Comparing Options for Watching Japanese TV from Overseas

[supabakakun]

Can anyone tell me if there iHome is working well?
When i open my iHome, i can only see white screen.

It is working for me. You may want to restart your router. I see the white sometimes, and after I reboot my router it works again.

[pato]

Can anyone tell me if there iHome is working well?
When i open my iHome, i can only see white screen.

It is working for me. You may want to restart your router. I see the white sometimes, and after I reboot my router it works again.

I try 2 times but nothing change. My internet work as usual but only iHome doesnt want to work.

[pato]

Isn't a white screen displaying after the initial loading screen a symptom of a failing SD Card? I'm sure I read that on this thread.

So do you think i should change the SD card inside?

[pato]

I fix it!

[pato]

After doing diagnosis and reset internet and iHome, it's finally working again.

[kdjtachi65]

I have a few questions for those of you who've been watching Japanese TV from overseas these past few years using IPTV:

as far as I know There are currently 6 Japanese IPTV apk/boxes on the market
Ihome, ihomeII, uchi, hikari, skylive and worldtv,

You can add Maige TV to that list, since you included SkyLive. It's getting some favorable reviews.

is hikari related to FLET'S HIKARI ? Klick

I don't think so. I believe that HIKARI (NEXT) is NTT's fiber-optic broadband service.

Ihome 2 seems perfectly fits my needs.
to those who use it :

I don't currently run an iHome II but I tested the APK for several weeks recently, so I'll pretend to be knowledgeable.

will more Channel Lists be added in the future

From what I've observed, channels are added and removed on a regular basis. I imagine the number and variety of channels will grow due to increasing competition.

is it possible to switch the interface language to englisch

Hmmm. The app's interface was recently updated to mimic the iHome / Uchi TV layout recently. I know Uchi TV's config screen allows you to switch between English, Chinese and Japanese for menu options, dialogue boxes and button labels. If you're asking whether the EPG data (channel, program title) can be displayed in English, I'm gonna say no, but I'd enjoy being proven wrong.

from what I read in this topic Ihome II dont offer the recording Option right? but is it a hardware or a software issue?

Good question. I'm pretty sure the current TV box hardware can handle writing streams to disk, but since most android viewing devices are still tablets and phones (i.e. handhelds), there's probably not a lot of effort in place yet to provide that functionality. Does anyone here know of any android TV boxes with recording capability?

and are someone possibly working on a solution to get this working

It probably will be added down the road as IPTV momentum builds. If you're interested in recording programming right now, several participants in this thread have been using HD recorders with good results, and can probably jump in with suggestions if needed.

[kdjtachi65]

let's see how long this app lasts or remains free. honestly it looks like something that ppl should be paying for compared to options I've seen.

TVAPP is an interesting product. I loaded it up on my Win10 Preview box (call me paranoid, but it's not getting anywhere near my daily driver) and it runs really well. That is an insane number of channels for a free service. Who knew the PRC allowed funny commercials?

It runs OK on my android tablet.

And, of course, it flat-out refuses to run on my (temporarily sanitized) android TV box. By design, based on the discussion forum renarayne pointed us to. Too bad, since I've been in KBS/MBS/SBS withdrawal for weeks now. I can get the ROK live streams through Kodi, but they're only available in pseudo-SD, and now I'm spoiled.

[casnova]

I agree with the post.
Very interesting thanks for sharing.




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[jsternbe]

It appears IHome > Uchi > IHome 2 (Raku) in terms of image quality.

Actually, I have seen ihome in action and I can tell you ihome will blur pretty bad when the picture is in high motion. I am now using Maige 3 and you can take this high motion video that I capture from Maige 3 to compare if ihome can achieve this with the same clarity.

Remember to change to 1080P to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOzQi6_CHg

So after reading some Japanese blogs, it sounds like the Hikari box has slightly inferior quality to the iHome, so that it out for me. The iHome is pretty much minimum acceptable quality. The Maige 3 looks nice, and the subscription is cheap. My question is, what is the actual channel lineup and are all of the channels HD? One page has the following lineup

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf

I am not sure of what is going on with channel 747. Is it AT-X or is it Kid's Station?

Another site shows the following lineup, with completely different channels.

http://www.maigetv.tv/maigetvchannellisting.html

On this one, it indicates that many of the Japanese channels, such as Animax are not HD. Is this true on your box? This version *does* have more channels, though. Maybe you or someone else with the Maige 3 can clear this up.

[Postmastur]

Actually, I have seen ihome in action and I can tell you ihome will blur pretty bad when the picture is in high motion. I am now using Maige 3 and you can take this high motion video that I capture from Maige 3 to compare if ihome can achieve this with the same clarity.

Remember to change to 1080P to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOzQi6_CHg

So after reading some Japanese blogs, it sounds like the Hikari box has slightly inferior quality to the iHome, so that it out for me. The iHome is pretty much minimum acceptable quality. The Maige 3 looks nice, and the subscription is cheap. My question is, what is the actual channel lineup and are all of the channels HD? One page has the following lineup

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf

I am not sure of what is going on with channel 747. Is it AT-X or is it Kid's Station?

