Here in Singapore, if you are a soccer fan like my wife, you have to pay to watch World Cup. That is sort of fine because here in Singapore, we are used to paying for things that in other countries would have been free or much cheaper. The real problem is that even as we pay, the experience is terrible. It is so terrible that we are considering making a formal complaint against Toggle.sg via CASE.
Since we have long cut the cable and do not have a TV box at home, the only option besides watching World Cup live in some public commercial establishments is to sign up for an S$112.35 (or US$83.17) package and stream it through Toggle.sg.
Screen freeze during steaming through PC
My wife has signed up for an early bird package. On the first day and for the first match, she attempted to stream from her computer. All we have got was a screen freeze, or rather a ‘slideshow’ with pictures changing every 45 seconds (yes, I have timed it). You can’t watch a soccer game with still pictures, can you?
Could it be our network latency? I checked my Internet speed. It seems fine. And we were able to stream other videos in Toggle.sg. The only one we were unable to stream was the only video we wanted to watch – first match of World Cup 2018. The issue lies with Toggle.sg.
Immediately, I have downloaded and installed the Toggle app onto my Samsung Tab S3 tablet. My wife was able to watch the match live using my tablet and the same home network. But it was on a 9.7-inch screen. Our TV has a 42-inch screen connected to our PC via an HDMI cable.
During halftime, I managed to set up my Chromecast (that was still unopened) and have the live match cast onto my TV. The video quality is more like standard play. I don’t think my wife would mind at that point. What other options do we have?
Update: Support has contacted us. Basically, our Windows 10’s clock has to be synchronized with https://time.is/ to the exact second. For reasons beyond me, even though I set my Windows to set time automatically, it is not good enough. I have to set time manually!
Audio quality is terrible for video replay
One unique selling point of this Toggle.sg package is that we do not necessarily have to watch the matches live. We can watch the replay.
Again, video quality is more like a standard play. The sound quality is like a radio in the 50’s. Mono and muffled and full of white noise. It does give us a vintage feel though. Perhaps World Cup is timeless.
Update: Situation seems to have improved at the end of the group play. Still, we have put up with a lot of matches with very poor sound quality.
Error code 300001 while loading video replay
After work, my wife wanted to watch the Brazil versus Switzerland match replay. I fired up Toggle app on my Samsung Tab S3. The video was loaded but there was no option to cast to my TV (read: Chromecast icon was not enabled). So I restarted the Toggle app and the video could not be loaded!
I have tried my Sumsung Note 8 and it was the same error.
We then checked their FAQ and it was mentioned that we should minimize the number of registered devices – although the maximum is five (while we have registered four).
So I deregistered one of the devices and the video was loaded okay despite the usual re-cast issue!
You may think, so the FAQ works? Err … nope. How then can we explain why the video was able to load on my first attempt?
PS. I have restarted my mobile devices and force-stopped the Toggle app numerous time before even reading the FAQ (also one of the ways to get pass the issue). And nope, that didn’t work either.
Toggle app is not Chromecast friendly
On average, I need three attempts to cast Toggle onto my TV. And no, this is not a user issue. I had no problem with casting from YouTube videos on mobile devices to VLC videos on my PC.
Update: As it turns out, we need to Chromecast the app before watching the video (the opposite of YouTube). And the homepage of the Toggle.sg app does not have the Chromecast icon. We either have to re-login or head to another page for the Chromecast icon to appear. Very buggy and poorly designed app.
Toggle streaming can hang very often
We watched Portugal versus Morocco match live via the Toggle app cast to the TV. 20 minutes into the match, streaming started to hang. Each time it happened, I needed to disconnect the Chromecast and reconnect again (and yes, 3 attempts required to cast each time).
After a couple of minutes, it happened again, again, and again. Each time it hung, it took away at least one minute of the viewing experience.
Could it be my Chromecast issue?
The answer is no. We tried to watch the streaming on my Samsung Tab S3, the streaming quality was poor and was interrupted or hung every so often.
Toggle no longer works for Chromecast from knockout round onwards (replay)
After a long day at work, my wife and I would want to watch Belgium versus Japan in the comfort of our sofa.
Streaming played for half a minute before hanging for another half a minute. It was a very frustrating experience. We gave up in the end.
PS. Chromecast YouTube videos via my Samsung Tab S3 has no issue. My tablet is probably one of the highest end Android tablets in the market today.
The unavoidable spoiler for video replay
To be able to watch a replay – which by the way, the most likely reason for watching a replay is that you have yet to watch the match – in the Toggle app, you have to navigate to the World Cup page. The list of videos for the replay is at the bottom. On top is the featured story.
So you have guessed right. Unavoidable spoiler unless you have someone in the family who doesn’t really care about the match results.
In the case of my wife, she is lucky. Because I am the one who cast the video onto the TV for her.
Verdict
Toggle.sg is terrible. But here in Singapore, for those who have cut the cable, there isn’t any alternative if you wish to watch the matches in the comfort of your home.