Fetch TV Mighty adds 4K streaming to its popular set-top box
Fetch TV's brand new PVR-slash-IPTV box is big step up from the Gen 2 -- and all for the same price.
If you've been following the fortunes of IPTV service Fetch TV, then it might have seemed like the company had gone a little quiet. Turns out Fetch TV was just biding its time, ready to strike like a cobra when the opportunity arose.
And that opportunity is now: Fetch is launching two brand new set-top boxes in Australia, the Mini and the Mighty. While the Mini is a streaming-style box, having more in common with, say, Telstra TV than a traditional PVR, the Mighty is the next step up from the hard-drive equipped Gen 2 that Fetch has offered for some time now.
The design is pretty much the same, with the biggest changes happening on the inside. It's a heavy square box that looks exactly like something that goes under a TV and it ships with a pleasingly simple remote. The boosted specs add some features that are sure to please, including:
- 4K capability: The Mighty will be the first (and currently only) Fetch set-top box to be able to play files in Ultra HD 4K resolution. In fact, it's one of the first boxes around the world to support 4K Netflix, and that's according to Netflix!
- H.265 HEVC: It also supports the latest in compression, meaning you can get a 4K Netflix stream over internet speeds around 15.5 megabits per second, as opposed to the usual 25Mbps that's recommended.
- Wi-Fi connectivity: Unlike the Gen 2, you can choose whether you want the Mighty connected to your home network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, but you'll need a robust network for 4K.
- More tweaks: You can record up to six shows while watching one, it has three free-to-air tuners and 3GB of RAM (compared to 2GB on the previous model) to keep things running smoothly.
Other than that, you're still looking at 1TB of storage, which is around 535 hours of recording in standard definition. It's still costing you AU$399 to buy it outright, or there are a few different plans depending on your internet provider. This includes Optus, a long time Fetch partner, which is using the service as a platform for its English Premier League offering.
I'll be getting the Mighty set up to see how it performs and we'll be updating this with some hands-on impressions in the near future.