Another site shows the following lineup, with completely different channels.

http://www.maigetv.tv/maigetvchannellisting.html

On this one, it indicates that many of the Japanese channels, such as Animax are not HD. Is this true on your box? This version *does* have more channels, though. Maybe you or someone else with the Maige 3 can clear this up.

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf has the correct channel list. And yes, that channel 747 is AT-X. And Animax is not HD, it is in 4/3 ratio. Other than that, I checked all other japanese channels and they are all HD which is has quality I showed in my previous capture.

[pato]

I am testing right now iHome2 from Canada.
Does anyone as freezing problem or tv stop and plays again back and forth?
I guess servers issues,they told me they don't have any servers in Canada yet so i would like to know if other Canadian or American users has does similar issues?
I'm testing with the Android M8 box and i wonder if that box could also be the problem.
I use iHome since 2 years and i don't have any similar issues, only with iHome2.
Thank's in advance!

[jsternbe]

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf has the correct channel list. And yes, that channel 747 is AT-X. And Animax is not HD, it is in 4/3 ratio. Other than that, I checked all other japanese channels and they are all HD which is has quality I showed in my previous capture.

Hmm... It is weird that there is only one channel that is not in HD, but it is possible that you caught one of the older programs that is in 4/3. I wonder what program was playing at the time. Also, I wonder if Kid's Station is available on 749 or 750. Somtimes it has some great old children's programming. It is there on the list, but it doesn't have a number.

[Postmastur]

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf has the correct channel list. And yes, that channel 747 is AT-X. And Animax is not HD, it is in 4/3 ratio. Other than that, I checked all other japanese channels and they are all HD which is has quality I showed in my previous capture.

Hmm... It is weird that there is only one channel that is not in HD, but it is possible that you caught one of the older programs that is in 4/3. I wonder what program was playing at the time. Also, I wonder if Kid's Station is available on 749 or 750. Somtimes it has some great old children's programming. It is there on the list, but it doesn't have a number.

you are indeed correct. The channel itself is HD, but the animation playing is so old that it is in 4/3 format.

There is no 749 or 750 as you can see.

[jsternbe]

you are indeed correct. The channel itself is HD, but the animation playing is so old that it is in 4/3 format.

There is no 749 or 750 as you can see.

Thanks for the information! I am tempted to keep using the iHome and supplement it with a Maige TV, since at $7 a month for the service, it is incredibly cheap.

[frag2]

I am testing right now iHome2 from Canada.
Does anyone as freezing problem or tv stop and plays again back and forth?
I guess servers issues,they told me they don't have any servers in Canada yet so i would like to know if other Canadian or American users has does similar issues?
I'm testing with the Android M8 box and i wonder if that box could also be the problem.
I use iHome since 2 years and i don't have any similar issues, only with iHome2.
Thank's in advance!

Yea Ihome 2 started doing that for me and my android tv box but only on the playback of pvr stuff. live tv was fine

[mikao]

http://www.maigetv.com/HD3_Channels_List.pdf has the correct channel list. And yes, that channel 747 is AT-X. And Animax is not HD, it is in 4/3 ratio. Other than that, I checked all other japanese channels and they are all HD which is has quality I showed in my previous capture.

So there is no kid station with maige hd3 ...?

[pato]

I am testing right now iHome2 from Canada.
Does anyone as freezing problem or tv stop and plays again back and forth?
I guess servers issues,they told me they don't have any servers in Canada yet so i would like to know if other Canadian or American users has does similar issues?
I'm testing with the Android M8 box and i wonder if that box could also be the problem.
I use iHome since 2 years and i don't have any similar issues, only with iHome2.
Thank's in advance!

Yea Ihome 2 started doing that for me and my android tv box but only on the playback of pvr stuff. live tv was fine

Thank's for your reply!
As for me it's doing that on live tv also.

[agoshimamidori]

I recently bought an Android box [MX3 clone with quad core processor, 2gb ram]....anyone try one of the apk's on android stbs?

Yep. I've tested both Raku TV and Uchi TV on an MX3. As long as your Android box is rooted, I wouldn't anticipate any problems.

Nice. Which one did you prefer best? japannettv.com said Raku has poor picture quality compared to Uchi

I bought an Ihome II ( Raku tv ) this month, the picture quality improved a lot compared with the testing before . Now the picture quality is nice , similar to Ihome .
And it supports wifi , very convenient . Also have VOD , some VOD are Chinese languages . I bought it from gina@freesuntv.com.
She is very nice , any one need can contact her for free test .
They also have ihome ip900 , but i prefer to Ihome II , have more channels .

[agoshimamidori]

One thing that i always wonder about iHome or iHome 2... Many sellers but do they all used same servers from China?

I just bought an ihome II , it works perfectly now , very stable , faster than Ihome .
And the seller told me they have over 18 servers all over the world . So each time when activate the account , need to adjust the server in their panel to match the nearest one .
Only one thing , it does not support Record , but it supports 7 days replay and VOD , Wifi .

[agoshimamidori]

I am testing right now iHome2 from Canada.
Does anyone as freezing problem or tv stop and plays again back and forth?
I guess servers issues,they told me they don't have any servers in Canada yet so i would like to know if other Canadian or American users has does similar issues?
I'm testing with the Android M8 box and i wonder if that box could also be the problem.
I use iHome since 2 years and i don't have any similar issues, only with iHome2.
Thank's in advance!

