{"id":120990,"date":"2017-09-30T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=120990"},"modified":"2017-09-29T14:15:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T12:15:19","slug":"new-media-boxes-coming-to-south-africa-roku-apple-tv-and-lit-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/120990-new-media-boxes-coming-to-south-africa-roku-apple-tv-and-lit-tv","title":{"rendered":"New media boxes coming to South Africa – Roku, Apple TV, and LIT TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Econet Media recently\u00a0launched its Kwes\u00e9 TV player<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The launch followed Telkom\u2019s unveiling of its\u00a0LIT TV box<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The launch of Kwes\u00e9 Play and LIT TV means there will soon be three new major media players available in SA.<\/p>\n

Kwes\u00e9 Play is powered by Roku, and is the media player company\u2019s official local partner. It is also the official Netflix partner for sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

Telkom said its LIT TV player will be the first Google-certified Android TV media box in South Africa, with access to the full Google Play marketplace on the platform.<\/p>\n

The two players will compete with the recently-launched\u00a0Apple TV 4K<\/strong><\/a>, which is set to arrive in the country in the coming months. No local pricing is available as yet, though.<\/p>\n

There are several other brands of media players available in South Africa, which range in price from under R900 to nearly R3,000.<\/p>\n

Online retailers such as\u00a0Loot<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Raru<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Takealot<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0stock these media players, which typically run a version of Android.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of the comparison, we have focused on the three devices listed below.<\/p>\n

Apple TV, LIT TV, Roku<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Specifications<\/th>\nApple TV 4K<\/th>\nKwes\u00e9 Play<\/th>\nTelkom LIT TV<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Platform<\/strong><\/td>\ntvOS<\/td>\nRoku<\/td>\nAndroid TV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Max. resolution<\/strong><\/td>\n4K<\/td>\n1080p<\/td>\n4K<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wi-Fi<\/strong><\/td>\n802.11ac dual-band<\/td>\n802.11n dual-band<\/td>\n802.11ac dual-band<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Remote<\/strong><\/td>\nSiri Remote<\/td>\nIR remote<\/td>\nAirmouse<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Price<\/strong><\/td>\n32GB: $179 \/ 64GB: $199<\/td>\nR1,599<\/td>\nR1,099<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"Apple<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Kwese<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Telkom<\/a><\/p>\n

Players<\/h3>\n

It must be noted that the Apple TV 4K does not include an HDMI cable in the box, but its Siri Remote can be charged by the included Lightning-to-USB cable \u2013 saving on batteries.<\/p>\n

Kwes\u00e9 Play uses a remote that runs on two AAA batteries, and requires line-of-sight to the Roku to operate.<\/p>\n

Neither the Siri nor the Airmouse remotes require line-of-sight to their respective players to work.<\/p>\n

In terms of content, Kwes\u00e9 Play includes three months of free Netflix as a launch offer \u2013 and the company said it plans to expand its channel offering to South Africans in the future.<\/p>\n

The Apple TV is linked to the Apple ecosystem, while the Telkom LIT TV player will have access to Google\u2019s ecosystem. Both players also offer support for third-party services such as Showmax and Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n

With not much to differentiate the players in terms of hardware performance, the services they offer and the platforms they support may be the determining factor for customers.<\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0Kwes\u00e9 Play tested \u2013 Solid offering with lots of potential<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The launch of Kwes\u00e9 Play and LIT TV means there will soon be three new major media players available in SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":95175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8585],"tags":[25136],"class_list":["post-120990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-media-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}