Lookee

TEST REPORT IPTV Receiver

Lookee
TV-Box
• very comfortable to use
• can be connected to a HD
monitor for high resolution
viewing
• doubles as alarm clock when in
standby
• ideal for anyone living away
from their home country
• Universal Plug and Play enabled

96 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 1
1-12/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com 1-12/2012 — TELE-satellite International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志
www.TELE-satellite.com — 1 97

TEST REPORT IPTV Receiver

The All-Inclusive Internet Talent
The LookeeTV box meas- CVBS video and stereo audio ply, the manufacturer also the Apps on a SmartPhone.
ures a mere 125 x 55.9 x outputs and last but not least includes in the package a Selecting “Settings” lets
257.5 mm in size and its a jack to connect the includ- CVBS/stereo audio cable and the user choose a desired
front panel is dominated ed FM antenna with the Loo- a mini-USB cable to link the language (the box supports
by a high-resolution 7” TFT keeTV box. The on/off but- box with a PC. All in all, the English, German, French,
display in 16:9 format. To ton can be found on the top overall workmanship of all simple and traditional Chi-
the left and right of the dis- of the box and is therefore the hardware left us with a nese as well as Hebrew) and
play are speakers rated at 2 very easy to reach. very good impression. access the home network
watts. The remote control in- connection settings.
The rear panel at first cluded by the manufacturer In order to be able to use all
glance doesn’t seem all too completely fulfills all of the of the LookeeTV box’s func- We liked the fact that in
impressive; there’s just an requirements that would tions, the first step would addition to the RJ45 inter-
arrow ring button as well be placed on it and also in be to create a link with your face, the manufacturer also
as three buttons to operate terms of its workmanship, router or high-speed modem included a WiFi receiver so
the TV box without a remote ergonomics and the labeling so that the box can operate that wireless connections
control. of the buttons. with an Internet connection. can be set up. All of the nec-
A detailed manual guides To that end, all you need to essary functions, such as,
It’s only when you open up the user step-by-step do is take a look at the 18 WEP or WPA2 encryption
a small flap on the rear panel through all of the functions of different choices in the main are available while the SSID
that the box reveals all of its the box; the box also comes menu whose entries are ar- of the desired WLAN can be
various connections. These with a very logical and easy ranged in a similar fashion to entered manually or the box
consist of an HDMI output, to understand OSD such that
an RJ45 network jack, a mini most users could easily get
USB port (also serves as the by without the user manual.
power input), a headphone In addition to the remote
jack, an SD card reader, control and the power sup-
0.54

1-12/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

1 6 11

can search for it automati- The various settings are
cally. further enhanced by an Auto
The acquisition of the re- Power Off function that will
quired IP data via DHCP is turn off the box after a pre-
for the most part standard set time span. There’s also
today and is of course also the ability to update the
supported by the LookeeTV LookeeTV box’s firmware or
box. Nevertheless, these return the box to its default
parameters can be entered settings via the Internet or
manually if needed. Even a via a local storage device.
connection set up with a DSL
2 or cable provider via PPPoE Next to all of these set- 7 12
is supported. tings parameters, the menu
selection “TV Out” instantly
The LookeeTV box comes caught our eyes. Here the
with an integrated screen user can decide if the signal
saver that converts the TFT from the box should be dis-
display into a radio alarm played on the small integrat-
clock with a large time and ed TFT monitor or if it should
date display. The alarm time be routed to the two outputs
can also be set in the Set- (CVBS and HDMI) on the rear
tings menu where you’ll find panel. Unfortunately, it’s not
two alarm timers available. possible to have both at the
The necessary time signal same time.
3 can be received by the box In our tests we were able 8 13
via the Internet; the user to connect the box to a 42”
then simply needs to enter in LED monitor via the HDMI
the time difference for his lo- port as well as via the CVBS
cation. If the Internet is not jacks and thus be able to
available or if the user for enjoy the signal on a large
some reason wants to enter display. While the display via
in the time and date manu- CVBS was not quite optimal,
ally, this capability is also the HDMI display in 720p HD
available. was especially pleasing to
the eye. Even the small 7”
1, 2, 3, 4. Lookee TV-Box Main TFT monitor was bolstered
Menu
by brilliant colors, high con-
4 5. The LookeeTV App sorts the 9 14
channels by country/region, trast and interference-free
genre and language image construction.
6. You can even search by
keywords
7. Results of a search for Now let’s take a closer look
“travel” at the individual functions
8. Before playback begins, and Apps in the LookeeTV
the box stores a portion
of the video signal in its box: Lookee TV and Lookee
buffer memory to cover Radio. These two programs
any momentary connection
dropouts are the central components
9. Playback of a TV channel of the LookeeTV box and
from Iraq even have their own dedi-
10. 4:3 channels can be
expanded into 16:9 format cated access buttons on the
5 11. It’s recommended to play remote control. 10 15
back a channel in its original Both of them contain pre-
resolution especially if the
picture quality isn’t optimal pared lists from the manu-
12. Radio channels are also facturer with all Internet-
sorted by country/region, genre based freely receivable TV
and language
and radio stations from
13. A total of 39 genres are
available to choose from every possible region of the
14. Nepal FM 91.8 on the world. These lists can be
LookeeTV Box via Internet
stream sorted by country and re-
15. The channel selection with gion as well as by genre and
Shoutcast is nearly unlimited language for a better over-
view of what’s available. Add
to that a search function as