Yea Ihome 2 started doing that for me and my android tv box but only on the playback of pvr stuff. live tv was fine

Thank's for your reply!
As for me it's doing that on live tv also.

I just bought an Ihome , it works well . Before i tested , it has some buffering on some channels , but they said this month added server in USA and Canada , and they adjusted server setting for me , now no problem , very fluent .
Maybe you can contact Gina to have a test again , she is very nice , they can adjust server for you . Her skype ID : gina_2778 .
Hope my comment can help you .

[agoshimamidori]

Does anyone know where to download the android app to iHome?

Ihome is Linux system , cannot add app .
Ihome II is upgrade from Ihome , it is android system , can add app .

[pato]

Thanks agoshimamidori for you reply!
I am testing iHome2 right now with same selling company as you.
Are you using The iHome2 tv box or another? Me i'm using android M8 box so maybe it doesn't help.
Also they said to me they don't have servers in Canada yet.
They did an upgrade yesterday and for now it seems better but still i will test more.

[kdjtachi65]

I bought an Ihome II ( Raku tv ) this month, the picture quality improved a lot compared with the testing before . Now the picture quality is nice , similar to Ihome .

Please tell me the Kanto (Tokyo MX!) and Kansai channels are now crystal clear. Please please please.

[agoshimamidori]

Thanks agoshimamidori for you reply!
I am testing iHome2 right now with same selling company as you.
Are you using The iHome2 tv box or another? Me i'm using android M8 box so maybe it doesn't help.
Also they said to me they don't have servers in Canada yet.
They did an upgrade yesterday and for now it seems better but still i will test more.

Hi , pato , i am buying their box . It has Japanese user manual and remote control .
Any way , you can ask them to adjust server for you to check which server matches best .

[agoshimamidori]

I bought an Ihome II ( Raku tv ) this month, the picture quality improved a lot compared with the testing before . Now the picture quality is nice , similar to Ihome .

Please tell me the Kanto (Tokyo MX!) and Kansai channels are now crystal clear. Please please please.

Japanese channels are full HD in Ihome II now , but the English channels picture quality is not so good .
You can contact them for free test : gina@freesuntv.com

[agoshimamidori]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

[Postmastur]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

Would like to see the image quality on ihome II. Could you record a clip (5 mins) by replaying today Music Station from Asahi TV, Friday at 8 PM? And then upload to dailymotion.com? Thanks.

[pato]

I decided to buy ihome 2 yesterday.
I hope will get it fast.
I will update about it in near furure.

[pato]

By the way, when i test the ihome 2 apk, i did not feel that all channels are HD. Some are really good but some are low quality!
Anyway ounce i will get my ihome 2 tv box i will make a review.

[agoshimamidori]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

Would like to see the image quality on ihome II. Could you record a clip (5 mins) by replaying today Music Station from Asahi TV, Friday at 8 PM? And then upload to dailymotion.com? Thanks.

[Postmastur]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

Would like to see the image quality on ihome II. Could you record a clip (5 mins) by replaying today Music Station from Asahi TV, Friday at 8 PM? And then upload to dailymotion.com? Thanks.

Video link : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vmerx
Since i am too busy , so I kindly ask the seller Gina (Nice girl )to take vdieo and upload for you .
She told the the video is not very clear , because it was compressed automatically when upload.

I can't tell if it is better than Maige TV because it's recorded from a phone camera...not directly from computer capture card , which kind of hard to tell the actual quality. However, I am pretty sure it is better than ihome IP900 becasue it doesn't blur like the ihome IP900 does on fast motion. I wonder how much it cost for re-newal after 1 year?

[agoshimamidori]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

Would like to see the image quality on ihome II. Could you record a clip (5 mins) by replaying today Music Station from Asahi TV, Friday at 8 PM? And then upload to dailymotion.com? Thanks.

The renewal cost is around 140 dollors each time . Since I am not selling it , so you can confirm price with Gina .She can tell you final price . gina@freesuntv.com .

[pato]

When i was testing the ihome II apk, i find that yes it doesn't blur like ihome IP900 when i was watching music video.
I can't wait to get mine!

[frag2]

Since I was using Ihome IP900 before , now using Ihome II , I think follow are the important difference between them .
Ihome IP900 and Ihome II comparsion :
1. System ( Ihome IP900 : Linux system ; Ihome II : Android system)
2.Live channels ( Ihome IP900 : 36 Japanese channels ;Ihome II : 59 Japanese channels +14 English channels )
3.HD channels (Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
4.7 days replay ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : Yes)
5.Record ( Ihome IP900 : Yes ; Ihome II : NO)
6.Wifi ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
7.VOD ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
8.Free apk for test ( Ihome IP900 : NO ; Ihome II : Yes)
9.Price ( Ihome IP900 : Around 280 dollors ; Ihome II : Around 230 dollors with box)

Would like to see the image quality on ihome II. Could you record a clip (5 mins) by replaying today Music Station from Asahi TV, Friday at 8 PM? And then upload to dailymotion.com? Thanks.

