Video Streaming on TV Boxes
An overview of video streaming on TV boxes, including movies, TV show episodes, live TV channels, and other user-generated content.
Most people use TV boxes to stream digital content from the Internet. The streamed content can be from both free and paid sources. However, the rising popularity of TV boxes is undoubtedly a reflection of their ability to access a large amount of free content. In this article, we will cover what can be streamed on a TV box, including movies, TV shows, live TV channels, and other user-generated content.
On-Demand Movies and TV Show Episodes
The concept of video-on-demand has fundamentally changed our way of accessing entertainment content. People no longer have to arrange their lives around the airing schedules of their favorite shows. And it has made it so easy to binge-watch an entire TV series or a movie marathon interruptedly.
Paid Video Streaming Services
First of all, there are well-known paid video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, as well as many others. You would think that TV boxes make a natural platform for these streaming services, but no! In reality, most of the commercial streaming services (with the noticeable exception of Amazon Prime) like to tightly control what hardware can access their content. They also charge a heavy license fee from the participating hardware vendors. As a result, only a very few premium, unrooted media streamers are licensed, while the majority of common inexpensive TV boxes on the market are not.
Nonetheless, it’s still possible to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus (i.e. the Big Three) on unlicensed TV boxes. We will show you the workarounds. But the overall experience may not seem ideal.
Another fundamental shortcoming with the paid streaming services (which has nothing to do with TV boxes) is that they are so compartmentalized. They all have their own exclusive shows that are not available on rival services. Therefore, not only you have to subscribe to all of them, but you also have to keep track of which shows are on which service. And one service certainly won’t recommend similar shows from another service. It would be really nice and convenient if there could be an amalgamated service that allows you to subscribe to all services with a single subscription, provides you with a decent app on all devices, and recommends shows across service boundaries. Oh, we can only dream!
Free Video Streaming Apps
Fortunately, there are free video streaming apps coming to the rescue, especially on TV boxes. These apps tap into the vast pool of video streaming sources freely available on the Internet. And they include movies, TV shows, and even original content from commercial streaming services. So by using a free streaming app, you will have access to almost any shows without any compartmentalizing boundaries. Most of the free streaming apps are designed primarily for TV boxes and work well on them. They can also integrate seamlessly with other free online services like opensubtitles.org for subtitles and trakt.tv for tracking all your watched shows.
The downside of the free streaming apps is that they may be more difficult to find and install. They are not distributed on the official Google Play Store. And they also seem to come and go more frequently, often getting rebranded, cloned, or morphed into new apps. If you find them rather elusive, check out our up-to-date Guide on the Best Free Streaming Apps in Canada.
Another shortcoming associated with the free streaming apps is that the freely available video streams on the Internet can be unreliable. It can sometimes be a frustrating experience if you encounter a lot of buffering. Having a good app can help you access more streams and also can help you pick out the good streams from the bad.
When using free streaming apps, you should consider also using a VPN service to protect your privacy. Due to the dubious copyright status of the free Internet video sources, it is highly recommended that you protect your own identity when accessing them.
Live TV Channel Broadcasts
As most of the television broadcasts have gone completely digital, it has become possible to access live TV channels via the Internet instead through the traditional cable or satellite service. This is feasible on any Internet-capable screen device such as a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, and of course on a TV box.
Paid IPTV Subscription
If you want a live TV experience similar to the traditional cable or satellite service, IPTV is the way to go. (The acronym IPTV simply means live TV via the Internet, as IP stands for Internet Protocol). IPTV is a paid subscription and is thus not free. But because it has low operating costs and few regional restrictions, it can offer viewers a large selection of channels at a fraction of the traditional cable fee. And the channels can optionally include many international and foreign language channels not available from the traditional cable.
IPTV used to require a specialized set-top box (STB) device like the MAG-250. But the growing popularity of Android TV boxes and newly developed apps have made it just another feature on a TV box. IPTV apps are distributed on Google Play Store and can be installed and configured easily. Some of them have developed advanced features like the electronic program guide (EPG) for show listings and the personal video recorder (PVR) for recording shows. These apps will become more and more sophisticated with time. And their rich features will out-pace any traditional cable or satellite service.
However, a decent IPTV app is only part of the equation. An enjoyable IPTV experience also depends on the quality and reliability of the actual IPTV service. A good service will have lots of high-quality HD channels, and with few performance issues like buffering. Many IPTV services are rarely openly advertised. So finding a reliable one can be challenging.
Free Live TV Apps
There are also free apps for watching live TV channels. They tap into the limited number of live TV streams freely available on the Internet. Compared to paid IPTV, the freely available channels are much fewer in number, and their quality is generally poorer. So you will experience some buffering from time to time. But it’s better than nothing.
Similar to paid IPTV, the free live TV apps also have international and foreign language channels. For people with a non-English background that are only interested in foreign channels, there are special regionalized apps like Chinese TV apps, French TV apps, and etc.
Other User-Generated Content
Besides movies, TV shows, and live TV broadcasts, the Internet has also created a new category of digital entertainment, and that’s user-generated content. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have all had exponential growth in popularity. For some people (especially young kids), the user-created content on those platforms can even overtake commercially produced shows.
Device support of user-generated content varies from platform to platform. For example, YouTube is the most mature platform and has the best device support, including multiple decent apps for TV boxes. Other newer platforms like TikTok started out on smartphones and have just recently expanded to TV.
