“Tech Troubles and Streaming Stumbles: Why Your Entertainment Experience Is Crashing”

Nowadays, having multiple OTT subscriptions is increasingly becoming standard. Selecting from the platforms that cater to your favorite genres, whether it be films, TV shows, or even live sports. However, maintaining these subscriptions consistently can also turn out to be quite pricey and burdensome, especially if you are the sole user. Streambox Media recently unveiled their subscription-based television named Dor TV, which features a 43-inch display with an initial price of Rs. 10,799. I have been utilizing Dor TV for the past few weeks and here’s how the experience unfolded.

 To start with, this QLED television has a fairly typical design and aesthetic you would expect from an economical smart TV. It showcases slim bezels, a plastic frame, and a somewhat delicate-looking back cover. The remote control is longer than average and is equipped with a 110mAh battery unit that can be charged both via solar energy and through the USB type-C port located at the bottom.

 Regarding the operating system, the television operates on a customized Android TV-based OS known as dorOS. You won’t find the Play Store here, but a majority of OTT applications are accessible. Currently, Netflix and Apple TV are not included.

 To initiate the TV setup, registration with the same number used to purchase the television is necessary, as the initial month’s subscription is part of the upfront payment. You receive 24 applications with this, including SonyLiv, Hotstar, JioCinema, SunNXT, Amazon Prime, Fancode, and Discovery+, among others. For the second month onwards, you will need to pay Rs 799 monthly to maintain this same bundle. Plans starting at Rs 299 will become available from the second year onward.

 Streambox stated that you can utilize the TV with your own devices and subscriptions even if you do not opt for their subscription model. However, during my experience, if the TV was not connected to the internet, either wirelessly or wired, it prevented me from accessing other input sources. This issue began post the latest OS update. Officially, the company confirmed that HDMI and USB ports would be inaccessible even if you do not subscribe to any dorOS plans.

Once registration is complete, the OS allows you to create user profiles, choose your preferred genres, and even select celebrities, which leads to more tailored suggestions on the home screen. The tabs on the home interface are categorized by genre as well as live TV. Selecting live TV directs you to an IPTV-like setup that illustrates what is currently playing on various channels. Clicking on any of these selections navigates you to the app featuring the same content. 

Although single sign-in is touted among its features, you are required to log into apps individually when accessing them for the first time. The operating system is generally satisfactory with UI responsiveness and is somewhat user-friendly, though it can occasionally experience delays while loading content or transitioning from one video to another. A problem I encountered was that it could not display the files from an external hard drive since the built-in file manager failed to recognize it, and the app store within dorOS lacked any file management applications, making sideloading apps through an external drive quite cumbersome.

 The 43-inch 4k (3840×2160) QLED 16:9 display provides adequate brightness for a budget television and performs well in color handling. HDR10 is not particularly impressive but is acceptable for watching movies and shows. Moreover, the 4k offerings for applications such as Hotstar and SonyLIV are absent, which feels like a shortcoming given that this is a 4k TV. The television features a pair of 10-watt speakers, effectively filling a small to medium-sized space for music and dialogue, but do not expect a truly immersive experience with Dolby Atmos content.

Overall, the Dor TV is an intriguing new television that boasts some appealing features, provided you are comfortable with the subscription model. While there aren’t significant flaws with its hardware, certain software issues as discussed above might render it less attractive when compared to competitors like Xiaomi, TCL, and Kodak.