Stream more than 100 TV channels directly via the Internet connection to your smartphone, tablet & TV and also receive almost 50 times HDTV? This works with a Zattoo Premium Account. But it also works without any monthly costs, because Zattoo Free already contains about 80 channels, but only in SD quality. What Zattoo is able to do in daily use, we have taken a close look at in a practical test.
Zattoo Test
Getting started with Zattoo is child’s play, the first step is registration. This can be done via the provider’s website, for example, or by creating a new user account in the Zattoo App. The latter is available for download in the Google and Apple App Stores for Android and iOS, and there is also a corresponding offer for Windows 10 in the Microsoft Store.
Zattoo under test: Login and get started
Fortunately, Zattoo is very intuitive to use. Once logged in with your own user data, you can also directly access the live TV program. The free Zattoo Free Package focuses on public broadcasters, but also includes private TV programs such as Sport1, Tele 5, MTV or Nick.
Zattoo is increasingly developing into a fully-fledged replacement for a classic TV connection. However – and this is certainly the real shortcoming – the live pictures will be available much later in the home compared to Sat + Kabel. What can still be taken for granted with a Hollywood blockbuster has unpleasant consequences with live football broadcasts. While the others are already cheering, here the ball is still on the penalty spot. And who likes to be spoiled?
Unfortunately, Premium TV from Sky cannot be booked in. Soccer fans have to look elsewhere for the live pictures from the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
If you want even more channels and above all HDTV, you have to take the premium package with costs at Zattoo. Then the RTL private channels will also be there and the programs of the Pro7/Sat.1 group will even be available in HD. High-definition television is the buzzword at all, because in addition to many private broadcasters there are also all public broadcasters in razor-sharp quality.
The topic of HDTV is especially important if the TV program is not only to be viewed on a smartphone or tablet. Because there the SD resolution is completely sufficient, while it already looks completely different on the notebook. And if you want to watch Zattoo on a 40-inch TV, you won’t really enjoy watching TV without an HD channel. If you pan your camera quickly, you can no longer talk about TV enjoyment; an upgrade from the Free to the Premium package is absolutely necessary.
And for those who are still not satisfied with the TV programme, the Plus Package offers selected Pay-TV channels (Planet HD, Spiegel TV Wissen, sportdigital HD,…), and international TV packages bring Bosnian, Brazilian, Croatian, Polish, Serbian and Turkish TV programmes to Germany. Somewhat surprisingly, Zattoo has also added Goldstar TV, Romance TV and Heimatkanal to this category under the label “Fernsehen mit Herz”. In fact, the offer has absolutely nothing to do with international content. And the Bundesliga or Champions League live? Sky can’t be booked with Zattoo, you have to resort to other ways of reception.
Combined offer: Live TV + Programme magazine 1 month free of charge
TV Spielfilm live combines the extensive Zattoo live TV program with the well-known TV Spielfilm program guide. The service brings over 80 channels, 45 of them in HD, via app to smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions. TV Spielfilm live 1 month free of charge for newcomers.
Zattoo in the test: The picture quality
As described above, Zattoo Free only provides SD image quality. It should be clear to everyone that this won’t win a flowerpot on large screens. But what about the HD quality of the premium package, can it compete with DVB-T2, cable TV or Sat TV, for example? Our test verdict is conditional. Of course, Zattoo HD is a quantum leap compared to Zattoo SD, but that’s not surprising. However, the bottom line is that Zattoo still doesn’t come close to the picture quality of DVB-T2, cable and satellite. A bottleneck is the Internet connection, which is not always available in full bandwidth. Especially in the evening hours the load is much higher and this has negative effects on the connection quality. Furthermore, Zattoo offers a maximum of 720p quality, while the private stations in Germany are already transmitted in 1080i via satellite, cable or DVB-T2.
Zattoo in the test – versatility
When it comes to versatility, Zattoo can of course score as a streaming provider. Because the moving images are sent to PC, tablet, smartphone and last but not least to the television. On Windows 10 computers, users also have the choice of watching TV directly in their browser or installing the Zattoo App in the Windows Store. The Zattoo App on Smartphones & Tablets, on the other hand, is always a prerequisite for Zattoo’s live TV, and the same applies if the TV program is also to be called up on the TV.
In our case we tested Zattoo in combination with Amazon Fire TV. The menu navigation is clearly arranged and calling up the channels worked without any problems. In general the live pictures started in the twinkling of an eye. And that with our 20 Mbit test internet connection, which is not exactly as fast as an arrow. Also the zapping between two transmitters remained within the time frame, even if the whole thing does not run as fast as for example with a cable receiver.
Especially the restart function of the premium package convinced us. With just one click, an already running program can be restarted directly from the beginning. This worked out without any problems in the test, so if the after-work traffic has once again put a spanner in the works, the primetime blockbuster can also be started a little later without any problems. However, it must be said that restart is not possible for all broadcasts for licensing reasons. The same applies to the 7-day replay function, which is currently only offered by a few selected stations. Apropos channel list: Who would like, an individual list can arrange itself and banish so unpleasant programs from the overview.
A further advantage of the premium subscription is the possibility of recording up to 30 programmes. This actually sounds quite promising, if there weren’t some exception rules again. The private stations of the ProSiebenSat1, the RTL and the Discovery groups, for example, are completely out of the picture at least for the time being. Furthermore, fast forward within the recording or the recording of selected programmes is not always possible for licensing reasons. But wherever the recording function was available, everything worked as promised, the stored content could be retrieved across all devices.