Dish TV India today announced the rollout of its latest interface- 'Orbit' to DishSMRT Stick and d2h Magic. According to the DTH operator, Orbit comes with a lot of new features addressing the best of aggregated content from various sources available on the platform. So basically, Orbit brings content from all the OTT services into one place, similar to PatchWall UI on Xiaomi TVs and Oxygen Play on OnePlus TVs. Dish TV collaborated with Tata Elxsi for doing the UX enhancements for its connected devices, a release from the brand read. While the DishSMRT Stick and d2h Magic stick are already getting the Orbit UI, the Dish SMRT Hub will get the update in the coming days. For the unaware, Dish SMRT Hub is an Android TV-based Set-Top Box that runs a near-stock version of Android TV 9 Pie.
Dish TV Rolls Out New Software Update to its Connected Devices
The major reason behind moving onto a custom interface is to provide seamless TV & online viewing experience. Orbit has a simple yet minimalistic design, according to Dish TV; It allows users to switch between Live TV, OTT and other value-added services with ease. Other manufacturers with Android TV devices already have a custom interface. For example, Airtel Xstream Box has a separate launcher installed which allows users to switch between Live TV and OTT content with ease. All the content viewing options will be placed on the home screen itself for easy navigation and the new Orbit would be similar to the same. Even Xiaomi's PatchWall UI aggregates content from various providers.
Dish TV recently launched DishSMRT Kit with Alexa integrated and Dish SMRT Hub Android TV-based box. Whereas D2h introduced d2h Magic stick with Watcho and other OTT apps preinstalled. The DishSMRT Stick, DishSMRT Kit and d2h Magic are now getting the 'Orbit' user interface. The refreshed look is now live for DishSMRT and d2h Magic range of products and would soon be rolled out on recently launched Android set-top box Dish SMRT Hub, said the company.
Talking more about the Orbit interface, it will allow the users to access the featured content, new and trending content available on different OTT apps with deep-linking support. A dedicated ‘My Zone’ section is also present, which will provide quick access items pinned by the user along with recommendations based on the preferences.
Dish TV Connected Devices Detailed
Dish TV has a wide range of connected devices including DishSMRT Stick, DishSMRT Kit and Dish SMRT Hub. The DishSMRT Stick was the first connected device from Dish TV and it recently got a successor in the form of DishSMRT Kit which also has Alexa voice integration. The Dish SMRT Hub is an Android TV-based Set-Top Box similar to the Airtel Xstream Box; It allows users to watch both Satellite TV and OTT content on a single box and it's priced at Rs 3,999 currently.
The DishSMRT Stick is available at Rs 599, whereas the DishSMRT Kit can be picked up for Rs 1,199. Dish TV-owned D2h also has two connected devices in the form of d2h Magic and d2h Magic Voice Enabled, priced at Rs 399 and Rs 1,199. These sticks from Dish TV and D2h work only with the respective company's Set-Top Boxes.