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TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 05-06/2013
—
IPTV with the AZBox ME
and the MiniMe?
No problem!
Vitor Martins Augusto
FEATURE
AZBox ME Receiver Software
Did you know? With an
AZBox ME or MiniMe plus
a current Android-based
smartphone or tablet
you’re all set for watch-
ing TV throughout your
home as far as your WiFi
network extends. Find out
how in this article.
It’s no surprise to most that
Linux receivers such as the
AZBox ME or MiniMe can be
accessed right from the PC
via a web browser. We already
demonstrated how to do this
in TELE-audiovision test re-
ports on the AZBox receiver.
What you might not have tried
yet is to select a channel right
through the web browser and
have it streamed back to the
browser window. All you need
to do is key in the receiver’s
IP address in the Firefox ad-
dress line. This particular
browser software is best
suited for Internet streaming,
since we keep experiencing
problems with VLC as a plug-
in of Explorer and Chrome.
Once Firefox has established
a connection with the receiv-
er you’re greeted by a smart
user interface allowing ac-
cess to practically all receiver
functions. For instance, you
can navigate up and down all
favourites lists or even the
entire channel list, and you
can call up EPG information
for each of the listed chan-
nels. There is also a small TV
icon and this will initiate the
streaming process. You only
have to make sure to click on
the desired channel name be-
fore activating the stream.
Depending on the installed
browser add-on, PC configu-
ration and Linux firmware im-
plemented in the receiver the
stream is either presented
right within the browser win-
dow, or external software –
usually VLC – is launched.
If all is set up correctly this
works like a charm and the
video quality is simply bril-
liant. After all, the stream
is passed on exactly as it is
received and with most PCs
boasting hardware-supported
MPEG-2/4 decompression the
signal is frequently optimised
by applying anti-aliasing and
video enhancing filters. You
can expect the final result to
at least match that on your
LCD panel, and in many cases
it is even slightly better.
While this alone is a really
neat treat, you rightly might
ask yourself how often you’d
actually prefer watching TV
on your PC or laptop com-
puter rather than in front of
your flat-screen TV. Wouldn’t
it be great to watch TV on
your smartphone or tablet
instead? These devices are
small and lightweight enough
for convenient use, plus they
1. To open the web interface („Webif“) of your AZBox Me or MiniMe,
you only need to input the IP address of the box. We recommend
Firefox. Notice that depending on the installed firmware, you may
see a slightly different web interface.
2. MX Player is the best media player for Android. We confirm that
it really “plays everything”. The good news: you can use it for free
if you don’t mind a small ad on the screen, while you select the
desired video (no ads during play, of course).
3. To be able to receive IPTV you need the app called… IPTV.
Again, you can choose between the free version with ads or the
Pro version, which does not show any ads. Besides using it to
watch streamed TV channels from you AZBox Me or MiniMe, you
can use it to watch IPTV from Internet or your Internet Service
Provider. It is a true IPTV client.
