and a HDMI output port that goes to your TV. Plug in both cables and connect to electricity and you're good to go.

The hard part has been the setup. You have to configure the system and the apps. Sometimes you have to choose, download, and install the apps. In my younger days i might have attempted this, but now I no longer have the patience. Hence my choice of the Rveal android box.

The Rveal android box costs about $300. You can get it with a regular remote or a special keyboard remote. It comes with ALL software preinstalled. They're available all over, but we bought ours on eBay and had it shipped to us at eShop. It took about two weeks.

Setup is simple: 1. Plug the included Bluetooth chip into a USB port on the box. 2. Plug in the box. 3. Turn on the remote (batteries included). 4. Turn on the box and your TV. 5. Set the TV for the appropriate HDMI input source. 6. Wait for a couple minutes as it installs and updates. 7. Watch any TV show or movie you want.

The secret sauce is the Rveal software. On other android boxes you mostly have to spend a lot of time searching out the content you want. Sure lots of TV shows and movies are available on the internet, but you have to FIND them! The Rveal software and human team (real people in the USA) constantly scour the internet for content sources; test them; organize them; and present them to you in a friendly GUI. If you missed the last episode of the third season of Murdoch Mysteries, about 5 clicks will get you there.

Virtually every show or movie ever made is available on the internet now. Many from multiple sources. Even Netflix shows. All free and commercial-free. New shows are added within hours of the time they initially air. Live sports and news are streamed constantly. The Rveal software taps into this for you. No subscription fees.

Caveats:

It's not all wine and roses. You need bandwidth. Rveal recommends at least 10mbps. The first time we tried to use it was right after the big storm. The Rveal was connected by WiFi (not ethernet) and when we ran Speedtest we found we had only 3mbps. It was miserable. Lots of buffering and crashes. The next night we tried again and found our bandwidth had increased to 7mbps. This time we were able to watch a TV show and a  movie without any hitches. YMMV.

We have yet to figure out exactly how to use the search function. With zillions of shows and movies available it'd be nice to go right to the one you want if you can be specific. The menu system works fine, but you have to drill down through multiple layers to get to the bottom.