No unfortunately.
Bought a Hubbl puck the other day now that theyāve been dropped to $49 for the time being.
Some early thoughts:
-Interface is decent overall, navigation could be made more customisable though (Iād like to move the TV guide further up and make that my ādefault viewā if possible as thatās my preferred way of watching).
-Performance is OK, it can be a bit slow to load things such as menus at times.
-The EPG is not great, the titles and descriptions seem to be very basic and lacking in detail and accuracy compared to the Foxtel EPG.
-The integration of Kayo/Binge and FTA channels is fairly good, I do find the mapping can be a bit limited though- although this may be a regional thing (for example 207 maps to the aerial version of 7HD Regional Victoria with no issues, but I canāt make 107 do the same (it keeps looking for 7 Melbourne).
-It would be nice to have a companion mobile phone app with a TV guide and a remote control (similar to Fetch), this would be handy as right now if the remote breaks or you lose it the device becomes unusable.
Overall though, itās a solid and decent device on the whole, especially if you can get it on special (particularly right now at $49).
I donāt think itās quite worth the normal price of $99 when you compare it to say, a Fire Stick, given that it is a bit more limited in functionality and app support, but if the standard price point could be bought down into the $70-$80 range it would be a decent and competitive option especially if you have a subscription to Binge, Kayo or Flash.
Are the panels actually any good?
It wouldnāt surprise me if theyāre trying to get rid of them. All the promotion seems to be focused on the box, not the TV sets. I canāt imagine theyāre moving very many of them honestly.
Theyāre supposed to be Samsung QLED panels - they got mixed reviews in the UK
The pannels might be made by Samsung but Iām pretty sure they are only HD pannels.
100% 4K
the panels seem fine, but in saying that Iām not a home theatre guy. what i want is something that i turn on and watch Binge and Kayo on that is a simple solution. the first one i brought was because i had a very old Soniq 32"(so old it didnāt even have inbuilt wifi - it needed a dongle) that needed a replacement.
the second was because my wife was using a hubbl puck on another smaller TV for streaming services.
its perfect for those who just want a simple solution. I spend all day at work dicking about with IT and AV gear - i donāt want to do the same when i get home.
I have not noticed any tearing or juddering on the screen however. the only thing is that the screen is 60Hz
I donāt think they are - i picked up the second TV this morning from the same place i got my first (an offsite HN warehouse) and the storeman there recognised me from the other one and asked me how they are.
Oh sorry I meant 4k lol. Iām surprised they are Quantum dot though. Unless this is all Samsung are making now.
Couldnāt resist a 50% off Hubbl!
This has been the best thing Iāve enjoyed about the Hubbl with the integration of Binge and Kayo into the EPG and the channel lists.
For me in Tas it works out that WIN and Nine are the same so it lets me set WIN as the terrestrial channels however for 10 and 7 it has two different ones - so I can have the 7 plus streaming versions or the 10 play versions and so they do have mucked up numbers. The way Iāve done it though is populated all my favourite channels and Iāve set the Tasmanian FTA ones as the numbers - e.g. 7 for 7 (instead of 6) but you can also include in the favourites the ones we donāt get like 7flix and 7bravo which is really good.
One other thing Iāve found is you can go to the apps and inputs page and select the tuner which gives you a basic interface but gives you access to all the FTA stations including the ABC radio stations and the shopping ones etcā¦ Not used too often but a good way for some of the channels you canāt seem to access ordinarily through the Hubbl interface.
I think though that sort of integration might be a reason to be a little bit worried about buying a Hubbl Glass TV - the extra steps on EPG integration meaning unless thereās an off button hidden somewhere, you might not be able to use it as a TV for broadcast when they inevitably shut down the services.
Any old smart TV has some risk - but most leave the tuner alone, so they still should function as a TV and not have much friction over using the HDMI inputs to add a smarter box to them once it is too far gone.
I suppose right now - can you watch WIN Gold or their placeholder for the channel coming soon via a Hubbl TV or set top box? They donāt have Foxtel EPG channel numbers, so is there a fallback to put them in the EPG somewhere?
Only if you go straight to the tuner input like I mentioned in my other post to get the radio stations etcā¦ but you then lose access to the Kayo and other apps.
Iām not worried about that but i hope that if they do close the servcies or depreciate the glass software they release a final firmware upgrade that disbales the hubbl software and boots it direct into the tuner
Have any of the networks enabled fast channels to appear on Hubble as yet?
Yeah, Iāve seen that happen before with one of their older ads. iirc is was also ch7-skewed.
Kind ofā¦ its not on the EPG. you need to go into the networks apps to do it but they work