The renewal cost is around 140 dollors each time . Since I am not selling it , so you can confirm price with Gina .She can tell you final price . gina@freesuntv.com .

You sure sound like you are selling it


I still think from testing, I prefer World TV. It has the best picture quality out of the android apps IMO and interface is extremely snappy. I'm on wifi as well in Canada

[agoshimamidori]

I am not selling it, just interested in it, and communicate the seller well , would love to recommend her.I also tested World TV before, it with high picture quality, but it seems only have 5 days or 6 days replay.

[sound]

Someone pointed this out to me yesterday:

Has Japanese shows uploaded within an hour or so after airing for streaming (or at least by the end of the day, they come with the Japanese commercials of course because it looks like it's mostly automated):

http://www.miomio.tv/ent/japan/

Not amazing quality (in the area of around 430p to 450p from some of the ones I've checked, some have very low resolutions though like around 200p) but it's nice to be able to pick a show that you want to watch quickly (they have a huge archive there too).

The cool thing about it is that you can actually download them too because they're just FLV files. Use an extension for your browser like VideoDownloadHelper for Firefox or something like that - ignore any mp4 files or whatever as those might be video ads in the embedded player.

Anyway it's like a nice online VOD site for Japanese shows each day (serves as a nice backup - especially if you don't want to mess around with recording some shows but want to watch them later, etc. Saves a lot of time)

I'd also recommend using Adblock Plus for Firefox or Chrome if anyone isn't aware of it (it blocks ads on sites like this and makes webpages load faster because there's not a lot of ads to load - it also blocks video ads on sites like YouTube).

[renarayne]

In that vein there are various directory sites that link to new uploads on MioMio, FC2, Youku, Dailymotion and others. Here's some for comedian / variety shows.

http://owaraimovielink.blog136.fc2.com/
http://youtubeowaraitv.blog32.fc2.com
http://youtubewara.blog10.fc2.com
http://bobscat.blog.fc2.com

Only drawback is I found they mainly upload more mainstream stuff and skip a lot of regional shows (unless a popular celebrity is on it).

[snakeaka]

Hello everyone! I just bought an ihome2 from japannettv, it arrived today and I'm looking forward to hooking it up. Thank you all for posting on here and giving great advice, the reason I went with this one is because of the wifi capabilities and the local Kansai stations. I will give a full review once I have it installed and working for a few days.

[kdjtachi65]

This is off-topic, for which I apologize, but since TVAPP.so was recently referenced in this thread [glances toward the UK], I thought I'd mention this to anyone who might be interested in watching Asian TV in general.

It's a playlist of about a hundred live Asian channels, mostly Chinese with a smattering of Thai, Taiwanese, and others. Resolution is a mixed bag, mostly 720p and 480p. It's not a properly formatted m3u, but it works just fine in Kodi, VLC, etc.

Obviously, if it's not legal in your locale to watch-- blah blah blah

[supabakakun]

This evening I was switched to the Kids Station on iHome II and noticed that there was a chinese movie playing instead of Pokemon. (Please don't judge me ) I switch back to Kid Station and Pokemon was playing. It makes me wonder how many channels can the iHome II extend to. One morning it crashed on me, and I saw the URL it was accessing when it crashed on my TV.

The sad thing is that it wasn't using HTTPS, and it was passing my user id in the URL. I played around on the URL on my computer, but stop because I didn't want to mark my account suspect on their end.

[jsternbe]

I just got the Maige TV HD3 to supplement the original iHome. My impressions so far is that it has a lot of great movies and dramas, and the quality is very good. In fact, it looks better than the iHome for everything except for old anime that has lots of flat colors in it. The biggest annoyances I have found so far are in the 7 day playback. All of the programming seems to miss the first several seconds of the show. Furthermore, playback always seems to stutter for the first minute or so. After that, it is usually just fine. My ping for the external network access check is about 230 ms, while everything else is much lower, so it could just be that everyone is hammering the servers at this time of day. It would be nice if it would buffer for a little longer since things do eventually smooth out.

I also wish I knew what the latest firmware is supposed to be . I am running version 0.90.

[sound]

I just got the Maige TV HD3 to supplement the original iHome. My impressions so far is that it has a lot of great movies and dramas, and the quality is very good. In fact, it looks better than the iHome for everything except for old anime that has lots of flat colors in it. The biggest annoyances I have found so far are in the 7 day playback. All of the programming seems to miss the first several seconds of the show. Furthermore, playback always seems to stutter for the first minute or so. After that, it is usually just fine. My ping for the external network access check is about 230 ms, while everything else is much lower, so it could just be that everyone is hammering the servers at this time of day. It would be nice if it would buffer for a little longer since things do eventually smooth out.

I also wish I knew what the latest firmware is supposed to be . I am running version 0.90.

Yeah, the quality is pretty cool.

It may be the time of day that you're accessing, are you using wifi by the way because that may be a factor too.
I'm using ethernet but I've occasionally noticed it stutter when using the 7 day playback though too when you first click on a show but it's fine after that. If you pause it for like 5-10 seconds when you start it it'll play fine with no stuttering (so it buffers), I'm not sure what the problem there is but it may be some sort of throttle they implement at certain times of the day for their servers or, yeah, probably just a lot of people accessing them at that time.

