Two weeks of immersement in between our recent media events and phone reviews on the side. We had this one during our downtime and chillax. From their mantra "Mag-level up ka na" , is Easy TV Super Digibox is a worthy companion for your TV? Here's our review
On the box itself, I love that it is out of the ordinary with the typical box-y form factor which it reminds me a bit of a soap dish. You have a right guess that it is made of plastic but it is still quite a pretty addition to your living room or even at my workstation. The LCD display helps a lot for the channel and signal status. Three bars mean the box is getting the best possible reception in your area
View of first boot
On your first boot, you must register the device by their hotline, website or mobile app. I recommend the app coz there is a QR reader inside of it which you will need to scan the set top box (STB) number with barcode for you to activate it.
On the dashboard, the UI is simple and clean which is easy-to-follow as the label said from signal search, EPG, media player and even language selection from Chinese or English. Although I never tried it but most of the people from a FB support group mentioned that you must not turn on the antenna power
About the signal reception, I would like to ensure that in contrary to either others said that this device only has limited signal and their TVC which mentioned that it is only servicable to NCR. As long as you can ask your neighbor or even have another DTV box and you can get stable DTV signal on ETC and getting any of from the 14 Solar channels with a status like "this channel is encrypted from another service" that are the signs that you can utilize Easy TV. Aside from key NCR areas that I tried, we went all the way from our test site in Sto Tomas, Batangas and we got ETC and 14 featured channels properly. In addition in the said location were there is difficulty to catch Light Network's signal - Easy TV can get it around 8 out of 10 scans usually versus others. One of the drawbacks of this product is the short 1.5 meter antenna with magnetic base (compared to the leading brand at 5 meters). As for this test, we had a similar 5 meter cable and it worked. Good thing, there are solutions to that problem by either buying a trusted 3rd party antenna or buying a female-to-female coupler and female-to-female coxial cable (length depending on your need). As expected, you cannot have HD channels in here but thanks that it supports HDMI output - you can have clearer resolution compared if you will just connect it thru A/V cable
Yes, the beauty of this device that you can record your fave shows like on the spot or on a scheduled basis. The video format is in .ts (like in competitors) and you can playback it at the device or using VLC media player on Windows or Android
On the cons, there were some users online mentioned that there are times that the device will just gonna freeze after prolonged usage. It also happened on my unit but around after 11 hours but sometimes one day, I also happened to me after 4+ hours but I suspect that this is because if you are changing channels frequently (like for example, you watching channel B after the channel A just having a TVC break). It never happened to us when I left it just steady on a channel after 10+ hours. The media player though is not that friendly on HD videos as sometimes, it will also freeze in using our set of USB thumbdrives.
For Php 2,999 some might think that the pricing is quite steep but you have to consider that this is only their first-gen device (remember the leading DTV box today started at Php 2,499 around three years ago). It comes with a free 1 year subscription from 14 Solar-owned cable channels which in case you can't sustain the Php 1,000/yearly subscription, you can still use it to view free DTV channels. If to compare the subscription versus other DTH solutions, I am giving some situations which you might be in the same boat. I am currently subscribed to a DTH service but without BTV, NBA Premium TV and MTV. Those are my priority channels and the cheapest prepaid plan that you can get BTV and NBA Premium TV from another DTH service will be at Php 250 and Php 450 per month respectively. With Easy TV, I am only paying Php 83.33 per month for all of the 14 Solar channels which is pretty affordable
So based on the breakdown, the price is a-ok for me. Some things that they need to check are the random freezing that I encountered , difficulty in using it as a media player and their after-service which is the possible OTA updates plus the very short 1.5 meter antenna cable (but there's a turnaround that you can do with that). On the positive sides, I found out that compared to other two DTV boxes that I have, it has a slight edge on signal reception and now, almost anyone can get (as long as they have ETC DTV signal at home) via the likes of Shopee PH and Lazada aside from their list of dealers and not-the-usual design compared to others. will gonna give 4 out of 5 for Easy TV Super Digibox