16

well as the ability to place fa- correct aspect ratio or in full-
vorite channels in their own screen mode with stretched
list. 4:3 broadcasts.
While looking through the During playback, the cur-
lists we could hardly contain rently running channel can
ourselves; the regional over- be paused at any time al-
view included entries from though a time shift function
Africa, Asia, America, Eu- is not available.
rope, Oceania and the Near
East. Each of these regions We were also surprised at
is then sub-divided into indi- the number of available ra-
17 vidual countries. dio stations. Regardless if it
All of the TV and radio is Radio Maria Tanzania, The
broadcasters in the lists Voice of Russia or Maitri 99.4
could easily be accessed. FM from Nepal, the selection
This speaks for the care that was essentially unlimited.
LookeeTV put into these The video and audio qual-
lists; obviously, the company ity of each channel depends,
doesn’t provide all of these as suggested earlier, entirely
services directly, rather, on the individual provider.
they simply collect all of the All-in-all though, we only
content distributed by the found a few TV channels and
broadcasters and place them almost no radio channels
all in one large database. where the picture and audio
18 Once a channel has been quality would be something
chosen, the box creates a to complain about.
connection via the Internet Thanks to the really enor-
with the appropriate server mous selection of channels,
from the provider and begins the LookeeTV box would be
to show the content. ideal for anyone living away
This process, depending from their home country
on the Internet connection who is searching for TV and
speed and on the selected radio channels from home.
channel, can take as long The free Internet stream-
as ten seconds although on ing service Shoutcast from
average the user will see the Nullsoft is a familiar name
first picture much sooner to most radio fans and so
19
than that. it only made sense that the
LookeeTV box was also fit-
During playback there are ted with the Shoutcast App.
numerous options available It provides hundreds of ra-
for the user, for example, dio streams from all over
how the received picture the world sorted into a to-
should be displayed. Many tal of 36 main categories. It
broadcasters still transmit in doesn’t matter if you’re look-
4:3 format and some of the ing for modern country mu-
content is even transmit- sic, oldies, classical music,
ted in poor quality. The user techno, pop or other music
has the choice of watching styles, you’ll be able to find
20 it all in its original size, in a what you’re looking for.
zoomed-in version with the
On top of that there are
16. Videos, music and also the hundreds of radio
pictures stored internally or
on an SD card can be made stations that don’t have a
available specific music format but of-
17. Videos, music and pictures fer rather a mixed format.
from an SD card
Our tests of the Shoutcast
18. Playback of WMV videos
19. An overview of our test App showed that it func-
videos in their various tioned without any prob-
formats
lems. We especially liked
20. MP4 HD playback
that if a particular channel
only played back audio, you


