Former Kwese TV Subscribers Find New Use For Abandoned Kwese Decoders

A Kwesé TV decoder

It now over a year since Kwese TV met its death. You probably remember that the shutting down of Kwese TV was met with a backlash from people who had spent money on Kwese decoders and satellite dishes. If you walk into some homes these days you will find some Kwese decoders being used as paperweights.

However, some people have found a new use for these seemingly useless Kwese decoders. What was once a decoder is now a kind of a multimedia player. Indeed, some people are now using Kwese decoders to play music or watch videos on their TVs. These folks are utilizing the USB ports that are on Kwese decoders to connect their flash disks with multimedia and then play it on their TV.

If you remember clearly, a Kwese decoder came with a USB 2.0 port on its front. That USB port allows you to connect a phone, flash disk, hard drive or T-flash so that you can play media via your TV. In a way, USB Kwese decoder are functioning like those DVD players with USB ports. You are able to play videos, music and view images on your TV when you connect your flash disk to the Kwese decoder.

How to play media files on TV via Kwese decoder

  • Step 1. Connect your Kwese decoder to your TV just like the old days when you wanted to watch something on Kwese.
  • Step 2. Now connect your phone, flash disk or external hard drive to your Kwese decoder via the USB port using a USB data cable.
  • Step 3. Once your phone is connected the USB icon pops up on your TV’s notification panel. Select the option “USB mass storage”
  • Step 4. Press the option ‘Menu’ on your Kwese remote and scroll all the way to the USB option(you’ll see an icon of a USB).
  • Step 5. Press ‘OK’ on your remote so that you can begin to browse your files.
  • Step 6. Now press ‘OK’ to play a video, audio or view images.

However, you can’t view documents but you’re able to play videos and audio depending on the files’ format. For audio files, I managed to play mp3 and FLAC formats but I couldn’t play the WMA format. For videos, I managed to play mp4, mp4a and AVI formats whereas the WMV and MOV formats didn’t play.

The few minutes that I used the decoder to play videos, I felt its performance was just like some average DVD players. However, if you are used to playing media files on high-end DVD players, you will be frustrated to use the Kwese decoder as a media player because it’s slow to open some large videos. Anyhow, using Kwese decoders as media player gives many people a good reason to not to throw the decoder in the bin yet (if they haven’t yet).

Also read: Econet Blames Failure Of Kwese On Zim Economy

11 comments

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  1. JC

    Surely u can do better with your tech journalism. At the very least tell us which formats are supported. Sounds like u visited a friends place and saw him using kwese in this manner but failed to test it yourself.

    1. Anonymous

      You can actually connect external hard drives terabytes on the back usb port

  2. Munya Simango

    You must proof read your copy. This article has some errors. I can assist.

  3. Anonymous

    You could use grammarly.com to check your text, it’s free. With the way Techzim has grown I’m sure your readers expect better.

  4. samague

    This is why u zimbo people dnt successed .you keep on criticizing techzim on each and evry Article on Gramma nd stuff.this site is duing a gud job in its own way.its not a must for techzim people to be perfect in their writting .even white people also make mistakes.if you have a problem on its gramma create an aletrnative website instead…support your fellow zimbos

    1. Jambo

      U r sick minded.

      You want us not to highlight any errors if we pick up some?

  5. Anonymous

    I have a question? Is it possible to connect the decorder to internet and use it for mirroring? What about the Kwese Play, can you ‘jailbreak’ it.

  6. eddy

    if you still have your old wiztech free to air decorder remove the kwese decorder and plug in your wiztech scan top ten sat and you can watch the following channels. Russia today,CGTN,AFRICA NEWS ,DW,FRANCE 24,ESPACE,NHS NEWS JAPAN,CGTN DOCUMENTARY,ABC were you can watch aljazeera and sky news.

    1. Alvine Chaparadza

      Really Eddy? Have you done this yourself?

  7. Victor

    annyone with wiztech hd decoder i need one to replace kwese

  8. Anonymous

    my phone doesnt work with a TV with a usb 2 connection!

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