You could always just email them about the firmware stuff but if you've just received one I'm guessing they probably sent you one with the latest version already.

This is off-topic, for which I apologize, but since TVAPP.so was recently referenced in this thread [glances toward the UK], I thought I'd mention this to anyone who might be interested in watching Asian TV in general.

It's a playlist of about a hundred live Asian channels, mostly Chinese with a smattering of Thai, Taiwanese, and others. Resolution is a mixed bag, mostly 720p and 480p. It's not a properly formatted m3u, but it works just fine in Kodi, VLC, etc.

Obviously, if it's not legal in your locale to watch-- blah blah blah

Awesome, thanks.

There's an official app from CNTV for Chinese channels if people want to watch those (has lots of channels - I think like around 50 or 60 when I checked a long time ago).

Windows: http://cbox.cntv.cn/
iPhone/iPad/Android: http://cbox.cntv.cn/pad/index.shtml

[jsternbe]

You could always just email them about the firmware stuff but if you've just received one I'm guessing they probably sent you one with the latest version already.

Can you tell me what firmware you have on your box? It might be that it autoupdates, but it is not clear and I am not sure if anyone at maigetv.com speaks any English.

[supabakakun]

My MaigeTV version is .90 with a UI version of .81. For some reason I thought it did get updated, but I could be mistaken. MaigeTV is really cool, and I do find the missing the first few seconds of the show a little frustration. Hulu took off the last episodes of the Flash TV series before I could watch, so I was happy that I was able to catch up via the Maige. It is also cool that some of the movies available are still being show in the theaters. I still wish it has the Star Channels

The people at MaigeTV.com communicate with good English.

[kdjtachi65]

So, to recap (because this thread is getting mighty long, and new choices keep cropping up)

As of 01 July 2015, we have the following Japanese TV viewing options available:
(The prices and features may not be accurate; please correct any errors you find.
The number of channels listed are Japanese only)

I'm including MioMio.tv even though it doesn't offer *live* programming; NTKTV had the same
limitation but it was definitely a reasonable choice (picture quality notwithstanding)

Speakng of terrible PQ, is KeyholeTV still out there?

In no particular order:
(currency is USD)

Software:

JpPlayer (Win): 42 live channels, $0 purchase, $200 annual subscription, no playback
MioMio.TV (Win): various recorded channels, free to use
iHome Windows (Win): 42 live channels, $290 purchase, $250 annual subscription, playback
TVAPP.so (Win,IOS,Android): 8 live channels, free to use
NijiShow (Win): 8 live channels, free to use


Hardware:

Sling rental: various live channels, ??? annual subscription, playback available
iHome (linux): 36 live channels, $350 purchase, $240 annual renewal, playback & record to HDD
Hikari (linux): 50 live channels, $300 purchase, $180 annual renewal, playback & VOD
WorldTV* (android): 40 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback
Uchi TV* (android): 35 live channels, $290 purchase, $170 annual renewal, playback
iHome II* (android): 59 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback & VOD
SkyLive* (android): 53 live channels, $255 purchase, $135 annual renewal, no playback
TVPad4 (android): 24 live channels, $328 purchase, ??? annual renewal, no playback

* available as APK only for approx $80-$100 savings

Did I forget anything? I did, didn't I?

[agoshimamidori]

So, to recap (because this thread is getting mighty long, and new choices keep cropping up)

As of 01 July 2015, we have the following Japanese TV viewing options available:
(The prices and features may not be accurate; please correct any errors you find.
The number of channels listed are Japanese only)

I'm including MioMio.tv even though it doesn't offer *live* programming; NTKTV had the same
limitation but it was definitely a reasonable choice (picture quality notwithstanding)

Speakng of terrible PQ, is KeyholeTV still out there?

In no particular order:
(currency is USD)

Software:

JpPlayer (Win): 42 live channels, $0 purchase, $200 annual subscription, no playback
MioMio.TV (Win): various recorded channels, free to use
iHome Windows (Win): 42 live channels, $290 purchase, $250 annual subscription, playback
TVAPP.so (Win,IOS,Android): 8 live channels, free to use
NijiShow (Win): 8 live channels, free to use


Hardware:

Sling rental: various live channels, ??? annual subscription, playback available
iHome (linux): 36 live channels, $350 purchase, $240 annual renewal, playback & record to HDD
Hikari (linux): 50 live channels, $300 purchase, $180 annual renewal, playback & VOD
WorldTV* (android): 40 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback
Uchi TV* (android): 35 live channels, $290 purchase, $170 annual renewal, playback
iHome II* (android): 59 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback & VOD
SkyLive* (android): 53 live channels, $255 purchase, $135 annual renewal, no playback
TVPad4 (android): 24 live channels, $328 purchase, ??? annual renewal, no playback

* available as APK only for approx $80-$100 savings

Did I forget anything? I did, didn't I?