21
6 26 31

could exit the respective App data.
without any interruption in If you have a stereo sys-
the audio playback. After tem, you can enjoy the audio
pressing the OK button, the output from the box through
user can go back to the main the stereo system thanks to
menu and start up other ser- the stereo audio outputs. In
vices on the box while the other cases the little speak-
music continues to play in ers on the LookeeTV box
the background. have to take over; we were
actually quite surprised at
Podcasts have become a the audio quality in our tests.
22 27 trend in the Internet and it’s 32
not only large companies, In addition to the internal
authorities, governments memory, the manufacturer
and celebrities that use this thought of yet another two
luxury to make public infor- ways to supply the LookeeTV
mation in the form of pic- box with content. One way
tures with audio or just audio would be the SD card reader
all by itself, more and more on the rear panel that in our
private users are taking ad- tests allowed content on an
vantage of this service and 8 GB SD card to be played
creating their own themed back.
podcasts. It could be the lat- The other method is the
est pasta recipe or it could UPnP function. With Uni-
23 28 be something even more se- versal Plug and Play (UPnP) 33
rious such as current reports it involves an overlapping
of the political situation in standard of devices that can
countries where the local be used to further distribute
media doesn’t always tell it video and audio content as
like it is. well as pictures via the In-
In all, the LookeeTV box’s ternet.
podcast function offers ac- Since this function is al-
cess to hundreds of freely ready integrated into the
available podcasts that are Windows Media Player, users
sorted into 43 different cat- with a Windows PC can make
egories. And if you’re having their entire media collection
a hard time choosing, you
24 29 can simply call up the list of
34
21. Blubrry access
most popular providers with 22. Lookee Sound
names like BBC. 23. Lookee Sound title display
24. Playback of a song via
The LookeeTV box comes Lookee Sound
25. Hundreds of freely available
with an integrated 1.14 GB titles are available through the
storage device. Audio, vid- Inmoo video service
eo and picture files can be 26. A portion of the Inmoo titles
in the Comedy category
transferred to the box via
27. Inmoo also comes with a
the USB port. Note that the search function
PC in this case will be pro- 28. Programs with the most
viding the power to the Loo- diverse subjects are available
in HD quality
25 30 keeTV box and that because 29. Revision 3 on the LookeeTV 35
of this two USB ports will be box
occupied. The necessary ca- 30. MSNBC
ble for this is included with 31. NBC Nightly News via the
LookeeTV box
the LookeeTV box.
32. The Podcast App
We tested this feature with 33. Podcasts all about Web
WMV, MPEG, MP4, HD-MP4, design
MOV, Flash and AVI videos 34. Without any configuration
the LookeeTV box instantly
– all of the content could recognizes any available UPnP
be played back without any servers
problems. The box also had 35. Video playback via UPnP.
The picture quality is as good
no difficulties with WMA, as the original
MP3, MP4 and AAC audio


