Home entertainment: Telstra steps into ring with Apple TV rival

It’s basic, it offers mainly an amalgam of others’ content, but Telstra TV could appeal to mum and dad users.

Telstra TV

Telstra has positioned itself as a rival to Apple TV by launching a small black box that gives users access to a variety of streaming services.

Attach a Telstra TV player to your existing television using an HDMI cable and you can watch movies and TV shows offered by Netflix and Presto, catch-up ­services such as SBS on Demand and 9Jumpin. Stan will be available from next month and ABC iview and Tenplay by year’s end.

Here, Telstra offers users existing content already available online rather than new content of its own. If you have a smart TV or a media centre you probably have access to most of these ­services without needing a new black box.

You’ll need separate subscriptions with the content providers offered through Telstra TV, although Telstra is softening the blow with three months’ subscription to Presto and to Stan, along with a BigPond movies coupon for those who buy the device before Christmas.

The only Telstra-specific content is BigPond movies. You can rent Telstra’s BigPond movies through Telstra TV, just as you might access movies through Apple TV.

Other streaming services ­include YouTube, RedBull TV, Wall Street Journal, GoPro and Vimeo. Telstra says it might add more streaming services, but you will be tethered to the services that it makes available. You cannot add other services yourself directly from the internet.

Telstra is partnering with Californian streaming box-maker Roku, which is supplying the hardware. This version, the Roku 2 box, supports 720p and 1080p HD streaming. But it doesn’t have the voice search capability of Roku 3, nor ultra-high-definition 4K streaming available with the upcoming Roku 4.

And whereas Roku US users have access to more than 2500 Roku channels, Telstra’s version offers 15 services at launch. Still, there’s scope for Telstra to ramp up its offering and it has indicated it will do that.

The device connects to a TV via an HDMI 1.4 and has a USB2.0 port and microSD card slot so you can load and watch your own content. It has little storage of its own, just 256 megabytes.

Telstra says Telstra TV will be available online and from its stores nationally from October 27 for $109 or as part of certain Telstra broadband bundles.

BigPond Movies and Presto will be unmetered on Telstra Home Broadband at home, but Telstra says data will be counted when accessing other services. The company says it’s for Telstra users only.

Alternatives such as Apple TV and Google Chromecast also let older TVs access streamed content.

Search is one area where Telstra TV suffers. You can search content from within each service. That’s no problem. But a new version of Apple TV ­announced in September has natural language voice searching. So you could say “show me movies with George Clooney”, or ask “show me movies added this month”, and Apple TV should oblige.

But Apple TV in Australia also has lacked much of the content available to US users.

Google announced its new disk-shaped Chromecast dongle this month and it too has advanced search capability. The accompanying smartphone app displays all Chromecast-enabled apps on a device in the one spot, and offers universal searching. So ask for a particular movie title, and it will tell you which apps and movie services offer it. You then select from those services.

If it’s just Australian Catch Up TV that you need, there’s the option of a FreeviewPlus set-top-box, the aerialBox T2100, made by Dish TV Technologies, which also lets you record your favourite shows, but it doesn’t include the likes of Netflix, Presto or Stan that Telstra TV offers.

Telstra TV however has market appeal. It’s simple to get your head around, install and use, it has a remote, and, being small, quite tiny actually, is inconspicuous in the living room. It therefore should be a hit with Telstra customers who either buy it or get it for free with particular broadband plans.

While it may lack many of the latest features, you don’t need to be tech savvy to use it.

Telstra says Telstra TV complements rather than replaces its current subscription based T-Box, and its premium sporting content and Foxtel subscription offerings.

Telstra chief marketing officer Joe Pollard said Telstra TV ­addressed a growing demand for simple and flexible home entertainment options.