I bought Ihome IP900 and Ihome II from Chinese supplier before .
(1)iHome (linux): 36 live channels, about $270 all cost purchase,about $200 annual renewal, playback & record to HDD ;
(2)iHome II* (android): 59 live Japanese channels + 14 English channels ,about $230 all cost purchase ,about $140 annual renewal, playback&VOD ;
(3)World tv i only tested before ,maybe now changed a little :
For live TV, it has 50 channels. For playback, it only has 42 channels .
about $240 purchase, $150 annual renewal ;

[sarabjeet]

Hi guys,

TVAPP.so (Win,IOS,Android): 8 live channels, free to use

use it work fine, 1 question if anyone can answer it is constantly uploading data which i find it odd. can anyone clarify why it must do that.

[sound]

So, to recap (because this thread is getting mighty long, and new choices keep cropping up)

As of 01 July 2015, we have the following Japanese TV viewing options available:
(The prices and features may not be accurate; please correct any errors you find.
The number of channels listed are Japanese only)

I'm including MioMio.tv even though it doesn't offer *live* programming; NTKTV had the same
limitation but it was definitely a reasonable choice (picture quality notwithstanding)

Speakng of terrible PQ, is KeyholeTV still out there?

In no particular order:
(currency is USD)

Software:

JpPlayer (Win): 42 live channels, $0 purchase, $200 annual subscription, no playback
MioMio.TV (Win): various recorded channels, free to use
iHome Windows (Win): 42 live channels, $290 purchase, $250 annual subscription, playback
TVAPP.so (Win,IOS,Android): 8 live channels, free to use
NijiShow (Win): 8 live channels, free to use


Hardware:

Sling rental: various live channels, ??? annual subscription, playback available
iHome (linux): 36 live channels, $350 purchase, $240 annual renewal, playback & record to HDD
Hikari (linux): 50 live channels, $300 purchase, $180 annual renewal, playback & VOD
WorldTV* (android): 40 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback
Uchi TV* (android): 35 live channels, $290 purchase, $170 annual renewal, playback
iHome II* (android): 59 live channels, $300 purchase, $190 annual renewal, playback & VOD
SkyLive* (android): 53 live channels, $255 purchase, $135 annual renewal, no playback
TVPad4 (android): 24 live channels, $328 purchase, ??? annual renewal, no playback

* available as APK only for approx $80-$100 savings

Did I forget anything? I did, didn't I?

MioMio is platform independent, it's not just for Windows as it works in a browser. Also maybe change it to various recorded programmes and maybe mention that they have a huge archive of shows going back to 2012.

You mentioned sling rental, does anyone know of a good slingbox service?

[jsternbe]

My MaigeTV version is .90 with a UI version of .81. For some reason I thought it did get updated, but I could be mistaken. MaigeTV is really cool, and I do find the missing the first few seconds of the show a little frustration. Hulu took off the last episodes of the Flash TV series before I could watch, so I was happy that I was able to catch up via the Maige. It is also cool that some of the movies available are still being show in the theaters. I still wish it has the Star Channels

The people at MaigeTV.com communicate with good English.

That is what mine says. It probably auto-updates, but there just isn't a lot of documentation that I can find. I am glad that the Maigetv.com folks can communicate in English. I have ordered things from China before where the communication was difficult. I can communicate in English and get by in Japanese (but I am rusty), but I don't know any Chinese at all. When it is written in simplified Chinese characters, I don't even recognize the characters to try to figure out the meaning.

[kdjtachi65]

Ah! I knew I forgot something.

MaigeTV: Hardware (linux), Purchase=$320USD, annual renewal=$85USD, 46 live channels, playback & VOD

[jsternbe]

Ah! I knew I forgot something.

MaigeTV: Hardware (linux), Purchase=$320USD, annual renewal=$85USD, 46 live channels, playback & VOD

It looks like there are 47 Japanese channels. They added Fuji TV NEXT on channel 784. You might count Gold Sun TV on channel 242 to bring it to 48. It is a Taiwanese station that is devoted to Japanese programming. It is in Japanese with Chinese subtitles. It seems to have some odd programming. Last night they were playing a drama where there was a long scene of a cat sitting in a garden with a voice over (as the cat) complaining about how hot it was outside. I am not sure of what the program was called because the name was written in Chinese, but there seems to be a few programs on that station with a cat as one of the characters.

[frag2]

Hi guys,

TVAPP.so (Win,IOS,Android): 8 live channels, free to use

use it work fine, 1 question if anyone can answer it is constantly uploading data which i find it odd. can anyone clarify why it must do that.

TVApp at least the mobile app was detected as possible Trojan so probably want to be safe with that

[frag2]

I'm still wondering if anyone can dump the SakuraTV apk from the Korean/Japanese TVpad4. Apparently its the live TV app similar to NijiTV

[pato]

i got my ihome 2 tv box today!
It took 7 days for delivery so i think it was really fast.
Now i have been using it for a few hours. Untill now i love it.
I hope it will stay this way!

[jdl0523]

Does anyone have a company that they recommends(have used) that is reliable for an iHome II? Right now I was thinking about
https://japannettv.com/, but saw some reference to a Gina on here but not sure what company that was referring to. I would like to use a company that is reliable and will be available for renewing subscription.

[tonydiediedie]

Hi! Im a newbie, and im just wondering, what device, or online service, would i need to watch japanese tv, especially i really want to know which device or service would i need to watch Japanese Adult Entertaiment, ADULT VOD?