36 41 46

Individual works can very for you. This Internet service
easily be uploaded to the founded in California in 2005
Internet through the plat- works with its content and
form’s website and are then the quality of their offerings
available to every user. almost on the same level as
LookeeTV box owners an established TV station,
also have access to Lookee it’s just that the producers
Sound’s extensive archive of the content are typically
and can search for music private people or at the least
from well-known or just up- not so commercially orient-
and-coming artists. In our ed as larger studios.
37 42 47 tests we found a really good
title and we can only hope Thanks to the many differ-
that this artist finds his way ent subject areas and shows
into the limelight. with such obscure titles like
“Toasted Donut”, this pro-
Another App: Inmoo. Im- vider quickly reached cult
agine that you’re an up- status. Those that have a
and-coming filmmaker and LookeeTV box but no PC can
you want to reach as many now also enjoy these kinds
viewers as possible without of titles directly on their TV.
a large marketing machine During the course of our
to back you up and with lim- tests, we had a lot of fun
ited finances. What if you surfing through all of the
38 43 36. The integrated picture
viewer shows an organized able to access all of the re- had a platform like Inmoo different shows; the perfect
summary of all the available cordings that were stored on that would allow you to do HD picture quality made it all
pictures
the DVB-S receiver. just that? that much more enjoyable.
37. Settings for the calendar
and time The quality of the content This platform would be In addition to the current
38. The screen saver on the received via the network was ideal even for movie lovers content, there’s also an ex-
LookeeTV box resembles an exceptional and could easily that are looking for some- tensive archive of Revision
alarm clock
39. Calendar display be mistaken for the original. thing out of the ordinary and 3 carried content. So, if you
40. Two alarm timers can be set Thanks to Plug & Play, all would also like to enjoy mov- happen to miss an episode
up individually of this functioned correctly ies other than those from of the mostly weekly pro-
41. Settings without any complicated set- Hollywood. grams, don’t worry, all of the
42. The LookeeTV box can set So what did the manufac- content is archived and is
up a network connection via
tings or preparations.
cable or WiFi turer of the LookeeTV box available to be accessed for
43. DHCP, static addresses as The Blubrry App is a so- do? What else but integrate quite some time.
39 44 well as PPPoE are supported
cial network with thousands the Inmoo App into their
44. Multiple OSD languages are
available for the user of podcasts with the most box! Divided into genre and In the old days, you got
45. The FM radio range can be diverse of subjects. Subdi- languages, it provides ac- your morning news from the
switched between 87.5-108 and vided in the main Audio and cess to thousands of freely radio; today it’s the up-to-
76-90 MHz
Video categories is content available movies on the In- date news broadcasts via In-
46. The LookeeTV box’s
firmware can be updated via available to the user from moo platform. Thanks to the ternet from those large news
Internet or local storage device the most unique subject are- integrated search function, networks like MSNBC. For all
47. The video signal is
displayed either on the as in 18 different categories you can look for very specific those who want to stay in-
integrated TFT monitor or is such as vacations, health, content. formed on what’s going on
made available at the CVBS or
HDMI outputs politics or art. A total of 18 Genres from in the world, the LookeeTV
Cartoons and Thrillers up to box has a dedicated App for
The Lookee Sound App Action, Comedy and many access to MSNBC content.
40 45 available to the LookeeTV gives users access to the more are at the user’s fin- There you’ll find not only
box with just a few mouse SoundCloud service. This gertips. The movie selection up-to-date MSNBC news
clicks. platform was founded in seems to be endless. This broadcasts, but also popular
This worked perfectly in 2007 by two Berlin artists App turns out to be one of shows like NBC Today and
our tests with a Windows 7 and since then has been op- the highlights of the Loo- Meet the Press.
PC. By coincidence we even erating with the goal to pro- keeTV box due in large part Unfortunately, we weren’t
had a DVB-S receiver set up vide free music to as many to its outstanding picture all too happy with the pic-
in our test center that also people as possible. Anyone quality. ture quality of the programs,
worked with the UPnP func- can take part in SoundCloud if MSNBC wanted to there
tion; to our surprise, the and not only as a listener but If you place high value on would be great potential for
LookeeTV box instantly rec- also as a musician, interpret- exceptional picture quality, improvement here. Thanks
ognized it and was therefore er or composer. the Revision 3 App is right to the small 7” TFT monitor


1 2 3

4 5 6

1. The iPhone App PlugPlayer can control the LookeeTV box via a the UPnP interface, the user radio stations. Once the
network and transfer content to it
can even show pictures that antenna is connected, an
2. Without any kind of configuration, the LookeeTV box is instantly
recognized are stored on a PC through automatic scan can be per-
3. Access to the media on the box the LookeeTV box on a TV. formed after which all of the
4. It doesn’t matter if it’s videos, pictures or music, you have This all worked perfectly in available FM radio stations
complete access to the box via PlugPlayer
our tests. within range will be shown
5. Content can be played back directly on an iPhone
in a list. Unwanted stations
6. IContent can also be sent from the iPhone to the LookeeTV box
The FM antenna jack locat- can quickly be deleted leav-
on the LookeeTV box, this ture viewer that can display ed alongside the other con- ing only the desired ones in
low quality wasn’t all that any pictures stored on an nections on the LookeeTV the list.
noticeable on such a small SD card or in the internal box can also be used as
screen, however, trying to memory on the integrated an input for external audio It’s a nice little extra fea-
watch MSNBC on a 42” moni- TFT monitor or on an exter- sources such as from an MP3 ture since not all of these
tor was no fun at all. nal TV. player, discman, etc., the stations might be receivable
The images can be shown audio would then be played via the Internet. Despite the
Actual printed photo- full-screen if desired. While back through the internal small size of the included
graphs are no longer the viewing pictures, they can be speaker in the box. antenna, it had no trouble
norm today. It should come zoomed in on, zoomed out The FM reception mode in our tests providing inter-
as no surprise that the Loo- from, rotated or shown in tops it all off; it lets you re- ference-free reception of our
keeTV box comes with a pic- slide show format. Thanks to ceive local over-the-air FM local FM radio stations.


