Its only been days since Airtel unveiled its hybrid Xstream box for its fiber broadband and DTH subscribers. One of our forum members k2max6 has already managed to lay his hands on the device and has shared his first hand experience with the same.
To recall, the Xstream set top box is an Android 9.0 based smart box manufactured by Technicolor. It has a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.8Ghz, paired with Broadcom V3D-510 GPU. It has 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The Xstream STB is a hybrid model which allows viewing of live channels through Airtel DTH connection and streaming of on-demand videos through OTT apps over broadband. This smart box supports 4K streaming with HDR and 5.1 Surround Sound for supported apps and can be used as a game-pad as well.
The STB has a good build quality and feels durable in the hand. The front panel has the Xstream logo which is back-lit. The two green lights visible are indicators for Wi-Fi and DTH input. The back panel has an input coaxial port for connecting to the DTH dish antenna, an HDMI output port, an Ethernet port, a USB port, an Optical out port to connect to home theater system and an RCA port for backward compatibility for older display screens. The side panel also has a USB port which can be used to play audio and videos from a pen-drive using VLC player. The box has Bluetooth connectivity as well.
The remote controller has a built in mic with a dedicated button for google assistant and works well with voice commands. It has dedicated buttons for Netflix, YouTube and Amazon prime video. The multi function center dial works as navigation keys as well as well as media playback controls. The volume keys, mute and AV buttons can be configured as universal remote buttons. Live Tv button switches to live Tv instantly while the record button doesn’t work yet. Rewind and Forward buttons are well configured for OTT apps without any noticeable lag.
Video content from Airtel Xstream app on the smartphone is available as integrated in the interface without having a dedicated app. Content from HOOQ, Eros Now ,Zee5, ho¡cho¡, hungama play and ALTBalaji is present. Live channels are available only through DTH not as IPTv. The picture quality of the xstream content has only 3 settings – Low/Medium/Auto resulting in average picture in spite of 40 mbps result on speedtest. A setting for High Quality would have been welcome. On the other hand the picture quality of Live Tv and the other OTT apps is pretty good.
The Xstream box is available for Rs.3999 for new users and Rs.2249 for existing subscribers upgrading their old STB. It comes with a complimentary one-year subscription worth Rs 999 to all the Xstream app content. Customers also get free Mega HD DTH pack worth Rs 699, TV Games from Airtel and free Netflix subscription for one month worth Rs 500.
The only catch is that the box needs an active DTH plan for viewing the Xstream content. Whether or not video content from other OTT apps like Netflix and Amazon prime can be viewed in the absence of a DTH plan is not known.
Hi, Thank you for the review and the QnA. It’s very helpful.
May be a repeated question…Can we able to use Xtream box as a pure android box even if we dont subscribe for the regular DTH channels ?
Curious to know whether have you tried playing android games by connecting game pad (e.g. Logitech game pad) to the USB port? I believe the same is possible with Airtel internet TV.
Thank you, looking forward for your reply and your further review on Airtel Xtream box.
Regards,
Pradeep
You need to have an active subscription to use the box as per the technician i.e a min of Rs153 pm. Although I will be able to test this this in a 8 days as the balance runs out and see if the box runs or not.
Haven’t tested gameplay. Not a gamer. For the things that were working with airtel internet tv, it is highly likely that they will work with the xstream box as well.
1) How is the experience if you connect it to 4G mobile hotspots Jio or Airtel. Can we use it if we have 5GB/day 4G data for 3-4 hrs of daily 720p streaming. My JIO 4G avg download speed on TRAI speed test app are 9Mbps, Ookla speed test are 7Mbps, and Fast dot com speedtest are whooping 21 Mbps-25Mbps.
2) Also Do I need to pay for Xstream annual subscription if I don’t have airtel thanks after 1 year, and then if I want to use other OTT apps only?
3) If I upgrade to Xstream Box, Will my existing Airtel DTH balance reflect in new Xstream box Account?
4) Please share casting experience too, like Casting downloaded videos (any lag or sound mismatch etc) and casting live tv from OTT or Airtel Xstream or accessing Airtel Xstream web via side loaded browser. What apps or features are restricted in casting.
5) does Jio tv app side load?
6) I can see only 1 plan for DTH of ₹207 , do we need to stick to it…Or can we use A-la-carte or broadcast packs.
1) How is the experience if you connect it to 4G mobile hotspots Jio or Airtel. Can we use it if we have 5GB/day..
> Yes you can connect to a mobile hotspot to use it. Experience depends on the speed. Slower speeds can make it a bit laggy.
Theoretically you need a connection of 5 mbps for HD streaming, practically speaking you need more than that but 9 mbps should make it , provided no other devices are connected to the same internet connection at the time.
If any of your friends have a firestick , you can try to borrow it and test it. If it works xstream box will definitely work better.
( I don’t have a low speed connection to test it. )
> HD streaming requires 2-3gb of data per hour. So 5GB will give you 2-2.5 hours max.
2) Also Do I need to pay for Xstream annual subscription if I don’t have airtel thanks after 1 year, and then if I want to use other OTT apps only?
> If you don’t pay for airtel xstream subscription or don’t have airtel thanks after one year, you can still use the ott apps other then the airtel xstream content.
You still have to pay for DTH , bare minimum being Rs.153 as NCF. Thats what the technician told. Yet to test it tough. Also all the ott content is available in case of a no signal due to weather or other issues as long as you have internet.
3) If I upgrade to Xstream Box, Will my existing Airtel DTH balance reflect in new Xstream box Account?
> Yes.
4) Please share casting experience too, like Casting downloaded videos (any lag or sound mismatch etc) and casting live tv from OTT or Airtel Xstream or accessing Airtel Xstream web via side loaded browser. What apps or features are restricted in casting.
> Casting works seamlessly and the picture quality is good.
> No lag/sound/ lipsync issues
> Screen mirroring also works with slightly lower picture quality.There is a noticeable judder when mirroring downloaded videos from phone.Better to use a pen drive for video playback of downloaded videos.
For apps like the xstream app which doesn’t support casting , mirroring is the only option. Mirroring works and shows the app content as well as plays it, except for the “LIVE TV”
Better to use a pen drive for video playback.
> Firefox can be sideloaded, and airtel Xstream web interface can be accessed but only a few channels work. For other an error is displayed that asks to use the xstream app.
Here are the channels that are working
Sony Ten1 HD , Ten3HD , Zee TV HD, Newsnation, Zee business, NDTV India hindi SD, SAB SD, Max 2, Sony Mix SD.
Checked a lot of other channels but they didn’t work.
– SD channels play in a 4:3 aspect ratio.
– HD channels play as good as live tv with very good picture quality.
The airtel xstream app requires chrome to work properly. Have tried multiple apks but chrome doesn’t work. They have blocked it explicitly I think.
5) does Jio tv app side load?
No, the app installs but doesn’t work and also doesn’t show up on home screen and neither in the list of installed apps.
6) I can see only 1 plan for DTH of ₹207 , do we need to stick to it…Or can we use A-la-carte or broadcast packs.
> You can change to any pack you like. A- la- carte or broadcaster pack.
thank you bro 🙂