[tonydiediedie]

:D i got my ihome 2 tv box today!
It took 7 days for delivery so i think it was really fast.
Now i have been using it for a few hours. Untill now i love it.
I hope it will stay this way!

Whats the channel list, and is there an adult japanese package?

[pato]

:D i got my ihome 2 tv box today!
It took 7 days for delivery so i think it was really fast.
Now i have been using it for a few hours. Untill now i love it.
I hope it will stay this way!

Whats the channel list, and is there an adult japanese package?

Here you can see the channel list: http://www.freesuntv.com/news_info.asp?id=7
There is no adult channels.

[pato]

Hi! Im a newbie, and im just wondering, what device, or online service, would i need to watch japanese tv, especially i really want to know which device or service would i need to watch Japanese Adult Entertaiment, ADULT VOD?

With this you can watch adult channels but i never try so i don't know if it's good.
https://japannettv.com/shop/index.php?r ... duct_id=57

[pato]

Does anyone have a company that they recommends(have used) that is reliable for an iHome II? Right now I was thinking about
https://japannettv.com/, but saw some reference to a Gina on here but not sure what company that was referring to. I would like to use a company that is reliable and will be available for renewing subscription.

I got mine from: http://www.freesuntv.com/
I recommend the seller Yetta. She's really nice, her english is good.
You will get a great service.
Please let her know that Patrick from Canada recommend her.
Take care!

[tonydiediedie]

I'll jump in here, since I'm also in the middle of testing out new prospects.

After NTKTV went dark, I started looking around for a replacement. I already had Niji Show, and did a 1-day jpPlayer test. Since neither offered time-shifting, and were both full-screen locked to my primary monitor (minus the VLC workaround for Niji), I decided to keep looking.

I purchased an MXIII android box (quad-core, 4.4.2, 1GB/8GB) for about $60 off Amazon, and acquired both the Uchi TV and Raku TV/iHome II apks from the nice folks at japannettv.com for testing. Both services claim to perform well with a minimum 2mbps connection. I have 6mbps DSL, so I was eager to see what sort of results I'd get.

Uchi TV worked perfectly after install and account activation (24 hrs.) Both live and playback streams looked and sounded good. No lag, no buffering, no audio synch issues. It's priced at $180 for the apk which includes a 1 year subscription.

Raku TV/iHome II had major issues after install (one week test account.) Often live streams and playblack streams wouldn't start. The menus and submenus often wouldn't respond to remote button presses, and the interface often froze. When the streams did play, they were comparable to Uchi TV in picture and sound quality. With its greater number of channels, including Tokyo MX and KBS World, I was hoping this option would work out, and was bitterly disappointed. Raku TV is $198 for the apk, and also includes a 1 year subscription.

Not ready to give up, and suspecting some sort of commucation issue, I troubleshot with the sales dept at japannettv.com. I'd noticed that on the live stream menu, the channels would only begin streaming when a little status line at the bottom of the screen would display the current/next program info (time, program title).

On the playback menu, the channels, dates and times often weren't updating. Both of these problems, to me, pointed to the app not receiving the proper EPG data, or at least not receiving it quickly enouth. Japannettv emailed me a portion of the app's user manual describing how to use the system and server setup menu, which basically amounted to changing which particular EPG server my android box was talking to. That was the fix it needed. No more freezes, every live and playback stream played perfectly.

I also did a quick test of the VOD service, which turned out to be hit-or-miss. Four streams started up fine, two others never got past the 95% buffering stage. Not a deal breaker for me, but I thought I'd pass that along.

So, if you're having issues with iHome II during testing, tweaking the system settings may address them. Shoot an email to your seller and they should be able to get it sorted.

Sorry if this was a little long-winded, but I'd hate for anyone to pass on what seems to be a great option for viewing Japanese TV because of an easily-fixed program setting. I decided to go with iHome II.

wow thanks for this review, how did you get a test account? also i saw a package apk for 190, and it has a adult section, are these the legendary japanese adult channels, or are they other type of adult channels?

[tonydiediedie]

Hi! Im a newbie, and im just wondering, what device, or online service, would i need to watch japanese tv, especially i really want to know which device or service would i need to watch Japanese Adult Entertaiment, ADULT VOD?

With this you can watch adult channels but i never try so i don't know if it's good.
https://japannettv.com/shop/index.php?r ... duct_id=57

thank you, i sall look into this, and find out what adult channels they have, many thanks!!

[jdl0523]

Does anyone have a company that they recommends(have used) that is reliable for an iHome II? Right now I was thinking about
https://japannettv.com/, but saw some reference to a Gina on here but not sure what company that was referring to. I would like to use a company that is reliable and will be available for renewing subscription.

I got mine from: http://www.freesuntv.com/
I recommend the seller Yetta. She's really nice, her english is good.
You will get a great service.
Please let her know that Patrick from Canada recommend her.
Take care!

Thank you Patrick. Is this an iHome II or something else? I went to their website, but it looks like they have a different product. Can you elaborate on your system and experience? Thank you

[kdjtachi65]

Thank you Patrick. Is this an iHome II or something else? I went to their website, but it looks like they have a different product. Can you elaborate on your system and experience? Thank you

Freesun is also on Alibaba. Try Here.