1 The manufacturer even
thought of including an inte-
grated calendar that can also
display the time directly on
the display. In this way the
user can always have the
current time or the calendar
2 in view; it’s a nice alternative
to those desk calendars that
are still in use today.

A total of two alarm set-
tings are available that can
be individually activated and
are useful in waking you up
at the right time in the morn-
ing and helping you avoid
missing that important ap-
pointment during the day.
The alarm itself is actually
quite pleasing to the ear; it
can be set to play your fa-
vorite radio station via the
1. Even the Windows
Internet or FM or a favorite
Media Player song stored in memory. If
instantly recognizes you prefer the classic meth-
the LookeeTV box
and displays its
content
2. The internal
memory of the box
can be filled via PC
and in that way can
also be formatted
and/or deleted

od, a normal alarm tone can
also be used.

The LookeeTV box still has
yet another especially prac-
tical feature. We saved the
best for last! The box not
only has the capability to ac-
cess video and audio files via
UPnP from external sources,
this content can also be ac-
tively sent to the box via


UPnP! The manufacturer has What could be easier than
developed corresponding sitting on your couch and
Expert Opinion
Apps to do this for Android playing back your favorite The box’s software functioned reliably;
SmartPhones (LookeePlayer) music or an exciting movie throughout all of our tests we couldn’t find
and also for iPhones/iPads via your SmartPhone to the any problems or other errors.
(PlugPlayer). LookeeTV box and then fur- + Thanks to the exceptional TFT monitor on the
After starting one of these ther on to your TV? box and the ability to play back TV content on Thomas Haring
Apps, the LookeeTV box is In our tests this functioned an external TV monitor via the HDMI output, TELE-satellite
Test Center
instantly and automatically perfectly and we had a lot of HD programs were a real pleasure to watch. Austria

recognized as long as both fun playing around with this. With the help of various buttons on the remote control (for
devices are connected to the Up to five devices can be example, switching between the TFT display and video out
same network. linked in this way.
or the recalling of titles) the LookeeTV box is very easy and
comfortable to use.
Now you can control the Overall we thoroughly en-
LookeeTV box remotely via joyed putting the LookeeTV
The FM radio only works when the HDMI output is deactivated
your SmartPhone and also, box to the test but there’s
for example, activate, pause still one problem that needs – No YouTube
UrLlama App not activated
or stop the playback of au- to be solved: every one of
dio and video files or even our editors wanted to take
stream audio and video files the box home and “test” it TECHNICAL
directly to the box. themselves. DATA
Manufacturer LookeeTV Inc., #277 - 5489 Byrne Road, Burnaby, BC,
■ The display on the box is enhanced by brilliant colors and high contrast Canada, V5J 3J1
Phone / Fax Tel: 1-604-438 6680, Fax: 1-604-326 5832
Email inquiry@lookeetv.com
Internet www.lookeetv.com
Model Lookee TV-Box
Function Multimedia Player for various content via local media or Internet
RJ45 yes
WiFi yes
HDMI yes
HDTV yes (up to 720p)
CVBS yes
Stereo Audio out yes
USB Port yes
Internal Storage 1.14 GB
SD Card Reader yes
Display 7“ TFT 16:9
Headphones yes
FM Radio yes
Line In yes
Internet services Lookee TV, Lookee Radio, Shoutcast, Podcast, Blubrry,
Ur Llama, Lookee Sound, Inmoo, Revision 3, MSNBC
UPnP yes

ENERGY
DIAGRAM

Mode Apparent Active Factor
Ready 7.5 W 4W 0.53
Active 11 W 6W 0.54
StandBy 7 W 3.5 W 0.5

Apparent Power

Active Power

The first 7 minutes active operation although without any content
playback; the next 8 minutes with video and audio playback, the
last 15 minutes in standby with current time display


Lookee

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