New Android TV box can use torrents, download and stream movies and shows

[Len]

ReTV X1 is the latest entrant into the Android TV box segment in India. It is made in India by a Mumbai-based startup led by CEO Ashish Dinkar. The ReTV X1 initially went on sale earlier this year on Flipkart at Rs 4,999. Thereafter, the startup has made some changes in its Android-powered TV box, both in terms of hardware and software; and have silently launched the second iteration of it. The name of the box, however, remains unchanged.

ReTV X1 aims to differentiate from the crowd of the Android TV boxes with its easy to use software. Currently, the market is filled with numerous similar offerings like the Amazon Fire TV stick, Google Chromecast, and Tewee Stick. ReTV claims that the interface of the ReTV X1 is so simple that even our grandparents can easily use it with a small learning curve. The CEO likes referring to his startup more as a content aggregator platform than a hardware firm. And that’s quite evident from the fact that they plan to earn more from post-purchase subscriptions rather than the device itself.

For those wondering, the ReTV X1 comes with three months of free DittoTV subscription and a year of ReTV subscription. Furthermore, ReTV plans to collaborate with Spuul to provide 6 months of free subscription to the buyers of the new TV box. Another highlighting feature of the ReTV is its ability to download movies from Bit Torrent.

Download and Play Movies Instantly Using Fast Forward

Apart from that, the Movies section on the ReTV X1 shows a curated list of featured movies which includes both recent and evergreen English and Hindi content. Often than not, a movie that’s currently running in cinemas near you is featured in this list. And guess what, you can end up watching it directly on your TV for free. Wondering how? Well, by using Torrents. Yes, the ReTV X1 comes with support for Torrents (despite the fact it’s illegal in many parts of world and in India, but how many of you really care about that anyway)

Furthermore, you can stream the movie directly from the Torrent site using a feature called Fast Forward. This is a proprietary ReTV feature that basically downloads the torrent file in its high-speed cloud storage and starts playing the movie almost instantly. So, you need not wait hours for the movie to download. It comes at a cost though. ReTV is offering free 30GB of Fast Forward data with its Android TV box, however, you can expand the limit by paying a nominal amount to the company (Rs 49 for 5GB and Rs 99 for 10GB)

Curated Section for Web Series

The Kodi based ReTV UI also has a section called Web Series. It includes a collection of numerous web series from the internet, especially YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime. So you can watch popular Indian Web series like Permanent Roommates, Triplings from TVF or even Spotlight-Bollywood Exposed by Viu. Leaving that aside, the section also lists a range of English Web Series like the Game of Thrones, House of Cards and much more. The Indian TV and English TV, on the other hand, shows a list of self-curated popular TV shows that’s sure to draw your interest. That said, you wouldn’t be able to watch most of English ones until you buy a subscription of either Hulu or Netflix.

Search Torrents for Movies and TV Shows

Now, comes the main highlighting feature of the ReTV X1; the Search. It basically allows you to search Movies, TV shows, and YouTube video. That might sound quite clique shade, as most smart TV boxes or TV sticks comes with it. However, its distinguishing feature is the ability to organize search results from various torrents sites like YiFY, Pirate Bay, KAT and a few others.

You can simply download a movie from any of these sites if you happen to find it. Likewise, you may also Fast Forward the movie and start playing it. Moreover, the search option shows various details like the review, cast/crew, and similar movies when you search for a particular one. Quite a nifty feature to have.