Lineway OTG/USB Over the Air Live TV Tuner Receiver Review

Lineway OTG/USB Over the Air Live TV Tuner Receiver Review

Buy it at Amazon: Lineway OTG/USB Over the Air Live TV Tuner Receiver [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Compact/portable, works great w/Android TV and powered antenna, mini antenna not as strong.

The mini TV receiver comes with a pre-installed antenna and optional coaxial connector. The unit is super tiny measuring 2" x 1.25" x 0.25" thick. The antenna on the unit measures 1.5" when retracted and 6.5" when extended. The unit has a male microUSB connector that can plug into an Android phone charging port that supports OTG. On the other side is a micoUSB in port that you can use with a standard microUSB cable to connect to a full sized USB port like a PC or Android TV box. Swapping the connectors is pretty easy.

I was able to use the device with a microUSB to USB-C adapter for my LG G5 phone. With this receiver is that you don't have to use your WiFi or data plan to receive the content. It's completely free since it's over the air waves. I verified this by receiving content with my WiFi and Data turned off.

You'll need to download the LiveStation Player app to your phone which is available in the Google Play store. If you need the PC software, the manufacturer can email it to you on request. Scanning for channels takes about 10 minutes. With the mini antenna (indoors), I was able to find 11 TV stations and 1 radio station. If the signal isn't strong you might end up with a lot of digital noise and distortion in the video and audio. I wasn't able to get channel information like station name or program info. I also received some foreign language programming in my local area. The one thing that I didn't like is that the input USB cannot be used for pass through power. That means this device will eventually drain your mobile device of battery if you don't have a splitter for the OTG.

The unit performed better with a powered antenna connected through the coaxial connector. The picture and audio quality was a little more reliable but the initial loading of each channel always took about 15 seconds for the audio to catch up to the video. I tested the antenna with the computer software and received about 45 channels with fairly good quality for the video and audio overall. The difference here is that since my computer is powered, I don't have to worry about it running out of battery as I would using it with OTG on a mobile device.

Overall, the receiver worked a lot better than I thought it would using the indoor powered antenna and I think it could be a great supplement to my Android TV box since I no longer use cable service as most of my content is streamed via the internet. The mini built in antenna is more of a novelty but that could be nice to have for a picnic and it's something you can carry around easily.

Buy it at Amazon: Lineway OTG/USB Over the Air Live TV Tuner Receiver [Affiliate Link]

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