[djandy76]

Jumping back to earlier in this thread, has anyone managed to get the TVapp APK to work on their android box? I got the APK installed, but when I try to launch it I get a message telling me the app isn't compatible. Thanks in advance for any pointers!

[pato]

Does anyone have a company that they recommends(have used) that is reliable for an iHome II? Right now I was thinking about
https://japannettv.com/, but saw some reference to a Gina on here but not sure what company that was referring to. I would like to use a company that is reliable and will be available for renewing subscription.

I got mine from: http://www.freesuntv.com/
I recommend the seller Yetta. She's really nice, her english is good.
You will get a great service.
Please let her know that Patrick from Canada recommend her.
Take care!

Thank you Patrick. Is this an iHome II or something else? I went to their website, but it looks like they have a different product. Can you elaborate on your system and experience? Thank you

Yes it's the ihome II!
They also have the ihome 1.
I have both system, what would you like to know on my experience?

[pato]

Jumping back to earlier in this thread, has anyone managed to get the TVapp APK to work on their android box? I got the APK installed, but when I try to launch it I get a message telling me the app isn't compatible. Thanks in advance for any pointers!

Wich APK are you talking about?

[djandy76]

I meant the one from from the tvapp.so site. I downloaded it to my Android box via a different website (kept getting an error from the main site saying I needed iOS7 or above, which made no sense as I surely that's an Apple-device-related issue). It installed fine, but upon launch I get the error telling me the app isn't compatible with my Android box. Is there a workaround at all?

[sarabjeet]

TVapp.so its APK has virus/trojan/malware. yes virustotal says so.
so i was wondering what does TVApp's windows App uploads, maybe its for p2p or actually stealing data

[pato]

Now i have been using my ihome II since friday. In general it's not so bad untill today. This morning i get so much freezing with live tv or sometimes when i change channels i get stuck at 99%. I'm glad i have my ihome IP900 as a second option. I don't understand why they dont do a ihome IP900 with more channels? Even if that was more expensive, i would buy.

[Postmastur]

Now i have been using my ihome II since friday. In general it's not so bad untill today. This morning i get so much freezing with live tv or sometimes when i change channels i get stuck at 99%. I'm glad i have my ihome IP900 as a second option. I don't understand why they dont do a ihome IP900 with more channels? Even if that was more expensive, i would buy.

It is because ihome i900 and ihome II have no relationship at all. They are two different company.

[pato]

Now i have been using my ihome II since friday. In general it's not so bad untill today. This morning i get so much freezing with live tv or sometimes when i change channels i get stuck at 99%. I'm glad i have my ihome IP900 as a second option. I don't understand why they dont do a ihome IP900 with more channels? Even if that was more expensive, i would buy.

It is because ihome i900 and ihome II have no relationship at all. They are two different company.

I know but what i mean is why the ihome company doesn't make one offering more channels.
Now i'm thinking to buy hikari tv box but the only down point for me, it doesn't have music japan tv and fighting tv channels.

[supabakakun]

Now i have been using my ihome II since friday. In general it's not so bad untill today. This morning i get so much freezing with live tv or sometimes when i change channels i get stuck at 99%. I'm glad i have my ihome IP900 as a second option. I don't understand why they dont do a ihome IP900 with more channels? Even if that was more expensive, i would buy.

It is because ihome i900 and ihome II have no relationship at all. They are two different company.

I know but what i mean is why the ihome company doesn't make one offering more channels.
Now i'm thinking to buy hikari tv box but the only down point for me, it doesn't have music japan tv and fighting tv channels.

iHome II is very finicky. I had the same issue issue of live TV getting stuck at 99%. I ran through the configuration to find the servers again, and live TV started working for me. [I just checked now, and it live tv is back to being stuck at 99% ] I often swap between iHome, iHome II, and MaigeTV because some days the image quality isn't good on one box and will be better on the other. I was surprised that the Japanese vs UK Woman World Cup live signal looked best on iHome than it did on MaigeTV and iHome II. There wasn't bad pixelation. If the action doesn't involve a lot of greenery or flashing lights, iHome looks decent.

[risu]

I know but what i mean is why the ihome company doesn't make one offering more channels.

They have a certain bandwith to broadcast theirs channels.
When you increase the number of channels with the same bandwith you must reduce the quality/service.
Simple as that.

[agoshimamidori]

Does anyone have a company that they recommends(have used) that is reliable for an iHome II? Right now I was thinking about
https://japannettv.com/, but saw some reference to a Gina on here but not sure what company that was referring to. I would like to use a company that is reliable and will be available for renewing subscription.

I got mine from Freesun TV. over one year ago , i bought ihome ip900 from them , with good service . Just last month , i bought Ihome II .
This is android Ihome II link :
http://fctv.en.alibaba.com/product/60244903423-801596016/Android_Japanese_IPTV_box_with_apk_for_free_test_total_72_channels.html
This is Ihome IP900 link :
http://fctv.en.alibaba.com/product/60263603300-801596016/Ihome_IP900_Japan_Tv_Box_ihome_IPTV_japan_with_36_full_hd_Japanese_channels.html
Hope can help you .