Review: Belkin @TV Plus

The Belkin @TV plus streams live TV from your set-top box (e.g. Freeview or Sky decoder) to mobile devices on your home network or over the internet.

So if you have ever thought to yourself “Gee, I wish I could watch TV without the inconvenience of actually having to sit in front of the TV”, then this is the gadget for you.

To enable this, you start by connecting the @TV plus to your decoder via either a component or composite video and analog audio connection. You can’t connect it via HDMI – the digital content protection in the video signal would prevent the device from re-sending it over the network.

If necessary you can then daisy-chain the component or composite connection back to your TV, although most set-top boxes allow you to use HDMI and component or composite outputs at the same time, in which case you wouldn’t need this final step.

Next you connect the @TV plus to your home network via either a LAN cable to your router, or the @TV plus’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor. From there you install the supplied software onto a PC, which automatically connects to the device on your network and allows you to select what kind of set-top box it is connected to – this will give you access to the decoder’s remote control, which will be displayed on screen.



This onscreen remote will control your decoder just like a real remote, by placing the supplied IR transmitters in front of the decoder itself.

While that may sound complex, I did all this at home with the Belkin @TV plus and had it up and running smoothly in about ten minutes. The streamed TV signal appeared on my PC with a few seconds delay and slightly lower quality, but perfectly watchable. Up to 8 devices can view the stream via Wi-Fi. However, the quality drops with more connections, because they all watch the same channel.

If the other end of your house isn’t far enough away from your TV, you can also watch the stream over the internet anywhere in the world on a 3G device using the @TV plus app for Android and iOS devices.

The app gives you full remote control access plus the ability to record the stream onto your device for later viewing – good for storing content for a long flight, for example, as long as your phone has enough storage space.
Inexplicably, the app for tablets is free but the smartphone version costs $16.99 NZD. It seems a bit rough to charge this on top of the purchase price and we’d prefer that Belkin just adjust the RRP on the unit to cover its software development costs instead.

Regardless, the @TV plus works as advertised and I’m sure the concept of watching live TV anywhere appeals to some people. If this functionality were integrated with a bona fide media player I for one would find the whole concept more appealing.

As it was, the greatest pleasure I got out of it was ghost-pausing the TV using my smartphone from the other end of the house while my partner was watching Shortland Street, but your mileage may vary.