PLDT TVolution in the flesh, quick hands-on

PLDT’s taking steps into your home with gadgets like the TelPad, and now they’re aiming at turning your TV into an internet TV installed with their services through TVolution. But is the experience a good one? And does it step up your TV viewing into a new level? Read on to find out.

A few months ago, PLDT launched their TVolution service. It came with the Huawei M310 streaming device.

Tvolution

Basically, if you have Fibr, DSL Plan 999 or higher, or Ultera, you can get TVolution from PLDT. From there, you’ll receive this small device that turns your TV into a more capable multimedia platform.

Tvolution

Setting up is easy, as you only need to connect two things — the device to your TV via HDMI and to a power source via USB. The device is incredibly light and pocketable, so there is little hassle playing with the small box. After everything, grab your remote and get started by connecting TVolution to your internet.

Tvolution

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Tvolution

The experience can a bit challenging if you are a first timer. TVolution feels like having a non-touch Android tablet on your TV and all the buttons are on the remote. We’ll give it to the remote for feeling nice and keeping things simple, but we know that an Android interface on a non-touch or virtual keyboard can be uneasy. You have to press right manually across a bunch of selectable materials on the screen just to get to another thing and that will take you around 3 seconds to do every time.

Tvolution

Fortunately, there’s an app called MediaQ remote that you can use for better navigation. This allowed my smartphone to control the TV via WiFi, and it offers a lot more of navigation controls such as being something like a trackpad. In addition, typing became extremely easier. Connecting a keyboard and mouse via USB to TVolution is also an option.

It also gives you access to exclusive PLDT HOME content such as Clickplay, which lets you stream from a selection of over 200 blockbuster movies on-demand.

So here’s our quick wrap on TVolution, and we can probably say that a lot of internet TVs also have the same problem: navigation is a key element in defining the entire experience, and a lot of companies are still struggling to get the formula right, TVolution being a product of the same mistake. While HD content looked pretty good on our 1080p HDTV, there are workarounds to remote navigation, and everything was a quick setup – the software itself proved to be messy and navigation is really slow. I may hook up a mouse and keyboard to my TV, but that’s not really what my TV is for. I want to be able to sit back and let everything be a breeze.

PLDT TVolution (Huawei MediaQ Smart TV Box M310):
1080p, 1080i & 720p resolution support (16:9, 4:3)
Quad-core CPU
16-core GPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal memory
STB input, HDMI 1.4 output
WiFi
Bluetooth 4.0
USB 2.0
MicroSD card slot

If you really need internet on your television, feel free to jump in with TVolution, but I think finding a way to connect your Telpad or any other mobile device to your TV is a much more efficient way. TVolution wants to be your computer on a TV by being an Android tablet, but that doesn’t really work well by experience.

Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

19 Comments

Ron says:

4 years ago

Bakit di gumagana ibng app n youtube dito plss fix nyo to
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Adele says:

10 years ago

Great article. For those who live outside US like me, you can access Netflix, Hulu and similar media stations on your Sony Smart TV by using UnoTelly or similar tools.
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pinoyi says:

10 years ago

mypinoytv? GMA TV series? What other apps can you install? Mas OK pa ata itong Samsung internet TV namin may libre nang tv optimized bbc app, al Jazeera, rt, Euronews, vimeo, YouTube, Viki, daily motion, spotify, twitter, Facebook, browser, and many other apps. We’re using pldt mydsl for net.
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pinoyi says:

10 years ago

mypinoytv? GMA TV series? What other apps can you install? Mas OK pa ata itong Samsung internet TV namin may libre nang tv optimized bbc app, al Jazeera, rt, Euronews, vimeo, YouTube, Viki, daily motion, spotify, twitter, Facebook, browser, and many other apps. We’re using pldt mydsl for net
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John Edward says:

10 years ago

Naku. Hindi kaya neto mag stream ng 1080p movies from HDD. T_T Kahit 720p nag pipixilate pa din. Nakaka disappoint. Ok lang sya pang youtube at netflix.
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Paliboy says:

10 years ago

It’s still working. I encountered that too pero saglit lang.
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Zobel says:

10 years ago

Kinda like their hyped up Smart TV yata yun almost a decade ago that failed spectacularly. Android will soon have this if they don’t already. No need to get a standalone device that’ll just get obsolete.
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Paliboy says:

10 years ago

I got this a few weeks back, works perfectly with my 999 DSL plan. For PHP 200 a month it’s not that bad. I use it mainly to stream movies from my router, stream music from my phone and watch videos on YouTube (720p viewing is great). To those planning to use this for surfing, be ready to buy a wireless keyboard as typing using the remote sucks big time. I heard though that the newer releases comes with a qwerty remote.
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gianwinters says:

10 years ago

Does your Youtube app still works? Im on a Fiber plan the stupid Youtube for Tv app encountered Connection to server lost error message.
PLDT doesnt have a clue how to go about this.

BENCHMARK says:

10 years ago

Well, nung nagkaroon kami ng Medi8er player, it can be connected to the net and watch movies in you tube and surf the net. At first it was ok, pero pagtagal, sa phone, tablet or PC ka pa din mag surf and watch online.

It is just frustrating to watch na choppy or mawawalan ng connection yung TV.

Siguro the reason PLDT release this eh para mag upgrade ang mga subscribers nila to a higher speed…but then again, even if you upgrade, ni sa low speed nga, hinde nila ma-maintain yung 80% reliability…parang useless din yung pag upgrade mo to higher speed…sa opnion ko lang po ito.
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Jemima says:

10 years ago

Cool! Pwede na akong manood ng Clickplay movies sa tv ko! :D Good job, PLDT!
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Glenn says:

10 years ago

I think the article should have also focused on the content.
what’s shows and movies are available?
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Jemima says:

10 years ago

Tingin ko yung shows are GMA shows. Yung movies, visit mo http://www.clickplay.ph . lahat ng anjan pwede mo panuorin :D

lotech says:

10 years ago

i live in a city proper and they cant even provide me a dsl line after digitel died. To PLDT executives, 2014 na po hindi na 1950s.
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Enya says:

10 years ago

i use the mini wireless usb keyboard from my mediaplayer for easy navigation & typing. youtube app’s default resolution is HD(internet speed dependent) unlike the Minix Neo X7’s that maxes out only in VGA. Fairly satisfied in terms of UI speed as compared to my 1st-gen LG Smart TV. Almost all apps in the Playstore are not compatible including FB & Youtube. Sideloading works but apps arent optimized for TV navigation.
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archie says:

10 years ago

And once again, PLDT is offering another service that will give headache to their optimistic subscribers. Kung ang techie writer na ito ay nahirapan, pano pa kaya ang ordinary customer na magogoyo na naman nila =).
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archie says:

10 years ago

Agreed. At pag nagkaroon ng sira ang services nila, i-vovolleyball ka nila between their idiot tech support & branch help desks. They keep marketing their products without proper knowledge and back up plans. Dapat imbestigahan na din ng NTC yung termination conditions & fees nila dahil yun lang naman ang nagpapalakas ng loob sa PLDT na yan kaya di inaayos ang service nila kahit ayaw na ng customer nila.
Hen-Sheen says:

10 years ago

I still prefer Basic TV (via digibox). No offense to PLDT, but thier TVolution is Cryptically hard to understand. Since our speed is 3MBps, pixelation occurs frequently and other problems; that Sales or Tech Support can’t tell you…. I got three things to teach you TVolution: How to lose, How to cry, and How to die!