Android TV boxes

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Troezar

Troezar

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6 Aug 2009
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Just discovered these are a thing :) I'm looking for something to play a wider variety of file types and access media I can't get via Netflix or Amazon Instant Video.

I've currently got a 4yr old Samsung 1080 TV and access Netflix etc via my blu ray player since Samsung stopped supporting the TV apps:mad:

Ideally something supporting 4k for some future proofing would be handy as well as decent ongoing software support.

Any suggestions on what to go for? Budget, less is good but the right tool for the job is more important :)
 
SexyGreyFox said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18590873
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Thanks, I was actually reading up on that as you posted it :) Definitely an option but I was looking for something that may be a little more "open". I have however installed Plex on my TV and PC and got it transcoding and streaming now albeit with the quality tuned down a bit.

Should 500Mbps powerline adapters give the bandwidth for 1080P HD streaming? I don't think it was CPU lag as it was running at 35-65% whilst transcoding and streaming but I was getting some buffering.
 
lude1962 said:
If the TV is 1080 why are you transcoding, doesn't plex have a direct play function (Im no plex expert).
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That's okay. I'm transcoding because neither my Bluray player nor my TV can play the MKV files directly. I've tried converting the files but none of the formats I've tried are compatible either.

I thought Nvidia shield was some sort of gaming platform, I'll have to take a closer look at it :)
 
I also want an android TV box. But unsure what to get. What's the advantage of having 2gb of ram over 1? I'm not planning on 4k. Just want smooth 1080p video! I know someone with a "wozbox" but it just seems to be a rebranded Chinese android box.

Edit. I don't really want to spend too much. I've looked at the firestick. But would that do what I want? Reliable Internet connection? And smooth 1080?

Also, I won't have any problems sideloading kodi onto a new firestick? I know there's different gens etc!
 
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+1 to the Nvidia Shield, I have an old Sony 720p TV but Shield has pretty much turned it into a smart TV. You can pretty much sideload any Android app as well, although not many work well with the TV remote. MX Player is avaliable for it as well and can play pretty much any file format with no issues at all.

I'm curious to know if there's a way to get live TV channels on it as well... my TV can't get HD channels :p.
 
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Orcvader said:
+1 to the Nvidia Shield, I have an old Sony 720p TV but Shield has pretty much turned it into a smart TV. You can pretty much sideload any Android app as well, although not many work well with the TV remote. MX Player is avaliable for it as well and can play pretty much any file format with no issues at all.

I'm curious to know if there's a way to get live TV channels on it as well... my TV can't get HD channels :p.
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There's quite a few iptv options . The couple I tried the quality was naff . In the end I bought a cheap usb hd free view stick. This is plugged into my main pc, using media portal to do all the epgs, tv server stuff. I can then connect any device running Kodi to it. Works great, loads the epg's . Can record and time shift , plus the quality is great. Granted it's a bit of work to sort it out but not to complex .
 
The problem with android boxes is they lack common hardware, therefore have very poor optimisation for the hardware and will see multiple hardware revisions and small runs which translate to updating them being a pita and the risk of bricking being higher than it should be flashing what you believe to be the right image for the box.

Amazon FireTV 4k is great, it's smooth, hardware is decent, you can load Plex directly and side load Kodi and custom builds and it handles iptv etc well. It's good and relative to the cost hard to beat, but it's not a substitute for a NUC+Flirc (my preferred option) which is about the same in price as a basic Shield. The downside with the FTV4k is Amazon could lock it down more, same with the Shield.

Have a read of the FireTV thread :) A lot has changed in the world of iptv and with the right plugins it can work really well - some of this does however cost money one way or another.
 
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