Dor TV review: Major software quirks, unavailability of Netflix, Apple TV hampers experience

Having subscriptions of multiple OTTs is becoming more of a norm these days. Choosing from the Ken's that have your preferred genre, be it movies, TV series or even live sports. At the same time, it can be quite expensive and cumbersome to keep these subscriptions running regularly, especially if you are the only one using them. Streambox Media recently launched their subscription-based TV called Dor TV which comes in 43-inch size with an upfront cost of Rs. 10,799. I have been using  Dor TV for a few weeks now and here's how the experience has been.

 First things first, this QLED TV has a pretty standard look and feel to it that you would expect from a budget smart TV. It has slim bezels, a plastic body and a somewhat flimsy-looking back cover. The remote control is longer than usual and comes with a 110mAh battery unit that's solar-powered as well as via the USB type-C port placed at the bottom.

 Coming to the OS, the TV runs on a custom Android TV-based OS called dorOS. You don't get the Play Store here but most OTT apps are available. There's no Netflix and Apple TV for now.

 In rider to start the TV setup, you need to sign up with the same number that you used to buy the TV as the first-month subscription is included in the upfront cost. You get 24 apps subscribed with this, including SonyLiv, Hotstar, JioCinema, SunNXT, Amazon Prime, Fancode and Discovery+ among others. Second month onwards you have to pay Rs 799 monthly to get the same bundle. From the second year onwards, plans starting at Rs 299 will be available.

 Streambox said you can use the TV with your own devices and subscriptions even if you don't avail their subscription model. But during my usage, if the TV wasn't connected to the internet either wirelessly or wired, it didn't allow me to access other input sources. This started after the latest OS update. Officially, the company confirmed no HDMI and USB ports would be unavailable even if you don't get any dorOS subscriptions.

Coming to the OS itself, once signing is done, you can DD user profiles, select your preferred genres and even celebrities so you can get more curated suggestions on the home screen. The tabs on the home screen are divided as per the genre as well as live TV. Clicking on live TV takes you to an IPTV-like interface that shows you what's playing on which channel. Clicking on any of these takes you to the app that has the same content. 

Even though single sign-in has been highlighted among the features, you have to sign in to apps separately when using them for the first time. The OS is generally okay in terms of UI responsiveness and looks decent to navigate through but can be a little stuttery in loading content every now and then or jumping from one video to another. One issue I had was it couldn't show the contents of an external hard disk as the in-built file manager wouldn't show it, and the app store in the dorOS didn't have any file managers, so sideloading apps using any external drive became a hassle.

 The 43-inch 4k (3840x2160) QLED 16:9 display is sufficiently bright for a budget TV and does a fine job at handling colours. HDR10 is not that great but just about okay for watching movies and TV shows. Also, you don't get the 4k plans of apps such as Hotstar and SonyLIV, which seems like a miss considering this is a 4k TV. The TV is equipped with a pair of 10watt speakers, which do a decent job for filling a small to medium room for music and dialogue delivery, but don't expect it to really give an immersive experience when playing something with Dolby Atmos.

All in all, the Dor TV is an interesting new TV that has some nice features to it if you are okay tied up with the subscription model. While there isn't too much wrong with its hardware, some software quirks as detailed above might make it less appealing to some when pitted against the likes of Xiaomi, TCL and Kodak.